February 2009
Farmers Angry Over Reports That Kirchner Eyes...
[via Farmers Angry Over Reports That Kirchner Eyes Nationalization]
‘Argentine farmers, already suffering from their country’s worst drought in more than a half-century, reacted angrily on Friday to reports that Argentina’s president was contemplating nationalizing domestic and foreign grain trading.
[…]
Since protracted strikes by farmers last year, they have been a thorn in the...
In a blunder reminiscent of Janet Cooke scandal,...
[via Climate Progress]
’[…] in what seems to be Alice-in-Wonderland journalism, a senior editor at the Washington Post now asserts it is perfectly reasonable for a non-scientist Post writer to reinterpret a prestigious source’s scientific data to support his or her conclusion — after those sources have repeatedly stated that their data is consistent with the exact opposite conclusion...
“When a reputable newspaper lies, it poisons the community; every newspaper story...”
– New York Times Editorial Board, April 17, 1981.
Yellow Is the New Green
[via Yellow Is the New Green by Rose George]
‘In the industrialized world, most of us (except those who have septic tanks) rely on wastewater-treatment plants to remove our excrement from the drinking-water supply, in great volumes. (Toilets can use up to 30 percent of a household’s water supply.) This paradigm is rarely questioned, and I understand why: flush toilets, sewers and...
Watchjoelaz:
Weird Fish With Transparent Head
“The fish, discovered alive in the deep water off California’s central coast by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), is the first specimen of its kind to be found with its soft transparent dome intact.” (via National Geographic)
3 tags
Ryanair Cost Cutting Getting Strange
[via Business Traveller]
‘Business Traveller can confirm reports that Ryanair plans to close all airport check-in desks by the end of the year. In a bid to reduce costs, passengers will not be able to check in at a manned desk, with online check-in the only option for many airports. Passengers with bags to check in will use a dedicated bag-drop. The savings will be passed on to passengers...
Teenage Audio Test
The Teenager Audio Test - Can you hear this sound?
Created by Train Horn
They use this sound in the UK to drive Teenagers away from storefronts.
The George Will Affair
Curtis Brainard at the Columbia Journalism Review jumps in the the George Will IceCapGate.
‘There is some truth to that. Indeed, because of the hullaballoo, Will is now writing about climate change for the second time this month. On the other hand, this whole affair raises a number of important questions about how the press, particularly columnists, cover climate change. The most important...
The Coen Brothers Behind The Scenes In The "Air...
The Reality folks recently created a new ad countering the clean coal nonsense from the coal industry, directed by the Coen Brothers. Hilarious.
I found the behind the scenes movie just as cool:
It’s disturbing that I heard the expression “clean coal” in Obama’s state of the union address the other night. We need to remember there is no such thing as clean coal.
Not the time for short term thinking by Wendy...
[via All About Cities]
‘Unfortunately, it seems that many city governments, and those at other levels that impact cities are taking the opposite approach. Some are even backtracking on progressive, forward-looking plans initiated before the recession hit.
Take San Francisco’s proposed congestion pricing strategy. The mayor and other urban leaders previously saw reducing congestion as...
Colorado - Ban on Plastic Bags Fails
[via NYTimes.com]
‘Colorado shoppers will be able to keep using plastic grocery bags after lawmakers balked at what would have been the nation’s first statewide ban on the sacks. A State Senate bill banning the use of plastic bags by large retailers by 2012 was defeated Tuesday after a handful of Democrats joined with Republicans in voting against it. Critics argued that the ban would lead...
Mr. Whipple Left It Out - Soft Is Rough on Forests
[via NYTimes.com]
“No forest of any kind should be used to make toilet paper,” said Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist and waste expert with the Natural Resource Defense Council.
Nickels to Clean New York
[via NYTimes.com]
A new push in NYC to enlarge the list of bottles that carry a 5¢ recycling redemption to include water and juic bottles.
We should do this everywhere: here, in San Francisco, for example. I constantly see water bottles blowing around: partly because homeless and poor people are rooting through garbage cans for the redeemable bottles, and the water bottles get pulled out and...
“It was always easy to complain about a world of too much American power as long...”
– Thomas Friedman
[via NYTimes.com]
Students Stand When Called Upon, and When Not
[via NYTimes.com]
‘“At least you can wiggle when you want to,” said Sarah Langer, 12.”’
Interesting story about improving attention, behavior, and learning but letting kids stand, or sit, as they want in school.
Washington Post Stands By Climate Change Denialism
[via Matthew Yglesias]
‘the Post, as an institution, has taken a stand that says it’s okay to claim that up is down. It’s okay to claim that day is night. It’s okay to claim that hot is cold. It’s okay to claim that a consensus existed when it didn’t. It’s okay to claim that George Will is a better source of authority on interpreting the ACRC’s scientific research than is the ACRC....
