PhotoSpeak

Wer  schon immer die Bilder seiner Freunde animiert haben möchte findet in PhotoSpeak ein ideales App dafür. Das Programm erkennt automatisch das Gesicht und animiert es entsprechend. Mit einer Audioaufnahme ausgestattet bewegen sich die Lippen des Bildes entsprechend. Ein wirklich interessantes App das man sich nicht entgehen lassen sollte. [AppStoreLink]

Blower

Das kleine App produziert durch einen gewissen Ton Schallwellen, welche einen Luftstrom bilden. Hierzu ist ein lauter Lautsprecher von Vorteil, weswegen bessere Ergebnisse mit dem iPhone 3GS erzielt werden. iPod Touch-User müssen leider darauf verzichten. Das in der Beschreibung vorgestellte Ausblasen der Kerzen funktionierte in unserem Test nicht sofort, aber der Luftstrom war deutlich erkenn- und spürbar. Das Programm ist weniger durch seine Funktionalität bemerkenswert als vielmehr für die Kreativität und Möglichkeiten, welche die Entwickler hier zeigten. [Link zum AppStore]

Ice Age – Dawn Of The Dinosaurs

iPhone-Spiele für Kinder sind nicht besonders zahlreich. Klar gibt es Renn- und Zeitmangementspiele aber diese sind nicht extra für Kinder aufbereitet. Hier tritt das Spiel Ice Age zum gleichnamigen Kinofilm wohltuend hervor. Das kleine Vorzeiteichhörnchen Scrat ist sowieso der heimliche Star der Filme und kann nun hier gesteuert werden. Spiel, Spaß und unterhaltsame Stunden. [Link zum AppStore]

]]> http://winteryknight.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/canadian-global-warming-skeptic-comments-on-leaked-cru-e-mails/ Fri, 27 Nov 2009 22:00:48 +0000 Wintery Knight http://winteryknight.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/canadian-global-warming-skeptic-comments-on-leaked-cru-e-mails/

Canada Free Press has the story. (H/T Gateway Pundit via ECM)

Excerpt:

Lift up a rock and another snake comes slithering out from the ongoing University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU) scandal, now riding as “Climategate”.

Obama Science Czar John Holdren is directly involved in CRU’s unfolding Climategate scandal. In fact, according to files released by a CEU hacker or whistleblower, Holdren is involved in what Canada Free Press (CFP) columnist Canadian climatologist Dr. Tim Ball terms “a truculent and nasty manner that provides a brief demonstration of his lack of understanding, commitment on faith and willingness to ridicule and bully people”.

“The files contain so much material that it is going to take some time t o put it all in context,” says Ball.  “However, enough is already known to underscore their explosive nature.  It is already clear the entire claims and positions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are based on falsified manipulated material and is therefore completely compromised.

“The fallout will be extensive as material continues to emerge.  Reputations of the scientists involved are already destroyed, however fringe players will continue to be identified and their reputations destroyed or sullied.”

Dr. Tim Ball is a renowned environmental consultant and former climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg.

I think it’s interesting that John Holdren is implicated in the global warming e-mails, because In 1971, Holdren thought that a new ice age was imminent. Ice age alarmism is pretty much the polar opposite of the global warming alarmism he now espouses.

Excerpt:

In 1971, John Holdren edited and contributed an essay to a book entitled Global Ecology: Readings Toward a Rational Strategy for Man. He wrote (along with colleague Paul Ehrlich) the book’s sixth chapter, called “Overpopulation and the Potential for Ecocide.” (Click here to view a photograph of the table of contents, showing Holdren’s essay on pages 64-78; click on the image to the left to view the cover.) In their chapter, Holdren and Ehrlich speculate about various environmental catastrophes, and on pages 76 and 77 Holdren the climate scientist speaks about the probable likelihood of a “new ice age” caused by human activity (air pollution, dust from farming, jet exhaust, desertification, etc.).

Don’t forget his previous comments on mass sterilizations, forced abortions and a world police force. He’s also a socialist.

I think it’s fair to say that when a mad man like Holdren sways from ice ages to global warming within a few seconds that climate funcdamentalism has nothing to do with science and everything to do with religious fervor and the desire to control other people. Why does the left hate reason and science so much? And why did Obama appoint mad men to high positions in his administration?

• CBS: The Ghost Whisperer, 8pm; Medium 9pm.
• FOX: Ice Age: The Meltdown, 8pm.
• THE CW: Smallville, 8pm; America’s Next Top Model, 9pm.
• NBC: The 40-Year-Old Virgin, 8pm.
• ABC: Supernanny, 8pm; Ugly Betty, 9pm.

Were spear-carrying ice age hunters responsible for the disappearance of woolly mammoths, ground sloths, and other large, lumbering animals of the Pleistocene?  No theories that seek to explain their demise—even ones that invoke crashing comets and climate change—seize the public’s attention the way this “blitzkrieg” hypothesis does.  The idea that early humans went on a millennia-long killing spree gives us the shivers and confirms our worst fears about ourselves.  See, the thinking goes, humans have been mucking up the planet since we stood upright….

That our species contributes to global warming is inarguable, but there’s been less certainty over whether we had a role in ice age extinctions.  That question has returned with renewed urgency with the recent publication of “Pleistocene megafaunal collapse” in Science by Jacquelyn Gill, John W. Williams and researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and other institutions. It sparked a flurry of media reports.

