KCBX, the local NPR affiliate here in Santa Barbara and the rest of California’s Central Coast, reports as follows:
The Trump administration is following up on President Trump’s threat to go after California for pollution that he blames on the state’s large homeless population. (more…)
As noted in the Writer’s Almanac, today is the 114th birthday of the most famous equation known to humankind, E = MC2.
We tend to think that the implications of the equivalence of mass and energy are confined to nuclear reactions. (more…)
Question: What became of the scientists who were fired from the EPA under the Trump administration?
Did they a) Languish at home and watch “The New Price Is Right?” or b) Form their own group and rededicate themselves to doing what they can to minimize the damage?
Here’s an update on the world’s largest wind project, a 1.2 GW offshore wind farm covering about 250 square miles. To be completed in 2020, it’s located 75 miles off the U.K.’s Yorkshire Coast in the North Sea. (more…)
There was a time when pathological liars were rejected by society, not elected president of the most powerful nation on Earth. Let’s not lose sight of that.
Yes, Trump believes he can’t be touched, and his whole life, from his draft dodging to his dishonesty in business to his sexual abuse of women to his treasonous presidency, is a nonstop series of supporting evidence.
I’m reminded of the metaphor of the Thanksgiving turkey, whose entire life supported one conclusion, i.e., that his farmer loved him. Plenty of food and water, words of kind encouragement, room to run around, and a few cute hens with whom to make chicks. Imagine his surprise when out of nowhere, an ax appeared.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, through the voice of Sherlock Holmes: “We balance probabilities and choose the most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination.”
What’s more probable? (more…)
This article, “U.S. states sue Trump administration over weakened endangered species protections,” made me realize that, while the news cycle may be focused on removing Trump from office, the other problems plaguing us haven’t been frozen in time. (more…)
The meme here made me smile, as it illustrates the challenges we face with predicting the future 50 years hence, while calling to mind scientists’ beliefs as to how climate change is going to affect humankind over that same period of time.
I’ll be the first to admit that a great number of things may happen in the next half century that will eliminate, or at least greatly reduce the prospects of catastrophe brought on by global warming. In particular:
• Advanced nuclear: perhaps the fission of thorium, or aneutronic fusion; the development of both has been underway for decades.
• Capacity to scale renewable energy in a way not currently envisioned. (more…)
Fox News is somehow obligated to fight against anyone who would protect our planet and its residents from climate catastrophe, even when that “anyone” is a sincerely committed 16-year-old Swedish environmentalist. The obligation to beat her up becomes especially intense when the President of the United States sees fit to mock the young lady, Greta Thunberg, for demanding that our law-makers base their policies on science. (more…)
