December 2010
1 post
Forget methane, CO2 is where its at!
This article in Real Climate gave an amateur like me some perspective on an aspect of global warming I wasnt really aware of. Namely, the contrast between methane and CO2 as a GHG. We probably know that methane has about 20 times the warming potential of CO2 and while it exists in far lower concentrations in the atmosphere, it is often a focus of mitigation efforts because of its potency. But...
November 2010
6 posts
Highrise - Out My Window →
Another incredible accomplishment by the team at the National Film Board of Canada. Props to everyone from the people involved in making the Highrise docu to the web designers and visionaries who made this world come to life.
Highrise is a docu about the built vertical world and the people that live in it across the globe. Out My Window is the 360 degree interactive environment that allows you...
Science on a Sphere →
Wicked cool 3D visualizations of global events from over 200 different datasets (from international flights to ocean temperature) onto a 6 foot diameter sphere! This great way to see global patterns could be in a science centre near you.
Drill baby drill! →
NYT covers the perceptions of the future of fossil fuel finds. The age old adage that better technology will save us by squeezing out every last drop of hydro carbon from the earth is pervasive. The funny thing is that even the hopeful time frames for how long fossil fuels can sustain us are discussed in decades…
This industry isnt going anywhere soon, take a look at what they see in the...
How to frame science for use in policy →
The European Commission recently released a guide to help researchers better communicate what they do and what they find with policy makers.
Change is the Norm, in the Arctic →
Understanding Feedbacks in the climate system →
In the science of climate change there is a lot that scientists have trouble predicting, particularly when it comes to magnitude. Its easier to understand that glaciers are melting but it gets tricky when we try to tell just how fast or exactly why they do so.
Feedbacks are aspects within the climate system itself that is part of the greater whole. Confusing? It is. But think of it this way....
October 2010
1 post
6 tags
The Forgotten
Our attention spans keep getting shorter and this fits nicely, and reciprocally, with a news media cycle that just keeps getting shorter too. The depth of information we take in and the time we allow ourselves to roll it around in our heads is shrinking in the same way. The ongoing saga in Haiti is at least one example of this trend.
Initially all over the news, the tragedy of the Haitian...
September 2010
1 post
Tar Sands Research Panel
From the Toronto Star
Ottawa just announced that it will have a research panel look into the state of environmental research and monitoring on the Alberta Tar Sands and will report back in 60 days. To date, I can tell you this isnt much and Canada needs an independent scientific body investigating the Tar Sand full time and releasing regular publications. So far this responsibility has been...
June 2010
4 posts
3 tags
The Value of Science?
Perhaps one of the lasting legacies of THE financial crisis of our time will be our obsession with the question: “but will it stimulate the economy?”. Sure, modern capitalist society has always put economic return on a pedestal - value is always measured in dollars - and established growing profits as priority #1. Yet it would seem that we have entered into a period where every...
“They could tell you the whole hateful story of it, set forth in the inner soul...”
– Upton Sinclair - The Jungle (1906)
1 tag
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is one of those issues that seems to get ignored despite its enormous importance. A nice little study on salmon in Alaska’s Bristol Bay has shown that it is in fact extremely beneficial to the stability of the fish stock to have a bunch of genetic diversity amongst the fish. Among the millions that make the trek to spawn there are hundreds of different distinct populations...
3 tags
World Supercomputers
Info on the worlds largest and fastest computers in cool visual data form.
May 2010
1 post
5 tags
Its ALIVE!
From Science News.
By now you may have heard the Sci-Fi like hype that scientists have created synthetic life in a lab. Well, not quite, but the reality is still pretty cool.
What has actually happened is scientists from the J. Craig Venter Institute have decoded the genome of a bacteria (Mycoplasma mycoides) and then “re-stiched” the entire 1,077,947 DNA letter long genome into a...
April 2010
11 posts
8 tags
Solving World Food Shortages - the 'organics'...
The debate surrounding how we should produce our food tends to stem from two main issues - there are more and more people in the world and we need to find a way to feed them; and industrial farming is damaging to the environment and unsustainable.
In a Foreign Policy article Robert Paarlberg attempts to argue for his solution- ditch organics because their processes are not productive enough to...
3 tags
EPA Climate Report
A great report full of charts and diagrams with easy to understand explanations. This makes getting the basics of climate science down fairly easy. Take a look at the shiny pdf to get your climate facts.
3 tags
WatchBras d’Or Lakes by Halifax’s (TO now) own The Hylozoists. I only found out about this group of Canadian artists last night while watching Bravo - good programming is still out there kids - and saw this great animated video to go along with a really beautiful song.
