Planet Earth
tfk | June 2, 2010People are idiots. Who looks at megatons of toxic goo being spewed out of a pipe and thinks: "I know, let's make that toxic sludge radioactive!"
tfk | May 19, 2010Bruce Chapman, head Disco. DJ, thinks we're going through global cooling:
It certainly seems so this spring. Winter on the East Coast was grim and summer temperatures are hard to find now in the West. Snowfall also higher than in decades past. It doesn't mean anything except this: there is (and should be) a real debate.
In fact, NASA found this to have been the hottest April on record, and the hottest January-April on record. Which is to say, this was not a notably cool spring. April also saw the lowest snowfall on record for that month.
In other words, it doesn't matter that Chapman…
tfk | May 18, 201030 years ago, a very young Josh Rosenau looked out the window of his parents house in Portland, Oregon, pointed at the volcanic ash settling on the trees and sidewalks, and explained: "'cano!" Folks had been anticipating the eruption of Mt. St. Helens for weeks, some of them even eagerly urging the volcano to blow its top.
My dad, a reporter at Portland's KGW-8 TV station, covered the Mt. St. Helens eruption, flying with a camera crew to survey the mountain once it was safe to get close, and later reporting from inside the crater about the work geologists were doing to understand the volcano…
tfk | May 3, 2010No More Mister Nice Blog explains the facts of life to Bobby Jindal:
For the last sixteen months the GOP has been screaming that government is evil, that it is the problem, that we need less regulation in order to be more productive, more profitable, and that rules and oversight aren't needed because the free market will take care of things. You know what? If the booms [meant to keep the oil from spreading] aren't "effective" and the resources of BP are "not adequate" to deal with a disaster of this magnitude, then why the hell are you letting them operate offshore oil rigs off of your…
tfk | March 13, 2010One of my colleagues from Scienceblogs.com.br contacted me a week or so ago to talk about creationists and global warming deniers, and I just checked and his story for Brazil's largest paper is online. Frankly, I think I gave him one of my juicier quotes:
"Dos negacionistas do aquecimento global, a maioria é motivada principalmente pelos negócios e pela polÃtica. Um número chocante de pessoas parece se opor à ideia porque não gostam de Al Gore. Muitos trabalham em empresas petrolÃferas ou pertencem a indústrias que teriam de pagar pela mitigação do aquecimento", diz Rosenau. "Então…
grrlscientist | December 25, 2009tags: Polar Bear Versus Walrus Colony, nature, global warming, climate change, BBC, Planet Earth, documentary, streaming video
This video documents an awesome fight for survival as a grown male polar bear takes on a walrus colony at the edge of the Arctic circle. This was a truly epic battle, phenomenally captured in high quality, from the BBC natural history masterpiece, Planet Earth.
What surprised you most about this footage? I was surprised that the walruses did not work together to defeat/get rid of the polar bear.
tfk | September 24, 2009Nicholas Beaudrot defends the (second) bag fee against Atrios's opposition to any fees, and against Matt Yglesias's defense of all fees for checked luggage. Atrios rightly notes that the fees are part and parcel of the generally crappy air travel experience, Matt argues that the fees discourage excessive packing, thereby reducing the carbon footprint of travel. Nick replies that Matt's economic analysis fails to consider shifts from checked luggage to carry-on:
bag fees on the first bag encourage two behaviors:
Travelers pack the largest bag they think they can carry on to the plane. This…
grrlscientist | September 17, 2009tags: Planet Earth, nature, animals, BBC, television, streaming video
Martha Holmes, series producer of BBC Earth programs discusses the importance of preserving the planet, along with comments from her colleagues, Neil Nightingale and Dale Templar. This amazing series will air this Sunday, 20 September, from 300-800pm. Yes, I am jealous beyond words of all you people who have televisions.
grrlscientist | September 16, 2009tags: Planet Earth, nature, animals, BBC, television, streaming video
Neil Nightingale, Head of the BBC Natural History Unit, discusses the impact and variety of BBC Earth expeditions, as well as the passion of the crew members. Martha Holmes and Brian Leith, share their thoughts on these subjects as well. This amazing series will air this Sunday, 20 September, from 300-800pm. Yes, I am jealous beyond words of all you people who have televisions.
tfk | August 24, 2009In 1925, John Scopes was tried and convicted of violating Tennessee's Butler Act. His trial was ginned up as a constitutional test case by the ACLU and as an economic stimulus plan for the town of Dayton, TN. The trial was promoted as "the trial of the century," celebrity lawyers were recruited for both sides, and the town did all it could to attract journalists and onlookers.
