gregladen | June 26, 2013From Mercury News:
In a ruling that assures further legal battles, the high court found that backers of Proposition 8 did not have the legal right to defend the voter-approved gay marriage ban in place of the governor and attorney general, who have refused to press appeals of a federal judge's 2010 ruling finding the law unconstitutional.
It was a 5-4 decision, usual suspects.
Reminder: Who is on the Supreme Court matters.
Reminder: Who is in the White House matters to who is on the Supreme Court.
Reminder: Which party controls the Senate matters to the ability of whomever is in the White…
gregladen | June 26, 2013The Supreme Court of the United States has truck down the so-called "Defense of Marriage Act" as unconstitutional. It was a 5-4 decision. A ruling on California Prop 8 is expected soon.
From NPR:
Section 3 of the law defines marriage as "a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife" and a spouse as "a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife." That provision had been struck down by eight lower courts before the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling in United States v. Windsor.
This decision means that legally married same-sex couples are now entitled to the same…
gregladen | June 25, 2013The video below has meteorologist Paul Douglas talking about the big storm we had in the Twin Cities a few days ago (from his excellent series of climate change and weather related videos). The storm actually followed on a number of days with a fair amount of rain, and up here in the northern part of the Twin Cities, we had a pretty bad blow with high wind gusts and lots of rain the day before. But on the 21st, a storm swept mainly through the Western Suburbs and Minneapolis, but actually a much wider area than that. I drove down to pick up Julia near Roseville yesterday, a couple of days…
gregladen | June 25, 2013And this is not a very big if, I think. I've only just learned of this, and don't have details and have not thought about it much but you need to know: It is said that President Obama will nix the Keystone XL Pipeline in the event that the State Department's study can not prove that it will not increase greenhouse gas emissions. Which is impossible, so ....
We shall see.
Listen to today's speech to find out what really happens.
More later, of course. Meanwhile, spread it around that he's gonna say no, then he'll HAVE to say no. I saw them do that on the West Wing once and it worked…
gregladen | June 25, 2013The following is a statement from India Climate Justice
We cannot ignore the climate crisis anymore!
25 June 2013
The India Climate Justice collective notes with deep anguish the devastating loss of life, livelihoods, and homes in Uttarakhand and beyond. The death toll is likely in the thousands, way beyond current official figures. We extend our deep condolences to the families and friends of those killed, and our support to those still fighting for survival, and to local populations whose livelihoods will take years to rebuild.
This tragedy was triggered by extreme unseasonal rains in North…
gregladen | June 24, 2013A few climate change related items I know you will be interested in, especially since you will want to be very current for the big event Tuesday.
There is now a new profession: Extreme Weather Architect. (Hat tip: Paul Douglas)
You may hear again and again that climate change is over, that warming has stopped. This is wrong in many many ways, and I've written about that here. Dana Nuccitelli has this important piece as well: We haven't hit the global warming pause button. Also, see this brand new item for a detailed discussion of how surface warming varies across time.
You've heard of the…
gregladen | June 23, 2013On Tuesday, President Obama will make a speech outlining his administration’s plans to address climate change. The Right Wing has already responded by calling those concerned with climate change “Terrorists.” How have the progressive and left wings responded? Badly. Very badly. Here is a selection, some paraphrased to ensure anonymity (though these are all public), of comments by people that I know are well meaning climate change activists or otherwise concerned about global warming and such.
Obama’s speeches and verbal plans make no difference. It’s what he DOES that counts.
He’ll say…
gregladen | June 22, 2013On Tuesday, just after 1:30 PM Eastern Time, at Georgetown University, President Barack Obama will announce a vision for future steps to address and prepare for ongoing and future climate change. Below is a video teaser for the address, but first, this is what is likely to be in the plan:
New EPA rules on emissions from power plants
Increased use of public lands to develop renewable energy
New efficiency standards.
Climate disaster related preparedness.
He'll probably review recent administration actions as well.
Regarding the Keystone XL Pipeline, the president is not expected to say…
gregladen | June 21, 2013Kickstarter has said this, about this:
Dear everybody,
On Wednesday morning Kickstarter was sent a blog post quoting disturbing material found on Reddit. The offensive material was part of a draft for a “seduction guide” that someone was using Kickstarter to publish. The posts offended a lot of people — us included — and many asked us to cancel the creator’s project. We didn’t.
We were wrong.
Why didn’t we cancel the project when this material was brought to our attention? Two things influenced our decision:
The decision had to be made immediately. We had only two hours from when we found…
gregladen | June 21, 2013Humanity truly sucks and I can prove it. One word: Reddit.
UPDATE: ONLY PART OF HUMANITY SUCKS SEE THIS NEWS
OK, you may want some background.
A Reddit Regular, perhaps a Reddit celeb (or at least he is now) wants to write a book on how guys seduce women, and he's asking for money on Kickstarter. One of his tips is this: You move in close, pull out your penis, take the woman's hand and .... whatever.
