Number 85 - To see a tree asmiling.

The laundy is out on the WildClicking clothesline.

clicking

clicking


just rediscovered an old account at care2 that I set up in 2004

testbb

it still works!

Good Sunday, wildclickers!

Tables and chairs painted (just before rain today) all done for winter!

Football games, making veggie soup, grooming babies, reading.

Have a great day all ~

AND, Stradee and ehBeth are two COOL ladies today. The WX is acooling.

Great going team!!!!!! Good clicking everyday. More trees asmiling.......

sumac --- you and I are still in the hot seats. But, you may have some cooling your way soon.

Good clicking and thanks for the great articles.

It was a cool, brilliantly sunny day here in Toronto. By Tuesday it may be warm and rainy.

Weather, it's all over the place.

ll clicked and then going out to drag the hose. Will hit 90 again today.

September 19, 2010

Science and the Gulf

After months of confusion and contradictory reports, the Obama administration has at last embarked on a systematic effort involving some of the nation’s top scientists to measure the amount of oil remaining in the Gulf of Mexico and its potential impact on marine life. An interim report could be ready in several months.

This is very good news. Though the full effects of the spill on the water quality and animal life in the gulf will not be known for years, getting a handle on what’s happening now is essential to shaping the right strategy for restoring the gulf to good health. Scientists say the picture changes every day, as undersea oil plumes disperse and degrade. Getting a fix on how much oil lies below the surface and where it is going will make possible more-educated guesses about its effects on the natural system.

The boss of the study will be Jane Lubchenco, the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a respected marine scientist. It will involve seagoing research vessels and extensive tests in the water column, from the surface to the sea floor. It will draw on the expertise of Ms. Lubchenco’s own agency; universities in Florida, Louisiana and other gulf states; and independent research bodies like the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

For budgetary purposes, the study will be classified as one more component of the government’s ongoing response to the April spill, which means that BP will pick up the tab, whatever that turns out to be. BP has already promised to set aside $500 million to underwrite private scientific studies in the gulf over the next 10 years. But this offer has become mired in a political dispute involving gulf state governors and will not, in any case, relieve BP of its responsibility to pay for the NOAA study.

Apart from shaping restoration strategy, the new study may help end the constant — and, from the public’s point of view, frustrating — sniping among government and independent scientists over the actual state of play in the gulf. In August, NOAA released an oil “budget” claiming that half of the 4.9 million barrels that had gushed from the well had completely disappeared and that another quarter had been dispersed in rapidly degrading droplets. The White House political apparatus inflated these numbers into a complete victory, inviting widespread complaints from scientists.

Then came the famous now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t oil plume controversy. Woods Hole scientists, in a report published Aug. 19 by the journal Science, claimed to have found a 22-mile-long underwater oil plume near the leaking wellhead. Less than a week later, in the same magazine, another report by a team from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a laboratory supported by the federal Energy Department, said the plume had been pretty much devoured by oil-eating microbes and largely disappeared.

These and other disagreements (there have also been differing reports about oil sediments on the ocean floor and about oxygen levels) cry out for an impartial investigation that steps back from the politics of the moment, lowers the temperature of the discussion and seeks fresh answers.

An article in The Times’s science section last week indicated that a fortunate combination of circumstances — including warm weather, which encourages evaporation as well as the microbes — had inspired cautious optimism among many scientists that the gulf may recover faster than anyone expected. But we should base our hopes not on conjecture but on painstaking science of the sort that Ms. Lubchenco now promises.

I dare everyone to read the following article:


http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/the-meat-eaters/?ref=opinion&nl=opinion&emc=tya1

"SEPTEMBER 19, 2010, 5:35 PM

The Meat Eaters

By JEFF MCMAHAN

Viewed from a distance, the natural world often presents a vista of sublime, majestic placidity. Yet beneath the foliage and hidden from the distant eye, a vast, unceasing slaughter rages. Wherever there is animal life, predators are stalking, chasing, capturing, killing, and devouring their prey. Agonized suffering and violent death are ubiquitous and continuous. This hidden carnage provided one ground for the philosophical pessimism of Schopenhauer, who contended that “one simple test of the claim that the pleasure in the world outweighs the pain…is to compare the feelings of an animal that is devouring another with those of the animal being devoured.”

The continuous, incalculable suffering of animals is also an important though largely neglected element in the traditional theological “problem of evil” - the problem of reconciling the existence of evil with the existence of a benevolent, omnipotent god. The suffering of animals is particularly challenging because it is not amenable to the familiar palliative explanations of human suffering. Animals are assumed not to have free will and thus to be unable either to choose evil or deserve to suffer it. Neither are they assumed to have immortal souls; hence there can be no expectation that they will be compensated for their suffering in a celestial afterlife. Nor do they appear to be conspicuously elevated or ennobled by the final suffering they endure in a predator’s jaws. Theologians have had enough trouble explaining to their human flocks why a loving god permits them to suffer; but their labors will not be over even if they are finally able to justify the ways of God to man. For God must answer to animals as well."

and today the weathers perfect! warm, balmy with a tad of breeze

Beautiful Fall day (two days shy of the actual beginning of the season) with clear skies. Luv the season!

Nature's brutal...no argument there.

So what separates man from prey animals? Not much

I do believe animals as well as humans carry over to another plane of existance where suffering ceases to exist. We live on a learning planet and i know another certainty. I AIN'T COMING BACK HERE AFTER GRADUATION!

Yo, Stradee,

Humans ARE animals!! Just the same as all animals on this earth.

We have evolved to be the top animals on earth - mostly because we developed a brain that could out think the reptiles. From where we came.

And, from what I can read - we took a loooooooong time in doing it.

Grin!!

Yep, meant the four legged species.

Man had better of outthunk other species or we'd have gone the way of extinction...being the 'lower' forms of life were born with all they needed for protection from the elements.

We should never stop thanking the fire Gods.

But should we let the carnivores go extinct? That was the question raised in the article.

SPEEDING IN WYOMING



GOOD : A Laramie , Wyoming policeman had a perfect spot to watch for speeders, but wasn't getting many. Then he discovered the problem--a 12-year-old boy was standing up the road with a hand painted sign, which read 'RADAR TRAP AHEAD.' The officer also found the boy had an accomplice who was down the road with a sign reading 'TIPS' and a bucket full of money. (And we used to just sell lemonade!)

BETTER A motorist was mailed a picture of his car speeding through an automated radar post in Cheyenne, Wyo. A $40 speeding ticket was included. Being cute, he sent the police department a picture of $40. The police responded with another mailed photo of handcuffs.


BEST A young woman was pulled over for speeding. A Wyoming State Trooper walked to her car window, flipping open his ticket book. She said, "I bet you are going to sell me a ticket to the State Trooper's Ball." He replied, " Wyoming State Troopers don't have balls." There was a moment of silence. He then closed his book, tipped his hat, got back in his patrol car and left.

sue, we don't have much of a say, imo.

The issues are far to complicated, and of course humans won't discontinue infringement or breeding...non human animals will eventually go extinct first, unless nature decides to place the earth in ecological balance again. Who knows

Stradee --- You have a wonderful thouthful nature --- WOW, what a wonderful thing that is....................!

Yes, the answer is ???

We can look at the past --- which isn't so good --- and - anticipate the future --- Which Isn't So Good!!!!!!!!!!!

Exchanged emails with wordworker recently - she's had some back and computer problems. Both seem to be improving.

Well thank you Dan (blushing)

There isn't anything new under the sun, (that i can see) will alter the course.

But miracles do happen, and maybe all animals still have a chance.

Give word our best, Beth.