Category Archives: Nature/Environment

Score
May 12 2013

News Mash: Adventure shapes the individual, but to what end?

Homebodies, take note…

Adventure IS important!

After all…

It helps shape who you ARE as an individual:

[via France24]Study shows that adventure shapes the individual

AFP – The act of exploring helps shape the brain and adventuring is what makes each individual different, according to a study out Thursday by researchers in Germany.

The findings published in the US journal Science may offer new paths to treating psychiatric diseases, scientists said.

Researchers sought to pin down why identical twins are not perfect replicas of each other, even when they have been raised in the same environment, and studied the matter using 40 genetically identical mice.

The mice were kept in an elaborate, five-level cage connected by glass chutes and filled with toys, scaffolds, wooden flower pots, nesting places and more. The space available to explore spanned about five square meters (yards).

“This environment was so rich that each mouse gathered its own individual experiences in it,” said principal investigator Gerd Kempermann of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Even though the mice were genetically the same, and the environment they were kept in was also the same, they showed individually different levels of activity. Some explored a lot, some did not.

And by fitting them with a special micro-chip that emitted electromagnetic signals, scientists could track how much the mice moved around and quantify their exploratory behavior.

“Over time, the animals therefore increasingly differed in their realm of experience and behavior,” said Kempermann. Over the course of three months, they developed very different personalities.

Researchers found that the brains of the most explorative mice were building more new neurons — a process known as neurogenesis — in the hippocampus, the center for learning and memory, than the animals that were more passive.

Control mice kept in a less enriching environment showed less brain growth.

Kempermann and colleagues said they have shown for the first time how personal experiences and ensuing behavior contribute to individualization, and that neither genetics nor environment alone could cause this personal growth.

…[Read More]

And given exactly WHERE your adventure leads you?

Could result?

Hmmm…

In some very deadly, by-product interactions:

[via The Adrenalist]Poisonous Animal Bite Survival Guide ~by Luke Kelly-Clyne

No matter how big, athletic, or well-conditioned you are, a deadly, poisonous animal could claim you as a victim. Just picture it: you’re walking along a beach or in a field or even your back yard and, all of a sudden, you’re debilitated by the most severe pain you’ve ever experienced and you’ve got minutes left to live.

Because we Adrenalists frequently travel far and wide to quench our thirst for adventure, it’s important that we’re intimately aware of the foreign species that pack the most ferocious, life-threatening bites and stings and, more importantly, that we’re well-versed on how to deal with said attacks should they occur.

Here’s how to survive the deadliest animal bites on the planet:

Funnel Web Spider

Native to the Southeastern region of Australia, near Sydney, funnel web spiders are small in size and known to dwell in cool shaded places. They often hide out in shoes or clothing left outside. Male venom is more potent than female, but a bite from either will usually take effect within 10-15 minutes, first causing numbness or tingling in the lips and soon resulting in any number of more advanced symptoms, from rapid heart rate to nausea to collapse to convulsions and coma. Funnel web bites must never be treated at home and any affected patient should be transported to the emergency room as soon as possible. While a victim is en route to the hospital, it’s a good idea to place a tightly wrapped bandage over the bite to halt the spread of venom. Once in the hospital, victims may need to receive treatments including breathing support, IV and antivenin medication.

…[Read More - Click To Watch All Poison Animal Bits Survival Tip Videos HERE!]

Which, I suppose?

Definitely a good argument…

For NOT taking part in any adventures?

And BEING a total homebody.

Score

thank you unnamed cabbie hero
May 12 2013

News Mash: Hero cab driver saves the world from a Cyber Kitty takeover? Yes, I think he did!

The amazing, and super-sciencey site, io9.com, posed a very interesting question…

Who is the Coolest Killer robot of all time?

And…

It got me thinking.

Just because?

Not one person has THIS (below) almost-killer cyber robot as an entry.

And only because?

Fate decided to step in and save mankind before we could make a very deadly mistake, which could very well have DOOMED us all:

Cyber-Kitty!

[via DailyMail]Operation Acoustic Kitty: How the CIA’s attempt to turn CATS into cyborg spies ended abruptly after the Truth reveled: Emily Anthes writes about the disastrous experiment that ended with the cat getting run over by a cab in her new book, Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New World cat was run over by a cab ~By Snejana Farberov

Next time your cat sidles up to you for an afternoon nap, it may actually be trying to steal  your secrets – that is at least what the CIA in the 1960s was hoping felines would do after being turned into four-legged spies.

As part of a clandestine experiment appropriately dubbed Operation Acoustic Kitty, a veterinary surgeon implanted a microchip in the ear canal of a cat and a small radio transmitter at the base of the animal’s skull, hiding a wire antenna in his long grey-and-white hair.

The plan was to use the furry feline as a four-legged secret agent who would be able to discreetly eavesdrop on Soviet officials and record their private conversations simply by sitting nearby.

But the leaders of the project quickly learned what neatly every cat owner knows: unlike dogs, most felines do not follow orders and are not easily trained.

The failed experiment is detailed in a new book called Frankenstein’s Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech’s Brave New Beasts, excepts from which appeared in Popular Science.

The author, Emily Anthes, writes that CIA officials got the project off the background by driving their newly minted furry James Bond to a park and tasked it with recording a conversation between two men sitting on a bench.

Operation Acoustic Kitty: A surgeon implanted a microchip in the ear canal of a cat and a small radio transmitter at the base of the animal’s skull, hiding a wire antenna into his long grey-and-white hair

But the ill-fated feline immediately failed the test by running into the street, where it was promptly run over by a cab.

In the aftermath of the disastrous experiment, Operation Acoustic Kitty was scrapped after the government had allegedly spent $20million to turn the tragic pussycat into a world-class information gatherer.

…[Read More]

Honestly…

Can’t you just imagine it?

A world full of Cyber Kitties…

Which could assemble themselves!

[via io9] Watch this robotic worm assemble itself. Oh, and it was 3D printed. ~George Dvorsky

Sure, this adorable little inchworm robot looks cute. But just wait for the day when more sophisticated versions start printing and assembling themselves from scratch — and all without human oversight.

…[Read More]

Cause…

In a world where cyber Kitties exist?

You know they would have found a way to do just exactly that.

And just as soon as they had?

Oh, yes, my friends…

Mankind would have been DOOMED!!!!!!

So thank you, fate-driven mysterious cab driver…

Although unknown, by name, just know?

You, and you alone, were all of mankind’s salvation from utter destruction from it unfortunate hubris.

Because unfortunately, some men?

Just want to watch the world burn!

thank you unnamed cabbie hero

Payback is coming
May 12 2013

News Mash: Animals can stave off death, in their owners…Ok, um, maybe not ALL of them!

Animals are good for your health.

So what is THIS (below) article telling you?

Simply this…

Get. One!

(Reuters) – Pets may help cut heart disease risk: American Heart Association

Anyone wanting to live longer and cut their risk of suffering from heart disease might want to consider getting a pet.

The American Heart Association (AHA) issued a scientific statement on Thursday saying owning a pet may help to decrease a person’s risk of suffering from heart disease and is linked with lower levels of obesity, blood pressure and cholesterol.

“Pet ownership, particularly dog ownership, is probably associated with a decreased risk of heart disease,” Glenn N. Levine, a professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said in a statement.

