Merriam-Webster’s defines religion as “…the belief in a god or in a group of gods… 2 : an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods… commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance…”^[5] Religion is synonymous with faith, with faith being the belief in something without proof.^[6]

Since faith is the belief in something without proof and global warming has ample proof then global warming does not equal (!=) religion.  On the contrary, the disbelief in global warming is generally held by individuals due that there social-political (conservative/the right) beliefs despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.^{[7][8][9][10]} Some, including myself, could argue that disbelief in global warming is a religion, because it has no proof.

The question if the global warming phenomenon is caused my man is called anthropization^[11] and is really a different subject but popular scientific consensus is that global warming is caused by man made activities.^[12][13][14] Most people that deny the existence of global warming also deny the existence of man-made/anthropogenic global warming.  This is not a huge surprise, but it really saddens me because these people choose to disbelieve in something that most don’t fully understand and discount the scientists that, for the most part, are a lot smarter and are experts in this field then they are because of their social-political and dogmatic beliefs.

As you can see I included a lot of references as to give proof the above statements.

Click on Image for a larger view

*Update*

More research indicates global warming is real.

• blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/21/new-independent-climate-study-confirms-global-warming-is-real/
• berkeleyearth.org/Resources/Berkeley_Earth_Summary_20_Oct

References

1. data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/
2. www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/
3. earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=42392
4. IPCC (2007-05-04). “Summary for Policymakers” (PDF). Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Retrieved 2009-07-03
5. www.learnersdictionary.com/search/religion
6. www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/faith
7. Begley, Sharon (2007-08-13). “The Truth About Denial”. Newsweek. Retrieved 2007-08-13.
8. Adams, David (2006-09-20). “Royal Society tells Exxon: stop funding climate change denial”. London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-08-09.
9. “Exxon cuts ties to global warming skeptics”. MSNBC. 2007-01-12. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
10. Sandell, Clayton (2007-01-03). “Report: Big Money Confusing Public on Global Warming”. ABC. Retrieved 2007-04-27.
11. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropogenic
12. Oreskes, Naomi (December 2004). “BEYOND THE IVORY TOWER: The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change”. Science 306 (5702): 1686. doi:10.1126/science.1103618. PMID 15576594. “Such statements suggest that there might be substantive disagreement in the scientific community about the reality of anthropogenic climate change. This is not the case. [...] Politicians, economists, journalists, and others may have the impression of confusion, disagreement, or discord among climate scientists, but that impression is incorrect.”
13. “Joint Science Academies’ Statement” (PDF). Retrieved 2010-08-09.
14. “Understanding and Responding to Climate Change” (PDF). Retrieved 2010-08-09.

Ares I launched this week, after several delays.  I watched it live, it was awesome.  But two of the three parachutes malfunctioned and caused some damage to the booster.

I attended a one day class taught by Dr. Peter Fuhr, and several technical conferences about wireless systems and technologies.  A tool that Dr. Fuhr was using caught my eye.  He had a RF spectrum analyzer on his computer that only cost $200, that would be get for my work.  It’s from Metageek and comes in 2.4 GHz and a 900 MHz version.

“This standard is intended to provide reliable and secure wireless operation for non-critical monitoring, alerting, supervisory control, open loop control, and closed loop control applications. This standard defines the protocol suite, system management, gateway, and security specifications for low-data-rate wireless connectivity with fixed, portable, and moving devices supporting very limited power consumption requirements. The application focus is to address the performance needs of applications such as monitoring and process control where latencies on the order of 100 ms can be tolerated, with optional behavior for shorter latency.

To meet the needs of industrial wireless users and operators, this standard provides robustness in the presence of interference found in harsh industrial environments and with legacy non-ISA100 compliant wireless systems. As described in Clause 4, this standard addresses coexistence with other wireless devices anticipated in the industrial workspace, such as cell phones and devices based on IEEE 802.11x, IEEE 802.15x, IEEE 802.16x, and other relevant standards. Furthermore, this standard allows for interoperability of ISA100 devices, as described in Clause 5.” – ISA page (ISA-100.11a-2009)

EN 13980 is an EU (European Union) standard for companies that are looking to produce ATEX (EU Directive 94/9/EC and 99/92/EC) rated equipment.  It’s based off ISO 9001, with specifics to components and products in explosives atmospheres.  It is not a free standard but the cost is small and can be purchase at many different website, usally depending on the language (BSI for English).

For a company, such as Otis Instruments, that is looking to produce ATEX rated equipment two certifications are needed; and they are the Quality Assurance Notification (QAN) and the EC Type Examination Certificate.  The Quality Assurance Notification is issued to a company that has had an assement audit for compliance to EN 13980.  A  EC Type Examination Certificate is a certificate issued for specific hardware that has passed testing from the ATEX standard (usually based of EN 16079, among others).

Once that is complete the company can build the product and issue a Declaration of Conformity.  The Declaration of Conformity states that the product is built and tested to comply with ATEX.

This process is very different than what is normally done in North America.  In North America the equivalent standards, testing, and certifications are done/controlled by UL, FM, ETL, and CSA.

Here is a quote from the BSI site :

“Potentially explosive atmospheres – Application of quality systems
Executive summary

Requirements and information for establishing and maintaining quality systems for use in potentially explosive atmospheres.
Abstract

This European Standard specifies particular requirements and information for establishing and maintaining a quality system within potentially explosive atmospheres.

It is intended for use by manufacturers, notified bodies and regulatory authorities.

When notified bodies assess the quality systems of manufacturers this standard is intended to be the basis of the initial assessment and subsequent visits.
History and related standards

This European Standard is complementary to EN ISO 9000 and EN ISO 9001 and is applicable to products intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres.

This standard includes the following cross references:

prEN 13237-1, EN 45012, EN 45014, EN ISO 9000:2000, EN ISO 9001:2000.“