Environment
hrynyshyn | March 14, 2011At one end of the hyperbole scale we have Helen "If you love this planet" Caldicott, who raises the specter of "cancer and genetic diseases" if things get any worse at the growing list of nuclear power reactors crippled or destroyed by last week's earthquake in Japan. At the other we have Republican congressman Mitch McConnell, who argues that we shouldn't abandon nuclear power, especially "right after a major environmental catastrophe."
In between the pundits and genuine experts are pointing out that the mining, processing, and burning of fossil fuels kill hundreds or even thousands of times…
sastyk | March 14, 2011"He'll never catch up!" the Sicilian cried. "Inconceivable!"
"You keep using that word!" the Spaniard snapped. "I don't think it means what you think it does."
..."Inconceivable!" the Sicilian cried.
The Spaniard whirled on him. "Stop saying that word!" It was inconceivable that anyone could follow us, but when we looked behind, there was the man in black. It was inconceivable that anyone could sail as fast as we could sail, and yet he gained on us. Now this too is inconceivable, but look - look" and the Spaniard pointed down through the night. "See how he rises."
The man in black was,…
pharyngula | March 12, 2011Lately, I've completely given up on giving any credit to the Rethuglican party at all — where once I could have grudgingly admitted that perhaps some conservative policies were sensible, the current party is no longer conservative, but simply insane. As an example, I give you The Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011, a Republican-sponsored, Republican-promoted exercise in outright science denial blessed by Koch Industries.
To amend the Clean Air Act to prohibit the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from promulgating any regulation concerning, taking action relating to, or…
tfk | March 11, 2011@Dave Ewing:
The headline you won't be reading: "Millions saved in Japan by good engineering and government building codes". But it's the truth.
My heart goes out to all the people affected the earthquake in Japan, and by the resulting tsunamis which have hit much of the Pacific basin. Heck, we even saw tsunami surge in the San Francisco Bay. The damage and deaths are still being tallied, but it's worth noting that the 5th largest earthquake on record hit near the densely populated coast of Japan, and so far there are a mere 400 deaths reported. The earthquake in Haiti last year, which was…
jtoney | March 11, 2011
NOAA just released this graphic displaying their best estimates of how far and high high the tsunami waves will travel after Japan's devastating earthquake yesterday. How far, how high will it go?
Tsunami Wave Height Model Shows Pacific-Wide Impact
Model runs from the Center for Tsunami Research at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory show the expected wave heights of the tsunami as it travels across the Pacific basin. The largest wave heights are expected near the earthquake epicenter, off Japan. The wave will decrease in height as it travels across the deep Pacific but grow…
lborkowski | March 11, 2011Earlier this week, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food released a report stating that agroecology - basically, sustainable agriculture - can double global food production over the next decade. Specifically, agroecology can raise production in the poor, food-deficit countries that most need additional crops. The techniques, which include using plants and beneficial animals in place of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, can be easily adopted by smallholder farmers. And these farmers' additional earnings will in turn support local sellers and service providers, who don't tend to…
hrynyshyn | March 9, 2011"What is the optimum temperature for man?" asked Virginia Rep. Morgan Griffith at yesterday's Congressional hearings on a bill that would remove the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions "Have we looked at that? These are questions that, believe it or not, I lay awake at night trying to figure out."
Call me crazy, but I don't believe it. I worry about climate change every day of my life and this is not something that keeps me awake at night. Although, if I understood as little about the basic facts of human history as you, who knows what would keep me up night?
The truth is, we…
illconsidered | March 8, 2011 Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
skip to bottom Another week of Global Warming News Sipping from the Internet Firehose...March 6, 2011 Chuckles, Cancun, COP17+, Suzuki, Tim DeChristopher, Glory, NYT-Fracking, Barnosky Carbon Tariffs, Subsidies, Thermodynamics, Cook, Post CRU Melting Arctic, Antarctica Food Crisis, Food Prices, Food Riots, FAC, Land Grabs, GMOs, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures,…
oracknows | March 4, 2011Due to my activities at the Society of Surgical Oncology meeting in San Antonio, somehow I didn't manage to crank out a bit of that Insolence, Respectful or Not-So-Respectful, that you all crave. So, given that this is Friday, I thought I'd to a "rerun" of a bit of classic woo. This one's a little newer than the reruns I usually do, only a little less than two years old. So, if you've been reading less than two years, it's new to you! Maybe I'll even post another one later.
Ever since I started this little vanity bit known as Your Friday Dose of Woo, lo, these nearly three years ago, when I…
illconsidered | February 28, 2011 Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
skip to bottom Another week of Climate Instability News Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck YearsFebruary 27, 2011 Chuckles, COP17+, G20, Vulnerability, Cablegate, Sock Puppets, Pakistan Subsidies, E&E Threat, Cook, Post CRU Melting Arctic, Methane Feedback, Geopolitics Food Crisis, Agro Corps, Food Prices, Food Riots, Food vs. Biofuel, IP Issues, GMOs, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs,…
mikethemadbiologist | February 22, 2011Happy Tuesday. Links for you. Science:
The Fossa: Madagascar's Strangest Predator
Biotech industry says cuts will stifle--Federal budgets would slash aid; Mass. groups look to restore funding
A new spider species discovered in Seattle?