The team studied the dung fungus in lake deposits at sites in Indiana and New York left behind by mammoths and their ilk. These humble markers suggest that the giant beasts that once roamed North America began dying out between 14,800 and 13,700 years ago.  That was before the shift in vegetation from grasslands to forest that some theorists argued was the reason for these creatures’ decline.  Now it looks like their disappearance caused the changeover in habitat greenery and the increased wildfires that followed.  If this timeline is accurate, another great critter die-off theory also collapses:  a comet impact on (or over) what became Canada around 12,900 years ago.  Ditto for the supposed killer cold-snap of the Younger Dryas, the return to semi-ice age conditions that some say may have been triggered by the impact.

So let’s take a close look at those spear-shaking humans.

The blitzkrieg hypothesis is associated with Paul Martin of the University of Arizona, who, starting in the 1960s, underscored the association between megafauna die-offs and the spread of the human species.  Butchered mammoth bones from the period 14,700 to 14,100 years ago found at a site in Wisconsin suggests that people were hunting these huge creatures at the very start of their decline.  And a mammoth skeleton with a spear point in its ribs was among the first evidence found of the Clovis People, so named after the artifacts (notably elegant and deadly spear points) of a late Paleolithic hunting and foraging culture uncovered near Clovis, New Mexico.  Those people are thought to have crossed from Siberia to Alaska during lowered sea-levels of the last ice age before fanning out across the continent about 13,000 years ago, when megafaunal extinctions were largely finishing up, and may well have helped hasten the process.

Although humans are omnivorous and can make use of a wide variety of nutritional sources, the concentrated food value of meat in this period made hunting a key survival strategy.  Killing small game, which requires a large expenditure of energy for a relatively small gain, could not match the payoff of bringing down larger prey.  Pleistocene peoples became efficient killers, learning to isolate, trap, and throw spears at their prey before finishing the job at close quarters.

Did they hunt to extinction many of the creatures they encountered? We have the grim examples of man-driven massacres of island species, notably on Madagascar and New Zealand.  In historic times, we have the evidence of the annihilation of the quagga, the dodo, the thylacine, the passenger pigeon, et al.—surely we could have snuffed out whole species back in the days when no one was keeping a list.

But some researchers find the overkill hypothesis distinctly overrated.  Paleontologist Ross MacPhee has pointed out that there are a number of examples of species, including fur seals, various whales, and bison that weren’t wiped out despite ruthless pursuit by later humans with highly advanced weaponry.

It’s been suggested that now-extinct megafauna were doomed by their lack of wariness and their inability to cope with the sudden appearance of two-legged predators streaming into their habitat.  The cow-sized ground sloth of the late Pleistocene was probably slow-witted and relatively easy to bag.  But were woolly mammoths really so naïve that they allowed human hunters to sidle up to them and plunge a stone-tipped spear between their ribs? Wouldn’t they have been leery of approaching humans? If not at first, how long would it have taken the ancestors of modern elephants to develop strategies to deal with these strange new enemies?

Even if it was relatively easy pickings for these hunters—a big if—did they knock off more than they could eat, just for the hell of it, the way 19th century train passengers used to amuse themselves by shooting bison from railway car windows on the Kansas Pacific?  In the harsh Pleistocene, excess slaughter would have been a waste of precious energy, and pointlessly courting injury or death when larger quarry was tackled.  Although various parts—skin, bones, teeth—of the animals slain were utilized, and  mammoth ivory in particular prized as a carving material, we can be confident that meat was the main point of a hunt in pre-history.

It would have taken more than intermittent wanton slaughter for the tiny populations of early man to kill off slow-breeding species faster than they could replace themselves, sending them into an irreversible slide.  It’s possible a few animals disappeared this way, but what about all other extinct species in North America, like bear-sized beavers and western camels? Humans would have had to methodically exterminate millions of such creatures, chasing them down in every corner of the continent.  To explain the global disappearance of megafauna, this unlikely scenario would have to have been repeated on every other continent as well.

MacPhee concedes that the evidence shows that wherever humans arrived, animal extinctions followed, but doubts that hunting alone explains that. In collaboration with Preston Marx, MacPhee hypothesized that humans may have brought diseases with them that killed off indigenous species, although so far no evidence for the hyperdisease model has been uncovered.

Gill said that while her group’s new findings weren’t consistent with the blitzkrieg hypothesis, she and her colleagues couldn’t flatly rule out human involvement.  For other researchers, the idea that Pleistocene hunters singlehandedly knocked off the mammoth and similar megafauna may just be too seductive to let go.  Christopher Johnson, an Australian biologist who wrote an accompanying commentary in the same issue of Science, remains convinced that human hunters were the “sole cause” of “megafaunal extinction.”

Next month’s meeting in San Francisco of the American Geophysical Union will give comet proponents a chance to present new evidence for their extinction-with-a-bang theory. Frankly, it may take the impact of a comet to make those who blame our ancestors for the disappearance of the mammoth to drop the idea.

Las Vegas is making a pitch to have an area including fossil beds northwest of Las Vegas designated as a national park. 

A Clark County spokesman says commissioners endorsed the idea last week and officials say Las Vegas and North Las Vegas are expected to take similar action this week. 

Dubbed the Upper Las Vegas Wash, the area is more than 10 miles northwest of downtown Las Vegas. 

