Posts filed under ‘Science’
Yo Republicans — Please Ignore All Government Warnings This Weekend
This would be our Tweet of the Day:
Irene is a government plot to drive you out of your house and into a concentration camp so Obama can take all your money and give to women in Kenya who want abortions. Yeeeeeeeee.
Not “Quite As Hot” This Weekend in Phoenix — Only 108º
So, the corporate media is all over this, right?
Record-Breaking Extreme Heat Wave Is Just Starting For Arizona
We broke a record yesterday at Phoenix Sky Harbor topping out at 113 degrees, two degrees above the old record of 111 set in 1999.
The record breaking heat will continue all week long!
[...]
So, we are going to be adding to our tally of 110+ degree days which is already at 23 this year. On average, we see 18 110+ degree days a year. The record is 32 days at 110+ set back in 2007.
[...]
Our forecast is looking dry again as we finish out the weekend and head into next week and temperatures won’t be quite as hot. By this weekend, we will drop off to 108 in Phoenix, still putting us several degrees above normal.
Vote Republican. We need leadership that thinks climate change is a bunch of crap (not!).
Next to Evolution, Teaching Climate Change is the Thing That Upsets Parents the Most
This is just sad and it bodes so poorly for our country that science teachers are being made to tell their students that the existence of climate change is “controversial.”
I tell you, the money the energy companies have spent propagandizing about the alleged doubts about climate change has really paid off (for them, not for us):
An informal survey this spring of 800 members of the National Earth Science Teachers Association (NESTA) found that climate change was second only to evolution in triggering protests from parents and school administrators. Online message boards for science teachers tell similar tales. Unlike biology teachers defending the teaching of evolution, however, earth science teachers don’t have the protection of the First Amendment’s language about religion. But the teachers feel their arguments are equally compelling: Science courses should reflect the best scientific knowledge of the day, and offering opposing views amounts to teaching poor science. Most science teachers don’t relish having to engage this latest threat to their profession and resent devoting precious classroom time to a discussion of an alleged “controversy.” And they believe that politics has no place in a science classroom. Even so, some are being dragged against their will into a conflict they fear could turn ugly.
Geezus. Sometimes I feel like the United States has reverted back to the Dark Ages.
(Image via.)
Hillary Clinton’s Pants Are on Fire
They think we’re total idiots. I.e., I don’t believe this for a second (i.e., filed under Dumbed Down and They Think We’re Idiots):
Clinton says TransCanada working to upgrade safety of oil pipeline from Canada to Texas
A Canadian company that hopes to pipe oil from western Canada to Texas is working with U.S. officials to develop safety standards beyond those required by law, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday.
The new standards should ensure that if a permit for the 1,900-mile pipeline is issued, “the project will be as safe as it could possibly be,” Clinton said.
“We’ve been clear from the beginning that the safety of the pipeline is one of our highest priorities,” said Clinton, who is expected to decide on the project by the end of the year.
The State Department has authority over the pipeline because it crosses an international boundary.
[...]
Among other changes, the company has agreed to build the pipeline 4 feet below ground, instead of 3 feet…
Email this to your grandkids and ask them to bookmark it and read it again in 10 years. By then, advanced countries (those who are, today, weaning themselves of oil) will be living off of renewable energy and the U.S. will be creaking along, tearing up its national parks and wildlands for any shred of oil it can find. And, sadly, it will be dealing with oil spills because, as is true today, the people who are in charge of monitoring this shit are in bed with the oil companies.
So, hey Hillary, sounds good but I know better.
You Can’t Make This Up
Fox is turning into a cartoon network:
This would be Fox’s John Scott interviewing Bill Nye (The Science Guy) on Fox’s “Happening Now” yesterday about two new volcanoes found on the Moon:
Scott: Does it go, you know, anywhere close to the climate change debate that’s underway here on Earth? I mean, you know, of the Moon had erupting volcanoes a few years ago, well, a few million years ago, however you want to put it, you know, it’s not like we’ve been up there burning fossil fuels.
Nye: Ah, no. Volcanoes are not connected to the burning of fossil fuels.
Scott: No, but…
Nye: They’re connected to mining.
Watch the full video here.
We should be embarrassed as a nation that this kind of mumbo-jumbo passes for “news.”
