Researchers ask how best to engineer the planet

Researchers ask how best to engineer the planet | Green Tech - CNET News: "During talks Friday morning, academics said climate engineering techniques are not well understood and, because of the complexity of the global climate system, individual approaches are pockmarked with uncertainties.

Still, speakers at the event said it's time to step up research in geoengineering to sort out which approaches are worth serious consideration. But they cautioned against expecting easy fixes or abandoning efforts to ratchet down the growth of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere."

Why are we going Tory?

Why are we going Tory?: "Regrettably this sort of thing is all too susceptible to slow erosion. Political integrity is hard to accumulate and easy to dissipate and once it's gone voters and politicians routinely pull one another back into the mire rather than out of it. And I think the federal Liberals bear much blame here. Remember the seedy push by Paul Martin's acolytes to oust Jean Chretien for no reason anyone can now recall, and Chretien's open admission that he stayed longer just to spite them. Can anyone tell me who benefited from any of that savage cunning? Not them and not us."

colinmarshall: Los Angeles, America, the ...

Twitter / colinmarshall: Los Angeles, America, the ...: "Los Angeles, America, the internet: three things people hate if they can't properly filter."

Raiding the Icebox

Raiding the Icebox - washingtonpost.com: "First, we send a joint Army-Navy overseas force to capture the port city of Halifax, cutting the Canadians off from their British allies.

Then we seize Canadian power plants near Niagara Falls, so they freeze in the dark.

Then the U.S. Army invades on three fronts -- marching from Vermont to take Montreal and Quebec, charging out of North Dakota to grab the railroad center at Winnipeg, and storming out of the Midwest to capture the strategic nickel mines of Ontario.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy seizes the Great Lakes and blockades Canada's Atlantic and Pacific ports."

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Soros Launches Effort to Battle Free-Market Zeal

Soros Launches Effort to Battle Free-Market Zeal | Newsweek Voices - Michael Hirsh | Newsweek.com: "Now financier George Soros is announcing a $50 million effort to speed things along. This week Soros is gathering some of the leading practitioners of the market-skeptic school, who were marginalized during the era of 'free-market fundamentalism,' among them Nobelists Joseph Stiglitz, George Akerlof, Michael Spence, and Sir James Mirrlees. He's also creating an 'Institute for New Economic Thinking' to make research grants, convene symposiums, and establish a journal, all in an effort to take back the economics profession from the champions of free-market zealotry who have dominated it for decades, and to correct the failures of decades of market deregulation. Soros hopes matching funds will bring the total endowment up to $200 million. 'Economics has failed not only to predict and explain what happened but has also failed to protect society,' says Robert Johnson, a former managing director at Soros Fund Management, who will direct the new institute. 'That's what the crisis revealed. The paradigm has failed. There is no guidance.'"

I believe the guidance that Soros would give us would be his own. I'd personally rather fail on my own, than have a hand pick cabal of Soros "economists" plot a successful path for me.

Match Point: How to Reach Rural Markets

Match Point: How to Reach Rural Markets | Blog | NextBillion.net | Development through Enterprise: "Question: Which manufactured consumer product has the deepest market penetration in rural India?

Answer: Matches"

Stockholm's bunnies burned to keep Swedes warm - The Local

Stockholm's bunnies burned to keep Swedes warm: "The decision to use Stockholm’s rabbit cadavers as bioenergy to warm Swedes living in Varmland doesn't sit well with Stockholm-based animal rights activists."

KFC 'colonel' dupes UN security

KFC 'colonel' dupes UN security: "UNITED NATIONS -- Red-faced United Nations officials on Monday admitted to a major security lapse after a UN guard helped Kentucky Fried Chicken's 'Colonel Sanders' gain access to restricted areas."

Quotes Uncovered: Death and Statistics

Quotes Uncovered: Death and Statistics - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com: "Whereas in England all is permitted that is not expressly prohibited, it has been said that in Germany all is prohibited unless expressly permitted and in France all is permitted that is expressly prohibited. In the European Common Market no-one knows what is permitted and it all costs more"

The Death of the Teapot Effect

Technology Review: Blogs: arXiv blog: The Death of the Teapot Effect: "Now Cyril Duez at the University of Lyon in France and a few amis, have identified the single factor at the heart of the problem and shown how to tackle it. They say that the culprit is a 'hydro-capillary' effect that keeps the liquid in contact with the material as it leaves the lip. The previously identified factors all determine the strength of this hydro-cappillary effect.

