SeniorJunior

Have you bought into the premise that the recent rash of huge forest fires is all because of those darn environmentalists, suppressing fires, refusing to let the lumber companies clear cut, etc? Certainly the right wing press machine has been all over this, in pursuit of fewer environmental restrictions on logging public lands on behalf of their Big Lumber supporters. Well, guess what? There is now profound scientific evidence that the main cause of the huge upsurge in major forest wildfires is caused by climate change. Warmer temperatures, earlier spring snow melts, cyclical wet seasons alternating with periodic drought and other indicators of climate change are the main causes, NOT those overzealous environmentalists. If you like facts and figures, read the piece in the Aug 15 Science Magazine. And keep in mind that oft-repeated “talking points” from the right frequently have an agenda that ignores science. Or, worse, denigrates science.

If you’ve been looking for an organized bandwagon to jump on to express your dismay at the anti-science leanings of the Bush Administration (on stem cells, global warming, “intelligent design,” etc.), go to: http://ga3.org/campaign/stem_cell_tellthem_4nature … sign up and add your name to the petition.

Should you be a New Mexican in District 4, take a long look at David Bacon, candidate for the Public Regulation Commission. Check out his web site at: http://www.davidbacon2006.org/ He is an honest, right thinking, very bright fellow who deserves to serve the public. He ran for Governor of NM on the Green ticket last election, which shows he is an unbridled optimist. Heaven knows we need more optimists in government. Here’s a look at his platform. If I had the gumption to run for office, it would be my platform. I want the PRC to... Promote clean renewable energy, encourage alternate local providers and spur innovation Increase local control of power distribution Move New Mexico toward affordable and universal health insurance Protect water resources by opposing large centralized power projects Extend rural telephone service through telecommunication competition Preserve full Internet access for everyone ...GO DAVID!

CRVs. They are everywhere. There goes one now! Honda CRVs - an SUV ( Small Utility Vehicle) - are infiltrating our world. ... and rightfully so. Twenty-seven mpg in town/country driving by my calculations. I see them everywhere these days. The pre-2004 models are a little boxier than this one. In '04 Honda sleeked them up a bit and put that slash of a rear light package on board. The CRV is taking the "huge" out of S-Huge-V. Consider this a testimonial for the CRV. And look around when you drive. They are everywhere. Smart folks buy them. Oh, did I mention, we have one?

Since for decades I made “angle” and “coverage tactics” recommendations to journalists as a news consultant, I just can’t contain myself. The Republicans have linked killing the inheritance tax to giving life to a raise in the minimum wage. Tricky devils. Since the inheritance tax affects a very small number of very wealthy people and in the process has a large effect on growing our national debt so it exacerbates two problems; the other being the growing gap between the incomes of the poor and the rich, a bad thing. The federal minimum wage affects several million of our lowest income citizens. It does nothing to speak of to the national debt. It (ever so slightly) decreases the rich/poor gap, a good thing. So here’s the coverage suggestion, news people. Pick five rich people representative of those benefited by killing the inheritance tax. See how much money their heirs would gain by not paying the tax. The compare that amount with how many folks making minimum wage would be...

We were hearing a lot about the failed long-range missile launch in N. Korea about the same time this was happening. First Agni III test fails India's first test firing of its nuclear capable Agni III intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM), launched at 1105 hrs local time (0535 GMT) on 9 July, failed due to technical problems at the second stage, according to defence sources. The launch has been postponed twice since November 2004 for a variety of political and technical considerations [Jane's Defence Weekly - first posted to http://jdw.janes.com/ - 10 July 2006] I don’t know about you, but I didn’t hear or read a single story about this in the “popular press.”

Confounded I am. There is a bit of positive news today (amidst all the sturm und drang in the Middle East). In Forbes online, the headline is “Alzheimer’s ‘Risk Score’ Spots Those Most Vulnerable.” http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2006/07/17/hscout533826.html Excellent! If you find that you might be more vulnerable, you can start worrying incessantly about it. OR… there might be something you can do to change the odds. Now the problem. There is a bit in the piece that confuses me. I thought maybe it was a trick paragraph, and further down in the article it would say “Gotcha! If you were confused by that paragraph, you’re in big trouble.” So I read it four or five times, and I’m still confused. After the article commented on two studies (lose weight, exercise, don’t get diabetes, keep your cholesterol down, etc.), there came a summary of a third study. Here’s the paragraph: “In men who developed dementia, cholesterol levels declined at least 15 years prior to...

