Cats kill cute sea creatures

New research reveals extraordinary habits of rare Australian Snubfin dolphin

According to this article, research on the funny looking snub nosed dolphin (that lives off Queensland) shows that they can be killed by toxoplasma containing cat poop:

The concern for the snubfin dolphin follows the death of three Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins recovered around Townsville in the period 2000-2001 that were infected by Toxoplasma gondii - a parasite usually found in cat faeces that appears to have come from contaminated run-off.

In California, they have long believed that cat poo is killing sea otters.

Cat owners have a lot to answer for.

Oceans and Plimer

Most Australian readers would probably know already of the global warming skeptics excitement about a new hefty book by geologist Ian Plimer that (apparently) sets out with lots of footnotes his opinion as to why the great majority of climate scientists are wrong.

While we are waiting for some climate scientist types to review it in detail, I am curious as to whether he makes any attempt at addressing ocean acidification. As remarked here many times, this is an issue skeptics just like to wave away with a few dismissive snorts, and that's about the extent of their analysis. (Yes, I am aware of Plimer's previous short contributions to the issue, such as this one noted last year at Marohasy's blog. Anyone who has bothered to read about the issue can readily spot that this was a disingenuous attempt at dismissing it, and does not address the reasons why it is believed to be a serious problem regardless of the oceans surviving past periods of high atmospheric CO2.)

In fact, I haven't posted anything new about ocean acidification for a few weeks, but there have been quite a few papers of note, such as:

* some new calculations indicate that ocean "dead zones" will increase:

increases in carbon dioxide can make marine animals more susceptible to low concentrations of oxygen, and thus exacerbate the effects of low-oxygen "dead zones" in the ocean.

Brewer and Peltzer's calculations also show that the partial pressure of dissolved carbon dioxide gas (pCO2) in low-oxygen zones will rise much higher than previously thought. This could have significant consequences for marine life in these zones.

* (if I am reading this right) some lab tests indicate that phytoplankton in nutrient poor ocean areas (such as the Southern Oceans, which will be affected first by lower .pH) don't do well with increased CO2.

* A paper notes the wildly conflicting results of different lab tests on whether a certain type of phytoplankton will get heavier or lighter with more ocean acidification. However, even if they do in nature get heavier, they will not make a significant reduction in CO2 levels in the atmosphere:

...it should be recognized that the direct impact of calcification changes on atmospheric CO2 through the remainder of this century is relatively small compared to anticipated annual emissions as well as to other carbon cycle feedbacks.

(Hence, if AGW is true, you can't expect the carbon incorporating phytoplankton to save you.)

* more research indicating pteropods (which feed a lot of fish) don't do well with increased acidfication. The researchers note:

A decline of their populations would likely cause dramatic changes to the structure, function and services of polar ecosystems.

Not exactly cheery news.

Quantum fun

Avoid a future cataclysm: Forget the past - New Scientist

A quite bizarre but entertaining idea suggested by a physicist who has been thinking about "many worlds". The idea is hard to summarise here, and the article is short, but the ultimate point is this:

"If we could find a way to reset our knowledge of an impending disaster, we too could avoid it."

Would large amounts of alcohol do the trick? (Maybe it explains the remarkable ability of some drunks to take a tumble and get back up again.)

4WD heresy

Bligh backs drop in Fraser Island speed limit - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

On the weekend, there was yet another four wheel drive accident on the beach at Fraser Island. This has prompted the government to finally say that letting people drive on a beach at 100 km might just be a little too dangerous. Well, duh, as they say.

But: why the hell do we let the great sandy islands of South East Queensland have their beach serenity spoilt by 4WD's at all? I don't particularly care if inland sand roads are used to access beach-side camp sites, but to my mind Moreton Island and Fraser Island beaches have a large amount of their wilderness value spoilt by the never-ending flow of 4WD up and down their beaches. If you are camping with young children, there is always the worry that it is not particularly safe for them to be going between campsite and the water's edge, because they are literally wandering on a "road".

To my mind, this has been an incremental problem. In the early 1970's, when I first went to Moreton Island, not that many people had 4WD's, and it really did feel a pretty isolated spot. Now that every man and his dog has been able to buy one (mainly for the wife's school run and supermarket shopping, mind you) they spoil quite a lot of the pleasure of being there.

No one says this, of course, and tourism operators on Fraser would be up in arms at the suggestion. But if I ruled the country, there would be a ban on beach driving for nearly everyone; and for non rural areas, 4WDs would be taxed within an inch of their saleability anyway.

System failure

Mentally ill man raped, murdered daughter after warnings ignored | The Courier-Mail

A spectacularly tragic failure of the system to do any effective in the light of clear danger is detailed today:

THE state's largest hospital was warned, so were police and a doctor, but no one stopped a mentally ill man from taking a family holiday which ended with him raping and killing his 10-year-old daughter.