So how to overcome it? There are two ways say Duez and co. The first is to make the lip as thin as possible. That's why teapots with spouts made from thin metal are less likely to dribble.

The second is to coat the lip with the latest generation of superhydrophobic materials which strongly repel water. Duez and co show how this stops dribbling at a stroke. 'Superhydrophobic surfaces fully avoid dripping, and thus beat the 'teapot effect',' they say."

What I've learned from debating religious people around the world.

What I've learned from debating religious people around the world. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine: "Ever since I invited any champion of faith to debate with me in the spring of 2007, I have been very impressed by the willingness of the other side to take me, and my allies, up on the offer. A renowned scholar like Richard Dawkins, who is quite used to filling halls wherever he goes with his explanations of biology, is now finding himself on platforms with dedicated people who really, truly do not believe that evolution is anything more than 'a theory.' I have been all over the South, in front of capacity and overflow crowds, exchanging views with Protestants most of the time, but also with Catholics and, in New York and the West Coast and Canada, with—mostly Reform—Jews in large and well-attended synagogues. (So far no invitations from Orthodox Jews, Mormons, or Muslims.)"

Norman Rockwell: The Original King of the Photoshop

Norman Rockwell: The Original King of the Photoshop - Norman Rockwell - Gizmodo: "Back when Norman Rockwell ruled Saturday evenings, Adobe wasn't even a gleam in some nerd's eye, but a new book shows that the painter was, nevertheless, a photoshop god.

Very few Gizmodo readers were even born when Rockwell painted his last Saturday Evening Post cover, but we all know them. You hear that name and suddenly you can picture those overly detailed, cartoonishly dramatic but ultimately kinda corny depictions of American life. Well, Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera, written and compiled by Ron Schick, has given me immense newfound respect for the man, for the meticulous photography, the real people and the unintentionally hilarious DIY props and sets that he required to make his painted fantasies of Americana come true."

PRUDEN: Something really scary for Obama's Democrats

PRUDEN: Something really scary for Obama's Democrats - Washington Times: "This is one Mr. Deeds who apparently isn't going to town. The collapse of the Democratic campaign for governor of Virginia speaks volumes - chapters, anyway - about what the body politic is trying to tell Barack Obama's Democrats.

They're learning, painfully, that campaigning without George W. Bush is baffling, frustrating and scary. Worse, it offers a preview of what the congressional campaigning will be like next year. One Obama doorbell ringer, working neighborhoods in Northern Virginia for Creigh Deeds, says even the promise of free pizza can't lure faithful Democrats to a rally."

Canadians lack a political alternative

Canadians lack a political alternative - thestar.com: "One of the most respected Canadian journalists, Val Sears of the Star, talking to his colleagues in 1962, reportedly said: 'To work, gentlemen, we have a government to overthrow.' Not knowing the context of this statement, I can't express a direct opinion on it. But, in general, while I agree that members of the media have to be vigilant about any wrongdoing by the government, I also believe they should never try to fill the opposition's institutional role."

Could a Land Tax Support the Operations of Government?

European Dispatch Articles | Could a Land Tax Support the Operations of Government? | Miller-McCune Online Magazine: "The shape of a new American health care system is clearer now than it was last month, but a fraction of the American public will still be permanently steamed at President Obama for pushing through a new 'entitlement' (and, eventually, raising their taxes). They don't see why America has to be so European. This column has spent the last several weeks looking at how European health care schemes might work in America; now it's time to look at an American-born idea that would — in theory — revolutionize the tax system of any country.

Taxes don't need to be pulled from your income."

Terry Teachout on the Mystery of Music

Sightings : Terry Teachout on the Mystery of Music - WSJ.com: "Forgive me for rolling my eyes, but I've been down this road a few million times, and I still don't know where it leads. Only the tone-deaf doubt the power of music, though some feel it more strongly than others. Kingsley Amis actually went so far as to claim that 'only a world without love strikes me as instantly and decisively more terrible than one without music.' Catch me on the right day and I might well go along with Amis—but why? What is it about music that is capable of swaying human emotions?"

How to flip a coin

Marginal Revolution: How to flip a coin: "Using a high-speed camera that photographed people flipping coins, the three researchers determined that a coin is more likely to land facing the same side on which it started. If tails is facing up when the coin is perched on your thumb, it is more likely to land tails up."