Local officials cite fossil finds from the Pleistocene age and the work of scientists in 1962 who catalogued the remains of ice age mammals such as the Columbian mammoth, American lion and ancient horses.   

No word on whether any mobster remains may be there. 

The legislative resolution asks Congress to designate the area a national park with visitor facilities and working field sites where the public could observe scientific research.

To all of our new readers, thanks to CBC and StumbleUpon, this is for you!

Most of us don’t read scientific journals. We read the newspaper instead. We read our news feeds. We watch CNN.

These sources, as we know, are fairly low on the credibility spectrum. But how are people like you and I supposed to understand the more credible sources? Scientists don’t seem to speak plain English. And you can’t even read most of their studies without a subscription.

Usually this isn’t much of a problem, because the popular press and the scientific journals say basically the same things – that there’s going to be a lunar eclipse on a certain date, that red meat increases your risk of a heart attack, that a new kind of dinosaur was just discovered.

However, when you start reading about climate change, the newspapers start going crazy.

The world is warming. The warming is caused from the world coming out of an ice age. The warming stopped in 1998. Glaciers are melting. The warming is caused by human activity. The warming is caused by sunspots. The warming is inconsequential. The warming is catastrophic and is going to kill us all. New York is going to be underwater. Scientists faked the whole thing.

As someone who keeps up-to-date with the scientific literature – that is, sources from the top few tiers of the credibility spectrum – I can tell you that it is not under the same confusion as the mass media. There are a lot of myths about climate change that go around the newspapers and the Internet, but were never in any sort of legitimate scientific study. I cannot stress this point enough.

For example, have you heard the one about NASA getting the Y2K bug, and later discovering that the warmest year on record wasn’t 1998, but in fact – whoops – 1934? Global warming must be fake!

Actually, that’s not correct at all. NASA discovered that 1934 was the warmest year on record in the United States. And that “United States” part got dropped in translation somewhere in the blogosphere. Contrary to what American media would have you believe, the United States is not the whole world. It makes up less than 2% of the Earth’s surface. And the warmest year on record globally is either 1998 or 2005, depending on how you measure the Arctic temperatures.

There are dozens of stories like that. So many of the explanations you hear for global warming being natural/nonexistent/a global conspiracy are based on misconceptions, miscommunications, discredited data, or flat-out lies. They were never in the scientific literature. They are not endorsed by the sources at the top of our credibility spectrum. They are, shall we say, urban myths.

But how are we, humble non-scientists, scanning through the newspaper on the way to work each morning, supposed to know that? We need some kind of a link between the scientists and the public. Some journalist who actually knows what they’re talking about, and cites all of their claims with credible sources. Some sort of encyclopedia that will dispel all the myths about climate change.

Luckily, there are many of these encyclopedias. There are a lot of people out there trying to fulfill this very purpose.

One of my favourites is Peter Sinclair’s Climate Denial Crock of the Week video series on YouTube. He debunks common claims like “global warming stopped in 1998″, “global warming is caused by the sun”, and “temperature leads CO2 in the ice cores”. Sinclair is a professional journalist, so all of the videos are well explained, easy to understand, and fun to watch.

Another great source is Coby Beck’s How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic series. These articles cover just about every objection out there. Equally comprehensive is Skeptical Science. They’ve even compressed their explanations into “sound bites”, so you can answer your uncle’s objections in just a few sentences over Thanksgiving dinner.

Some of the sources from the top of our credibility spectrum have also chimed in. Environment Canada has created a fantastic FAQ document about climate change. It covers everything you need to know to wade through YouTube comments or online debates, along with citations you can actually trust.

Finally, Scott Mandia, a regular reader here at ClimateSight and a meteorology professor in New York, has just posted a copy of his presentation to the public about climate change. What I like about this document is that it’s very up-to-date. All of the graphs are the most recent of their kind. It also provides some philosophical perspectives to really sink your teeth into, like an analogy about medical advice, and some memorable quotes at the end.

We shouldn’t have to double-check everything the newspaper says about climate change. But the objections to anthropogenic global warming have such an awful track record that we really should, at least before we go and spread them around. These sources will cover just about everything you need to know.

Download Link:
http://hotfile.com/dl/18267852/ee7270d/iceage3_iphone.rar.html

Am 2. Dezember wird der Film “Ice Age 3: Die Dinosauriere sind los” auf DVD und Blu-ray in Deutschland veröffentlicht. Amazon.de hat aktuell den Film zum absoluten Tiefpreis im Angebot: So gibt es die DVD für 7,97 Euro und die Blu-ray kostet lediglich 13,97 Euro. Bei Blu-rays fallen keine Versandkosten an, bei DVDs ist jede Bestellung über 20 Euro versandkostenfrei. Unter folgenden Links könnt ihr euch den Film kaufen:

Ice Age 3: Die Dinosaurier sind los (& Digital Copy) für 7,97 Euro
Ice Age 3: Die Dinosaurier sind los (& Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] für nur 13,97 Euro

My awesome penguins

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Four centuries ago, “heretics” who disagreed with religious orthodoxy risked being burned at the stake. (This is a Tale From The Black Legend) Many were the dissenting views that could send offenders to a fiery end. (Truth – Black Legend Explains The Propaganda From Northern Spain).

