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Running Outside Burns a Smidgeon More Calories

Thank you, NYTimes, for clarifying something I have always wondered about: how does running outside compare to running on a treadmill? A number of studies have shown that in general, outdoor running burns about 5 percent more calories than treadmills do, in part because there is greater wind resistance and no assistance from the treadmill belt. Some studies show, for example, that when adults are allowed to set their own paces on treadmills and on tracks, they move more slowly and with shorter strides when they train on treadmills. I will say that in my case outside running burns more…

A Good Poem: A Book of Music by Jack Spicer

A Book Of Music by Jack Spicer Coming at an end, the lovers Are exhausted like two swimmers. Where Did it end? There is no telling. No love is Like an ocean with the dizzy procession of the waves' boundaries From which two can emerge exhausted, nor long goodbye Like death. Coming at an end. Rather, I would say, like a length Of coiled rope Which does not disguise in the final twists of its lengths Its endings. But, you will say, we loved And some parts of us loved And the rest of us will remain Two persons. Yes, Poetry ends like a rope. (Hat-tip: Poets.org)

CA Fires caused by the Devil?

California wildfires continue to blaze, but this caught my eye: Almost 200 square miles of California, including nearly 700 homes burned since the last official measure. But far fewer homes are threatened and more emergency personnel have arrived. Here are the key figures from California's emergency management office (pdf): Burned: 666 square miles; 1,436 homes Threatened: 25,925 homes, 2,055 commercial structures. Emergency personnel: 8,884 (Emphasis mine.) The Dark Lord Beelzebub's role in starting the CA fires isn't proven, but I have my suspicions. Anyway, the Lede has the fires story…

Today in Science (0302)

No real time to post anything substantial - still grading and we have job candidates in this coming week. Still, here’s something to keep you amused. Events 1808 - The inaugural meeting of the Wernerian Natural History Society was held in Edinburgh. 1972 - The Pioneer 10 space probe is launched 1998 - Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft indicates that Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice. Births 1779 - Joel Roberts Poinsett, American statesman and botanist 1862 - Boris Borisovich Galitzine, Russian physicist Deaths 1729 - Francesco Bianchini, Italian philosopher and…

The view improves in a few years

This is what Pluto and Charon look like from 3,600,000,000 kilometers. The picture was snapped by NASA’s New Horizons probe which expects to flyby the planet in 2015. Expected future highpoints for the mission are: June 9, 2008 -- Pass Saturn’s orbit. March 5, 2011 -- Pass Uranus’ orbit. August 1, 2014 -- Pass Neptune’s orbit. July 14, 2015 -- Flyby of Pluto around 11:59 UTC at 11096 km, 13.780 km/s July 14, 2015 -- Flyby of Charon around 12:13 UTC at 26927 km, 13.875 km/s 2016-2020 -- possible flyby of one or more Kuiper Belt objects. Set your alarms accordingly.

Today in Science (1210)

Events 1684 - Isaac Newton’s derivation of Kepler’s laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmund Halley. Births 1452 - Johannes Stöffler, German mathematician and astronomer 1588 - Isaac Beeckman, Dutch scientist and philosopher 1751 - George Shaw, English botanist and zoologist 1805 - Josef Skoda, Bohemian physician 1934 - Howard Martin Temin, American geneticist and Nobel Prize laureate Deaths 1198 - Averroes, Arab physician and philosopher 1603 - William Gilbert, English scientist 1831 - Thomas Seebeck,…

An update ... because you deserve to know were I've been

Another semester is drawing to a close. Readers will notice that I've been more-or-less AWOL for the past few months - a combination of deadlines (hit and missed) and teaching have kept me busy beyond belief. The good news is that I expect things to ease off starting sometime next week and to certainly be a lot clearer by mid-May (when I return from a week-long workshop on the utility of the history of science at the MBL in Woods Hole). Equally as good news is that three of my undergraduates successfully defended their honors theses. Congratulations go to Leslie, Matt & Ashley for a job…

Priorities

Well, we know where McCain's priorities lie: An Arizona Republic analysis of voting records found that McCain has missed 42 votes this session. That's 33 percent of the 126 roll-call votes that had been held before lawmakers left town Friday for a weeklong Easter recess. Only Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., has missed more votes than McCain, a contender for the GOP nomination. Johnson, who is recovering from a brain hemorrhage last winter, has been absent for the entire session of Congress. Leading candidates for the Democratic nomination have posted far better voting records. New York Democrat…