The “Hockey Stick” Drives Conservatives Crazy The Wall Street Journey (my favorite newspaper) and its Editorial Page (my least favorite editorials) are showing their strange schism again. Friday’s (7.14.06) second editorial was headlined “Hockey Stick Hokum.” Whoo boy, what a piece o’weak thinking. What weak evidence. What strange rationalizations. Basically, the Fox-ites in print denied the current state of paleoclimate research in favor of the old, anecdote-based thinking about what’s been happening with global temperature changes over the past thousand years. They attack the original analysis that created the “hockey stick” graph (showing things have been heating up fast in the last century) by excerpting a new report commissioned by the House Energy Committee. The work was done by statisticians, not – heaven forbid – climatologists. Here are the graphics the WSJ editors used: The top graph is what we’ve had in our textbooks for decades, based on little more than historical ...

Whoa! As you know (better than I, a rank amateur) Blogspot has a “next blog” link in the upper right hand corner. Probably some of the other blog hosting sites have something similar. Anyway… I was “next-ing” through the random order the link provides. There is a lot of weird, and a lot of impressive stuff out there among the 40 million blogs (where did I get that number?). One that stopped me cold, and made me write this little bit, was a narrative of the last days of life and then the death of a loved one. Then a start of the coping. Try this if you want a measure of reality: http://jacksroadtorecovery.blogspot.com/ Hang in there, Becci.

The Great New Mexico Drought is cracked. Not broken, mind you, just cracked. Here in this marvelous little microclimate called “The East Mountains” (the east side of the mountains east of Albuquerque; actually the Sandias, Manzanitos and Manzanos), and especially in this valley between Raven Road, Kuhn Road, Skyland Boulevard and the Isleta Reservation, the rains have come and come and come. In the last three weeks, more than six inches of rain (and hail and sleet!) have fallen. The crunchy grasses and crackling pine needles have grown soft. Green of every shade has sprung from the plants and the ground itself, and all things with roots are rejoicing. I’m not sure how long it takes to rehydrate the cores of thick ponderosa trunks (they were only 25% of what they should have been in interior moisture – Roman candles awaiting ignition), but they have got to be on their way. Most of this water has soaked into the ground very quickly after each rain, bathing their roots. Only in the...

Darn it! Ethanol, whether from corn, switchgrass or sugar beets/cane, really isn’t the magic bullet that will slay the dragon of our petroleum addiction. Neither is biomass fuel the magic wand that will poof! away our dependence on fossil and atomic fuels electrical generation. (Check out the wonderful dialogue of the learned in the “Letters” section of the 23 June ’06 Science Magazine. www.sciencemag.org [subscription’]) Of course there are no magic bullets/wands lying around these days anyway, except among Harry Potter and his ilk. The thing is, we shouldn’t get discouraged when our latest magic gets debunked. Ethanol, biomass, wind power, photovoltaics, geothermal, wave power, etc. have all had their moments in the “magic” circle. The genuine wizards recognize that the potent magic will come from the agglomerated minor miracles of the various “alternative” energy techniques. We (my learned wife and I) are on the verge of trying one of these minor alter...

Many British journalists still say “2000 millions” rather than “two billion.” Something about the first way really sticks it to you that a billion is a lot more than a million. Yet one of the most common mistakes I hear from broadcast journalists is (mumble)-illions. My suspicion is that they are just not sure. My certainty is that the listener can’t possibly be sure from what they hear. I asked a bright young employee once “how many millions are there in a billion?” Answer? “Ten… NO, a hundred million in billion.” When I stated that there is a thousand million in a billion, the employee was incredulous, clearly thinking I had slipped a cog. Back to newscasters, you can frequently hear that sometimes they are more impressed with “87 million” than with “3.2 billion.” Perhaps if every newscaster reported that we are spending “$3192 millions” every week in Iraq*, the actual dollar cost might be more widely appreciated. *more or less