Friday, June 15, 2012

A Taxidermied Cat-being That’s Been Turned Into a Helicopter

Interesting stuff:
  • Via Keith Kloor, a Guardian story on a study finding that GM crops are good for the environment:
    Bt cotton is one type and now makes up 95% of China's vast plantations. Since its introduction in 1997, pesticide use has halved and the study showed this led to a doubling of natural insect predators such as ladybirds, lacewings and spiders. These killed pests not targeted by the Bt cotton, in cotton fields, but also in conventional corn, soybean and peanut fields.
    Keith writes on Twitter: "I'm shocked--shocked!--that @grist has ignored this story."

  • an interview with Bob Reiss, author of The Eskimo and the Oil Man.
  • There is the possibility of seeing the aurora tonight in the northern US and southern Canada. I like this additional note: "The nights are too bright to see the aurora in northern Canada, Alaska, Russia and Scandinavia."

  • This post's title is just an experiment.


2 comments:

Chris_Winter said...

I just finished reading Merchants of Despair by Robert Zubrin. It's bullish on GM crops and makes Bt cotton sound like a pretty great thing. What I've seen from various sources is persuasive evidence that GMO are on balance a good thing.

I have mixed feelings about Zubrin's book, though. It would take more space than I have here to describe it fully.

David Appell said...

Chris, if you write a review of Zubrin's book, let me know. Last year I read his "How to Live on Mars," and while I had mixed feelings about it then (especially his Heinlein schtick), I still remember it often. I like the way he thinks about problems....