Category: News

Pronouncement of NAS of Peru – Pronunciamiento de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias

Estimados Colegas y amigos/ Dear Colleagues and friends,
Con alegria les informo que la Academia Nacional de Ciencias se ha pronunciado a favor del Dr. Ernesto Bustamante y de la libertad de critica cientifica en el Peru. La Academia enviara este Pronunciamiento a las siguientes autoridades gubernamentales: Poder Judicial, Tribunal Constitucional, Consejo Nacional de la Magistratura, Defensoría del Pueblo, Asamblea Nacional de Rectores, y Ministerio Público. Asimismo, hemos sido autorizados por la ANC a difundir esta Declaracion de de la manera que creamos conveniene. Les adjunto el Pronunciamiento y la carta correspondiente.

With pleasure I want to inform you that the National Academy of Sciences of Peru has pronounced in favor of Dr. Ernesto Bustamante and on the freedom of scientific expression and critique in Peru. The Academy will send this Pronouncement to the following Peruvian government authorities: Poder Judicial, Tribunal Constitucional, Consejo Nacional de la Magistratura, Defensoría del Pueblo, Asamblea Nacional de Rectores, y Ministerio Público. Likewise, we have been duly authorized by the ANC (NAS) to disseminate and publish this public Pronouncement as we see fit. Please, find attached the Pronouncement and the correspondent letter.

Sinceramente / Sincerely,

Professor
Marcel Gutierrez-Correa, Ph.D.
ASM Ambassador to Andean Region
NAS-Peru Fellow

Stop. Do not pass go. Now that you have Froyo up and running on your Nexus One, it’s time to take part in the Adobe Flash 10.1 beta. Just click here in your Android browser, install it, and start watching Flash video, playing Flash games and doing all that other stuff that Android and Flash do so well. Huzzah!

A user at HowardForums posted this shot of the set-up guide for a new, unidentified Motorola Droid in a Motorola Shadow pre-release thread. Is this our first look at the upcoming Motorola Droid Shadow? More »










Motorola – Droid – Smartphone – Handhelds – Motorola Shadow

By Rinker Buck

Kevin P. Lembo won the Democratic Party’s endorsement for State Comptroller, ending a surprisingly brief state Democratic convention on Saturday.

Lembo, a former assistant state comptroller and currently the head of the state Office of the Healthcare Advocacy, accumulated 998 votes over three other candidates in the race. Two other candidates qualified for the August primary by winning at least 15 percent of the delegate vote.

They are State representative Tom Reynolds of Ledyard and Waterbury Mayor Michael Jarjura.

(In photo, Kevin Lembo accepts the endorsement for Comptroller at the Democratic Convention. Bettina Hansen/Hartford Courant)

Read Clark Hoyt’s take on Blumenthal, the Times and the war here.

Article Tags: Headline Story, John O'Sullivan, MalariaGate

Image source

Controversial climate scientist, Michael ‘hockey stick’ Mann is still up to his old tricks; he’s now alleged to have assisted a university colleague in obtaining a cool two million dollars for discredited research into malaria.

Ace skeptic investigator, Barry Woods has unearthed another useful lead in the corrupt and immoral world of climate science-this time linking the breaking Malaria-gate scandal with Penn. State University bad boys, Michael Mann and Matthew Thomas.

We all know the stink of Michael Mann but who is Thomas? He’s Penn. State’s Professor of Entomology and like Mann has been doing overtime trying to salvage the remnants of the discredited man-made global warming theory.

No Link Whatsoever between Malaria and Climate

Thomas is under the spotlight because he’s just been discredited as an expert in the field due to the recent publication of ground-breaking research on malaria in Nature (Gething et al. (2010)). The new study proves there is no link whatsoever between malaria and climate. In fact, Gething’s data shows the mortality rates from malaria are actually in decline-a body blow to the hype of doomsaying establishment junk scientists.

The Nature study is a gamechanger on climate issues involving malaria so that politicized alarmist advocates like Thomas will soon be classed as ‘sub-prime’ experts in this field. Thomas had steadily built a lucrative business for himself as Professor of Entomology, at Penn State’s Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics. He boasts a published exploration of the ecology and evolution of “enemy-victim” interactions (malaria).

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Both Sides Now
Joni Mitchell
I’ve looked at life from both sides now,
From win and lose, and still somehow
It’s life’s illusions I recall.
I really don’t know life at all.


