I’ve been bitten by The Facebook Bug, so most of my activity is being done there.
Now primarily on Facebook
August 19th, 2009Scientists: Pace of Climate Change Exceeds Estimates
February 14th, 2009It’s possible that the folks who have spent the last eight years suppressing scientific evidence for climate change may have perpetrated the inevitable demise of our planet, or at least the human race.
There’s a lot of new evidence that the planet is heating up much faster than anyone predicted–and it might be unstoppable.
Scientists: Pace of Climate Change Exceeds Estimates
The pace of global warming is likely to be much faster than recent predictions, because industrial greenhouse gas emissions have increased more quickly than expected and higher temperatures are triggering self-reinforcing feedback mechanisms in global ecosystems, scientists said Saturday.
“We are basically looking now at a future climate that’s beyond anything we’ve considered seriously in climate model simulations.”
Vatican supports Darwinism and dismisses Creationism
February 11th, 2009For those who’ve missed it over the last fifty years, the Vatican still supports Darwinism and isn’t interested in Creationism.
Previewing the conference yesterday, Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Church’s Pontifical Council for Culture, conceded the Church had been hostile to Darwin on occasion. But, he said, the Church had never formally condemned Darwin, and he noted that in the last 50 years a number of Popes had accepted evolution as a valid scientific approach to human development.
Whew.
Bush officially the least popular president
January 20th, 2009Congratulations (soon-to-be-ex) President Bush! You’ve exceeded Truman’s unpopularity by 2%. Your lowest approval rating of 20% is just a bit less than your 22% approval rating as you leave office.
You were also the most popular president when your rating was 90%. That makes your failure even more striking because you squandered more popularity than anyone.
In November 2008, just before the presidential election, only 20 percent approved of the job he was doing as president – the lowest of any president since Gallup began asking the question in 1938.
But don’t feel too bad. Your vice-president’s approval rating is only 13%.
I can’t think of a more deserving legacy.
News flash: teens have sex despite promises!
December 30th, 2008Anyone who’s been a teenager won’t be surprised by the results of this study. Seriously, we don’t need to spend money to discover common sense.
What apparently isn’t common sense is that teens who aren’t educated about the risks and responsibilities of sex engage in risky, potentially life-threatening behaviors. This should make it obvious to all the fans of teen ignorance that we must have comprehensive sexual education in schools, as early as middle school.
Teenagers who take virginity pledges are no less sexually active than other teens, according to a new study.
But the results, published in the journal Pediatrics, suggest that virginity pledgers are less likely to protect themselves against pregnancy or disease when they do have sex.
Researchers say the findings suggest that virginity pledges may not significantly affect teenagers’ sexual behavior. Instead, they may decrease the likelihood of teenagers taking precautions, such as using a condom or using birth control, when they do have sex.
Blackwater might (MIGHT!) finally be charged
November 18th, 2008I suppose this is better than nothing, but not much better. The U.S. Justice Department has drafted charges against Blackwater employees for committing crimes in Iraq, namely killing 17 civilians. That doesn’t mean it’ll happen, but it’s a start.
The Justice Department has had this matter for fourteen months and has done almost everything imaginable to walk away from it–including delivering a briefing to Congress in which they suggested that they lacked legal authority to press charges …
While it is important to hold these individual contractors accountable for their actions, we must also hold Blackwater accountable for creating a culture that allows this type of reckless behavior,” adds Schakowsky. “The indictments do nothing to solve the underlying problem of private security contractors performing critical government functions. The indictments will likely get rid of a few bad apples, but there will be no real consequences for Blackwater. This company is going to continue to do business as usual–the solution is to get them out of this business.
After reading this article, I hope a few people are more nervous about Blackwater having been deployed to New Orleans. I know I am.
Let’s give capitalism a try
November 17th, 2008It’s time to let the Big Three fail. GM and Ford have burned almost half a trillion dollars over the past ten years. I don’t want to throw [my!] good money after bad. Don’t worry about their suppliers–there are enough cars on the road to keep them in business for a long time.
Many are suggesting that $25 billion of public money be immediately injected into the auto business in order to buy time for an even larger bailout to be organized. We would do better to set this money on fire rather than using it to keep these dying firms on life support, setting them up for even more money-losing investments in the future.
Bush 3% away from lowest Presidential approval ever
October 12th, 2008Congratulations, Mr. President. Your approval rating is the lowest it’s ever been and is only three points away from the lowest of any president in history. Keep going–we know you can do it!
George W. Bush's job approval ratings trend
Sarah Palin anticipates the end of the world within 40 years
October 7th, 2008Sarah Palin believes that the Christian Judgement Day will occur within her lifetime.
Another valley activist, Philip Munger, says that Palin also helped push the evangelical drive to take over the Mat-Su Borough school board. “She wanted to get people who believed in creationism on the board,” said Munger, a music composer and teacher. “I bumped into her once after my band played at a graduation ceremony at the Assembly of God. I said, ‘Sarah, how can you believe in creationism — your father’s a science teacher.’ And she said, ‘We don’t have to agree on everything.’
“I pushed her on the earth’s creation, whether it was really less than 7,000 years old and whether dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time. And she said yes, she’d seen images somewhere of dinosaur fossils with human footprints in them.”
Munger also asked Palin if she truly believed in the End of Days, the doomsday scenario when the Messiah will return. “She looked in my eyes and said, ‘Yes, I think I will see Jesus come back to earth in my lifetime.’”
Meanwhile, the Pope has reiterated his belief that Evolution is consistent with Catholic teachings. Governor Palin probably finds that position too radical for her.
Hundreds of mammalian species endangered
October 6th, 2008Over 25% of the world’s mammals are in danger of extinction.
The researchers concluded that 25 percent of the mammal species for which they had sufficient data are threatened with extinction, but Schipper added the figure could be as high as 36 percent because information on some species is so scarce.
Still don’t believe climate change is real?
One in two mammal species on Earth are in decline and at least one in four are at risk of disappearing forever, according to a scientific survey released Monday and whose sponsors described the trend as an “extinction crisis” in the making.