By Russia, With Love

Thank goodness someone is paying attention to these things.

Via 80Beats: Russia Is Developing a Secret Plan to Divert a Non-Threatening Asteroid

"A Cashier In Cashmere Held Up An Old Map Of Norway..."

(title is from the song 'Salvation Barmy')

I read about buying cashmere at moreintelligentlife.com and this got me thinking about all the different types of wools and I ended up at this very informative page at STP: Guide To Wool

Alpaca sounds amazing though it is well-known that I have had a long time love affair with merino.

And it is also good to remember that cheap cashmere has a high cost that someone else has to pay for.

Two Business Related Posts That I Believe Are Related

TNR: Upper Mismanagement: Why can't Americans make things? Two words: business school.

How did we get to this point? In some sense, it’s the result of broad historical and economic forces. Up until World War I, the archetypal manufacturing CEO was production oriented—usually an engineer or inventor of some kind. Even as late as the 1930s, business school curriculums focused mostly on production. Khurana notes that many schools during this era had mini-factories on campus to train future managers.

After World War II, large corporations went on acquisition binges and turned themselves into massive conglomerates. In their landmark Harvard Business Review article from 1980, “Managing Our Way to Economic Decline,” Robert Hayes and William Abernathy pointed out that the conglomerate structure forced managers to think of their firms as a collection of financial assets, where the goal was to allocate capital efficiently, rather than as makers of specific products, where the goal was to maximize quality and long-term* market share.

The Big Picture: Stocks 1999-2009: Worst. Decade. Ever.

Wired Takes On The Big Questions Of Our Day

Why Geologists Love Beer

Supporting the culture theory is the observation that earth science departments at academic institutions across the world almost invariably have a weekly get-together of some sort that revolves around beer.

This appears to be a follow-up to my 2008 post Geologists Love Beer.

Foods You May Want To Avoid

See Yahoo: The 7 foods experts won't eat

1. Canned Tomatoes
2. Corn-Fed Beef
3. Microwave Popcorn
4. Nonorganic Potatoes
5. Farmed Salmon
6. Milk Produced with Artificial Hormones
7. Conventional Apples

Follow Up To Open Source Climate Science

In news that I see as related to 'Climategate' - the Office of Science and Technology Policy is asking for input regarding tax payer supported research.

See Techdirt: White House Wants Input On Public Access Rules For Federally Funded Research

Comments are welcome on the OSTP blog.

Wired Has An Interview With An Expert On Climate Change Denial

Wired: The Psychology of Climate Change Denial

Yet Somehow the TeaBaggers Are Scared Of Obama

Idiots.

Rumsfeld decision allowed Bin Laden to escape: Senate report

Thoughts On Climategate

Lots of summary at TheAtlantic: ClimateGate III: The Mystery of the Missing Data and BoingBoing: More Insight on Those Leaked Climate Change Emails

My thinking is this:
- this is one data set of many
- climate based observations (e.g., sea ice extent, sea level rise, mtn glaciers, species movement, etc) all point to climate change
- based on source code comments the predictive climate computer model has serious problems
- this "scandal" demonstrates why open data and open source software are so important
- it is odd that the climate change deniers who are hyping Climategate are generally the same people who have been silent on the much more troubling problems with electronic voting machine software

Mars News Indicates It Was Once More Earth-Like

NS: Fresh claim for fossil life in Mars rock

Discover: New Map Suggests Huge Ocean Once Dominated Mars’ Northern Hemisphere

Creating Fear In Standish

Thanks to Representative Hoekstra (who, by the way, is no good at keeping secrets).

TNR: Last Standish

Munson ran into Hoekstra at a cocktail party and left a convert. Munson is cryptic about his change of heart, telling me that Hoekstra is "privy to certain information." (Munson
was more candid with The Washington Post: "He told me things that really scared the heck out of me.")

NPR tries to present the facts: FACT CHECK: Guantanamo detainees and US prisons

Real Life Imitating 'The Simpsons'

Many years ago I saw an episode of 'The Simpsons' where Mr. Burns learned the only thing keeping him alive was that every disease was trying to infect him at once and so they all blocked each other.

With this in mind see this at The New Scientist: Common cold may hold off swine flu

"We think that when you get one infection, it turns on your antiviral defences, and excludes the other viruses,"

And this special I recently saw on PBS regarding how descendants the survivors of Europe's black plague carry a mutation that also makes them immune to HIV: Mystery Of The Black Death

Kim Stanley Robinson Developed A New Time Travel Hypothesis For His Latest Book

Interview with KSR at The Guardian: Kim Stanley Robinson: science fiction's realist

The Limit Of Natural Resources

Two items of note.

The Guardian has this story: Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower

The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying.

And the Natural Gas lobby has been on a PR blitz about how great it is that there is a "100 year supply" of natural gas in the United States as if this is supposed to be reassuring. (you won't run out of natural gas but your kids will - hooray!) My immediate reaction was there would be a panic if there was an announcement that the U.S. had a 100 year supply of trees left. Or water. Or air. Et cetera.

You don't have to be a geologist to recognize that 100 years is a very short time frame.

The Gulf Stream Current Is Very Sensitive

When the North Atlantic current that transports heat from the equator to the northern hemisphere gets turned off the heat gets shut off quickly too.

See NS: Mini ice age took hold of Europe in months

Saving The Rule Of Law

Via TheAtlantic: The Test

Perhaps the worst fears of some will be realized; perhaps the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed will be disrupted or disruptive; perhaps he will be set free. The chances are slim indeed, but if one imagines worst-case scenarios, one must still ask whether that "worst case" is worse than turning our backs on our system on laws and the process guarantees of a free society. On that one, count me with Eric Holder.

Are These Designers Trying To Fail?

Or are they trying to design this decade's Aztek?

What is going on with these oversized hatchback wagons? Who makes a vehicle that is as big as an SUV but with a sloping rear hatch that makes it impossible to put dogs back there? If you want to make a station wagon then make it wagon like!

It is crazy.

My list of today's stupidest cars (without adding the entire Chrysler line due to obviousness):
- Honda CrossTour
- BMW X6
- Toyota Venza

Fast Company Does Not 'Get' 30 Rock And This Is Why Arrested Development Faield

FC: '30 Rock' Ends Product Placement Speculation, Writes Cisco Into Last Night's Episode

Yes, they did. But it was no different than when AD went over the top with their Burger King placement. I'm surprised that the writer missed this. But then not surprised that Arrested Development was cancelled.

No, 30 Rock Is Not Arrested Development.

But it can be in the same ballpark with it and that is the best compliment. For example, other people report on the longing to have something fill the void left by Arrested Development as attested by a Google search for "the new Arrested Development" and most people say "30 Rock".

Government Doctors Save Heart Attack Victim At An Anti-Health Care Rally

Via Ezra Klein: Socialism in action

The Vatican Preps To Proselytize On Alien Planets

Via NPR: Vatican Scientists Seek Evidence Of Alien Life