Day: September 29, 2009

Rising sea level won’t be stopped

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A rise of at least two meters in the world’s sea levels is now almost unstoppable, experts told a climate conference at Oxford University.

“The crux of the sea level issue is that it starts very slowly but once it gets going it is practically unstoppable,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, a scientist at Germany’s Potsdam Institute and a widely recognized sea level expert. “There is no way I can see to stop this rise, even if we have gone to zero emissions.”

Rahmstorf said the best outcome was that after temperatures stabilized, sea levels would only rise at a steady rate “for centuries to come,” and not accelerate…

His best guess was a one meter rise this century, assuming three degrees warming, and up to five meters over the next 300 years…

Speakers in Oxford used history to back up their arguments on rising seas. Three million years ago the planet was 2-3 degrees warmer and the sea 25-35 meters higher, and 122,000 years ago 2 degrees warmer and 10 meters higher, they said.

“What we now see in Greenland, Antarctica could be a temporary phenomena but it could also be the start of what we saw 122,000 years ago,” said Vellinga…

About 40 million people worldwide live in flood plains, said Southampton University’s Robert Nicholls. That is 0.6 percent of the global population and 5 percent of global wealth, because of valuable assets such as airports and power plants.

The airports and power plants are assets more important to American politicians than, say, healthy or educated citizens.

Texas medical examiners the “last bastion of junk science!”

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Texas autopsy?

Texas medical examiners are under fire for mistakes that have allowed convicted criminals go free and sent the innocent to prison, critics said.

“The state does not keep track of MEs in any shape, form or fashion,” Bexar County Chief Medical Examiner Randall Frost told the Fort Worth Star Telegram, adding the state doesn’t know how many certified forensic pathologists work in government offices.

A medical examiner only needs a state medical license to perform an autopsy and does not have to be trained in forensics or pass a specialty. Frost said people are shocked when they find out there are not special qualifications.

“The work of the medical examiner’s office is just so slipshod,” said Tommy Turner, a former special prosecutor. Turner’s investigation put a Lubbock medical examiner behind bars for falsifying autopsies.

Critics call the medical examiner’s office “the last bastion of junk science.” They cite lack of performance standards, poor documentation and too few qualified personnel as well as lax oversight.

On the other hand Texas prosecutors find nothing wrong because District Attorneys aren’t complaining of losses in court because of medical reports. WTF?

That describes the ignorant leading the incompetent – if nothing else.

Arizona gets ready for guns in bars

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Starting Wednesday, those carrying concealed weapons are allowed to enter Arizona’s roughly 5,300 establishments licensed to sell alcohol, as long as they don’t drink. If those bar and restaurant owners don’t want guns on the property, they must post a sign indicating that they are not allowed.

The law only requires one sign be posted in a “conspicuous” place, near the establishment’s liquor license. But Al McCarthy, owner of Duke’s Sports Bar & Grill in Scottsdale, put up three signs – one for each entrance to his property – “as soon as the bill passed” nearly three months ago.

“I want to make sure there’s no confusion as to where this business stands on the issue,” McCarthy said. “I have yet to have a customer to tell me they wish I hadn’t put up the sign.”

About a thousand official, laminated signs have been requested since they became available in mid-August, according to the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control, with the average establishment requesting four signs. Business owners also have been able to download and print their own signs from the department’s Web site…

There were 138,348 concealed-weapons permit holders in Arizona as of Sept. 1.

Opponents are concerned that the law could create unnecessarily dangerous situations or harm the local and state tourism industry…

I think the NRA crowd may have shot themselves in the foot on this one. Dimbulbs looking to celebrate this “victory” may behave for a few days – until they resume the egregious conviction they qualify as judge and jury.

This article is from the Arizona Republic – not exactly with a national reputation for progressive politics – yet 60% of the readership voted that it was a bad idea and bad things would happen.

JK Rowling banned by Bushies from US medal over ‘witchcraft’

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voldemortbirther

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civil award, and is given to individuals who have contributed to: 1) the security or national interests of the United States, 2) world peace, or 3) cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.

In his new book, Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor, former Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer reveals how politicized the revered Presidential Medal of Freedom became during the Bush administration.

