Has Al Gore almost single-handedly awakened the American industrial giant to the opportunities involved in protecting the environment? According to this Editorial from Germany’s Financial Times Deutschland, ‘In the not-too-distant-future, the United States will be a superpower in preventing carbon dioxide emissions. Al Gore has set this movement in motion.’ By Timm Kragenow Translated By Ulf...

RJ Matson, Roll Call UPDATE: Also of interest: Paul Krugman on Gore Derangement Syndrome

As an impressionable fourth grader at the height of the Cold War, the faint sound that was broadcast via Radio Moscow on October 4, 1957 might has well been the shot heard around the world: Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep. Indeed, the sound from the radio transmitters aboard tiny Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, did herald enormous changes. It shocked a complacent U.S. into a paranoia-tinged space race with...

IUPUI study finds dandelions grow stronger with global warming A new study reported in the current issue of Weed Science reveals that rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels will drive dandelions to grow taller, stronger and more productive. Unless you love dandelions, this is not a good thing.

Russia has reportedly tested the most powerful “vacuum” bomb in the world — a bomb that reportedly equals a nuclear bomb…and most assuredly will scare cats: “Test results of the new airborne weapon have shown that its efficiency and power is commensurate with a nuclear weapon,” Alexander Rukshin, deputy head of Russia’s armed force chief of staff, told Russia’s...

I have often wondered if there wasn’t a physiological difference between those on the Left and those on the Right. Apparently there is, according to the Los Angeles Times: Exploring the neurobiology of politics, scientists have found that liberals tolerate ambiguity and conflict better than conservatives because of how their brains work. In a simple experiment reported today in the journal...

This is very, very interesting; In 2004, history professor Naomi Oreskes performed a survey of research papers on climate change. Examining peer-reviewed papers published on the ISI Web of Science database from 1993 to 2003, she found a majority supported the “consensus view,” defined as humans were having at least some effect on global climate change. Oreskes’ work has been repeatedly cited,...

NOTE: The Moderate Voice runs Guest Voice posts from time to time by readers who don’t have their own websites, or people who have websites but would like to post something for TMV’s diverse and thoughtful readership. Guest Voice posts do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Moderate Voice or its writers. This Guest Voice is by J. Thomas Andrews, who lives in the Northeast. He writes that...

A recent study by Tufts University’s Samuel Sommers concludes that yes, they do–and that the performance boost is shared by both White and Black jurors. Heterogeneous juries outperformed their homogeneous peers on a variety of different metrics, including time spent deliberating, number of facts considered, number of factual inaccuracies stated, number of stated factual inaccuracies corrected, and...

Turn off the stove. Turn off the TV. Take a blanket. Go outdoors. Walk to the place you can see the sky with the least amount of city light. Lie on the ground. Look up into the darkest part of the sky. Tonight you will see as many as 60 meteors an hour flash through the night sky. The old people in my family, say this is the Sky Smithy hammering on the iron anvil. She is shaping raw silver buckles for the saddle...

Details at Tech Blog HERE.

Brian Fairrington, Cagle Cartoons

RJ Matson, The St. Louis Post Dispatch

Jeff Parker, Florida Today

Maybe Jeff Jacoby thought we couldn’t tell who this was about from the very first sentence. I will point out that more than 3 centuries have passed since Newton’s appointment. Jeff Jacoby: A teacher with faith and reason DID YOU hear about the religious fundamentalist who wanted to teach physics at Cambridge University? This would-be instructor wasn’t simply a Christian; he was so preoccupied...

Do you think those little green men miss us?

Yet another piece has emerged to fill out a pattern that has emerged about the Bush administration: Former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona told a Congressional panel Tuesday that top Bush administration officials repeatedly tried to weaken or suppress important public health reports because of political considerations. Note the words “public health” — so this should have been something that...

Deng Coy Miel, Singapore

For those overdosed on politics, or those who want to use their minds for more than just political gymastics GO HERE to read a special exclusive interview: Daniel Clement Dennett (born March 28 1942 in Boston, Massachusetts), is a prominent American philosopher. Dennett’s research centers on philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary...

Bob Englehart, The Hartford Courant

Did you ever think your purring cat wouldn’t love you so much if you didn’t fill her bowl every morning? It that happened, you could say it runs in the family: a major new study published today in the journal of Science says that the ancestors of today’s domestic cats came to and bonded with humans for f-o-o-d — unlike other animals such as dogs: Your hunch is correct. Your cat decided...

A new study out of Israel suggests that raising children in diverse surroundings can almost completely mitigate own-face racial bias and preference.

After Morse v. Fredrick, we have no right to complain about educational performance in our country again. Treat students like idiots, and idiots you will receive. Oh, and ask me about the intellectual abilities of the Supreme Court Justices who have turned the war on drugs into a constitutional super-amendment while we weren’t looking.

Mike Wolverton, Cagle Cartoons

Larry Wright, The Detroit News