Read This Now - Who's On Your TV Screen

This unscientific and admittedly imprecise glimpse of night time talk show guests this fall is still worth a look, if only for the quality of the design.

I was pretty impressed with the presentation and with the straight forward text outlining the limitations of the project.  It would be interesting to see a bigger and more robust study looking at guests across a wider range of shows in a variety of time slots...

(via Speakeasy)

Read This Now - Stepping Backwards Into Blindness

We also could call this one Republicans can't handle the truth.  From the NYT lead editorial today...

With one exception, none of the Republicans running for the Senate — including the 20 or so with a serious chance of winning — accept the scientific consensus that humans are largely responsible for global warming. 

Be afraid people, it's your future they are messing with...

Blog Action Day - Water

Blog Action Day this year brings us back around to a topic that I should be focusing on more; water.

I still recall the tag line - our most precious resource - whenever the topic comes up and honestly I could ramble on for hours about various water issues and the importance of recognizing the challenges we face and choosing to take action to protect our water resources (I could also go on and on about water and the coastal hazards that it engenders).

Perhaps more so than any other water issue we should be paying attention to our clean drinking water resources.  We need to be planning for a hotter future with more people who need water.  We'll have to change many of our water use habits and landscaping will be important, as will storing water in reservoirs in ways that don't threaten the health of the attached ecosystems (we need to avoid the old canard of biting the hand that feeds us).

The recent scary Hungarian toxic sludge incident should focus our thoughts on protecting our water.  The most recent coverage of that tragedy in the NYT highlights the dangers posed by aging soviet-era facilities that threaten similar incidents.  Closer to home we need to be aware of the dangers posed by coal ash and it's impoundment in similar storage ponds that are equally vulnerable and can also wreak havoc on our water resources.

I don't have the time to get in depth on the issue and Earth Justice does a much better job than I could anyway.  So head over to their site and learn a little bit about the trouble with coal ash and what you can do to help protect your drinking water.

Uncertainty

Raul Nuez is this year's Union of Concerned Scientists Science Idol, his cartoon will be the cover of the UCS calendar for the next year...

This Post Is Brought To You By The Word On

Bring it Grover...



If this doesn't leave you rolling on the floor you can find some context here.

Read This Now - Quenching A Food Desert

Food deserts are areas without easy access to fresh food, particularly produce.  They are unfortunately common in lower socio-demographic urban neighborhoods throughout the country.

In Burlington, VT though, the Diggers Mirth Veggie Truck is providing some relief.

Barry Estabrook rode along a few weeks back and he shares the story.

While you're at it you should check out the Intervale Center and have a peek from above.

Go West!

If only it were real...



This is pretty fantastic, it has been bouncing around facebook and emails among our generation, I wonder if you can get a copy of the game to play on a computer these days...