The trial wound up famously embarrassing William Jennings Bryan, who died shortly after the trial, and before an appellate court overturned the conviction he won on a technicality. While laws like the Butler Act stayed…
grrlscientist | July 8, 2009tags: Antarctica, Humpback Whales, Krill, David Attenborough, Planet Earth, BBC, streaming video
This beautifully done video shows breathtaking images of how Humpback Whales, Megaptera novaeangliae, hunt Krill, Euphausia superba, in Antarctic waters. This is a video clip from BBC's natural history masterpiece, Planet Earth. [3:50]
Quark Expeditions is searching for an Official Blogger to join a voyage to Antarctica. Their goals, according to an email I received from their official spokesperson, Prisca, are to have their official blogger write a daily blog entry in English about their…
tfk | May 8, 2009Roger Pielke, Jr. is a respected scholar of science policy, but he's got a contrarian streak a mile wide that gets him into trouble occasionally, as for instance his feud with Joe Romm of Climate Progress. It is also apparent in his survey of a fight over oyster farming off the coast of Point Reyes. His title, "The War on Science Continues" is, he insists, "a bit of irony, of course, as there never has been a 'war on science,' just politics as usual, sometimes played more hardball than others, especially by the previous Administration."
His example of an ongoing war on science involves…
tfk | May 4, 2009Kansas Jackass reports that newly installed Governor Parkinson will allow a coal plant in Holcomb:
At a just concluded press conference, Governor Mark Parkinson announced he has reached an agreement with Sunflower Electric Power Corporation that will allow for the construction of a brand new massive coal-fired power plant in Holcomb, Kansas.
Parkinson will allow air quality permit that had been blocked by Kansas Department of Heath and Human Services Secretary Rob Bremby to be issued and pave the way for the construction of one one 895 megawatt plant provided the Kansas Legislature passes a…
tfk | April 22, 2009I highlighted a story the other day in which Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu revealed that his security detail does not allow him to bike or ride public transit to work. I pointed out that New York's Mayor Bloomberg rides the subway to work, and he's not the only transit-riding mayor.
Berkeley's Tom Bates is, as the SF Chronicle puts it, "trading in his 2001 Volvo for an AC Transit pass and a sturdy pair of walking shoes." He explains: "I'm trying to reduce my carbon footprint to the absolute minimum. I figure, if I really want to go someplace I can just rent a car."
Speaking to UC…
grrlscientist | April 10, 2009tags: Planet Earth, David Attenborough, BBC, biodiversity, streaming video
This streaming video shows Earth by looking at our beautiful planet as a whole. [8:02]
grrlscientist | April 9, 2009tags: Planet Earth, David Attenborough, BBC, biodiversity, streaming video
This streaming video shows Earth by looking at our beautiful planet as a whole. [10:02]
grrlscientist | April 7, 2009tags: Planet Earth, David Attenborough, BBC, biodiversity, streaming video
This streaming video shows Earth by looking at our beautiful planet as a whole. [10:00]
grrlscientist | April 6, 2009tags: Planet Earth, David Attenborough, BBC, biodiversity, streaming video
This streaming video shows Earth by looking at our beautiful planet as a whole. [9:40]
tfk | January 29, 2009DaveScot, the semiliterate sycophant who used to administer Bill Dembski's ID blog, is in a tizzy. In addition to being an evolution denier, DS is a climate change denier and a promoter of medical woo, you see, and he thinks there's evidence that "[James] Hansen’s former boss at NASA declares himself an AGW skeptic." He is sure that:
The video below is U.S. Senator James Inhofe describing the letter he received from former NASA supervisor and senior atmospheric scientist Dr. John S. Theon
But no! As Tim Lambert points out, and as any fully literate person could tell from the email DS…
tfk | January 13, 2009PZ Myers and a Canadian denialist blog are locked in a tight race for this year's best science blog. Go vote for the tentacled one.