Shea Gunther › Comments

Totally bizarre! From the page: There are an awful lot of people on the planet, and modern methods for disposing of human remains aren't exactly earth-friendly. A new alternative to cremation and burial could change that ââ,¬” and even increase food production for those still living ââ,¬” if we can get past the ââ,¬Ëoeick factor' of liquefying our dead relatives. - Shea Gunther

Craziness. From the page: Brian Lam calls the time he spent being taught hunting by a leopard seal in the chilly waters of Antarctica "the most incredible experience I've ever had as a National Geographic photographer". While photographing the giant sea predator, he was adopted by a large female leopard sea who spent four days trying to teach him to hunt penguins. At first the seal would bring him live healthy penguins. After Mr. Lam failled to catch them, she brought weakened penguins, then dead penguins before finally ripping apart a penguin in a last ditch effort to show the photographer how to eat. - Shea Gunther

From the page: "Kathey Kaye Rider of Asheville, N.C., was sentenced to 20 years in prison for selling some of her prescription painkillers to undercover police officers. Charles Diez, also of Asheville, will spend four months behind bars for shooting a cyclist in the head. There's justice for you. Diez, who worked as a firefighter, was upset when he saw Alan Simons riding on his bicycle with his 4-year-old son buckled into a seat mounted on the back. Simon's wife was also riding along on her own bike. Diez pulled his truck over and confronted the family, arguing that it was unsafe to travel on such a busy road with so young a child. Logically, Diez then took his gun out of his truck and shot Mr. Simons in the head. " - Shea Gunther

From the page: "Astronauts on board the International Space Station have successfully raised monarch butterflies from caterpillers in an experiment cooridinated between the universities of Kansas and Colorado (Boulder). The butterflies can't fly. Poor little butterflies, talk about a cold slap in the face of expectation. For countless millennia monarch butterflies have hatched knowing that, at the very least, they could count on having some gravity around. How confused are these guys? :D" - Shea Gunther

From the page: "The Catholic League is upset about something again. (When aren't they?) This time they're angry at model and former Dancing with the Stars contestant Joanna Krupa (also a Catholic, and for the record, I was born and baptized as a Catholic before converting to Pastafarianism) for appearing in a PETA ad wearing angel wings and holding a cross that's conveniently covering up her censorables. The ad encourages people to "Be and Angel for Animals -- ALWAYS ADOPT. NEVER BUY." Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, issued a fiery statement slamming PETA for the ad, saying: "The fact is that cats and dogs are a lot safer in pet stores than they are in the hands of PETA employees. Moreover, pet stores don't rip off Christian iconography and engage in cheap irreligious claims. PETA is a fraud." Krupa didn't agree and said "It's understandable that the Catholic League is wary of another sex scandal, but the sex we're talking about pertains to dogs and cats. As a... - Shea Gunther

From the page: "Sarah Palin is going to make a lot of money this week. She's hitting Oprah today to kick off tomorrow's launch of her book, Going Rogue: An American Life. Palin received a $1.25 million advance for the book and could ultimately pull in $10 million from sales. Rush Limbaugh, inadvertently admitting that he's never read a policy book, recently praised Going Rogue, calling it "truly one of the most substantive policy books I've read." The AP also got its hands on an advance copy and assigned some journalists to fact-check the book, a fact that Palin derided on her Facebook page (seriously, that's how she talks to the world now) as "... making things up," suggesting that instead the news organization focus its work on digging up what's "going on with Sheik Mohammed's trial, Pelosi's health care takeover costs, Hasan's associations, etc."" - Shea Gunther

From the page: "There always seems to be a plethora of gloom and doom when the conversation turns to climate change, but the worst news has just come out regarding the effects of global warming … itâ€s lowering our beer production! NOOOOO! New Scientist magazine reports on a recent study done by Martin Mozny of the Czech Hydrometerological Institute that found the quality of Saaz hops, a variety used to make pilsner lager, has been on the decline. Apparently the cause for such an atrocity is increased air temperature. New Scientist says, â€oeMozny's team used a high-resolution dataset of weather patterns, crop yield and hop quality to estimate the impact of climate change on Saaz hops in the Czech Republic between 1954 and 2006. Best-quality Saaz hops contain about 5 percent alpha acid, the compound that produces the delicate, bitter taste of pilsners.” " - Shea Gunther

