Tag Archives: bbc

Fossil fuel emissions want to ruin carbon dating, too

by DonnellKeaton Posted on July 21, 2015

Spoiler Alert

Fossil fuel emissions want to ruin carbon dating, too

By on 21 Jul 2015commentsShare

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, fossil fuel emissions are here to prove you otherwise. Today’s victim: carbon dating.

A new paper by Heather Graven of Imperial College London suggests that rising greenhouse gas emissions will limit scientists’ ability to date artifacts using radioactive carbon. The carbon dating technique relies on measuring the concentration of radiocarbon to non-radiocarbon in old organic material — the less radiocarbon, the older the object. It’s a slick technique that scientists have been using for decades. But now, fossil fuels are mucking everything up by putting a bunch of extra non-radioactive carbon into the atmosphere, thus meddling with the ratio. Welcome back to Spoiler Alerts, where greenhouse gas emissions and anthropogenic climate change upend our hopes and dreams.

The BBC reports:

The study looked at the likely carbon emissions pathways over the next century and suggested that the increases in non-radioactive carbon by 2020 could start to impact the dating technique.

“If we did any current measurements on new products, they will end up having the same fraction of radiocarbon to total carbon as something that’s lost it over time due to decay,” said Dr Graven.

Fossil fuels are old: They’ve had millions of years to let their radioactive carbon decay, which is why they’re such good sources of non-radioactive carbon. As more and more of the non-radioactive carbon ends up in our atmosphere, the more the atmosphere will look as if it has “aged.” The ultimate effect will likely be an inability to reference artifacts to a standard atmospheric touchstone.

Here’s more from the BBC:

At current rates of emissions increase, according to the research, a new piece of clothing in 2050 would have the same carbon date as a robe worn by William the Conqueror 1,000 years earlier.

“It really depends on how much emissions increase or decrease over the next century, in terms of how strong this dilution effect gets,” said Dr Graven.

“If we reduce emissions rapidly we might stay around a carbon age of 100 years in the atmosphere but if we strongly increase emissions we could get to an age of 1,000 years by 2050 and around 2,000 years by 2100.”

Which would leave the atmosphere a bit like Tom Hanks in Big — only instead of waking up 20 years older and getting a job at a toy factory, the atmosphere wakes up 2,000 years older, ruins a fundamental plot device of Discovery Channel documentaries, and goes on to turn everything we know and love into a tinderbox.

Source:
Emissions from fossil fuels may limit carbon dating

, BBC.

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Fossil fuel emissions want to ruin carbon dating, too

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This Adorable Video of a Baby Frog Squeaking Is the Best Thing You’ll See Today

by ClemmieTrotter Posted on March 19, 2015

Mother Jones

The following is a delightful clip of a baby frog screaming, apparently discovered by BBC in the desert. It’s the kind of high-pitched yelling normally expected from a dog’s chew toy, not a frog. It’s adorable and should be watched on repeat below:

(h/t Gabrielle Canon)

Link to original: 

This Adorable Video of a Baby Frog Squeaking Is the Best Thing You’ll See Today

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BP’s missing oil is found — where else? — on the bottom of the Gulf

by JcH67hvoedzlwyb Posted on February 4, 2015

BP’s missing oil is found — where else? — on the bottom of the Gulf

By on 4 Feb 2015commentsShare

After the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, some of the estimated 200 million gallons of oil that spilled were never recovered. They were missing. Now researchers have found some of them: A good 10 million gallons are sitting at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

A new study, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, hypothesizes that about 5 percent of oil from the spill made it to the seafloor. A separate study in October put that number at about 10 percent. “Our number is a little bit more conservative than theirs,” said Jeff Chanton, lead author of the new study, but “if the two approaches agree within a factor of two, that’s pretty good for estimating all of the oil on the seafloor.” Basically, a lot of oil is down there.

And that oil can cause a lot of problems. Because there’s less oxygen deeper in the Gulf, it will take more time to decompose. And the oil can lead to tumors and lesions in sea animals, the researchers found.

“Fish will likely ingest contaminants because worms ingest the sediment, and fish eat the worms. It’s a conduit for contamination into the food web,” Chanton said. “This is going to affect the Gulf for years to come.”

The findings come as BP continues trying to weasel its way out of paying fines and reparations for the spill. Reuters reports that the company is pushing back against a multi-billion-dollar government fine under the Clean Water Act:

In arguments that wrapped up on Monday, BP tried to whittle away at $13.7 billion in potential fines if faces under the Clean Water Act for the worst offshore disaster in U.S. history.

