monkey's uncle

Words to live by.  Thanks, John.

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Infrastructure is a major problem for moving forward into any sort of vision of a new green economy.  This article in the New York Times is a little depressing.  The electrical transmission infrastructure simply isn’t there to allow us to take full advantage of green energy generation technologies (e.g., wind farms or large solar arrays [...]

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I learned a shocking fact today in Allison Arieff’s opinion piece in the New York Times this morning.  According to Arieff, 40% of homeowners associations in the United States forbid the use of clotheslines to dry clothes.  She also brought to my attention the fabulous advocacy group Project Laundry List. Of course, there is one small problem with this [...]

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A recent paper in PNAS documents the alcohol consumption patterns of pentailed treeshrews (Ptilocercus lowii) in Southeast Asian rainforests. These treeshrews consume fermented nectar on a daily basis from the flower buds of the bertam palm (Eugeissona tristis). The alcohol content of the fermented nectar averages 0.6% but gets as high as 3.8%. A proportionate amount of [...]

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This is a relative oldie but a goodie that just re-appeared in my inbox.  Professor Hans Rosling from the Karolinska Institute debunks a number myths about the distribution of wealth and health in the world.  It is an amazing demonstration of the power of interactive graphics to communicate complex information.  

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About a month ago, I posted on the mysterious deaths of crocodiles in the Olifants river system in Kruger National Park, South Africa.  A recent update indicates that the cause of the fatal pansteatitis outbreak is still unknown despite intensive study.  An interdisciplinary research captured 11 live crocodiles and found that seven of them were afflicted [...]

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Nina Simonds’s website has a cool video of Walter Willett, author of the terrific book Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy, and professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.  Willett is one of the chief advocates of the Mediterranean diet, which stresses a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, grains, fish and the consumption of [...]

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