tobychev @tobychev@social.cleverlibre.org

I opened the first IPCC report, released in 1990, and copied their scenario graphs for CO2 and CH4 emissions.

I marked the latest data with a red dot. Methane emissions in 2022 were 580 Mt and carbon dioxide emissions in 2023 were 40.7 GtCO2 (= 11.09 GtC).

Whatever you think about the IPCC you must admit their business-as-usual calculations were pretty robust.

#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Climate #IPCC

#ClimateCrisis #climate

I often criticize Bill McKibben's newsletter "The Crucial Years", but this time I'm just going to quote large blocks of test from the Jan 9 2024 one because I agree with them. This is about US #LNG exports:

1. They produce an ungodly quantity of greenhouse gas emissions. Just the next proposed plant, CP2 in Louisiana, will produce 20 times more emissions than the controversial Willow oil complex over its lifetime. If the industry gets everything they’ve asked for, US LNG exports will produce more greenhouse gas emissions than…Europe. All of it. This is the biggest fossil fuel expansion project currently underway on planet earth.

2. It’s even dirtier than coal—you get carbon when you burn it, and methane when it leaks before you burn it. And since we now live in a world where solar and wind energy—which produce no greenhouse gas emissions—are the cheapest power, that’s almost criminally dumb.

3. We told the world in Dubai last month that the time had come to “transition” off fossil fuels. No possible definition of transition includes building giant terminals for the export of fossil fuels that are designed to last a half century."

(omitted 4-6 for length)

Eric Schmidt, long time top dog at Google and Alphabet, considered Henry Kissinger to be his best friend.

(Photo shows text from Wall Street Journal opinion page)

The X-ray telescope XRISM just released two high-quality images taken at the end of its commissioning process (aka first light).
Launched on Sep 7, 2023, the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM, pronounced "crism") is an X-ray space telescope mission developed by JAXA in partnership with NASA and participation from ESA and other international orgs. It is similar to but more sensitive than the aging 24-year Chandra X-ray space telescope.

https://global.jaxa.jp/press/2024/01/20240105-1_e.html
#XRISM
1/n

Like in real life, also in extragalactic astronomy there are VIPs*. If you are into clusters of galaxies, the top of the VIP probably is the
Coma clusters of galaxies, aka Abel 1656.

Let's do a small #AstroPhysicsFactlet to see why

#astrodon
#astronomy

*=Very Important Potential (wells)

PFFFF :D

It also implies there is still something worth considering about Nazism, something that has not been defeated yet – as an idea, as a way of ordering society. But, look, no ideology has been studied more, and the first half of the twentieth century actually happened. 9/

The temperature widget for Apple Weather is not able to show double-digit low and high temperatures at the same time.

Designed by Apple in California where there’s no winter.

@RustyBertrand

Interesting and unfortunate that Mennonites have become one of the major deforestation threats in Peru. https://twitter.com/Ecocentristas/status/1741507820472684601

The Skylab-4 astronauts' "strike" ended 50 years ago today.

But: "After a thorough review of the available evidence, it is clear that no strike or mutiny took place during the Skylab 4 mission."

So what really happened?

https://www.nasa.gov/history/the-real-story-of-the-skylab-4-strike-in-space/

#Skylab50 #History

This paper describes the predatory bacterium Vampirococcus lugosii, which preys on members of the bacterial species of the genus Halochromatium [1].

This thing is incredible. For example: Vampirococcus lugosii has a severely reduced genome, something like 1.3 Mbp, and lacks the genes which code for many of the standard biosynthetic metabolic pathways (e.g. phospholipid synthesis, amino acid synthesis, and nucleotide synthesis). Yet it is somehow still alive.

How does this work?

One mechanism that Vampirococcus uses is to get these raw materials from its prey. An example of this are the nucleotides that Vampirococcus lugosii gets by chopping up the DNA that it sucks out of its prey. And amazingly, Vampirococcus lugosii uses a CRISPR-Cas system and various restriction enzymes to accomplish this. See the image for a cartoon of this system.

Predatory microbes.

Crazy.

----
Description of “Candidatus Vampirococcus lugosii”]

Lugosii after Bela Lugosi (1882–1956), who played the role of the vampire in the iconic 1931’s film “Dracula”. Epibiotic bacterium that preys on anoxygenic photosynthetic gammaproteobacterial species of the genus Halochromatium. Non-flagellated, small flat rounded cells (500–600 nm diameter and 200–250 nm height) that form piles of up to 10 cells attached to the surface of the host. Gram-positive cell wall structure. Complete genome sequence, GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number PRJNA678638.
----

#biology #vampirococcuslugosii

References
---------------
[1] "Reductive evolution and unique infection and feeding mode in the CPR predatory bacterium Vampirococcus lugosii", https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22762-4

"What do you want me to say about slavery?" should be the end of Nikki Haley's political career.

Interesting find by @brett - Massachusetts has a bill which "Blocks Cybersecurity Insurers from Instituting Limits on Government Notification".

Backstory, insurance firms have been stopping the US government being told about ransomware incidents. I’ve also heard about multiple instances of insurance firms controlling the incident response partner, so in effect they end to end control the ransom payment and cover up.

More US states need to adopt this.

EU-27 electricity demand steadily increased until 2008. After that, it stagnated, and - so far - never reached its 2008 level again. Efficiency gains, e.g. through LED lighting, have outweighed new applications. And in the last few years, high prices led to some demand reductions too.

This of course made it easier to increase the share of renewables, to around 40% now. But...

@kevin @ianbetteridge Because ChatGPT can do your daily Duolingo sessions then and keep you in the Diamond League.

Astronomy Picture of the Day for Dec 26, 2023.
This beautiful image of a crescent moon behind mount Monte Viso, with the Basilica of Superga in the foreground was taken by Valerio Minato 10 days ago, after 5 unsuccessful attempts over 6 years. It takes a lot of planning and some good fortune to capture such an image. The alignment occurs about once a year and the weather has to cooperate.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231225.html
#APOD
1/n

Elinor Ostrom, writing about some foundational assumptions of #neoliberal #economics. (Applying the tragedy of the commons, prisoner's dilemma, etc. to macroeconomics)

No, #privatization is not the solution to prevent degradation of common pool resources. Obviously.

But our politicians, education, and media corporations continue to listen to and perpetuate the bullshit of conservative think tanks and their so-called "experts", instead of actual economists.

Also, a previous post from @pluralistic comes to mind.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/04/analytical-democratic-theory

#politics #economy #ostrom

For this year's gingerbread I made... the VLA!

#gingerbread #astronomy #radioastronomy #space