BP has said its fine should be modest as it took extensive steps to mitigate the disaster and that the defendant named in the case, BP’s exploration and production unit, known as BPXP, cannot afford a big penalty.

And the Associated Press reports that the company is still seeking to challenge the way in which businesses affected by the spill are compensated — by attacking the man in charge of distributing the funds.

BP says the claims administrator, Patrick Juneau, failed to disclose that he worked on previous oil spill litigation for the state of Louisiana when he was hired to oversee settlement payouts.

Attorneys for Juneau told the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that he hid nothing improper and his record of work for the state was public well before BP and others agreed to his hiring in 2012.

All sides hailed the settlement when it was approved in 2012. But BP later argued that Juneau was misinterpreting the settlement and paying claims to businesses that didn’t deserve them.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier and the 5th Circuit ruled that, under the settlement BP agreed to, businesses do not have to prove they were directly harmed by the spill to collect money — only that they made less money in the three to eight months after the spill.

In case you weren’t feeling sorry enough for BP already, today also brings news that the company’s profits and share price are both down because of low oil prices. Cue the tiny violins.

Source:
“Missing oil” from 2010 BP spill found on gulf seafloor

, CBS News.

Ruling on BP fine over 2010 U.S. oil spill months away: lawyers

, Reuters.

BP Urges Judges to Remove Head of Oil Spill Settlement Fund

, The Associated Press.

BP profits hit by lower oil price

, BBC News.

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BP’s missing oil is found — where else? — on the bottom of the Gulf

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England Just Established "Yes Means Yes" Guidelines for Police Investigating Rape

by AudryBvdonzid Posted on January 30, 2015

Mother Jones

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Police departments in both England and Wales have been provided an unprecedented new set of recommendations when it comes to investigating rape allegations. The guidelines, launched by the Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders and Martin Hewitt of the Metropolitan Police, now require officers to establish sexual consent, rather than prove when a victim says “no.”

“This is really about making sure investigators and prosecutors look at the whole context, so we’re able to put strong cases before the court and we don’t just focus on what a victim did or said,” Saunders told the BBC. “We know there are too many myths and stereotypes around rape and consent and this is about making sure we really examine cases.”

The shift to a more “yes means yes” context comes as a welcome move for sexual assault advocates, who have long blamed the “no” standard for discouraging victims to report assaults. The new guidelines also strongly emphasize the need to stop blaming rape victims “for confusing the idea of consent, by drinking or dressing provocatively” as Saunders states, and clearly outline what sexual consent is.

While many in England and Wales are applauding the change, some have been more cautious, waiting to see if police forces actually adhere to the new guidelines.

“The CPS’s new rape toolkit might make welcome headlines, but I won’t be celebrating until police officers and prosecutors are made to put existing policies and guidelines in practice or face appropriate sanction for failing to do so,” Harriet Wistrich wrote in a Guardian column on Thursday.

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England Just Established "Yes Means Yes" Guidelines for Police Investigating Rape

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Breaking: Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Is Dead

by TawannaAraujo Posted on January 23, 2015

Mother Jones

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Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Saud has died, according to reports carried by Saudi state-run television in the early hours of Friday morning, local time. He was around 90 years old (his exact age is a matter of some dispute). Saudi news agencies reported that his half-brother Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz has become the kingdom’s new ruler. The news from Saudi Arabia—one of 12 OPEC member states—has the potential to cause a shake-up in global oil markets.

King Abdullah, the leader of the world’s top oil exporter, came to to power in 2005, but had in recent years fallen seriously ill, according to the BBC. Reuters reports that the king had been hospitalized with pneumonia since December, and “had temporarily needed help to breathe through a tube.”

The Guardian’s Middle East editor, Ian Black, writes that even after a modicum of reform under Abdullah, the path ahead for the monarchy is far from clear:

Saudi Arabia’s immediate future following his death is not in doubt. Crown Prince Salman, his half-brother, will almost certainly ascend the throne. But beyond that lie troubling questions about the succession, the stability of a unreformed absolute monarchy and the prospects for its younger generation of royals.

Abdullah bin Abdulaziz – the king since 2005 and effectively in charge since his brother Fahd’s stroke in 1995 – accepted limited change after 2011 in response to the events of the Arab spring. Yet Saudi women are still unable to drive, citizens are unable to vote except in municipal elections and public beheading by sword remains a standard feature of the judicial system. Political parties are banned.

