Archive for the 'science' Category
I wonder how this will affect the infamous hockey stick?
from a friend in southern France. 
Gee, it’s a good thing we found this out before we did something like flood the atmosphere with sulfur.
A glitch in satellite sensors caused scientists to underestimate the extent of Arctic sea ice by 500,000 square kilometers (193,000 square miles), a California- size area, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center said.
while the source isn’t exactly unimpeachable this is worrying.
The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside.
Anyone know how common YP is in Algeria?
In 1971, during a drilling, geologists accidentally found an underground cavern filled with natural gas. The ground on which the drilling rig was placed collapsed, leaving a large gaping hole exposed with a diameter of about 50-100 meters. To avoid poisonous gases coming out of the hole, it was decided to let the gases burn. As of 2009, gases in the underground cavern are still burning without interruption. Locals have named the cavern The Door to Hell.
Sunspots Are Fewest Since 1954, but Significance Is Unclear
By KENNETH CHANG
The Sun has been strangely unblemished this year. On more than 200 days so far this year, no sunspots were spotted. That makes the Sun blanker this year than in any year since 1954, when it was spotless for 241 days.
The Sun goes through a regular 11-year cycle, and it is now emerging from the quietest part of the cycle, or solar minimum. But even for this phase it has been unusually quiet, with little roiling of the magnetic fields that induce sunspots.
“It’s starting with a murmur,†said David H. Hathaway, a solar physicist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
As of Thursday, the 276th day of the year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo., had counted 205 days without a sunspot.
In another sign of solar quiescence, scientists reported last month that the solar wind, a rush of charged particles continually spewed from the Sun at a million miles an hour, had diminished to its lowest level in 50 years.
Scientists are not sure why this minimum has been especially minimal, and the episode is even playing into the global warming debate. Some wonder if this could be the start of an extended period of solar indolence that would more than offset the warming effect of human-made carbon dioxide emissions. From the middle of the 17th century to the early 18th, a period known as the Maunder Minimum, sunspots were extremely rare, and the reduced activity coincided with lower temperatures in what is known as the Little Ice Age.
Maybe now is a good time to think about moving somewhere with a bit milder climate… 
Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections “has become a black hole” because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office.
Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud “Excuse me!” He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a “white hole.”
That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy.
Increasing exposure to carbon dioxide appears to boost crop yields, Hans-Joachim Weigel of the Johann Heinrich von Thuenen Institute for rural areas, forestry and fisheries in the central city of Brunswick told AFP.
“Output increased by about 10 percent for barley, beets and wheat” when the plants were subjected to higher levels of carbon dioxide, Weigel said.
Since the FAO’s report in April 2006 tens of thousands of farmers have switched from food to fuel production to reduce US dependence on foreign oil. Spurred by generous subsidies and an EU commitment to increase the use of biofuels to counter climate change, at least 8m hectares (20m acres) of maize, wheat, soya and other crops which once provided animal feed and food have been taken out of production in the US.
Seems to me that every time the .gov gets involved in something it turns to sh*t.
Thanks to bio-fuel subsidies the price of my bagel keeps going up how much does that suck?
It’s Mumbai, India.
the story behind of the “hint” is below.
Continue reading ‘name that country (answer)’
Kim du Toit has got it
Our current ethanol production represents only 3.5 percent of our gasoline consumption—yet it consumes 20 percent of the entire U.S. corn crop
Out of an estimated 2007 crop of 13.054 billion bushels.
THAT IS A LOT OF CORN
There’s no wonder that steak houses are facing a shortage.
Jeez, his powers are increasing… now he doesn’t even have to be giving a speech, he just needs to be winning an oscar to drop temperatures for a whole month
potentially great news from the New Scientist
but I’m taking it with a grain of salt…