The #IgNobel awards have been announced

This entry was posted in Entertainment Humor People science and tagged 2016 awards IgNobel on by

This year’s Ig Nobel awards have been announced. No, not Nobel, but Ig Nobel, because these are spoof awards, but the research that gets an Ig Nobel is wholly real. The fact that the scientific community is prepared to both mock and laugh at itself is indeed both praiseworthy and truly entertaining as well. To qualify for an Ig Nobel you basically need to have conducted and published something that leaves everybody else thinking WTF! They do this properly with a […]

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Huge leap forward for Paris agreement on Climate Change

This entry was posted in Climate Change science and tagged Climate Change Paris Agreement on by

Last Wednesday, 21st Sept, the ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change leapt boldly towards coming into force. We are not quite there yet, but it is a lot closer. I was blogging about this a few days ago, and so this was something I did anticipate. At the time the expectation was that another 20 nations would confirm that they had bound themselves within their legal frameworks to adhering to the Paris Agreement, and so those 20 would, when added […]

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UKIP MP Claims: “Experts are wrong about the moon causing ocean tides”

This entry was posted in astronomy nutters People politics science and tagged #Brexit Douglas Carswell moon UKIP on by

Within the UK there is a political party known as UKIP (or UK Independence Party). It has developed a bit of a reputation over the years as a bastion of some rather odd ideas and so this is all about the latest example of such weirdness. A previous and rather famous example was David Silvester, a Ukip councillor for Henley-on-Thames, who became rather famous when  he blamed storms and floods on the legalisation of gay marriage (No really, he did). So this latest example, which is clearly […]

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#Arctic melt season is probably over, how did it go this year?

This entry was posted in Climate Change science and tagged 2016 Arctic ice measurements NSIDC sea ice extent on by

The above diagram says it all really, 2016 was the second lowest on record. It was not and is not a typical year by any measure because globally each and every single month has broken all previous records for that month and so it comes as no great surprise to observe that the Arctic ice melt is well below the average, but not as low as that most astonishing of melt years, 2012. Looking back across each and every year, […]

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California extends most ambitious climate change law in US

This entry was posted in Climate Change politics science and tagged California Climate Change law on by

About ten years ago back in 2006 the state of California took the very bold step of passing legislation that was designed to slash their greenhouse emissions. This was Assembly Bill (AB) 32- California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 and was passed with the aim of establishing a comprehensive program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from all sources throughout the state. It has been a huge disaster and has decimated the statewide economy … oh wait, no it hasn’t. The California Air Resources Board (CARB or ARB) advises that it […]

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How Saudi Arabia successfully blackmailed the UN

This entry was posted in Activism politics and tagged Ban Ki-Moon human rights Saudi Arabia UN on by

This is a story from last June, so it is not a new event. I would however like to highlight it because it is an important issue, and I’m also prompted to write about it because right now the 71st Session of the UN General Assembly is taking place. Back last June Ban Ki-Moon stood up before the press to explain why he had removed Saudi Arabia from its annual UN register of children’s rights violators. In his own words, the step to […]

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