Antievolution bill in New Mexico tabled
House of Representatives Votes to Defund IPCC
Other:
Backward, Christian Soldiers
Twitter's Dirty Little Secret
Social conservatism & religious conservatism
Thankful for Massachusetts
Most Americans Are Closeted Big Government Spenders
Walkouts, Payouts, and Lockouts: Why the NFL's labor dispute should matter to you…
illconsidered | February 21, 2011 Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
skip to bottom Another week of Climate Instability News Information is not Knowledge...Knowledge is notWisdomFebruary 20, 2011 Chuckles, COP17+, G20, Min & Pall, Schaefer, Epstein, Dirty Trick, Sri Lanka & Pakistan Bottom Line, Subsidies, Cook, Cablegate Melting Arctic, Megafauna, Methane, Geopolitics Food Crisis, Food Prices, Food Riot?, Food vs. Biofuel, GMOs, Food Production Hurricanes…
heathero | February 15, 2011I mentioned this study a while ago, and promised a more detailed explanation. I apologize for how long it has taken, but here it is.
How excited was I to learn that the most recent issue of Nature Geoscience had a special focus on deep sea carbon cycling? I admit it, pretty excited. I was even more excited to learn that one of the 3 papers making up this special focus was about the microbial component of deep sea carbon cycling. This may not be something that you think about every day, but I do... well most days at least. The first two sentences of this paper explain why I find this…
oracknows | February 14, 2011Four days later, I still can't figure it out. I really can't.
Remember the other day when I said I was debating whether or not to respond to the latest excretion from one of the first hangers-on of the anti-vaccine movement I ever encountered after I started blogging. I'm referring, of course, to freelance journalist David Kirby, whose book Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Mystery, along with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s unbelievably brain dead Deadly Immunity, helped ignite the anti-vaccine fear mongering about mercury in vaccines back in 2005. My…
illconsidered | February 14, 2011 Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
skip to bottom Another week of Climate Disruption News Information Overloadis Pattern RecognitionFebruary 13, 2011 Note Chuckles, COP17+, WikiLeaks, Sri Lanka, Pakistan Bottom Line, Subsidies, World Bank, Thermodynamics, Cook Melting Arctic, Megafauna, Geopolitics, Antarctica Food Crisis, Agro-corps, Food Prices, Food Riots?, Food vs. Biofuel, Land Grabs, GMOs, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs,…
sastyk | February 10, 2011
(Yes, I will eventually explain this ;-))
I don't usually participate in the Huffington Post bashing that goes on at science blogs. Not because I don't often agree with it, but because my colleagues seem to have it covered when it comes to autism/vaccine links and dubious medical studies. Still, Raymond Learsy's column about Wikileaks did catch my attention, and it seems to have all the best qualities of a bad HuffPo piece.
If it's in Wikileaks, it's got to be true. Certainly it was a moment of triumphal satisfaction for the Peak Oil Pranksters. There it was in "cloud" black and white…
oracknows | February 8, 2011Things are pretty hairy this week, what with a couple of grant deadlines fast approaching, not to mention a rather important site visit at my institution later this week. As a result, I had been intending to post a "rerun" today, but then I saw something that just cracked me up so much that I couldn't resist taking a few minutes to do an uncharacteristically brief (for me) post about it.
Earlier this week, there was an announcement of a blockbuster deal in which AOL is buying that wretched hive of scum and quackery (take that, Dean Toney!), The Huffington Post, for $315 million. Since then,…
illconsidered | February 7, 2011 Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
skip to bottom Another week of Climate Disruption News Sipping from the Internet Firehose...February 6, 2011 Chuckles, COP17+, IYF, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Oysters Bottom Line, Subsidies, EHM, Thermodynamics, Cook Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Geopolitics, Antarctica Food Crisis, Fish, Misreporting, Prices, Riots?, Land Grabs, GMOs, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures,…
bioephemera | February 4, 2011
PMS Quilt, 2008
hand embroidered and crocheted pantyliners
Laurel Roth
Yes, that is just what it says it is: a collection of pantyliners embroidered with profanity.
One thing is clear about artist Laurel Roth: she is not afraid to make viewers uncomfortable. Her series "Hope Chest" is constructed of hygenic accessories embroidered with "off-kilter reflections on biology, fertility, and the ever-changing roles of women" - like the f-word. Embellished with beads, rose thorns, and crochet, the embroideries are twee, kitschy decor - or they would be, if not for their bluntly worded messages.…
mikethemadbiologist | February 3, 2011I really, really wish it would snow. Regardless, here are some links. Science.
Throw the snow in the Harbor! (not convinced about the environmental impacts; I don't mind shipping some of them back to the burbs)
Bats in Borneo roost in carnivorous pitcher plants
The NIH reduces proposed budgets to fund more grants
Less punishment, less crime (80% of addicts still drug free after one year seems like a good intervention to me...)
Other:
Paul Ryan's Deficit Reduction Fairy Tales: Part One
Reggae: the sound that revolutionised Britain. Punk may have got all the headlines, but reggae proved vital…