In 1633, the astronomer Galileo Galilei may have come within a singed whisker of the same fate, (False) for insisting that the sun (and not the Earth) was at the center of the solar system. In the end, he agreed to recant his “heresy” (at least publicly) and submit to living under house arrest until the end of his days. (Peer Review Was The Order Of Science) The Holy Catholic Church Required Peer Review AND Galileo Wanted To For Go This Step.

Growing evidence ultimately proved Galileo was right, (The Holy Catholic Church Affirmed Galileo’s Findings) and the controversy dissipated.  Theology gave way to nature in determining the truth about nature. (Science Axioms {Defined By Nicole Oresme’) Confirmed Galileos’s Findings)

We wish that were the case today. Unfortunately, lessons learned 400 years ago have yet to be adopted where the Church of Anthro-Climatism is involved. (False) Burning dissenters at the stake may no longer be an option (Northern Spains Black Legend) – perhaps because it would send prodigious quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. However, many other ingenious punishments are often meted out, to ensure that dissent is kept within “acceptable” limits, or dissenters no longer dissent. (Absent Historicity)

Just recently, as scientists who specialize in environmental science, climatology, and solar variability, we welcomed the acceptance of our scientific session, Diverse Views from Galileo’s Window: Researching Factors and Processes of Climate Change in the Age of Anthropogenic CO2. The session was to be hosted at the upcoming Fall 2009 Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco. (Political Idiom )

Our session was to focus on “knowledge that spans an extremely diverse range of expertise” and provides “an integrated assessment of the vast array of disciplines that affect and, in turn, are affected by the Earth’s climate.” Our ultimate goal was to stimulate discussion at this professional meeting, prior to the upcoming UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fifth assessment report. (Pure Semantical Diversion)

We developed this session to honor the great tradition of science and scientific inquiry, as exemplified by Galileo when, 400 years ago this year, he first pointed his telescope at the Earth’s moon and at the moons of Jupiter, analyzed his findings, and subsequently challenged the orthodoxy of a geocentric universe. Our proposed session was accepted by theAGU. (Therefore, Peer Review Was Established By The Catholic Church As Truth).

Blah Blah Blah Bl;ah Blah!

In response to its acceptance, we were joined by a highly distinguished group of scientists – including members of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, France and China, as well as recipients of the AGU’s own William Bowie, Charles Whitten and James MacElwane medals. Our participants faithfully submitted abstracts for the session.

But by late September, several puzzling events left us wondering whether the AGU truly serves science and environmental scientists – or simply reflects, protects and advances the political agendas of those who espouse belief in manmade CO2-induced catastrophic global warming.

On September 14, Dr. Nicola Scafetta of Duke University contacted us, to say the AGU had cancelled his previously-approved 12-paper session on Solar Variability and Its Effect on Climate Change, since it did not have enough papers. He asked if the papers from his session could be merged into our session; since they fit our theme well, we accepted his papers.

The merger was approved by the AGU Planning Committee. Thus our Galileo session now had grown to a total of 27 papers and was approved as a poster session at the Fall Meeting.

However, a few days later, after first approving our session and after we had assigned time slots for these new papers at AGU’s request, the Planning Committee revoked its approval and summarily dissolved our session. Now the committee claimed our session was “thematically divergent,” and divided the papers in our original session among six different sessions.

To cover its tracks, the committee created a new session called Diverse Views from Galileo’s Window: Solar Forcing of Climate Change with 15 papers – including the 12 from Dr. Scafetta’s original session that it had cancelled. That reduced the focus of this session to just solar forcing of climate, and eliminated discussions of the impact of anthropogenic CO2 that we had planned for our original session. The remaining papers from our cancelled session were moved to five other sessions, thereby undermining our original intent: comparing solar variability and manmade carbon dioxide as factors in planetary climate change.(Completely False)

In responding to us, the Planning Committee defended its actions by asserting: “none of [the papers in our session] have to do with the Galilean moons of Saturn [sic], which have to do with climate change or solar activity.” That claim reflects either a poor grasp of our purpose or a failure to read our proposal – and leads the question, Why wasn’t this issue raised when they originally decided to accept our session? (Political Motivation).

Our session proposal had clearly intended to honor Galileo’s observations of Jupiter’s (not Saturn’s) moons, which had led him to challenge the orthodoxy of the geocentric universe. We wanted to highlight how current research into the climatic effects of anthropogenic CO2 is challenging the supposed “scientific consensus” that humans are causing catastrophic climate change.(Pure Bullshit)

Scientific inquiry has once again been silenced

This arbitrary dissolution of our original session has serious implications for proper scientific enquiry. Our request that the session be reinstated has gone unheeded, despite the fact that the AGU has reinstated at least one cancelled session in the past. We have repeatedly been told that the decisions of the Planning Committee are final, though it has made clearly contradictory decisions regarding our session.

Reduced sunspot activity and solar energy output, stable or even cooling planetary temperatures, concerns over the high cost of proposed cap-and-trade legislation, political developments in Washington and Copenhagen, and other factors have caused more people to question manmade global warming disaster claims. This has led to consternation among scientists and organizations that have supported those claims.

However, as scientists, we are profoundly concerned by this behavior from a professional society that is supposed to serve science and its members. The AGU certainly had the right to reject our proposed session at the outset or before the solar variability session was merged with it. But given the topic of our session and the good faith approach we have taken in accepting papers from the cancelled solar variability session, it seems odd (at the very least) that our session was summarily dissolved, and that the AGU refuses to discuss the matter.

