Biofuels – the other side of the leaf
The song remains the same. Biofuels are a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. Why? Because during their growth plants absorb the same amount of carbon dioxide they emit in the air when they’re transformed and used as biofuels. Basically, carbon neutrality. At least, that’s what someone claims. Because there’s also a critique that is always the same. Growing biofuels means performing a series of side activities (converting a field to another crop, fertilizing it, fueling farming machines etc.) that by themselves produce a carbon dioxide surplus in the air and narrow the actual advantages deriving from the use of biofuels. Till the point in which, according to Gristmill blog, in order to reach a drop of just 0.5% in greenhouses emissions, the US should burn next year 8 billion gallons of corn ethanol for the modest price of $4 billion. Is it worth? Maybe not, especially if it’s true what’s been recently published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. According to a study, by applying artificial fertilizer to the soil to grow biofuel, farmers are releasing in the air nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas some 296 times more potent than carbon dioxide. As a result, the quantity of GHGs released in the atmosphere by biofuels could be in extreme cases some 70 percent more than the one released by conventional fuel. Touché.
Filed Under Environment, Research
The ‘right’ age of sexual consent
21-year-old Genarlow Wilson has thus far served two years of his mandatory 10-year sentence for aggravated child molestation. At 17, he had oral sex with a 15-year-old girl. His name is and will be, for the rest of his life, on the sex offenders list.
While the sentence does seem extreme, ridiculously so, the law has been broken and he must pay some sort of price. But to put him, a teenaged boy with consented actions, in the same category, on the same list, as a 53 year old being charged of entering the state to have sex with a 5-year-old girl, seems a bit off.
This article, from Slate.com argues that it’s time to abandon the myth of the “age of consent” and lower the threshold for legal sex, which should be set through looking at various thresholds: the age at which your brain wants sex and your body signals to others that you’re ready for it, the age of cognitive competence, and the age of emotional competence, which are all set far apart from one another.
“Each of these thresholds should affect our expectations, and the expectations should apply to the older party in a relationship as well as to the younger one. The older you get, the higher the standard to which you should be held responsible.”
That does seem reasonable. Let’s start judging actions based on people’s maturation. The age of consent, a number, seems a bit too basic, doesn’t it?
Filed Under Media & Society, Modern Life
A policing act made by Internet users
Let’s put together our knowledge on a thing and we’ll get the perfect definition of it, easily and for free. Since Wikipedia started, the fad of web communities based on a democratic share of knowledge has spread out, reaching fields that are not usually accessible by common people. Last but not least, official acts. Even those dealing with crimes and police. The New Zealand police is indeed asking people a hand to prepare the Policing Act 2008, a document supposed to rule about modern day policing in the country. By going online and using the Wiki technology, citizens can add and improve articles in the act, with the goal of reaching the best and most shared possible result. “A new frontier of democracy”, says the officer in charge of developing the new act. But in the meanwhile parliamentary drafters are writing-up an official Bill, different from the one prepared by the Internet users. Also because the impression is that a country policing system could hardly be treated by someone who doesn’t have a deep knowledge on the subject. The main risk is ending up collecting plenty of banalities. Or attracting criminals, who write loopholes into the act in order to exploit them afterwards.
They have called it an experience of “extreme democracy”. It runs the serious risk of being extreme demagogy and nothing else.
Filed Under Technology
The cure for global warming?
James Lovelock, British independent scientist, author, researcher, environmentalist, futurologist and originator of the Gaia hypothesis, which proposes that the planet, our Mother Earth, is a living being and life forms are her offspring (just as our human body is composed of billions of cell working together as a single living being, so are the billions of life forms on Earth working together as a living super organism), has endorsed a cure for the “pathology” of global warming.
The idea is to tether millions of vertical pipes across the oceans to pump nutrient-rich deep water to the surface. These waters would fertilize the growth of algae, which in turn fix carbon dioxide. The pipes, reaching to depths of 200 metres, would have flap valves at the bottom operated by the energy of waves, which would push deep water up the pipe. He considers that we should value the concept of using the Earth’s own energy “to heal the planet.”
