NY Times is reporting today that the plastic bag industry is suing ChicoBag, a company that makes reusable shopping bags, for “exaggerating” the negative effects of single use plastic bags.
Plastic is a polymer, and the loss of strength and mechanical integrity of plastics exposed to UV radiation is well known. A polymer simply breaks into smaller and smaller particles, basically to the molecular level, where they can be ingested by even the smallest of marine organisms.
I am sure most people have already heard that a scientist, using NASA satellites, discovered anomalies in the Egyptian sand that led to the discovery of 17 more buried pyramids. Pretty exciting.
Now scientists have been using small variations in the Earth’s gravity to identify trouble spots around the globe where people are making unsustainable demands on groundwater.
This is Ira Einhorn, also known as Unicorn. He was an activist in the 60’s and 70’s who helped bring awareness to environmental issues. He also claims to have started Earth Day (even though we all know it was Sen. Gaylord Nelson), and was the master of ceremonies on the first Earth Day stage. Well, he also killed and composted his girlfriend. That’s right, composted.
After his arrest, Einhorn jumped bail and spent decades evading authorities by hiding out in Ireland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and France. After 23 years, he was finally extradited to the United States from France and put on trial. Taking the stand in his own defense, Einhorn claimed that his ex-girlfriend had been killed by CIA agents who framed him for the crime because he knew too much about the agency’s paranormal military research. He was convicted of murder and is currently serving a life sentence.
A new low for Arctic sea ice for the summer of 2010. A new study out by the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey Institute shows that the understanding of climate change falls along party lines. Republicans think it either isn’t happening or that the changes are natural. Democrats tend to acknowledge that human activity is the primary cause.
This is a stark contrast to the scientific community’s unified stance regarding the warming of our planet.
“Although there remains active discussion among scientists on many details about the pace and effects of climate change, no leading science organization disagrees that human activities are now changing the Earth’s climate,” said study researcher Lawrence Hamilton, professor of sociology and senior fellow with the Carsey Institute. “The strong scientific agreement on this point contrasts with the partisan disagreement seen on all of our surveys.”
You know how some people are so stupid about bacteria (like, “Ew! Bacteria? Gross!”). Obviously, each of our cells is outnumbered 10 to one by bacteria living on and inside us. They help us digest our food and a whole host of other things (no pun intended). In the early 1900s, scientists discovered that each person belonged to one of four blood types. Now they have discovered a new way to classify humanity: by bacteria! Each human being is host to thousands of different species of microbes. A group of scientists now report just three distinct ecosystems in the guts of people they have studied. They are calling them enterotypes.
They couldn’t find a connection to race, sex, weight, health or age. They are now exploring other explanations. One possibility is that the guts, or intestines, of infants are randomly colonized by different pioneering species of microbes.
The Bingham Canyon Mine outside of Salt Lake City has produced more copper than any other mine in history. It is one of two man made objects seen from space and it is the world’s largest man-made excavation.