The Many Faces of George Washington

ARTnews: "It’s an international exercise in intrigue,” said Douglas Hyland, director of the New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, Connecticut.

He was speaking about a painting that was recently donated to the museum and is now on exhibition. The label reads: “George Washington c. 1800–1805.” The work is a copy of a Gilbert Stuart painting attributed to a Chinese artist named Foeiqua—who, like other artists in China, made a number of reverse paintings on glass."

Zakaria on a Third Surge in Afghanistan

Zakaria on a Third Surge in Afghanistan | Newsweek Voices - Fareed Zakaria | Newsweek.com: "The real question we should be asking in Afghanistan is not 'Do we need a surge?' but rather 'Do we need a third surge?' The number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan in January 2008 was 26,607. Over the next six months, the Bush administration raised the total to 48,250. President Bush described this policy as 'the quiet surge,' and he made the standard arguments about the need for a counterinsurgency capacity—the troops had to not only fight the Taliban but protect the Afghan population, strengthen and train the Afghan Army and police, and assist in development."

Larry Magid’s 1984 LA Times review of 128K Mac

Larry Magid’s 1984 LA Times review of 128K Mac | LarrysWorld.com: "I rarely get excited over a new computer. But Apple’s Macintosh, officially introduced last Tuesday, has started a fever in Silicon Valley that’s hard not to catch. My symptoms started when I talked with some devotees from Apple and the various companies that produce software, hardware and literature to enhance the new computer. By the time I got my hands on the little computer and its omni-present mouse, I was hooked. Apple has a winner.

The Mac, which retails for $2,495 is about 14 inches tall and takes up about the same amount of desk space as a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. It is smaller and lighter than most of the so called “portable” machines. The entire system can be slipped into an optional ($99) padded carrying case to be hoisted over your shoulder or placed under an airline seat. The case and computer together weigh 22 pounds."

Moscow Mayor Promises a Winter Without Snow - TIME

Moscow Mayor Promises a Winter Without Snow - TIME: "Pigs still can't fly, but this winter, the mayor of Moscow promises to keep it from snowing. For just a few million dollars, the mayor's office will hire the Russian Air Force to spray a fine chemical mist over the clouds before they reach the capital, forcing them to dump their snow outside the city. Authorities say this will be a boon for Moscow, which is typically covered with a blanket of snow from November to March. Road crews won't need to constantly clear the streets, and traffic — and quality of life — will undoubtedly improve.

The idea came from Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who is no stranger to playing God. In 2002, he spearheaded a project to reverse the flow of the vast River Ob through Siberia to help irrigate the country's parched Central Asian neighbors. Although that idea hasn't exactly turned out as planned — scientists have said it's not feasible — this time, Luzhkov says, there's no way he can fail."

Police probes, Mafia allegations in the 'Palermo' of Canada

Police probes, Mafia allegations in the 'Palermo' of Canada - The Globe and Mail: "In a single day Thursday, Mayor Gerald Tremblay admitted in a report that he feared for his family's safety. An opposition politician, who resigned Sunday over payments from murky backers, said a “Mafia system” controls Montreal city hall.

And the Quebec government, under relentless pressure to call a public probe into questionable ties between the construction industry and municipal officials, announced a beefed-up squad to root out corruption."

Understanding E = mc2

Energy Tribune- Understanding E = mc2: "Almost exactly 100 years ago, Albert Einstein posited the equation E = mc2 in his “Special Theory of Relativity.” The equation suggested a new way of describing the origins of chemical energy and suggested another source of energy that at that point was unknown in history – nuclear energy. Nuclear power made its unfortunate debut in history 40 years later in the form of an atomic bomb. But 100 years later, Americans have not quite yet absorbed the larger implications of Einstein’s equation – a new form of energy that can provide almost unlimited amounts of power with a vanishingly small impact on the environment.

E = mc2. Who has not heard of it? Even Mariah Carey named her last album after it. “E” stands for energy, “m” for mass, and “c” is the speed of light – that’s easy enough. But what does it really mean? (The answer is not “relativity.”)"

California's water wars: Of farms, folks and fish

California's water wars: Of farms, folks and fish | The Economist: "Water has divided Californians since Mark Twain remarked that “whiskey’s for drinking, water’s for fighting over.” But this latest conflict comes as America’s largest state is politically gridlocked and holding back a national economic recovery. From Australia to Israel, parched places all over the world are now looking to California to see whether, and how, it solves one of the most intractable problems of thirsty civilisations in dry regions."