A study of more than 5,200 adults, cited by the AHA, showed dog owners were more physically active than non-owners because they walk their pets. Other research has revealed the calming effects of pets, which are used in animal-assisted therapy programs.

Levine, the chairman of the committee that wrote the statement published online in the journal Circulation, added that the benefits are clear on cutting the risk factors for heart disease. But the studies are not definitive or prove that owning a pet directly causes a reduction in heart disease risk.

“What’s less clear is whether the act of adopting or acquiring a pet could lead to a reduction in cardiovascular risk in those with pre-existing disease,” he said, adding more research is needed.

…[Read More]

Um…

When it comes to your animals, just make sure?

Yeah…

That you don’t go the bird route.

Because apparently?

Those have the exact OPPOSITE effect…

And might very well kill you, very dead!

(CNSNews.com) – About one in five people who have contracted a new strain of bird flu in China (H7N9) have died, according to a report released today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

So far, the virus has mostly struck older people, a majority of whom were male, and the evidence shows that transmission of the virus occurs largely from birds to people–although researchers suspect there have been a few cases of human-to-human transmission within families.

“As of April 29, 2013, China had reported 126 confirmed H7N9 infections in humans, among whom 24 (19%) died,” said the May 10 edition of the CDC’s “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.”

H7N9 is also referred to as Avian Influenza and is spread mostly through chickens, ducks, and pigeons, according to the report.

“The median age of patients with confirmed infection is 61 years” and “58 (71%) of the cases are among males,” the report said.  “Only four cases have been confirmed among children.”

“Most of the confirmed cases involved severe respiratory illness,” reported the CDC. “Of 82 confirmed cases for which data were available as of April 17, 81 (99%) required hospitalization. Among those patients hospitalized, 17 (21%) died of ARDS [Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome] or multi-organ failure, 60 (74%) remained hospitalized, and only four (5%) had been discharged.”

The report said the CDC is coordinating with state and local health departments, as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture to closely monitor animals and the potential spread, but has found no evidence of the Chinese bird flu in the United States.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture reported that 68,060 bird and environmental specimens were tested and 46 – 0.07 percent – tested positive for H7N9.

From April 5 through April 29, state and local health departments from 18 states reported evaluating 37 travelers from China to the United States and found no cases of infection.

“Although no evidence of sustained (ongoing) human-to-human spread of this virus has been identified; small family clusters have occurred where human-to-human spread cannot be conclusively ruled out,” the report says.

The report states that almost all cases are presumed to have come from exposure to infected birds.

“Among 82 confirmed cases for which exposure information is available, 63 (77%) involved reported exposure to live animals, primarily chickens (76%) and ducks (20%),” the CDC report says. “However, at least three family clusters of two or three confirmed cases have been reported where limited human-to-human transmission might have occurred.”

…[Read More]

Especially THESE days.

Wow.

Who knew?

*shakes head sadly*

The chicken takeover?

Is happening, people.

Prepare yourself.

Payback is coming

The research suggests
May 10 2013

News Mash: KIm Jong Un, is a little fish in a big pond & the fact that he is? Might be bad for us!

North Korean’s “Great Leader”…

Definitely has that little man syndrome thing going for him.

And to the rest of the world’s detriment.

Should we be worried?

Join The PogoTribe on Reddit!
http://www.reddit.com/r/pogobat/

Oh…

We should definitely be worried for more reasons than you think.

Because sometimes…

Especially in nature?

It’s the little guy IS capable of defeating the bigger one.

[via LiveScience]In Fish Fights, The Little Guy May Have Best Odds ~by Denise ChowSmall fish big pond

When fish fight over food, don’t count the little guy out.

In hostile situations, a fish’s personality — including how aggressive it acts — may matter more than size, according to new research.

The researchers from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom and Texas A&M University in College Station studied how small fish managed relative to their larger peers when it came time for feeding. They found that small fish that exhibited aggressive behavior fared well in the feeding contests, regardless of their smaller stature.

“We wondered if we were witnessing a form of Napoleon, or small man, syndrome,” Alastair Wilson, an evolutionary ecologist in the department of biosciences at the University of Exeter, said in a statement.

The findings, published in the April 2013 issue of the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, indicate that the strength of a fish’s personality may be crucial when food is scarce.

“Certainly our study indicates that small fish with an aggressive personality are capable of defeating their larger, more passive counterparts when it comes to fights over food,” Wilson said. “The research suggests that personality can have far-reaching implications for life and survival.”

…[Read More]

Some to think about & consider, World…

When it comes to North Korea.

Follow your instincts…

Casually dismissing Kim Jong Un as “harmless” would be n extremely dangerous move.

Because?

The research suggests

The dude, Alastair has a point…

We’re not just talking fish here, and you know it.

US Headed For The Coldest Spring On Record
May 6 2013

News Mash: People lie to themselves, this helps them lie to others. Huh. This explains the EPA!

Irksome.

And you know they are…

People who often lie to themselves.

As a result, it makes them ever so much easier to lie to others:

[via DiscoverMagazine]Lying to Yourself Helps You Lie to Others ~By Paul Raeburn

Why do we lie to ourselves?

That’s what evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers has spent 30 years trying to figure out.

“Our sensory systems are organized to give us a detailed and accurate view of reality,” he says, “but once this information arrives in our brains, it is often distorted and biased to our conscious minds.” We repress painful memories, create false ones, rationalize immoral behavior and jack up our self-esteem. We deny ourselves the truth.

Trivers, a professor of anthropology and biological sciences at Rutgers University in New Jersey, is not as well-known to the public as, say, Harvard’s Steven Pinker or E.O. Wilson. Evolutionary biologists, however, put him in a class by himself.

Pinker has called him “one of the great thinkers in the history of Western thought.” In the early 1970s, Trivers did for evolutionary biology what Einstein did for physics: He revolutionized the field with a handful of brilliantly original papers that reshaped the research agenda for decades.

The task he set was to construct a theory of social behavior based on natural selection. And his landmark papers went a long way toward explaining how parents behave with children, and males with females, and how we differentiate between people like us and others whom we see as different.

But one problem remained — the problem of self-deception. Trivers found that one difficult to explain.

According to the principles of natural selection, we wouldn’t have that curious ability unless it gave our ancestors a competitive edge. What, Trivers wanted to know, is that competitive edge? What do we gain by deceiving ourselves?

In his latest book, The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life, Trivers wanted to shake up evolutionary biology once again. After three decades of pondering how self-deception might have given our predecessors an evolutionary advantage, Trivers has come up with a theory: We often deceive ourselves because it then becomes easier to deceive others.

…[Read More]

And yes, just in case you are wondering…

In the instance of this post?

Definitely talking about a certain group in particular.

Namely?

Certain scientists who push political agendas to further THEIR OWN cause.

[via Scientific American]Extending current energy policies would reduce U.S. energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions ~by David Wogan

Extending current energy and efficiency laws past their sunset dates could reduce U.S. carbon emissions by an additional 5 billion metric tons by 2040. An analysis in the EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook 2013 compares energy and carbon savings between existing policies, which have provisions that will expire, and an Extended Policies scenario where the laws are carried out indefinitely.

Total energy consumption is projected to follow a similar pattern. By 2040, cumulative energy savings are projected to reach 55 quadrillion BTUs (1 quad = a thousand trillion British Thermal Units), or over half the energy consumption for any given year in the United States.

