C'mon, Man!

Below you will find a request from two members of the House of Representatives  for a hearing by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on how climate change is related to the recent Superstorm (Hurricane?) Sandy and what approaches should be taken to meet the challenge of global warming. Two especially interesting portions of the request:   

"We have written you 17 times since March 2011 to request that the Committee examine the topic of climate change.

and 

You have not once responded to or even acknowledged our requests.

One of the great results of the just finished election: the use of statistical methods (Sam Wang and Nate Silver, among others) to forecast the election. Folks, if the sciencey - math people got that one right on the money, maybe they're right about climate change. Since almost everyone in the science community agrees that climate change is here, let's stop being this guy and start talking about it.     

I think we're all tired of brushing the sand out of our eyes. C'mon, Man!

October 31, 2012

The Honorable Fred Upton
Chairman
Committee on Energy and Commerce

The Honorable Ed Whitfield
Chairman
Subcommittee on Energy and Power

Dear Chairman Upton and Chairman Whitfield:

On November 7, the election will be over.  Regardless of which party prevails, the election should be a time to return to fact-based policy making.  This is especially true in energy policy.

This week, a massive “superstorm” struck the East Coast.  The storm battered the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states, devastating portions of New York and New Jersey and resulting in more than 8 million homes losing electricity from the Carolinas to Wisconsin.  Experts are projecting tens of billions of dollars in damages and lost business.

Hurricane Sandy is exactly the type of extreme weather event that climate scientists have said will become more frequent and more severe if we fail to reduce our carbon pollution.  That is why we are writing to request that you hold a hearing on the storm and its relation to climate change in the lame duck session.

We have written you 17 times since March 2011 to request that the Committee examine the topic of climate change.  In January 2012, we asked you to hold a hearing on the role of climate change in causing the record-setting 14 weather-related disasters in 2011 that cost more than $1 billion.[1]  After an unprecedented heat wave in March 2012, we wrote to request a hearing to examine its connections with climate change.[2]  During last summer’s devastating wildfires, droughts, and intense storms, we wrote to request a hearing on the role global climate change played in these events.[3]

You have not once responded to or even acknowledged our requests.  We hope that you will consider the vast devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy and reconsider your approach.

 For two years, the House of Representatives has pretended that climate change is not happening and that the consequences can be dismissed without concern.  With the election behind us, we will have an opportunity to begin again and give this matter the attention it deserves.  We urge you to seize this opportunity and begin with holding a hearing in the lame duck session.

Sincerely,

Henry A. Waxman  

Bobby L. Rush

Subcommittee on Energy and Power

Way Up On My Christmas List

Now some people would say that your Christmas list is the place to put those things that you really need, like sweaters or a new hip (yeah, it's been one of those weeks again where I spent two days flat on my back, then three days slowly getting back to normal walking around). But I agree with my son, Nathan, who says that Christmas lists are for those things that you really would like, but would never spend your own money on. So this thing is going to the top of my list (and probably Steve's list, too). It's called a Makey Makey and it looks like this:

It's a circuit board that acts like an input device for a computer, video game system, or whatever.

The device gets connected to your computer input with a USB connector. Then you connect something (an apple, say) to the device with the alligator clips that are included. When you touch the apple, you make a connection, and MaKey MaKey sends the computer a keyboard message. The computer just thinks MaKey MaKey is a regular keyboard (or mouse). Therefore it works with all programs and webpages, because all programs and webpages take keyboard and mouse input. If you are having trouble picturing how this works, here's a video in which bananas play a major part:





They are available now for $49.95 from this website. Seriously, can you think of something better than a way to play the piano on bananas?