George Monbiot writes: The idea that we can simply replace this fossil legacy […] with ambient energy is the stuff of science fiction. There is simply no substitute for cutting back. […] The last time I drew attention to the hazards of making diesel fuel from vegetable oils, I received as much abuse as I […]
A couple days ago I commented on a recent article out of USC (that I saw mentioned on BoingBoing) that proclaimed: “While surprise is not a new concept it had lacked a formal definition, broad enough to capture the intuitive meaning of the term, yet quantitative and computable.” The part that I’d taken issue with […]
Via Boing^2: “Surprise! Computer scientists model the exclamation point” – – /sigh again? As A will no doubt attest, this is nothing new. There have been biological and mathematical models of “surprisingness” for quite a while. (Decades, if I’m not mistaken.) Does science have to take place at UC Berkley USC to be important or […]
Via Boing Boing: Cartoon Aliens re-enact Tom Cruise anti-psychiatry rant What I find particularly interesting here is how much Cruise’s knowledge of the subject rather unfortunately parodizes his position. Wait, allow me to rephrase: His passion for the subject matter combined with his confusion over specific terms parodizes his position. Tom: “Psychology” and “psychiatry” are […]
Via Boing Boing: the tale of Howard Dully, a California man who makes his living as a bus driver who had a transorbital lobotomy at age 12 in 1966. He describes how he’s always felt like he’s been missing something. And maybe he has. Kind of a gut-wrenching tale. And makes you think about what […]
This makes me so happy. Via Wired News: Monsignor Gianfranco Basti, director of … Science, Theology and Ontological Quest, reaffirmed John Paul’s 1996 statement that evolution was “more than just a hypothesis.” “A hypothesis asks whether something is true or false,” he said. “(Evolution) is more than a hypothesis because there is proof.”
3rd annual The Worst Jobs in Science list via Popular Science magazine.
Added…: BrainsMaps.org (via BoingBoing) Seed mag (also via BoingBoing) currently playing: Delerium “Orbit of Me”
My environmental message for the day: Melanie McGrath reports on Madagascar’s threatened lemurs: Madagascar is one of the world’s poorest countries, and is hugely dependent on rice. In the past century, the island has lost 90% of its forest to slash-and-burn agriculture, or tavy. The once thickly covered central highlands are now a wasteland, scarred […]