Climate Fluctuations 115,000 Years Ago: Were Short Warm Periods Typical for Transitions to Glacial Epochs? 09/03/2010
Posted by fishsnorkel in Uncategorized.add a comment
At the end of the last interglacial epoch, around 115,000 years ago, there were significant climate fluctuations. In Central and Eastern Europe, the slow transition from the Eemian Interglacial to the Weichselian Glacial was marked by a growing instability in vegetation trends with possibly at least two warming events. This is the finding of German and Russian climate researchers who have evaluated geochemical and pollen analyses of lake sediments in Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Russia.
Writing in Quaternary International, scientists from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), the Saxon Academy of Sciences (SAW) in Leipzig and the Russian Academy of Sciences say that (more…)
Building with treacle; or, the physics of civilisation 09/03/2010
Posted by fishsnorkel in Philosophy, Sustainability.Tags: sustainable, population growth, Sustainability, eco, peak oil, economic, growth, green, economy, collapse, peak wood, destiny, hubbert's pimple, civilisation, resilience, efficiency, inefficiency, roman, empire, entropy, second law of thermodynamics
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Try to imagine, if you can, trying to build a small pyramid on your kitchen table using nothing but treacle. It wouldn’t be easy that’s for sure, but if you had enough help and enough motivation you could heap the treacle into a kind of pyramid thing and achieve the desired objective.
Would it last indefinitely though?
Of course it wouldn’t, and it wouldn’t because of the second law of thermodynamics:
“The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of (more…)
“…[Matthew] Watkinson is an idiot” and other angry remarks 05/03/2010
Posted by fishsnorkel in All animals are equal but..., DEATH vs. EXTINCTION, Homo sappiness, Species Splitting, Sympathy not required, THE DESTINY OF SPECIES, THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, What is a species?, conservation madness.Tags: CHARLES DARWIN, chickens, darwin, death, evolution, extinction, hypocrisy, illogical, logic, logical, malthus, matthew watkinson, natural selection, on the destiny of species, patrick burns, review, species, terrierman, terrierman blogspot, THE DESTINY OF SPECIES, THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, whales
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I have just read a review of On the Destiny of Species by Terrierman, or Patrick Burns as he is more conventionally known. Here’s a fairly representative summary:
“…[Matthew] Watkinson is an idiot.”
I am obliged to point out that Patrick got really upset with me when I disagreed with him about the mathematical foundations of Malthusian population principles (Patrick thinks this is nonsense):
“Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio. A slight acquaintance with numbers will shew the immensity of the first power in comparison of the second.” – Thomas Malthus
And that it’s definitely worth noting Patrick’s reaction to the book before he lost his temper:
“I found your book through your nwespaper article on veterinary tactics (blogged that!) and I am about 95 pages into it. It is well written, well documented, and well thought, with good things to say. I will write a full review when I finish it (probably next week), but I think you will be pleased.”
But apart from the fact that his post-disagreement review may involve a significant amount of…well, spite… (more…)
Unsurprisingly, vets aren’t in favour of an exotic pet ban 04/03/2010
Posted by fishsnorkel in Veterinary Medicine, compassionate torture, welfare.Tags: exotics, Holly House Exotic Animal Clinic, medicine, Neil Forbes, pet ban, pet trade, PETA, pets, RCVS, species, Steve Smith, stuart mcarthur, veterinary times, vets
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I note, with a complete lack of surprise I might add, that the veterinary profession doesn’t want the sale of exotic pets banned in this country. Well, they have just built a specialist training center for exotic animal disease specialists…
“Quick to recognise a trend and opportunity in veterinary practice, the Dick Vet [school at the University of Edinburgh] has established the first European-accredited center for reptile [and other exotic species] veterinary training.” – Nick Henderson MRCVS.
