Next week my daughter will go back to elementary school, and I will be faced with a choice. At some point the curriculum will cover the environment, and she’ll be taught that before Europeans settled the Americas the Indians lived so lightly on the land that for all practical purposes the hemisphere was a wilderness. The forests and plains, the teacher will explain, were crowded with bison, beaver, and deer; the rivers, with fish; flights of passenger pigeons darkened the skies. The continent’s few inhabitants walked beneath an endless forest of tall trees that had never been disturbed.

But in recent decades most archaeologists, anthropologists, and geographers have come to believe that this Edenic image isn’t true. When Columbus landed, the new research suggests, the Western Hemisphere wasn’t filled with scattered bands of ecologically pure hunters and gatherers.

Some folks disparage others for believing in the literal truth of the Bible — casting aspersion on those who believe in the "mythos" of said book.  Perhaps those who see only evil in Western culture need to examine what "mythos" they hold to be infallible.

Continuing on…

Although Indian engineering led to some disasters, for the most part its impact on the environment was, as Mr. Denevan notes, "subtle, transformative, and persistent." The forests were burned and the land was farmed, but the soil was left largely intact, or even improved; despite their large numbers, there is little evidence that native Americans often exhausted or polluted water supplies, or overran their resource base.

But is this a marvel of Native American planning or just a matter of not yet overdeveloping their resource base?  Ah well,  at least some mythos remain intact.

All in all an excellent read that I highly recommend.

What am I talking about?  Dean’s World is conducting a poll on what to name the newly-found 10th planet.

For those who are not interested in astronomy, skip on past.

Apparently Comet Machholz, a comet glowing green with cyanogen and diatomic carbon will pass beside/in front of the light-blue nebula Pleiades.

Directions on how to find the comet are given in the link above. As a note, the directions state that you should try looking some time between 9 and 10 o’clock. I assume they mean EST.

I simply can’t help but wonder why the two are coming together.

For those who are not interested in astronomy, skip on past.

Apparently Comet Machholz, a comet glowing green with cyanogen and diatomic carbon will pass beside/in front of the light-blue nebula Pleiades.

Directions on how to find the comet are given in the link above. As a note, the directions state that you should try looking some time between 9 and 10 o’clock. I assume they mean EST.

I simply can’t help but wonder why the two are coming together.

So when, exactly, has an environmentalist not expressed concern about an area?  How many press releases have been dispersed wherein concerned people were worried?  Compare that number to the number issued where they really didn’t give a hoot?

Just wondering….

As a note, work and home still overwhelming my time so blogging will continue to be light.  Lots and lots of draft postings waiting.

Be sure to snoop around the site in general. Lots of science goodies.

[Via MetaFilter]

Those of a more technical bent can read about Pebble Bed Reactors at Wikipedia.

For those of you who like pictures, here is a diagram of a PBR (via euronuclear.org)

And a closeup of one of the pebbles

For those who chant “No Blood for Oil”, what would you have in its place? Wood? Whale Oil? Hemp-based biomass?

This is cool folks. Of course, all of this pre-supposes a world that doesn’t have nuts running around wanting to build dirty bombs.

Those of a more technical bent can read about Pebble Bed Reactors at Wikipedia.

For those of you who like pictures, here is a diagram of a PBR (via euronuclear.org)

And a closeup of one of the pebbles

For those who chant “No Blood for Oil”, what would you have in its place? Wood? Whale Oil? Hemp-based biomass?

This is cool folks. Of course, all of this pre-supposes a world that doesn’t have nuts running around wanting to build dirty bombs.

I teach Atomic Energy at Boy Scout Merit Badge Fairs and this is one of the best plans that I’ve seen around. I’ve got a set that I’m need to re-do and I think I will use these plans for my next set.

Enjoy!

Some human rights group are complaining that the weapons might be used as torture devices. Well, duh! A bottle of Coke and a chair can be used as a torture device. Almost anything can be used as a torture device.

I don’t know about Amnesty International and that group, but I would welcome a non-lethal weapon that can be used as crowd control. Much less likely to result in mass killings. And a weapon that can stop a car barreling at a checkpoint is far preferable than several hundred rounds from a SAW.

[Via BoingBoingBlog]