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By The Arbourist, on March 3, 2014, at 8:01 am What is profitable. What is right.
Two categories that, if drawing a Venn Diagram, seem to overlap less and less these days: case in point the manufacture and use of genetically modified seeds produced by the Monsanto corporation. Back in 1990 the so called ’round-up ready’ crops came into being, with a high initial investment but then a wonderful rate of return due to less upkeep, the prevalence of round up ready crops sky-rocketed. Food production and profit for farmers and agribusiness increased, everyone wins right?
For awhile the answer was a qualified “yes”.
Our superweed agricultural (Read more…)
By The Arbourist, on February 27, 2014, at 8:01 am Isn’t being on a run away train fun?
Filed under: Science Tagged: AGW, Climate Change, Science, Tipping Points
By John Klein, on February 25, 2014, at 5:32 pm At least 2 Weyburn City Councillors were not duped by anti-Wind propaganda that afflicts many municipalities. There’s probably no bylaw against this family running a noisy, polluting diesel generator in their backyard, contributing to poor health of their neighbours. I’d have to reason that the neighbour(s) who complained about this windmill isn’t very bright.
The time frame given to Dustin and Vanessa Storle, owners of the turbine, was to have it removed by July 30. After this, there will be no more residential wind power in the windy city of Weyburn.
I hope they find a resident of a less (Read more…)
By John Klein, on February 24, 2014, at 8:12 am As scientists have demonstrated in the past, the strip mining and tailing ponds employed on a Mordorific scale in northern Alberta are polluting ground and river waters.
Sorry #tarsand shills, but turns out you’ve been lying all along when you’ve said that areas surrounding the tarsands are not being polluted. You may have to be honest with yourselves before you can be honest with others. If you can’t be honest with yourselves, it’s time to stop lying to others and bow out of the conversation.
@andrew_leach @codyincalgary Norway allows 30mg/L oil in water discharged to the sea. 9500 (Read more…)
By Ian, on February 21, 2014, at 10:42 am As part of Switzerland’s system of direct democracy, Swiss voters recently approved immigration caps by a narrow margin. This means that the country, which has remained independent of the European Union, will no longer be able to continue to allow the free movement of labour with its neighbours (a fundamental plank of the EU).
It’s not clear yet how much the Swiss government is going to clamp down on immigration but the vote has already attracted condemnation from the editorial board of the leading scientific journal, Nature. They note that the move was fuelled by xenophobia rather than rational debate:
(Read more…)
By The Arbourist, on February 17, 2014, at 8:02 am Like any habit, consuming pornography can be a hard cycle to break and here is why.
Filed under: Science Tagged: Behaviouralism, Pornography, Science, Stimulus Processing
By Christine, on February 14, 2014, at 1:19 pm * Even as the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration climbs upward, some climate deniers are bent on attacking climate scientists’ reputations. That’s why it’s more important than ever that we empower climate scientists to keep doing the stellar work they do, the work that makes climate change activism possible. Sign the Valentine’s Day love letter to climate […]
By Adam Clare, on February 12, 2014, at 9:17 am Urban design is not an easy activity because of the multitude of variables that impact the overall urban experience. There are buildings, traffic (foot and vehicular), landmarks, natural occurrences like rivers, and abstracted economic forces. Space Syntax is a company has set out to make better urban design by using science to calculate the probability of positive spaces being built.
Stonor says his ultimate goal is for the science to catch on with other design firms and consultancies. In a way, he wants to put himself out of business. He says he wants architects and planners to learn to use (Read more…)
By Ian Chadwick, on February 11, 2014, at 9:40 am February 12 is international Darwin Day, the day when we collectively celebrate science and reason. And, of course, we recognize Charles Darwin’s birthday: February 12, 1809 (the same birthdate as Abraham Lincoln, by the way). If Collingwood made such declarations, I would propose we recognize the day in our municipality. Other Canadian municipalities have done […]
By christyk, on February 5, 2014, at 5:50 pm Oh, what questions arise from opening a science textbook! I didn’t realize a biology textbook would lead me again to wondering about the challenges of being open to new information and the doubt that comes with living in a world where we recognize too much research is done with corporate funding and too little paid for by governments.
I borrowed a book Beginnings of Life by Ricki Lewis from the library thinking my nine year old might find it interesting. He didn’t pick it up from the pile during the first week so today I thought I’d read the first (Read more…)
By Ian Chadwick, on February 1, 2014, at 7:27 pm A story popped up on the internet in late 2013, recycled in early 2014, claiming “NASA Images Find 1.7 Million Year Old Man-Made Bridge.” Claptrap. It’s not a bridge. It’s simply a natural tombolo: “a deposition landform in which an island is attached to the mainland by a narrow piece of land such […]
By Bill Longstaff, on February 1, 2014, at 1:50 pm Our federal government’s lamentable attitude to science, or at least any science that doesn’t benefit business, is one of its key features. Nonetheless, Industry Canada is giving us a chance to comment on science and technology policy by inviting responses tn a “Consultation Paper.” This is your chance to offer your comments on how our policy should develop.