The man headed off on the fateful Bribie Island holiday with his four children after he was allowed to postpone a check-up with health authorities....

The Courier-Mail revealed in the days after the killing that the man had been released from the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital's mental health unit, where he had been under an involuntary treatment order, on December 21, 2007.

He had been admitted on December 8 after a manic episode in a shopping centre.

The man was allowed to postponea check-up with mental health workers scheduled for December 31. Late that night he ritualistically killed his daughter but spared her three younger siblings...

On December 30, the man's parents were so concerned about their son's behaviour, including a threat that "someone close to me is going to die tonight", that they contacted his GP...

On December 31, the RBWH was contacted by a former girlfriend of the man after he had gone to her home. The documents did not say whether the hospital took any action.

The man - who was found by the Mental Health Court to have been of unsound mind at the time of the murder - did not abide by the terms of his discharge. The judgment revealed he had stopped taking the antipsychotic drug, Risperidone, and resumed smoking large quantities of cannabis.

Um, just how many patients who are supposed to be taking anti-psychotics are allowed by anyone to supervise their children alone? I would have thought that this fact alone would have been reason for action.

Peter Kennedy has left the building

With a bit of TLC, priest's exile begins | The Australian

While I was down the coast, Peter Kennedy and his followers took the short walk down the road from Saint Mary's church to their new (temporary?) HQ at the Trades and Labor Council. Yes, it's like organised labor having it's very own church now. How cute.

Although Kennedy was looking all chipper on the TV news, I don't know that this reported comment should really give his congregation much encouragement:

"Our story, as it unfolds, will not change the church, nor will it change the world," Father Kennedy said. "But it is a political act which may give hope to those who feel excluded by the rules and regulations, the doctrines and dogmas, of the institutional church."

For a quite sarcastic take on events, have a read of this post at Coo-ee's Priory, (and this one) which note that Peter Kennedy may be over-estimating media interest in his private church now that the expected physical confrontation is (presumably) not going to happen:

"We are liberated now to speak out about the church. The media will come to us for our opinion from now on."

Yeah, we'll see how long that lasts.

Weekend away

We went down to the Gold Coast on the weekend, where I took this typical photo:



The weather was pretty good, and autumn (or spring) are the best times to be on the beach in South East Queensland: you don't have quite the same worry about frying your skin within 10 minutes, and once your feet get used to it, the water is warm.

It seems that the Gold Coast is suffering from the GFC to some degree: there were a few noticeable closed restaurants and such around. Price-wise, it's also probably a good time to be looking at buying a holiday unit there, as I suspect that is the type of real estate that investors are currently having to sell in a hurry. (Yes, have a look at this search at realestate.com to see what you can buy at Broadbeach for under $300,000. Someone send me $250,000 in Paypal and I'll let you stay in my apartment for 4 weeks a year in perpetuity!)

Hold this space

Missing me? No, I thought not. In any case, there's stuff to post about, but no time 'til tonight.

Cheap real estate soon in Japan?

Japan birthrate fall world's No. 1 | The Japan Times Online

The productive population, or those aged 15 to 64, is expected to decline from 81.64 million in 2009 to 45.95 million in 2055.

A science fiction image

This video of a pair of lungs being kept "breathing" while awaiting transplant reminded me of one of Larry Niven's novels, "A Gift from Earth". More details of the point of the exercise are at Next Big Future.

Doesn't work for Madonna

Can We Reverse Aging By Changing How We Think?

Don't overlook refrigerators

Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Global Warming | Newsweek

Nothing terribly new in this interview with Steven Chu, except I hadn't heard of this before:

We now make refrigerators that are four times more energy-efficient than the refrigerators of 1975—for half the inflation-adjusted cost. The energy we save with these refrigerators is more than all of the wind and solar photovoltaic energy we produce in the United States today. Just refrigerators.

Chu claims a lot is achievable in energy efficient buildings:

..we haven't taken full advantage of the technologies that exist today. They haven't been integrated into making smarter buildings that can be 60, 80 percent more energy-efficient than existing buildings.

He says buildings use 40% of US energy. Sounds surprisingly high.

Hunger inspired post

My wife made very nice pizza last night, using the following:

bottle pizza sauce, pieces of fresh tomato, semi-dried capsicum, olives, anchovies, basil leaves, mozzarella, and (special ingredient) bits of old washed rind cheese well past its used by date.

Provided stinky cheese has not developed its own microbiological civilisation, small amounts of it on pizza are delicious.

[End of transmission to your subconscious.]

I wonder what my brain is up to now

Unconscious thought precedes conscious | Incognito | The Economist

Interesting article here on new research which suggests the brain solves problems by itself well before you are aware of it.

As the report notes, it's further extension of Libet's old research from the 1980's, that caused a philosophical stir at the time.

In some ways, I guess, the idea that the brain can work on a problem subconsciously is not uncomfortable. In fact, it's kind of handy to have a computer working in the background on an issue.