…[Read More]

Sadly…

This cause has very real-time effects?

On millions Americans…

EVERY day.

[via DailyCaller]Bill would force EPA to report costs of regulations ~by Michael BastaschEver wonder how much new environmental regulations add to your power bill? Newly introduced legislation aims to increase the transparency surrounding the costs of environmental regulations through detailing their impact on costs, jobs, and energy prices.

The bill introduced by Louisiana Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy would require the Environmental Protection Agency to submit a report detailing certain economic impacts to Congress before finalizing new energy-related rules that cost more than $1 billion.

“The EPA’s power to regulate is also the power to destroy,” said Cassidy. “It makes no sense for the EPA to issue burdensome regulations that will hurt our energy economy and cost American families thousands of jobs. It’s time to stop the EPA from hurting job creation and American families.”

The bill also requires the energy secretary to examine the rule to ensure that it won’t be too damaging to the economy. If the energy secretary rules that it would be, the EPA would not be permitted to finalize the rule.

EPA regulations have had significant effects on manufacturing and the energy industry, in particular coal.

According to congressional testimony by Paul Cicio, president Industrial Energy Consumers of America, the EPA imposes 972 regulations on the manufacturing sector alone and imposes regulatory costs totaling $117 billion.

A study done last year by National Economic Research Associates examining the impact of just seven major EPA regulations on coal-fueled electric generation found that up to 69,000 megawatts of coal-fueled electric generation will be shut down due to those regulations, and up to 887,000 jobs would be lost per year. NERA also found that total compliance costs for the electric sector could be as high as $220 billion, or $16.7 billion per year.

…[Read More]

And pretty much?

For no darn good reason.

How much warmer is it outside…

Really?

[via Forbes]As Carbon Dioxide Levels Continue To Rise, Global Temperatures Are Not Following Suit ~by James TaylorUS Headed For The Coldest Spring On Record

New data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are continuing to rise but global temperatures are not following suit. The new data undercut assertions that atmospheric carbon dioxide is causing a global warming crisis.

NOAA data show atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose 2.67 parts per million in 2012, to 395 ppm. The jump was the second highest since 1959, when scientists began measuring atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.

Global temperatures are essentially the same today as they were in 1995, when atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were merely 360 ppm. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose 10 percent between 1995 and 2012, yet global temperatures did not rise at all. Global warming activists are having a difficult time explaining the ongoing disconnect between atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and global temperatures.

This isn’t the first time in recent years that global temperatures have disobeyed the models presented by global warming activists. From the mid-1940s through the mid-1970s, global temperatures endured a 30-year decline even as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose nearly 10 percent. From 1900 through 1945, by contrast, global temperatures rose rapidly despite a lack of coal power plants, SUV’s, and substantial carbon dioxide emissions.

Remarkably, global warming activists are spinning the ongoing rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, along with the ongoing lack of global temperature rise, as evidence that we are facing an even worse global warming crisis than they have been predicting.

“The amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the air jumped dramatically in 2012, making it very unlikely that global warming can be limited to another 2 degrees as many global leaders have hoped,” the Associated Press reported yesterday.

Actually, the fact that temperatures remain flat even as carbon dioxide levels continue to rise is a devastating rebuke to assertions that rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are causing a global warming crisis.

…[Read More]

Let me break it down for you…

I, live in Texas. And for the past two nights and the temps have been bottoming out around freezing.

Its. May.

Now, ask me if I am more concerned with rising bills prices, or a two degree rise in the temperature?

I would hope the answer is obvious.

Unless you are a politically driven scientist in need of grant money?

Yeah…

Then it might take you a minute.

That’s cool, I’ll just wait here, wearing my big winter coat (In. MAY!), I’ve got noting but time. But do you mind if I turn on the heat while I wait?

It’s freakin’ cold outside?

Brrrrr.

Much smarter
May 2 2013

News Mash: Fish are much smarter than we thought? Not good news, if you are a New Yorker!

Normally?

THIS (below) information wouldn’t freak me out…

As much as it is right now.

cause you see?

Fish are much smarter than we ever gave them credit for!

[via LiveScience]Fish Use ‘Sign Language’ to Help Out Hunting Buddies ~by Douglas Main

Two types of fish have been shown to use gestures, or sign language, to help one another hunt. This is the first time these types of gestures have been found to occur in animals other than primates and ravens.

Both types of fish, grouper and coral trout, are known for hunting cooperatively with other kinds of animals. Whereas the grouper hunts with giant moray eels and a fish called the Napoleon wrasse, coral trout partner up with octopuses to snag prey. A study published last week in the journal Nature Communications found that the fish are able to “point” their heads toward prey, to help out their hunting buddies.

After observing the fish in the wild for many hours, the researchers found that when a prey fish escaped its hunting party, a grouper occasionally moved over the place where the fugitive prey was hiding. The grouper would then rotate its body so that its head faced downward, and it would shake its head back and forth in the direction of the potential meal, in what researchers call a “headstand” signal. Coral trout make a similar sign, the researchers found. [Image Gallery: The Freakiest Fish]

Grouper partner with eel and wrasse, which live in the Red Sea and have complementary hunter-prey tactics: Grouper has “burst speed” in the open water, whereas giant moray eels can crawl into small holes, and wrasse have protracting jaws that can crush coral to get at prey, according to the study. Coral trout collaborate with octopuses, which are also better at fitting into tight spaces. This latter pair lives in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

In the study, researchers recorded grouper doing the headstand signal 34 separate times; afterward, one of the predators caught the hidden fish on five occasions.

It is, of course, difficult to determine for sure that an animal’s movement is truly this type of so-called “referential gesture” (or more loosely referred to as “sign language.”) The researchers wrote that the headstand qualified as such because it fulfilled all of the generally accepted components of referential gestures: It was directed toward an object, not useful for any immediate mechanical purpose, aimed at a recipient, seemingly intentional and followed by a voluntary response from the fish’s partner.

The results of the study suggest these fish may be smarter than previously thought.

…[Read More]

By itself?

That news not enough to cause me sever heart palpitations.

However contextually, when paired with THIS (below) info?

Yeah…

I am a tad bit more than a little disturbed:

[via iScienceTimes]Snakehead Fish Invades Central Park: How Did ‘Frankenfish’ Find Its Way Into NYC Lake? ~By Philip Much smarterRoss

A northern snakehead, an invasive predator fish native to China, Korea and Russia, was recently discovered in a Central Park lake.

The unsightly “Frankenfish,” which can seriously damage native fish and wildlife populations, was spotted in Harlem Meer lake in the northeastern-most corner of Central Park.

NBC News reports that the snakehead fish, which has razor-sharp teeth and eats frogs, crayfish, birds and even small pets, threatens to disrupt the ecosystem. The snakehead is so harmful to our environment that New York State prohibits the sale, possession and transport of the live fish and its eggs.

Environmental officials are reportedly planning to survey Harlem Meer lake this week and sketch out a plan to eradicate the intruder.

According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, or NYSDEC, snakeheads can grow up to 3 feet long and are very good predators. The fish are highly invasive and pose a grave threat to native fish and wildlife populations. Snakeheads can also breathe air and can survive for days out of the water in damp conditions.

Back in 2008, NYSDEC workers, using a pesticide called CFT Legumine, removed 220 snakeheads from a lake in Wawayanda, a town in Orange County, New York, in an effort to eradicate the snakehead population there. The largest fish they found was 31 inches long and weighed over 11 pounds.