Killing our faith

This is Turkana boy (Homo ergaster), soon to go on display in Kenya's national museum. Bishop Boniface Adoyo, of Nairobi Pentecostal Church (NPC) and Christ is the Answer Ministries, claims: "I did not evolve from Turkana Boy or anything like it. These sorts of silly views are killing our faith." Someone should explain to Adoyo that the truth sometimes hurts. Speaking of "silly views," apparently, Adoyo believes the world was created 12,000 years ago, humans were created 6,000 years ago, and each biblical day was equivalent to 1,000 Earth years. I guess nothing in Adoyo's BA in design…

Friday Poem

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,And nodding by the fire, take down this book,And slowly read, and dream of the soft lookYour eyes had once, and of their shadows deep; How many loved your moments of glad grace,And loved your beauty with love false or true,But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,And loved the sorrows of your changing face; And bending down beside the glowing bars,Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fledAnd paced upon the mountains overheadAnd hid his face amid a crowd of stars. W.B. Yeats, from The Rose (1893)

Aawh ...

Rummy, we unfortunately knew you.  Bush knew that Rumsfeld was going all along, even when asked last week. As the WaPo notes: Asked about that comment, Bush said he made it because "I didn't want to inject a major decision about this war in the final days of a campaign," Bush said. He appeared to acknowledge having misled reporters, saying, "And so the only way to answer that question and to get you onto another question was to give you that answer." He added later, "Win or lose, Bob Gates was going to become the nominee." A convenient lie from an administration that lies pathologically. (…

Sunday morning (Papal) slap upside the head

Benedict is at it again: "Contemporary life gives pride of place to an artificial intelligence ever more enslaved to experimental tecnhiques [sic], thereby forgetting that all science should safeguard mankind and promote his tendency to authentic goodness." "Letting yourself be seduced by discovery without paying attention to the criteria of a deeper vision could lead to the drama the myth [of Icarus] speaks of." (source) I guess he's trying to tell us that ignoring the "deeper vision" leads your wax wings to melt and you'll never get to "authentic goodness." Crystal clear, that is. Funny…

Epic

Your Friday poem ... "Epic" Patrick Kavanagh I have lived in important places, times When great events were decided, who owned That half a rood of rock, a no-man's land Surrounded by our pitchfork-armed claims. I heard the Duffys shouting "Damn your soul!" And old McCabe stripped to the waist, seen Step the plot defying blue cast-steel - "Here is the march along these iron stones." That was the year of the Munich bother. Which Was more important? I inclined To lose my faith in Ballyrush and Gortin Till Homer's ghost came whispering to my mind. He said: I made the Iliad from such A local row…

"It really is ID in disguise"

As Ed reports here, the mask has fallen away from ID. Joel Borofsky - Dembski's "research" assistant - has admitted that the push for "balance" in Kansas is nothing more than an attempt to inject ID into schools: It really is ID in disguise. The entire purpose behind all of this is to shift it into schools...at least that is the hope/fear among some science teachers in the area. The problem is, if you are not going to be dogmatic in Darwinism that means you inevitably have to point out a fault or at least an alternative to Darwinism. So far, the only plausible theory is ID. BOOM! Thank you…

Kudos to the Aussies: Parrot-Friendly Wind Farm

From down under, news of parrot conservation! A 52-turbine wind-farm was shot down by local senators due to the large threat it posed to the endangered orange-bellied parrot (pictured above). After blocking the wind farm in April because of a perceived threat to the parrot, Senator Campbell last week said the company could resubmit the proposal in exchange for dropping a Federal Court challenge to his original ruling. Wind Power director Andrew Newbold said the company would resubmit the same proposal to Senator Campbell's department in about two or three weeks. However, he said the…

Global Warming Heating Up Subsurface Rock

University of Michigan geophysicist Shaopeng Huang has found that even layers deep in the Earth have felt the increased heat from global warming, terming the change "rocky fever." "Not to feel global warming, one would need to hide beneath 600 feet of rocks," Huang said. "Although its causes are debatable, recent global warming is indisputable." Huang was part of a 2000 study, cited in the National Research Council report on global warming, which showed that the 20th century was the warmest of the last five centuries. Now, the temperature increase has been found to permeate subsurface rock…

Stanley Kubrick Fans Rejoice

Stanley Kubrick is my favorite director. Now, you can download the movie that started it all: his seldom-seen 1951 debut "Day of the Fight." Shot by the 21-year-old filmmaker in 1950, the 16-minute documentary traces a day in the life of boxer Walter Cartier, culminating in his fight with Bobby James. It explores how Cartier psyches himself into readiness for violent behavior. Obviously, this theme resonates throughout Kubrick's career, from Spartacus to Dr. Strangelove to Clockwork Orange to Full Metal Jacket. This movie is more like a foreboding than a masterpiece, but it is 100% Kubrick…

Polar Bears Vs Nuclear Submarines!

