Environment
illconsidered | September 1, 2008 Sipping from the internet firehose...
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 Top Stories:Accra Conference, Bihar Floods, Methane Burp?, Permafrost Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Arctic Geopolitics, Grumbine, World Bank Food Crisis, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs, Paleoclimate, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Satellites Impacts, Forests, Corals, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation Journals, Misc. Science, Hansen…
jjacquet | August 30, 2008Baracknophobia: The irrational fear of hope.
If you saw Senator Barack Obama's acceptance speech Thursday night (TIME Magazine granted it an A+) you'll likely agree that it's hard not to be excited.
Obama's worldview and oratory skills combined with his positions on almost every issue, including health care, corporate handouts, and a national energy policy, do indeed give reason for hope (and there has never been anything false about hope). Senator Obama also recently answered 14 questions crafted by the ScienceDebate2008 team. Here is his response to the question posed about the oceans:…
sb admin | August 28, 2008It's no secret that I have no respect for Joe Mercola. Every time I read one of his promotional emails or make a visit to his website, I see more fantastic claims. Usually, I don't see blatant lies...until now...
This guy likes to claim that he's in the woo-peddling business to help people...it's not about profit. This is clearly untrue. But other than his dissembling about his motives, I've never really checked his site for lies in particular...just silly, illogical falsehoods.
Today I got an email from Joe:
Why I Believe You Should Take Action NOW to Help Remove Potential Toxins from…
illconsidered | August 25, 2008 Sipping from the internet firehose...
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) August 24, 2008 Top Stories:Ghana, Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Arctic Geopolitics, Grumbine, World Water Week Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Paleoclimate, ENSO, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Satellites Impacts, Forests, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts Mitigation, Transportation, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation Journals, Misc. Science, Hanson,…
pharyngula | August 23, 2008Tony Sidaway discusses a unifying property of theistic evolutionists: the desire or need for there to be some kind of universal plan for their existence. It's not an attitude I understand very well; I don't think it makes life better to believe that there is some ineffable teleological intent behind the events in your life, and no one ever bothers to explain why it would be preferable to be a pawn to a cosmic puppetmaster. Their reasoning also tends to be incredibly bad, as can be seen in the article by Mark Vernon that inspired Tony's musings.
The work of Conway Morris, and now many others,…
tlambert | August 21, 2008Another post on John Mashey's virtual blog. Everything that follows is from comments posted here by Mashey, lightly edited.
This long essay grew from a dialog in this thread into something that may be a more general resource than just some answers to Mr Manny.
There are 3 parts so far:
Part 1 Motivation & Approach to Science
Part 2 Relevant Personal Background
Part 3 Answers to Questions, Sources
Part 1 Motivation & Approach to Science
1.1 Why This?
I'm always curious when people with decent-or-better educational backgrounds strongly espouse conclusions directly opposite that of…
j7uy5 | August 21, 2008In
the late '60's - early '70's, is was commonplace for bands to write
songs that were utterly meaningless, then pass them off as great works
of art. The products of pure genius.
I
head one such song on the way home from work:
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Horse_with_No_Name">A
Horse With No Name, by America, released in 1972.
Here's
a review on a site that has song lyrics:
bad
lyrics | Reviewer: george | 4/15/2008
This
song has a pretty good melody. It sounds good, IF YOU IGNORE THE
LYRICS. For example,
"in the desert, you can't remember your
name
'cause there ain't no…
kevin z | August 19, 2008Conservation is more than saving a species or a habitat. Conservation, at a meta-level, places people in stewardship of the planet and its inventory. Some of the most amazing places and their inhabitants are located in some of the poorest nations or communities. So when the passionate bloggers at 10000 Birds formed a partnership with the National Museum of Kenya to support the conservation work of Dominic Kamau Kimani, we at Deep Sea News asked how can we help?
We recognize that our readership, you guys, come from all walks of life but are unified by your love and appreciation of the natural…
clock | August 18, 2008Save the planet? Buy it:
Millionaires are purchasing entire ecosystems around the world and turning them into conservation areas. Their goal? To stop environmental catastrophe.
But will they know how to do it well? Will they inject some of their own incorrect ideas into their projects? Who will they listen to when designing these? Will their kids continue?
illconsidered | August 18, 2008 Sipping from the internet firehose...