Both Sides Now. Fallacies in the Genetic-Modification Wars, Implications for Developing Countries, and Anthropological Perspectives by Glenn Davis Stone

The greens’ scorn for public research appears to some to reveal a lack of genuine concern for the welfare of developing-country populations (Nash 2001), but it more likely results from a perceived need to engage the struggle on a large scale with strong financing and a wide following.
Large, ardent followings of check-mailing opponents of genetic modification are better mobilized by bold black-and-white slogans than by critical evaluations of the potential effects of different genetically modified products. Mass marketing has led to a shameless “dumbing down” of the issues. Greenpeace, with a global presence and around 4 million paying supporters (Purdue 2000:73), offers one of the boldest condemnations of genetic modification; it is no accident that right next to the “No Genetic Modification” banner on its web page is the “click here to join” button.

However, the greens’ demonization of genetically modified crops has effects that are contradictory to their values. Promoting blanket disapproval of such crops helps drive public-sector genetic modification into the arms of industry. Genetic modification is expensive, and most public projects are in a constant struggle for funding. Industry provides some funds and access to genetic materials; greens provide no funding and obstruct philanthropic investment (ABC News Online 2001). Green activists may claim to have developing countries’ interests at heart, but many public researchers have devoted their careers to improving nutrition for the poor, often spurning better-paid positions in industry. Many actually share greens’ disapproval of increasing corporate control over developing countries’ food production, but they can hardly be blamed for disdaining activists who demonize public research along with corporate projects. They may fairly ask green critics why they do not approve of ongoing research such as cassava modification that is explicitly tailored to improving food security for the poor.

Current Anthropology Volume 43, Number 4, August–October 2002

By Daniela Altimari

Newington Mayor Jeff Wright handily won the Republican nomination for state treasurer today, turning back a challenge from Andrew White of Ridgefield.

Wright had initially pondered a gubernatorial bid, but the 38-year-old father of three switched to the treasurer’s race. He will face Democratic incumbent Denise Nappier.

The state treasurer oversees the state employee pension fund and a state-run college savings plan, among other responsibilities. Wright said both of those funds are lagging behind those of other states.

“The treasurer must be the state’s cash cop,” Wright said during his brief acceptance speech at the Connecticut Convention Center. “We must protect and secure the state’s finances.”

(In photo, Newington Mayor Jeff Wright gives his wife Marina a kiss after he won the GOP endorsement for State Treasure Saturday afternoon during the Republican Convention. John Woike/Hartford Courant)

For those of you who are running rooted and ROM’d Nexus Ones with a custom recovery module — either Amon Ra or ClockworkMod or the like — it’s now stupidly easy to upgrade to Android 2.2 Paul at MoDaCo did the legwork. All you have to do is download his patched (and already rooted) version of Froyo, slap it on your SD card, and apply it per usual through the Recovery. No muss, no fuss, and you’ll even keep your current settings, and it’s a hell of a lot easier than rolling back.

Meriden Democratic town committee Chairwoman Mildred Torres-Ferguson said four Meriden delegates had supported Gerry Garcia because Meriden is a diverse city. When Torres-Ferguson heard about the deal made between Garcia and Jonathan Harris, she said she demanded to know whether Garcia would ask his supporters to vote for a specific candidate, or whether they would be free to vote their conscience. Many were upset that Garcia asked them to release their votes to Harris, Torres-Ferguson said.

“They were Denise voters to begin with,” she said, referring to House Majority Leader Denise Merrill, who eventually won the party’s endorsement for secretary of the state.

Mark LaPlaca, chairman of the Democratic town committee in Mansfield, was excited to see Merrill, who is from his hometown, accept the endorsement Saturday, saying that the long-time lawmaker showed great political strength by beating her opponents in a close race.

“She was able to beat both of them essentially,” LaPlaca said. 

Harris said he has already signed the papers, saying that he will primary. It was a great race, and his campaign worked hard, he said, adding that he came into Saturday as strong as possible. The deal with Garcia was reached during the voting, Harris said.

“It just sort of happened,” he said. “In the heat of the battle, we were able to talk.”    

The U.S. Department of Energy has just agreed to guarantee the loan for Abengoa Solar to start construction of the Solana CSP Project, announced in 2007. The decision marks the culmination of a lengthy environmental assessment with 286 pages of referenced impact statements, covering every possible reason to obstruct Abengoa’s Solana – Spanish for a sunny place – CSP Project.

Not all energy suppliers speed through environmental reviews in under 90 days like off-shore oil projects in the Gulf of Mexico apparently do. Dangerous, “risky!” solar projects are “energy gambles” that needs must take at least two years to review. No rubber stamp for energy sources that might compete with the mighty fossil industry.