The US Navy routinely conducts silent war games beneath the North Pole with foreign nuclear submarines. Occasionally the subs must poke their conning towers through the ice for communications, energy and research. However, when they expose themselves, they open themselves to the possibility of a vicious polar bear attack!!! Well, maybe these bears are just curious, but they still look terrifying (adorable). These pictures are courtesy of the US Navy from the Arctic.Uraniumlicious... Polar Bears, Ursus maritimus Stalking its prey...The vicious attack! Another common maritime peril for the US…

Panda Poop to the Future!

Have a diet rich in fiber? Eating bamboo all day, everyday, means pandas most certainly do. Now, researchers at a giant panda reserve in southern China are looking for paper mills to process their panda's fiber rich poo! The center's 40 bamboo-fed pandas produce about 2 tons of "processed material" a day, which could make a fine quality paper. Liao Jun, a researcher at the center, is not worried about squeamish consumers. "People won't find it gross at all," Liao said. "They probably won't even be able to tell it's from panda poop."Eats, poops and leaves.Motivational panda-poop office poster…

Hillary Adds Another Message Adviser

The Clinton team has added a new message guru, advertising and branding wizard Roy Spence. From ABC News.com: Spence, 60, a longtime friend of the Clintons, is the quirky Austin-based advertising legend who coined the phrase "Don't Mess With Texas," and developed the Southwest Airlines slogan, "You are now free to move about the country."... ...Spence was active early on in the campaign, but will now take on an even greater role, inputting how to rebrand Clinton's message to voters. "Hillary wants somebody in there that is going to comprehend what messaging conversations are being had, and…

Congressman John Shadegg (R-AZ) runs for re-election disputing climate change

Congressman John Shadegg's re-election campaign issued a press release last week that cites Michael Fumento and Steve McIntyre to claim that the "facts" about climate change are wrong. If you missed the McIntyre controversy that ignited the conservative blogosphere and political talk radio, you can find the full context here. In Shadegg's instance, he adds fuel to the fire by using Al Gore as a foil. It's another example of the "two Americas of climate change perceptions," a partisan divide that Gore has only amplified. Given competing cues from partisan leaders, over the past year, Dems…

Word to Watch: Big Nanotech

Big Tobacco. Big Oil. Big Pharma. Big Biotech. Big Nanotech? Each of these phrases are examples of frame devices, words that act like triggers in activating underlying cultural meanings. In fact, these frame devices instantly communicate the public accountability frame: Who benefits? Who controls the science? Is this science in the public or in the private interest? As nanotechnology climbs up the media agenda over the next decade, watch out for the "Big Nanotech" frame device. It will be a sign that interpretations of the issue are moving from a promotional emphasis on social progress and…

THE LANGUAGE OF WAR: Surge and Accelerate? Are They Serious? How the Bush Team Has Redefined the Terms of the Debate; Olbermann Channels Edward R. Murrow

Part 1 of Segment Part 2 of Segment Stay the Course versus Cut and Run versus Surge and Accelerate. Over the past month, as the Bush team has unpacked its new language of "surge and accelerate," they have successfully shifted the terms of discussion away from troop withdrawal and a timeline for handover to an absurdly sexual metaphor that in reality means simply "more of the same" and "stay the course." There is a lot to say about this new frame device, and its power, but I think last night on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann covered much of the ground in television commentary that channels the…

WHERE DOES "AMERICA'S MAYOR" STAND ON SCIENCE? Facing Pressure from Conservatives, Among Social Issues, It Would Be Easiest for Giuliani to Move to the Right on Stem Cell Research

The Washington Post profiles Rudy Giuliani's prospects for the GOP nomination. If "America's Mayor" has to bolster his support from conservatives, on which social issues is it easiest for Giuliani to move to the right? Given his past record as mayor of NYC , it will be difficult for him to shift position on gay rights or on sex ed.Yet it is still possible for him to carve out a position on embryonic stem cell research that would be in line with President Bush's policy of restricted funding." Not only would evangelicals support the move, but adopting Bush's position would also appease…