The AGU action is hardly reasonable. Indeed, it is counter-productive to the scientific method and to promoting open scientific discussions. It smacks of censorship. Something is rotten in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Scientific inquiry has once again been silenced … just as it was 400 years ago.(Pure Political)

The AGU should be ashamed. Its members should be outraged.

Dr. Willie Soon is a scientist who studies solar and climate co-variability. Dr. David Legates is a scientist who studies climatology and hydrology.  Both are members of the American Geophysical Union.

Everyone of The Paid For ‘Scientists’ know that a New Ice AGe Is On The Verge!

Ice Age Now

Iceage :: /v2/index.cfm

Real Galileo

Nachdem gestern bereits der Film “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” auf sehr günstige 10,99 Euro im Preis reduziert wurde, geht es heute mit weiteren Top-Schnäppchen im Blu-ray Segment weiter. So kamen nun neben Star Wars (der weiterhin für 10,99 Euro erhältlich ist) folgende Animationsfilme zur 10,99 Euro Aktion hinzu:

Arthur und die Minimoys [Blu-ray]
Die Legende von Beowulf (Director’s Cut) [Blu-ray]
Ice Age [Blu-ray]

Alle drei Filme kann ich bedingungslos empfehlen und sind absolut gelungen. Wie immer sind alle Blu-rays bei Amazon.de versandkostenfrei. Es kommen also keine zusätzlichen Kosten zu den 10,99 Euro dazu.

The next time you call your husband a Neanderthal, you might be accurate. Actually not. Just kidding. Genetic testing tends to suggest that in the human genome there is little if any trace of the Neanderthal in us. But that doesn’t negate that he was a close relative albeit now extinct.

Let me explain. Nova has been doing a three part series on what makes us human. It has been fascinating, as all such things are to me. Like any science, there are always questions unanswered, and competing theories around the edges. This is what drives science in general and frankly we cannot expect or want certainty. For then we admit there is nothing more to learn.

In the last several years, questions remain and have been looked at afresh about how we came to be us. Exactly how and why did we evolve away from our chimp and ape cousins? I have spoken on this before, but frankly it has always been something of a mystery what happened to the happless Neanderthal. At least now, we have some good theories.

The amazing thing in the area of paleontology, is that like many other disciplines, there is a lot of overlap. This seems obvious when you think about it, since the planetary development of Earth makes it an organic whole. It stands to reason and would be a serious problem should archaeology, geology, astronomy and so forth, not tend to support  each other in conclusions which touch them both.

And that is where real progress has been made. It seems that Neanderthal was part of that initial migration out of Africa. They settled mostly in the northern European lands and frankly soon were busy fighting the climate. Ice ages came and went, and Neanderthal became adept at living in this harsh environment.

From where came this homo sapien then? Well it seems that climate change in Africa, meant the reduction and almost total elimination of the rain forests. Our remaining ancestors, perhaps down to as few as 800 breeding individuals were forced from the in lands to the sea shores around the continent.

Here they learned new techniques. Their tool making became refined, they clearly turned to eating seafood. They adapted to new conditions. And it appears that genetic changes conducive to such adaptation, worked  to enlarge our brains, at least as to the cognitive parts.

An amazing thing can be done with bones these days. We are actually what we eat. It is exactly true. What we eat is translated into our bones in terms of chemical trails. We can now test Neanderthal bones and determine their diet. It was almost exclusively meat. Although their environment contained both eatable plants and berries, they eschewed such fare in favor of meat.

This may be because of all the food available, meat was by far the most numerous and most plentiful, given the harsh climate. Meat provided the fuel necessary to survive.

What happened when the omnivorous creature, Homo sapien entered the picture, having now decided to explore himself?  No doubt confrontations occurred between the two groups. In the past, theories abounded that Neanderthals were either killed off by superior weaponry or inbred with the sapiens, and thus disappeared.

Such seems not to be the case. No trace of Neanderthal DNA is apparent in the human genome as I said.

Most all the bones of Neanderthals found show multiple fractures. Life was harsh and dangerous for this group. Their weapons were spears and they they were not throwing spears. They got up close and personal with game, and no doubt suffered grievous injuries. Few lived beyond their 30’s.

It is now thought that Neanderthals were basically pushed out of the way, much as American Indians were pushed out of their lands by the white settlers in the US. Finally they were confined to the Rock of Gibraltar, and there they died out. They may have been forced to the extremes of their climate.

Much of this work has been done by the Max Planck Institute in Germany, a premier science institute in paleontology research. There, scientists are working multi-disciplinarily to uncover the rise of humanity.

It seems that the cell deteriorates at a fixed rate, and based on this, we can determine with some clarity when the two, Homo Sapien and Neanderthal had a common ancestor. That appears to be around 200,000 years ago.

Little by little, we are learning why we stood up, how our thumbs became specialized, how our brains grew, and how we adapted to various climate conditions. They are what drove us upward and onward. Near, at one point, to extinction ourselves, we held on, adapted to new conditions, and ultimately flourished. Perhaps we have kind of over did it now, as our very numbers now threaten the well-being of our planet.

But it is easy enough to sit back and look on in amazement. What has God wrought? Apparently quite a lot of humans!

