Sunday, February 26, 2006

Silencing Science

The Bush administration is rife with failures and travestries, but for scientists this has to be one of the most concerning. Not necessarily news, but this pair of interviews from NPR (NPR : Bush Science Push Fails to Transform Critics) clearly lays out the issues of how the adminstration has injected policy into issues that are clearly dictated by science. As Dr. Kennedy states, while this has been the case for quite some time in politics, "We have hit a new watermark."

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Cold-weather microbes

CO2 producing microbes like cold

In an interesting twist for ecology, it appears that reduced snow cover in the mountains causes cold-weather microbes to produce less CO2. Reduced snow cover is attributable to global climate change (higher tempatures, less precipitation). But ironically that results in these cold-weather microbes producing less CO2 (and thus contributing less to global warming).

It all starts with the microbes in dirt. Not something most people think about, but each handful of dirt is full of them. And these particular microbes like the temperature right around freezing in the moist soil beneath the snow. And the emit CO2. Nature is cool.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

End of telegram. Stop.

LiveScience.com - Era Ends: Western Union Stops Sending Telegrams

Wow. The changes you see in a lifetime. The impact the telegraph (and the railroad) had on settling this country. And now you can't send a telegram anymore, and can't take a train most places.

Here is the message on Western Union's website.