Life After People

A fantastic History Channel documentary, Life After People, supposes that all humans suddenly and completely vanish from the planet. Using stunning effects, the program proceeds to theorize the relatively rapid decline and destruction of the world we know and the triumphant(?) return of nature.

Our human habitat is revealed as an extraordinarily fragile system dependent upon constant intervention and maintenance. Left unchecked, the elements of nature will inexorably reclaim the planet. For example, the last likely remaining generator of electricity would be the Hoover Dam power plant. However, a mussel the size of a thumbnail would inhabit the pipes that draw in cooling water for the turbines. With no one to clean them out, they would soon block these pipes causing the generators to fail.

Where Have We Heard This Before?

Following up two previous posts on the recent UFO phenomena ...

The US military dismissed recent reports of UFO activity in Texas. Officials said F-16 fighter jets were training in the area on the night of the alleged sightings (Jan 8) despite initially reporting none of their aircraft had been in the area at the time.

Officials: UFO sightings were military jets - msnbc.com

Yale Ranks Countries on Environmental Performance

From Newsweek, Yale's environmental performance index of 149 countries. The US comes in at 39 behind such countries as Russia, Germany, Canada, UK, France, Japan, Italy, Spain, and Brazil. China is number 105.

See the complete ranking ...
The World's Greenest Countries | Newsweek Project Green | Newsweek.com

What to Do If You See a UFO

This post follows up an earlier post about the UFO sighting phenomena. MSNBC science editor Alan Boyle offers tips on how to record and document UFO sightings.

UFO viewing tips - Cosmic Log - msnbc.com

Free Online eBook Reader

Book Glutton launched today in public beta. Book Glutton features an online reader which you can use to read public domain titles from their collection on your own or in groups with others reading the same book.

Watch the video to learn more ...

The Science of UFO Sightings

An interesting story that attempts to explain why people believe they see UFOs.

"Evolution provides a good starting place for explaining why people have paranormal experiences.

For all but the last 10,000 years of human history, man survived by hunting and gathering plants. To interpret a mysterious world, man projected his own fears and understandings onto his environment. In the "enchanted" view of the world, every part of nature—rocks, trees, hills, water—was alive and filled with spirit. Even in the age of science, the human brain still projects ideas
and images on the world."

Read more ...
Science and UFO Sightings | Newsweek Science | Newsweek.com

Automated Political Campaign Calls

I got some of these in the spring at primary election time. I found them very annoying. In fact, annoying to the point that I pretty much made up my mind to NOT vote for the candidates related to these calls.

Apparently others have found them equally annoying ...

States try to pull plug on 'robo-calls' - USATODAY.com

Warming Up Your Car in Cold Weather

The Car Talk Guys respond to a letter from Lisa concerning the appropriateness of letting your car warm up for several minutes in cold weather.

Spam Filter for Your Postal Mail

Catalog Choice is a free service to reduce mailbox clutter by removing you from the mailing lists of distributors of unwanted catalogs and advertising materials. And, it's good for the environment, too. Each year, 53 billion trees are used to produce the 19 billion catalogs that mailed in this country.

Sign up, find your catalogs, then Catalog Choice will contact the mailers and request you be removed from their mailing lists. Note that it does take possibly 10 weeks or more to take efect.

Drivers on Cells

You know it's true. People driving while on the cell phone are becoming an even greater problem. You don't need any professional studies to tell you that. All you need do is look around while you're in traffic.

Now, it seems, they're not only jeopardizing my safety, but they're wasting my time, too.

Study: Drivers on Cells Clog Traffic - TIME