German Farmers Making Millions on Wind Power
Wouldn’t it be great if we had a 24/7 cable “news” media that dropped the repeat-the-same-4-stories-all-day-long format and branched out and brought us actual news? From around the world? Like this?
Farmers in Hans-Detlef Feddersen’s neighbourhood in northern Germany make $2.5 million in a good year growing wheat. They make $15 million harvesting the wind.
The first wind turbines came to his area 20 years ago. Local residents watched them go up, did the math, and founded their own co-op to build more.
Feddersen, who farms grain, canola and sugar beets, is the co-op’s manager.
This week he is touring rural Ontario with two Canadian groups promoting green energy, the Pembina Institute and Climate Action Network Canada.
[...]
In his district, there are 600 turbines spread over 1,800 square kilometres [694 square miles], “and 95 per cent of them are owned by rural area co-operatives in our community. Most of the people living in our area own, or partly own, these turbines.”
[...]t says Germany draws about 17 per cent of its power from renewable sources, especially wind — far more than Ontario (where wind has a 1.9-per-cent share).
Republicans Reaching Their Goal in “Education Reform”
It’s long been a Republican goal to dumb down our education system such that our kids emerge into the real world after completing high school or college as a droan who is (1) willing to vote for them, and (2) willing to work for a less-than-living wage. Looks like they’re making good progress:
Only Two of 51 Miss USA Contestants Believe in Evolution
California’s 21-year-old Alyssa Campanella took the coveted crown in the 60th Miss USA competition last night. Campanella marks a redeeming win for the state after the now-disgraced Californian Carrie Prejean dismissed marriage equality — or as she put it “opposite marriage” — in 2009. Miss USA seemed to take a breather from political controversy until this year, when the pageant decided to ask the contestants whether they believe evolution should be taught in schools in the preliminary round. A self-proclaimed “science geek.” Campanella affirmed that evolution should indeed be taught in schools because she believes in evolution of humans throughout time. This answer, apparently, won her another title last night. She and Massachusetts’ Alida D’Angona were the only two out of 51 contestants to “unequivocally support” evolution.
Sad. Frightening.
ExxonMobil Execs Willing to Destroy the Planet for Profit
Not only did ExxonMobil
make the highest profit in the history of the planet last quarter — a quarter is three months ($11 billion) — and get a tax rebate via our tax dollars last year — they’re funding the people who support their spin, that climate change is a hoax.
What we have here is a company that is willing to literally destroy the planet in order to maintain its profit margin:
Nine of Out Ten Climate Denying Scientists Have Ties to Exxon Mobil Money
If you spend any time at all browsing comments on articles about climate change (and bless you if you’ve manage to avoid it), you’ve likely read the same handful of long-debunked arguments against the reality of anthropogenic global warming (or “man-made” global warming). Recently, you’ve also almost definitely seen links to this website —”900+ Peer-Reviewed Papers Supporting Skepticism of “Man-Made” Global Warming (AGW) Alarm”—created by the Global Warming Policy Foundation.
The problem is, of the top ten contributors of articles to that list, nine are financially linked to Exxon Mobil.
(My emphasis.)
What are the execs at ExxonMobil thinking the future will be like for their grandkids?
Don’t know. Money blinds them.
Trippy
It’s a good morning because we’re starting the day off with a look at this dazzlingl photo from MSNBC’s PhotoBlog:
Most folks think of outer space as a vast emptiness, but if you look at the right place in the right light, you’ll find beautiful clouds of glory. The Lagoon Nebula in the constellation Sagittarius, also known as M8, is such a place. This region of the nebula, 5,000 light-years from Earth, is known as the “Southern Cliff” because of the sharp dropoff that can be seen in the clouds of glowing gas and dust.
The view captured by the Gemini South telescope in Chile does not reflect what the human eye would see. If you looked at the Lagoon through a good-sized amateur telescope, you’d see a pale ghostly glow with a touch of pink. But this picture was created using filters that are sensitive to emissions from hydrogen (red) and ionized sulfur (green), plus far-infrared light (shown here in blue). That explains the psychedelic color scheme.
Wow. Just wow.
(Go to the link above for a larger version.)
Mother Earth
Again, Happy Earth Day.
Too tired to do much more than put up this gorgeous, gorgeous photo.