Tell me this isnt a dream you want to have.
!!! Eyjafjallajokull !!!
Incredible PICTURES of THE volcano.
““Many women who dress inappropriately … cause youths to go astray,...”
– The National Post
7 tags
ECO-nomics
Economic guru Paul Krugman schools you on how to stop climate change using market pricing. Sound like a neo-lib conspiracy? Not so fast!
Read the article HERE and learn your ECO-nomics.
Ill break it down to 3 parts and try to hash out the main points of Environmental Economics - using markets to fight climate change.
PART I
The basic principle that environmental economics stems from is that...
Wikileak video Iraq 2007 - Realities you dont... →
Reuters reporters mistaken as ‘insurgents’ shot down by Apache helicopter.
6 tags
A Playlist For The Calm And Adventurous
Deep Dark Ambient Evening by Ericstein on Mixcloud
2 tags
Cap and Trade is for Suckers
A recent NYT article lamented over the fact that the EU’s Cap and Trade system continues to have serious problems with the number of credits in circulation, their price, and the ultimate effect on reducing emissions. Heavy industry lobbied hard to get an abundance of credits handed out for free, essentially castrating the system before it got started. A few years ago the price dropped to...
March 2010
5 posts
4 tags
Parting the Climate Clouds
Leave it to The Economist to publish the most level headed and informative article on the current state of the climate change debate. I HIGHLY recommend anyone interested in, or confused about, climate change (this includes me) to give this a fair read - its long but well written for being so information oriented.
Past months have been rife with sensationalized hype of ‘climate...
1 tag
5 tags
Do as the plants do
Researchers have found a way to maximally harvest the energy of the sun. The secret? Do as the plants do and photosynthesize.
The technique simply uses energy from a solar panel to split water - which creates and stores a huge amount of energy. A cobalt and phosphate catalyst is used to make the split and when the energy is needed the recombination of hydrogen and oxygen can be used in a...
3 tags
These New Puritans - Hidden
Listen: We Want War
These New Puritans have always been estranged to me but after hearing the new albumHidden I can tell we are going to be friends. Straddling the lines between electronic beats, hip hop, and even a little masked reggaeton keeps the listener on uneasy ground with shifty patterns and off kilter rhythm. Vocals also range from the gorgeous choir to sing/speak with dripping British...
February 2010
6 posts
6 tags
Ontario's Samsung Deal
Watched a nice discussion on The Agenda(Steve Pakin) about Ontario’s $7 billion dollar renewable energy deal with Samsung. Basically Ontario is paying (via tax payer supplied subsidies) Samsung about $437 million over 25 years on top of the juiced up feed-in-tariff rate to spend $7 billion on renewable energy capacity and guarantee around 2500 megawatts generation for the grid. This adds...
5 tags
The Examined Life
From Astra Taylor and the National Film Board of Canada comes a welcomed philosophical project called the Examined Life. Basically its monologues from different people on their perceptions of society, thought and meaning in modern life. Pretty hefty on the abstractness and some positions I completely disagree with but refreshing none the less. These kinds of films, or cultural examinations, are...
3 tags
Future Flight Fuel
Love that alliteration!
Here’s some Cool news out of England, where British Airways has signed a deal that will see a Bio-Fuel factory constructed that will convert about 500,000 tonnes of organic waste to about 16 million gallons of jet fuel. An American company will build a factory in England, creating about 1200 jobs, with British Airways agreeing to buy all the fuel produced. The fuel...
4 tags
Goulash Baby!
Everyone has that certain dish that reminds them of their family and childhood. For me its goulash, just the way Oma used to make it! My dad keeps this recipe alive and well and since Im here in Germany its fitting to make some goulash for my Uncle Bernie’s birthday. This turned out to be my best one yet and should easily feed 10 ppl!
THE KEY to a good goulash is the very first step,...
3 tags
Algae Use Quantum Mechanics
Evidence from new scientific findings show that basic photosynthesizing algae, called crytophytes, can preform some amazing quantum tricks while converting sunlight into useable energy. Here is how this photosynthesis process works:
“Photosynthesis relies on special proteins that absorb incoming photons, or particles of light. These photons excite electrons in the protein, touching off a...
6 tags
Waterlife Online
Waterlife Online
Waterlife is a documentary by Canadian director Kevin McMahon and tells the story of the Great Lakes and us. Shot over the course of a year, Waterlife is meant to bring a holistic perspective to the Great Lakes’ role in our lives and reveal the incredible scope with which they impact our world.
The film aside, which I havent seen yet (select screenings so far), the...
