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ASPO-USA Denver Conference Report. Views on Peak Oil from a wide range of panelists in Colorado this week, including the mayor of Denver "who has joined that brave but small band of honest and courageous politicians willing to go anywhere near the issue of peak oil".
comment posted at 3:35 AM on Nov-13-05
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comment posted at 6:37 AM on Nov-13-05

Ever wanted a stuffed animal with a little more bite? Then the Urban Beast Project is for you. Hundreds of stuffed animals "taxidermied" into their more feral cousins. And if you've ever wanted a small gallery of grille pets, they've got one.
comment posted at 6:41 AM on Nov-13-05

Plant Cultures - central aim ... is to convey the richness and complexity of links between Britain and South Asia, through the story of plants and people
comment posted at 6:46 AM on Nov-13-05

After the first time I flew on an upgraded ticket, I wondered why some airline didn't just make slightly more expensive tickets on a plane filled with fewer, roomier seats for those that crave comfort (basically, all business class). Well, it looks like someone has at Eos Airlines. The seating arrangements look fantastic, going from roomy seat area to flat bed to double table with two seats (for a coworker), with privacy and aisle access for all. Unfortunately "slightly more expensive" is pretty high at $5k for NYC to London, though that's cheaper than major airlines. Business Week has the full story on this new venture.
comment posted at 3:50 AM on Nov-13-05
comment posted at 3:51 AM on Nov-13-05
comment posted at 6:50 AM on Nov-13-05
comment posted at 7:03 AM on Nov-13-05

Not a particularly interesting person? Perhaps you'd be more interesting if you had been attacked by pygmies, or survived a fall from a 19 story building. But who has the time to actually HAVE crazy life threatening accidents. Now, you no longer need to.
comment posted at 11:46 PM on Nov-11-05

Beedogs.com. Dogs in bee costumes. That is all.
comment posted at 10:25 AM on Nov-11-05

The White Diamond was one of three documentaries released in theaters this year (in the U.S.) by legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog (the others being the more widely seen Grizzly Man, about a man who studied bears in Alaska, and Wheel of Time, about the practices and rituals of devout Buddhists). In The White Diamond, Herzog introduces us to Dr. Graham Dorrington, a professor of aeronautics who is obsessed with weightless, floating flight, and who is testing the design of a new airship in a large hangar outside of London. Herzog and Dorrington travel to the rainforest of Guyana, where Dorrington hopes to fly the small dirigible over the jungle’s canopy and study the innumerable plants and animals living there with the hopes of finding new species and potentially discovering plants with pharmaceutical and healing benefits – a practice he calls “canopy prospecting”. [more inside]
comment posted at 9:10 PM on Nov-10-05
comment posted at 9:15 PM on Nov-10-05

Do you spend a lot of time worrying about government mind-control satellites? New research from MIT indicates that your tin-foil hat may be less effective than you think.
comment posted at 9:43 PM on Nov-10-05

The latest in something of a trend, left-leaning LA Weekly has warmed to nuclear power. Earlier this year, Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore endorsed it as well (along with such practices as salmon farming). The idea that Nuclear is green has appeared in the pages of the New York Times, with (both subscriber only, sorry) Thomas Friedman and Nicholas Kristof making the case back in March and April. They've encountered some resistance, but it seems to be a growing position. (Of course, there are some people who aren't being asked to join the club.) Is this a "Greenwashing" or a legitimate change in the environmental movement?
comment posted at 9:32 PM on Nov-10-05

When the Waves Turn the Minutes to Hours It's been 30 years since Lake Superior November gales claimed the Great Lakes ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald. The sinking immortalized in song by Gordon Lightfoot is also documented at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum on a spit of land in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan a mere squinting distance on a clear day from where the Fitz actually went down. Here in Detroit, of course, the bells will ring at Mariner's Church -- where a lone priest reacted to the sinking by ringing the church's bells 29 times, once for each man lost. (previously discussed (kinda) here (among others)
comment posted at 9:38 PM on Nov-10-05