I’d love to be lazily swimming in that warm Bahamian water right now:
Bahamas, sand and seaweed patterns. NASA image acquired January 17, 2001. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Landsat. Image courtesy Serge Andrefouet, University of South Florida.
Happy weekend everyone.
Minami-soma City’s (Japan) Mayor Posts YouTube Video Begging the World for Help
Oh my God. The mayor of the Japanese city of Minami-soma has posted a YouTube video asking the world for help:
The banks are closed and people are “literally drying up.” Basic materials are running short. We don’t have enough gasoline to reach people who are stranded. All residents of the area are totally devastated. 1,260 are missing and now we are facing the nuclear power plant accident. People can’t get supplies delivered to their homes. “Before the contamination extends further, please give us your hand to help these people. … Please help us through.”
“I would like to ask medias [sic] of all over the world for support, as well as reporting the earthquake and disaster, that we are fighting against the invisible threat of radiation and contamination.”
“Here is my sincere request to you, from all over the world, I beg you as the Mayor of Minami-soma city, to help us. Helping each other is what makes us human being. I would like to ask for your continuous support. Thank you.”
(Via.)
Amazing, isn’t it, how the US media latches onto YouTube videos of cute babies but gosh, golly, gee, despite their staffs of hundreds if not thousands, they have thus far missed this. (I heard someone on the radio today say the reporting on this nuclear disaster is going to be one of the biggest cover ups in human history.)
“Special Interests”
Tweet of the day from drgrist:
That, and referring to Workmen’s Compensation and Social Security — which workers pay for via deductions from their paychecks — as “entitlements.”
Don’t Drink Milk
Radiation has been found in milk in the United States:
Radioactive milk found on West Coast, but levels are ‘minuscule:”
Low levels of iodine-131 have been detected in radioactive milk samples from Spokane, Wash., and at a dairy in San Luis Obispo County, Calif. But the amounts are so low that they pose no health risk, report the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] and the US Food and Drug Administration.
Minuscule? The EPA can’t be trusted. The 9/11 rescuers know that: 9/11 Toxic Dust: Official Who Knowingly Lied Refuses to Testify:
In August 2003 it was revealed that the Government ordered the EPA to give the public misleading information , telling New Yorkers on September 12 it was safe to breathe when reliable information on air quality was not available and Asbestos levels were known to be three times higher than national standards.
Further documents were obtained by CBS news last September, revealing that Lower Manhattan was reopened a few weeks following the attack even though the air was not safe.
The two devastating memos, written by the U.S. and local governments, show they knew. They knew the toxic soup created at Ground Zero was a deadly health hazard. Yet they sent workers into the pit and people back into their homes.
“Not only did they know it was unsafe, they didn’t heed the words of more experienced people that worked for the city and E.P.A.,” said Joel Kupferman, with the group Environmental Justice Project.
An EPA wistleblower, Dr. Cate Jenkins then wrote a letter to Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and other members of the New York congressional delegation blasting the EPA for hiding dangerous toxins from Ground Zero workers in the aftermath of 9/11.
And there’s this: EPA Mislead Public on 9/11 Pollution.
Don’t. Drink. Milk.
Chances are — 10-or-so years from now — akin to 9/11 — we’ll find out that the EPA lied to us about this too.
Hey. When the corportocracy owns the government, that’s what happens.
Image of the Day
Wow. Is this gorgeous or what?
AE Aurigae and the Flaming Star Nebula / Image Credit & Copyright: Rolf Geissinger
(Image via NASA.)
A Placebo, Please
I can’t decide whether this is about the power of positive thinking or the power of negative thinking but whatever it is, the next time I need a pill, give me a placebo!
(YouTube link.)
Japan to Build World’s Fastest Train
Look at this beaut – a 310 mph “Maglev Monster:”
Wow. It reminds me of the space race only this time, we’re losing.
The “Liberal Media” and Rihanna’s Dress, etc.
Miss this stuff?
– Tea Party darling Paul Ryan (R-OH) calls for a $600 million cut in border security. I think we should go after employers who hire undocumented immigrants so hey, fine by me, but why aren’t the Tea Partiers rioting in the streets? This is a huge betrayal of one of their core issues.
– Alaska’s warming at three times the rate of the lower 48 states.
