Dear Michelle Bachman (R-MN) and Joe Barton (R-TX): CO₂ is indeed toxic. If you don’t believe me, please find out about how, in 1986, the CO₂ disolved in Lake Nyos in Africa rapidly escaped, killing 1,700 people and 3,500 head of livestock.

You people are stupid. Do you realize how idiotic you look to the rest of America? We all know intuitively, and learned in grade-school science class, that CO₂ is exhaled by animals as waste, and it is not good for you in large quantities. Did you see that link above? CO₂ at just 8% of atmospheric gas will cause unconsciousness. None of this takes into account the greenhouse effect of excessive levels of CO₂.

Remember that if CO₂ is not toxic, putting a bag over your head and leaving it there won’t kill you. I’ll wait while the two of you try that.

What’s in a name? Maybe a criminal future. (MSNBC)

People, please, think first before cursing your baby with a ghetto name. Or name him Adolf Hitler.

I had a thought: instead of just telling you to go read someone else’s blog, I could at least post links to relief agencies supporting the victims of the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. These relief agencies are but a few of those providing aid to those affected by the earthquake and tsunami. For more information about each, visit the agency’s web site or call. My three favorite charities are listed first.

Also, please give a monetary donation rather than collecting food, clothing, water, or medicines. Aid agencies can do more with financial contributions, rather than trying to find ways to ship all that stuff over to affected areas. Read the Center for International Disaster Information Donations Guidelines for more information.

CARE USA
www.careusa.org

Latter-Day Saint Humanitarian Services
800-453-3860 ext. 26060
www.lds.org/humanitarian

American Red Cross
1-800-435-7669
www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html

Adventist Development and Relief Agency International
1-800-424-ADRA
www.adra.org

American Jewish World Service
212-736-2597
www.ajws.org

Baptist World Aid
703-790-8980
www.bwanet.org/bwaid

B’nai B’rith Disaster Relief Fund
212-490-3290
www.bnaibrith.org

Catholic Relief Services
877-HELP-CRS
www.catholicrelief.org

Christian Children’s Fund
800-776-6767
www.ChristianChildrensFund.org

Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières
1-888-392-0392
www.doctorswithoutborders.org

Episcopal Relief and Development
800-334-7626, ext. 5129
www.er-d.org

Habitat for Humanity International
229-924-6935
www.habitat.org

Lutheran World Relief
1-800-LWR-LWR-2
www.lwr.org

Oxfam America
800-77-OXFAM
www.oxfamamerica.org

Save the Children USA
1-800-728-3843
www.savethechildren.org

Star of Hope
giving.christianity.com/donatenow/starofhope

USAID
The United States Agency for International Development
www.usaid.gov

UNICEF
800-4-UNICEF
www.unicefusa.org

Amazon.com
You can donate to the American Red cross using your Amazon account.
www.amazon.com

This list compiled from sites included on USAID’s site and the Wikipedia Donations Entry.

ABC News is reporting that school officials from Cobb County, Georgia, are going to court to defend their requirement that school textbooks warn students evolution is “a theory, not a fact.”

Maybe those bozos should go jump off a very tall building and test the theory of gravity.

See my previous entry, Not Just In Kansas Anymore.

CNN, Wired News, and others are reporting on the FDA’s approval of a device from Cyberkinetics that could help people with debilitating neurological diseases and paralysis.

By monitoring brain waves, and with researchers working with patients to determine exactly what the brain is trying to signal, patients’ brains can learn to control something as simple as a cursor on a computer screen or as complex as a robotic arm. The trial continues research done with rhesus monkeys that allowed a monkey to control a robotic arm using a similar implant.

This is not the only human-electronic interface project in the works. MIT research has spawned an organization, The Boston Retinal Implant Project, that hopes to help people with certain types of blindness see again. The project hopes to build a device that uses a glasses-mounted camera to transmit video to an implant on the retina that directly stimulates the nerves of the retina. The implant would help people with vision loss caused by macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.

While the potential to help the disabled is great, one cannot help but wonder how such technology, especially non-invasive variants, will impact future humans. Are we on the way to becoming truly cybernetic organisms? Will we one day inhabit robotic bodies, with enhanced vision spanning the electromagnetic spectrum?

The concept is at once exciting and terrifying. Imagine looking up at the sky with microwave-sensitive eyes, and seeing communications satellites orbiting earth (or weird colors dancing around cell phone towers!). Imagine being able to travel in extreme enviroments, maybe even remotely via a long-distance interface.

Yeah, that pretty much sums up how this Okefenokee-lover feels. Read more at Sherpa Guides.

University of Bristol (UK) Physics Department artist-in-residence Richard Box has created his latest site installation, called Field, beneath high-voltage power lines in Wales. A few thousand fluorescent tubes standing vertically beneath the lines are lit by the electromagnetic emissions of the power lines above. The installation is also interactive — since people are better conductors, the proximity of viewers to the tubes varies their brightness.

In addition to art and physics, this work reveals some of the environmental impact of high-voltage lines, whose effects on humans and the environment are still being debated.

Via Slashdot.