Monthly Archives: September 2006

Extinction By Fart

This entry was posted in Ecology on by

Recent research suggests that only one of the 5 major mass extinctions was caused by meteor impact. The rest were more likely caused by deep-sea anaerobic bacteria:

In their models, if the deepwater H2S concentrations were to increase beyond a critical threshold during such an interval of oceanic anoxia, then the chemocline separating the H2S-rich deepwater from oxygenated surface water could have floated up to the top abruptly. The horrific result would be great bubbles of toxic H2S gas erupting into the atmosphere.

Warm things up a bit via volcanic sourced high CO2 and you create the making of massive bacterial farts of deadly gas.

The author of the article says that conditions for these bubbly killers occur in a massive scale when CO2 levels reach around 1000 parts per million. Current levels are at 385 and rising 2-3 ppm per year. Assuming the rate of increase does not go above 3 ppm/year then expect next mass extinctions to begin in at most 200 years.

Yep, your great-great grand children might be around, briefly, to see it.

Legalization With Regulation: A Step Better Than Now

This entry was posted in Drug Laws on by

Nevada residents have an opportunity in November to take a step to move closer to opting out of the dramatically failed war on drugs:

…we’ve spent billions of dollars, and marijuana is easier to get than model airplane glue.

Last year in Nevada, more people were arrested for marijuana possession than for all violent crimes combined. The burden on cops, courts and prisons is staggering. I’d rather see those assets used to hunt down real criminals, or the 10 people I see running red lights every day.

This isn’t personal. I’m not a marijuana user, and I don’t like being around people who smoke anything.

Legalization is simply the lesser evil: What we’re doing now doesn’t amount to much but a full-employment program for lawyers and cops.

It is only a small step but perhaps a necessary one. Real progress probably can’t be made until the major special interest groups that fuel the failed war are minimized. The Nevada proposal would appear to eliminate significant demand for police, lawyers, courts and prison space so should be a positive step.

Via RegulateMarijuana.org

Friday Ark #104

This entry was posted in Bird Blogging Cat Blogging Dog Blogging Friday Ark Invertebrate Blogging Pet Blogging Weekend Cat Blogging Weekend Dog Blogging on by

We’ll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and….?

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page (construction underway).

Note: Trackbacks from here to Typepad sites are returning a 500 message today.

Cats

Invertebrates

Dogs

Birds

Other Vertebrates

In Memoriam

  • aliment: Goodbye Fatty: Minou

Didn’t Make It

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

  • x

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map. (73 shouts as of 08/17)

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey’s Musings.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 129th edition, 9/10 is up at Begin Each Day. The 130th edition will be hosted by Justin’s Random Thoughts on 9/17. There are more weekly cats at eatstuff’s Weekend Cat Blogging which has many participants who may not be familiar to Ark or Carnival participants. Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 32nd edition is up and hosted by Sand Creek Almanac.The 33rd edition will be hosted on 9/28 by Don’t Mess With Taxes.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 12th edition is up at Sunbeams From Cucumbers . The 13th edition will be hosted September 30 by Deep Sea News.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat’s Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Haloscan started (the end of July) rejecting trackbacks if they were submitted “too rapidly” by the same host. I don’t know what the timer is but it is long enough so that it was very difficult to ping everyone that is using Haloscan for trackbacks. I’m sure that they are doing this to try to hold back the tide of trackback spam but it makes the service pretty useless for carnival type posts. Perhaps you can contact them and urge some different solution. Update: Typepad appears to be doing the same thing. Everytime I update the Ark it appears the timers are reset and the long list of MT autogenerated pings fail. Yecchhhh….