mammals schmammals - what have they ever done for us (besides being quite delicious)?

News item - Field Museum expert: One in four mammals threatened with extinction

I blame myself

This intriguing title is due for an October release... if we last that long...

Plait, Philip. Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End.... Viking. Oct. 2008. c.324p. illus. index.

Plait (Bad Astronomy) runs the popular blog BadAstronomy.com and is a former astronomy professor. Here, he describes the myriad ways that astronomical events could end life on Earth. These include comet and asteroid impacts, massive solar flares, supernova explosions, gamma-ray bursts, black holes, diseases of extraterrestrial origin, the eventual death of the sun, and the wobbly orbit of the sun around our galaxy that could expose us to cosmic rays.

imperviousness to irony (cont'd)

Exclusive: Scientists warn that there may be no ice at North Pole this summer

It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year.

. . .

If it happens, it raises the prospect of the Arctic nations being able to exploit the valuable oil and mineral deposits below these a bed which have until now been impossible to extract because of the thick sea ice above. (YAY! Ed.)

If Richard Clarke were VP this wouldn't be happening, or, stick your head between your legs and kiss your @ss goodbye (cont'd)

The Pakistanis are our very good friends and allies (see also: Earf blowing up), espatially, da rezzziDUNCE's boy, Pervez "Pervy" Musharraf...

Nuclear Ring Reportedly Had Advanced Design

WASHINGTON — American and international investigators say that they have found the electronic blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon on computers that belonged to the nuclear smuggling network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the rogue Pakistani nuclear scientist, but that they have not been able to determine whether they were sold to Iran or the smuggling ring’s other customers...

But the latest design found on Khan network computers in Switzerland, Bangkok and several other cities around the world is half the size and twice the power of the Chinese weapon, with far more modern electronics, the investigators say. The design is in electronic form, they said, making it easy to copy — and they have no idea how many copies of it are now in circulation (YAY!... Ed.)

can bear meat be made into fuel?

Judge orders U.S. government to decide polar bear listing

(AP) ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A federal judge has ordered the Interior Department to decide within 16 days whether polar bears should be listed as a threatened species because of global warming...

A decision to list polar bears due to global warming could trigger a recovery plan with consequences beyond Alaska. Opponents fear it would subject new power plants and other development projects to federal review (i.e., communism -- ed.) if they generate greenhouse gasses that add to warming in the Arctic (why do polar bears hate our freedom? -- ed.)...

In response to the petition filed in 2005, the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed in December 2006 that polar bears be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act because of the loss of their primary habitat, Arctic sea ice.

Summer sea ice shrank last year to a record low, about 1.65 million square miles in September, nearly 40 percent less ice than the long-term average between 1979 and 2000. Some climate models have predicted the Arctic will be free of summer sea ice by 2030.

A U.S. Geological Survey study generated in response to the listing petition predicted that polar bears in Alaska could be wiped out by 2050...

Look, we all know there won't be any more polar bears in a few decades, so why should we sacrifice our economic growth to a doomed effort to save them?

i would like to have a beer with John McCain

By winning back unhappy GOP voters, McCain makes it a race
By ALAN FRAM and TREVOR TOMPSON, Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are no longer underdogs in the race for the White House. To pull that off, John McCain has attracted disgruntled GOP voters, independents and even some moderate Democrats who shunned his party last fall.

Partly thanks to an increasingly likable image, the Republican presidential candidate has pulled even with the two Democrats still brawling for their party's nomination, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll released Thursday. Just five months ago — before either party had winnowed its field — the survey showed people preferred sending an unnamed Democrat over a Republican to the White House by 13 percentage points.