This in from The Telegraph UK – In the past environmentalists, from Lord Stern to Sir Paul McCartney, have urged people to stop eating meat because the methane produced by cattle causes global warming. However a new study found that cattle grazed on the grasslands of China actually reduce another greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide.

Dr Klaus Butterbach-Bahl, of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, said, “It’s been generally assumed that if you increase livestock numbers you get a rise in emissions of nitrous oxide. This is not the case.”

Wonder if PETA plans to apologize to His Honor, Monsieur Al Gore? Let’s hope not.

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More “news” from the Christian Science Monitor – “With world population expected to grow by nearly 50 percent to more than 9 billion people by midcentury, farmland is going to need to be much more productive. Even today, nearly 1 out of every 6 people in the world – more than 1 billion – are going hungry, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.”

What’s wrong with this picture? It begins with the premise that the answer to over-population is simply to produce more calories per person. A perfectly silly premise, but ubiquitously accepted by our media pundits. Which includes most mainstream do-gooders in the so-called “green movement.”

And after the neo-Green Revolution figures out how to feed to hordes? Wal-Marts for everybody!

What a future.

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As reported in the Christian Science Monitor – “They’re voracious, they’re costly, and they’re coming – again. Grasshoppers are expected to swarm Western states this summer in record numbers, gobbling up grasslands and costing cattle owners millions of dollars.”

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) found an unusually high number of grasshoppers in its annual survey of the flying grass-eaters last fall. If the weather is warm in the coming weeks, the countless eggs laid by the grasshopper could turn into an epic infestation across Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, Idaho, and South Dakota.

pass the Cutter.

posted by Mudd

“Nothing appears more surprising to those who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few, and the implicit submission with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers.”

David Hume, “Of the First principles of Government” (1758)

In a sign that a nation can collectively lose its marbles (perhaps in a good way), the New York Times reports that chic “Young Trendsetters Streak Their Hair With Gray.”

Ain’t life interesting? Let’s zoom in – “Women warming to the arctic look are streaking, tipping or bleaching their hair in tones from Warhol white to Brillo steel.”

As one fashion guru touted – “For a 16-year-old, it is something akin to having multiple piercings or tattoos.”

Hot damn, geezers like me wake up one morning, look in the mirror and say “Dude, your hair is freaking beautiful.” And it costs nothing to be a gray buzzard such as myself. Whereas, the young trendies are dropping $200 a pop to look old.

Pass the scissors.

posted by Mudd

Think morality is one of life’s immutable Truths? Think again – “A person’s moral judgments can be changed almost instantly by delivering a magnetic pulse to an area of the brain near the right ear, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” (NPR)

It gets funkier.

“The fact that scientists can adjust morality with a magnet may be disconcerting to people who view morality as a lofty and immutable human trait….” Or so says Joshua Greene, a Harvard University shrink. “Moral judgment is just a brain process,” says Monsieur Greene. “That’s precisely why it’s possible for these researchers to influence it using electromagnetic pulses on the surface of the brain.”

The moral of the story (no pun)? Next time you do something seriously tacky, zap your right ear with a burst of electromagnetic juice and feel good about yourself. No more need for those pesky Sunday confessions!

posted by Mudd

From the illustrious BBC News – “Scientists confirm that there is no slowing of the Gulf Stream ocean current, as predicted by some models of climate change.”

Can we use less sunscreen now?

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Every now and then (more then than now), somebody steps up to the proverbial plate and utters an ounce of truth. Take the so-called “health care” debate now raging from sea to shining sea. Actually a silly moniker, as the debate isn’t about health, but about business – the business of perpetuating a system that rewards pain, suffering and assorted wrong-headed behaviors.

Here’s what one brave soul inked in the New York Times – “FOR all the debate lately, one basic fact about America’s health care crisis is rarely mentioned. Namely, the one thing that could really reform health care is you, collectively speaking: People living healthier lives.”

Amen. But it gets more interesting.

“The statistical evidence has been clear for years, but it bears repeating. Studies show that 50 percent to 70 percent of the nation’s health care costs are preventable.”

Factor that tidbit into your health care calculator, then see how sensible the last year’s worth of noise regarding health has been.

posted by Mudd

From the Kick ‘Em While They’re Down Department – In the scramble to find something, anything, to generate more revenue, states are considering new taxes on virtually everything: garbage pickup, dating services, bowling night, haircuts, even clowns. [New York Times]

Clowns? They must be talking about certain folks in the nation’s Capitol.

Posted by Mudd

From the Wall Street Journal – “Humans may think we run the show, but ants dominate the planet. Ants outnumber people by roughly a million to one, and collectively weigh about as much as humanity. Without their soil-tilling skills, entire ecosystems would collapse.”

That’s an echo off of Monsieur E.O. Wilson, an Alabama homeboy and the author of a new novel about ants.

And you thought Homo erectus asphaltus ruled the world…..

posted by Mudd