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Submission + - Biofuels from corn crop can generate more greenhouse gases than gasoline (unl.edu)

Submitted by Chipmunk100
Chipmunk100 writes: Using corn crop residue to make ethanol and other biofuels reduces soil carbon and can generate more greenhouse gases than gasoline, according to a study published today in the journal Nature Climate Change. The findings by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln team of researchers cast doubt on whether corn residue can be used to meet federal mandates to ramp up ethanol production and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Comment As a skeptic, this alarms me. (Score 2) 348

by gillbates (#46792967) Attached to: VA Supreme Court: Michael Mann Needn't Turn Over All His Email

The biggest problem I have with this is not that Mann's science might be wrong, but that the methods being used to discredit the science are anything but scientific. We have entered a scary, new era in Western thought where conformity of thought is valued above all else, and anyone who dares advocate a position which could be considered controversial or offensive is railroaded into silence by whatever means necessary.

The "Speak No Evil" crowd is destroying a great Western tradition of open and honest debate. These folks are committing offenses against truth itself, destroying civilization in the process.

I was under the impression that the ClimateGate affair was old news and Mann had been discredited already; why would they bother pursuing this more than half a decade later? It seems their objective is not merely to win the debate, or merely suppress an unpopular opinion, but to prevent any debate, research, or independent inquiry from taking place from this point on.

It's called making an example of someone. It's objective is to so thoroughly exasperate the target that their response becomes so extreme as to become unbelievable by the public at large. If they can't keep you from speaking, they can make others believe that either:

  1. You are so extreme in your position that your judgement cannot be trusted, or
  2. If anyone else dares to speak up that their life will be ruined by the onslaught of specious and frivolous inquiries, innuendos, lies, etc...

Michael Mann's ordeal serves the interest of the fossil fuel companies regardless of the outcome of the case.

It does not, however, serve the greater public interest. Even though I believe Mann to be mistaken, I'm quite certain that we the public cannot be adequately informed in an environment such as this.

Submission + - MS reduced WinXP custom support prices (computerworld.com)

Submitted by yuhong
yuhong writes: MS reduced WinXP custom support prices (often by ten-fold) in the week before it ended support (to closer to what NT4/Win2000 custom support used to cost). According to the article: "Sources familiar with Microsoft's position claimed that the company changed its CSA pricing tune after chief operating officer Kevin Turner returned to Redmond at the beginning of the month from a swing through the sales force, where he got an earful about customers with thousands of XP machines and no chance of making the migration deadline. The decision to drop prices was made shortly after that."

Submission + - MIT Designs Tsunami Proof Floating Nuclear Reactor (mit.edu)

Submitted by Amtrak
Amtrak writes: MIT has created designs for a nuclear plant that would avoid the downfall of the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The new design calls for the nuclear plant to be placed on a floating platform modeled after the platforms used for offshore oil drilling.

A floating platform several miles offshore, moored in about 100 meters of water, would be unaffected by the motions of a tsunami; earthquakes would have no direct effect at all. Meanwhile, the biggest issue that faces most nuclear plants under emergency conditions — overheating and potential meltdown, as happened at Fukushima, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island — would be virtually impossible at sea.

Submission + - Anti-tech protests in San Francisco turn out to be underhanded ploy by union

Submitted by execthis
execthis writes: In the news over past weeks and months have been stories about protests in San Francisco in which buses for Google have been blocked by protesters. Today it is revealed that a union is behind these protests, which amount to a dirty tactic on their part to attempt to humiliate the City and County of San Francisco government into giving raises to their employees. In other words, they have been faux protests staged by the Service Employees International Union as an underhanded attempt to gain leverage and force the city to give them wage increases. Its interesting to note that there recently were other seemingly faux protests in front of Staples stores, this time by the postal workers (I say seemingly because they did not appear to openly reveal that they were in fact postal workers).

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