Fire Retardants and Killer Whales....

WARNING - BLATANT JUNK SCIENCE ALERT...

Apparently, there are industrial fire retardants poisoning killer whales off the coast of British Columbia.

Shall we count the "Junk Science" indicators here folks?

- referring to 'detectable limits' of chemicals, without specific reference to data.
- no comment from a neutral government or regulatory official
- comment from not one but two activists (note - they did a good job at referencing the point that Peter Ross works for DFO - but he's categorized as an 'activist' here since he wrote the report in question)
- vague references to clean up plans without specific dates or organizations

And my two personal, albeit very subjective favourites -
a) it comes from the CBC, which is hardly a bastion of fair and balanced journalism, and
b) it's a story about those cute killer whales! Where's Keiko when you need him?

Oh yeah - that's right. Keiko finally died and they secretly buried his body so they could continue making money off his corpse in a few years. How could I forget...

Now - tell me who the idiot is?

Carolyn Parrish is at it again. She's the outspoken Liberal Member of Canadian Parliament who provoked an international outroar by referring to Americans as "bastards."

In a news conference in Ottawa, referring to the Missile Defence Plan, she referred to joining the USA as joining a "coalition of the idiots."

OK - that's dumb enough. But obviously Parrish wasn't paying attention in media relations 101, because what is hilariously funny is what happens next.
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"...Parrish, who had to apologize for her "bastards" remarks last year, at first denied using the term idiots, and when reporters pointed out they had her remarks on tape, she said: "I don't mean Americans are idiots."

"The world respects Canada. If we were to join this then it will be giving credibility to what they're doing," she said.

Parrish then begged reporters not to use the remarks: "Please guys don't put that on tape," she said. "I already got into trouble once.... Really, please, I've had enough trouble."
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It would be rather funny if it wasn't so sad at the same time. It's really quite pathetic, really. Not only is she showing incredibly poor restraint, she then goes to PROVE how lousy her restraint is by actually begging the media not to run a story. She'd have better luck convincing the USA to drop missile defence completely rather than convince a media outlet to actually drop a story....

Superstitions and Junk Science...

There is no scientific evidence to back up most common superstitions. Obviously, walking under a ladder won't clinically pre-dispose you to horrible things, and spilling salt scientifically only means that you have less salt.

But you have to wonder about some things... like poor Perdita Felicien, and the notoriously unlucky number 13.

The Canadian runner was heavily favoured to win the Gold in today's 100 m hurdles event... but was assigned bib number 1313.

As most Canadians know by now, Felicien slipped and fell on the first hurdle.

I'm actually rather surprised that whoever is responsible for issuing bibs would even assign the number 1313.

Actual Data... there's a thought.

This is an idea which is way overdue. Scientists in 49 countries will participate in a 10-year project to collect and share thousands of measurements of the Earth, ranging from weather to streamflow to ground tremors to air pollution.

Most of the data is already collected by various sources, but not easily shared.

"It will not be the technology that limits it, it will be the sociology," Michael Leavitt (head of the US EPA) said, noting that the problem will be overcoming bureaucracy, politics, turf.

First problem on the agenda - how are the activist groups going to react when claims of worsening pollution, air quality or global warming are scientifically denied?

Cow poo grocery bags...

I get so excited about the future of biotechnology I can't sleep at night sometimes.

A company in Australia has discovered that by processing the organisms found in manure sludge, they can create biodegradable plastics. That's right - biodegradable plastic shopping bags which originally started out as cow poo.
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This is the cool part - "The way we would like to see it is that farmer don't just produce one product and a lot of waste," Dr Garman said.

"They have started producing many products so that they become mini chemical factories."
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This is going to happen all over the globe. More and more, farmers are going to be creating small chemical products, and not just 'food.' And more and more, the activist and media pressure traditionally applied to chemical firms will apply to the family farm.

The Natural Disaster du jour - Mega-Waves

Ahhh... life is back to normal. How can you tell?

The media starts breathlessly reporting on the newest catastrophe that could kill us all.

Over the years, we've dealt with the "impending doom" of nuclear wipeouts, chemical contaminations, acid rain, global warming, the earth's magnetic core shifting, and now... Mega-Waves.