02008-10-29 | Environment, News
World is facing a natural resources crisis worse than financial crunch | Environment | The Guardian
The world is heading for an “ecological credit crunch” far worse than the current financial crisis because humans are over-using the natural resources of the planet, an international study warns today.
The Living Planet report calculates that humans are using 30% more resources than the Earth can replenish each year, which is leading to deforestation, degraded soils, polluted air and water, and dramatic declines in numbers of fish and other species. As a result, we are running up an ecological debt of $4tr (£2.5tr) to $4.5tr every year – double the estimated losses made by the world’s financial institutions as a result of the credit crisis – say the report’s authors, led by the conservation group WWF, formerly the World Wildlife Fund. The figure is based on a UN report which calculated the economic value of services provided by ecosystems destroyed annually, such as diminished rainfall for crops or reduced flood protection.
And to illustrate the urgency there is this quote:
This had led the report to predict that by 2030, if nothing changes, mankind would need two planets to sustain its lifestyle.
Unless you have another planet in mind and think we will be able to move people across space, I suggest we need to start changing the way we do things.
02008-10-29 | Photos
The mysterious cough, caught on film – International Herald Tribune
At Pennsylvania State University, a professor of engineering has captured something less whimsical but no less ephemeral — a cough — on film.
The image, published online Oct. 9 by The New England Journal of Medicine, was created by schlieren photography, which “takes an invisible phenomenon and turns it into a visible picture,” said the engineering professor, Dr. Gary Settles, who is the director of the university’s gas dynamics laboratory.
02008-10-29 | Funny
Ottmar. I decided I am not going to buy anymore of your music until you let your hair grow out again!! :)
(the power of suggestion is supposedly strong ya know)
From an email sent to the ListeningLounge.
Well, I hope you are not holding your breath.
02008-10-29 | Music, Quotes
The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, ‘Is there a meaning to music?’ My answer to that would be, ‘Yes’. And ‘Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?’ My answer to that would be, ‘No’.
– Aaron Copland
02008-10-28 | Funny
The Most Valuable Company in the World Today Is – Freakonomics – New York Times Blog
…just like the story about the two economists who go deer hunting:
They see a buck and the first economist shoots, missing by 10 yards to the left. The second economist shoots and misses 10 yards to the right. They shake hands in hearty congratulations.
“On average,” one says, “we got him right between the eyes.”