Update, 7:30pm ET: The White House has released the following statement from President Obama on King Abdullah’s passing:

It is with deep respect that I express my personal condolences and the sympathies of the American people to the family of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz and to the people of Saudi Arabia.

King Abdullah’s life spanned from before the birth of modern Saudi Arabia through its emergence as a critical force within the global economy and a leader among Arab and Islamic nations. He took bold steps in advancing the Arab Peace Initiative, an endeavor that will outlive him as an enduring contribution to the search for peace in the region. At home, King Abdullah’s vision was dedicated to the education of his people and to greater engagement with the world.

As our countries worked together to confront many challenges, I always valued King Abdullah’s perspective and appreciated our genuine and warm friendship. As a leader, he was always candid and had the courage of his convictions. One of those convictions was his steadfast and passionate belief in the importance of the U.S.-Saudi relationship as a force for stability and security in the Middle East and beyond. The closeness and strength of the partnership between our two countries is part of King Abdullah’s legacy.

May God grant him peace.

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Breaking: Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Is Dead

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Pope wants you to stop popping out babies — but don’t even think about using birth control

by DelorisScullin Posted on January 21, 2015

Pope wants you to stop popping out babies — but don’t even think about using birth control

By on 20 Jan 2015commentsShare

Yesterday, in a huge change of position for Ye Olde Catholic Churche, Pope “Swaggy F.” Francis spoke out against people reproducing “like rabbits.”

From BBC:

He replied with an unexpected turn of phrase: “Some people think that — excuse my expression here — that in order to be good Catholics we have to be like rabbits.”

“No. Parenthood is about being responsible. This is clear.”

Thanks, Papa! Abandoning the “be fruitful and multiply” and “every sperm is sacred” view of reproduction is a crucial step toward a more reasonable approach to population growth. And since addressing climate change also means ensuring that those disproportionately affected by it — women, minorities, people in developing countries — aren’t continuously trapped in cycles of poverty and suffering, we are especially pleased to see the Leviathan-esque Catholic church take a slow, creaky turn in the right direction.

However, an excellent way to two-fer-one your climate- and gender-equality goals is to give women access to contraception and reproductive healthcare. Around the world, an estimated 222 million women want but don’t have access to modern methods of birth control. So: Where does the Pope stand on birth control?

Still “firmly against,” per the BBC report. No surprises there, as his position is consistent with the rest of the Church: In the U.S., bishops are even trying to abolish sterilization procedures — the second-most popular form of birth control in the country, with 15.5 percent of reproductive-aged women choosing to get their tubes tied — from Catholic hospitals. With this and other forms of contraception off the table for practicing Catholics, that leaves so-called “natural” methods — or as I like to call it, the “Pull Out and Pray Plan.” These are not nearly as dependable as long-acting contraceptives or hormonal birth control.

To declare — after millennia of advocating for the exact opposite — that people stop popping out kids willy-nilly while simultaneously refusing to support modern contraception is the equivalent of asking someone to build a house with their hands tied behind their back. It makes absolutely zero sense. In the race to catch up to women of the 21st century, it looks like the Catholic Church got stuck somewhere around 1912.

Cool! At this rate, we’ll see you guys around 2400 — but all life on Earth may have sizzled away by then, so maybe we won’t see you at all.

Source:
Pope Francis: No Catholic need to breed like ‘rabbits’

, BBC.

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Scientists dig up a new weapon against antibiotic-resistant bacteria

by Leonore6263 Posted on January 12, 2015

Soil Money

Scientists dig up a new weapon against antibiotic-resistant bacteria

By on 12 Jan 2015commentsShare

Kids, forget everything your pre-school teachers told you: Go play in the dirt all you like!

This month, scientists — after much hand-wringing and years of expensive drug development — plucked a promising new antibiotic from the ground. Not only is new-kid-on-the-block Teixobactin another tool to fight infections, it could be the first of an entire class of antibiotics that could save us from drug-resistant superbugs.

The researchers, who published their results in Nature last Wednesday, found the bacteria by isolating and domesticating 10,000 strains of microbes found in the soil. Teixobactin — which, like so many good things, apparently comes from “a grassy field in Maine” — was the most promising of the bunch. It managed to clear up a deadly MRSA infection in mice, and did so in such a way that the bacteria showed no signs of developing resistance.

