science

Russians Pile Onto Climategate The English edition of Ria Novosti yesterday ran an article reporting that on Tuesday, the Moscow-based Institute of Economic Analysis published a paper claiming that the embattled Hadley Center for Climate Change Research had probably tampered with their data from Russian surface stations deliberately to make the warming of the planet seem more believable. The IEA [...]
Post Date:12/17/2009 09:44:12
www.plumbbobblog.com

Live* blogging from the American Geophysical Union meeting I
Post Date:12/17/2009 06:50:22
climateprogress.org

Massive 'Waterworld' Discovered in Space, Presence of Kevin Costner Unconfirmed [Science] Astronomers have found a planet around six-and-a-half times the size of Earth, which they believe has abundant liquid water. It's one of the most Earth-like planets discovered yet, and it's a mere 40 light-years away. Road trip! [MSNBC]
Post Date:12/16/2009 19:41:32
gawker.com

Science sagas of the '80s Some of today's coolest technologies - ranging from DNA analysis to the personal computer and the space shuttle - were built upon foundations laid during the 1980s. The '80s also marked the start of the global fight against AIDS, as well as growing concern about the effect of greenhouse-gas emissions on global climate. This week we're revisiting 50 of the top science sagas of the past 50 years - and it goes without saying that every saga has made a contribution to the current state of society. But if you had to pick one decade that sowed the seeds for the current crop of technological triumphs and troubles, it just might be the '80s. Today we highlight 10 scientific sagas from the decade, selected for a timeline that marks the 50th birthday of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing....(read more)
Post Date:12/16/2009 17:16:00
cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com

Lord Monckton vs. Greenpeace If you’ve never heard the learned Lord Christopher Monckton discuss global warming, this exchange with an earnest, but deluded Greenpeacenik makes for very entertaining viewing: Share on Facebook var button = document.getElementById('facebook_share_link') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_icon') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_both') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_button'); if (button) { button.onclick = function(e) { var url = this.href.replace(/share\.php/, 'sharer.php'); window.open(url,'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=626,height=436'); return false; } if (button.id === 'facebook_share_button') { button.onmouseover = function(){ this.style.color='#fff'; this.style.borderColor = '#295582'; this.style.backgroundColor = '#3b5998'; } button.onmouseout = function(){ this.style.color = '#3b5998'; this.style.borderColor = '#d8dfea'; this.style.backgroundColor = '#fff'; } } }
Post Date:12/16/2009 15:08:25
www.threedonia.com

What Nanny Doesn?t Want You to Know Nanny state regulators got it all wrong back in 1977 when the feds placed a warning label on the sugar substitute saccharine. They said it could cause cancer, but their underlying science was flimsy. It took them more than 20 years to admit to that mistake and remove saccharine from the list of carcinogens. And federal health officials have long warned us all to cut back on salt because they say it might contribute to heart disease. Most people trust this advice, but it’s most likely not true for everyone. Salt appears to be a problem largely for individuals with hypertension, but not so much for the rest of us. Those of us who like salting our veggies and other things to make them more palatable, probably would like to know the whole story. Yet Nanny statists at National Institutes of Health (NIH) don’t want to give us the whole story. They apparently refuse to release research that might contradict their warnings. Since 2003, that data has been subject to a Data
Post Date:12/16/2009 14:19:34
feeds.feedburner.com

Will Prisoners? Move to Thompson Expand Their Legal Rights? Among the objections from Congressional Republicans to transferring Guantanamo detainees from Cuba to Illinois is the fear that the prisoners will suddenly have many more rights by virtue of being on U.S. soil. But is that true? Actually, it’s not clear, Scott Silliman, a professor at Duke University Law School and director of the Center for Law, Ethics, and National Security, tells Warren Richey of the Christian Science Monitor. After all, “we’ve never done this before,” says Silliman. It’s not even clear what “this” is. Is the administration going to move all of the men to military custody, or will some be moved to federal civilian custody for trial in a civilian court? The government hasn’t yet said. And will some people be held in military custody indefinitely without trial? The administration hasn’t said that yet, either. So to some extent, the speculation is premature. What Richey does make clear in his story, however, is that
Post Date:12/16/2009 13:47:31
washingtonindependent.com

Washington Post: Across the Atlantic, gliding on density pushups, calling home all the way? In yesterday’s Washington Post David Brown shared with readers a sentimental visit with a sojourning robot nick-named Scarlet by operators – but listed as RU-27 in the inventory. The news is that a long-finned torpedo, packing batteries, instruments, and telemetry gear, has just completed the first such device to cross an ocean. In 221 days the machine – alternately adjusting its bouyancy to either sink or rise slowly – bobbed its leisurely way from New Jersey to Spain. It dropped as deep as 600 feet, then rose again. At the surface it
Post Date:12/16/2009 13:11:03
ksjtracker.mit.edu

Al Gore: No Shame, No Answers
Post Date:12/16/2009 10:48:16
thechillingeffect.org

Will Darkstar ever come out? Filed under: Adventure It's a game that's been in development for 10 years but there's still no specific release date. Nope, we are not talking about Duke Nukem Forever but Darkstar. You may be asking yourself, "What's that?" It's a sci-fi adventure game with live action cut scenes that was first announced in 2000. It's main claims to fame are the appearances of several members of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 TV cast as well as songs from legendary rock band Rush.The official MST3K community site Satellite News got a quick update on the game's progress a few days ago with Darkstar's Director/Producer J. Allen Williams saying that the game has been content complete for a year now. He states, "The crash in the economy has slowed us down a bit, because many of the publishers have no money right now, and others are being very careful about how much they put into third-party productions, and rightfully so." Still he claims the game is "definitely coming out" but would not specify a rel
Post Date:12/16/2009 10:00:00
news.bigdownload.com