Abengoa can now begin to build the 280 MW concentrating solar power plant near Gila Bend, Arizona, and an associated 230 kilovolt transmission line. (more…)

Article Tags: James Delingpole

Just back from the Oxford Union where, last night, we debated the motion: This House Would Put Economic Growth Before Combatting Climate Change. Though I wouldn’t necessarily say I sucked, my performance definitely wasn’t as strong as the one I gave at Heartland. Luckily I had the benefit of a blindingly good team in the form of Lord Lawson of Blaby, Lord Leach and Viscount Monckton – who temporarily ennobled me to Lord Delingpole of Blogosphere so I didn’t feel too left out.

Much to my surprise the motion carried. (133 Ayes; 110 Noes) I suppose I oughtn’t to be surprised, what with all the arguments so obviously in favour of our side and none in favour of theirs. But you never quite know with undergraduates – even frightfully clever Oxford ones – because, never having inhabited the real world, they can all too easily incline to dreamy idealism combined with an utter failure to grasp economic reality.

What really struck me about the occasion, though, was the unspeakable direness of the opposition. I don’t mean the nice girl from Trinity College: as an officer of the Union, she had to take whatever side of the debate she was given to argue. I mean the three others, who embodied pretty much everything wrong with the green movement: its crypto communism; its woeful ignorance; and its sphincter-popping rage.

Source: blogs.telegraph.co.uk

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Apparently at some point last night a very select few Nexus One owners started getting the Android 2.2 update OTA. So if patience is one of your major virtues you should feel free to hold out for that update notification to hit; if on the other hand you would rather just go ahead and get your Froyo on now just follow the directions below.

Note that this has only been reported as working for T-Mobile users so far and if you are currently rooted you should get yourself back to stock before running the update.

To manually install Android 2.2 on the Nexus One, perform the following steps:

1. Download the official Android 2.2 firmware for the Nexus One here.
2. Copy the file to your microSD card and name it update.zip (newb warning: not update.zip.zip)
3. Power off your phone.
4. Hold down the VOLUME DOWN button and power it back on.
5. The phone will now search for files like PB00IMG.zip, etc. This is normal. Scroll down to recovery and press the POWER button.
6. When you see the “/!\” symbol, press the POWER button and the Volume Up button at the same time. You should be presented with a menu and one of the options should be “Apply sdcard:update.zip”.
7. Use the trackball to navigate to “apply sdcard:update.zip” and select it.
8. When you see “Install from sdcard complete”, select “reboot system now”.

Enjoy and once you’ve had a chance to play for awhile let us know what you think.

Article Tags: Christopher Booker, World Temperatures

Sadly the flowers have refused to follow the BBC’s climate change rules.

Last Monday, in its obsession with global warming, the BBC got comically caught out. It devoted a whole hour-long edition of its popular nature programme Springwatch to one of the more familiar themes of warmist propaganda, the way in which springs have been noticeably moving forwards in recent decades, with flowers, tree leaves and much else appearing weeks earlier than they used to do.

A familiar instance to any observer of the countryside has been the dramatic advance in flowering times of those three hedgerow indicators, blackthorn, hawthorn and elder. These used to blossom with unfailing regularity in the closing days of April, May and June, and their recent flowering weeks earlier has undoubtedly been a reflection of a warming climate. But contradicting any belief that this change in our climate is “irreversible” has been the fact that this year, after the hardest of three cold winters running, nature’s calendar has dramatically reverted to “normal”. The blackthorn burst into flower with unusual intensity in late April, may blossom is only now appearing, as it used to do, in the last 10 days of May.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

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By Jenna Carlesso

Jerry Farrell Jr., the state’s consumer protection commissioner, is the Republicans’ choice for the next secretary of the state.

Farrell defeated Corey Brinson, a lawyer from Bloomfield and the Republicans’ only African-American candidate, to seize the convention endorsement today. Democrat Susan Bysiewicz is vacating the seat.

Farrell, 42, of Wallingford, has served as commissioner since 2006. He said his goals were to foster job growth, particularly in small businesses, and drive down state spending.

“I’m going to walk in there and clean it up,” he said. “We can’t let government … just creep along the way it is.”

Farrell said he expected to win the endorsement, but made sure he put in the work to secure the votes.

“I left no stone unturned,” he said. “You don’t go into this kind of thing over-confident.”

Brinson, who garnered nearly 40 percent of the votes, said he was unsure if he would wage a primary, but would make an announcement one way or the other on Monday.

“Regardless of what happened today, the voters are looking for change in their party,” he said. “The state is 25 percent people of color. The convention is not.”

Article Tags: Roy Spencer, World Temperatures

I sometimes hear my fellow climate realists say that a globally-averaged surface temperature has little or no meaning in the global warming debate. They claim it is too ill-defined, not accurately known, or little more than just an average of a bunch of unrelated numbers from different regions of the Earth.

