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Tuesday, December 15, 2009
TWiSmas Extendo-Rama!!!And, Ali, our trusted intern, is on winter break. So, I apologize, but the show notes will be weak as a result. IF someone would like to write some show notes for us, I will be more than happy to use them in place of the measly ones you see below.
In the show this week you get more than you bargain for... and extra hour more!: Stem Cells Beat Sickle Cell, Breathing Space Gas, Eight-legged Coconut?, TWIS and Global Warming, One - Two - Six?, Stem Cell Grudge Match, Bacteria To Burn, Evolvem Giveaway, and Much, Much More...
Listen to it all Here!
Donate now:
    Get your own Evolvems NOW:
 10% discount until Dec. 25th by ordering at www.evolvems.com/twis. Tell your friends!
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Thank you to Daniel for the following notes summarizing our climate change segment:
Evidence for Global Climate Change:
1. Greenhouse effect is a natural effect that warms the planet. CO2 is a small percentage of atmosphere but has large effect due to longevity (50 year half-life).
Data Shows CO2 is increasing/ strongly correlated to fossil fuel use, emissions and deforestation
2. Carbon Isotopes data different forms of carbon/ links carbon dioxide over the past 150 years human carbon use
plant form has a different isotope
3. Carbon Dioxide level now higher than past 500-650 thousand years
past not due to humans but at slower rate
present rate is concerning
4. Several years in past decade highest on record last 15 years higher
media claims cooling trend: not true trend is still upward, media misnomer
Recent warming not due to solar activity because has been low
5. sea level has risen from 1.5 to 3 mm per year over past 100 years
6. 1 degree increase in temp over the past 100 years
7. public data is available unless under contractual obligation
Arguments:
1 planet is so big
rebuttal: livable planet very small portion, atmosphere is 50 miles breathable oxygen level ends about 16 miles up
2 volcanoes add a lot
rebuttal: myth volcanic activity is .02-.05 gigatons/year humans produce 8
particulate matter from volcano actually cools the area around them because it blocks the sun
3 There's more snowfall (more precipitation)
rebuttal: Climate change involves the melting of existing snow at ice caps, which does end up back in the atmosphere and therefore returns to the earth as snow/rain
4 Aren't the oceans going to increase their ability to retain carbon as water levels increase?
rebuttal: Saturation of water is dependent on the temperature;
Carbon doesn't precipitate out as ocean reaches capacity carbon is going to leak out
Sources:
Justin: peakoildesign.com
Kirsten: realclimate.org, globalresearch.ca
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It's TWISmas time! And, if you remember from last week, we have a special giveaway thanks to Evolvems. We're giving away a special Evolvem plush toy this week to Jason Quade for this amazing TWiSmas story... seriously, sit back and enjoy. Get your cookies and milk for this one...
A Visit From Kirk Cameron
'Twas the night before Twis-mas, when all through the lab,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a rat;
Post it notes hung by the monitor with care,
With hopes that my efforts would soon come to bear.
I drove home my car, while clearing my head,
My children were nestled all snug into bed,
Robo-wife in charging dock, I had a night cap,
And settled into bed for a long winter's nap-
When out in the garden there arose such a clamour,
The Mrs. warm-booted and asked, 'What's the matter?'
Ran to the window and I could have sworn,
There was a tiny sleigh pulled by unicorns.
Cell phone in my hand as I dialed Nine - One - One
I knew in a moment it must be Kirk Cameron.
Creationist tunes seemed to play from a band,
But they came from Ray Comfort, a banana in hand.
More rapid than the progress of science they came,
They whistled, and shouted, and call'd unicorns by name:
"Now! Young-Earth, now! Old-Earth, now! Ussher, and Malign,
"On! Blinders, on! Pseudo, on! On Intelligent-Design;
A shovel my wife produced, I asked, "Why?"
She said that weak arguments would soon pile high.
"Scientific proof they claim to come by,
When they meet with an obstacle, they point to the sky";
So up to the house-top Kirk Cameron he flew,
Propelled by hot air from the conclusions he drew.
As I put down my phone, and was turning around,
Down the chimney Mike Seaver came in with a bound:
A bundle of books was flung on his back,
And he look'd like a peddler just selling some crap:
His eyes - how they twinkled! His dimples how merry,
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;
A wink of his eye soon gave me to know
This mid-night visitor would not readily go.
He tip-toed across, like a man who is mad,
And proffered a book which he laid in my hand.
His Hollywood mouth gave me the Heeby-Jeebies,
The book that he gave was 'On the Origin of Species'
"Don't worry he said", with a sideways look,
"There's nothing to fear in my little book.
We've prefaced the thing with lies near to treason
Sometimes you have to circumvent reason.
We took out the worst parts that put holes in our theory.
A chapter ..... or four. They were rather dreary."
My hackles were up, but Violence wasn't the solution
The poor Man-Boy needed an education in evolution.
And I said:
"Tis true Darwin's book is of public domain,
To mar it with fairy tales, for that I say SHAME.
Individuals are variable, Variations are inheritable
Some offspring within a species are naturally perishable.
Survival and reproduction is for the apt and the strong,
And the history of the earth is very very long."
When I finished he pulled his fingers promptly from his ears,
First I thought he didn't listen, and then I saw the tears.
And it was at that moment that he had a choice,
He could embrace the science, do good with his voice.
Would his brain stay three-sizes-too-small that Twis-mas Eve
Or would he get excited, understand and believe?
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And ran out the window; it shattered, What a jerk!,
And laying his middle finger aside of his nose
He flipped me the bird, Ray Comfort was a-doze.
He sprung to his sleigh, children still in their beds,
His pony unicorns lost the cones from their heads.
But I heard him exclaim, ere they drove out of sight-
"Just because it's not true doesn't mean it's not right!"
We also want to thank Angela Heinz for sending in a TWiSmas submission... if you are looking to try and get yourself or a friend a little plush Evolvem for TWiSmas, we'll be giving away one more toy next week! Send us your TWISmas stories, songs, poems... anything fun, festive, and filled with evolution and the spirit of TWiSmas.
Shout-outs to...
Ed Dyer for all the stories he sent in... Ed is an intern (my story intern) even though he doesn't know it.
David (in North Wales), Minion Dale (Niles, MI), Steve Turrisi (Weston, Florida), Bobby (somewhere), TWIS minion Patrick (wants to let the TWiS minions know that they can edit Conservapedia), Rick Mellott, Michael Johnson, Susanne McGaugh (Durham, NC - suggests we take a look at horrible-science.co.uk for some kidlet TWiSmas gifts... might be more Halloweenish, but it's always fun to mix holidays), James Marshall (Swinburne University - has been working on a game portal for autistic kids called whizkidsgames.com).
Music this week was by Unbalanced Wheel, TMBG, and The Gifted Apes.
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current science news posted by Kirsten at 12/15/2009 12:46:00 PM
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