Native Plant Species are species which have arrived in Ireland naturally without the assistance of people. These species were present in Ireland before the last Ice Age. They adapted to the environmental conditions in Ireland and therefore thrive here. Native Plant Species are very beneficial to wildlife providing both food and shelter. The fauna and insects of Ireland have adapted to live with native species over time.

Native Species of plants and trees sustain the greatest biodiversity. When landscaping around your home use native species where possible. Local nurseries and garden centres will have a range of native species in stock.

Non native or invasive species should be avoided. Suitable plants may include native and indigenous plants which may include;

Ash

Ivy

Blackthorn

Dog Rose

Holly

Crab Apple

Guelder Rose

Created in association with Climate Change Connection, with special guest Dr Danny Blair, music by Kevin Not10. Read the citations here. Enjoy!

Game developed by Two Tribes and based on the animated feature film from Twentieth Century Fox launches today on the Apple App Store

LOS ANGELES — November  18, 2009 — Fox Mobile Entertainment (FME) today announced the launch of a new Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs iPhone game based on Twentieth Century Fox’s popular animated feature film.

The new Ice Age iPhone and iPod touch application features the movie’s fictional saber-toothed squirrel, Scrat, whose single-minded acorn obsession takes on a parallel plot throughout the Ice Age movie trilogy.

“We are excited to bring a fun and engaging game based on this year’s top animated movie to the App Store in time for the holidays,” said Andrew Stalbow, senior vice president of Fox Mobile Entertainment.  “Chillingo and Two Tribes have a great track record for producing deep, innovative iPhone games and we are pleased to be working with their industry-leading team.”

In the Ice Age game, which is published worldwide by Chillingo and developed by Two Tribes, Scrat is seemingly oblivious to the perils that lay between him and his acorn in this puzzle-filled platform adventure. The player uses a revolutionary on-screen control system to point, direct, and assist the hapless hero in pursuit of that illusive acorn. Fun and challenging levels are spread throughout four environments from the movie; chilly ice caves, snowy peaks, sultry jungles, and mist-filled caves.

“We are thrilled to work with Fox on this fantastic property,” added Chris Byatte, director of Chillingo Ltd.  “We believe that we have brought Scrat and Ice Age to life on the iPhone in a new and unique way.”

The game application can be downloaded from the Apple App Store via iTunes or directly from compatible handsets and costs $4.99 (£2.99 or €3.99).

More information about the game can be found at www.iceagemobilegame.com/iphone.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is now available in the United States on iTunes, DVD and Blu-Ray Disc.

About Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) feature film

The sub-zero heroes from the worldwide blockbusters ICE AGE and ICE AGE: THE MELTDOWN are back, on an incredible adventure… and in 3-D. This time, they’re beneath the ice, discovering a world of dinosaurs.

ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS, from Academy Award-winning Blue Sky Studios, has everything audiences loved about the first two films, adding even more comedy, action, and spectacular visuals. Our beloved heroes live on, with some memorable new characters thrown into the Ice Age mix.

Also new to the Ice Age franchise is an incredible and immense underground world populated by dinosaurs. The lush world provides a sharp contrast to the wintry environs of the first two Ice Age films, and dwarfs even the vastness of the above-ground Ice Age. It’s a land of danger, massive creatures, mammal-eating plants, a daredevil weasel, a wily romantic foil for Scrat – named Scratte – and areas with names like the Chasm of Death, and the Plates of Woe. Even Manny the Mammoth – the B.M.O.C. (Big Mammal on Campus) in the Ice Age – feels puny in this immense world. “When the dinosaurs show up, Manny is no longer ‘king of the jungle,’” says comedy legend Ray Romano, who returns as the voice of filmdom’s most famous woolly mammoth.

About Fox Mobile Entertainment

Fox Mobile Entertainment (FME) is the exclusive mobile licensor of all Fox Filmed Entertainment content. In addition to distributing mobile video and managing mobile video channels, FME focuses on the exploitation of Fox Filmed Entertainment intellectual property across all mobile platforms including new application platforms like the iPhone App Store where FME experienced great success with its “Freakin’ Sweet Family Guy” application, which peaked as the #1 paid entertainment app and #2 of all paid apps on Apple’s platform.

Other popular titles licensed through FME include the television properties “24,” “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy,” as well as major motion pictures such as “James Cameron’s Avatar” and “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.”

About Chillingo

Chillingo are the publishers of popular iPhone and iPod touch titles including the award winning Zen Bound TM that won multiple awards at the recent Independent Games Festival (IGF) Mobile 2009 and the International Mobile Gaming Awards (IMGA). Their recent title “iDracula– Undead Awakening” zoomed up the App Store charts days after its release. For more information about Chillingo please visit http://www.chillingo.com.

About Two Tribes

Two Tribes B.V. is a privately owned company focusing on the development of games for portable devices and downloadable game services. High quality games with a strong focus on playability and presentation is what the company strives for. Since 2000 Two Tribes has been operating from their offices in the center of the Netherlands.

Over the years, Two Tribes has created games for a wide range of game devices. They developed games for Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, iPhone/iPod Touch, Game Boy Advance and countless mobile phones. With the advent of downloadable game services, such as WiiWare and XBox Live Arcade, Two Tribes has entered home-console development as well. For more information, visit www.twotribes.com.

