From Susan Moeller and Moisés Naím in today’s LA Times: There is no doubt that new technologies are changing the way all of us get and understand information. The trend is toward actively “searching” for what one wants to watch, read or listen to rather than passively taking in whatever editors or producers select. The …
Continue reading ‘We Must Not Forget the Anna Politkovskaya’s’ »
A friend sent along a link to Erika Niedowski’s piece in the Baltimore Sun over the weekend about a bunch of researchers studying extremophiles at the end of the Earth. No politics here, no big breakthroughs, just some delightful writing. As my friend said, “Sometimes a good science story is just a good science story.” …
Talking about drought with Mom and Dad at dinner tonight (my poor family), I brought up the “Civil War Drought”, which hit the middle of North America in the late 1850s and ’60s. Dad wanted to know more about where it hit, and I wasn’t sure. I found out. I could just call and tell …
Nick Brooks kindly dropped by a few weeks back with a comment that’s worth pulling out and highlighting in its entirety. Brooks is assistant director of the University of East Anglia’s Saharan Studies Programme, and I’d commented on a paper of his on cultural response to climate change. Nick’s comment: Flattering that you guys are …
Continue reading ‘Brooks on Climate, Society and “Progress”’ »
In which a team of Australian researchers determines the half-life of the teaspoon. It would be easy to jump to conclusions here about the obvious policy responses this suggests, but I think it’s important to remember that science can do no more than inform the political/policy process. What society does with this information is as …
This is a great example of the issue Daniel Collins raised a couple of days ago in a discussion of the definition of drought – the extent to which the demand side of the equation must be taken into consideration. It’s a Reuters story about Prince Edward’s visit to northwest Kenya, “where drought has decimated …
Heard on a local TV ad today: Skiers and snowboarders! El Niño is back, and it’s gonna be a great year!
Because everyone has the attention span of a nine-year-old with a cocaine problem. (Hat tip Nora.)
cool new paper: Hainzl et al. show how rain can trigger earthquakes. stuff I wrote elsewhere: Wave in Alaska busts up iceberg off Antarctica (no big scoop here, every science writer with an angle has been doing this story, ’cause it’s so insanely cool) music: One of my favorite classic rock songs is Jim Hendrix’s …
A San Francisco Giants fan sends along this, evidence of a clever “Moneyball”-style plot to capitalize on the fact that Yankee fans are stupid enough to think Alex Rodriguez is a lousy ballplayer.