…[Read More]

*runs in circles screaming…*

“Ohmahgawd, its going to kill us all!!!!!!!!”

See?

I would classify THAT (above quote) as a “tad bit more than disturbed”…

Wouldn’t you?

*shakes head sadly*

It is almost May & in Texas
Apr 30 2013

News Mash: Global Warming? Out. The new, upcoming political science fad? Global cooling!

Who didn’t see this one coming?

After all…

It’s a little hard to continue to scream that Man-Made Global Warming is going to destroy the Earth?

(Cause, heck, why not? It’s blamed for everything else!)

When temps are just not getting warmer.

In fact…

They are doing quite the opposite!

[via StevenGoddard]Second Coldest Start To Spring In US History

ScreenHunter_157 Apr. 26 06.02

…[Read More]

And to hear THIS (below) Russian Scientists, tell it?

It’s not actually “warming” we should be worried about.

Huh.

In a world which exists of climate scientists who depend on Man-Made Global Warming for their millions in grant money…

Any bets on these Scientists at Russia’s famous Pulkovo Observatory not being very popular today?

[via WUWT] Russian Scientists say period of global cooling ahead due to changes in the sun ~by Anthony Watts

Scientists at Russia’s famous Pulkovo Observatory are convinced that the world is in for a period of global cooling.

archibald_1749_2049_projected_solar_cycle

Graph by David Archibald

Global warming which has been the subject of so many discussions in recent years, may give way to global cooling. According to scientists from the Pulkovo Observatory in St.Petersburg, solar activity is waning, so the average yearly temperature will begin to decline as well. Scientists from Britain and the US chime in saying that forecasts for global cooling are far from groundless. Some experts warn that a change in the climate may affect the ambitious projects for the exploration of the Arctic that have been launched by many countries.

Just recently, experts said that the Arctic ice cover was becoming thinner while journalists warned that the oncoming global warming would make it possible to grow oranges in the north of Siberia. Now, they say a cold spell will set in. Apparently, this will not occur overnight, Yuri Nagovitsyn of the Pulkovo Observatory, says.

“Journalists say the entire process is very simple: once solar activity declines, the temperature drops. But besides solar activity, the climate is influenced by other factors, including the lithosphere, the atmosphere, the ocean, the glaciers. The share of solar activity in climate change is only 20%. This means that sun’s activity could trigger certain changes whereas the actual climate changing process takes place on the Earth”.

Solar activity follows different cycles, including an 11-year cycle, a 90-year cycle and a 200-year cycle. Yuri Nagovitsyn comments.

“Evidently, solar activity is on the decrease. The 11-year cycle doesn’t bring about considerable climate change – only 1-2%. The impact of the 200-year cycle is greater – up to 50%. In this respect, we could be in for a cooling period that lasts 200-250 years. The period of low solar activity could start in 2030-2040 but it won’t be as pervasive as in the late 17th century”.

…[Read More]

Now…

No pouting, Man-Made Global Warming believers!

You have been a scientific field which has benefited greatly from your now flailing theory…

Only fair?

That you give other scientists, with other theories, a go…

Don’t you think?

Especially considering…

How given the crazy temps in Texas are leading me to believe?

Global cooling…

Yeah, might be something to that!

It is almost May & in Texas

Witness the hand of humaity
Apr 28 2013

News Mash: The fate of humanity, in the hands of humanity? Well, this won’t end well!

This actually exists…

The Future of Humanity Institute.

And yes, they are just the barrel of laughs you would think they would be from their catchy, cheery name.

*shakes head sadly*

Guess what they recently figured out?

[Hint: Not good news]

Yeah…

We’re all DOOMED!!!!!!

And by our own hand:

[via PopSci]Oxford Institute Forecasts The Possible Doom Of Humanity

Most of us are content to just worry about the future of humanity in our spare time, but there’s an entire group of academics at Oxford University in England who make that their professional mission.

Each member of the Future of Humanity Institute has his own focus. Some are concerned with climate change and its impact on humanity; others with the future of human cognition. Department head Nick Bostrom, whose paper Existential Risk Prevention As Global Priority has just been published, has a long history of being worried about our future as a species. Bostrom posits that humanity is the greatest threat to humanity’s survival.

Bostrom’s paper is concerned with a particular time-scale: Can humanity survive the next century? This rules out some of the more unlikely natural scenarios that could snuff out humans in the more distant future: supervolcanoes, asteroid impacts, gamma-ray bursts and the like. The chances of one of those happening within the very narrow timeframe involved is, according to the paper, extremely small. Further, most other natural disasters, such as a pandemic, are unlikely to kill all humans; we as a species have survived many pandemics and will likely do so in the future.

The Personal

The Personal: The first row of a full scale of misery, on a scale of “hellish.” In the full version, the Y axis is on a scale of “cosmic-ness” Together, the extremes of these two scales form the conditions in which risk to the existence of the human race resides.  Nick Bostrom, http://www.existential-risk.org/concept.html

According to Bostrom, the types of civilization-ending disasters we may unleash upon ourselves include nuclear holocausts, badly programmed superintelligent entities and, my personal favorite, “we are living in a simulation and it gets shut down.” (As an aside, how the hell do you prepare for that eventuality?) Additionally, humans face four different categories of existential risk:

Extinction: we off ourselves before we reach technological maturity
Stagnation: we stay mired in our current technological and intellectual backwater
Flawed realization: we advance technologically…in a way that isn’t sustainable
Subsequent ruination: we reach sustainable technological maturity and then eff it all up anyway

More pointedly, Bostrom’s paper is a renewal of a call-to-arms he issued a decade ago imploring people to wake up to the possibility that we will kill ourselves with technology. These days, he’s not so much concerned with the how — existential death by grey goo vs existential death by sentient robots is still existential death. He’s most concerned that there’s nobody out there really doing anything about this problem. That’s understandable, of course. Existential threats are nebulous concepts, and even the threat of nuclear winter was not enough to terrify certain governments into, you know, not building thermonuclear weapons.

…[Read More]

Not really the thing I want to hear, coming up on my long work week.

But bright side?

At least our immanent will cut short my work week.

Which?

Entirely possibly considering  the growing number of possible, man-killing projectiles we keep surrounding  with, and are in fact just NOW figuring out, “Hey, we maybe, probably, oh I don’t know, should do something about that before it starts killing many people?’ situation we have going in outer space around us.

[via France24]Space debris problem now urgent – scientists

AFP – Governments must start working urgently to remove orbital debris, which could become a catastrophic problem for satellites a few decades from now, a space science conference heard on Thursday.

Since 1978, the total of junk items whizzing around the planet has tripled, said Heiner Klinkrad, head of the European Space Agency’s Space Debris Office.

“There is a wide and strong expert consensus on the pressing need to act now to begin debris removal activities,” he said in an ESA press release at the end of a four-day conference in Darmstadt, Germany.

“Our understanding of the growing space debris problem can be compared with our understanding of the need to address Earth’s changing climate some 20 years ago,” he said.

According to a count by ESA and NASA, there are more than 23,000 items in orbit that are bigger than 10 centimetres (four inches) across, and hundreds of thousands of items between one and 10 cms (0.4 to four inches) across.

