July 30, 2013
WeatherNationTV Chief Meteorologist Paul Douglas looks at how climate change leads to rising sea levels and what coastal cities can expect to see by 2040. Also, more on torrential downpours and record setting rainfalls.
July 30, 2013
OK, so supposedly a fresh water lake has appeared at the North Pole and it is ENORMOUS and Santa Claus has been missing since and is presumed dead. OK, not really. The Giant Lake is really just a "pond" of meltwater on top of the polar sea ice, on the North Pole. But wait, actually, it is not…
July 30, 2013
... which would be really funny because ... well, you clearly see why this is funny.
Christian groups and sects are often opposed to the use of biological tissue that would otherwise be discarded in research and therapy including "stem cell research." This is because they think some of that…
July 30, 2013
This is a very important political ad because it involves climate change and climate change denialism in the political process. This (involvement) needs to happen in every single campaign from now on, for every single office. This is a start. A slow start, but at least a start.
There is…
July 30, 2013
Here's a presentation by Michael Mann that I'm sure you will enjoy:
July 29, 2013
... well, actually, you can start by shutting up.
Then, while you are sitting there quietly read this: Why Teaching Is Harder Than It Looks.
Then, add your advice about how we can fix our system of education to the comments below. But each suggestion must be paid for (with money) and fit into…
July 28, 2013
This is a site in the vicinity of Meroe in the Sudan, and seem to date to a period of transition between foraging and farming. From The Telegraph:
In a graveyard in Al-Kadada, north of Khartoum, the archaeologists have dug up the tomb of a man and a woman facing each other in a ditch, with bodies…
July 28, 2013
UPDATE: Mass Coal Plant Protest Happening Now FOLLOW: @oharjo #summerheat #coalisstupid #CloseBraytonPt @350Mass @efeghali for updates.
UPDATE Brayton Point Coal Plant Protest Live Streaming HERE.
This morning, Sunday, July 28th, there is an action happening in Southeastern Massachusetts. A…
July 25, 2013
OK, watch this and answer a question for me. The question is, does our American love for free speech translate into ignoring this man's behavior, or does our (seemingly less important) American love for freedom for all require that a person who behaves this way NOT be the chief of police of any…
July 25, 2013
Or, possibly, not:
July 25, 2013
Dorian is a tropical storm that formed in the eastern tropical Atlantic ago. Dorian is probably going to head almost straight west-northwest and menace the vicinity north of the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas. This is going to take some time. By the end of the weekend, Dorian will be…
July 24, 2013
With J. Drake Hamilton, Shawn Otto, Greg Laden, and moderated by Desiree Schell.
The sound is messed up in the beginning, but gets much better after a while:
A full transcript, graciously and painstakingly produced by Avery Thompson, and other information about the panel, is HERE at Skepchick.…
July 23, 2013
Most of the current models of glacial ice melting (and contribution to sea level rise) focus on ice melting and less than they need to on the process of glaciers falling apart in larger chunks such as ice bergs. Also, current understanding of glacial ice melting due to global warming indicates that…
July 23, 2013
The National Academies Press of the United States has recently released a report that will be of interest to those of you concerned with climate change (which better be every one of you dammit!). The report talks about increasing floods due to weather whiplash and sea level rise due to glacial…
July 23, 2013
James Hansen, the famous climate scientist and author of Storms of my Grandchildren, talks about the possible role of nuclear power in addressing climate change, and in particular, reducing the release of fossil carbon into the atmosphere.
I think he is far to pessimistic on the use of solar and…
July 23, 2013
From The Australian
THE Gandalf of science, archeologist Mike Morwood, who helped find a new species of tiny humans dubbed the Hobbit, died yesterday after a year-long battle with cancer.
Professor Morwood's legacy will be linked to the Indonesian island of Flores, where in 2003 he was part of a…
July 23, 2013
Does this picture of Hitler make you like him?
I dislike Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's, that dislike contingent on his guilt yet to be proven (but very likely, it seems). His picture on the cover of Rolling Stone makes a point that struck me during the mayhem in Boston, and it is a good point. Those who…
July 22, 2013
When the Royal Baby is born, any time now, it will be a girl, according to about 67% of some 50 psychics recently surveyed. If the psychics were guessing randomly, we would assume that about half of them would say "girl" and the other half would say "boy" but with a full 2/3rds saying one thing, we…
July 22, 2013
The Salmon Cam!!!!
Streaming Live by Ustream
July 22, 2013
Check it out!
Ha ha. Courtesy of THIS PLACE HERE.
July 22, 2013
It has been said that global warming has stopped over the last several years. Some say it has not been happening for 17 years, some say for ten years, some say for 12 years. Let's test these hypotheses
Hypothesis: June, the most recent month with full data, was an average year, not a warm year.…
July 21, 2013
Michael Mann initiated a defamation lawsuit agains t the National Review and the Competitive Enterprise Institute some time ago, and it has been trudging along int he courts. Two very important decisions came down in the Washington DC Superior Court in Professor Mann's favor. I'm not going to try…
July 21, 2013
From Paul Douglas:
Just like we read left to right, most weather systems move left to right (West to East). Right now however, the weather pattern is out of whack, moving East to West, creating a monster tropical heatwave for a big chunk of the U.S. WeatherNation Chief Meteorologist Paul Douglas…
July 21, 2013
From The World Bank.
Within a few decades rising world temperatures will create food shortages in Sub-Saharan Africa and leave some parts of Asia flooded while other areas will not have enough drinking water. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim says the world must mitigate climate change as he…
July 21, 2013
It seems to me that the science of epidemiology is a lot like being in shoe sales in a country on the pacific rim. You never know when the other shoe is going to drop, but you know it will. Our species (humans) is numerous, contiguous, and dense (in more ways than one). This means that a highly…
July 20, 2013
This was one of the many great panels at FtBConscience, this panel hosted by Miri of Brute Reason and organized by Biodork.
A panel of reproductive rights activists come together to discuss access to abortion in current events , clinic escorting and some common religious and non-religious…
July 20, 2013
Climate Scientist John Abraham and I just finished a session of FtBConscience on Climate Change and during that session we promised to provide some useful links. We also used some graphics during the session. Below are the links and the graphics!
First, here is the video of the session:
Climate…
July 19, 2013
Reproductive Success (RS) is defined in many ways in different places by different people, but one of the most common definitions is simply the number of offspring an individual produces. This definition is further modified in most cases to mean only those individuals that will be fertile, i.e.,…
July 18, 2013
The latest Skeptically Speaking is "War on Science"
This week we’re looking at threats to science and critical thinking, and how you can sort fact from fiction. York University science librarian John Dupuis joins us to discuss what he calls the Canadian government’s War on Science. And Chris…
July 18, 2013
This is funny:
Just so you know, he was not fishing for "bluegills" This is a bluegill:
A nice bluegill
Bluegills live in fresh water and are like "sunfish" and "pumpkinseeds" and "crappies" etc. all of which are in the bass family.
Bluefish live in the ocean and roam along littoral regions in…