I find it interesting that many commenters are referring to that as inappropriate, or sexual assault, by way of objecting to it. I'm pretty sure, though, that it is rape. Probably depends on…
gregladen | June 20, 2013Here we have a nice new infographic for you to gaze at, share around on your facebook accounts, and so on. (It is below.) Here in Minnesota, we've got a problem getting that last one million acres of corn planted (about 1/8th of the normal amount), not because of drought, but because of excessive rain. However, all that extra rain is not expected to alleviate the effects of our drought long term, so we get to have both. If the price or availability of major food types ("commodities") goes south (up and down, respectively) here and there, adjustments can be made. But if climate change…
gregladen | June 20, 2013Two related things came across my desk this morning that should concern anyone who sees climate change as an important issue.
In Germany, the roads are buckling and breaking because of excessive heat, and there seems to be inadequate funding to re-engineer them. Here's a photograph from Spiegel Online of what happens when the rubber meets the road (where the rubber is global warming):
"Crack on the A93 at Abensberg: Here the pad burst through the intense heat, a motorcyclist built so a fatal accident." (google translated)
Meanwhile, over at The Guardian, John Abraham has a post describing…
gregladen | June 20, 2013A letter signed by (so far) 145 former Obama campaign staff calls on President Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline. There is no doubt that President Obama's action on climate change will be a large part of his legacy, and at this point, President Obama's position on Keystone XL is unclear. It is true that the Obama administration is doing some good things (like this) but building the Keystone Pipeline is one of the worst things he could allow to happen.
Frustrated with this situation, the people who helped put President Obama in the White House, twice, are speaking out. Here is the…
gregladen | June 19, 2013Let me 'splain.
If you want to know exactly where your dog is, you could put at GPS sensor in the middle of it's body, perhaps near the pancreas. It would give you an average position for your dog, and would be most accurate most of the time.
If you put the GPS sensor on the tip of the dog's tail, and used that to estimate where your dog is, you would be nearly wrong much of the time, even if over the long term this would be a good estimate for where your dog has been.
More importantly, if you wanted to measure the movement of your dog, the GPS sensor in the middle of the dog's body would…
gregladen | June 19, 2013CONvergence is the world's largest fan run science fiction and fantasy convention held in Bloomington, MN on or around July 4th every year. An informal subset of the activities that occur at this huge gathering of people wearing costumes and stuff is a set of panels organized by Skepchick, focusing on various aspects of skepticism and science. I'll be on a few of the panels this year, as usual.
Below is the poster for the SkepchicCON at CONvergence. Also, donations are needed to help fund this worthy effort. Click here to find out more and donate.
gregladen | June 19, 2013Science is good at seeing things that you can’t really see. For example, science can provide an accurate three dimensional model of a critically important molecule even though no one has ever directly seen what this molecule looks like. That three dimensional model of the molecule can be used to understand things such as a) how life works and b) how to address some important disease.
Science can measure the exact proportions of each of several elements that are invisible that make up the air. We can sense the air but we can’t see Nitrogen vs. Oxygen vs. CO2 in the air, while Science can.…
gregladen | June 19, 2013... or Climate Noobs Bork Climate-science?
... or Can't News Be Correct?
(add your own below)
The thing is, CNBC, which is supposed to be a news station, is fueling public misunderstanding of climate science. This is bad journalism, and virtually criminal given the importance of climate change and the need for good science based policy related to climate change. We are long past the point where we can tolerate false balance, astro-turfing, and rating mongering. We need to have a good public understanding of climate science, we need it now, and we need "news" organizations like CNBC to stop…
gregladen | June 18, 2013Intel ISEF finalist Evie Sobczak creates viable algae biofuel without using chemicals in processing.
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Photo of Science Fair Credit: RinzeWind via Compfight cc
gregladen | June 18, 2013NOTE: I've rewritten this post and redone the graphic. The original map on which I based the reconstruction, provided by the USGS, is distinctly different than the one the USGS provides today. The difference is, in fact, rather dramatic. In comparing the older and newer versions of the maps, I have decided to assume the later, more recent, version is more correct. I admit to being a little annoyed at the USGS providing a truly bogus map on their web site, but that is water under the bridge, as it were. So, the following post is edited a bit and a new graphic is provided. Thanks to…
gregladen | June 18, 2013Amazon has sent a letter to all of its associates based in Minnesota. All Minnesota based associates are being thrown out of the Amazon Associates program as of July 1st. This is because the State of Minnesota passed a bill that Amazon does not like. Amazon may well have a good reason to not like this (or any other) bill, but I'm shocked and dismayed that the response is to strike out against its loyal associates.
This is where fine print rears its ugly head. If the contract between associates and Amazon was a normal business contract, it would not likely be possible to terminate it with…