But on the other hand, the research does raise the issue of how much you really are "in control". Taken to an extreme, it encourages the idea that we are just automatons who simply live under the impression of having control. Hard to deal with the moral concept of responsibility for actions if that were true.

People had better still believe that there is still a bit of a mystery about consciousness, and that right action can be willed, otherwise the fate of humanity will be bleak indeed.

Everyone needs a hobby

Such as, sitting in a Japanese park dressed as a Nazi.

Forests not always so helpful

Dying trees may exacerbate climate change : Nature News

I have to reproduce a large part of this, because of Nature's silly way of putting stories under a paywall after a short time:

Forestry experts have again warned that climate change could transform forests from sinks to sources of carbon. The carbon storing capacity of global forests could be lost entirely if the earth heats up 2.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels, according to a new report...

In a warmer world, subtropical and southern temperate forests such as those in the western United States, northern China, southern Europe, the Mediterranean and Australia will experience more intense and frequent droughts, increasing the incidence of fire and pests. This would lead to more carbon being released — a recent report in Science2 found that a 2005 drought in the Amazon basin released about 1.2 billion–1.6 billion tonnes of carbon (See 'Climate change crisis for rainforests').

The coniferous forests of Canada, Finland, Russia and Sweden that make up the boreal region are expected to experience more warming than forests in the equatorial zone. Although warmer temperatures could initially fuel a northward expansion of the forest, the short-term positive impacts would be cancelled out by damage from increased insect invasions, fires and storms.

The shift from sink to source is already happening. The mountain pine beetle has devastated the forests of western Canada. The outbreak currently covers 14 million hectares — roughly 3.5 times the size of Switzerland, says Allan Carroll, an insect ecologist with the Canadian Forest Service in Victoria, British Columbia. By 2020, the projected end of the outbreak, about 270 megatonnes of carbon will have been emitted to the atmosphere3. "That's the equivalent of five years of emissions from the entire transportation sector in Canada," says Carroll.

Noami and Hope

Naomi Klein on Obama and the rhetoric of hope | Comment is free | The Guardian

The somewhat nutty Naomi Klein writes a column that conservative Obama skeptics can take heart from.

A dubious honour

New Species Of Lichen Named After President Barack Obama

Lichen? How much pleasure does it give someone to be named after an inanimate bit of rock coating?

My competition of the day: what sort of newly discovered living creature should be named after Kevin Rudd?

Good grief

Gulfnews: Lawmakers call for 'moral police' revamp

OK, I admit it, Gulf News has become my irresistible source of amusement. (I had to give the Times of India a break after the Mumbai terrorist attack.)

It is a very, very different world in the Gulf countries. Today, for example, it reports on how the Saudi religious police are getting some criticism:

Several members of the Shura Council have come down heavily on the high handedness meted out by the members of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice or the religious police.

They noted that some Commission members are exercising excessive powers that are not in their jurisdiction and are interfering in the private affairs of individuals. They accused panel members of acts like getting into individuals' mobile phone data, reckless chasing, and inspecting women to check if they were using perfumes that "disturb others", cutting off their hairs or wearing improper dress.

Well, I wouldn't mind having a security force that can deal with overpowering aftershave that you tend to find some European men wear. But we can agree with this:

Dr Abdullah Bukhari, a member of the Shura, vehemently criticised the acts of some Commission members in storming public or private places and inspecting personal belongings.

"Their chasing of women or taking into custody of those found without a blood relative [Mahram] are not right," he reminded

But what does the good doctor, who sounds like a modernising sort of chap, then say the religious police should be doing?:

"They should concentrate mainly on busting the rackets of drugs, black magicians, sorcerers or the like rather than entangling in private affairs of individuals," he said.

Oh.

And further on the issue of child marriage, the situation is not good in Yemen:

The early marriage is a phenomenon in Yemen with respect to males and females, and it's widespread in both rural and urban areas, the report added.

Some 48 per cent of females under 15 years old get married early, and about 45 per cent of males and females get married when they are about 10 years, the report said.

Toy shops must love weddings there.

They are trying to change the law, but meeting religious objections:

A controversy has been going on in Yemen since February 11, 2009, when some Islamist MPs supported by some clerics refused as not Islamic the 17 years as the minimum age of marriage although it was voted for by the majority of the House of Representatives.

I suppose when the founder of your religion had a child bride himself, it does make for an issue.

Free for all

Gizmo's - Gizmo's Freeware Reviews | Gizmo's Freeware

The news isn't inspiring me for any post at the moment, so instead I'll just mention that I recently found the above handy website for finding just the right freeware for nearly any purpose.

It's well organised, covers all sorts of freeware (eg, open source and older versions of products that companies are now giving away for free), and reviews their features. Readers get to make their own comments and recommendations as well. (I know other sites allow for reader reviews, but this site just seems much better organised and has a more personal touch in its reviews.)

Very satisfying.