Pointed out by Peter Murray and dmmaus, respectively:

Tom Engelhardt of TomDispatch.com published this article which, among other things, covers Mike Davis's discussion of climatic tipping points, which in turn comments on such events as Hurricane Catarina -- the first South Atlantic tropical hurricane in meteorological recorded history -- and the ( Read more... )

Last year, we had Hurricane Catarina, the first ever-recorded South Atlantic hurricane, and the first hurricane ever to strike Brazil.  Now, Vince (downgraded to 'tropical depression' by the time it made landfall) is the first recorded tropical cyclone ever to make landfall in Spain.

This is just one more piece of data in an increasingly worrying ( Read more... )

The first development grant ($14.2 million) has just been awarded for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.  The LSST will have an 8.4m primary mirror and two other large mirrors, combined with corrective lenses to remove distortion, in "a novel optical design", and its camera will have a 3-gigapixel image sensor made up of 200 individual sensors ( Read more... )

... An article in the London Times reports on a study published in the Journal of Religion and Society, described as "a US academic journal," which purports to prove that religion is bad for society -- specifically, that "In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early ( Read more... )