The Neanderthal Genome: File Under Non-Fiction

As I wrote in May, there have been some signs that scientists were gearing up to reconstruct the Neanderthal genome. Now it's official, as Nicholas Wade reports in the NY Times. [link fixed] I'm particularly intrigued that the paleoanthropologists doing this work are teaming up with a hot little biotech company down the road from me in Branford, Connecticut called 454. They had a paper out recently showing how they can sequence DNA much faster than by conventional methods. Combine classic fossil work with the latest in genome sequencing, and voila... Update, seconds later: Whoops, forgot to…

A 70-Million-Year March of the Penguins

I've got a piece in tomorrow's New York Times on new research into the evolution of penguins. There's new work going on with penguin DNA and penguin fossils, such as this lovely 60-million-year old critter from New Zealand. It stood upright like living penguins, but still had wings it could bend at the elbow. In other words, just what you'd expect as flying ancestors evolved into full-blown penguins. While it's amusing to have a little fun with pundits who try to use penguins as role models for family values, writing about real science is always more satisfying. (This picture is copyright the…

How did water evolve?

The South Carolina schools system is in a worse state than I ever expected. Carol Crooks, of Greer SC, opines: The theory of evolution does not and cannot explain so much about the universe that we know. For instance, when and how did water evolve? How does it happen that gravity can hold us to the Earth, and at the same time allow us to step up without any trouble? How did it happen that the Earth is spinning at the exact rate that keeps us from feeling that movement? Yikes. I guess we need to "teach the controversy" in physics class as well. Hat tip to Steve over at the Thumb.

Mental Labyrinth

A new map of some of the connections neurons make in the frontal cortex of a monkey's brain. From PLOS Computational Biology. Bigger image here.

Science Tattoo Friday: A Boing Boing Burst

"My right forearm has a 8" ruler on it that I use for everything from measuring PVC diameter to wire lengths. My background is in embedded hardware design, but I choose to spend my time doing experimental building, transportation, and energy these days. The tattoo gets used daily."--Mikey The science tattoo train started to peter out this month. But then Boing Boing unleashed a tidal wave of scientific ink in my direction. Now we're up to 111 pictures, with over 296,000 views of the Flickr set. I don't even know what those numbers mean anymore. And the press's fascination does not stop. The…

Little Asteroid, Big Fireball

Is it wrong to find pictures of destruction beautiful? This is a frame from a supercomputer simulation of the Tunguska meteorite. It exploded over Siberia in 1908 and flattened miles of trees. The simulation suggests that the devastation could have been caused by a far smaller explosion than previously thought--3 to 5 megatons, instead of 10 to 20. And since there are many more asteroids in that smaller size range, the risks of a devastating impact may be greater than previously thought. Maybe not enough to cause mass extinctions, but to knock out a fair piece of real estate. Go here to read…

Bony Beauties

I am a bone geek, I confess. On my bookshelves are a bunch of coffee-table books full of skulls, femurs, and xyphoid processes. They include From Lucy To Language, loaded with hominid remains, Human Bones for our current anatomy, and Fossils for a quick hit of Deep Time. An excellent addition to this sub-sub-genre is called, simply, Evolution. It's loaded with gorgeous pictures of vertebrate skeletons (including this angler). In today's New York Times, I have a photoessay with several other selections. You can check out a slide show here. Update: I forgot to mention that I talk about the…

World Cup Bloggin'

This is painful. We got back from anniversary trip bliss to see the first US game. And we're down 2-0 in the start of the second half. ARGH. Besides the fact that Czech is offsides every 5 minutes, we really should be down 1-0. Our defense kinda collapsed and let the big guy in the middle get a header in the first few minutes of the game. The second goal was just a dynamite 1-in-1000 shot through multiple defenders, 20 yards out with perfect placement. I have no illusions that we can pull this off, but hopefully we can at least get on the board....

I believe!

I'm normally not one to believe in the improbable, but someone has laid some serious ju-ju on me. While away at my fabulous geek-cation, my computer bit it, my furnace at home died, and....(God, I can hardly type it...)...MY DSL WENT DOWN!!!1! Just in time for the launch of my brand-spanking-new blog, just in time for me to share all of my insightful thoughts from ScienceOnline09, my tech life imploded. So please, dear reader, give me a few days to try to fix everything (meh, the furnace can wait...it's above zero. But the computer and teh tubes...NOOO!!!)