I must disagree.

The globally averaged surface temperature is directly connected to the globally averaged tropospheric temperature through convective overturning of the atmosphere. This is about 80% of the mass of the atmosphere. You cannot warm or cool the surface temperature without most of the atmosphere following suit.

The combined surface-deep layer atmospheric temperature distribution is then the thermal source of most of the infrared (IR) radiation that cools the Earth in response to solar heating by the sun. Admittedly, things like water vapor, clouds, and CO2 end up also modulating the rate of loss of IR to space, but it is the temperature which is the ultimate source of this radiation. And unless the rate of IR loss to space equals the rate of solar absorption in the global average, the global average temperature will change.

Source: drroyspencer.com

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Corey Brinson, who lost his bid for secretary of the state, was the only African American candidate at the state convention on Saturday.

And don’t think he didn’t notice.  

“The state is 25 percent people of color. The convention is not,” Brinson told the Courant’s Jenna Carlesso.
 
Brinson ultimately lost the convention endorsement to Jerry Farrell Jr., the state’s consumer protection commissioner.

However, he garnered nearly 40 percent of the votes, more than enough to force a primary. Brinson, a lawyer from Bloomfield, said he would decide Monday whether he will wage a primary.
 
Asked about whether he was standing in the way of that change in the Republican Party, Farrell replied: “I don’t think any of us are minorities. We’re all Americans. We all have something to offer.”
 
“I am who I am. I can’t be something else,” Farrell added.

FroYo (Android 2.2) is now available to download for Nexus One owners. Phandroid posted a tutorial on how to do it here.

So, N1 owners… flash it, tell us what you think.

Edit: First impression, this thing is FAST. Just navigating around the menus, this thing is “Wickid Fast” (as Ray would say)!

Thanks to Phandroid: Manually Update Your Nexus One To Android 2.2 Froyo! | Android Phone Fans.

Might We Suggest…

• Froyo Arrives at Googleplex
  

  It was only a matter of time before we saw the giant frozen yogurt show up on the Google campus.  Check out a pic of the sculpture sitting under wraps courtesy of TechCrunch.  Can’t wait to see it…

Not content with offering discounts to customers who bring in their own travel mugs, Starbucks has now thrown its weight behind “betacup,” a contest to “eliminate paper cup consumption through the design of a more convenient alternative to the reusable coffee mug.” Some of the ideas submitted so far include a hemp-based cup (we have some ideas about how to recycle that one), cups made from coconut shells, and inflatable, reusable cups.

The contest was organized “to reduce the number of non-recyclable cups that are thrown away every year by creating a more convenient alternative to the reusable coffee cup,” though the competition’s web site states that coffee cups are just the beginning;

Paper cups are just part of the problem.

The amount of waste resulting from consumer packaging every year is mind-boggling. If you’re reading this and you live in the North America, then you’re contributing to the 250 million tons of garbage thrown away every year.

Reducing the number of paper coffee cups consumed is our initial attempt and reducing this overall figure.

We have chosen the coffee cup not because it’s necessarily the biggest perpetrator, but because it’s a symbol of how consumerism has got completely out of control.

Entries are being accepted through June 15th; if your idea is picked as the best, you’ll get $10,000. You retain ownership of your idea, so if you come up with an idea for a biodegradeable coffee cup made out of cultured slug slime, you’ll still own it, and can patent it, shop it around, and get rich from it (too late; that one’s mine!).

betacup drink sustainably [Official Site via Cnet]

Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety

Rule number one of the Internet should be to always read past the headline before hitting the keyboard to comment. A prime example comes from the latest press release from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The statement’s headline implies that PA state troopers will be enforcing seatbelt use from aircraft flying overhead. Frankly, given the budget constraints of most states, we suspect that aerial traffic enforcement is enormously wasteful at best. But the idea of even detecting seatbelt use from the sky seems absurd on its face.

As it turns out, Pennsylvania’s belt law only only allows for secondary enforcement anyway. That means if you drive unbelted past a trooper while still observing all other traffic edicts, you can’t get pulled over. Hence, the Air, Land and Speed campaign that the Pennsylvania state police is undertaking this summer will be primarily focused on catching speeders and then giving them secondary tickets if they insist on being truly foolish by driving unrestrained.

[Source: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania | Image: Wikimedia Commons]

Continue reading Pennsylvania to conduct seatbelt checks… from aircraft?

Pennsylvania to conduct seatbelt checks… from aircraft? originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 22 May 2010 15:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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