I recently saw a talk by Andrew E. Dessler, author of The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change. Dessler discusses the arguments for and against taking actions to reduce green house gas emissions. He provides evidence showing that most people who value their credibility will not argue against the proven facts that the earth is warming and that some of the change is human-induced. Instead they will argue that, given the uncertainty of the situation, the nation cannot reasonably take actions to prevent emissions.

One of the best arguments cites The One Percent Doctrine, a book by Ron Suskind named for Dick Cheney’s declaration that “We have to deal with this new type of threat in a way we haven’t yet defined. . . . With a low-probability, high-impact event like this . . . If there’s a one percent chance that Pakistani scientists are helping al Qaeda build or develop a nuclear weapon, we have to treat it as a certainty in terms of our response.” Therefore, if there is a one-percent chance of a nuclear attack, we should take action.

So, what are the chances that the global climate is warming? The chances (discussed by Dessler) are far greater, perhaps 20 to 50 percent. The dangers of global warming have been shown: wildfires, droughts, extreme weather events. Why, then, is the US government not taking action to prevent these disasters?

One problem is that the public doesn’t feel a sense of urgency to prevent global warming. People are more concerned with the immediate dangers of other threats, such as avian flu or terrorism. Someone suggested that the dead polar bear should be the mascot to get the public thinking about the dangers of global warming. It seems that Greenpeace has. Perhaps it would be more effective if it went something like this:

This polar bear died from:
a) terrorism 
b) avian flu 
c) gay marriage 
d) flag burning 
e) global warming 

It might be more accurate to say that the polar bear died from poor leadership by our short-sighted politicians.

Nanoparticles in paint could be blocking your calls. NaturalNano’s Radio-Frequency Shielding Technology can be added to paint to block two-way signals (cell phones, wi-fi, etc.). A complementary technology can enable selected signals to get through by picking them up with an internal antenna and selectively transmitting them to an external antenna. My question is, what are they doing with the intercepted signals? My guess is that the nanoparticles will self-assemble into annoying, text-messaging, cell phone-talking nanobots, learning our modern language and social customs from the constant interception of our cell phone calls. Soon they will seek to destroy humanity so they can start their own highly communicative, super-socialized nano-civilization. Come on, it could be worse.  Would you want to stick around with these nanobots carrying on like sugar-high teens, anyway?

Things that go bump in the night. Then scream, bleed, and are rushed to the emergency room.  You guessed it: Drunks, and more alcohol science.

It has now been scientifically proven that drinkers fall down more than non-drinkers. Those who drink are four times more likely to be hurt in accidents within the first 6 hours of drinking. Within 24 hours of drinking, the drinkers are over twice as likely to have accidents. Interestingly, the risk of injury did not increase with type or amount of alcohol consumed, but those who mixed types of alcohol increased their risk of injury substantially.

So, next time you’re about to consume an Irish car bomb, a sake cocktail, a sangria or an atomic Jager bomb, follow these simple drinking safety rules: cover all surfaces between shin- and head-bumping height in white rubber, remove all sharp and/or pointy objects from the vicinity, and avoid contact with hot surfaces and mean drunks.  Now, it’s party time!

The tech world is abuzz with the launch of the new teaser website for the Zune system, which is Microsoft’s rumored iPod/iTunes rival. The website is completely ridiculous, as it doesn’t give any information and is a cartoon of some guys petting a bunny. This would be cute if it had anything to do with the product, but since most people will be visiting the site for actual information, it’s pretty far off.

No fear, the rumor mill has been spinning for a while now. There is a concept-image circulating the net (below), but I haven’t been able to determine whether or not it is authentic (although it seems reasonable). “Confirmed” facts also include that the device will be drive-based and will use wifi to download music directly onto the player. There are speculations that the device will include a gaming system and that Microsoft will buy users out of iTunes (by allowing free downloads of anything purchased from iTunes).

