Pederasts of the
mind: Of
kids, lies and Oil. The American Petroleum Institute
partners (in 2004)
with The
National Science Teacher's
Association (NSTA) and
Scholastic
(see: Scholastic's
creedo) to
provide K-12 lesson plans, on energy and oil, which resemble the
API's own "Teacher Lesson
Plans" and snappy
flash presentations such as
Progress
Through Petroleum! which are bundled with
fun stuff and
cool facts. The NSTA/API lessons teach all about energy and oil except the
global environmental impacts. Didactic bonus from
NSTA's oil-friendly curriculum :
a surrealistic gallery of oil industry
imagery for kids to download.
Recent glacial melt speedup in
Greenland and
Antarctica shocks researchers, while the Pentagon games
scenarios of
Abrupt
Climate Change : Don't worry, says the DOE's
Energy Ant - oil's
good, like cows,
m'kay
? . Extra credit : Play the
Oil and natural Gas
Crossword Puzzle, or the "Industry Lesson Plan Game" (that, and more, inside)
posted by troutfishing
on Oct 5, 2004 -
21 comments
"Just for the record, do you believe the Sun goes around the Earth or the Earth goes around the sun?" : Ages before
"Intelligent Design",
a bold PaleoCreationist pseudoscientific
gobbledygook - embodied by Tom Willis,
Creationism's man
in Kansas and head of the
Mid Atlantic Creation Research
Society - strode the Earth. The AAAS dissected the mess in
"Lions, Tigers and APES, Oh My! ; Creationism vs. Evolution in Kansas" (
Google cache) and one writer concluded :
"The War between the creationists and
the public schools is over. The creationists appear to have won" : now, in a Kansas that's scientifically proven
flatter than
a pancake,
Mona Lisa is as
happy as a clam, and
Kissing Frank's ass and appeals
to
mysterious watchmakers predominate, while on
the national stage,
God is a
real estate developer.
Meanwhile, a
new group
proposes better zoning bylaws :
Scientists and Engineers for Change
posted by troutfishing
on Sep 30, 2004 -
22 comments
Nootropics ("smart" drugs) - all wish to be smarter, correct ? And - while exercise, nutrition, learning, travel, and social interaction (the last 3 via release of
neurotrophins) effectively do this, Nootropic drugs have been researched since the 1950's and have been shown to cause at least short term cognitive function enhancement. Piracetam, the first of this drugs,
shows promise in the treatment of Alzheimer's and Attention deficit Disorder. Alas, as with poor little
Algernon, the effect seems
temporary. Nootropics can be a little
difficult to acquire in the US.
Beer is not a nootropic, but sex on the other hand.....
posted by troutfishing
on Mar 5, 2004 -
20 comments
First Birds with teeth in 70 million years . Vicious toothed, flying microraptors once darkened the Jurassic skies. Now,
scientists have learned to activate the dormant, vestigal avian "tooth gene" and so coaxed chicken embryos into growing teeth. From the grave, Alfred Hitchcock enviously quips - "a messy thing indeed when toothed birds kill a man". Meanwhile the French are appalled: “quand les poules auront des dents”, which translates to “when hens have teeth”, is analogous to the English “pigs might fly”. Coming soon: flying pigs.
But there might be a baldness cure in this new research. I'll remember that as the flocks of mutant raptor-fowl move in for the kill.
posted by troutfishing
on Jun 4, 2003 -
18 comments
Synthetic Trees could purify the air - "It looks like a goal post with Venetian blinds," said the Columbia University physicist...synthetic trees could help clean up an atmosphere grown heavy with carbon dioxide..."You can be a thousand times better than a living tree...There are a number of engineering issues which need to be worked out," he said. (BBC)
Hurry up, then -
"Ice dams are blocking Latvian ports, winds and storms are battering Europe, Portugal is freezing, Vietnam has lost one-third its rice crop, and the cold has caused close to 2,000 deaths in usually temperate South Asia."
posted by troutfishing
on Feb 23, 2003 -
18 comments
"Tornado in a Can" "To test their theory, the Vortex folks have thrown in rocks, diapers, tomatoes, sweet potato rejects from the farm down the road, 400 pounds of Oreo cookies, frozen pizza dough, even a dead bird.....The jellyfish, however, are a first." picture of "Tornado-in-a-Can" that sure is a big can. don't try this at home, folks
posted by troutfishing
on Dec 13, 2002 -
17 comments
