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Minsky on population

Artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky takes on the fraught subject of population in a rambling, semi-coherent TED talk: (Thanks LL!)

Urban hawk attacks

I received a strange phone call yesterday from my youngest daughter. “Dad, a hawk is eating Pinkfoot!” Pinkfoot was my daughter’s Bantam hen, which won Best in Show at the fair this summer. I raced home to find a fairly large hawk making short work of said hen and it had no intention of leaving […]

Snippets from the news

• Colorado adopts rules that protect wildlife from drilling operations. • Coal project moves ahead in Kentucky. • Pine beetle infestation may affect weather and air quality. • North Carolina experiencing gas shortage. • Northeastern and West Coast women chock full of mercury. • Pollution from Hurricane Ike could have been much worse. • Is […]

Northeast states’ regional carbon trading system goes live this week

The nation’s first carbon cap-and-trade program starts Thursday, when power plant owners in 10 northeastern states submit sealed bids to buy allowances to emit greenhouse gases. Two other regional programs are to follow, assuring that nearly half of the United States will be covered by carbon trading programs — with or without leadership from Congress […]

Snippets from the news

• “Clean coal” could be economically viable by 2030, says report. • E.U. lawmakers may back off plans to cut CO2 emissions from cars. • Tide power pushes forward. • EPA chief lied to Congress, says Sen. Boxer. • Zookeeper of famous polar bear Knut has died.

Many of world’s common birds are taking a population dive

Some of the world’s most common bird species have suffered big population declines in the last few decades due to habitat loss, invasive species, industrial agriculture, and logging, says a new report from BirdLife International. The report found that in the last 25 years, some 45 percent of Europe’s common bird species have been in […]

Interior Department joins Big Oil and Big Fish

If you thought their parties were kinky, get this: those wacky kids over at the Department of the Interior have figured how to please their special friends in the oil business and boost the factory fish-farming industry in one swoop. Writing on Ethicurean, Elanor Starmer reports that the Interior department’s Minerals Management Services is pushing […]

Friday music blogging: Tilly & the Wall

Photo: Anders Jensen-Urstad, Wikipedia Teen rebellion was commodified long ago, and much of the music now geared toward it is either whiny emo or sugar-coated pop punk. Occasionally, though, a band outside the Big Label Bland Suburban Angst world comes crashing in with a little raw abandon and exuberance that can actually plug you back […]

Snippets from the news

• Stephane Dion would give big money to green up Canadian farmers. • Permafrost may stay intact despite global warming. • Australia goes big with “clean coal.” • House passes bill that would triple funding for Great Lakes cleanup. • West Coast LNG terminal approved. • Sierra Club gives out awards. • Nature Conservancy buys […]

Allocating individual quotas could save many fisheries, study says

Retooling the way fisheries are managed could be the key to their long-term health, according to a new study published in the journal Science. Typical fisheries have mostly relied on a free-for-all style of management where scientists determine the overall allowable catch and then fishers go out and compete with each other to try to […]