Dr Henry Pollack, the author of A World Without Ice, is a geophysicist and an IPCC author. According to Al Gore, in the foreword, he is also “a scientist with the rare ability to engage ordinary people and to translate scientific ideas into everyday terms that are easy to understand”.

I couldn’t agree more. Pollack didn’t write A World Without Ice like a scientific journal, or like a textbook. Rather, he wrote it with the air of an enthusiastic science teacher introducing his students to new topics.

I was introduced to many new topics throughout the book – basic glaciology, the Earth’s geological thermostat, the Maunder Minimum – and I didn’t have to struggle to understand the terminology, or read anything twice. Pollack wrote with such clarity that learning new scientific topics felt almost effortless.

But absolutely top-notch were his metaphors. For example, this is how Pollack explains how the three factors of the Milankovitch cycles can combine to cause climatic change:

The composite is like listening to sound from an electronic synthesizer, which uses only three tones with different volume settings. The combination is usually some gentle cacophony, but from time to time there is some harmony between two of the tones, and on occasion with even one tone dominating, coming through loud and clear. The right combination of these Milankovitch factors sets the stage for snow accumulation at high latitudes and the beginning of an ice age.

Brilliant, no?

My one complaint about A World Without Ice was that Pollack tended to step too far away from his central topic of ice as a geological and climatic force. He ended up explaining everything that was even remotely related to ice, instead of sticking to what made his book unique.

For example, the North and South Poles are dominated by ice, so the first 30 pages were devoted to a history of polar exploration. Interesting stories, but not really necessary in a book about geology. It’s easy to find entire books about polar exploration if the reader is so inclined.

Later, when global warming came into the discussion, Pollack spent several chapters going through the basic lines of evidence for anthropogenic warming. I would wager that most readers of A World Without Ice are familiar with An Inconvenient Truth, or something similar, which has these explanations as its central purpose. Therefore, I don’t feel that running down this path well travelled is necessary for the audience at hand.

I feel that pieces of A World Without Ice could have been taken out, and the book as a whole would have actually benefited. So the next time I read it (and yes, I’m quite sure there will be a next time), I may not read the whole thing. I may skip the story of Captain Cook’s Antarctic voyage, or the explanation of the Keeling Curve. But I will read, many times over, the explanations of how ice is tied to geology, glaciology, and paleoclimatology. That’s what Pollack, this enthusiastic science teacher, intended the book to be about. And that’s what he does best.

TLC Book Tours is offering one free copy of A World Without Ice to a ClimateSight reader! The first person to correctly answer this question will be the winner:

What chapter of the IPCC AR4 did Dr Henry Pollack contribute to?

Leave your guesses in the comments. This contest is open to Canada and US readers only.

It would appear that the storyline in The Day After Tomorrow wasn’t that far off after all…

The most accurate reading of the climatic record shows that contrary to long-held beliefs that the Mini Ice Age over 12,800 years ago, plunging us into bitter cold for over 1,300 years, happened much more rapidly than once thought…

Find out what they discovered… Do you have a good parka?

Decent. Sperăm că e ultimul deşi cred că ar fi trebuit să se oprească deja la cel de-al doilea. Subiectul diferit de celelalte iar personajele îşi pierd din farmec. Acţiunile parcă-s lipsite de haz şi parcă te prinde plictiseala.

Manny, Sid, Diego şi Scrat se întorc pentru noi aventuri, în exact acelaşi stil al primelor două filme. Pentru ca să fie o continuare demnă, nu se poate să nu avem cel puţin un personaj nou, dacă e posibil, cu o voce ceva mai cunoscută. De data asta, nou-venitul e Simon Pegg, el interpretând rolul unei nevăstuici fără un ochi. Cu această a treia descălecare a mamutului, leneşului, tigrului şi veveriţei, dinozaurii intră în peisaj şi în poveste, completând tabloul preistoric. Totul porneşte de la dorinţa lui Sid de a-şi întemeia o familie. Problema e că primul sau demers  constă în furtul unui ou de dinozaur. De-aici încolo vă cam puteţi închipui ce urmează.

Fanii seriei Ice Age presupun că o să mă contrazică dar este doar o părere personală. Cred că este destinat doar profitului, după ce primele două au adus un profit de aproape un miliard de dolari, partea a treia credeţi că ar strica la buget? Neah, nici gând.

Slăbuţ tare. Sper că se opresc.

Scurt. Nota 6.

That bastion of truth Wikipedia has compiled a list of the highest grossing flicks of this decade so far, and if you look closer at the top 20 films at the box office, only one movie has not been based on a past film or (remake/sequel), or an adaptation of an established property. You know the sources: comic, book, play, Hasbro toy etc. I highlighted in a previous post (quite brilliantly…) the upcoming film releases based on old products. However, I did not realise the full extent of the Old Rope+Short Attention Span=Money formulae.

Want to know the the only original feature film to make it into the the top 20 of this decade?

Finding Nemo, which nestles in well at #15 with $864.6 million.

Further still, if you look at the top 30 films from this decade thus far, there is only one other original film property among the pack

DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda, #30 spot with $631.7 million.

Worryingly, out of the top 50 grossing films of this decade, there are only 9 movies based on original premises and properties. Out of the nine, five, yes FIVE of those nine films have come from the Pixar Studios camp. A damning indictment to an industry built on grandiose spectacles. How spectacular can something be in its third incarnation? Maybe Up! wasn’t the rendered Citizen Kane it has become accepted as, rather, an original story that dared to depict death in a children’s movie.

