Spiked Eggnog Is Safe Eggnog

See PhysOrg: Microbiologist Tests Safety Of Spiked Eggnog

With one in every 20,000 eggs contaminated with Salmonella bacteria, drinking homemade eggnog can be something of a gamble. But an experiment designed to test whether the alcohol in spiked eggnog can kill the deadly bugs suggests that, in general, few bacteria survive in a mixture containing both raw eggs and 20 percent rum and bourbon.

Java Juice

Diesel, Made Simply From Coffee Grounds

Analysis showed that even the grounds contained about 10 to 15 percent oil by weight. The researchers then used standard chemistry techniques to extract the oil and convert it to biodiesel. The processes are not particularly energy intensive, Dr. Misra said, and the researchers estimated that biodiesel could be produced for about a dollar a gallon.

Take That Ice Age

Study: Did Early Climate Impact Divert A New Glacial Age?

Using three different climate models and removing the amount of greenhouse gases humans have injected into the atmosphere during the past 5,000 to 8,000 years, Vavrus and Kutzbach observed more permanent snow and ice cover in regions of Canada, Siberia, Greenland and the Rocky Mountains, all known to be seed regions for glaciers from previous ice ages. Vavrus notes: "With every feedback we've included, it seems to support the hypothesis (of a forestalled ice age) even more. We keep getting the same answer."

Update 1/7/2009
New World post-pandemic reforestation helped start Little Ice Age

Stanford University researchers have conducted a comprehensive analysis of data detailing the amount of charcoal contained in soils and lake sediments at the sites of both pre-Columbian population centers in the Americas and in sparsely populated surrounding regions. They concluded that reforestation of agricultural lands-abandoned as the population collapsed-pulled so much carbon out of the atmosphere that it helped trigger a period of global cooling, at its most intense from approximately 1500 to 1750, known as the Little Ice Age.

It Is Not About The Tools

Recent Mark Bittman articles of interest:

So Your Kitchen Is Tiny. So What?

...when it comes to kitchens, size and equipment don’t count nearly as much as devotion, passion, common sense and, of course, experience. To pretend otherwise — to spend tens of thousands of dollars or more on a kitchen before learning how to cook, as is sadly common — is to fall into the same kind of silly consumerism that leads people to believe that an expensive gym membership will get them into shape or the right bed will improve their sex life. As runners run and writers write, cooks cook, under pretty much any circumstance.

Fresh Start for a New Year? Let’s Begin in the Kitchen - Here, then, is my little list of items you might spurn, along with some essential pantry and long-keeping refrigerator items you might consider.

I'm not sure I could get by without canned beans and I would add whole nutmeg to the list.

Try Not To Buy Seafood At Meijer

Sustainable Seafood Rankings

The bottom ranked chains are:

18. Meijer
19. H. E. Butt (H.E.B., Central Market)
20. Price Chopper

Recent Earth Science News Of Interest

Wired: Proof That Meteors Could Have Sparked Life on Earth

The simulation, conducted by a team of Japanese planetary materials scientists, produced compounds required to form the first cell and every subsequent organism.

"We use shock experiments to recreate the conditions surrounding the impact of chondritic meteorites into an early ocean," wrote the researchers in Nature Geoscience. "Organic molecules on the early Earth may have arisen from such impact syntheses."

Discovery: Life and Minerals Evolve Together

Before life evolved on Earth, the slow, inexorable grind of plate tectonics created a total of 1,500 mineral species. Now, Hazen said, most minerals require living creatures to spring into existence.

"That's about as far as we think you can get without life," he said. That means about two-thirds of all known minerals depend on Earth's living creatures to survive.

Chestnuts On The Verge

Perhaps just 150 years away to full reforestation!

See: Blight-resistant American chestnut trees nearing reality

General James Jones

12/11/2008 Update
Security Adviser Pick Stresses Oil Independence

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Gen. Jim Jones

The more I have read about Obama's pick for National Security Adviser the more impressed I have been.

USAToday: Jones not regarded as 'political general'

Slate: The Enforcer

Mmmm... Perchlorate

Words fail.

See: Feds Set to Eliminate Water Regulations for Neurotoxin

Among the Bush administration's final environmental legacies will be a decision to exempt perchlorate, a known neurotoxin found at unsafe levels in the drinking water of millions of Americans, from federal regulation.

Asteroids Scare Me

I have an unusual phobia about getting hit in the head by an asteroid. Glad to see the threat is getting more attention

See: World 'must tackle space threat'

Space Beer

ISS Space Barley Beer

A colloborative effort between the Russian Academy of Science, Okayama University and Sopporo Breweries in Japan has developed a beer that uses 100-percent barley grown on the International Space Station.

The Year Of Butanol

If 2007 was the year for biodiesel to become well known; 2008 the year for ethanol; then I believe 2009 will be the year for butanol.

See->
TechReview: Cheaper Butanol from Biomass

BW: Researchers push butanol as biofuel answer

Eco Links

Eco Friendly Flooring Guide is a Great Resource

New LED Light Bulbs Can Replace 100W Incandescents

"Designed To Cheat"

It is all about the chemistry of contraception and it sounds like a plausible hypothesis to me. From what I know of my friends who have divorced it was always the woman who left the relationship.

SciAm: Birth Control Pills Affect Women's Taste in Men

Recent research suggests that the contraceptive pill—which prevents women from ovulating by fooling their body into believing it is pregnant—could affect which types of men women desire. Going on or off the pill during a relationship, therefore, may tempt a woman away from her man.

But for a real eye-opener listen to an interview at CBC's Quirks and Quarks: Sniffing for Sex

Caprica

Sci Fi Greenlights Caprica TV Series

We only have to wait until 2010.

Tina Fey In Vanity Fair

Text by Maureen Dowd, photographs by Annie Leibovitz: What Tina Wants

"Get Your Hopes Up"

Mlive: 'Arrested Development' movie is a go. Rejoice!

and "come on George Michael": Mitch Hurwitz and Ron Howard Closing Deals for 'Arrested Development' Movie

While reading this update is certainly good news for Arrested Development fans, there's one catch. Word on the street is that one of the original cast members hasn't signed on to do the film and may not participate at all. Though sources aren't naming names, many are pointing their fingers to Michael Cera, who played young George Michael Bluth, as he was previously quoted as saying the film wasn't being made and shouldn't be made.

Granola Types

Outdoors people like to watch wildlife

A recent report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the participation rates and economic impact of hunting and fishing now trail those of wildlife watching.

A Talking Bear

Bear Grylls: How are we going to face up to energy crisis?

Fruit Fly Science

During the 2008 Presidential campaign Sarah Palin mocked fruit fly research in a speech about special needs kids and was subsequently made a fool of; and rightfully so.

See: Palin takes on fruit flies--And loses

Now fruit flies have provided more insight into childhood disorders.

See: Fruit fly discovery generates buzz about brain-damaging disorder in children