Dr. Todd debates world-renown global warming denier, Roy Spencer on WBGU radio talk show
UPDATED! In my first radio broadcast, and my first scientific debate, I went head-to-head with Roy Spencer, a famous global warming denier on the radio show Political Animals. You can listen to the show here. I debate Roy Spencer for about 30 minutes. Then I am on for another hour with the hosts and callers.
Update: You don't need to skip the first 25 minutes -- I cut it to jump right in to my part.
My kids rule!
My kids are awesome. There's no doubt about it. We've been celebrating Hanukah early today, eating latkes (potato pancakes), playing dreidel, and eating sweets.
Why are they so cool? First, we were gambling for real money in our dreidel game and both kids declared that all of the pennies they won would go to charity. So, they traded in all of their "silver" for copper any chance they got and tried and tried to get as many pennies as possible. What philanthropes.
Secondly, after eating four, yes FOUR dark chocolate M&Ms, and then starting on a Dum Dum (lollipop), Noah promptly declared that he had had too much candy already and threw most of his lollipop out.
What did they spend most of the day doing? Working together to clean up the playroom and then building a giant Lego city with houses, cars, police stations, stores, and more, that they had each built.
They play so sweetly together and are the best kids I've ever known.
Cleanest cars on American roads
According to Forbes, the least polluting cars on our roads today are, starting with the cleanest of all:
- Toyota Prius Hybrid
- Honda Civic Hybrid
- Nissan Altima Hybrid
- Ford Escape Hybrid
- Toyota Camry Hybrid
- Honda Civic CNG
- Chevrolet Cobalt
- Mazda 3
- Nissan Altima
- Pontiac G5
- Kia Spectra
- Hyundai Elantra
- Ford Focus
Not surprisingly, there aren't many American cars on the list.
The dirtiest cars on American roads
According to Forbes, the worst polluting cars on our roads today are, starting with the dirtiest of all:
- Volkswagen Touareg
- Saab 9-7X
- Mercedes-Benz GL320 CDI 4Matic
- Jeep Commander
- Chevrolet Trailblazer
- Ford F150
- Mercedes-Benz R320 CDI 4Matic
- Jeep Grand Cherokee
- Dodge Ram 1500
- Chrysler Aspen
- Dodge Dakota
- Dodge Durango
Notice that half of the cars are built by Chrysler. Forbes' methods may be questionable, but the list is at least a starting point. In the next few days, I'll try to follow this story up with the cleanest cars on the road and then cars that are due out that we should be watching for.
Day before election, Obama with strong electoral lead
According to RealClearPolitics.com, Barack Obama maintains a strong lead in the Electoral Vote (270 electoral votes needed to win), but anything can happen on election day.
What are your predictions?
"Just a Couple of Days" author is back with "Nine Kinds of Naked"
Many of you who know me well know that I consider Just a Couple of Days among my very favorite books. I can read this over and over again and pick up new clever expressions, amazing language construction, new vocabulary that I wish was part of my repertoire, laugh my chops off again, and marvel at the skills and patience of an author, Tony Vigorito, that is capable of carefully selecting each and every word of his novel with complete intention and forethought.
My only complaint about Vigorito is that he has been recently silent (other than his blog on MySpace).
That is until yesterday. According to Amazon.com, Vigorito's latest book, Nine Kinds of Naked is in stock! Since I had pre-ordered it months ago, my copy shipped yesterday. I can't wait to get my hungry paws on this new bit of literary genius. You can read excerpts and reviews of both of his books at tonyvigorito.com.
Stay tuned for a detailed review coming soon.
Stewart on the coverage of Palin -- definitely worth watching
Is the way the are treating Sarah Palin sexist? Should teen pregnancy be a personal and private issue? Who is to blame? Is a Governor and former mayor of a small town qualified for the vice presidency? Watch and see:
IBM giving Mac laptops to some employees
Chalk this one up under "Yet another funny Mac vs. PC story".
I find it hilarious and a bit ironic that we used to refer to PCs by the brand-name "IBM", just as some of us call tissues "Kleenex". Now, in a bold move, IBM is offering some of its employees Mac laptops or PCs running Linux in a break from the all-Windows environment that I still suffer from in my Department. About 100 IBM employees are now taking advantage of this program.
"Of the 22 testers who provided feedback, 18 said that compared with their previous computers, the Mac notebooks offered a "better or best experience," one said it was "equal or good," and three said the Apple machine provided a "worse experience," according to Dilger. Fully 19 of the participants chose to keep the MacBook Pro and use VMware virtualization technology to run Windows when needed."
BMW designs shape-shifting car with cloth skin
BMW is working on a new concept called GINA (Geometry and function In N-Arrangements). Check out the new concept car:
Global Warming presentation (updated)
Updated 6-Feb-08. I frequently give talks on climate change and am often asked to share my presentation. Here is a recent one for download and use. If you use it, please let me know. Choose the appropriate format and spread the word about global climate change.
The talks are really intended for me to present, so there is very little text. I've tried to add some notes and references to help you. Contact me if you have any questions.
- PowerPoint 2008: Global Warming Talk Updated 6-Feb-08.
- Older versions of PowerPoint: Download
The files are zipped and approximately 30 MB in size, each.
