Posts Tagged ‘polar bears’
Thursday 2
* Why Dollhouse failed: an interview with Joss Whedon.
“The problems that the show encountered weren’t standalone versus mythology [episodes],” Whedon said. “Basically, the show didn’t really get off the ground because the network pretty much wanted to back away from the concept five minutes after they bought it. And then ultimately, the show itself is also kind of odd and difficult to market. I actually think they did a good job, but it’s just not a slam-dunk concept.”
* Continuity: a game that combines all the fun of low-res platforming with those sliding box puzzles we had when we were kids.
* Good news from places I have lived: Cleveland has passed a transgender protection law, while NJ may vote on marriage equality next week. “Democratic officials previously said they would not put the legislation to a vote unless they had the support needed to pass it.” So it’s as good as done.
* And close enough: Hundreds of New Yorkers rally in Times Square for marriage equality.
* Bad news from places I have lived: MTV’s The Shore premieres tonight.
* The headline reads, “Hungry polar bears resorting to cannibalism.” (Thanks Leah. But Canada is still on notice.)
* Of course, as we all know, polar bears are just early adopters.
* Actually existing media bias: The Dallas Morning News has saved journalism by ordering its section editors to report directly to its advertising staff. Via MeFi.
* A University of Montreal study on the effects of watching pornography ran into trouble when it couldn’t find any men who didn’t watch porn. Also spotted at Pharyngula. But won’t somebody think of the children?
* Amanda Marcotte: You’ll notice that entire categories of women are being redefined as so disgusting that any man who touches them should be ashamed. First it was over 40 (cougar), then over 30 (puma), and now over 25 (cheetah), and soon it will be anyone over the age of legal consent. And those below it? Illegal. Exactly zero women will be acceptable for fucking.
* Nate Silver continues his quixotic efforts to handicap the 2012 GOP field.
* And hairy chests are back. I have come prepared.
Methane Apocalypse
For the first time, climate scientists have discovered evidence that methane from melting undersea permafrost is being released into the atmosphere. This is very bad.
It’s no wonder polar bears are turning to cannibalism.
TGITuesday
Thank God it’s Tuesday.
* Were you watching the time-travel show Journeyman on NBC this year? You’ll never get another episode, but at least you can find out how it all would have ended.
* Bush ‘antagonizing environmentalists’ on his way out of office.
Just months before President Bush leaves office, his administration is antagonizing environmentalists by proposing changes that would allow federal agencies to decide for themselves whether subdivisions, dams, highways and other projects have the potential to harm endangered animals and plants.
The proposal, first reported by The Associated Press, would cut out the advice of government scientists who have been weighing in on such decisions for 35 years. Agencies also could not consider a project’s contribution to global warming in their analysis.
This is nothing we haven’t seen before.
* Honda to debut hydrogen-fuel cell car in 2008. We’re saved! Unless, you know, the debunkers turn out to be right about hydrogen…
* Fraggmented’s John Seavey makes one his storytelling engine posts about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, explaining why the show was never the same (and could never have been the same) after the characters graduated high school.
* A Mac utility that automatically shuts down your Internet connectivity for any length of time you specify. I wouldn’t be attracted to something like this if I had any willpower at all.
* Fred Pearce argues the Neo-Malthusian “population bomb” has been defused. We’re saved!
Why then is the world’s population still rising? Currently at around 6.7 billion, it is 70 million higher every year. The problem is that the delivery wards are being visited by the huge numbers of young women born during the earlier baby boom. They may only have one or two children each. But that is still a lot of babies. Probably nothing will stop humanity reaching 8 billion by about 2040 and many demographers predict that world population will peak at around 9 billion by the end of the 21st century. But once those baby boomers have had their babies, the falling fertility rate will be translated into a real decline in the world’s population — the first since the Black Death of the 14th century.
The question remains, I think, whether 9 billion will be a Malthusian crisis all by itself.
* And it may be time to rethink climate change in the face of the polar bear menace.