James Randi On Climate Change James Randi now sympathizes with climate change deniers: I strongly suspect that The Petition Project may be valid. I base this on my admittedly rudimentary knowledge of the facts about planet Earth. This ball of hot rock and salt water spins on its axis and rotates about the Sun with the expected regularity, though we’re aware that lunar tides, solar wind, galactic space dust and geomagnetic storms have cooled the planet by about one centigrade degree in the past 150 years. The myriad of influences that act upon Earth are so many and so variable — though not capricious — that I believe we simply cannot formulate an equation into which we enter variables and come up with an answer. A living planet will continually belch, vibrate, fracture, and crumble a bit, and thus defeat an accurate equation. Please note that this my amateur opinion, based on probably insufficient data. It appears that the Earth is warming, and has continued to warm since the last Ice Age, which en
Post Date:12/16/2009 09:13:26
unreasonablefaith.com

Sub built Completlly from used parts Sub built Completlly from used parts Memphis Mojo 15” cone – reused DD 9515 4 spoke basket – reused Pierce Audio Products 6” / 2x 1" slug motor –
Post Date:12/16/2009 00:51:54
www.diymobileaudio.com

DIY book scanner Wired featured a wonderful piece of homemade cybernetics (and one that could subtly changing the world) – the homemade book scanner: For nearly two years, Daniel Reetz dreamed of a book scanner that could crunch textbooks and spit out digital files…. So over three days, and for about $300, he lashed together two lights, two Canon Powershot A590 cameras, a few pieces of acrylic and some chunks of wood to create a book scanner that?s fast enough to scan a 400-page book in about 20 minutes. To use it, he simply loads in a book and presses a button, then turns the page and presses the button again. Each press of the button captures two pages, and when he?s done, software on Reetz?s computer converts the book into a PDF file. The Reetz DIY book scanner isn?t automated?you still need to stand by it to turn the pages. But it?s fast and inexpensive. ?The hardware is ridiculously simple as long as you are not demanding archival quality,? he says. ?A dumpster full of building materia
Post Date:12/15/2009 23:17:13
guildofscientifictroubadours.com

Math Can Be Fun--And Tasty! Sometimes the most trivial-sounding problems can involve some intense math. Who ever would have thought that cutting and eating pizza could involve decades of work?The problem that bothered them was this. Suppose the harried waiter cuts the pizza off-centre, but with all the edge-to-edge cuts crossing at a single point, and with the same angle between adjacent cuts. The off-centre cuts mean the slices will not all be the same size, so if two people take turns to take neighbouring slices, will they get equal shares by the time they have gone right round the pizza - and if not, who will get more?...As with many mathematical conundrums, the answer has arrived in stages - each looking at different possible cases of the problem.
Post Date:12/15/2009 19:20:00
rightontheleftcoast.blogspot.com

Lord Monckton adresses a Greenpeace-campaigner on global warming
Post Date:12/15/2009 13:13:08
www.globalclimatescam.com

Analyzing the Global Warming Alarmist Phenomenon Martin Cohen sent me an email with a series of links that all look at global warming alarmism as a phenomenon. In defence of scepticism By Martin Cohen, editor of the Philosopher Climate Hysterians have been redoubling their efforts to portray the debate as one between a few cranks (especailly right-wing ones) and ’scientists’, whereas the truth is very different.
Post Date:12/15/2009 11:22:21
feeds.feedburner.com

Trends in the Numbers of New Research Doctorate Recipients Kwy Findings
Post Date:12/15/2009 11:08:00
stconsultant.blogspot.com

Forensic Science commissioner resigns to avoid revealing public info Somehow I'd missed that one of Governor Perry's recent appointees to the Texas Forensic Science Commission - Bexar County Medical Examiner Randall Frost - had resigned in October just weeks after his appointment because he wouldn't reveal immediate family members' names or assets required on state ethics disclosures.There's got to be more to this than was reported. Frost wrote in his resignation letter to Perry, "I am unwilling to disclose the names of my family members or the addresses of our residence, my spouse's business and our other properties, knowing that the information would then become public record." But that's a really strange claim. His home address and other property ownership is already a public record in real property records held by the county. If his wife owns a business, it is registered either with an assumed name certificate at the county or as a corporation with the Secretary of State. All the information he's afraid to disclose is public record already if anyon
Post Date:12/15/2009 05:07:00
gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com

Leaving God out of Ethics: Dangers of the Woman-Centered Approach In an argument, most people who are trying to persuade their opponents will use arguments that make sense to their opponents--not necessarily the most compelling argument to them personally. It just makes sense to appeal to the reasons that matter to the person you hope to persuade. But if we spend all our effort making the secondary arguments convincing, we risk forgetting our primary reasons, and sometimes we lose the moral high ground. Slavery In the struggle for the abolition of slavery, some opponents of slavery tried to show the South that slavery was detrimental to their economic system in the long term. That argument may have persuaded a few slave-holders to liberate their slaves. But William Lloyd Garrison and other abolitionists had to convince the public of the evil of slavery before the tide would turn against slavery. Ultimately slavery was wrong because of how it harmed the slaves and because God declared man-stealing to be wrong, not because of the economic impact. 
Post Date:12/07/2009 18:01:42
feeds.feedburner.com

Guppy photo Tonight I tried to take some photos of the fish, for the most part without success.  Ah, who am I kidding, completely without success.  As it happens, the best shot includes the female I just wrote about.  Here she is with two males, and she's in female mode.  Although you can see a bit of her colours the photo somewhat mutes them. 
Post Date:12/05/2009 23:18:25
kiggavik.typepad.com