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) August 17, 2008 Top Stories:World Water Week, Electric Bicycles, Grumbine, Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Paleoclimate, Glaciers, Sea Levels Impacts, Forests, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation Journals, Misc. Science, Hansen, Koerner…
pzminion | August 15, 2008Imagine you're a paleontologist, digging through the Sahara desert looking for dinosaur bones and you stumble, instead, upon this wondrous find:
That's exactly what happened to Paleontologist Paul Sereno and his team back in 2000, and they have announced their findings from their excavations of this region in Northern Niger in National Geographic this week. This team unexpectedly unearthed 200 human burials on the shores of a long dried up lake, representing two very distinct cultures spanning 5000 years (between 4500 to about 9000 years ago). The image shown above is of their 'most…
hrynyshyn | August 15, 2008Jim Hansen wants to see all coal-fired plants shut down by 2030. Except for any plants that employ carbon-capture and sequestration. Al Gore wants to see the United States generate all its electricity from renewable sources by 2018, which means shutting down all the coal-fired plants. Except for any plants that employ carbon-capture and sequestration. Princeton University's Pacala and Socolow of the "wedge" strategy make CCS an integral part of their future clean energy portfolio. Everybody who's crunched the emissions numbers pretty much agrees that coal has got to go. Unless we can capture…
clock | August 14, 2008So, let's see what's new in PLoS Genetics, PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS Pathogens and PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases this week. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Mutant Screen Distinguishes between Residues Necessary for Light-Signal Perception and Signal Transfer by Phytochrome B:
Adapting to the light environment, plants have evolved several photoreceptors, of which the phytochromes are specialized in perceiving the red and…
clock | August 14, 2008Sleep Selectively Preserves Emotional Memories:
As poets, songwriters and authors have described, our memories range from misty water-colored recollections to vividly detailed images of the times of our lives. Now, a study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Boston College offers new insights into the specific components of emotional memories, suggesting that sleep plays a key role in determining what we remember - and what we forget.
Hard Day's Night? Enhancing The Work-life Balance Of Shift Workers:
Introducing a Compressed Working Week may enhance the…
gregladen | August 14, 2008A remarkable find in North Africa is reported in PLoS. Information has just been released on this new archaeological site in a formerly much greener Sahara. This will provide an interesting physical unerpinning for the recent work on a "Genetic Map of Europe" (see this summary by Razib) and a new perspective on the movement of humans in and around North Africa and adjoining areas. Here I am passing on the press release and photos without comment, so that you can have the information right away.
TWO SKULLS. (Dark Skull, left) Radiocarbon dated at 9,500 years old, the skull of this mature…
j7uy5 | August 14, 2008I am wondering if the USA, as a whole, is more prosperous now that it
was in 2000.
We are told that the GDP has gone up every year. Population
growth has been modest. The published per-capita GDP has gone
up, from $33,000 to $46,000 (as of 1 January 2008). That
seems positive...
From CIA World Factbook, via
href="http://indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?c=us&v=67">Index Mundi:
But we are running a deficit. The USA's
href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2187rank.html">account
balance was $ -738,600,000,000 in 2007. There has
been…
evolvingthoughts | August 14, 2008The heir apparent to some minor European royal family has again demonstrated his lack of knowledge and trust in scientific matters. The Prince, who has previously said that he talks to plants and consults gurus, apparently failed to talk to any actual, you know, scientists who might clear up a few confusions he has. Of course the environmental extremists have leapt all over it.
He has now said this in the august paper of record in Britain, the Daily Telegraph:
The mass development of genetically modified crops risks causing the world's worst environmental disaster, The Prince of Wales has…
sb admin | August 13, 2008In todayâs Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Robert McClure highlights a case involving a consultation under the Endangered Species Act â the very aspect of the ESA that the Bush Administration wants to slash.
EPA has approved three pesticides â chlorpyrifos, diazinon, and malathion â for use in areas where they will affect several species of salmon that are listed as threatened or endangered under the ESA. A coalition of fishing and environmental groups filed a lawsuit, and U.S. District Judge John Coughenour ordered the National Marine Fisheries Service to conduct a study on the pesticidesâ…
gregladen | August 12, 2008There is a constant battle between conservatives (aka Republicans, or stoopid people) and liberals (aka Democrats, or smart people) as to how to regulate industry. Republicans say "don't regulate industry at all." Why? because they are paid by industry to say this. If you think there is anything else going on here you are not even a tiny bit as smart as you think you are and should go back to school.
Each Republican congress tries to remove regulation, and each administration tries to weaken the existing regulation. Currently, the Bush Administration is planning to remove all the…
bcohen | August 12, 2008In a time of increasing concern for water quality and availability, nuclear power facilities require enormous quantities of water and put back effluent into those nearby water sources. At a time of carbon counting, they also generate considerable carbon emissions through the process of construction and with the life-cycle chain of fuel (uranium) mining, milling, transporting, and disposing. As Americans relearn the breadth of what an environmental issue is, nuclear plants all the while create new social and cultural problems for community stability and autonomy. Coal-fired plants quite…