Holy cows. Australian grad student Jamie Voyles has discovered the mechanism by which the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis is killing the world’s amphibians.
It blocks the transmission of electrolytes through the skin, resulting in disastrously low leves of potassium – down 50% – and sodium – down 20% in the blood, triggering cardiac arrest.
Phase One of the NaiKun Wind project would plant 110 wind turbines in the Hecate Strait off the northeast coast of Haida Gwaii and generate 396 megawatts of electricity by current estimates, enough to power 130,000 homes according to Naikun.
If Naikun’s expansion through Phase Five to 550 towers is accomplished the project would eventually generate 1750 MW. That would be an increase of more than 60% over the current 2854 MW of Canadian generation from wind and will certainly change the energy profile of British Columbia.
GMAFB, as her cattiness would say.
Here comes Santa Claus,
here comes Santa Claus,
bloooooood on his saddle . . . .
The four winners of the “Alternative Nobels” were named in Stockholm yesterday. The winner of the honorary award is David Suzuki
for his lifetime advocacy of the socially responsible use of science, and for his massive contribution to raising awareness about the perils of climate change and building public support for policies to address it.
The term “honorary” does not connote an inferior class of award. It merely means that no cash accompanies that award, as in the selection committee’s eyes the individual does not need it. (Hey that’s socialism for ya, Doc. Congrats anyhow)
The other three winners, below.
Ha!
Flipping around old books of rhyme, I ran across Marianne Moore’s anticipation of bloggers and instant punditry:
To a Steam Roller
The illustration
is nothing to you without the application.
You lack half wit. You crush all the particles down
into close conformity, and then walk back and forth on them.Sparkling chips of rock
are crushed down to the level of the parent block.
Were not ‘impersonal judment in aesthetic
matters, a metaphysical impossibility,’ youmight fairly achieve
it. As for butterflies, I can hardly conceive
of one’s attending upon you, but to question
the congruence of the complement is vain, if it exists.
Coin banks. Piggy banks. Do children have them anymore?
I was a lucky kid, in that my father’s family pharmacy, was located in the Michigan Avenue National Bank in Chicago, and there were all sorts of promos in the forms of coin banks. My fave was a solid metal bank, in the shape of a Neo-Classical building. Yes, they were exercises in instilling a savings impulse among children. Read the rest of this entry »
Maybe I should have taken the blue pill after all. This was actually the first thing I saw when I turned on my puter today: Peace Prize Complicates War Efforts
( — for Kirk Cameron — )
Just a pointer in case anyone has missed it: the October 2 issue of Science is largely devoted to Ardipithecus ramidus, the extinct hominid whose fossilized partial skeleton predates Lucy by more than a million years.
Eleven papers on Ardi, her forest environment, and the implications for human (not to mention chimpanzee) evolution are freely available in a special Online Extra (registration required – one minute tops). There is a wealth of commentary and supporting material as well. Each paper is also represented by a very unjargoned author’s summary.
It’s a feast, and an appropriate celebration of the fifteen years of hard work put in by dozens of people.
All about the world’s 124 remaining kakapo: Kakapo Recovery Programme
