You may know that much of the climate change on earth over the last two million years-the coming and going of ice ages-is caused by the “orbital geometry” of the planet. The amount of planetary tilt and the time of year the tilt occurs change over time. When the Northern Hemisphere is less tilted towards the sun on June 21st, and at the same time the Earth is as far from the sun in its elliptical orbit as it ever gets, ice age conditions prevail. This makes ice ages on Earth pretty regular, cyclic, events….
Monthly Archives: September 2009
Maddow on Acorn
The De-Fund Acorn Act of 2009: Shame. Maybe even illegal.
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How to fly using your Wii (but you have to flap fast enough)
Do not watch this if you can’t handle geeks wearing viking hats.
Continue reading How to fly using your Wii (but you have to flap fast enough)
What makes a perfect day at the lake?
When the wind stiffens it blows the fog off the lake and replaces it with a biting spray. And when the wind slackens the sound of air rushing though the leaves and around the cabins is replaced with the crashing of the white caps that stand off from the more protected bay. Either way it is chilly and inhospitable, with ambient temperatures near 40 and a wind chill that might be close to freezing.
In other words, a perfect day at the lake.
Continue reading What makes a perfect day at the lake?
Sagan and Hawking’s new music video
Here at The Lake I don’t get enough intertubules to watch a video reliably. So I can’t separate the DJ effect from the Slow Connection effect in this video, but it looks good:
Continue reading Sagan and Hawking’s new music video
Cuban rapper busted, released.
The Cuban Rapper AL2 of the bad Los Aldeanos has been arrested by the Cuban Police, and released. Meanwhile, some of his personal effects including a computer were confiscated. Rappers are considered very dangerous by the Cuban government. You may recall a major bust up of a concert there a few weeks ago. I think this arrest was not entirely unexpected.
The following is a statement from very close to the source of the events that that was sent to me by Emetrece for your information.
Continue reading Cuban rapper busted, released.
Bird Life International’s Position on Climate Change
The scientific evidence is overwhelming and unequivocal, climate change is a stark reality. It is largely caused by human activities and it presents very serious global risks for people and biodiversity around the world and it demands an urgent global response. Human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels, are releasing rapidly increasing levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. This is causing the atmosphere to heat up. We do not have the luxury of standing by for years before the world gets round to making a serious attempt to cut its emissions. The next few years will be critical….
John Wilkins Applies to the Library
As a youth. Before he went silver.
Do you find science surprising? You ain’t seen nothing yet.
Did you ever wonder about what I do in my spare time? Did you ever wonder about The Eastern Pacific Black Ghost Shark? Well, these things are connected….
Continue reading Do you find science surprising? You ain’t seen nothing yet.
Plants should not tweet
I don’t want my plant twittering me. It is bad enough that they are alway staring at me. Especially the one in the kitchen.
Chance of god existing = 50% – 50%
If you really want him to exist. If he wants you to want him to exist. Or to want you to think that he wants him …. Oh, never mind, just watch.
Hat Tip Colloquy
Global Warming, The Decline of the Moose, and “Minnesota Nice”
We have had a cool summer here in Minnesota, and this has brought out the miscreants who for their own reasons do not want to get on board with the simple, well demonstrated scientific fact that global temperatures have risen, that we humans are the primary cause, and that this climate change has negative consequences.
Continue reading Global Warming, The Decline of the Moose, and “Minnesota Nice”
Roman Polanski may visit Los Angeles Soon
Roman Polanski has been wanted by the Las Angeles police since he skipped town a few decades back before sentencing on an “unlawful sex with a minor” charge. That was the plea he copped for much more serious rape charges. He has more or less ignored the fugitive warrants because for some reason you can rape someone in the United States and then live in France and that’s OK. Polanski was busted by Swiss officials when he went to Switzerland to receive a lifetime achievement award. He is expected to fight extradition.
Continue reading Roman Polanski may visit Los Angeles Soon
Happy Birthday Chris Rowan
…. of the blog Highly Allochon … Highly Allochthon … no, wait, .. Got it Highly Allochthonous.
Your email account could be shut down at any time for no good reason
Unlikely, but it could happen. A judge recently ordered a person’s Gmail account to be shut down. Why? Because that person received an email from a bank. The email was not supposed to be sent to that person, and it contained account information that person was not supposed to see.
Continue reading Your email account could be shut down at any time for no good reason