Mobile phones as lekking devices among human males
[via @cshirky, Human Nature]
Aus: Human Nature (Ausgabe 00004/2000)
Von: Springer-Verlag
Autor: J. Lycett, R. Dunbar
Sprache: En
Umfang: Seite 93 bis 104 Artikel kaufen und herunterladen € 29.50 Human Nature als Printausgabe bestellen
Textauszug:
‘This study investigated the use of mobile telephones by males and females in a public bar frequented by professional people. We found...
Failing: The NY Times And Andrew Revkin Blow The...
“Revkin — and the NY Times — had another chance to say that public opinion on climate change, perhaps the most critical issue we face, is simply and clearly wrong.”
In fine journalistic equipoise, Andrew Revkin has failed to clarify some recent events involving Al Gore and George Will on climate change. The NY Times author does the totally wrong thing, setting this up as...
Freakoutonomics: What Will It Take for Small...
[via New York Magazine]
‘Our survey findings were emphatic about a few more things: Foot traffic is dead. Impulse buying is disappearing fast. Nobody is shopping anymore on weekdays—Mondays and Tuesdays in particular—but weekends are still busy. Where people used to buy three items, they are now buying one. Where they used to freely spend $200, they are now spending $99. […] While...
4 tags
Drought Shrivels China’s Wheat Belt
Michael Wines, Drought Shrivels China’s Wheat Belt
The current drought, considered the worst in Northern China in at least half a century, is crippling not only the country’s best wheat farmland, but also the wells that provide clean water to industry and to millions of people.
[…]
Water supplies have been drying up in Northern China for decades, the result of pervasive overuse and...
2 tags
Anselma Dub - Radioaxiom
Jah Wobble/Bill Laswell
“These two tendencies, that of the speaker to scale down his expressions and that...”
– Erving Goffman
[via Adrian Chan]
1 tag
For Gulls, Vigilance Is a Team Effort [Henry...
[via NYTimes.com]
‘After controlling for group size and density, Dr. Beauchamp found that in the same group, gulls with neighbors that were alert spent about one-fifth less time sleeping than those with neighbors that were less alert.
Dr. Beauchamp points out that recent research on birds and other animals shows that in foraging and reproductive strategy, individuals glean information...
The 3 R’s? A Fourth Is Crucial, Too - Recess by...
[via NYTimes.com]
[…] the brain uses two forms of attention. “Directed” attention allows us to concentrate on work, reading and tests, while “involuntary” attention takes over when we’re distracted by things like running water, crying babies, a beautiful view or a pet that crawls onto our lap.
Directed attention is a limited resource. Long hours in front of a computer or studying for a...
“If Men Could Menstruate: Congress would fund a National Institute of...”
– Gloria Steinem
1 tag
After Abuse, Changes in the Brain by Benedict...
[via YTimes.com]
‘In a study of people who committed suicide published Sunday in the journal Nature Neuroscience, researchers in Montreal report that people who were abused or neglected as children showed genetic alterations that likely made them more biologically sensitive to stress.
[…]
In the study, scientists at McGill and the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences...
Smells Like Teen Spirit by Patti Smith (originally...
Nouriel Roubini Says Nationalizing the Banks Is...
[via WSJ.com]
‘What exactly is Nouriel Roubini’s economic philosophy? “I believe in market economics,” he says, with some emphasis. “But to paraphrase Churchill — who said this about democracy and political regimes — a market economy might be the worst economic regime available, apart from the alternatives.
“I believe that people react to...
The War on Drugs Is a Failure by Fernando Henrique...
[via WSJ.com]
Former presidents of, respectively, Brazil, Columbia, and Mexico, calling for the decriminalization of marijuana, and the end of the war on drugs.
‘The war on drugs has failed. And it’s high time to replace an ineffective strategy with more humane and efficient drug policies. This is the central message of the report by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and...
Cut the Military Budget -- II by Barney Frank
[via The Nation, buffieheadcabin]
‘I would be very happy if there was some way to make it a misdemeanor for people to talk about reducing the budget deficit without including a recommendation that we substantially cut military spending.
Sadly, self-described centrist and even liberal organizations often talk about the need to curtail deficits by cutting Social Security, Medicare,...
WatchEast Timor’s First Female Dictator - The Onion
I especially like the bit where a professorial type is gushing about how Gama, the fictional distator, was the first woman to behead her political opponents, as if this was some milestone in feminism. Hilarious.
[via buffleheadcabin]
Many Plans to Curtail Use of Plastic Bags, but Not...
[via NYTimes.com]
‘Regarded by some as a symbol of consumer culture wastefulness, plastic bags have been blamed for street litter, ocean pollution and carbon emissions produced by manufacturing and shipping them.
Momentum for imposing fees or bans has expanded from a few, often affluent, liberal cities on the West Coast — San Francisco was the first big city to ban plastic bags, in 2007...
Wave of Drug Violence Is Creeping Into Arizona...
[via NYTimes.com]
‘The violence in Mexico — where more than 6,000 people were killed in the last year in drug-related violence, double the number of the previous year — is “reaching into Arizona, and that is what is really alarming local and state law enforcement,” said Cmdr. Dan Allen of the State Department of Public Safety.
[…]
The hearing comes at a time of heightened anxiety...
