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Isn’t being on a run away train fun?
Join me in being mesmerized by the high tech modeling of the earth now possible with current super computers and satellite data.
Sometimes “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” just isn’t strong enough. In one of my recent youtube sessions I ran quite the emotional gamut. Let’s start on a high note, shall we?
The Fantastic
First we have a long overdue “Hero of the Day”. For quite some time, the youtuber Vihart has been producing superb content that celebrates the wonders and joys of math. Irresistibly fun, endlessly charming, and mind-blowingly wondrous, Vihart’s videos present math in a delightful and accessible manner. I recommend that everyone take the time to watch as much Vihart as they can, especially educators. This is how math class ought to be. How marvellous it would be if more children played with mobius strips and wanted Mexa-hexa-flexa-gons for supper.
In her latest video, Vihart expands on one of her previous videos and makes a 3D audio braid. You’ll need earphones for this one, or surround sound. Watch, be amazed, delight in the sonic wonders of math.
The Wretched and The “Oh F*ck, No”
Whilst riding this emotional high of mathematical elation and renewed hope for future generations that will still care about math because of extraordinary projects like those by Vihart, I came across this next video. I crashed. I burned. I debated on whether ‘future generations’ was an option we really ought to pursue.
The two stories presented in this video are beyond ludicrous. The staggering amount of harmful stupid and horrific wrongness exposed here boggle the mind. It’s like I’ve been slapped in the face, but the stunned shock will not wear off. Just watch.
If humanity has any hope at all, it is with educators like Vihart. People who make curiosity, learning, science, and math fun. People who find their passion and wonder in reality and share it with the rest of us. The more children (and in turn, the public) are inspired to think, to be inquisitive, to actually care what is real, the less idiocy like that in the last video will be a part of our society.
If you haven’t checked out all the Vihart links in the first part of this post, now is probably a good time. It will make you feel better.
I wonder who we’ll blame after the next super hurricane or the next drought? I’m curious as to what will be the explanation for those that come after us be when we’re done here on Earth. Let it be shown here in 2012 that we’re still talking about if climate change is a serious topic or not.
Short term planning and thinking will be the end of us. Honest.
A big thanks to tildeb over at Questionable Motives for bringing this video to my attention. The video is about the potential futures of climate change, but from a risk management perspective. It brings into stark relief the choices we are facing and some of the possible consequence of our potential action and inaction. I encourage my readership to copy and paste the video onto their blogs/social media as it is such an important issue.
Hey, quick, how does a internal combustion work in layman’s terms. You have 1 minute to get in all the pertinent information. Go!
Obviously, decisions are going to be made about what content to keep and how to say as much as possible with the time allotted. Climate change is like describing an internal combustion engine in 1 minute, only that that the science behind climate change is much more complex. Our media is guilty of not doing their homework on Climate Change. Potholer54 gets us more up to date on what the science actually says, as opposed to media mistranslations and inaccuracies.
I look at this and decide, at least on a local level, urban heating is not necessarily a bad thing. Here in Alberta we have snow a good part of the year, warmer temperatures mean on average less of the infernal stuff.
“A new British study suggests that cities are getting hotter faster than rural areas as populations increase amid general global warming.
By mid-century, night temperatures in various cities around the world could rise by five degrees Celsius, according to Richard Betts, a climate scientist with the United Kingdom’s Met office, which examines weather trends in the British Isles.
That means Toronto, which had a mean temperature in July 2009 of 19 C, could see a reading of almost 25 C for the same month by 2050.”
AGW I am sure will mess things up to a greater extent than they are now, but my selfish anti-snow genes say, bring it on.
“Before this study, researchers thought temperatures in rural and urban areas were rising by roughly the same amounts. Betts’s study indicates that cities are getting warmer faster than less urbanized areas.”
It seems to be a fairly safe hypothesis to test, as the urban ‘heat-island’ effect is easy to observe and is well documented. It is always good to see corroborating evidence.
I cautiously embrace my urban heat island because at very least it allows me a few more days of being unshod and fancy free before the indomitable torture known as winter boots. :)
My 'arch'-nemisis.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
Your opinions…