Even though these items are relatively small and there is a lot of room in orbit, any collision could be calamitous because of the high level of kinetic energy.

Debris travels on average at 25,000 kilometres (15,600 miles) per hour, so even an object of small mass has the potential to cripple a satellite or punch a hole in the International Space Station (ISS).

The junk results mainly from disused rocket stages, failed launches and abandoned or broken-down satellites, the result of 55 years of space exploration.

These large objects eventually collide, creating more debris which in turn smashes together — a dangerous cascade cycle known as the Kessler Syndrome.

…[Read More]

A problem?

Yes…

Seems like we just keep “adding-to” on a daily basis, with no freakin’ end in sight:

[via Space]Private Asteroid-Mining Project Launching Tiny Satellites in 2014 ~by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer

A billionaire-backed asteroid-mining company aims to start putting its big plans into action soon, launching its first hardware into space by this time next year.

Planetary Resources, which counts Google execs Larry Page and Eric Schmidt among its investors, plans to loft a set of tiny “cubesats” to Earth orbit in early 2014, to test out gear for its first line of asteroid-prospecting spacecraft.

“Our belief and our philosophy is that the best testbed is space itself,” Chris Voorhees, Planetary Resources’ vice president of spacecraft development, said Wednesday (April 24) during a Google+ Hangout event. [Planetary Resources' Asteroid-Mining Plans (Images)]

…[Read More]

So…

Is the fact that the FHI (The Future of Humanity Institute) is predicting humanities doom at our OWN hand…

Really much of a ridiculous stretch?

Pffft…

What do you think?

Witness the hand of humaity

As crzay as they sound from the outset?

*scratches chin*

Gotta wonder…

Do YOU think the FHI could have a point?

It does make one nervously wonder.

got tylenol
Apr 20 2013

News Mash: Our Chicken Overlords cometh…Resulting in existential angst? Use Tylenol to cope!

Dang you, China!

I did NOT need to hear this news before my weekend was set to start.

What am I talking about?

Oh, only that China suspects that human-to-human bird flu (i.e. death by chicken)…

Has occurred:

Holy CLUCK!

[via USNews]As the Chinese government openly begins to speculate about the possibility of human-to-human transmission of the H7N9 bird flu strain, an international team of experts, including some from the World Health Organization, have been deployed to investigate the disease in the country.

If true, the development would quickly raise concerns of the disease outbreak leading to a pandemic. Flu experts have long warned once a particularly deadly strain of the flu, as H7N9 appears to be – it has killed 17 of the 87 people it has infected – becomes transmissible between humans, it can quickly spread.

The World Health Organization has said some of those who have contracted the virus have had “no history of contact with poultry,” and the state-run China Daily newspaper says a boy in Shanghai may have caught the disease from his brother.

“Further investigations are still under way to figure out whether the family cluster involved human-to-human transmission,” Feng Zijian, of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the newspaper.

…[Read More]

If you are like me?

News of your possible, impending death via chicken, does not settle well at in.

In fact, just the opposite.

It tends to make one feel just a tiny bit anxious…

Yes?

If so, Science says if you want to de-stress, feel far less anxious regarding your impending death?

Take a pill.

A Tylenol to be exact.

No…

Seriously.

It will help.

[via NatureWorldNews]Tylenol Eases Existential Anxiety ~By Staff Reportergot tylenol

A common pain-reliever can also be used to cope with existential dread – anxiety arising from thinking about death – according to a new study.

Acetaminophen or Tylenol is an over-the-counter pain medicine used to relieve minor aches or fever.

The new study has shown that Tylenol can also help reduce pain experienced after thinking about death or uncertainty of life.

“Pain extends beyond tissue damage and hurt feelings, and includes the distress and existential angst we feel when we’re uncertain or have just experienced something surreal. Regardless of the kind of pain, taking Tylenol seems to inhibit the brain signal that says something is wrong,” said Daniel Randles from the University of British Columbia.

…[Read More]

Of course…

Chickens will still kill you.

(I think it has been their plan all along)

But?

You won’t have a headache, or be too stressed out about it.

And life?

It’s really all about taking those little WINS! where you can get them, isn’t it?

*shakes head sadly*

earthquake
Apr 14 2013

News Mash: To uplift humanity, Science must look down for answers!

Thanks to THIS (below) newest study…

Humans have a new ally regarding some of our most pressing challenges.

Well, and by “pressing challenges”, contextually of course given the subject? I mean all those challenges NOT picnic related:

[via MNN] Leaf-cutter ants are farmers, pharmacists and energy experts

Researchers study ants and their complex, productive societies to help address some of human society’s most pressing challenges.

…[Read More]

Farmers, pharmacists and energy experts!

Humans can definitely learn a thing or two from ants.

We should definitely take notice, pay attention…

And take notes!

Especially considering?

These little buggers are also aces when it comes to predicting earthquakes…

Cause they do so?

Often a day in advance:

[via IndiaTimes]Ants can sense earthquakes a day in advance ~by Subodh Varma

NEW DELHI: Ants know when an earthquake is about to strike, researchers have discovered. Their behavior changes significantly prior to the quake and they resume normal functioning only a day after it.earthquake

Gabriele Berberich of the University Duisburg-Essen in Germany presented these findings on Thursday at the European Geosciences Union annual meeting in Vienna according to LiveScience.

Berberich and her colleagues discovered that red wood ants preferred to build their colonies right along active faults in Germany. They counted 15,000 ant mounds lining the faults. These faults are fractures where the Earth violently ruptures in earthquakes.

Using a special camera mounted software that tracked changes in activity, Berberich and her colleagues tracked the ants round the clock for three years, 2009 to 2012. They found that the ants’ behavior changed only when the quake was over magnitude 2. There were 10 earthquakes between magnitude 2.0 and 3.2 during this period, and many smaller ones. Humans can also sense quakes of over magnitude 2 only.

According to Berberich, normal ant activity consists of going about collecting food etc. during the day and resting in the night. But before an earthquake, the ants did not retreat into their mound in the night and bustled around outside it. This strange and abnormal behavior continued till a day after the earthquake, Berberich told a news conference, according to LiveScience.

How do ants know an earthquake is coming? Berberich suggested that they could either be picking up changing gas emissions or noting tiny changes in the Earth’s magnetic field. Red wood ants have special cells called chemoreceptors which can detect changes in carbon dioxide levels. They also have magnetoreceptor cells for detecting electromagnetic fields, she said.

Berberich and her colleagues are planning to continue the research in areas where there are more and bigger earthquakes.

This is the first time ants’ capability to react to future earthquakes has been reported.

…[Read More]

Ants.

For such a small little species…

There is a lot we can learn from them.

And by doing nothing more?

Than looking DOWN.

this is going to suck
Apr 10 2013

News Mash: NDE’s are nice, unless yours? Preceded by you falling into a black hole. Then? It’s gonna suck!

NDE’s (near-death experiences)…

They change people’s lives?

Forever!

But Science has no definitive idea what they are…

Other than once in a lifetime experiences, had only by people on the very brink of death!

[via LiveScience]Near-Death Experiences More Vivid Than Real Life ~by Tia Ghose

Long after a near-death experience, people recall the incident more vividly and emotionally than real and false memories, new research suggests.

