(Edited) Video here – my apologies for the autoplay nuisance.
From Marquis Downs To Mongol Derby
Sophia Mangalee’s big adventure;
The Mongol Derby, a 1,000 km (about 600 miles) horse race across the wilderness of the Mongolian steppe is described on its website as “the longest, toughest horse race in the world.”
While Mangalee has been riding horses the majority of her life, she will have to get accustomed to the semi-wild Mongolian horses on which she will be traveling during her 10-day journey, which begins Aug. 6.
Mongolian horses are a tough breed which range in size from 12 to 14 hands and wander the immense steppe year-round in extreme temperatures. In addition to the challenge of riding foreign horses, Mangalee will have to overcome the obstacle of getting used to 30-35 horses over the course of her trip.
She leaves today – good luck, Sophia!
Sophia’s blog
Restoring Science To Its Rightful Place
For management programs to successfully restore imperiled ecosystems and sustain diverse wildlife species, they require the cooperation of local communities. If communities do not see the relevance of these programs, they are at risk of failure. This reality does not hinge on a philosophical debate about whether achieving diversity is the “right” thing to do; it is simply the smart thing to do. In order to save America’s biodiversity, conservation biologists must embrace the country’s human diversity, which is increasing even faster than the human population. Since 1980, the US diversity index—the probability that two people chosen at random would be of a different race and ethnicity on a 0-100 scale—has nearly doubled, increasing from 34 to 65.
One of the most effective ways to communicate the importance of these issues and challenges is for scientists and managers themselves to become more representative of the populations they serve. In addition to promoting greater understanding and acceptance of management initiatives and policies, ethnic diversity in the ranks of the conservation community could also garner greater financial support, as the connection between conservation and natural resources as valuable commodities is made more evident.
Reader Tips
The CBC hasn’t always relied on American TV to flesh out their programming. This evening we present les blast from de past: Thierry la Fronde. Your tips dans les comments.
Voting Out Obama
Charles Krauthammer has put forth an interesting strategy about getting Obama out of office next year. Well worth a read!
Paycheck Protection
Without getting bogged down in labour law minutiae, this gifts huge resources to public sector unions to support the NDP and promote policies that expand/protect the unionized government workforce even if the dues-paying member objects. Hence the CUPE billboard campaigns for higher taxes in Saskatchewan and the smear campaign against Manitoba Hydro privatization. The constant demonization of privatization, contracting out, and more diverse education and healthcare systems involving private alternatives is funded by this mother lode of resources extracted from mandatory union dues. Workers are not protected from having their money allocated to parties or causes they oppose.
This forced funding of political causes will likely come to an end beginning later this year. Here’s why.
The World Is Being Run By Crazy People
Nancy Pelosi – “What we’re trying to do is save the world from the Republican budget. We’re trying to save life on this planet as we know it today.”
Ethical Oil
Reader Tips
In tonight’s Tippity amusement, my last until August 8th, Italian actor Ernesto Calindri does his level best to pull off a song and dance number in a televised performance of Ventiquattromila Baci (Twenty-four Thousand Kisses).
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
Lingensplicer – Redux
Blog Notes
The amount of time Kate puts into this blog is astounding and the effort the guest and regular bloggers do while she is away is equally admirable.
This summer she is campaigning a very good dog, best Mini Schnauzer bitch in the US at the moment (Breed standard). Given the success of Venus and the requirement to keep ahead of the competition Kate has been and will be away a lot this summer.
Recently, SDA has suffered from a plethora of trolls, such a pox that it has become difficult for the guest bloggers to keep up. They are volunteers with lives of their own and it shouldn’t be on their shoulders to keep deleting the ‘N’s and others. The standard fare this year seems to be starting off reasonable and degenerating into the lefts worst nightmare. Some sort of proof device, I gather. Please do your best to ignore these fools.
For my part, I will be much more diligent than I have been in the past and there will be no mercy. IP ban and deletion of all comments. That’s for whomever I or the guest bloggers decide is a troll.
For everyone else, please keep your comments on topic and related to the post at hand. If you feel that you’ve been arguing a point five times…well, you probably have. Stop doing that, please. As the comment note says, “Take your extended debates and/or flamewars to private email.”
Thank you all for your participation in SDA, it wouldn’t be the best site on the ‘net without you.
Cheers,
lance
Oh, Go Riders!
The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire
From April 2011…
Related;
Some people compare our current political turn, including the growth of the Tea Party, to the American Revolution. A far better comparison is with the French Revolution. Our ancien régime is tax-and-spend Washington, which Franklin D Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and a host of lesser Sun Kings built and which the current dauphin Barack Obama wants to sustain. A corrupt bloated French monarchy sustained itself on the lie of divine right of kings, which made the king’s will law. Our Versailles sustains itself on a lie called baseline budgeting.
Y2Kyoto: This Is Awkward
A federal wildlife biologist whose observation in 2004 of presumably drowned polar bears in the Arctic helped to galvanize the global warming movement has been placed on administrative leave and is being investigated for scientific misconduct, possibly over the veracity of that article.
And then there’s that problem with the sheep…
The Sound Of Settled Science
New NASA Data Blow Gaping Hold In Global Warming Alarmism;
NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth’s atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist computer models have predicted, reports a new study in the peer-reviewed science journal Remote Sensing. The study indicates far less future global warming will occur than United Nations computer models have predicted, and supports prior studies indicating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide trap far less heat than alarmists have claimed.
Study co-author Dr. Roy Spencer, a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and U.S. Science Team Leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer flying on NASA’s Aqua satellite, reports that real-world data from NASA’s Terra satellite contradict multiple assumptions fed into alarmist computer models.
[…]
The new findings are extremely important and should dramatically alter the global warming debate.
Or they could, if the purpose of the debate were actually science, and not wealth transfer.
Pat Condell
Reader Tips
In a 2009 poll of musicologists, composers, and music industry insiders, not a single respondent considered tonight’s song to be a precursor to punk rock, but over ninety-eight percent of them admitted that Twenty Tiny Fingers is “bouncy.”
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
New NATO Ultimatum
I Blame Jyllands-Posten
Things You’ll Never See On The CBC
Y2Kyoto: State Of Aneroxia Envirosa
The EPA’s new standards are currently under review by the Office of Management and Budget but could end up on the president’s desk in the next few days. If implemented, they would reduce the existing 0.075 parts per million (ppm) ozone standard under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards program to 0.070 ppm or even 0.60 ppm.
This will mean that up to 85% of the counties currently monitored by the EPA would fall into “nonattainment” status, exceeding the air-quality ozone standards and triggering a cascade of federal and state controls.
The EPA estimates these new standards could cost business anywhere from $20 billion to $90 billion annually. New or expanding companies would be required to obtain emission offsets and install controls. Existing businesses would face expensive new retrofit requirements just to keep operating as they have for years.
Because of the children.