z_Ideas

Is it warm in here?

The Max Planck Institute for Meteorology says that within 100 years it is expected that the sea ice in the North Pole region will completely melt in the summer. In their words:

The global temperature could rise by up to four degrees by the end of the century. Because of this warming, the sea level could rise on average by as many as 30 centimetres. The scientists expect that under certain conditions, the sea ice in the arctic will completely melt. In Europe, summers will be drier and warmer, and this will affect agriculture. The winters will become warmer and wetter. Another consequence of the heated atmosphere will be extreme events like heavy precipitation with floods.

This and the other gloomy details of the report can be found here.

Meanwhile, in the United States... [Guardian, Aug. 30]

Shift and rotate

AP PHOTO

Nissan today unveiled a concept car with a swivelling cabin, which means instead of going in reverse, you just push a button and the entire passenger area pivots 180 degrees. What this means for backseat drivers remains to be seen. Says Reuters:

The car, named Pivo after the word "pivot," operates on an experimental system called drive-by-wire, which eliminates the mechanical linkages between cabin and chassis to enable steering, braking and shifting through electronic signals. The system is the car's version of fly-by-wire technology, which has controlled commercial jets for more than a decade.

Area-code metastasis

Take this animation as a metaphor for our telephone-obsessed age. [radicalcartography.net]

Driverless buses, you say?

How'd you like a driverless bus that stopped at your front door on your command and then whisked you to your destination? The city of London, England, has just such a plan in mind, and it may be up and running in time for the 2012 Olympics there. Says the Times of London:

The door-to-door service, known as Personalised Public Transport (PPT), is designed to attract car drivers who dislike walking to bus stops and having to squeeze on board with up to 140 other people. Each driverless bus would accommodate a maximum of 24 people but for an extra fee could also be ordered for exclusive use. The vehicles would cruise the streets like London black cabs but would be summoned by a mobile phone message.

Daily Science Briefing: Gorillas tool around; death by flu; natural-born fibbers; booze drains brain

Two female gorillas have been photographed using sticks as tools to get through swampy areas, the first time the apes have been seen doing so in the wild, researchers reported on Thursday. [Reuters] You can see the pictures here.

A new flu pandemic could happen at any time and kill between 5-150 million people, a UN health official warned. [BBC]

The brains of pathological liars have structural abnormalities that could make fibbing come naturally. [newscientist]

Alcoholics who smoke show greater loss of brain volume than those who don't. [Health and Medicine News]

Bats gave SARS to civets, new study suggests

The likely source of the respiratory disease SARS, which pretty much shut down Toronto in 2003, is the horseshoe bat, a new study suggests. Researchers found a virus closely related to the SARS coronavirus in bats from three regions of China. [BBC]

Hard to look at, let alone swallow

Ever thought sword-swallowers were faking it? If so, click here for X-ray images that will convince you otherwise.

Up next on the witness stand: Michael Jackson

Michael Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park and a new work of fiction that calls climate change a "hoax," appeared this week as an expert scientific witness before a U.S. senate hearing on global warming. This launched Der Spiegel off on a lovely bit of teutonic sarcasm.

Wanted: A new Homer

What Americans need now is someone to write a new Iliad, says a U.S. Classics professor, in order to remind them of the cost of war.

The Iliad gives an honest picture of all aspects of warfare: betrayal of "what is right;" egotistical high command foul ups and their consequences for the common troops; a wide range of behaviors, from cowardice to courage; the tragedy of war for civilians in a city under siege and ordained to be taken and destroyed; "berserker" rage; fellow feeling for the enemy, most famously in the private "truce" between the Trojan ally Glaucus and the great Greek warrior Diomedes...

Some friend

Sucking on a Fisherman's Friend cough drop can cause you to set off a road-side breathalyzer, even if you are as sober as a celebrity in rehab. [Ananova]