Well, that's not the point and unless you went to UNH in the early 90's, I doubt you know the content of my *undergraduate* curriculum (ie, no classes on Paleozoic marine life). I do know the answers, although for the most part I can only offer educated guesses of the extemporaneous and non-succinct variety. My point is that articles like this gloss over or avoid entirely some of the underlying principles involved and this leads many people to dismiss the headline which in this case translates to "More methane may be escaping into the environment as a consequence of global warming". Enter the fart jokes.

Sure, science folk and reasonably educated people like me don't require deep background to form opinions, but most people do. Since it's rarely provided, lay readers retreat to their default stance which, more often than not, is to ignore it and possibly support public figures who promote lassiez-faire exploitation of natural resources.

Many of the responses to my original question would have been nice additions to the OL.

... that I think naturally come up with stories like this. Despite my science background from college (marine bio, actually, but I never use it), I find it hard to answer questions that true science novices might have such as:

(o) Why is methane bad? It's one of the gases that get trapped in the atmosphere and prevent light from escaping, which warms the planet. Um... I think.

(o) If it floats ups into the upper atmosphere, doesn't it just float into space? Uh.... no. Gravity.... I think.

(o) So those trapped gases must have been in the air at some point, millions of years ago, and then planet did just fine. So what's there to worry about? Uh.....

Sounds great it my brain, but when I vocalize it I realize how easy it is for uninitiated to suspect bullshit and assume there isn't anything to worry about, that this is just a ploy to funnel more money into the coffers of the science research community. Very frustrating.

I have not noticed that. I'm guessing that your observation is derived from anecdotal, possibly apocryphal audits.

Let the grumpy-pants anarchy-baiters grumble. The system can always use more disorder, whatever its present condition.

The was a young lad named Mork
Who was always a'horking his bork
His father said "Mork
Quit horking yer bork
Your Bork's for to Fork not Hork".

[apologies to Durcan and his gherkin]

Why should Americans have to change their habits? I notice that you aren't suggesting that Not-Americans call soccer "association football". Typical Not-American high-falootinry - you guys think you're everybody.

Sorry to be an Oscar party pooper, but that's ridiculous. I'm not saying that he doesn't deserve to be considered - I enjoyed his performance too - but a posthumous presentation shouldn't be preordained any more that a regular humous one. There are many performances yet to be considered. It's July. Seven months to go.

And what about Aaron Eckhart? In many ways, his performance was much more complex and dramatic.