Froth Slosh B'Gosh

Court Rejects Records Request

The two-year legal pursuit of the climate scientist, Michael Mann, by Virginia's climate-sceptic attorney general ran into a dead end at the state supreme court on Friday.

The court rejected Ken Cuccinelli's demand for Mann's email, research notes, and even handwritten memos from his time at the University of Virginia, ruling that the official did not have the legal authority to demand such records.

I have to wonder how much of the taxpayers' money was wasted in Ken Cuccinelli's jihad against Michael Mann.

Poop Provides Power Possibilities!

Now this is pretty interesting!

a Penn State University research team views wastewater as an important energy resource, a raw material. By combining and refining energy technology, the research team has developed a two-pronged method of using wastewater to produce a more abundant output of electricity than either method could do individually.

The Penn State study, "Energy Capture from Thermolytic Solutions in Microbial Reverse-Electrodialysis Cells," written by Roland Cusick, Bruce E. Logan and Y. Kim, was published Thursday in Science.

The microbial fuel cell uses microbes to consume plant or human waste to produce electrons that the fuel cell converts into electrical current. But that system, Mr. Cusick said, is inefficient.

Adding a system that uses reverse electrodialysis, the research team pumped solutions of salt water and fresh water across specialized membranes that only allow positive and negative ions through, while also separating them. The separation of salt water and fresh water by the membrane generates an electrical voltage that directly increases fuel-cell power. As the ions migrate from the salt water to the fresh water, their movement also increases electrical current generated by the microbes.

Using common waste to provide power is rather resourceful. The technology appears to be too expensive to be practical at the moment, but give it time. Now,if there was only a way to produce electricity via bloviation, we'd really be on to something!

But Al Gore Uses Airplanes!

Also too, he's fat. As is Michael Moore.

Using a unique pair of satellites that have monitored the disappearing ice over the entire surface of the globe, scientists estimated that some 1,000 cubic miles of ice has disappeared between 2003 and 2010 – enough to cover the US in one-and-a-half feet of water.

The survey found that the melting of the cryosphere has been responsible for raising sea levels by about half an inch over the same period, equivalent to a rise of about 1.5mm a year. This was on top of sea-level increases due to the thermal expansion of seawater caused by rising ocean temperatures.

Yeah, well, if THAT's true, why ISN'T Murrika covered by 18 inches of water?? Answer THAT you eggheads!

I guarentee that denialists will focus on the finding that Himalayan ice loss isn't anywhere near as great as previously thought, while ignoring the rest of the findings, to "prove" that global warming and climate change aren't happening. Hell, it already IS happening!

UPDATE: Right on cue: Faux News.

Snakes Swallow Swamp Stuff, So Say Scientists

A pretty good example of how an introduced species can wreak havoc on an ecosystem.