In fact, this is not all new news. It turns out that most of the antibiotics we use today were cultivated from strains found in dirt — but this new technique uses the natural environment of the soil to grow bacteria that cannot be cultivated in a traditional lab culture. It could turn up hundreds of new compounds that could fight infections, even cancer, according to researchers.

Don’t get too excited: Though the new drug was a hit with the mice, it is still probably two years away from human trials, which will take another couple of years. It’s possible that the superdrug will have unforeseen consequences that make it dangerous to people as well as microbes. And some other scientists are skeptical about the claims that diseases will never develop resistance to Teixobactin and family: “The way bacteria multiply, if there weren’t natural mechanisms to limit their growth, they would have covered the planet and eaten us all eons ago,” infectious disease researcher William Schaffner told the New York Times.

I’m being told that hasn’t happened, so I guess we’ll have to wait to see just how wonderful this wonder drug really is, or what others are still hiding in the mud.

Source:
New Antibiotic Stirs Hope Against Resistant Bacteria

, New York Times.

Antibiotics: US discovery labelled ‘game-changer’ for medicine

, BBC.

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Boko Haram Attack Kills Dozens in Nigeria

by forskolindiet1 Posted on January 8, 2015

Mother Jones

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This week, Boko Haram, the Islamist terror group based in northern Nigeria, launched a massive attack on the town of Baga, killing dozens, according to Reuters. Other initial reports put the number of dead in the hundreds or thousands. The attack is the latest in the group’s increasingly bloody campaign to establish an Islamic state in the West African country. The group attained international infamy last April after it abducted some 300 girls. More than 200 of them are still missing.

Over the course of this Tuesday and Wednesday, the militants set fire to buildings in Baga and shot indiscriminately at civilians. Nearly the entire town was torched, according to the BBC. Baga, which had roughly 10,000 residents, is now “virtually non-existent,” Musa Alhaji Bukar, a senior government official, told the British news agency.

Here’s more from the BBC:

Those who fled reported that they had been unable to bury the dead, and corpses littered the town’s streets, he said.

Boko Haram was now in control of Baga and 16 neighbouring towns after the military retreated, Mr Bukar said.

While he raised fears that some 2,000 had been killed in the raids, other reports put the number in the hundreds.

The attack follows an assault by Boko Haram on a military base in Baga on Saturday.

The AFP reported late Thursday that the terror group also decimated over a dozen towns and villages surrounding Baga:

Boko Haram launched renewed attacks around a captured town in restive northeast Nigeria this week, razing at least 16 towns and villages, a local government and a union official told AFP.

‘They burnt to the ground all the 16 towns and villages including Baga, Dorn-Baga, Mile 4, Mile 3, Kauyen Kuros and Bunduram,’ said Musa Bukar, head of the Kukawa local government in Borno state.

Boko Haram has been terrorizing Nigeria for more than five years. Over the past year, the group has killed more than 10,000 people, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

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Boko Haram Attack Kills Dozens in Nigeria

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Australia is so hot even the grapes wear sunscreen

by PercyTarpley Posted on January 8, 2015

Notes of cherry, oak, and Coppertone

Australia is so hot even the grapes wear sunscreen

By on 8 Jan 2015 7:48 amcommentsShare

I may not have absorbed a lot of the good advice I got when I was younger (floss every day; sit up straight; don’t make that face or it’ll stick), but I did absorb a lot of one thing: sunscreen. As someone who loathes sunburn but loves being outside, my only real choices were a) wear a lot of sunscreen or b) move to the Pacific Northwest (spoiler: I did both).

Faced with the record-breaking heatwaves of a Down Under summer, Australian grape vines are as at-risk as a Urry on an average day at the beach. But while Aussie vintners don’t have the luxury of following me to Cascadia, they CAN take a hint from camp counselors everywhere and liberally apply SPF to their crop. At least one vineyard is doing just that, according to the BBC:

The quality of the vintage depends not only on the sun and the soil, but the temperature. Very hot weather can inflict serious damage, and too much heat can cause the berries to shrivel or suffer sunburn.

“You put sunscreen on your kids when they go out in the sun, so we put it on our grapevines. That just goes on like a normal spray,” says Bruce Tyrrell, the chief executive of Tyrrell’s Wines.

Australian grapes could use all the zinc oxide they can get. Temperatures in wine-growing regions of Oz already reach 113 degrees, and climate change brings the promise of even hotter days. All that leaves only one question: Would you prefer your Yellowtail in Coppertone Cabernet or Sauvignon Banana Boat?