American Christianity has distorted the gospel and become spiritually bankrupt. ... “Regardless of what the New Testament says, most Christians are materialists with no experience of the Spirit. Regardless of what the New Testament says, most Christians are individualists with no real experience of community.” He paused for a moment and then continued: “Let’s pretend that you were all Christians. If you were Christians, you would no longer accumulate. You would share everything you had. You would actually love one another. And you would treat each other as if you were family.” His eyes were piercing as he asked, “Why don’t you do that? Why don’t you live that way?”
comment posted at 9:53 PM on Nov-10-05

Does religion make people evil? A brief and well-balanced article by George Monbiot discussing the conclusions of this research paper.
comment posted at 3:59 PM on Nov-9-05

Flying Spagetti Monster expelled from Kansas The Kansas School Board has decided that it knows much more about the origins of life than the combined intelligence of all the scientists on the planet, and that fiction can be taught as fact. But seriously, if you don't even understand the scientific method, what business do you have setting academic policy?
comment posted at 10:02 PM on Nov-10-05

La strage nascosta (italian language) Today Rainews 24 part of RAI Television (Italian possible equivalent of PBS) broadcasted on a satellite channel a short documentary concerning the conquest of Falluja city. The documentary presents many images and allegations suggesting that U.S. army probably used White Phosphorous on the city during the offensive of 8 November 2004 with devastating consequences on civilians and insurgents. The substance is used on battlefield for purposes including production of dense smoke (M156) and also for incendiary purposes.(Warning, disturbing pictures of dead people). Direct link goes to documentary, English audio WMV link here. NSFW, extremely graphic, and very disturbing. Previous reference [1] here on Meta.
comment posted at 10:29 PM on Nov-7-05

The origin of life?! I heard from an authority in molecular biology today that a group of researchers funded by the Carnegie Institution and NASA believe they've discovered the origin of RNA, and with that, the origin of life. This new discovery grew out of NASA's Deep Impact mission to study the composition of comets. Specifically, they started investigating a kind of carbon that forms in layers, with each layer slighly offset from the previous one in a helix shape. Significantly, the thickness of these carbon layers corresponds with the thickness of each twist in a strand of RNA. It turns out that the individual building blocks of RNA are capable of bonding to this layered carbon when exposed to UV radiation. Once this has happened, apparently formaldehyde can then bond to the building blocks of RNA on the carbon "pattern", allowing the bonded RNA to slough off into the primordial soup. Over time, some of these RNA strands could fold and bond to themselves, forming DNA. Formaldehyde, the initial bonding material, would eventually be replaced by a more chemically sophisticated substance, creating the chemical bond that we observe today in DNA. Expect a paper on it to be released in approximately three months with all the details.
comment posted at 7:08 PM on Nov-6-05
comment posted at 7:24 PM on Nov-6-05

Newsfilter: Al-Qaeda chief breaks out of jail. Al-Qaeda's former South-East Asian chief has escaped from a US military prison in Afghanistan. The escape of Omar al-Faruq, with three other alleged terrorists, from the Bagram Air Base in July was suppressed, emerging only after he failed to testify at a US military tribunal on Tuesday.
comment posted at 8:23 PM on Nov-3-05
comment posted at 9:19 PM on Nov-3-05

"Pinch his tits." A Freudian slip and not getting over it is bad joo joo for Christians Speakers
[embedded video & some cursing]
comment posted at 8:50 PM on Nov-3-05
comment posted at 8:54 PM on Nov-3-05