Cheers Pixar.

As for the rest of you layabouts….

You can find the entire top 50 below:

1 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King New Line Cinema $1,119,110,941 2003
2 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest Disney $1,066,179,725 2006
3 The Dark Knight Warner Bros. $1,001,921,825 2008
4 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Warner Bros. $974,733,550 2001
5 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Disney $960,996,492 2007
6 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Warner Bros. $938,212,738 2007
7 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Warner Bros. $929,022,922 2009
8 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers New Line Cinema $925,282,504 2002
9 Shrek 2 DreamWorks SKG $919,838,758 2004
10 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Warner Bros. $895,921,036 2005
11 Spider-Man 3 Columbia $890,871,626 2007
12 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Warner Bros. $878,643,482 2002
13 Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs 20th Century Fox $878,615,229 2009
14 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring New Line Cinema $870,761,744 2001
15 Finding Nemo Disney / Pixar $864,625,978 2003
16 Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith 20th Century Fox $848,754,768 2005
17 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Paramount $833,229,011 2009
18 Spider-Man Columbia $821,708,551 2002
19 Shrek the Third DreamWorks SKG $798,958,162 2007
20 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Warner Bros. $795,634,069 2004
21 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Paramount $786,636,033 2008
22 Spider-Man 2 Columbia $783,766,341 2004
23 The Da Vinci Code Sony / Columbia $758,239,851 2006
24 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Disney $745,011,272 2005
25 The Matrix Reloaded Warner Bros. $742,128,461 2003
26 Transformers DreamWorks / Paramount $709,709,780 2007
27 Ice Age: The Meltdown 20th Century Fox $655,388,158 2006
28 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Disney $654,264,015 2003
29 Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones 20th Century Fox $649,398,328 2002
30 Kung Fu Panda DreamWorks SKG $631,736,484 2008
31 The Incredibles Disney / Pixar $631,442,092 2004
32 Hancock Columbia $624,386,746 2008
33 Ratatouille Disney / Pixar $623,707,397 2007
34 The Passion of the Christ Newmarket $611,899,420 2004
35 Mamma Mia! Universal $609,841,637 2008
36 Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa DreamWorks SKG $603,900,344 2008
37 Casino Royale MGM / Columbia $594,239,066 2006
38 War of the Worlds DreamWorks / Paramount $591,745,540 2005
39 Quantum of Solace MGM / Columbia $586,090,727 2008
40 I Am Legend Warner Bros. $585,349,010 2007
41 Iron Man Paramount $585,133,287 2008
42 Night at the Museum 20th Century Fox $574,480,450 2006
43 King Kong Universal $550,517,357 2005
44 Mission: Impossible II Paramount $546,388,105 2000
45 The Day After Tomorrow 20th Century Fox $544,272,402 2004
46 Madagascar DreamWorks SKG $532,680,671 2005
47 The Simpsons Movie 20th Century Fox $527,071,022 2007
48 Monsters, Inc. Disney / Pixar $525,366,597 2001
49 WALL-E Disney / Pixar $521,268,237 2008
50 Meet the Fockers Universal $516,642,939 2004

Dré

New research reported by MailOnLine -

It took just six months for a warm and sunny Europe to be engulfed in ice, according to new research. Previous studies have suggested the arrival of the last Ice Age nearly 13,000 years ago took about a decade – but now scientists believe the process was up to 20 times as fast.

Continue reading.

For those people who have watched Ice Age series of movies, this game is no stranger to them. The main character you guide in this game is Scrat. He is a saber-toothed squirrel who is mad about acorns.

The game controls are pretty easy. You have to draw lines to guide Scrat where he wants to walk. Scrat can push or pull blocks. Basically, you need to tap on the block or boulder first. To push the block, you need to tap on the right arrow. To pull or grab the block, you just need to tap on the left arrow. Scrat can also float in tar bubbles. This is helpful in navigating him underwater.

Scrat can also stomp on the ground. I believe this is useful for breaking the ice beneath him when you use the action “stomp”. Scrat can also climb the walls but I wish he can jump. I hope the developer can add in the jump action for Scrat like double jump, triple jump etc. Currently, if he drop into a pit, he cannot get out. You have to cover up the pits with numerous blocks so that he can walk onto the pit.

There are also ladders in the game to aid Scrat from getting around the environment towards his acorns. You can pile up blocks in the game to make sure Scrat is at a taller height to reach to his food. If you played Toki Tori before, the controls are similar as it is developed by the same developer Two Tribes. As Scrat moves along in his journey to find his acorns, you will see some of his friends appearing as special appearances for a while. The landscapes also changes when you walk into different places.

The other thing I wish the developers can fix is the lack of game saves in the middle of a level. Currently, the game will save the game state only after you complete that level. But if you are in the middle of the level, it won’t save your progress and you have to start all over again.

However, the game play is interesting to me as it makes me think of every step I make and if there is a chance of recourse, what steps will I take? You can restart each level when you are stuck. That is pretty nice, considering some of us here are amateur puzzle solvers.

So, what are you waiting for? Head on to iTunes and help Scrat avoid enemies, obstacles and reach out to his acorns! hehe

Check out Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs on iTunes for $4.99!