“It’s really something that stays in the mind of people as a clear trace, and it’s even more clear than a real memory,” said Vanessa Charland-Verville, a neuropsychologist in the Coma Science Group at the University of Liege in Belgium. She, along with colleagues, detailed the study online March 27 in the journal PLOS ONE.

Mysterious phenomenon

Roughly 5 percent of the general population and 10 percent of cardiac-arrest victims report near-death experiences, yet no one really knows what they are, Charland-Verville told LiveScience.

Across cultures and religions, people describe similar themes: being out of body; passing through a tunnel, river or door toward warm, glowing light; seeing dead loved ones greet them; and being called back to their bodies or told it’s not time to go yet.

Some think near-death experiences show the spirit and body can be separated. Others say oxygen deprivation or a cascade of chemicals in the failing brain are to blame. Some believe near-death experiences reveal the existence of God or heaven.

But what makes finding an explanation even more complicated is that healthy people in meditative trances and those taking hallucinogens, such as ketamine, describe very similar experiences, Charland-Verville told LiveScience.  [Trippy Tales: The History of 8 Hallucinogens]

Life-changing events

Because it’s impossible to monitor these events in real time, Charland-Verville and her colleagues spoke with those who had gone through these trancelike states, sometimes years earlier.

“People are transformed forever by the experience,” she said. “People say they’re more empathic, they changed jobs, they’re giving, they want to help the planet.”

The team gave memory questionnaires to eight coma survivors who had near-death experiences, six who had coma memories but no memory of near-death experiences, seven who had no memories of their coma, and 18 people who had not had any of these experiences.

The questions assessed people’s memories of imagined events as well as memories of near-death events, comas and emotional events from real life.

Even years later, the near-death experiences seemed hyperreal. In fact, they were remembered more clearly and emotionally than all other types of memories.

Charland-Verville speculates that these experiences have shaped religious symbols across cultures since the dawn of time. Now, the researchers want to study the brain activity of these individuals.

“If it changed people’s lives, there must be something different in their brain functioning,” she said.

…[Read More]

And just to be clear here…

By saying “on the brink of death”?

Uh…

I don’t mean THIS (below).

Cause if you are ever unlucky enough to fall into a black hole?

[via Nature] Astrophysics: Fire in the hole! Will an astronaut who falls into a black hole be crushed or burned to a crisp? this is going to suck~by Zeeya Merali

In March 2012, Joseph Polchinski began to contemplate suicide — at least in mathematical form. A string theorist at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara, California, Polchinski was pondering what would happen to an astronaut who dived into a black hole. Obviously, he would die. But how?

According to the then-accepted account, he wouldn’t feel anything special at first, even when his fall took him through the black hole’s event horizon: the invisible boundary beyond which nothing can escape. But eventually — after hours, days or even weeks if the black hole was big enough — he would begin to notice that gravity was tugging at his feet more strongly than at his head. As his plunge carried him inexorably downwards, the difference in forces would quickly increase and rip him apart, before finally crushing his remnants into the black hole’s infinitely dense core.

But Polchinski’s calculations, carried out with two of his students — Ahmed Almheiri and James Sully — and fellow string theorist Donald Marolf at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), were telling a different story1. In their account, quantum effects would turn the event horizon into a seething maelstrom of particles. Anyone who fell into it would hit a wall of fire and be burned to a crisp in an instant.

…[Read More]

You won’t SEE the light…

But you’ll BE the light.

As in a big ball of fire.

Which probably wouldn’t be nearly as fun as an NDE, as far as experiences go.

So?

Forewarned.

And?

You’re welcome.

sheer terror
Apr 8 2013

News Mash: North Korea? Scary. NASA lasso’ing an asteroid? Scarier. A newly discover giant spider? Holy $#*%!!!

When it comes to fear…

It’s all about personal perspective, isn’t it?

And how it relates to the individual.

Take North Korea.

Scary bunch of freaky, bat-crap crazy dudes, for sure.

And their possible threat to nuke us all come April 10th?

Worrisome.

But lets face it…

Those psychos have always been whack-jobs.

So, on a personal level?

The chances of these coo-coo birds effecting any of us?

Pretty slim:

[via The Sun]North Korea tells Brit diplomats to get out — then sets chilling April 10 deadline ~By JACK LOSH

ROGUE state North Korea today sparked fears that it could trigger a nuclear strike as early as next WEDNESDAY.

Crackpot Kim Jong-un’s regime today issued a chilling threat to British diplomats warning them to get out of Pyongyang.

Alarmingly the North Korean government said it would not be able to guarantee the safety of embassies from April 10.

Russian diplomats have also been advised to evacuate.

Today the Foreign Office added that it is “considering next steps” after the threat.

It is still unclear why next Wednesday has been set as a deadline – but it is sure to spark fears despot Kim Jong-un will launch an attack after that date.

This week South Korean workers employed in factories in the North were also told to leave by April 10.

The dramatic development came as North Korea moved a second missile to its east coast in a further threat to Japan, South Korea and US Pacific bases.

The rogue state has already transported a Musudan missile with a range of 1,800 miles (3,000km) to the same area.

…[Read More]

So this new: ‘We are going to destroy the tyranny of the West!” hokum, is just that…

A load of bull.

Nothing to be REALLY concerned with.

However NASA scientists new “fantastic” idea to lasso an asteroid, in order to bring it CLOSER to us?

A tad more worrisome, and it should be for all of us.

And only because?

Even as much as I dearly love & adore scientists, they always only consider IF they could do something…

Not necessarily if they SHOULD.

Especially if one considers the dangerous ramifications should the asteroid (not much smaller than the rock that hit Russia with the force of an atomic bomb, cause it only takes a rock about 10 meters to do that) get out of their control and barrel towards Earth, impacting somewhere NOT just water.

So, yeah…

A tad more worrisome, and it should be:

[via YahooNews] Senator: NASA to lasso asteroid, bring it closer ~By SETH BORENSTEIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — NASA is planning for a robotic spaceship to lasso a small asteroid and park it near the moon for astronauts to explore, a top senator said Friday.

The ship would capture the 500-ton, 25-foot asteroid in 2019. Then using an Orion space capsule, a crew of about four astronauts would nuzzle up next to the rock in 2021 for spacewalking exploration, according to a government document obtained by The Associated Press.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said the plan would speed up by four years the existing mission to land astronauts on an asteroid by bringing the space rock closer to Earth.

Nelson, who is chairman of the Senate science and space subcommittee, said Friday that President Barack Obama is putting $100 million in planning money for the accelerated asteroid mission in the 2014 budget that comes out next week. The money would be used to find the right small asteroid.

“It really is a clever concept,” Nelson said in a press conference in Orlando. “Go find your ideal candidate for an asteroid. Go get it robotically and bring it back.”

This would be the first time ever humanity has manipulated a space object in such a grand scale, like what it does on Earth, said Robert Braun, a Georgia Institute of Technology aerospace engineering professor who used to be NASA’s chief technology officer.

“It’s a great combination of our robotic and human capabilities to do the kind of thing that NASA should be doing in this century,” Braun said.

Last year, the Keck Institute for Space Studies proposed a similar mission for NASA with a price tag of $2.6 billion. There is no cost estimate for the space agency’s version. NASA’s plans were first reported by Aviation Week.