The President's Advisory Panel on Tax Reform has issued their final report. They propose two different plans - one plan called the "Simplified Income Tax Plan" and one called the "Growth and Investment Tax Plan." Both plans do such things as eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax, reduce the tax rate in all the brackets and changes the home mortgage interest from a tax deduction to a tax credit at the lowest bracket tax rate (15%) and limits the mortgage amount to the regional average instead of up to $1.1M. Lots to read, and lots of graphs for those who like pictures instead of words (the report starts with income distribution, tax burden, etc and goes on to different tax strategies).
comment posted at 7:59 PM on Nov-1-05
comment posted at 8:41 PM on Nov-1-05
comment posted at 9:07 PM on Nov-1-05

Abortion in America is a blogger's thoughtful summary of a report (pdf) by the Third Way Institute about who is having abortions in America, how many they're having, and why. (via sully.)
comment posted at 8:52 PM on Nov-1-05
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comment posted at 9:18 PM on Nov-1-05

Mouse serenade: Tim Holy and Zhongsheng Guo at Washington University School of Medicine in Missouri discover the songs of mice. Published at the Public Library of Science, Biology, (non newsie, science article). Examples of the singing, 1- shifted down 4 octaves, timing intact (MP3 file) and, 2 - shifted down 4 octaves and slowed down 16 fold. (MP3 file) (partially via)
comment posted at 9:31 PM on Nov-1-05

News Filter: Senate in closed session. Looks like Senate is now in close session, after Harry Reid invoked Rule 21 and asked for an investigation into the lead-up to the war. Does it sound like a major deal or is it political maneuvering?
comment posted at 8:13 PM on Nov-1-05

Why Does God Hate Amputees? - Marshall Brain, creator of HowStuffWorks and author of Robotic Nation, has posted his latest work, a multi-chapter website examining the delusion of religious belief. If you're busy, he suggests reading Understanding Delusion. If you want the whole story, start at the beginning. (title explaination)
comment posted at 7:56 PM on Oct-29-05

Go Rangers This is the tale of a young man who lost an eye to a suicide bomber in Iraq and THEN joined the U.S. Army Rangers. I don't think that he was busy calling his Mom.
comment posted at 8:10 PM on Oct-28-05
comment posted at 8:58 PM on Oct-28-05

Now there's hope. Ask your doctor about Hetracil. [Honestly, I've posted this thinking it's a parody... These days, though, one never knows.]
comment posted at 7:51 PM on Oct-28-05
comment posted at 8:16 PM on Oct-28-05
comment posted at 9:08 PM on Oct-28-05

Einstein Speaks from Beyond the Grave... To issue a vigorous challenge to the muddled claims coming from all sides about the inherent incompatibility of science and religion. (No secondary links to go with this, but in my opinion, this link is interesting enough to stand on its own.)
comment posted at 11:29 AM on Oct-28-05
comment posted at 8:35 PM on Oct-28-05
comment posted at 8:46 PM on Oct-29-05

Its official. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby indicted on two counts of Perjury, two counts of Making False statements and one count of Obstruction of Justice. All of which are felonies. It is expected Libby will tender his resignation today.
comment posted at 11:23 AM on Oct-28-05

Is the US broken beyond repair? Columnist Peggy Noonan asks some disturbing questions about the US and its future. Have the wheels come off the trolley and are we headed off the tracks. Can anyone put us back on the tracks or is it too late? A very thought provoking article.
comment posted at 11:31 AM on Oct-28-05

Dengue in Texas. If it ain't the flu, it's the haemorrhagic fever. Disease info from WHO, CDC, Wikipedia.
comment posted at 9:28 AM on Oct-28-05
comment posted at 8:47 PM on Oct-28-05

Good smell perplexes New Yorkers How odd the city smelled sweet, like maple syrup, and all over: up in Harlem, downtown, in Astoria, Park Slope, other parts of Brooklyn. And what was it? A breakout of MSUD and public urination? Or something more fortean or more sinister?
comment posted at 8:44 PM on Oct-28-05

How things do change! A short Guide to Iraq published in 1942 by the US government. The handbook was written for American soldiers who were stationed in Iraq to prevent Nazis from seizing the country’s oil. .... 63 years later.
comment posted at 10:42 PM on Oct-27-05