You can read the paper and then write
By Ian Chadwick, on January 29, 2014, at 9:43 am Somewhere on one of my bookshelves, is an old Penguin paperback copy of History of The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides. It’s a bit worn, pages lightly yellowed, glue a little brittle. It’s been sitting on the shelf, stacked with many other paperbacks, piled two deep, floor to ceiling, for the past two decades and more. It’s […]
By John Klein, on January 27, 2014, at 3:44 pm Elizabeth May on Harper government's library closures: Book burning doesn't remind me of this century #CDNpoli— Mike De Souza (@mikedesouza) January 27, 2014
A worrying subset of the Canadian population seems content settling for a Conservative Party that willingly destroys Canadian heritage and property. How can Canadians peacefully stop the looting and burning of our cultural and scientific records?
Although the Department of Fisheries and Oceans states that the purpose of its Library Consolidation Initiative is to create greater public access to information online through ‘digitization,’ it is unclear what, if any, digitization has taken place to date. A (Read more…)
By The Arbourist, on January 22, 2014, at 8:05 am I’m pretty much done with Winter by this time of the year, but I have to agree with MinutePhysics that despite the rest of the seasonal maladies, the full moon is pretty spectacular.
Filed under: Science Tagged: Astronomy, Full Moon in Winter, Minute Physics, Science
By John Klein, on January 16, 2014, at 12:19 pm I’m starting a short series of 3 blog posts today deliberately with the top climate change story in Canada. There are huge stories also in the RoboCon election fraud scandal, and the PMO-Senate scandals, but it’s climate change that will have the longest lasting impact in Canada and the world.
Canadians have been fortunate for a long time, in that few of us consider the possibility of living through a war on our own soil. Most Canadians are people, however. All people on Earth are at risk of experiencing war, and Canada is even involved in one today, but not (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on January 15, 2014, at 9:03 am Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.
- John Cassidy makes the case to call the U.S.’ war on poverty a success – pointing out that there has been a meaningful reduction in poverty over the past 50 years connected almost entirely to government programs. But lest that be taken as an indication that there’s no need to do more, Jared Bernstein points out that if economic growth had been distributed as it was in the postwar boom, poverty would have been eradicated by the mid-1980s – rather than persisting among tens of millions of Americans today as inequality (Read more…)
By John Klein, on January 8, 2014, at 3:44 pm I hope our electrical grids are prepared, as there is a risk of overloading from an event like this.
-The Sun Wednesday afternoon, from Regina. Canon S5IS on tripod with welding filter held in place to sufficiently darken the Sun for the camera’s sensor. 48X digital magnification.
This ongoing radiation storm ranks S2 on NOAA storm scales. It is rich in “hard” protons with more than 100 MeV of energy, which accounts for the snowiness of the SOHO coronagraph images. According to NOAA, “passengers and crew in high-flying aircraft at high latitudes may be exposed to elevated radiation risk” during (Read more…)
By The Arbourist, on January 8, 2014, at 8:09 am
I’m amused. The denizens of Bullshite Mountain just *will not* give in to reason. We are messing with the earth’s climate and the best the right wingnutz can do is blame the government for attempting to infringe on their right to destroy biosphere. I’m thinking that when New York is underwater, and Florida an undersea park, then… then we might start getting stuff done when it comes to maintaining our environment. Jon Stewart attempts and fails to remain apolitical when the crazy overwhelms him and forces his hand. One cannot just *not* comment when (Read more…)
By Christine, on January 8, 2014, at 6:04 am * Silence of the Labs: The Fifth Estate More links: How The Harper Government Committed A Knowledge Massacre
By bleatmop, on January 4, 2014, at 8:07 am Browsing the time sink known as Reddit today I came across a very cool comic showing someone building a chat-bot to debate a theist. I googled the title of the comic and found the original as well a very awesome comic called Bag of Toast. I highly recommend checking it out.
The comic in question:
This made me think that I would love a chat bot to debate the theists, global warming deniers, anti-vaccine advocates, scumbags MRAs, or anyone I disagree with but constantly have to have 101 level discussions with. It would be wonderful. But then the Reddit community (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on December 30, 2013, at 9:19 am Miscellaneous material to start your week.
- Diane Coyle offers a preview of Thomas Piketty’s upcoming book on inequality – featuring a prediction that absent some significant public policy intervention, we may see a return to 19th-century levels of concentration of wealth.
- Meanwhile, Murray Dobbin calls for 2014 to be the year of living consciously – including both a concerted effort to donate to fostering change, as well greater efforts to bring about change through our own lives.
- Veronica Bayetti Flores writes about the challenges in building movements which won’t leave people behind: I am so ready to (Read more…)
By The Arbourist, on December 27, 2013, at 8:01 am Never say that we don’t promote edumacation around here at DWR. It’s always important to know when you’re about to expire due to environmental conditions.
Filed under: Science Tagged: Happy Science Facts!, Science, Temperature
By Ian Chadwick, on December 22, 2013, at 5:53 pm Salt is one of the four essential ingredients in making bread, along with flour, yeast and water. Nothing more is needed, although often a lot more is added. Salt is listed in all the recipes. Only one bread I’ve ever read about is salt-free (a Tuscan specialty mentioned in William Alexander’s book, 52 Loaves). We tend […]
By John Klein, on December 20, 2013, at 11:02 am Our lying Prime Minister felt betrayed and angry, and … deceived?
The scheme only became public after a CTV news report on the evening of May 14.
The next morning, said Harper, he met with Wright, the successful Toronto financier he had brought to Ottawa in 2010 to be his right-hand man.
“He told me what he had done,” said Harper.
“I think, to be frank, my first series of reactions were probably in the realm of more stunned and disbelief.
“I, for the life of me, still can’t figure out – I don’t think anybody can figure out – (Read more…)
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