Cool Data Visualization Showing Where Greenhouse Gasses Originate

This is a really cool way to visualize complex connections in a compact, easy-to-read plot (via The Dish). I wonder if there's software to do this.

Full-size PDF here.

From MotherBoard:

Hope this is getting clearer: carbon is deeply entangled in every sector that runs our lives right now. Fighting this thorn-studded, planetary kudzu will mean hacking away at all of it. Obviously, that means killing coal-fired power plants, and replacing them with solar, wind, and/or nukes. But it means getting combustion engine cars off the road, too. And pivoting towards more sustainable agriculture. And stopping deforestation. And cracking down on power-draining houses. And.

A carbon-neutral, zero-waste city under construction in Abu Dhabi

On a related note, I watched a documentary on the architect Norman Foster last night on Netflix called How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster? What struck me is the scale of his undertakings, which now includes an entire city in Abu Dhabi, designed from scratch to be carbon-neutral and zero-waste. The first striking aspect of this project, after the enormity of the scale, is the fact that an oil-producing country has commissioned its construction. A country that has everything to gain through more fossil fuel usage recognizes the need to be carbon-neutral. Interesting. The other thing was a quote from Foster:

The tragedy that is given the urgency of the situation, given what is at stake which is literally our survival as a species, what I find inexplicable is that there is only one [of these cities]. If there were twenty urban experiments...one would be very critical and say Why only twenty? That is the shocking thing.

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A view from your shut down

The Daily Dish has been posting reader emails reporting on their " view from the shutdown ." If you think this doesn't affect you, or if you know all too well how bad this is, take a look at the growing collection of poignant stories. No one is in this alone except for the nutjobs in the House. I decided to email Andrew with my own view. I plan to send a similar letter to my congressperson. Dear Andrew, I am a professor of astronomy at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). The CfA houses one of the largest, if not the largest collection of PhD astronomers in the United States, with over 300 professional astronomers and roughly 100 doctoral and predoctoral students on a small campus a few blocks west of Harvard Yard. Under the umbrella of the CfA are about 20 Harvard astronomy professors, and 50 tenure-track Smithsonian researchers. A large fraction of the latter are civil servants currently on furlough and unable to come to work. In total, 147 FTEs

back-talk begins

me: "owen, come here. it's time to get a new diaper" him, sprinting down the hall with no pants on: "forget about it!" he's quoting benny the rabbit, a short-lived sesame street character who happens to be in his favorite "count with me" video. i'm turning my head, trying not to let him see me laugh, because his use and tone with the phrase are so spot-on.

The Long Con

Hiding in Plain Sight ESPN has a series of sports documentaries called 30 For 30. One of my favorites is called Broke which is about how professional athletes often make tens of millions of dollars in their careers yet retire with nothing. One of the major "leaks" turns out to be con artists, who lure athletes into elaborate real estate schemes or business ventures. This naturally raises the question: In a tightly-knit social structure that is a sports team, how can con artists operate so effectively and extensively? The answer is quite simple: very few people taken in by con artists ever tell anyone what happened. Thus, con artists can operate out in the open with little fear of consequences because they are shielded by the collective silence of their victims. I can empathize with this. I've lost money in two different con schemes. One was when I was in college, and I received a phone call that I had won an all-expenses-paid trip to the Bahamas. All I needed to d

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