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A small band of pioneers is exploring the neurology of religious experience

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I’m no scientist, but I have some severe doubts about the science behind this movement; planting trees to compensate for our carbon dioxide output. Basically, the idea is that we can’t get rid of producing carbon dioxide, but trees can. So, in order to compensate for our output, we plant trees which can clean up that CO2.

Here’s my problem with this. I did a calculation for how many trees I’d need to plant in order to remove the CO2 produced on a flight from Grand Rapids, MI to Baltimore. The site says I’d need to plany one tree (at a cost of $11 and change, which they can conveiniently collect right now since I asked). I’m pretty sure a tree isn’t going to clean up the 600+ pounds of CO2 produced by that flight in, say, the same time it took to produce that CO2. So really, to have a zero sum, I’d need to plant something on the lines of acres of trees.

Michigan State University’s Center for Integrative Toxicology, says this:

It is estimated that an acre of trees uses four and a half tons of CO2 a year

Doing some real quick math, that’s about 25 pounds a day per acre.

Something smells funny…

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This is a weird story on the NYT. Book sellers (such as Border’s) are beginning to offer publishing kits.

“It’s easy to publish your own book!” the “Borders Personal Publishing” leaflets proclaim. Pay $4.99. Take home a kit. Send in your manuscript and $199. A month or so later, presto. Ten paperback copies of your novel, memoir or cookbook arrive.

I’m a product of the “I have a novel in me somewhere” generation, but this just seems like the cheaters way out. Plus, this doesn’t get you promotion, just publication. An interesting idea though.

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I need to get back into anime. Check out the trailer for this one, called Appleseed.

Thanks to the Slashdot nerds for a BitTorrent link. Well worth the wait for this.

…goes to: Reuter’s Health section.

Fitter men carry less weight around belly: study

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I couldn’t resist doing this….

From Slashdot:

Wired has up a story about HP, as part of a larger drive to figure out how ideas ideas (sic) ‘infect’ large groups of people, scientifically proving what most people already knew: bloggers steal their ideas from other bloggers.

The article links to the HP Blog Epidemic Analyzer (I swear that’s what they called it).

From the Wired article:

…the researchers have discovered that authors of popular blog sites regularly borrow topics from lesser-known bloggers — and they often do so without attribution.

So, my posting of this “meme” (or whatever they call it now) is officially a contributory element in an epidemic of blog posts. Does this make me part of the problem, because all of my links are attributed. I’m also reversing the trend by being an almost-non-existent blog linking to huge blogs.

At some really geeky level, it’s really funny. Well, to me anyway.

Dr. Donald E. Simanek, Professor of Physics at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania is one smart guy. Plus he really likes to debunk (in great detail) myths of science and physics.

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Song’s not that great, but this video is awesome!

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Ted Waitt, CEO of Gateway (as in computers) is apparently one stand-up guy. Now, he’s been well compensated in the past I’m sure, so his reduction in pay is likely a large symbolic gesture. But how many other CEOs do you know that made less annually than a moderately-priced computer?

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It happened today. No hard numbers yet, but so far three people (in our group of 11) have been let go… the people I hear about leaving are very surprising.

This should be a productive day.

UPDATE: Not official, but estimates are 60 locally and an additional 42 in the field.

UPDATE: It’s official; 118 with a threat of more to come in the spring. Most cuts were in DI, Postal, Manufacturing and Software Engineering.