Walking is also an ambulation of mind.
– Gretel Ehrlich
– Gretel Ehrlich
Recent Posts
- Day 14: Louisiana Senator Approvingly Compares Trump to Stalin
- Day 13: Elon Musk Flexes His Muscles
- Day 12: While Elon Musk Takes Over, We Podcast With Driftglass and Blue Gal
- Day 11: Harm of Fascist Regime’s Foreign Aid Freeze Comes Into View
- Day 10: The Fascist Regime Blames a Plane Crash on Nonwhite People
from Iraqi laws? Reuters
So what does the White House have to say about this latest turning of the corner?
For anyone who didn’t already know this (I didn’t), the day before handing formal sovereignty back to Iraqis in June 2004, the U.S. occupation authority issued a decree giving its troops immunity from Iraqi law. That remains in force and is confirmed by U.N. Security Council Resolution 1546 on Iraq.
Nice touch…NOT.
We’re supposed to get excited about this “improvement”? AP/Yahoo
Um, the budget deficit is still $300 billion, corporations and the wealthy are getting wealthier while everyone else is having trouble filling their gas tanks and paying for health insurance, and Bushco considers that something to cheer about?
A heapin’ helpin’ to make up for being gone from cyberspace for a few days…
A world without frogs? In this week’s edition of the journal Science, leading conservationists announce the creation of an Amphibian Survival Alliance which will co-ordinate the $400 million initiative – pushing forward research, field programs, captive breeding and making sure the “global crisis” remains at the forefront of policy-making. Up to 122 of the 5,743 known amphibian species have gone extinct since 1980, at least 427 are critically endangered, almost a third are threatened, and all are at risk. The biggest single threat to amphibians is a fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis; first identified 1998, it is firmly established in parts of the Americas, Australia and Europe. The disease that it causes, chytridiomycosis, kills the animals by damaging their sensitive skins, blocking the passage of air and moisture.
A paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences warns about exaggerated expectations that ethanol could dramatically change America’s dependence on foreign oil by shifting motorists away from gasoline. As far as alternative fuels are concerned, biodiesel from soybeans is the better choice compared with corn-produced ethanol, researchers concluded. But “neither can replace much petroleum without impacting food supplies. Te paper said development of nonfood materials such as switchgrass, prairie grasses and woody plants to produce cellulosic ethanol would be a major improvement with greater energy output and lower environmental impacts. But creation of cellulosic ethanol remains in the laboratory research stage. And even nonfood sources of ethanol would fall far short of replacing gasoline, most researchers agree. In a related development, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released an ambitious new research agenda for the development of cellulosic ethanol as an alternative to gasoline. The 200-page scientific “roadmap” cites recent advances in biotechnology that have made cost-effective production of ethanol from cellulose, or inedible plant fiber, an attainable goal.
Social contact between gorillas helped a 2004 outbreak of the Ebola virus wipe out 95 percent of the gorilla population within a year in the groups studied in the Democratic Republic of Congo, researchers found. “Thousands of gorillas have probably disappeared,” they wrote. In addition to the importance of this discovery for conservation efforts, it also may shed light on how early humans evolved, they suggested. The findings may show that pre-humans were slow to live in large social groups because disease outbreaks could wipe out those who did.
New research has clarified the old debate of whether dinosaurs were warm- or cold-blooded: they were either, depending on size. The bigger the dinosaur, the less surface area it had relative to its mass, and so the slower it could radiate away body heat from metabolic reactions. Checking the experimental model against 11 modern crocodile species shows the proposed relationship gave an exact fit. It appears that what kept dinosaurs from growing any larger than they did was that above a certain temperature, their own body heat would have caused their tissues to break down. The theory is testable; fossil evidence might show large dinosaurs sought water to cool themselves while their young basked in the sun for warmth.
Using unusually rigorous scientific conditions and measures, Johns Hopkins researchers have shown that the active agent in “sacred mushrooms” can induce mystical/spiritual experiences descriptively identical to spontaneous ones people have reported for centuries. The resulting experiences apparently prompt positive changes in behavior and attitude that last several months, at least. The agent, a plant alkaloid called psilocybin, mimics the effect of serotonin on brain receptors-as do some other hallucinogens-but precisely where in the brain and in what manner are unknown. All of the study’s authors caution about substantial risks of taking psilocybin under conditions not appropriately supervised: “Even in this study, where we greatly controlled conditions to minimize adverse effects, about a third of subjects reported significant fear, with some also reporting transient feelings of paranoia…”
A study questions “the wisdom of spending money to catch lobsters and then throwing them back.” Researchers found that by relaxing the minimum legal size requirement, but reducing the number of traps lobstermen could set, it would improve the sustainability of the lobster fishery, increase lobstermen’s incomes and the economic benefits to the regional economy from the lobster fishery, and reduce the risk of entangling whales and other marine life in lobster trap ropes. Story here.
UCLA researchers report that thousands of genes behave differently in the same organs of males and females – something never detected to this degree. The study sheds light on why the same disease often strikes males and females differently, and why the genders may respond differently to the same drug.
That magic mushroom article was interesting. I didn’t realize that anyone in the US was actively studying hallucinogens.
Probably funded by the CIA, LOL!
frog down here the other day. I think the acid trip frogs of Florida have arrived in Southern Alabama
I almost put this in the science headlines, but didn’t, ’cause it was getting long-winded, but now you’ve given me the perfect lead-in…
Not only are the frogs moving north, but so are the lizards: Mediterranean geckos formerly only found in the southeast US are now found in Kansas.
Global warming, anyone?
I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, if so consider it more positive reinforcement. Anyway looking forward to your science roundups is one of my favorite things to do daily-as is the whole News Bucket diaries.
KP’s science headlines really are a highlight and so is the News Bucket.
Aw shucks, Mrs. K.P. will have to widen the doorways for my head if y’all keep this up! ;-D
And I love your photos – I was just thinking of you the other day when we were at Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest and I took a picture of a Rhododendron in bloom that I was very happy with. (I’m saving it for the next BooTrib Photo Exhibition – any plans for that?)
POLL-Sudan is world’s most dangerous place for children