While there are thousands of asteroids around 25-feet, finding the right one that comes by Earth at just the right time to be captured will not be easy, said Donald Yeomans, who heads NASA’s Near Earth Object program that monitors close-by asteroids. He said once a suitable rock is found it would be captured with the space equivalent of “a baggie with a drawstring. You bag it. You attach the solar propulsion module to de-spin it and bring it back to where you want it.”

…[Read More]

There are fearsome things and events that exist in our world today, but from an individual, personal perspective the chances of them affecting us DIRECTLY?

Not likely.

However, with that said…

One thing, one oh-my-gawd-Mother-Nature-what-have-you-done thing, on a personal level we should ALL fear, and quite honestly have every right to, because darn-tootin’ it WILL affect us all?

And by saying ‘it will affect us all’, I mean it will eat your freakin’ FACE OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brace yourself…

A new venomous, giant spider has been discovered:

ARRGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

[via YahooNews] Newly Discovered Giant Spider is of the Nightmare-Inducing Variety ~By

Of all of the creepy and crawly things that you can think of, tarantulas probably are near the top of the list when it comes sheer terrorto scariness. Well, get ready to add another terrifying arachnid to your list, because a new type of tarantula has been discovered in northern Sri Lanka.

Ranil Nanayakkara, a local researcher, and his team found the tiger spider and named it Poecilotheria rajaei, after a local police investigator, Michael Rajakumar Purajah. Purajah helped the team of scientists navigate the remote area where the spider was found.

The genus Poecilotheria is known for being fast, colorful, and venomous. But why does this newly discovered species stand out from all the rest in its genus? It’s huge, for one thing. Its leg span is up to 8 inches across, about the length of your face. It also has distinctive markings on its underside and legs that are geometrically patterned and described as daffodil-yellow and gray.

So what do these spiders eat? They have a taste for small snakes, birds, and mice. Nanayakkara explained why they were able to find P. rajaei in an unusual place — an old doctor’s office. “They prefer well-established old trees, but due to deforestation, the number have dwindled and due to lack of suitable habitat, they enter old buildings.”

…[Read More]

And so, although the news of North Korea threatening to nuke us, barely made me blink?
The off-putting NASA plans caused me to look up at the stars in the sky and, regarding scientists, re-think?
Oh, but it was the newest spider discovery, which very well had for me a heart attack…On the brink!

Fears.

We all have them.

Some of them, however…

Far more personal than others.

Eek.

James Hansen Quote
Apr 4 2013

News Mash: “Climate deniers” are apparently a new thing…They are not what you would think them to be!

Climate deniers…

Exist.

Just probably?

Not quite in the form you are thinking:

[via National Review]The New Climate Deniers
The world hasn’t warmed since 1998, and those obsessed with “climate change” are ignoring it. ~ By Rich Lowry

There are few things sadder than the “climate denier.” He ignores the data and neglects the latest science. His rhetoric and policy proposals are dangerously disconnected from reality. He can’t recalibrate to take account of the latest evidence because, well, he’s a denier.

The new climate deniers are the liberals who, despite their obsession with climate change, have managed to miss the biggest story in climate science, which is that there hasn’t been any global warming for about a decade and a half.

“Over the past 15 years air temperatures at the Earth’s surface have been flat while greenhouse-gas emissions have continued to soar,” The Economist writes. “The world added roughly 100 billion tons of carbon to the atmosphere between 2000 and 2010. That is about a quarter of all the CO2 put there by humanity since 1750.” Yet, no more warming.

The Economist has been decidedly alarmist on global warming through the years, so it deserves credit for pausing to consider why the warming trend it expected to continue has mysteriously stalled out.

The deniers feel no such compunction. They speak as if it is still the late 1990s, when measurements of global temperature had been rising for two decades. In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama said that “we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science and act before it’s too late.” In a passage devoted to global warming, though, he didn’t mention the latest trend in global warming.

A denier feels the same righteous sense of certitude now, when warming has stopped, as he did a decade ago. Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson recently opined that “sensible people accept the fact of warming” — but apparently not the fact of no-warming. He scorned those “who manipulate the data in transparently bogus ways to claim that warming has halted or even reversed course.” Does he include James Hansen, the famous NASA scientist, among these dastardly manipulators? No one this side of Al Gore has warned as persistently about global warming as Hansen. He nonetheless admits that “the five-year mean global temperature has been flat for a decade.”

…[Read More]

Cause really…

Trying to explain how something happened, which HASN’T happened?

Though you keep screaming at everyone how it has?

Has honestly gotta be a little tough to pull off:

[via The Australian] Twenty-year hiatus in rising temperatures has climate scientists puzzle ~by: Graham Lloyd

DEBATE about the reality of a two-decade pause in global warming and what it means Climate changehas made its way from the sceptical fringe to the mainstream.

In a lengthy article this week, The Economist magazine said if climate scientists were credit-rating agencies, then climate sensitivity – the way climate reacts to changes in carbon-dioxide levels – would be on negative watch but not yet downgraded.

Another paper published by leading climate scientist James Hansen, the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, says the lower than expected temperature rise between 2000 and the present could be explained by increased emissions from burning coal.

For Hansen the pause is a fact, but it’s good news that probably won’t last.

International Panel on Climate Change chairman Rajendra Pachauri recently told The Weekend Australian the hiatus would have to last 30 to 40 years “at least” to break the long-term warming trend.

But the fact that global surface temperatures have not followed the expected global warming pattern is now widely accepted.

Research by Ed Hawkins of University of Reading shows surface temperatures since 2005 are already at the low end of the range projections derived from 20 climate models and if they remain flat, they will fall outside the models’ range within a few years.

“The global temperature standstill shows that climate models are diverging from observations,” says David Whitehouse of the Global Warming Policy Foundation.

“If we have not passed it already, we are on the threshold of global observations becoming incompatible with the consensus theory of climate change,” he says.

Whitehouse argues that whatever has happened to make temperatures remain constant requires an explanation because the pause in temperature rise has occurred despite a sharp increase in global carbon emissions.

The Economist says the world has added roughly 100 billion tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere between 2000 and 2010, about one-quarter of all the carbon dioxide put there by humans since 1750. This mismatch between rising greenhouse gas emissions and not-rising temperatures is among the biggest puzzles in climate science just now, The Economist article says.

“But it does not mean global warming is a delusion.”

…[Read More]

Yeah…

That last statement?

Kinda does.

But you have to hand it to Global Warming believers…

They keep trying.

Not a fan of their science, but I must say?

HUGE fan of their tenacity, despite the evidence to the contrary.

James Hansen Quote

And yet…

They keep it going, and going and going.

Just so needless too.

Good Intentions Hell
Mar 28 2013

News Mash: Environmentalists suffer The Law of Unintended Consequences and in vain.

Greenies, environmentalists…

Have really good intentions, when it comes to some of the crazy decisions they make…

On behalf of ALL of us, when it comes to the regulations & laws of our daily lives.

And when it comes to their long-term goals?

Of protecting the environment, Mother Nature.

Some of these ingenious plans…

Yeah, well?

Can definitely be said to be subjected to: The Law of Unintended Consequences

[via HotAir]Reminder: That incandescent light bulb ban was not a good idea ~by Erika Johnsen

Why? Not merely because government directives might forcibly funnel consumer demand, investment, and R&D toward a product that really isn’t ready for mass consumption, but also because, no matter how great their intentions might be, the free market is always better than politicians at picking efficient solutions. The free market’s only bias is in appealing to people’s rational self-interest; i.e., if people figure out that Product A is more expensive or of lower quality than comparable substitute Product B, people will buy Product B.

