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A short one to start off with - I've said it before and I'll say it again: we need to pay more attention to heat waves; they kill more people in the United States every year than all other natural disasters combined. And, as this article indicates, it's not just a matter of "sucking it up, it's summer."
Heat Waves Are Getting Longer
By ANDREW C. REVKIN, The New York Times, August 7, 2007
Researchers studying western European temperature records have found that the length of heat waves there has doubled since 1880, from 1.5 days to 3 days on average. They also say that the number of summer days that are far hotter than the average for a particular date has tripled. The team described its work in the current issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres. The scientists, led by Paul M. Della-Marta of the University of Bern in Switzerland, said the findings supported the idea that global warming from human activities could be making Europe more prone to extreme conditions. They recommended that health agencies in the region work on ways to limit human health risks from summer heat.
This is one that I've noticed anecdotally. I have very fair skin and burn easily, but even after SPF 15, I don't notice much of a difference in protection.
Really? The Claim: With Sunscreens, High SPF Ratings Are Best
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR, The New York Times, August 7, 2007
THE FACTS
Everyone knows that an SPF rating of 60 provides double the protection of SPF 30 — or does it?
( Read More )
I just love Natalie Angier...
Basics: Its Poor Reputation Aside, Our Fat Is Doing Us a Favor
By NATALIE ANGIER, The New York Times, August 7, 2007
In this country, the most popular cosmetic surgery procedure is liposuction: doctors vacuum out something like two million pounds of fat from the thighs, bellies, buttocks, jowls and man-breasts of 325,000 people a year. What happens to all that extracted adipose tissue? It’s bagged and disposed of as medical waste; or maybe, given the recent news about socially contagious fat, it’s sent by FedEx to the patients’ old college chums. But one thing the fat surely is not, and that is given due thanks for serving as scapegoat, and for a job well done.
( Read More )
I especially like her because she's an evolutionary psychologist without the determinism, unlike many others *cough*see below*cough* If you haven't read her book, Woman: An Intimate Geography you really should.
In Dusty Archives, a Theory of Affluence
By NICHOLAS WADE, The New York Times, August 7, 2007
For thousands of years, most people on earth lived in abject poverty, first as hunters and gatherers, then as peasants or laborers. But with the Industrial Revolution, some societies traded this ancient poverty for amazing affluence.
Historians and economists have long struggled to understand how this transition occurred and why it took place only in some countries. A scholar who has spent the last 20 years scanning medieval English archives has now emerged with startling answers for both questions.
Gregory Clark, an economic historian at the University of California, Davis, believes that the Industrial Revolution — the surge in economic growth that occurred first in England around 1800 — occurred because of a change in the nature of the human population. The change was one in which people gradually developed the strange new behaviors required to make a modern economy work. The middle-class values of nonviolence, literacy, long working hours and a willingness to save emerged only recently in human history, Dr. Clark argues.
( Read More )
Heat Waves Are Getting Longer
By ANDREW C. REVKIN, The New York Times, August 7, 2007
Researchers studying western European temperature records have found that the length of heat waves there has doubled since 1880, from 1.5 days to 3 days on average. They also say that the number of summer days that are far hotter than the average for a particular date has tripled. The team described its work in the current issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres. The scientists, led by Paul M. Della-Marta of the University of Bern in Switzerland, said the findings supported the idea that global warming from human activities could be making Europe more prone to extreme conditions. They recommended that health agencies in the region work on ways to limit human health risks from summer heat.
This is one that I've noticed anecdotally. I have very fair skin and burn easily, but even after SPF 15, I don't notice much of a difference in protection.
Really? The Claim: With Sunscreens, High SPF Ratings Are Best
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR, The New York Times, August 7, 2007
THE FACTS
Everyone knows that an SPF rating of 60 provides double the protection of SPF 30 — or does it?
( Read More )
I just love Natalie Angier...
Basics: Its Poor Reputation Aside, Our Fat Is Doing Us a Favor
By NATALIE ANGIER, The New York Times, August 7, 2007
In this country, the most popular cosmetic surgery procedure is liposuction: doctors vacuum out something like two million pounds of fat from the thighs, bellies, buttocks, jowls and man-breasts of 325,000 people a year. What happens to all that extracted adipose tissue? It’s bagged and disposed of as medical waste; or maybe, given the recent news about socially contagious fat, it’s sent by FedEx to the patients’ old college chums. But one thing the fat surely is not, and that is given due thanks for serving as scapegoat, and for a job well done.
( Read More )
I especially like her because she's an evolutionary psychologist without the determinism, unlike many others *cough*see below*cough* If you haven't read her book, Woman: An Intimate Geography you really should.
In Dusty Archives, a Theory of Affluence
By NICHOLAS WADE, The New York Times, August 7, 2007
For thousands of years, most people on earth lived in abject poverty, first as hunters and gatherers, then as peasants or laborers. But with the Industrial Revolution, some societies traded this ancient poverty for amazing affluence.
Historians and economists have long struggled to understand how this transition occurred and why it took place only in some countries. A scholar who has spent the last 20 years scanning medieval English archives has now emerged with startling answers for both questions.
Gregory Clark, an economic historian at the University of California, Davis, believes that the Industrial Revolution — the surge in economic growth that occurred first in England around 1800 — occurred because of a change in the nature of the human population. The change was one in which people gradually developed the strange new behaviors required to make a modern economy work. The middle-class values of nonviolence, literacy, long working hours and a willingness to save emerged only recently in human history, Dr. Clark argues.
( Read More )
