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Comment Re:Pffff Warming ... ice age ... they're both comi (Score 1) 747

by Ziwcam (#34503414) Attached to: Doubling of CO2 Not So Tragic After All?

(source http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/research/globalchange/climate_change.asp

and the temperature drops like a stone (weather apparently goes from normal to ice age conditions, meaning permafrost in the northern sahara, and a *very* white Christmas in southern Mexico, while Florida becomes an ice sheet, just to give an idea how extreme this is, in less than 10 years). That's 10 years, triggered by some unknown event, after which America less inhabitable than Greenland. Even the deserts of the middle east will be cold conditions, and harsh winters, at best.

Of course the error margin on these data are like 500-1000 years, which is a lot of time. But while we don't know why or how, *something* is going to trigger an ice age, pretty soon now. But that's "pretty soon" in "very likely in the next 2000 years" ...

But, your very own source seems to indicate that both CO2 and CH4 levels are much much higher than what the normal cycle produces. Also, the current temperature, according to that graph, is higher than seen in the past 450,000 years. Surely that won't have an effect on the changes that come? If CO2 of 280ppm produces an ice age which plummets average temperatures by 6 degrees, what catastrophic drop will we see from CO2 of 370 (and rising...)?

I'm also curious as to where you're getting your "10 years" figure. If the margin of error on the data is 500-1000 years, how could you possible infer that the temperature drop and glaciation occurs over such a short timeframe?

Or even worse... what if the Ice Age that's supposed to be triggered in the next 2000 years is prevented, and instead the temperature keeps spiraling upward? I don't think either is desirable. I love my car as much as any red-blooded American, but for the sake of my children's children's children(x10), I think we definitely need to make some changes to how our race is treating this planet.
Medicine

New Imaging Method Reveals Brain Connections 95

Posted by samzenpus from the look-at-the-big-brain-on-you dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, applying a state-of-the-art imaging system to brain-tissue samples from mice, have been able to quickly and accurately locate and count the myriad connections between nerve cells in unprecedented detail, as well as to capture and catalog those connections' surprising variety. A typical healthy human brain contains about 200 billion nerve cells, or neurons, linked to one another via hundreds of trillions of tiny contacts called synapses. It is at these synapses that an electrical impulse traveling along one neuron is relayed to another, either enhancing or inhibiting the likelihood that the second nerve will fire an impulse of its own. One neuron may make as many as tens of thousands of synaptic contacts with other neurons, said Stephen Smith, PhD, professor of molecular and cellular physiology and senior author of a paper describing the study, to be published Nov. 18 in Neuron."
Google

Google Wave Creator Quits, Joins Facebook 191

Posted by CmdrTaco from the well-there-aren't-that-many-choices dept.
srimadman found an interview with Wave creator Lars Rasmussen where he talks about his recent decision to join Facebook, leaving Google behind. Apparently getting personally pitched by Zuckerberg helped. He says, "I've got a job description of 'come hang out with us for a while and we'll see what happens,' which is a pretty exciting thing." The article talks about Big vs Small companies, and notes that about 20% of Facebook's staff are former Googlers.

Comment Re:double standard (Score 2, Insightful) 177

by Ziwcam (#33175516) Attached to: Researchers Pinpoint Cause of Gluten Allergies
Does capsaicin kill you? In order for something to be a poison, the LD50 must be a small enough dose that a reasonable person could accidentally, or intentionally, consume it in a reasonable period of time. "a substance that, when introduced into or absorbed by a living organism, causes death or injury, esp. one that kills by rapid action even in a small quantity" lactose and capsaicin don't fall under that category.
The Military

Laser Weapon Shoots Down Airplanes In Test 627

Posted by Soulskill from the phasers-on-stun-good-luck-kirk-out dept.
airshowfan writes "Boeing's directed-energy weapons (a.k.a. frickin' laser beams) have been getting some attention lately. The Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) is a C-130 that famously burned a hole through a car's hood, and the YAL-1 AirBorne Laser is a 747 that shoots a laser from its nose that is powerful enough to bring down an ICBM. But even cooler is the Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments (MATRIX), a laser that is mounted on a truck (which probably costs less than a 747, but who knows) and that can shoot down small aircraft, as shown in the picture on this article. (The Laser Avenger supposedly also has this capability). We live in the future!"

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