February 26, 2004

• There's a better writeup on this report at Fortune.
• Previous discussion.
• Hi Phaedrus! How are you?
• ::hands the quidnunc kid a banana for a beautiful display of the healing power of monkeylove::
• I'd like to see a meta domain for mofi, just so I could write, "See MeMo". Hee, hee. MeMo. Meeeee moh. Mee mo mu mah mo.
• Hey, quidnunc. As always, as well as can be expected. Yerself?
• The Pentagon report describes what they call a plausible scenario, though not the most likely. I'm just thinking it's past time to vote out any politician who thinks: a) global warming doesn't exist, b) it's not a serious problem, or c) we shouldn't try to do anything about it. And I posted the coal rush link because building large numbers of new coal-fired plants strikes me as precisely the opposite of what we should be doing.
• I'm just thinking it's past time to vote out any politician who thinks: a) global warming doesn't exist, b) it's not a serious problem, or c) we shouldn't try to do anything about it. I think a lot of people are thinking that right about now, the problem being that global warming is big enough to not affect us right now directly, so people go back to their air-conditioned condos and forget about it. Besides, those types will only vote for the candidate with the best hair anyway.
• ... Good thanks, P. Just chillin' under a plane-tree, by the banks of the Ilissus, you know how it goes.
• genial, how dare you mock the hair issue. Why do you hate America so much!?! ;)
• If environmentalists don't like coal and oil-fired plants, perhaps they should have been more cautious before they became anti-nuclear zealots. If I have my "environmentalist logic" cap on straight today, here's the environmentalist opinion on energy production: Oil and coal fired plants - bad, toxic waste ends up in the air and so does trace uranium. Nuclear plants - bad, because of a hysterical campaign started in the 1970's that was mostly lies. Also, hey, that's the same technology that killed people at hiroshima, right, and people think nuclear fuel rods glow. Wind farms - building one large enough to produce any worthwhile amount of power requires placement of enough windmills to negatively impact the surrounding environment, particularly native fauna. Hydroelectric - destroys habitat of various fish and aquatic creatures, affects spawning patterns established over centuries. Geothermal - releases gases into the upper atmosphere that may contribute to the greenhouse effect/global warming. Solar energy - for there to be enough solar collectors to produce enough power for a town, the whole place would have to be blanketed in them, which would surely destroy any aesthetic appeal the town might have. Also, not feasible for non-sunny climates. Fusion - still that "nuclear" thing, which still scares us. Also, fusion power consumes more energy than it produces, still. So are environmentalists really just the Amish in disguise, not wanting electricity? I'm really starting to wonder.
• Melpomene, I don't think it's very hysterical to be concerned about nuclear projects that never accounted for the problems of waste storage or decommissioned power plants. The problem was that the plants were built without much future consideration. Now all of that very dangerous toxic waste they have produced is stored on site, most of which are next to some body of water or another. And that waste STILL has nowhere to go. A little foresight was needed in the 70's and we didn't get it. We asked. That's not hysteria.
• Nuclear plants bloom. Is the reviled n-power the answer to global warming? John Vidal talks to the converts to the cause.
• Consensus is growing among scientists, governments, and business that they must act fast to combat climate change. This has already sparked efforts to limit CO2 emissions. Many companies are now preparing for a carbon-constrained world.
• Applying Climate Foresight
• Speaking about America's new coal rush (from the FPP,) here's a lovely pieve on its consequences: How Bush and his coal industry cronies are covering up one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.
• Some thread ends are just homunculus territory, really.