…and Stuart McArthur, founder of the Holly House Exotic Animal Clinic in Leeds, has just urged everybody to get involved… (more…)
Digging through water 03/03/2010
Posted by fishsnorkel in Sustainability, conservation madness.Tags: biodiversity, conservation, control, eco, environment, green, growth, killing the planet, population, save the world, saving the planet
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I have been thinking about the continuing population explosion and the fact that, according to conservationists, “now” has been the time to act for at least half a century, and, after much thought, I have come to the following conclusion:
Conservation without population control is like digging a hole in the ocean.
Actually no, it’s worse than that, because if conservationists were just digging a hole in a static ocean their efforts would be completely pointless in the absence of a growing problem, which is very different from (more…)
Evolution explained: South Park style 01/03/2010
Posted by fishsnorkel in it's not all bad, smile.Tags: creationists, evolution, south park
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“If you’re too busy to laugh, you’re too busy.”- Anon
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See also: The genius that is Rowan Atkinson:
The BCVA defends the welfare of dairy cows 01/03/2010
Posted by fishsnorkel in Veterinary Medicine, compassionate torture, welfare.Tags: bcva, british cattle veterinary assocation, cattle, cow, cows, dairy, lameness, mastitis, suffering, veterinary, vets, welfare
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I stumbled across a flyer for the British Cattle Veterinary Association’s (BCVA) winter meeting (11/2/2010) the other day that makes a pretty bold claim about the standard of care enjoyed by the british dairy herd at the moment. However, before I share this claim, I think it’s worth providing a few conclusions from sources that aren’t desperate to tell dairy vets and dairy farmers that they’re doing a wonderful job (either the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) or the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)): (more…)
Regression to the mean and the insanity of “magical thinking” 28/02/2010
Posted by fishsnorkel in Veterinary Medicine.Tags: Blythwood Veterinary Group, blythwood vets, bradley viner, correlation, magical thinking, regression to the mean
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After thirty two years in practice, during which time he has established the Blythwood Veterinary Group, been a Blue Peter vet, written a wide range of books, become Vice-President of the Feline Advisory Bureau, a trustee of Batersea Dogs and Cats Home, visiting lecturer to Nottingham and London veterinary schools, tutor and assessor for vets studying for postgraduate qualifications in general veterinary practice and an elected member of the Council of the veterinary profession’s governing body, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, it would appear that Bradley Viner BVetMed Dprof MSc(Vet GP) MRVCS has only just realised that a lot of sick animals get better whether the veterinary profession is involved or not:
“The pattern has been clear year after year: when the snow lies on the ground, our takings plummet. But here is the strange bit: once the snow thaws, we never make up what we lost…What happens to all the sick pets when it snows? I can think of only two scenarios to explain the loss in turnover. The first is (more…)
Thomas Malthus on cannibalism in New Zealand 27/02/2010
Posted by fishsnorkel in In the words of Thomas Malthus.Tags: cannibalism, malthus, new zealand, thomas. an essay on the principles of population
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“With the large island of New Zealand we are better acquainted; but not in a manner to give us a favourable impression of the state of society among its inhabitants. The picture of it, drawn by Captain Cook in his three different Voyages, contains some of the darkest shades that are any where to be met with in the history of human nature. The state of perpetual hostility, in which the different tribes of these people live with each other, seems to be even more striking than among the savages of any part of America; and their custom of eating human flesh, and even their relish for that (more…)
An apology to the RCVS 27/02/2010
Posted by fishsnorkel in Veterinary Medicine.Tags: Bob partridge, medicine, RCVS, regulation, self-regulation, veterinary, vets
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I have many problems with the RCVS, but I hadn’t previously realised how uncomfortable they are with the current system:
“The RCVS argues that the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 has not kept up to date with changes in the profession. It has proposed changes to the structure of the Council of the RCVS and to its disciplinary procedure which it believes would bring the regulation of the veterinary profession into line with the modernisation of the regulatory arrangements of the human health professions in recent years.” – Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.
Or that their attempts to address this issue are being sabotaged by (more…)
