Following Mark K.’s lead in succumbing to some mid-Summer zaniness….
It appears Appalachian State University, located up in the North Carolina mountains [MAP], is also HOT! HOT! HOT!
Click to watch.
On a more serious note, what fearful impulse lead ASU to add a
DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) link to the bottom of each of their web pages? Students are even directed to ASU’s
designated DMCA enforcement agent to report on their fellow students violations:
Appalachian State University has designated an agent to receive notification of alleged copyright infringement.
Judith Walker
Academic Computing Services
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC, 28608
828-262-6272
email: dmca@appstate.edu
There must be an interesting [1] backstory [2] here for an academic institution to knuckle under to an act that the Electronic Frontier Foundation describes thus:
In practice, the anti-circumvention provisions have been used to stifle a wide array of legitimate activities, rather than to stop copyright infringement. As a result, the DMCA has developed into a serious threat to several important public policy priorities:
The DMCA Chills Free Expression and Scientific Research.
Experience with section 1201 demonstrates that it is being used to stifle free speech and scientific research. The lawsuit against 2600 magazine, threats against Princeton Professor Edward Felten’s team of researchers, and prosecution of Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov have chilled the legitimate activities of journalists, publishers, scientists, students, programmers, and members of the public.
The DMCA Jeopardizes Fair Use.
By banning all acts of circumvention, and all technologies and tools that can be used for circumvention, the DMCA grants to copyright owners the power to unilaterally eliminate the public’s fair use rights. Already, the movie industry’s use of encryption on DVDs has curtailed consumers’ ability to make legitimate, personal-use copies of movies they have purchased.
The DMCA Impedes Competition and Innovation.
Rather than focusing on pirates, many copyright owners have wielded the DMCA to hinder their legitimate competitors. For example, the DMCA has been used to block aftermarket competition in laser printer toner cartridges, garage door openers, and computer maintenance services. Similarly, Apple invoked the DMCA to chill RealNetworks’ efforts to sell music downloads to iPod owners.
The DMCA Interferes with Computer Intrusion Laws.
Further, the DMCA has been misused as a general-purpose prohibition on computer network access which, unlike most computer intrusion statutes, lacks any financial harm threshold. As a result, a disgruntled employer has used the DMCA against a former contractor for simply connecting to the company’s computer system through a VPN.
Unintended Consequences: Seven Years Under the DMCA
ASU, that’s not so hot, hot, hot…
Rolling back from lunch,1:45pm, I saw a cluster of police on the corner of Church and Franklin handing out blue flyers – and getting their pictures taken by some local media.
“Great”, I thought, “they’re looking for witnesses to the the recent Avalon shooting.”
Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The seven sweltering uniformed law enforcement were there for a PR photo-op to educate folks on the proper usage of the new Franklin St. crosswalk. I believe an additional two staff were across the street at University Square doing the same.
Seven law enforcement. One missing murderer.
No cool down in sight.
With tomorrow’s temperatures forecasted to be above 100 degrees, Chapel Hill is going to be one very hot spot.
As if centrally scripted, local news folks, punching up the drama of the weather story, have been issuing dire warnings not of the “real” heat but of the “felt” heat. “Think it’s going to be hot tomorrow? With the heat index, that 100 degrees will feel like a thousand!” Etc. Ad nauseum.
For the last 35 years, I’ve always assumed the “heat index” was a bit of a bugaboo – a pseudo-science calculation surfing the collective American conscience with little or no factual underpinnings.
Well, turns out there is a calculation:
HI = -42.379 + 2.04901523T + 10.1433127R – 0.22475541TR – 6.83783×10 -3 T 2 – 5.481717×10 -2 R 2 + 1.22874×10 -3 T 2R + 8.5282×10 -4 TR 2 – 1.99×10 -6 T 2 R 2
where
- T = ambient dry bulb temperature degrees Fahrenheit
- R = relative humidity
- The equation is only useful for temperatures 80 degrees or higher, and relative humidities 40% or greater.
NOAA National Weather Service chart of Heat Index
That looks rather ad-hoc to this curious science guy, so I delved a bit deeper and found this commonly cited article [PDF] explaining the genesis of the equation.
Now that summer has spread its oppressive ridge over most of the Southern Region, NWS phones are ringing off their hooks with questions about the Heat Index. Many questions regard the actual equationused in calculating the Heat Index. Some callers are satisfied with the response that it is extremely complicated. Some are satisfied with the nomogram (see Attachment 1). But there are a few who will settle for nothing less than the equation itself. No true equation for the Heat Index exists. Heat Index values are derived from a collection of equations that comprise a model. This Technical Attachment presents an equation that approximates the Heat Index and, thus, should satisfy the latter group of callers.
The Heat Index (or apparent temperature) is the result of extensive biometeorological studies. The parameters involved in its calculation are shown below (from Steadman, 1979). Each of these parameters can be described by an equation but they are given assumed magnitudes (in parentheses) in order to simplify the model.
- Vapor pressure. Ambient vapor pressure of the atmosphere. (1.6 kPa)
- Dimensions of a human. Determines the skin’s surface area. (5′ 7″ tall, 147 pounds
- Effective radiation area of skin. A ratio that depends upon skin surface area. (0.80)
- Significant diameter of a human. Based on the body’s volume and density. (15.3 cm)
- Clothing cover. Long trousers and short-sleeved shirt is assumed. (84% coverage)
- Core temperature. Internal body temperature. (98.6°F)
- Core vapor pressure. Depends upon body’s core temperature and salinity. (5.65 kPa)
- Surface temperatures and vapor pressures of skin and clothing. Affects heat transfer from the skin’s surface either by radiation or convection. These values are determined by an iterative process.
- Activity. Determines metabolic output. (180 W m-2 of skin area for the model person walking outdoors at a speed of 3.1 mph)
- Effective wind speed. Vector sum of the body’s movement and an average wind speed. Angle between vectors influences convection from skin surface (below). (5 kts)
- Clothing resistance to heat transfer. The magnitude of this value is based on the assumption that the clothing is 20% fiber and 80% air.
- Clothing resistance to moisture transfer. Since clothing is mostly air, pure vapor diffusion is used here.
- Radiation from the surface of the skin. Actually, a radiative heat-transfer coefficient determined from previous studies.
- Convection from the surface of the skin. A convection coefficient also determined from previous studies. Influenced by kinematic viscosity of air and angle of wind.
- Sweating rate. Assumes that sweat is uniform and not dripping from the body.
From Rothfusz, L. P., 1990:The heat index equation (or, more than you ever wanted to know about heat index). NWS Southern Region Technical Attachment, SR/SSD 90-23, Fort Worth, TX.
So, to be as accurate as possible, tomorrow, if you’re 5’7″ 147 pounds, wearing long trousers and a short-sleeved shirt made of %80 air, have an average human diameter (unlike my 46″ waist), plan only to walk 3.1 MPH and sweat uniformally, it’ll feel like a bazillion degrees.