– China overtakes Japan as world’s 2nd largest economy (Woah — China — that was fast!):
Japan ceded its spot as the world’s second biggest economy to China in 2010, following a contraction in the fourth quarter as the strong yen contributed to an export slump, the end of auto subsidies depressed car purchases and a new tobacco tax hit cigarette sales. The Japanese economy’s fall from its 42-year reign in the No. 2 spot behind the U.S. on an annual basis…
– The “liberal media” (that myth is, unbelievably, still alive) couldn’t find any Democrats to appear on today’s Sunday morning talk shows. At one point during the Bush years I heard someone explain spin/justify that so many Republicans were on the “liberalcorporate media” because they were in power. They were in office. They were making the news. Ah, yeah. So what’s the excuse now?
– I can’t help myself here but the dress Rihanna wore to the Grammy’s tonight
reminds me of the Michelin man:
Meow. I know.
Volcano Alert in Iceland
Another volcano could be about to erupt on Iceland, threatening to spew out a blanket of dust that would dwarf last year’s eruption and ground hundreds more passenger flights.
Geologists say there is a high risk of the island’s second-largest volcano Bárdarbunga erupting after an increase in the number of earthquakes around it.
Pall Einarsson, a professor of geophysics at the University of Iceland, says the increased activity provides “good reason to worry”. The sustained tremors to the north-east of the remote volcano range are the strongest recorded in recent times and there was “no doubt’ the lava was rising.
Heads up travelers.
We ARE The World
Check out 3:33 celebratory minutes of what we humans have done and can do.
Beautiful, beautiful video:
(Via.)
See it here on the big screen.
You might want to turn the volume up. The music is as beautiful as the video.
Hey, Who Cares If Our Food’s Contaminated?
OK folks. Here is a partial list of what the Republicans want to cut from the “jobs killing” budget:
Job training programs $2 billion — I thought they were going zero in like a laser on creating jobs.
Environmental Protection Agency $1.6 billion — Wouldn’t want their corporate benefactors to have to deal with any anti-pollution regs, now would we.
National Institutes of Health $1 billion — Who cares about finding cures for diseases, huh? Let’s leave it up to the “private sector.”
Science programs $1.1 billion — We’ll let China take care of the science stuff.
High-speed rail $1 billion — Oil is going to run out eventually.
Community health centers $1.3 billion — Pay now or pay later.
Clean water programs $950 million – Pfsst. Clean water? What are we? A bunch of babies?
Cleaner energy $900 million — Again, oil is going to run out eventually. Love this foward-looking stuff.
Child nutrition for the poor $758 million — Who cares if our kids are malnourished to the point of being developmentally disabled huh?
Centers for Disease Control $755 million — Just wait until the next flu epidemic when there’s no CDC to warn us or track its progress.
Internal Revenue Service $593 million — So, we aren’t going to collect taxes? How’s that gonna work in terms of funding even the most basic stuff — the stuff they want to keep?
Community block grants $405 million — Crumbling cities? No problem.
Family planning $327 million — Hey, lets all have 12 kids!
Treasury Department $268 million — Whatever.
State, local law enforcement $256 million — They don’t care if we’re out here, sick, dying because we’re breathing polluted air and drinking tainted water, robbing each other because we’re unemployed. They’ll be in their gated communities.
Amtrak rail service $224 million — Again, crowded freeways? They don’t have to drive on them.
Food and Drug Administration $220 million — The next time people are dropping dead because of contaminated spinach, we’ll be on our own.
Hey, why don’t they just ship us all to Somalia?
Something Worrisome Going on in the Amazon
Pray for rain:
Aerial view of a drought-affected area within the Amazon basin in Manaus, Brazil. (Photograph: Rodrigo Baleia/LatinContent/Getty Images)
Billions of trees died in the record drought that struck the Amazon in 2010, raising fears that the vast forest is on the verge of a tipping point, where it will stop absorbing greenhouse gas emissions and instead increase them.
The dense forests of the Amazon soak up more than one-quarter of the world’s atmospheric carbon, making it a critically important buffer against global warming. But if the Amazon switches from a carbon sink to a carbon source that prompts further droughts and mass tree deaths, such a feedback loop could cause runaway climate change, with disastrous consequences.
So I suppose the climate deniers would say people are making this up?
Were You on the Internets in 2001?
Were you on the Internets in 2001?
I wasn’t.
