Real science rocks!

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/2007/2007043024882.html

NASA MODELS SHOW TREES CAN SLOW INCREASE OF ATMOSPHERIC CARBON

"Converting marginal agricultural land to forests may help slow the increase of carbon in the atmosphere, according to model-based results obtained by NASA scientists using space-based Earth observations and a state-of-the-art ecosystem model."

SNIP!

"When the research was analyzed, the top five states identified as having a high carbon storage potential by converting croplands to newly developed forests were Texas, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. The top five states with potential for converting rangelands or pastures were Texas, California, Montana, New Mexico and Colorado.

Research suggested that the southeast region of the United States has the most favorable conditions for afforestation due to its subtropical climate. In addition, model results suggested that large areas of croplands in South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin showed potential for carbon management and shouldn’t be underestimated."

I'm so proud of my home state!

I discovered this reading my conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/05/the_allspin_zon.html

Indiana University reports on the study:

http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/5535.html

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Bill O'Reilly may proclaim at the beginning of his program that viewers are entering the "No Spin Zone," but a new study by Indiana University media researchers found that the Fox News personality consistently paints certain people and groups as villains and others as victims to present the world, as he sees it, through political rhetoric.

The IU researchers found that O'Reilly called a person or a group a derogatory name once every 6.8 seconds, on average, or nearly nine times every minute during the editorials that open his program each night.

And -- the actual study:

http://journalism.indiana.edu/papers/oreilly.html

Anime Report -- the Nature of Faery

Naruto just gets sillier. This is W's popcorn amusement -- the 5 minutes of new material each time drives me nuts. Lost track of the new Inuyasha episodes.

First disk of Princess Tutu completed. This is beautiful art, and strange storytelling. I'd love to be watching this with a child, to see what kids get from it. Only annoying thing is the current preference for having characters drop into really embarrassing behavior by flattening and rounding out with XXX eyes and screeching. I find it a short cut to get the gag, as opposed to "Dave the Barbarian" when the physical humor changes each time to reflect the actual situation.

This a a dark tale, and therefore closer to true fairytales than most.

So -- are fairytales the fantasy genre of hundreds of years ago? They mean one thing to children, and another to adults who are also listening, at end of day?

Recipe: Chicken Curry in a Hurry...

One of the problems of my illness is that forces conspire to limit my recognition of time flow. I start something by, say, thawing fresh chicken breasts I had previously frozen, and then suddenly there's this raw meat and I have no idea what to do about it. So, it was time to seek some intuition.


( Curry in a hurry )

NOTE -- Do NOT add all the spice at any one point. This was my compromise with using pre-made curry powder. Spices added at the wrong point cause a recipe to turn out very odd -- or even inedible -- if you don't know what you're doing. For cheap spice advice, pick up this little gem. It's Bev Hale's old booklet she tossed together back when there were few books on Indo-Pak cooking. No pictures, no fancy publisher pages -- this was the equivalent of a mimeo back in the days. But just for starters, it contains the best chicken soup recipe in the world.

Buy it from Yard Dog Press -- it's cheaper and Bev actually gets a royalty. (Amazon means a ten cent royalty, but if you buy a chapbook from the publisher, it's a LOT more. And the publisher even gets paid!)