Time-Based Art

This is almost certainly irrelevant, last-minute information, but for those of you readers who are both a) Portland residents, and b) free this evening, I will be presenting a once-ever-only immersive Power Point environment at PICA's Time-Based Arts festival tonight. It will be around 10:30pm at this year's "The Works," the Wonder Ballroom, at 128 NE Russell St. This event presumably costs some money, but will be excellent. Other than myself, Lucky Dragons, Hooliganship, and Mean Age will present information and music. Also screening will be a pantheon of animated films from such luminaries…

Volokh drops Lott

The Journalist's Guide to Gun Policy Scholars and Second Amendment Scholars is a site that provides journalists with a list of "credible, articulate scholars" to consult about gun policy questions. It used to contain a listing for John R. Lott Jr, who was available to give his special insight into "Women and Gun Issues" as well as other gun issues. The site's maintainer, Eugene Volokh, invites visitors to tell him "how this guide can be made more useful". I don't think anyone should be recommending Lott to journalists, so I wrote to Volokh suggesting…

The bonobo beat

Image of bonobo from Reuters. Credit: REUTERS/KATRINA MANSON/FILES Researchers have observed that bonobos are innately able to match a beat that was created by the research team. The bonobos demonstrated their musical skills using a special drum that was created to withstand 500 pounds of pressure, chewing, etc. The favored tempo matched the cadence of human speech, about 280 beats per minute. The ability to keep a beat is thought to be important in developing and strengthening social bonds as well as communicating. In fact, some researchers hypothesize that Neanderthals communicated using…

Living Memorial: Migratory birds circling the Tribute in Lights on 9/11/13

I came across this video showing thousands of migratory birds circling the Tribute in Lights yesterday. The birds were migrating along the Atlantic Flyway and were disoriented by the lights. Other birds may have been attracted to the large number of insects and smaller birds caught up in the lights as prey (Cornell Lab of Ornithology). To reportedly help re-orient the birds and prevent exhaustion, volunteers from the NYC Audubon turned off the spotlights temporarily. Video taken by: Shervin Pishevar The lights are xenon searchlights in lower Manhattan arranged by artist Gustavo Bonevardi to…

Dog DNA may hold clues to eczema for humans

Image of atopic dermatitis from www.itchfreepet.com Dr. Kerstin Lindblad-Toh at Uppsala University (Sweden) who specializes in comparative genomics and Dr. Åke Hedhammar, SLU (Sweden) recently identified a novel gene in German shepherd dogs, PKP-2, that encodes a protein (plakophilin-2) important for regulating proper skin structure and function. This protein was found to be associated with canine atopic dermatitis (i.e. doggy eczema), a condition that affects 3-10% of man's best friends. Researchers hope that the discovery of this gene relationship may lead to better understanding of, and…

Spider creates sculptures

Check out this "sculpure" of a spider discovered by Biologist Phil Torres, created by what may be a new species of Cyclosa found in the Peruvian Amazon. This is not just a pattern weaved by the spider into the web, but instead it is created from debris in the forest (dead insects, leaves, etc.). It is believed the spiders use the sculptures to confuse predators. The real spider can be spotted in the second image below just above the fake spider. In this location, the real spider can actually shake the fake spider to make it appear alive. Spider sculpture (image credit: Phil Torres,…

How owning a cat can make you more outgoing

A study published in the European Journal of Personality suggests that humans infected with toxoplasmosis gondii are more extroverted compared to non-infected individuals. According to the CDC, roughly 22.5% of Americans over 12 are infected. The effects of the parasite are attributed to increased levels of dopamine in the brains of infected individuals. People can become infected with the parasite through exposure to undercooked contaminated meat, unwashed fruits and vegetables from contaminated soil as well as infected cat litter. Source: Lindová J, Příplatová L, Flegr J. Higher…

Update on the Genome 10K Project

In a prior post, we talked about the ambitious Genome 10K project. The goal of the project is to sequence the genome of 10,000 species of vertebrates (~1 species from every genus). I was very excited to see the website recently updated in July to include numerous additional species for which the genome has been or is in the process of being sequenced. The new list even includes the genomic sequence of one of Darwin's Galapagos finches, the medium ground finch (Geospiza fortis) shown in the image below. This is exciting news for a comparative physiologist! Sources: Genome 10K project San…

To fly like a bird...

