Author: ideonexus

  • Future Wonder of the World: Three Gorges Dam

    Three Gorges Dam Before Filling Reservoir Image Courtesy Wikimedia Click for a Larger Image When Three Gorges Dam goes fully online in China in 2009, after 17 years of construction, it will be 607 feet high and 1.4 miles long. Its reservoir will be 410 miles in length and 3,700 feet in width. It will…

  • EPA Refuses to Protect the Environment

    Despite the EPA being ordered by the Supreme Court nearly a year ago to determine whether carbon dioxide poses a danger to public health, which would require them to enforce the Clean Air Act, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson tells Congress they haven’t taken any action on the directive and don’t have any plans to…

  • Hey Everybody! It’s Another Global Cooling Report!

    I’m sure this one, unlike the last one and the one before that is for really real this time. Really. This one even made Digg, Drudge, Faux Noise, etc, etc… meaning it’s totally got legs for absolutely certain this time. Right? The article in question openly admits that they’ve had nothing but anecdotal evidence to…

  • New Style

    I’ve decided to switch to a more traditional look and feel. After many hours of reading the white text on black background, even I decided it was time to switch up. Hope this is okay.

  • The Declining Environment’s Impact on Humans in Billy Joel Songs

    Billy Joel has written two of the most moving environmental songs ever, but they are not easily recognized as such. That’s because we are used to Environmentalism focusing on the non-human elements, such as the decline of other species and changes to the landscape, but environmentalism is ultimately about maintaining our human quality of life.…

  • The Spiraling Web a Free Science Fiction E-Book by Ryan Somma

    The Spiraling Web Years of writing and rewriting this novel and peddling it around to dozens of agents have made me realize it could eventually be overcome by events and never be read. This is a hard-SF cyberpunk novel that I wrote in 2003, and have been rewriting ever since. Here’s the pitch: The cycs…

  • Boo-Yaaa! Janet D. stemwedel’s on my Facebook!

    Behold the latest addition to my Facebook trophy friends! Dr (X 2) Janet D. Stemwedel Photo by base10 Janet Stemwedel (Bio here and homepage here) has two, count ’em, two Ph.D’s. One in chemistry from Stanford University, and then went for another in Philosophy from San Jose State University. This consilience of academic disciplines gives…

  • Ant Farm Woes

    Not My Ant Farm Photo by jurvetson (Who has a lot of cool Science Flickr Sets) Last year I finally bought myself an Ant Farm, one of those new, hip gel ant farms, this one from Uncle Milton Industries. I’ve always procrastinated about buying one of these because I’m an instant-gratification kind of person, and…

  • Off-World Environmentalism: Fighting Space Pollution

    Tracked Debris Orbiting Earth Photo by NASA All the politicians and military strategists were buzzing about China’s missile test in January 2007, where the country blew up one of its old satellites in orbit. After the debates about the diplomatic and militaristic implications of this demonstration had settled down, scientists took the opportunity to get…

  • Interview with A Blog Around the Clock

    Check it out! I’m famous! Kids with ‘Dr’ in front of their names: Interview with Ryan Somma Hyper-Cool Infrared Ryan Check out all the other SBC’08 Interviews here. Bora’s posting one a day, and there are many more to come, which means many more interesting science blogs to discover. : )

  • Taking the “Carbon” out of “Carbon Sequestration”

    Are dittoheads trying to out-stupid each other? Tom Harris, Ottawa-based mechanical engineer and executive director of the Orwellianly-named Natural Resources Stewardship Project, which lobbies for innaction on Global Warming, has an article in the Washington Times that should be titled “Hey Everybody! Watch How Far I Can Shove My Head Up My Butt!” In it,…

  • The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences: NC’s Natural Treasures

    Pileated Woodpecker The centerpiece of the NCMNS’ first floor is a room filled with displays of taxidermied animals living in North Carolina, many of which are endangered, and one on display, the Carolina Parakeet, only parrot indigenous to the United States, is extinct. The display impresses on us the wealth of biodiversity all around us,…