From the page: "If you live anywhere even remotely cooler in the winter, a huge part of your personal carbon footprint comes from heating your home, office, school or any other building where you spend time. And Christmas activities and celebrations only add to that; what with driving around town to pick up food, last-minute gifts and to attend parties and events. And if you travel for Christmas, then that is yet another impact. Considering this, looking for activities for friends and families that have a low carbon footprint (and keep them- and you- active) is a smart way to go for both your health and the health of the planet." - Shea Gunther

From the page: "Stanford researchers have discovered a way to rapidly make batteries and supercapacitors with ink that contains carbon nanotubes and ordinary paper. As shown in the video below, they simply coat the paper with the special ink, put it in an oven and out comes a highly conductive storage device. "The small diameter helps the nanomaterial ink stick strongly to the fibrous paper, making the battery and supercapacitor very durable. The paper supercapacitor may last through 40,000 charge-discharge cycles - at least an order of magnitude more than lithium batteries." Read on for more details and a very cool video that shows post-doc fellow Bing Hu make a paper battery. " - Shea Gunther

In Other News, the Sky is Blue The NYC Department of Health conducted a city-wide survey to assess the health benefits of walking and cycling on the population of New York. The result aren't too surprising, but sometimes it's good to confirm what we already know and remind those who still haven't given walking or cycling a try (going to the mailbox doesn't count) that they should join the club. So based on 10,000 telephone interviews, the survey shows that a significant number of New Yorkers incorporate walking and biking into their daily routine, and that these people are more likely to report good mental and physical health than those who don't walk or cycle. - Shea Gunther

From the page: "As snow globe souvenir season begins, weâ€re shaking things up by turning your loveliest winter photos into keepsake miniatures. All it took was a little faux tilt-shift photography to create some holiday magic and turn your scenes tiny. We hope you enjoy this new perspective on winter travel." - Shea Gunther

Climate change is real, and scary, the science affirms. But a scandal in England has put skeptics on the offensive in Copenhagen. Meet the leaders of the environmental backlash. The global summit on climate change in Copenhagen kicked off Monday--with skeptics enjoying a surprisingly strong wind at their backs. Until recently, the movement seemed to be all in the environmentalists' favor. President Obama had made cap and trade legislation--aimed at reducing greenhouse-gas emissions--a key plank of his budget. The House had passed a cap and trade bill. On the eve of the summit, Obama pushed back his arrival date in Denmark--amid feverish speculation that he, India and China had worked out a deal. - Shea Gunther

How to green up your flight, good advice for a lot of people who will be traveling for the holidays. - Shea Gunther

Fantastic. - Shea Gunther

The holidays are a time of over-indulgence; there's food and wine everywhere and unhealthy snacks at every gathering, whether in the office or among the community. You might think that this is a good time to avoid breakfast to cut calories, but this is a big mistake; studies show that those who skip breakfast end up eating even more later on in the day than they would if they ate a meal first-thing. With that in mind, start your day off right this holiday season; here are two recipes for nutrient-dense, filling, and healthy breakfasts that won't add too many calories but will keep you satisfied enough so that perhaps you won't reach for that second dessert. - Shea Gunther

John Wilson stopped in Chicago during a road trip from Boston. He was walking by Wicker Park when he noticed a "totally anonymous and unsupervised" local drop box where you could leave or take unwanted books and DVD's. When he got back home, he started talking about the idea with Chris Maggio, an old school friend and co-founder of the art collective the Future Machine. Would something similar work in Boston? They decided to find out. Anthropologists and socio-economists have spent decades examining the principle of people responding to a positive action with another positive action, commonly referred to as "direct reciprocity." - Shea Gunther

IF YOU'VE been paying attention to the goings on in Washington, it's become painfully obvious that the GOP has no coherent message. From time to time, it trots out one of its old white guys to mutter gravely about the dangers of government - which only raises the question why, exactly, they bothered to run for office. - Shea Gunther

PORTLAND, England, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- A British prisoner convinced guards his marijuana plants were tomato plants -- and they even allowed him to decorate one as a Christmas tree, a source said. - Shea Gunther