Lovelock argues that, as a result of global warming, “billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable” by the end of the 21st century. He suggests that “we have to keep in mind the awesome pace of change and realise how little time is left to act, and then each community and nation must find the best use of the resources they have to sustain civilisation for as long as they can”.
But Lovelock’s “cure” for global warming has been seen differently by other experts, warning that such drastic measures could have unforeseen knock-on effects since its difficult to predict all potential “downstream,” saying that we could destroy the ocean life while playing around with quick fixes and upsetting a equilibrium that has been around for millions of years.
What is your opinion regarding Lovelock’s solution? Should we take the risk with this kind of contemporary proposals?
Filed Under Environment, Research, World Health
Deeper voice, stronger sperm
I’ve always envied men with deep voices. First of all, most of them are good singers and actors. Secondly, every time they open their mouth to say something, even when it’s something pretty stupid, they get the attention of their audience, especially the feminine part of it. Because in their voice there’s something that talks about a life experienced at its full potential, amongst cigarettes, whisky, women and hotels. But it’s not just that. A recent study lead within the Hadza, a Tanzanian hunter-gatherer tribe, reveals indeed that men with deeper voices may be more fertile than their friends with a lower voice pitch. And that’s basicly why women rate them more attractive and think about them as possible mates. Smoke and have more drinks, then guys, and you’ll see your sex appeal jump to the stars. Unfortunately, the same thing doesn’t work for girls: the study says that women with higherpitched voices are better looking, subordinate, feminine, healthier and younger. Same old inequity.
Filed Under Diversity, Research
Chávez against breast implants
“Breast implants? I see it as something normal,” said my 19 years old Venezuelan friend. “It’s like putting highlights in your hair.”
Venezuela has won more international beauty contests than any other country in the past 50 years. This is no accident: the cult of beauty explains the country’s huge boom in cosmetic surgery over the past decade.
Despite the country’s vast oil wealth, 70 percent of Venezuelans live in poverty. But when it’s a matter of beauty, no expense is spared (you have to look good, and you will find the way).
This called “Western-imposed consumerism culture” and the easy way to reach ‘the perfect size’ (breast implants are advertised on TV and banks offer special credit lines for such operations) is not influencing just to its potential market itself: breast implants are also quickly becoming a favored gift for young ladies celebrating their quince años (when Latin Americans celebrate a girl’s coming-of-age) as a present from their own parents and other family members.
But Venezuela’s revolutionary president Hugo Chávez, who promotes democratic socialism, Latin American integration and anti-imperialism, railed against the trend of ‘artificial beauty.’
“Now some people think, ‘My daughter’s turning 15, let’s give her breast enlargements.’ That’s horrible. It’s the ultimate degeneration,” he said. “I am calling on your conscience, fathers of this country, mothers of this country, they are our sons, they are our daughters.” And certainly, they are also the future of our society and perhaps future parents as well.
Chávez, who happily describes himself as ugly, may struggle to change Venezuelans’ now traditional mind-set to spending on plastic surgery. Beauty is so important that people actually protested in Caracas when one of his speeches interrupted the televised Miss Venezuela contest…
Filed Under Media & Society, Modern Life, Politics, World Health
It’s a size matter. At least for spiders
Is bigger really better? This age-old, stereotyped and unoriginal question has been asked by almost every human been probably since the existence of superiority and weakness for competition.
While some people have come up with “anti-sizeism” organizations, others are dedicated to preach that the size issue is important –in everything.
But a recent study revealed that in fact, size does matter, at least for spiders.
The blood-gorging Evarcha culicivora, armed with eye-sight “unrivalled by other animals in their size range”, picks its partner based on looks and size alone.
But, while virgin females are attracted to meatier, bigger mates, a bit of experience sees them switch to smaller partners. Those that had copulated once before saw things differently, choosing, as the father of their future offspring, the smallest male in sight. But, why such drastic change from Mr. Big to Mr. Tiny?
Who knows.
Maybe their intelligence is bigger than their size; maybe experienced spiders found out that is not all about size. It’s about quality.
Filed Under Diversity, Research