Will it be better than iPod? I find it likely that the Zune will be similar to all other previous iPod rivals: a lot of hype. In the end, Zune will need to provide users with simple and elegant design that Microsoft has never been known for. Otherwise, the Zune will become just another mp3 player with a minimal amount of the 23% of the non-iPod digital music player market.

Saber-toothed kangaroos, three meter tall ducks, tree-climbing crocodiles and marsupial lions, oh my! The fossils of at least 20 new and bizarre species have been unearthed in Austrailia. Is it just me, or does anyone else want to see these species battle it out in IMAX? I mean, it wouldn’t be cruelty to animals since they’re already extinct, right? Maybe that’s why all the fossils were found together: 20 million years ago the Austrailian land predators fought to the death until there was one predator overlord. Who won? I’m betting on the the “demon duck of doom“. No word on what happened to this one:  

 (Slightly more credible theories for the loss of Austrailia’s megafauna can be found here)

New research promises that implanted brain sensors will help paralyzed people perform tasks.  I know what you’re all thinking: Hello? What about lazy people? Soon we’ll be able to perform pesky tasks such as opening the door, turning on the TV, or ordering a pizza without lifting a finger! The implications are astonishing. You could see the pizza commercial on TV (which you turned on with your mind), order pizza by brain-dialing, then blink open the door for the pizza guy! Maybe you’d have to get up to tip, but I’m sure they can come up with a way to solve that.  I mean we don’ t need telekinesis or magic if the technology will do it for us! Of course we will need to engineer pizza delivery-bots, tip-bots and TV repair-bots, but we can outsource that to India! The future just gets brighter and brighter, doesn’t it?

After seeing the July 4 shuttle launch from Cocoa Beach, FL last week, I have yet to extract the photos from my cell phone. Most of them look a lot like this.

The coolest shuttle footage I’ve seen so far is from the solid rocket booster camera. There is no audio, so I recommend listening to something spacey while watching. The video is 12.5 minutes long, so here are the highlights: Liftoff @ 1 min, separation of booster and shuttle @ 3 min, plummet towards Earth resolves @ 5.5 min, booster passes through clouds @ 7 min, impact with water @ 7.5 min. The booster and parachute float in the water for the rest if the video; this is uneventful but oddly meditative (especially if listening to said spacey music).

Or, if you think the booster cam is a total drag, check out this footage from the Korean Taepodong missile cam, which is shorter and has lovely audio. If you prefer a CG version, check out this optimistic video showing the US shooting down an Alaska-bound Taepodong 2 long range missile.

That’s a healthy dose of rocket science. Next time I’ll have to get back to nanobots and booze…

A new study shows that drunk people were less than half as likely to see a dude in a monkey suit than sober people. In the test, people were given drinks (or not) and asked to count how many times a ball was tossed in a video of people playing a ball game. During this engaging film, someone in a monkey suit comes to the center of the screen, beats his chest and leaves. Eighteen percent of drinkers and 46 percent of sober people noticed this.

Firstly, less than half of the people noticed the monkey to start with. I’ve heard of this before. It is called “inattentional blindness” and results from focusing too much attention on a single thing, preventing one from noticing unexpected items right in front of you. The Bush Administration knows a lot about this. They might try to get us to focus on, say, flag burning, while diverting our attention from, say, everything else (the war, loss of civil liberties, the national debt). But that’s nothing new.

Secondly, who’s to say the drunks cared about a dude in a monkey suit? Did the monkey have more booze? Were the people in the film throwing around Jager bombs? The drunks were probably like, “Who’s this boring psychiatrist dude trying to make me watch this stupid movie? I bet he never gets laid.” Yeah. Drunks rule. And pirates. Yarrrr.

P.S. Pardon the lack of posting over the past week or two.  I was in Cocoa Beach, FL and I saw the (1st ever 4th of July) shuttle launch from there!  It was awesome.  I will post pictures once I manage to extract them from my not-so-awesome camera phone.