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Comment Re: In related news (Score 1) 552

I can't believe that Anti Cheat didn't get the joke. That is something so many Climate Change "skeptics" just lack the capacity to get. It worries me when basic critical thinking is required and just isn't there. This is why science is sacrificed over a blind religion. Fact is, climate science "skepticism" has become a religion for some. Sad.

Submission + - Newly Discovered Greenhouse Gas is 7,000 Times More Powerful Than CO2

Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Suzanne Goldenberg writes at The Guardian that researchers at the University of Toronto's department of chemistry have identified a newly discovered greenhouse gas, perfluorotributylamine (PFTBA), in use by the electrical industry since the mid-20th century, that is 7,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at warming the Earth. "We claim that PFTBA has the highest radiative efficiency of any molecule detected in the atmosphere to date," says Angela Hong. Concentrations of PFTBA in the atmosphere are low – 0.18 parts per trillion in the Toronto area – compared to 400 parts per million for carbon dioxide but PFTBA is long-lived. There are no known processes that would destroy or remove PFTBA in the lower atmosphere so it has a very long lifetime, possibly hundreds of years, and is destroyed in the upper atmosphere. ""It is so much less than carbon dioxide, but the important thing is on a per molecule basis, it is very very effective in interacting with heat from the Earth." PFTBA has been in use since the mid-20th century for various applications in electrical equipment, such as transistors and capacitors. "PFTBA is just one example of an industrial chemical that is produced but there are no policies that control its production, use or emission," says Hong. "It is not being regulated by any type of climate policy."

Submission + - Extreme Diets Can Quickly Alter Gut Bacteria (sciencemag.org)

sciencehabit writes: With all the talk lately about how the bacteria in the gut affect health and disease, it's beginning to seem like they might be in charge of our bodies. But we can have our say, by what we eat. For the first time in humans, researchers have shown that a radical change in diet can quickly shift the microbial makeup in the gut and also alter what those bacteria are doing. The study takes a first step toward pinpointing how these microbes, collectively called the gut microbiome, might be used to keep us healthy.

Submission + - Intel Linux Driver Now Nearly As Fast As Windows OpenGL Driver (phoronix.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Intel's open-source Linux graphics driver is now running neck-and-neck with the Windows 8.1 driver for OpenGL performance between the competing platforms when using the latest drivers for each platform. The NVIDIA driver has long been able to run at similar speeds between Windows and Linux given the common code-base, but the Intel Linux driver is completely separate from their Windows driver due to being open-source and complying with the Linux DRM and Mesa infrastructure. The Intel Linux driver is still trailing the Windows OpenGL driver in supporting OpenGL4.

Submission + - Evolution in Science Textbooks for Texas Schools (nytimes.com) 1

windwalker13th writes: Recently the New York Times ran an article highlighting the pull that a State Board in Texas holds over that state and rest of the Nation. Because of the unique way in which Texas picks school textbooks (purchasing large volumes of textbooks at once to be used for the next decade) publishers pander to this board to get their books approved. The board currently holds several members (6 of 28 who are known to reject evolution) who hold creationist views and actively work to ensure that the science textbooks do not use as strong language or must include "critical thinking" about possible alternate explanations for evolution. The 'Theory of Evolution' as currently set forth while a "theory" is more FACT/LAW (Like Newtown’s Three Laws of Motion). So while our exact understanding of humans origins, if we evolved from monkeys as most evidence indicate or, were created a little while ago on the geological time frame by an all knowing creator, or were a planet seeded by aliens is still somewhat up for debate evolution is not. What can we as a society do to ensure that K-12 schools are teaching our kids that the change in features of Galapagos finches is the result of natural selection driven by changing environmental conditions and the process of evolution?

Comment Re:Yes. (Score 3, Insightful) 1216

"You cann dress it up and call it a ratio all you want but in the end, it is telling companies they cannot pay someone over a certain amount."

Wrong.
A 12:1 ratio just means that if you want to pay your CEO $12million/year you just have raise the wage of your lowest level employees up to $1million/year.
The proposed law would do nothing to forbid that.

Submission + - Healthcare.gov Problems Aren't All Incompetence (dailykos.com) 1

JMJimmy writes: Libby Shaw of Daily Kos writes

It should come as no surprise to anyone that there has been a number of right wing cyber attacks on the healthcare.gov site. It seems that there has been a concerted effort on several fronts in an all out Republican led war to kill and destroy the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. One has to ask if this war on Obamacare has been an intentional and coordinated effort.


Comment Re:Why is Obamacare failing so badly? (Score 2, Insightful) 202

The comment I'm replying to is the perfect example of why people are so tired of Obama-haters:
Because you can't seem to limit yourselves to talking about how much you hate his healthcare plan (or anything else about him for that matter), even when it has absolutly nothing to do with the topic at hand.
You don't like his plan: everybody everwhere in the world has heard your complaints about a million times already; give it a goddamn rest.
Just save your two minutes of hate for the next "What's wrong with HealthCare.gov?" article of which there is sure to be one every day for the next few months.

Submission + - Chris Hatfield ejected after finding Gravity science lightweight

darkonc writes: Chris Hatfield, the Canadian former commander of the International space station, who became a social media sensation for his transmissions from the space station, including a zero-G version of David Bowie's "A space oddity", is in the news again. He apparently went to see a 3D version of the box office hit "Gravity", and found the inacuracies in the film too much to bear. He was eventually ejected from the theatre for loudly heckling the film.

Eyewitnesses reported that during Monday night’s 9:15pm Real3D screening of Gravity, a lone man (later identified as retired ISS Commander Chris Hadfield) began muttering under his breath and chuckling to himself. By the 30-minute mark, Hadfield reportedly made numerous rude comments such as, “Nice Soyuz procedure, Hollywood!” and “Oh yeah, because that’s what hypoxia as caused by rapid cabin decompression looks like you idiots!.”

Comment Re:Wow. (Score 1) 333

"Whatever your beef with your political opponents, sneering at their education only makes you look ridiculous."

That's some pretty big talk from a person who's sig line is: "Somewhere in Chicago a community is missing an organizer."

Here's one for you:
Whatever your beef with your political opponents, sneering at their community service only makes you look ridiculous.

Comment Re:But the IPCC is SCIENCE (Score 1) 640

The IPCC creates reports based on the scientific studies of Climatologists.
These reports include both natural and human contributions to climate change.
The IPCC could not have come to the conclusion that human activity is partly responsible for the current period of warming if they hadn't looked at natural contributions.

NASA's Earth Observatory has a great article on the topic:
"Climate model simulations that consider only natural solar variability and volcanic aerosols since 1750—omitting observed increases in greenhouse gases—are able to fit the observations of global temperatures only up until about 1950. After that point, the decadal trend in global surface warming cannot be explained without including the contribution of the greenhouse gases added by humans."
Source (emphasis mine).

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