gregladen | May 16, 2013“First, we’re going to collect our data,” Jack, the archaeologist, was telling me as we slogged down the narrow overgrown path. He seemed annoyed. “Then, we’ll leave. Until we leave, they won’t leave. They think it would be rude. After they leave, we’ll go back and map in the abandoned camp.”
I had just arrived at the research camp in the Ituri Forest, then Zaire and now the Congo, after a rather long and harrowing journey that took me from Boston to New York to London to Lagos to Kinshasa to Kisingani to Isiro, all by plane, then over 250 kilometers of increasingly less road-like road, to…
gregladen | May 16, 2013The melting of the Greenland ice sheet is a problem, and it seems to be happening faster than scientists had originally thought it might. This is probably because of soot darkening the snow, which collects solar heat and melts the ice. Some, perhaps much, of this soot may come from the extensive fires we are experiencing. That increase in fires is probably caused by global warming. The problem is, we don't know enough about the "Dark Snow" phenomenon. There is a group of scientists trying to study this, and they have turned to Crowd Funding to help make this possible.
Here is recent…
gregladen | May 15, 2013You've gotta love South Minneapolis.
My friend Sharon Sund passed me an email this morning about an Organizing for Action meeting in South Minneapolis to discuss climate change activism. Sharon and I had been talking about local climate change activism earlier in the week so she thought I'd liked to go to this meeting and see what they are up to.
Organizing for Action(OFA) is an offshoot of the Obama campaign, a grassroots non profit that is separate from any campaign committee (so they don't support or run candidates) that organizes in favor of Obama's issues like getting some sensible gun…
gregladen | May 15, 2013Environmental activists have just taken up a position off shore of the Brayton Point coal plant, near Fall River Massachusetts, in an effort to block access by a ship attempting to deliver coal there.
This is the boat.
THIS is their web site, where there is a live Ustream.
One of the activists, Jay O'Hara, is tweeting from here: @oharjo and using the hashtag #coalisstupid
Here is a press release related to this event:
BREAKING NEWS: ACTIVISTS BLOCKING COAL SHIP "ENERGY ENTERPRISE" AT BRAYTON POINT COAL PLANT IN MASSACHUSETTS
Activists have begun a blockade of an incoming coal ship at the…
gregladen | May 14, 2013This is the time of year, spring, when a lot of people switch to drinking bottled water instead of tap water. They do this because in their particular area the tap water seems to "go bad" ... usually it is a mild smell or a slightly icky taste. This makes people fear their tap water, so they go to the store and buy bottled water. What has happened in many cases is that the local municipal water supply has done everything it can reasonably do to clean up and make nice the water that comes out of your tap, but there is this slight taste or smell because in the spring, that is what water does…
gregladen | May 14, 2013Vote with your wallet. Tired of the Koch Brothers ruining everything for everybody? Prefer to buy products from companies that contribute to Sandy relief? Do you just want to know which major megacorporation produced the item you are considering putting in your shopping cart?
Wouldn't it be nice to have an app that allowed you to scan the product's bar codes and quickly determine which evile empire you are supporting, or avoiding supporting, with your purchasing decision. Well, there is, and it is called Buycott. Click here to see iOS version
From the app developers:
How Buycott works
-…
gregladen | May 14, 2013This came up the other day, so I figured I’d note the answer(s) down and share it with you so we don’t have to look this up in the internet again until 2013 is over. The, I think they get new richest people. Most of these answers come from Forbes, which appears to be in charge of knowing these things. Or even, perhaps, determining these things!
Who is the richest person in the world?
The richest person in the world is Carlos Slim Helu and his family, with a net wort of 73 billion dollars. He’s in Mexico, and in the telecom business. But since this includes “his family” we may want to note…
gregladen | May 14, 2013New research indicates that the reflectivity of the surface of the Greenland Glacier is decreasing due to the deposition of dark particles from fires on the surface of the ice. This phenomenon is contributing to unprecedented melting of the ice sheet. This is a huge concern. One of the most significant outcomes of global warming will be the melting of large portions of the world's glaciers, causing the sea level to rise dangerously.
There is a project called The Dark Snow Project which is an effort to measure this newly discovered effect. A large part of this research is being crown-…
gregladen | May 13, 2013Climate Scientists Michael Mann, author of The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines, interviewed on Democracy Now:
gregladen | May 11, 2013Here's a template for a letter I hope you will consider sending/emailing to all of your elected representatives at the municipal, state, and federal levels, if you are in the US. Thanks
Dear [elected official]
I am writing to ask you to join the very small but hopefully growing number of elected representatives and executives in noting the important news this week regarding the human contribution to the amount of atmospheric CO2. This week the landmark value of 400 ppm was reached, which is a significant amount more than the pre-industrial baseline level of about 280 ppm. As an elected…
gregladen | May 9, 2013Experiment showing the absoption of infrared radiation by carbon dioxide. From the BBC 2 program "Earth: The Climate Wars"
gregladen | May 8, 2013As you know, Genie Scott of the NCSE will retire this year. Here is her story.
gregladen | May 8, 2013In honor of Genie Scott's imminent retirement as Executive Director of the NCSE, you are hereby offered a free downloadable PDF excerpt form Genie's classic book.
Click here to download the PDF.
Click here to read my review of the book.
Click here to find out about other books and resources related to creationism.
Click here to find some resources for life science teachers.
gregladen | May 8, 2013This is interesting and important.
Hello Bethany, I've always been a huge fan.
gregladen | May 8, 2013Your morning caffeine fix is but a drop in the global bucket that makes coffee the number two most traded commodity in the world after petroleum. But with 100 million Americans like you drinking coffee every day, the bucket easily overflows to make the US the world’s top coffee consumer...
Courtesy of: Online Finance News by Financesonline.com
Click on the graphic to visit the source.
gregladen | May 8, 2013Stop lying to your fans. They are beginning to figure it out. Watch:
Here is some background.
gregladen | May 8, 2013In the united states, bee keepers lose a certain number of colonies over the winter. This is normal, but bee keepers maintain that losses of about 15 percent or less are "acceptable." I don't know what the logical or empirical basis for that number is, however.
Yesterday, the results of a report that surveys bee keepers in the US came out, and the total loss rate over the 2012/2013 winter was 31.1%. That's a lot more than last year's loss rate, but within the range of variation of loss over the last few years, as shown on this graph provided by "bee informed":
Honey bee colony loss rate…
gregladen | May 7, 2013Here is a presentation by Genie Scott of the National Center for Science Education.
Far more people are climate change deniers than evolution deniers, but both camps use similar strategies to promote their views. Genie Scott explores the connections, the similarities, and the divergent ideologies. Where: New York. When: 10/23/2011. Hosted by the New York City Skeptics.
gregladen | May 6, 2013We recently discussed news from the EU on banning neonicotinoid pesticides in order to stem the so called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) among honey bees. Bug Girl has an important guest post on the phenomenon of CCD by bee expert Doug Yanega. This is a must read not only for those interested in bees and CCD, but skepticism and science reporting in general, as Yanega places the current discussion in a strong historical context and provides a valuable critique of much of the reporting on CCD. Go read Honey bees, CCD, and the Elephant in the Room.
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Photo Credit: wildxplorer via…