A few weeks ago, we went to the UCSD Bookstore on a Sunday morning. Silly us; it doesn’t open until noon on the weekend. So we were forced to kill some time in the Geisel Library (rats; twist our arms…).

We wandered around until we were ensnared by this: Geographic Information Systems at UC San Diego – UCSD Libraries. A nerd’s paradise–yee haw!

Jon has been muttering about mapping population centers versus rates of erosion. And other things I’m not sure I understand. If you’re lucky, he’ll blog about this, too. 

Today I attended an O’Reilly webinar about energy literacy, given by Saul Griffith. (Speaking of MacArthur Fellows, in 2007 he was awarded the MacArthur Foundation’s Genius Grant.)

To be honest, I’m going to have to review the slides before I come anywhere near understanding everything I heard. However, the minimal amount I took away was daunting: even a person as “energy aware” as Mr. Griffith consumes 18,000 watts (his 2007 estimate), but at the planet’s current energy production, we should be consuming more on the order of 2,500 watts each.

Meanwhile, although green/clean technologies are more efficient than what we have, they don’t produce enough energy for our ever-increasing needs. Nuclear power needs to be considered. And green/clean technologies come at certain energy costs themselves.

To add raspberry sauce to this already delicious cheesecake, the planet is warming at an alarming rate, which will lead not only to environmental catastrophes (whole cities, even countries, disappearing), but to “resource wars.”

Ah well; as one of the participants said in the chat window: “One person’s depression is another’s opportunity.” Anyone got any exciting planet-saving and lucrative ideas they’d like to share?

Take a gander at Mr. Griffith’s slides–if you dare!:

O’Reilly Webcast. Energy Literacy. September 23 02009.

Update:
The slides are now available on the O’Reilly webcast site, complete with Mr. Griffith’s narration:

Energy Literacy Webcast on the O’Reilly Site.

From commanding a tank platoon to building models that explain land-ocean-atmosphere dynamics. For example, periods of deglaciation (like now), tend to lead to volcanism (like wow), probably because the mantle of the earth is affected by removing the weight of the glaciers.

Peter Huybers – MacArthur Foundation.

All the 2009 MacArthur Fellows.

Wow, something that cops, lawyers and professional interogators already knew

Featured Article – You can’t trust a tortured brain: Neuroscience discredits coercive interrogation.

More importantly, think what this implies for people undergoing extreme stress, whatever its cause. For example, how much previously-learned information drops away during social upheaval or disasters? Would it be possible to look at No Child Left Behind testing in the lower 9th Ward from before Katrina and now? Also what about someone who listens to media day after day that tells him or her that the country is falling apart and the newly elected government is responsible? What hormones are are stirred up after a daylong exposure to talk radio?