Source:
Why Australians are using sunblock to protect grape crops

, BBC.

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Why Did the Enclosed Mall Die?

by KatlynSoutter Posted on January 2, 2015

Mother Jones

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Alex Tabarrok links today to a BBC piece on the death of the American shopping mall. But it’s really about the death of the enclosed American shopping mall. So why did enclosed malls go the way of the dodo starting in the early 90s? Here’s the author’s crack at an explanation:

When the 35-year-old Cloverleaf Mall in Chesterfield, Virginia, closed in 2007, the Chesterfield Observer noted that while it had been a popular hangout for families in the 1970s and ’80s, “That all changed in the 1990s. Cloverleaf’s best customers, women, began staying away from the mall, fearful of the youth who were beginning to congregate there. People said a former Cloverleaf manager started seeing kids with huge baggy pants and chains hanging off their belts, and people were intimidated, and they would say there were gangs.”

OK. How about Amy Merrick in the New Yorker earlier this year? What does she think?

As any cubicle dweller knows, people like natural light and fresh air and, when deprived of them, feel oppressed. So are people alienated by those older malls, with their raw concrete, brutalist architecture and fretful, defensive air? Developers have a shorthand for this style: the “classic graybox.” In his talk, Rick Caruso flashed grim photos of their façades. He lingered on a picture of a deserted food court; you could practically smell the stale grease. “Does this look like the future to you?” he asked.

Here’s Neil Howe in USA Today:

There is a generational story behind what’s happening to shopping malls. And if you want to know how it will end, you have to pay attention to each generation’s role….What most impressed the G.I.s (and the Silent Generation who succeeded them) about malls was their enormous efficiency….Then came suburban Boomers, who grew up with these newly minted malls as kids. As they matured, many Boomers soured on what they regarded as the soulless and artificial consumerism of malls and began to champion what business author Joseph Pine calls the “experience economy” — turning stores and restaurants from mere retail outlets into places that mean something (think Rainforest Cafe or Build-a-Bear Workshop or L.L. Bean). That thinking not only inspired more stores to include a “tourism” component, but it also drove the surging popularity of lifestyle centers in the early 1990s.

….But Xers soon changed the mall scene. This strapped-for-cash generation helped popularize “category killers” and was the first to adopt online shopping. Millennial teens who arrived in the late 1990s began to show less interest in malls in part because their parents deemed malls too dangerous.

The lack of reasonable explanations suggests that nobody really knows the answer. It certainly remains a mystery to me. There’s no question that shopping spaces of all kinds have been hurt in recent years by the rise of online retail, and that mall development in particular was hurt by the Great Recession. But the switch away from enclosed malls began in the 90s, and it wasn’t because people were tired of shopping. Nor was it because suburbs started to die. It was because enclosed malls were replaced by outdoor “power centers” and “lifestyle centers.”

But why? I still don’t know. Is it due to the decline of traditional department stores, which served as anchors for enclosed malls? Are stores like Target and Best Buy simply unsuited to be anchors for enclosed malls? Is it cheaper to build outdoor malls? Was it really because people started to see malls as dangerous, as two of the stories above imply?

And how does this play out in less temperate climes than Southern California? No new enclosed mall has been built near me since (I think) 1987. That’s not too big a deal, since even in winter it’s no chore to shop at an outdoor shopping center. But what about in the suburbs of Chicago? Or Detroit? Or Kansas City? Do people really want to shop at outdoor lifestyle malls when it’s ten below zero? Do enclosed malls make a sudden comeback when the weather is bone-chillingly cold and then die again in the spring? Or what?

Perhaps this is just one of those mysteries: consumer tastes changed in the early 90s, and they changed because that’s what consumer tastes do. Radio Shack used to be pretty popular too.

Still, it’s an interesting mystery. I wish there were a good explanation, not just a few obvious guesses that amount to little more than a shrug of the shoulders. Why did enclosed malls die? Somebody needs to come up with a definitive answer.

POSTSCRIPT: One thing I should note is that although few (no?) new enclosed malls are being built, older malls that have been shut down don’t all turn into the infamous dead malls that have gotten so much attention lately. A fair number of them are renovated and reopened. I’m not sure what, if anything, that means. Just thought I’d mention it.

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Why Did the Enclosed Mall Die?

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