Shale Oil

Oil Shale: Toward a Strategic Unconventional Fuels Supply Policy is an article about a potentially rich source of energy available to the United States which would diminish our reliance on foreign sources and provide jobs within the United States. The author has clearly devoted some thought to the issue.

Success Entails More than Sheer Ability

A Scientific American article titled Beyond IQ: Youngsters Who Can Focus on the Task at Hand Do Better in Math, contains some wisdom that goes beyond the subject matter at hand. Research cited in the article (appearing in the journal Child Development) indicates that self-control and mental focus may be as important to a student's success at math than innate intelligence.

Researchers identified what they referred to as executive function- an important indicator in assessing student success at math. Executive function involves both an ability to recall information helpful in solving problems as well as an ability to control impulses which could hinder problem solving. The latter is of greater interest to me as it seems to involve the ability to override impulses dictated by habits. Yet habits can be positive.

Human behavior demands flexibility. Circumstances call for many and varied responses. Practice at anything leads to increased proficiency through the acquisition of habitual reactions or responses. Intellectual insight though can require an ability to solve problems by deviating from usual paths. This applies to math but also to biology and other problem solving endeavors.

Global Warming Dissidents

A Yahoo news item titled Small group of US experts insist global warming not man-made appeared on Dec 16, 2007. The article spoke of a small group of American experts who, contrary to the views of most of their collegues, believe that humans may not be responsible for global warming. They would attribute the cause to natural phenomenon.

An organization known as the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had implicated humans as responsible and declared the evidence "unequivocal." Al Gore was able to rely on this in making his own declaration that the debate was over.

The dissident US scientists wrote an article which was published in The International Journal of Climatology; a publication based in the UK. Lead author David Douglas stated his view that the warming patterns, involving surface and atmospheric temperature trends, do not support the greenhouse warming idea. Greenhouse gases constitute a negligible effect on climate warming according to Douglas. Co-author John Christi argued that warming effects of human sourced carbon dioxide are neutralized by clouds and water vapor. This is allegedly ignored by greenhouse models.

Climatologist Fred Singer, also one of the authors, argued the natural cycle alternative. The current trend would be simply one of many repetitive cycles. Singer cites data that is counter to what one would expect were the greenhouse model accurate. This includes temperature increases between 1900 and 1940 after which temperatures dropped from 1940 to 1975 despite increased combustion of oil and coal.

Singer offered other possible causal factors such as solar wind variation and variations in magnetic fields. The thinking is that these variations could impact cloud formation and thus the amount of sunlight reaching the surface of the earth.

Bumblebees and Leaf-Cutter Bees

The previously discussed article in Natural History titled Unsung heroines of pollination, provides information about a variety of bees which include bumblebees and leaf-cutter bees. Information in this blog entry is derived from that aricle.

Bumblebees are those familiar large and fuzzy bees. Their genus is Bombus and in North America there are 46 species of bumblebees. Bumblebees sometimes form their nests in abandoned mouse nests. The queen is the only one to live through winters and in the spring will lay the eggs that give birth to workers and new colonies.

Since bumblebees adapt well to greenhouses they can be active during the entire year when housed this way. Growers are able to take advantage of this property of bumblebees and can pollinate hothouse tomatoes and other plants with them.

There are about 120 species of leaf-cutter bees in North America although these bees are found throughout the world. Unlike the social bumblebees, leaf-cutter bees are solitary and usually nest in preexisting holes. Pollen is carried under their abdomen. A species known as the Eurasian alfalfa leaf-cutter bee, (M. rotundata), is prized and raised by the millions in the United States because it pollinates alfalfa. Alfalfa is very important to livestock.

Website Feedback

Marketing guru Derek Gehl practices what he preaches when opt-in forms are the topic. Opt-in forms enable web site owners to collect information about potential customers. The idea is to build a database with names and e-mail addresses of visitors with the eventual goal of making new customers. According to Gehl, purchases are not usually made on a first visit and 7-8 visits seems to be a minimal number to establish a comfort level. The information and follow-up contacts are worth advertising investments. Building relationships is the goal.

In exchange for the information visitors can be offered free ebooks, free reports, free online newsletters, free e-mailings, as part of a how-to course, or a prize. The information in this blog entry was provided by Derek Gehl in a free e-mail. As I indicated he practices what he preaches.

On Pride and Humility

Just read Thought for a Sunday at Viewpoint. Powerful and true is an apt description of both the message and the website revealing it.