Specially-equipped vans have been driving
Month: June 2006
$100 Burger
The burger contains three kinds of it, from three continents — from corn-fed American Prime cattle from Colorado, free-range cattle from the Argentine pampas and Japanese Wagyu cattle that were raised on soybeans and beer, then bathed in sake and hand-massaged.
For Tuesday’s official first tasting, the beef was flown into Fort Lauderdale, then driven to the restaurant in a climate-controlled, armored stretch Hummer limo.
The burger is fried in about 8 ounces of grape seed oil —“It’s healthier,” said Joe Galison, chef de cuisine — and then nestled onto a toasted Brioche bun and topped with heirloom tomatoes, exotic mushrooms and organic micro greens. (other coverage)
The Tempest
The Tempest
As evidence mounts that humans are causing dangerous changes in Earth's climate, a handful of skeptics are providing some serious blowback as did the publication of this article about them in The Washington Post.
The moral flaws of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth
The moral flaws of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. By Gregg Easterbrook
This raises the troubling fault of An Inconvenient Truth: its carelessness about moral argument. Gore says accumulation of greenhouse gases "is a moral issue, it is deeply unethical." Wouldn't deprivation also be unethical? Some fossil fuel use is maddening waste; most has raised living standards. The era of fossil energy must now give way to an era of clean energy. But the last century's headlong consumption of oil, coal, and gas has raised living standards throughout the world; driven malnourishment to an all-time low, according to the latest U.N. estimates; doubled global life expectancy; pushed most rates of disease into decline; and made possible Gore's airline seat and MacBook, which he doesn't seem to find unethical.
The big question is how can we alleviate global poverty and its associated ills while simultaneously trying to avert the consequences of global warming?
The New Geopolitics – By Jeffrey Sachs
Scientific American: The New Geopolitics
Each era has its own dominating themes of global politics. The 19th century had the politics of industrialization and empire. The first half of the 20th century bowed to world wars and economic depression. The second half was overshadowed by the cold war. Our era, I believe, will be dominated by the geopolitics of sustainability.
With that increase in economic output have come some phenomenal benefits, such as rising life expectancy and improved overall public health, and some planet-threatening adverse effects, such as massive tropical deforestation, ocean fisheries depletion, man-made climate change, violent competition over limited hydrocarbon resources, and newly emerging diseases such as SARS and avian flu (H5N1). Until now, the favorable outcomes have outweighed the bad.
Poison Ivy Getting Meaner
Poison Ivy Getting Meaner – Forbes.com
In their six-year experiment, Mohan and her colleagues showed that elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide in an intact forest ecosystem increases photosynthesis, water use efficiency, growth and biomass of poison ivy. "This was out in the real world," Mohan said.
Poison ivy plants exposed to elevated C02 levels averaged 149 percent faster growth compared with control plants, Mohan said. "Something we did not expect to happen, but indeed did — the form of the poison they make was more poisonous," she added.
"This is kind of sad news, not only for humans but for forests," Mohan said. "Increased vine abundance inhibits tree regeneration by killing young trees," she added.
African Farmers Anecdote
Parker Mitchell of Engineers Without Borders, a group that has shown how far you can get if you roll up your sleeves and start tackling the problems. Mitchell argued that antipoverty programs sometimes stall for want not of money or ideas, but of good implementation. He described how development specialists in southern Africa have long advised farmers to switch from corn to sorghum, a cereal native to Africa that is more resistant to both drought and floods. When Zambian farmers were reluctant to plant the crop, aid groups chalked it up to stubbornness and tried to force it on them. Continue reading “African Farmers Anecdote”
Meteorite Collision simulation
Meteorite Collision simulation.
From the folks that brought us Godzilla comes the ultimate Disaster bummer.
[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.558961&w=425&h=350&fv=]
“When a meteorite collides with the earth” We tried to find the answers: Simulation Experiment. The diameter of the meteorite is slightly bigger than the breadth of Honshu Japan. The collision point is located at the 3,000km south from Japan in the ocean. The velocity of the meteorite is 70,000km/h. But the meteorite is bigger than we can imagine, so that it appears much slower. The earth’s crust of 10km in thickness where ground in the earth is composed is wholly peeled off. This is called,”Earth’s crust tidal wave”. There is 1km width of the rock, and it flies to the sky it by the impact. Continue reading “Meteorite Collision simulation”
Pitchfork Feature: 100 Awesome Music Videos
Pitchfork Feature: 100 Awesome Music Videos
sharing 100 of our favorite music videos; simply, dozens of clips that, for various reasons (because they’re so good, because they’re so bad, because they feature the Jacksons imagining themselves as gigantic golden gods sprinkling gold dust on humanity) and stick to clips roughly from the MTV era.
Muslims and the West: Antipathy and mistrust
Muslims and the West: Antipathy and mistrust – Europe – International Herald Tribune
Muslims view people from the West, especially the United States and Europe, as selfish, immoral and greedy. People from the U.S. and Europe view Muslims as arrogant, violent and intolerant.
The deep divide between Muslims and the West was clearly illustrated in the findings of a new 15-country poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
Solid majorities in Indonesia (65 percent), Turkey (59 percent), Egypt (59 percent) and Jordan (53 percent) said they do not believe the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States were carried out by groups of Arabs. Even in Britain, 56 percent of the Muslims surveyed did not believe that Arabs carried out the attacks; only 17 percent said they believed it. The results show that many Muslims are still in denial about something that even Osama bin Laden has acknowledged.