rachel.blog

insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman

  • Can science predict the future?

    In 2009, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck L’Aquila, Italy, killing more than 300 people. Six Italian seismologists were later convicted of manslaughter for failing to adequately warn the citizens of L’Aquila of the deadly earthquake. L’Aquila had experienced a series of small tremors in the months leading up to the 6.3-magnitude quake causing the people to…

  • Should we care about people of the future?

    “Why should I care about posterity? What’s posterity ever done for me?” Groucho Marx If we follow Groucho Marx‘s line of reasoning then future generations do not matter because while we are able to grant benefits to them, they are unable to return the favour. A key requirement of Groucho’s ethic is that there must be some…

  • What does it mean to be skeptical?

    Here’s the etymology of the word: skeptic (n.) also sceptic, 1580s, “member of an ancient Greek school that doubted the possibility of real knowledge,” from French sceptique, from Latin scepticus, from Greek skeptikos (plural Skeptikoi “the Skeptics”), literally “inquiring, reflective,” the name taken by the disciples of the Greek philosopher Pyrrho (c.360-c.270 B.C.E.), from skeptesthai “to reflect, look, view” (see scope (n.1)). The extended sense of…

  • Lake House Arts

    A few weeks ago Daniel attended a dragon-making art class at the Lake House Arts centre. I took some nice photos but have been too busy reading scientific journals to upload them to my blog. Here they are at last:   While Daniel was busy being artistic, Elizabeth and I wandered around the grounds. They…

  • Fish and Al Gore

    I’ve had some comments on my blog in this post – Fish unaware of global warming hoax – that have raised too many points for me to address in a comment alone, so I am writing a new post specifically for this. In my post I wrote about a new paper by Cheung et al.…

  • Fish unaware of global warming hoax

    Someone forgot to tell the world’s fish that global warming is a hoax as they are now responding to warmer waters by swimming to higher latitudes and greater depths. A study published in the journal of Nature this week finds, Signature of ocean warming in global fisheries catch. The study measures the mean temperature of…

  • Do you live near a power plant?

    You’d think that scientists would know exactly where all of the world’s power plants are located and how much carbon dioxide (CO2) they emit but the truth is that they don’t. There are estimated to be some 30,000 power plants around the world but accurate locations for these and how much CO2 they emit are…

  • Is global warming good for plants?

    Another week and another incorrect news article about climate change. I’m starting to enjoy this – reading something, checking to see whether it’s correct (isn’t this what the sceptics are supposed to do?) and discovering that actually, the facts are wrong, biased, misrepresented or misquoted. The article in question is in the Wall Street Journal…

  • Vegan toothpaste and poo cake (a.k.a choc-mint slice)

    This recipe is too good not to share, is very easy to make and uses ingredients that most of us already have in the pantry. Biscuit base 1/2 cup rice bran oil 3 weetbix 1 tbsp cocoa 1 tsp baking powder 170g flour 85g sugar Peppermint icing 1 cup icing sugar 2 tsp peppermint essence…

  • Climategate for dummies

    The scientific journalist Peter Hadfield (a.k.a potholer54) has a couple of informative and entertaining youtube videos that explain and attempt to verify the claims made in blogs and mainstream media that the hacked emails of climate scientists are proof of a big conspiracy. If you somehow managed to miss the whole climategate saga, as I…

  • Recycling, rubbish and corporate responsbility

    Last night, a Greenpeace-created TV advertisement was due to air on Channel 9 Australia but it was pulled at the 11th hour because TV bosses thought it was too offensive. Here’s the ad: I don’t find it offensive. Do you? Has Channel 9 bowed to pressure from Coca-Cola? We live in a disposable society. We…

  • Parking for five cars

    There’s an article in the NZ Herald this week, Auckland house prices vs world’s, which compares the median house price in Auckland – a whopping $670,000 – with other similarly priced homes around the world. The house chosen for comparison in Auckland, is a $675,000 five-bedroom, three-bathroom house in the suburb of New Windsor. New…

  • The future of cycling?

    Could this bike be the future of cycling?   The levitating bike is an entry into the 2013 Hi-MACS annual design contest. It captures the energy from pedalling, stores it in a battery and then allows you to subsequently plug this energy back into the grid. It can also charge small devices via USB, like…

  • Miranda's Devine hocus pocus

    There’s an Australian journalist called Miranda Devine who writes for the Sydney Telegraph. Last month she wrote a piece titled, Climate damage doomsdayers have led to a surge in hocus pocus ideas. If you can’t be bothered reading the article, I can tell you that in it she argues that climate scientists are responsible for…

  • Tackling climate change is good for business …

    … says General Motors who has just become the first car company in the US to sign the Climate Declaration. From their press release, “We want to be a change agent in the auto industry,” said Mike Robinson, GM vice president of Sustainability and Global Regulatory Affairs. “As our world faces issues like congestion and climate change,…

  • The river of myths

    I discovered this clip yesterday. It’s a very clever and visual illustration of the incredible progress made by “developing” countries in saving the lives of children. It’s delivered by Hans Gosling – Swedish medical doctor, academic, statistician and cofounder of Gapminder. There are more world trends presented in a similarly compelling way at Gapminder.

  • Should politicians choose what research to fund?

    When should politicians decide which research to fund and which research not to fund? NEVER. Because if we let our politicians shape scientific enquiry, it will become skewed, biased and will lose the innovation and creativity of a discipline that ought to be driven by curiosity and the search for truth. So imagine my surprise…

  • Crochet jumper for Elizabeth

    Crochet jumper for Elizabeth

    I recently crocheted a jumper for Elizabeth. It was quick, easy and very cheap to make with the wool costing less than $10. Here she is modelling it: Although we are almost mid-autumn here, it is still T-shirt weather, so it may be awhile before she gets to wear it.

  • How hot will it get?

    Lately, there’s been much discussion about this thing called climate sensitivity. But what the devil is it? Climate sensitivity refers to the amount by which the temperature is expected to increase with each doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) from pre-industrial levels. It’s important because if it turns out that the climate is very sensitive,…

  • The higher you go, the hotter it gets below

    Physics was my favourite subject in high school. I still find it fascinating. This week I learnt something new about our Earth and its temperature and I want to share it, because explaining something to someone else, is often the best way of understanding it yourself. If we want to know what the temperature of…