ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 623

Wikipedia Takes On Vandals With Artificial Intelligence

Technology





Photo credit:

Mun May Tee, CC BY-SA 4.0.

“Never trust everything you read on the Internet,” Abraham Lincoln once said. That’s no more true than for Wikipedia, which relies on thousands of volunteers to monitor and edit its content. And they’ve now got a new tool to help combat vandalism.

Keystone Was Never the Issue

Climate change

A few weeks ago, environmentalists everywhere cheered President Obama’s veto of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have expanded existing pipelines that take oil from Canada to the United States. It’s a symbolic win for those who are concerned about climate change and oppose America’s dependence on oil. Yet far more important than the future of Keystone XL is the future of the Canadian oil sands from which it would have pumped.

So, what are oil sands?

Oil sands are, as the name suggests, oil and sand. More specifically, they are vast underground areas of either loose sand or partially consolidated sandstone containing some oil, clay, and water. But this oil isn’t the kind you’d see blasting out of the top of a derrick. Instead of smooth black liquid, the oil you find in the sands is “hard as a hockey puck” at 50 degrees. This oil, too thick to flow or pump without being heated, is called bitumen. There are 315 billion barrels of it in Alberta that are ultimately recoverable, along with a trillion and a half more that are not. That’s  a lot of oil.

So what’s wrong with lots of oil?

Because it’s tougher to get out of the ground, extracting this oil generates between 12% to 22% more emissions. Worse, about a fifth of the oil in the sands is extracted via open-pit or strip mining. This is an ugly and destructive process that disfigures huge expanses of landscape, even if oil companies posit that the land can eventually be reclaimed.

But the real problem is that utilizing the tar sands (and other sources like them) further enables our reliance on fossil fuels. 315 billion barrels is enough to slow, but not stop the inevitable search for other energy sources. We ultimately need to ditch dependence, no matter how plentiful the reserves or lucrative the opportunities. To keep average global warming below two degrees Celsius by 2100, fossil fuel use must be greatly reduced. That means keeping some oil in the ground, especially the dirtiest kinds like the sands.

If oil sands end up being used as planned, Canadians and their American customers may have plenty more crude. But we’ll also see plenty more catastrophic warming too. You don’t have to be an expert to see that this is a bad deal. Students like me will inherit and build the next generation of energy, so let’s make it a good one. Keystone is a symbolic victory for progress on climate, but let's make the next one genuine.

Forest Wakeling is a student in Berkeley, CA and an intern at NCSE. He recently moved here from Vancouver, where he was studying economics at The University of British Columbia. 

Photgraphy by tarsandsaction via Flickr

3D-Printed Body Parts Help Surgeons Separate Conjoined Twins

Health and Medicine





Photo credit:

3D-printed replica of the conjoined twins' anatomy. Krishnamurthy/Radiological Society of North America

3D printing is slowly becoming invaluable in medicine. Not only can scientists make 3D-printed body parts, but they can also use the technology to help guide life-saving surgery. Just last week, for example, we heard the story of a team practicing brain surgery using a 3D replica of a woman’s entire brain vasculature.

Disaster-Response Robots Unveiled in Japan

Technology





Photo credit:

Named HRP-2 Kai and JAXON, the two robots are roughly human-sized, and could be deployed in around five years. AFP/Yoshikazu Tsuno

Japanese researchers have unveiled two robots which they hope will one day be used to provide emergency support and relief in the aftermath of national disasters, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Bananas Could Go Extinct

Environment





Photo credit:

Bananas worldwide are being threatened by a deadly disease. PS Prometheus/Shutterstock

Bananas are the most popular fruit in the world, but they could soon be killed off by a deadly fungus. In the last few years, a banana-killing disease has spread from Southeast Asia to the Middle East, Africa and Australia.

According to a new study, published in PLOS Pathogens, the perpetrator is called Tropical Race 4 (TR4), which originated in Indonesia in the 1960s and has now spread so widely that it’s threatening the world banana production.

Global Warming Could Suffocate The World

Environment





Photo credit:

The phytoplankton that turn these waters green could be vulnerable to temperatures 5 to 6 °C above pre-industrial levels. Onsuda/Shutterstock

If you're already getting nightmares from the picture scientists are painting of the future blighted by heatwaves and rising seas, now might be the time to look away. The latest scenario is unlikely, but involves a worst case that is even worse than we imagined. If carbon emissions are allowed to run unchecked there is a possibility that the planet's main source of oxygen could grind to a halt, suffocating even those animals – humans included – high enough not to be drowned by rising seas.

15 Science-Based Tips To Help You Stay Focused

Health and Medicine





Photo credit:

Alina Reynbakh/Shutterstock

Tiredness goes hand-in-hand with modern life. But if you’re in a constant battle between work, fatigue and distraction, then science has got your back.

This infographic from Business Insider shows the best science-approved techniques to keep your mind and body alert throughout the day. Turns out, caffeine and sleep aren’t the only answers.

The Universe’s “Missing Matter” Found Within Superheated Cosmic Web Filaments

Space





Photo credit:

The cosmic web is similar in shape to a neural network. sakkmesterke/Shutterstock

Everything you can see around you is composed of “ordinary matter.” Looking at the remnant radiation of the Big Bang, the cosmic microwave background (CMB), scientists have calculated that this matter consists of only five percent of the entire universe. A significant amount of this still eluded direct detection, however, until now: A new paper published in Nature claims to have found this missing component, which has been hiding within very hot gas along colossal strands of the “cosmic web.”

Extensive Sauropod Tracksite Discovered On The Isle Of Skye

Plants and Animals





Photo credit:

A re-creation of what Skye may have looked like 170 million years ago. Jon Hoad

Millions of years ago, on what is now a windswept corner of the northern Scottish island of Skye, some of the largest animals to have walked the Earth once plodded through a shallow coastal lagoon Researchers have found the criss-cross of footprints left behind by sauropods, making the island the largest dinosaur site in Scotland.

VIRAL PRANK VIDEO | Sam Pepper | Douchebag

Parody “prank” video that sexually assaults women and pretends to kill someone’s best friend in front of them… cause that’s funny!

Making fun of these dumbass videos: “KILLING BEST FRIEND PRANK | Ft. Sam & Colby | Sam Pepper”- http://bit.ly/1NlkyfX

Prank video shows YouTuber creepily grabbing girls’ butts- http://www.dailydot.com/entertainment/sam-pepper-controversy/

Sam Pepper has claimed his ‘ass pinch prank’ videos were a social experiment to raise awareness of male sexual harassment.- http://teneightymagazine.com/2014/09/24/sam-pepper-prank/

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DELETED SCENE- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7LeoT43iO0

VLOG- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMBFaWcFgEM

Nickey Huntsman – https://www.youtube.com/user/TheShannamosity

Alyssa – https://www.instagram.com/heyalyssapaige/

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