MA Solar Company Moving to China
Man, if this doesn’t speak to how fu*ked up things are around here, I don’t know what does:
BOSTON — A once-promising clean energy company is shutting down its operations in Devens. As a result, 800 people will lose their jobs.
Evergreen Solar Inc. says it can’t compete with China. CEO Michael El-Hillow says solar cell production costs have gotten so low there that the Devens plant is losing money, even though it’s cutting edge.
It was only two-and-a-half years ago that the Marlborough company opened the Devens plant with $58 million of state aid. But a little over a year ago, Evergreen Solar decided it would move part of its manufacturing to a new facility in China. And recently, the company’s losses meant it struggled to stay listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
Closing the plant is also a blow to the Patrick administration, which has defended the incentives it gave Evergreen Solar to build in Devens. Economic Development Secretary Greg Bialecki said the administration is disappointed and will work to recover any money Evergreen owes the state.
So, Governor Patrick throws (literally, it sounds like) $58 million taxpayer dollars at a solar company and crosses his fingers? No pre-conditions? No plan for how the company is going to spend that money? And now, 800 people are losing their jobs because the company can produce its stuff cheaper in China? What an insane mess!
The World is Moving on, Leaving the US Behind
What better way to do two good things — put people to work and begin to wean ourselves off of oil and gas — than to dive into creating a “clean energy economy” here in the US? The other major countries in the world are moving ahead on that but the US — once a leader in just about everything — is seen as an “outlier” in that realm:
One of the world’s largest banks said Thursday there is “positive momentum” in 2011 for climate change-related investments. But the bank says there’s one exception to that rule: the United States.
The global research arm of HSBC, the world’s sixth largest bank, said Thursday in an investment note that the uncertainty that marked climate investments in 2010 will be replaced this year by optimism.
But HSBC warns that the United States is a “significant outlier” in the world’s move toward policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and encourage investment in low-carbon energy technology.
The prediction comes as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are calling for policies that will help build a so-called “clean energy economy” in the United States. But lawmakers have largely been unable to come to a consensus on the best path forward. The investment note is the latest indication that the United States is falling behind other countries in this effort.
We’re fools. We’re wasting our time yelling and screaming at each other. One of these days we’re going to pull out heads out of the sand, look around, and realize we are the rust belt of the planet.
House Republicans Abolish Energy Independence/Global Warming Committee
On the one hand, the nation of the Maldives is holding cabinet meetings underwater to highlight the danger of global warming. On the other,
The kick-off of the 112th Congress on Wednesday also marked the end of an era in the House—the demise of a committee devoted solely to climate change and energy issues. The Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming, created by Nancy Pelosi in 2006, has been shuttered under the new Republican leadership.
Fox: It’s Snowing So Global Warming is Bull
This is one of the headlines over at TheFoxNation right now:
Shorter: “Climate change is bull because, hey, look, it’s snowing!
What Fox doesn’t tell it’s dumbed-down audience is one simple fact:
As global temperatures have warmed and as Arctic sea ice has melted over the past two and a half decades, more moisture has become available to fall as snow over the continents.
It isn’t all that difficult to explain the snow in climate change terms but Fox isn’t interested in informing its audience. Fox’s goal is to propagandize in favor of wingnut beliefs. Facts? Not so much.
Attention All Climate Change Deniers
Don’t believe the climate is changing? Take a look at this graph (from NASA) measuring CO2 levels:
(Larger version at the link above.)
Now, explain that away.
2010 in Climate Photos
Think Progress put together a photo essay depicting the worst climate calamities of the year — sad and worrisome:
See the rest of the photos here.
Oh, and if you think climate change is bull, take a look at this.
Rush Limbaugh as the Right’s Go-To Guy on Climate Change?
I got a tweet earlier today from an environmental activist I respect — David Roberts, a/k/a DrGrist — with this graphic attached. Unfortunately he didn’t provide a link. I thought I’d put it up anyway — take it or leave it — because it so illustrates the delusion about climate change going on on the right. I mean, Rush Limbaugh as their spokesman on the subject? Aaaaaah!!
And as an aside, why isn’t Limbaugh holding a wad of money (because righties aren’t honest, I know)? They guy rakes in $50 million a year.
Oh, and as another aside, did you hear that it snowed in Australia today? The point being, it’s summer there.