My God, those evil Wall Street bankers. First they bought our politicians, then they stole our moneys. That $700 billion that went to Wall Street, that's what everyone's so angry about, right? It proves how the government is (a) socialist (b) sold out to corporate interests* (*choose one based on preexisting ideological preconceptions). Oh, the gross injustice of it all, how evil bankers just up and stole $700 bill- Wait - what's that you say? We're getting it all back? That's what the New York Times is reporting anyway. With the economy recovering faster than anticipated, the Treasury has revised down its losses from the bailout program - to the tune of 300 billion. It now looks like the banks will be able to pay back all the money loaned to them sooner rather than later, with interest. Even taking into account losses due to additional business loans and actions such as the bailout of GM, the most optimistic scenario has the government recovering 90% of the bailout money. - Shea Gunther

Awesome, what the speed of light looks like. - Shea Gunther

That's the question I first asked myself which led me to write "Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization" (Harper Collins January 2010). I had read Dan Yergin's wonderful history of oil, "The Prize", and began contemplating what other natural resource might be shaping our destiny as profoundly. The obvious answer arrived like a slap in the forehead, a Bill Clinton "It's the economy, stupid!" moment--WATER. Water is visibly showing through as a root cause of nearly every headline issue transforming the world order and planetary environment: Freshwater scarcity is a key reason why 3.5 billion people are projected to live in countries that cannot feed themselves by 2025. Earth's freshwater ecosystems are critically depleted and being used unsustainably, reported the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, for today's 6.5 billion population much less for the 9 billion we'll be by 2050. Extreme droughts, floods, melting glaciers and other water cycle-related effects of global... - Shea Gunther

Great clips, watch them only at Twilight Earth. From the page: Twilight Earth has a series of Clip Reel Video's that will be playing at the Copenhagen Climate Talks. You can now watch them here before they go to Copenhagen! Our friends Brandon and Steve, with America.Gov, are going to Copenhagen. In addition to filming and interviewing at the Climate Talks for the State Department, they are bringing a series of videos with them. The U.S. Center Clip Reel is called "Our Common Purpose: Addressing Climate Change". It contains 19 videos from a number of different government agencies and NGOs including the U.S. State Department, American Museum of Natural History, American Wind Energy Association, U.S Department of Energy, and NOAA. Each video highlights an effort that is being undertaken by the U.S government, private industry, educational institution, or individual. Altogether, they seek to illustrate steps that the United States and its citizens are taking to understand and address... - Shea Gunther

I'll never not find cats funny. - Shea Gunther

Screw you VW. - Shea Gunther

BAGHDAD -- Even as the U.S. military scrambles to support a troop surge in Afghanistan, it is donating passenger vehicles, generators and other equipment worth tens of millions of dollars to the Iraqi government. - Shea Gunther

Al Franken is fantastic here talking about health care on the floor of the U.S. Senate. - Shea Gunther

Nice. - Shea Gunther

Bill O'Reilly commented on the spread of atheism that we should anticipate many dead brain cells. Obviously he has expressed his views on atheism and regards it to be misleading or false. I used to regard atheism as false and straying from the "truth." But I know why. People who read the Bible and fall in love with it are understandable. There is no doubt that the Bible is full of wisdom. But what begins to happen, as did with me, is that I paraded the Bible and Christianity so much to the point it became magical and infallible. Some people do this to historical figures too. It is fine to praise a person or book, but what happens is that included in its infatuation a measure of self-importance becomes involved in such a way that a person almost acts as if he and the Bible or celebrated figure are one combined entity. Thus, by not accepting the bible the person behaves in a way as if you insulted or rejected him. The error made is not one of intelligence but of perception. This... - Shea Gunther

With the percentage of nursing moms reportedly climbing to record highs nationwide, some Michigan lawmakers are trying to make it illegal to ask a woman to stop breast feeding her infant in a public place. A state House bill would protect nursing mothers from discrimination under the state's Civil Rights Act. Rep. Robert Dean, D-Grand Rapids, said he signed on to co-sponsor the legislation after watching the care his daughter-in-law took to nurse his grandchildren as discreetly as possible. - Shea Gunther

Ha! - Shea Gunther