My mail is still kinda funky (not forwarding correctly) so I’m a bit late in catching this, but The American Prospect has a great special report this month on the Amazon. A slew of articles, sidebars and graphs examine the commercial interests vying for access to the forest, the effect on the Amazon basin, and [...]

Salon (I’m digging their daily e-mail newsletter) has a great piece today on the science of love:
[Ian Kerner]: One trend I’ve noticed lately online is people being much more interested in people’s educational backgrounds.
[Helen Fisher]: Yeah, particularly men. Men didn’t care about women’s educational backgrounds in the past. Now they care.
Do they want women [...]

The Washington Post reports today on a number of studies that show the brain takes pleasure in being altruistic:
The results were showing that when the volunteers placed the interests of others before their own, the generosity activated a primitive part of the brain that usually lights up in response to food or sex. Altruism, the [...]

Yep, as I was saying yesterday, so much of what the Bush Administration does is for political gain. Sometimes, they also helps out their buddies in industry. Take, for example, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:
And at the center of it is one Julie A. MacDonald, appointed by Bush to be the deputy assistant secretary [...]

Well, for some reason our Web site doesn’t have the Friday edition online yet, but I did want to get you a copy of my story on Richardson’s veto of $945,000 for studies of the Gila and San Francisco rivers.
Here’s a PDF of the story.
Richardson’s explanation of the veto (the “appropriation language was problematic”) is [...]

The council reversed its early decision on the subject, with Councilors Gary Clauss, Thomas Nupp and Judy Ward casting “yea” votes, and Councilor Steve May dissenting. Last time, it was Clauss going it alone, in support of the resolution. Mayor James Marshall was spared from casting a tie-breaking vote when Ward – who had indicated [...]

The Silver City Town Council decided to stick their heads in the sand last night, voting down a resolution in support of the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement (you can view the resolution here). Gary Clauss was the only councilor to vote for the measure, though Mayor James Marshall presented it and sounded as though [...]

Heading into the weekend, I wanted to share this nugget of truth with you, courtesy of Mark Kleiman:
There are, however, at least two conservation measures that have, as far as I can tell, modest costs (and in one case huge side-benefits) and potentially substantial energy-saving potential. Both have to do with reducing the “heat island” [...]

1) Via Ezra, check this one paragraph describing the (lack of) moral implications of this research:
Embryonic Stem Cell lines come from material stored at fertility clinics which is already slated for destruction. Preventing these blastocysts from being used for research won’t ’save’ them. It simply means they’ll be disposed of in a medical waste facility [...]

I’m all set to blog, and not sure there’s anything crazy to mention. So, let’s go to the back up: Clay Bennett, and his take on stem cell funding:

Back with more later this morning (I promise).
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Some scientists in Arizona and California think so (via Think Progress):
The increase in the number of large western wildfires in recent years may be a result of global warming, researchers say.
An analysis of data going back to 1970 indicates the fires increased “suddenly and dramatically” in the 1980s and the wildfire season grew longer, according [...]

Or are they?
There are forecasters in the National Weather Service’s Albuquerque office who have never seen a really juicy monsoon.
You know the kind— towering late-afternoon knots of summertime purple over the mountains that roll down and cleanse the Rio Grande Valley, day after day.
The last time summer gave us that kind of blessing was 1999.
Sitting [...]