Latimer writes that administration officials objected to giving author J.K. Rowling the Presidential Medal of Freedom because her writing “encouraged witchcraft” (p. 201)…

The Bush administration was notorious for awarding the medal to its staunchest Iraq war allies. Bush’s final three recipients of the Medal of Freedom were two supporters of his war in Iraq — former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Australian Prime Minister John Howard — and leading human rights violator and Bush foreign policy ally Alvaro Uribe. Other recipients included a whole lineup of figures heavily involved in the Iraq war, including Paul Bremer and George Tenet.

When President Obama took office, he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 16 recipients, including Kennedy and former congressman Jack Kemp, a Republican.

The Know-Nothings who front for neocon politicians eat this stuff up with their grits.

Brits extend Cash for Clunkers

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Just another economical diesel we can’t buy this side of the pond

Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, has announced that the government is extending the popular car scrappage scheme.

He said the scheme would cover an extra 100,000 vehicles. It is estimated that so far the scheme has covered 200,000, suggesting the programme will carry on early into the new year. The extension of the programme will cover vans purchased before September 2002…

The car scrappage scheme was announced in the April budget and allows anyone owning a car that is more than 10 years old to receive a £2,000 subsidy if they buy a new model car. It is thought to have thousands saved of skilled workers’ jobs, keeping unemployment lower than it would otherwise have been.

No British car plant has shut down during this recession, but Jaguar warned last week it intends to close a West Midlands plant, and the future is uncertain for Vauxhall’s factories since the plants were sold by General Motors to Magna, the Canadian car-parts maker…

The scheme helped boost car sales by 28% in August compared with a year ago.

In the U.K., the Tories aren’t quite as sectarian as their conservative counterparts in the U.S.. Our lot would oppose the sun rising in the East if President Obama announced he was in favor of it.

Intel’s Light Peak technology was a Steve Jobs suggestion

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Last week at the IDF 2009 Conference in San Francisco, Intel unveiled a new next-generation data transfer technology dubbed Light Peak. It’s basically an optical subsystem comprised of lasers, modules and probably the odd Flux Capacitor here and there. The outcome is transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps…

Furthermore, Intel says the technology can support multiple devices on the same port simultaneously, without the need for adapters or extension dongles, and maintain data parity at cable lengths up to one hundred meters. Wow.

Engadget reports that Steve Jobs presented the idea to Intel’s Paul Otellini back in 2007. Apple was interested in developing an insanely high-speed interoperable standard capable of shifting huge amounts of data and, “…replace the multitudinous connector types with a single connector (FireWire, USB, Display interface)…”

The concept behind Light Peak is typically Apple. It offers a real, practical — and aesthetically pleasing — solution to the age old problem of cable-mess while introducing impressive new technology to the industry. Jonathan Ive and Steve Jobs are, it seems, almost pathologically opposed to seeing buttons, ports and other bits and pieces on their devices…

Apple was smart going to Intel with the proposal for Light Peak. Introducing a new toy is relatively easy, but introducing a whole new platform is much harder. By handing the task to Intel, Apple can ensure this new standard makes its way into more hardware than Apple products alone…

I’m gonna watch the evolution of Light Peak carefully, and I think you should, too. Sure, it doesn’t (yet) promise the wireless goodness of the more mature and proven USB 3.0 standard, which, at the very least, won’t require end users replace all their peripherals with Light Peak-enabled alternatives. But it does offer the kind of wideband, high-speed convergence our increasingly interconnected devices cry-out for.

RTFA. I love this kind of geek stuff. If it speeds up convergence between communications, TV and computing – I’m for it.

British Asians are outsourcing murder to the home continent

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A BBC investigation has uncovered the deadly practice of British Asians travelling to India to hire contract killers. Family and business associates, who are lured to the sub-continent, are often the targets.

In a country where murder is cheaper and less fraught with risk, the perpetrators of these crimes are rarely brought to justice.

Campaigners in both India and the UK believe this to have claimed the lives of hundreds of victims over several years.

These armchair murder plots are hatched in the living rooms of Britain and executed mainly in the rural Indian state of Punjab…

So how easy is it for British Asians to outsource murder..?

According to Indian journalist, Neelam Raaj, finding a person to carry out the killing is simple.

In India, murder is cheap, with hired assassins paid up to $800. And it appears there are few risks.

RTFA. Details, examples.

Of course, living here in the beautiful American Southwest it’s even cheaper do the deal in Mexico.