As global warming continues to escalate, so does the rate at which Greenland’s glaciers break off and melt into the ocean. From Live Science:
Those faster-moving glaciers now dump in a year twice as much ice into the Atlantic as they did in 1996, researchers said Thursday. The resulting icebergs, along with increased melting of Greenland’s ice sheet, could account for nearly 17 percent of the estimated one-tenth of an inch annual rise in global sea levels, or twice what was previously believed, said Eric Rignot of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
…
That stepped-up flow accounted for about two-thirds of the net 54 cubic miles of ice Greenland lost in 2005. That compares with 22 cubic miles in 1996. The most recent volume is more than 200 times the amount of fresh water used by Los Angeles in a year, Rignot said.
Here a few more interesting items on Cheney, his alcohol, and his gun:
Cheney has a history of drunk driving.
Cheney’s victim gave his first public statement yesterday. His doctors say he is doing fine. Why then did he say the accident happened on Friday when Cheney said it happened on Saturday?
Apparently, the Bush administration looks the other way for terrorists willing to give the United States money. They have now outsourced the operation of six of our country’s largest ports to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). If approved, Dubai Ports World, managed by the UAE government, would control the ports of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami, and Philadelphia for $6.8 billion. Here are some known facts about the UAE:
– The UAE was one of three countries in the world to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
– The UAE has been a key transfer point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Lybia.
– According to the FBI, money was transferred to the 9/11 hijackers through the UAE banking system.
– After 9/11, the Treasury Department reported that the UAE was not cooperating in efforts to track down Osama Bin Laden’s bank accounts.
So, let me get this right. They recognized the government helping the 9/11 terrorists, transferred money to those same terrorists, will not help us find said terrorists, and aided Iran in possibly assembling nuclear weapons? I am thinking it probably does not sound like a great idea to give them control over key entry points into our country or ever really do any sort of business negotiation. But that’s just me.
Luckily, a 7-member bipartisan group in Congress is calling for a suspension on the approval until the Treasury Department investigates the national security implications of the sale.
A few people have sent this to me. Apparently, Rumsfeld is troubled by our current level of technological ability in the war on terrorism. From Reuters:
The United States lags dangerously behind al Qaeda and other enemies in getting out information in the digital media age and must update its old-fashioned methods, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Friday.
Modernization is crucial to winning the hearts and minds of Muslims worldwide who are bombarded with negative images of the West, Rumsfeld told the Council on Foreign Relations.
The Pentagon chief said today’s weapons of war included e-mail, Blackberries, instant messaging, digital cameras and Web logs, or blogs.
“Our enemies have skillfully adapted to fighting wars in today’s media age, but … our country has not adapted,” Rumsfeld said.
The sad thing is that Rumsfeld lack of technological ability has been reprimanded because of his domestic response to hurricane Katrina. It turns out that he does not even use e-mail.
When it came to documentation of how Secretaries Michael Chertoff and Donald Rumsfeld responded to Katrina, however, congressional investigators got a different answer from the administration. The House committee established to investigate Katrina was “informed that neither Secretary Chertoff nor Secretary Rumsfeld use e-mail,†reported Reps. Charlie Melancon and William Jefferson, two Louisiana Democrats who participated in the inquiry despite a boycott by other House Democrats who felt that the inquiry was too partisan. The Democrats made the disclosure in a report attached as an appendix to a widely publicized investigative report released today by the Republican majority which led the House Katrina investigation.
What is that about talking the talk and walking the walk? I am sure it is comforting to know that most second graders have a stronger grasp on internet communications than our Secretary of Defense.
I wish we had this kind of toy when I was a kid.
Bubo is a toy with “magic” powers that can cast spells and take control over innocent devices or other kids’ toys in its surroundings… Bubo takes control of home appliances by constantly sniffing for IR transmission, intercepting and learning infrared commands from remote controls to their devices and acquiring their functionalities.
I am not sure every parent wants to give their kid a universal remote that can control every device in the house. I am pretty sure, however, that every kid wants one.
A seventh grade teacher did this wonderful experiment with her class. She had all the students describe and draw pictures of what they thought scientists were like before and after a field trip to Fermilab. I love how all the ‘after’ pictures have scientists in jeans.
The Japanese amaze me. One of their latest inventions is the Cold Fusion Shower. It is a shower light made of LEDs that are powered by the water pressure. Even better, the LEDs change color with the temperature. No longer do you have to worry about jumping into a too cold or too hot shower. You can know visually the temperature of the water.
Last Tuesday, the Ohio Board of Education voted 11-4 to remove science standards and lesson plans that encourage students to seek evidence for and against evolution. The critics of the material believed it was an open door to teach intelligent design, a fancy word for Christian creationism. Marth Wise, a critic of the material, stated “It is deeply unfair to the children of this state to mislead them about science.â€
It is good to see that our school administrators are willing to see intelligent design advocates’ true motives to push faith and Christianity. This seems to be greatly due to the U.S. District Judge Jones’ ruling against intelligent design/creationism in Dover, Pennsylvania, schools. He described Dover’s policy as “breathtaking inanity†and stated that the six-week trial illustrated that intelligent design “is a religious view, a mere re-labeling of creationism, and not a scientific theory.â€
Jones stated:
(The Dover policy) singles out the theory of evolution for special treatment, misrepresents its status in the scientific community, causes students to doubt its validity without scientific justification, presents students with a religious alternative masquerading as a scientific theory, directs them to consult a creationist text as though it were a science resource and instructs students to forgo scientific inquiry in the public school classroom and instead to seek out religious instruction elsewhere.
I am glad that our board is standing up for the educational standards of our science classes. Now, if only they would stand up to this.
Matt sent me this wonderful article from Dan’s Data on how to build a Sparkler Bomb. It is the perfect at home project for anyone looking to blow something up in a dangerous and awesome way.
From the site:
Here you will learn the essentials of making an improvised firework which, while spectacular, is also both as predictable and as safe as something that blasts a mighty shower of sparks 50 feet into the air can reasonably be expected to be. I have made many of these things. I have been quite close to them when they went off. I have never so much as lost any hair, which is more than I can say about the results of some of my other half-baked pyrotechnic experiments.
And here is the description of the event:
Now the standard sparkler bomb ignition sequence will occur:
1. The fuse will burn right down to the level of the sparklers.
2. Some turkey will say “It’s not going to go off!”
3. After a short delay determined by how well you packed the sparklers, it will go off, and a large number of sparklers that would each burn for a couple of minutes will be consumed by the very fires of Hell in about one and a half seconds.
4. One and a half seconds later, the crowd will emit various whoops and whistles.
Happy burning.