• Beyond here be homonculi
• The Homunculus, Sir, in however low and ludicrous a light he may appear, in this age of levity, to the eye of folly or prejudice;--to the eye of reason in scientific research, he stands confessed--a Being guarded and circumscribed with rights.--The minutest philosophers, who by the bye, have the most enlarged understandings, (their souls being inversely as their enquiries) shew us incontestably, that the Homunculus is created by the same hand,--engendered in the same course of nature,--endow'd with the same loco-motive powers and faculties with us:--That he consists as we do, of skin, hair, fat, flesh, veins, arteries, ligaments, nerves, cartilages, bones, marrow, brains, glands, genitals, humours, and articulations;--is a Being of as much activity,--and in all senses of the word, as much and as truly our fellow-creature as my Lord Chancellor of England.--He may be benefitted,--he may be injured,--he may obtain redress; in a word, he has all the claims and rights of humanity, which Tully, Puffendorf, or the best ethick writers allow to arise out of that state and relation. --Sterne
• The infinite regress of homunculi.
• Let the semen of a man putrefy by itself in a sealed cucurbite with the highest putrefaction of the venter equinus [a 'horse's womb', or substantial equivalent] for forty days, or until it begins at last to live, move, and be agitated, which can easily be seen. After this time it will be in some degree like a human being, but, nevertheless transparent and without body. If now, after this, it be every day nourished and fed cautiously and prudently with the arcanum of human blood, and kept for forty weeks in the perpetual and equal heat of venter equinus,, it becomes thenceforth a true and living infant, having all the members of a child that is born from a woman, but much smaller... And although up to this time [this procedure] has not been known to men, it was, nevertheless, known to the wood-sprites and nymphs and giants long ago, because they themselves were sprung from this source; since from such homunculi when they come to manhood are produced giants, pygmies, and other marvelous people, who are instruments of great things, who get great victories over their enemies, and know all secret and hidden matters. --Paracelsus
• Drawing of a homunculus by Niklaas Hartsoeker.
• Hoo hoo. PF, you've SO found your metier!
• Bonus points for using the word "metier."
• Paracelsus was a pervert and a drunk.
• Interactive Homunculus. Be gentle.
• Not our Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim?
• Dude, um, like, where's your, like, um... you know... uh... ?
• On thread: If president JFK shuts down Yucca Flats, as promised (to AZ, for votes, at least), then the nuke plant waste goes: where? And, since there is no place to dump the glowing rods, the plants will have to shut down eventually. Bring on the coal. I think AZ has some of that, too. Resume foolishness.
• /. thread: Getting Serious About Fuel Cells
• Global warming goes to court as eight US states sue utilities for physical damage.
• Salon has an excerpt from Robert Kennedy Jr.'s new book, "Crimes Against Nature."
• Here's a Salon interview with Kennedy.
• Dust Bin America [Flash.]
• Holy crap! They've polluted the cosmos so badly, even time has started to mutate! You bastards!
• Europeans must be prepared to adapt to massive climate change over the coming decades, warn environmental researchers. Among the changes: hotter summers, milder winters and less precipitation in Southern Europe.
• Preamble to the Question: If a person is to merit the title 'leader' there are times when s/he actually has to lead, that is, go first. /beeswacky's definition The Question: Have our worthless crop of current world leaders altogether given up trying to control, curtail, or reverse climate change?
• In the Arctic, where flowers are madly blooming, trees are growing to mutant sizes and the snowpack is thinning, researchers are getting an incontrovertible view of global warming.
• China's Nuclear Ambitions
• beeswacky: I believe the answer is yes. Here's a piece on Kerry's relationship with the coal industry.
• OTOH: Blair unveils his green offensive with demand US ratifies Kyoto
• I can't remember the recent thread that touched on global warming, but MAJOR CORAL BLEACHING EVENT EXPANDS ACROSS CARIBBEAN, SEVERE IN PUERTO RICO AND U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS Coral bleaching is associated with a variety of stresses, including increased sea surface temperatures. This causes the coral to expel symbiotic micro-algae living in their tissues—algae that provide corals with food. Losing their algae leaves coral tissues devoid of color, and thus appearing to be bleached. Prolonged coral bleaching (over a week) can lead to coral death and the subsequent loss of coral reef habitats for a range of marine life.
• 2005 Hottest Year Evar! Right-wingers everywhere celebrate by buying new SUV's, McMansions.