January 2010
3 posts
5 tags
Follow the Leader
Our Minister of the Environment, Jim Prentice, said in a recent interview, that Canada is determined to harmonize its climate policy detail for detail with the American policy. This will look like an emissions reduction goal in the neighbourhood of 20% below 2006 by 2020. Even though the baseline has changed drastically from the 1990 of Kyoto, this is at least a commitment, so they say.
.
...
6 tags
3 tags
Prorogue Democracy
The decision by Harper to prorogue (aka. suspend) parliament was a big surprise to me, and I think many others. There is a long break already planned, scheduled to last until the 25th of Jan, so why extend this another 5 weeks into early March?
Now, Ive heard many say that Harper is trying to get out the hot water he is in over the Afghan detainee issue and that suspending parliament will...
December 2009
10 posts
13 tags
BEST ALBUMS OF 2009!!!
It never fails. Every year I read through oodles of “top (insert#) albums of (insert year)” lists and wonder how the hell I missed so much good music. For this reason I usually find myself settling into some great albums a year after they have been released. And thats fine, dont get me wrong. But why delay the pleasure? The sooner I can get my hands on this stuff the better, right?...
5 tags
Scatterbrains OR "This is your brain, this is your...
There was a pretty cool-but-also-scary article in the Daily Beast the other day about how our online virtual lives are making us dumber. Apparently researchers have found that those who multitask online with various stuff, like google or wikipedia, actually preform significantly worse in all aspects of memory retention, information organization and efficiency. So much for me thinking Google...
6 tags
World Bank funds global coal industry
In an incredibly compelling article in Foreign Policy Magazine, it is revealed that the World Bank continues to provide massive funding for coal power plants around the world. An institution with an already suspect international reputation (from past accusations of ‘economic colonialism’) to begin with, is now quoted as having increased funding for fossil fuel energy production by...
4 tags
The Real Climate Scandal
I cannot say it any better than the man himself, so please follow this link to see many real scientific scandals of our modern times.
I also urge anyone interested in the politics of climate change to watch the documentary “Everything’s Cool” for an excellent encapsulation of the American propaganda machine at work.
6 tags
GHG bad for health
From sciencenews.org.
“In April, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that based on its reading of the science, greenhouse gases threaten public health. Since then, the public and legions of interest groups have weighed in on the subject, shooting EPA some 380,000 separate comments. “After a thorough examination of the scientific evidence and careful consideration of public...
5 tags
Whatever happened to sovereignty?
From The Globe and Mail - Canada to follow U.S. lead at Copenhagen.
In a wonderful example of how Canada is rapidly losing all sense of direction and identity internationally, our environment minister Jim Prentice and PM Stephen Harper have willingly relinquished Canada’s environmental stance to the hand of the Americans. Just before the meetings in Copenhagen Prentice explained that...
5 tags
Mixcloud
The best thing since sliced internet bread and hot off the BETA presses!
I think I was with a lot of people in thinking that radio was slowly dying off from an OD on shite music. Toss the internet in there and all the streaming and downloading possibilities and I thought it was a sure thing. Well… not quite.
Radio is alive and well at Mixcloud. In fact, its really not radio at all but...
6 tags
"Climategate"
I initially told myself I wasnt going to talk about “Climategate” because it felt like a shallow media frenzy ala Tiger Woods or those people that had dinner at the Whitehouse. I tried but failed. This thing has blown up to the point where I fear this will be a central focus of Copenhagen. So here’s two cents.
So lets get straight what happened. A guy hacked into the email...
4 tags
The Munk Debates: Climate Change
Last night I enjoyed my first Munk debate via free live feed.
WATCH IT HERE
This is a great platform thats starting to really get some legs in the Toronto area and given the caliber of the debaters it attracts its no wonder the buzz is big.
This instalment was about climate change and the debate centred on this question: “ Is global warming is the most pressing issue facing humanity...
6 tags
HST 101
Ive heard so much about the HST the last little while and understand so little about it I figured some clarity was needed. This is an attempt to hash out the facts about the incoming GST that will take effect July 1st of 2010. Now, as a policy nerd I am very interested in how governments use tax policy to do more than simply increase their revenues. While there is no doubt that McGuinty is...
November 2009
5 posts
4 tags
The Advertising Success of Stella Artois
A friend once told me, “there are three drinks you can always find anywhere in the world. Jack Daniels, Budweiser, and Heineken”. But one of these things is not like the other. You’ve got cheap and shitty whisky, cheap and shitty beer, and then expensive and shitty beer. How the hell did Heineken become the international beer of choice for so many? What is it about it? To me,...