In this case, the compact fluorescent bulbs politically favored by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 encountered a lot of resistance because CFLs are impractical, more expensive, and it turns out they might actually be a cancer risk, no big deal or anything. But if the goal is to get people to buy bulbs that use electricity more efficiently, government mandates aren’t nearly as effective as a product that can actually make those electricity savings more pragmatic, more affordable, and more worthwhile, and the market is happy to provide. Via the NYT:

You’ve probably seen LED flashlights, the LED “flash” on phone cameras and LED indicator lights on electronics. But LED bulbs, for use in the lamps and light sockets of your home, have been slow to arrive, mainly because of their high price…

That’s a pity, because LED bulbs are a gigantic improvement over incandescent bulbs and even the compact fluorescents, or CFLs, that the world spent several years telling us to buy.

LEDs last about 25 times as long as incandescents and three times as long as CFLs; we’re talking maybe 25,000 hours of light. Install one today, and you may not own your house, or even live, long enough to see it burn out. …

You know how hot incandescent bulbs become. That’s because they convert only 5 to 10 percent of your electricity into light; they waste the rest as heat. LED bulbs are far more efficient. They convert 60 percent of their electricity into light, so they consume far less electricity. …

…[Read More]

Resulting in?

The Law of Unintended Consequences to…

And extremely DEADLY degree.

[via National Review]Bald Eagles Fall to Green Energy ~by Deroy Murdock

When bald eagles confront danger, most normal Americans would leap to preserve, protect, and defend America’s national symbol. But Team Obama’s response is completely different: It wants to give wind-power companies long-term permits to butcher Bald Eagles on the altar of green energy.

The dirty secret about “clean” wind power is that its turbines are giant, whirling machetes. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), “With more than 100,000 turbines expected to be in operation in the United States by 2030, annual bird mortality rates alone (now estimated by the Service at 440,000 per year) are expected to exceed one million.”

Like other birds, eagles sometimes do not detect blades that often revolve at 200 miles per hour. Such birds of prey focus on finding smaller creatures to devour and then fatally smack into windmills.

Bald eagles and golden eagles are among the victims. This is the first significant bad news for bald eagles since their return from near-extinction. According to the Audubon Society, only 417 nesting pairs of bald eagles inhabited the continental United States in 1963. The bald eagle joined the Endangered Species List on July 4, 1976. Public and private protection helped secure its June 2007 delisting. At least 7,066 nesting pairs now populate the lower 48 states, among a total world population of some 330,000.

And now this.

Most Americans would expect Washington to shield these beautiful, majestic, and soaring creatures. Instead, they are being sacrificed in the name of environmental correctness.

…[Read More] [Be sure to check out THIS article, out of Nevada, which not only makes LIGHT such death, but tries to make it seem inconsequential, CLICK HERE!]

But honestly…

Love the Greenies, I really do. They have amazingly fantastic intentions.

And who doesn’t love good intentions?

Good Intentions Hell

But honestly, considering the “bigger picture”?

I think they are wasting their time.

No matter what light bulb you use?

We’re all gonna die anyway:

[via Scientific American]How the Higgs Boson Might Spell Doom for the Universe ~By Saswato R. DasHiggs Boson

Physicists recently confirmed that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the particle physics laboratory in Geneva, had indeed found a Higgs boson last July, marking a culmination of one of the longest and most expensive searches in science. The finding also means that our universe could be doomed to fall apart. “If you use all the physics that we know now and you do what you think is a straightforward calculation, it is bad news,” says Joseph Lykken, a theorist who works at the Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois. “It may be that the universe we live in is inherently unstable.”

…[Read More]

So…

You see, in the end?

Mother Nature just laughs at us ALL.

And not in a pretty, flirtatious  way…

But in a “Haha, change all the light bulbs, and use all of the stupid wind farms you like–I’m going to blow you up anyway!” kinda way.

Sorry, Greenies.

Do I really even need to ask
Mar 24 2013

News Mash: What’s worse for bats, white-nose syndrome or bat-eating spiders? What do you think?

If you’re a bat?

You know of the dangers of…

White-nose syndrome.

And?

You fear it for good reasons:

[via NJ.com]Speaker: Are Great Swamp bats disappearing due to ‘white-nose syndrome?’ ~By Justin Zaremba/NJ.com

White-nose syndrome, caused by a fungus and linked to the deaths of bat populations throughout the U.S., appears to be impacting New Jersey bats in unexpected ways, according to a researcher with the Great Swamp Watershed Association.

Jenny Borhman, lead biologist for bat research, education, and outreach at the Great Swamp National wildlife refuge, said Tuesday that last summer, far fewer “little brown bats” were tagged by researchers than in previous years. But far more “big brown bats” were found within the watershed.

Most of New Jersey’s nine native bat species, which includes Indiana bats, Eastern red bats and big brown bats, have been found in Great Swamp, but the number of smaller species recorded by researchers has decreased drastically, Bohrman told an audience at the Great Swamp Watershed Association’s Breakfast Briefing series.

Little brown bats and Indiana bats, which are endangered, are smaller, “cave-dwelling species,” meaning they often hibernate in caves, buildings or other warms enclosures during the winter months, she said.

White-nose syndrome doesn’t directly kill the bats, but impacts their physiology in ways that lead to their death — for instance, it causes lesions on their muscles and necrotic tissue on their wings, Bohrman said. Ultimately, the bats starve to death because they’re unable to feed themselves, she said.

…[Read More]

However maybe…

Bats are concentrating their fear in their wrong direction.

After all, bats face a more unscrupulous, deadly foe…

One that is wider spread, not to mention more freaky-deaky, than anyone could have thought.

Spiders!

[via Wired]Bat-Eating Spiders: The Most Terrifying Thing You’ll See Today ~By Nadia Drake

A bat’s enemies: owls, hawks, snakes, the Joker, spiders. Spiders? Yes.

The incidence of spiders eating bats could be more widespread than initially suspected, reports a study published March 13 in PLoS ONE. To reach this conclusion, the authors spoke with scientists, conducted an extensive scientific literature review, dug through the blogosphere, and looked for pictures of spiders eating bats on Flickr.

The search turned up 52 reports of bat-eating spiders, less than half of which had been published before.

The authors report that bat-munching spiders live on every continent except Antarctica. Most catch bats in webs, like the giant golden silk orb-weavers (Nephilidae). As adults, these spiders’ leg spans can be 10-15 centimeters across, and they weave webs more than a meter in diameter. Bats have also been observed in the webs of social spiders, such as Parawixia. But a minority of spiders, like huntsman and tarantulas, forage for prey without a web, and have been spotted munching on bats on forest floors.

Perhaps most surprisingly, “An attempt by a large fishing spider Dolomedes triton to kill a bat pup has been witnessed below a bridge in Indiana,” the authors report.

That spider’s plot was foiled after it became frightened by photographers.

…[Read More]

So…

On one bat-wing side? We got a deadly fungus.

On the OTHER bat-wing side? We got scary, hairy-legged spiders, with venom dripping fangs, who want to eat you alive, while you can do nothing but squirm in a sticky, claustrophobia-inducing web membrane.

Question is: If you were a bat…

What would YOU worry about more?

Seriously!?

Do I really even need to ask [Source]