Most birds fly. To aid flight, avian bones are hollow, reducing their mass. In addition, bird wings and feathers are optimally designed for flight. So why can't large birds or mammals fly? One of the problems is that they are too heavy to lift off the ground, necessitating unrealistically large wings to make it happen. However, it seems as if someone might have figured out how to design human wings for flight: An analysis of whether or not this popular video is potentially real or fake is presented in a post from Rhett Allain, an Associate Professor of Physics at Southeastern Louisiana…

Links

Jesse Taylor has written a letter to the editor about John Lott and also gives his take on John Lott's suggestion that Iraqi civilians should have more guns. Kaimipono is deeply skeptical. Bill Berkowitz describes it like this: Perhaps the weirdest bit of advice came from John Lott Jr., the now-discredited resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Lott, who believes the American people would be safer if we all are armed, suggested that trying to force Iraqis to turn in their guns was a mistake. Also commenting on Lott's advice was Handgun-Free America Director Chris McGrath.…

Credentials to be a library school professor?

Dr. Free-Ride answers the question about what credentials are needed to become a philosopher. It's interesting to note, actually, that in library schools - places where one goes to study to become a librarian - folks might have a PhD in just about anything. From education to computer science to anything starting with information (systems/studies/science/technology/management) to economics or business or psychology.... In fact, most of the courses you need to take to become a librarian are taught by adjuncts who are practitioners. Funny thing is that ALA's accreditation committee wants to…

TheScian Scifi Contest: Last few days!

Send them in. I'll start reading them from this weekend. For some of the stories with good ideas whose execution can be bettered, I hope to ask the authors for revisions. Btw, we will look through the past two years stories, not just this year's contest submissions. Over the two years I have improved my own literary taste and skills. If I had missed any author earlier because I was stupid, it's time to rectify that omission. We'll have to work out how we'll handle revisions to stories. Probably get the original stories out on TheScian.com and later update them with revised stories as the…

Is the Universe a giant computer?

Before anyone says anything, I'll question the metaphor myself: giant computer? That's just a stupid metaphor, as though we can compare a giant and the Universe. But then, we can't speak from a out-of-this-universe perspective, so, I suppose giant computer would have to do. So now, if the Universe is a computer, what is it computing? How is it doing it? Are atoms and other structures it's transistors? What are we? (my theory: we are it's buffer overflow) If it is not a computer, what the heck is it? A long running intellectual debate, the hardest problem so far, and all the blah.…

Google Books - New Yorker Article

GOOGLE'S MOON SHOT at The New Yorker. "No one really knows how many books there are. The most volumes listed in any catalogue is thirty-two million, the number in WorldCat, a database of titles from more than twenty-five thousand libraries around the world. Google aims to scan at least that many. "We think that we can do it all inside of ten years," Marissa Mayer, a vice-president at Google who is in charge of the books project, said recently, at the company's headquarters, in Mountain View, California. "It's mind-boggling to me, how close it is. I think of Google Books as our moon shot."

Sex and public speaking

Sex helps with public speaking says a BBC report that talks about the research findings of Mr Stuart Brody, a psychologist at the University of Paisley. Apparently, harmless masturbating won't do. You have to really do it by having intercourse. Nature is a tough taskmaster - not that I am complaining. The important learning to take away from the study is this: "... greater frequency of intercourse is associated with greater benefits." Alright! Am off, you say? Wait! I have some more to say. Dr Peter Bull doesn't agree. Before a stressful activity - like public speaking, he recommends better…

Books!

A reader contributed list at Creating Passionate Users blog. Wonderful. When I sit at my bedroom these days I face a rack of books. This visual delight has been a long dream of mine. Moving around all these years made book collection almost impossible. During the recent move from US to UK I had to drop off loads of books at friends places and the local library. Having finally decided to stay for a few years in the UK, I can now start the home library. On those days of peace, wonder and quiet contemplation I'll grab a good book, put my legs up the desk and dream on with the author.

Lifecycle of energy economies

Heard on the BBC today morning, spoken by someone high up at the AAAS (President?) . I am paraphrasing. "The global energy systems investments (oil rigs, coal mines, distribution, refineries, etc) are about 12 trillion dollars and it takes about 30 to 40 years to change their character (from coal and oil to, say, renewables)." I couldn't get a confirmation on the numbers I heard but the numbers are quite startling nevertheless. Even more surprising is that the change could happen within our generation - has to happen within our generation. I was rummaging at the BBC and landed at The Green…