Actually during the Geologic History of our planet Volcanoes are suspected to be responsible for many of the drastic climatic shifts we can identify in the geologic record.
That article mentions very little about volcanic activity, and it is more an attempt to measure what is influencing climate right now (as in the past few hundred years).
In the past, there have been episodes where the mantle has expelled C02 at a much greater rate than we humans can manage to do... and for thousands of years to boot.
However, if this was to occur today, global warming would be the least of our problems, what with all the ash, earthquakes, tsunamis, and eventual cooling associated with these events.
From a human perspective global warming is a threat because we do not handle change very well. Even the small increase in C02 levels, and the effects this has on our biosphere, can threaten our entire culture... from the perspective of life on earth, this warming is nothing special.
When you see your local marsh dry up and get replaced by a wet pasture, or your river level rise a few feet, this can seem like a threat to everything you have come to know and love... but when you consider that as little as 60 000 years ago the entire Northern Part of our continent was ploughed over by a 2 km thick ice sheet, it sort of marginalizes our effect on the earth.
I keeping reading these little anecdotes from people relating their troubles in early school years to their incredible intellectual gain later in life... this article has nothing to do with this.
The term "Slow Starters" (which isn't even mentioned in the article yet somehow got mixed up with it) does not imply dumb kids who did great later on... it refers to the prolonged development of the outer layer of the brain... the authors have found a correlation between a how long the cortex thickens in childhood and higher IQ.
Stop posting your life's story about how you grew up with nobody believing in you, and how your misinterpretation of this article makes you feel better about yourself.
I find it amusing how people here actually choose jobs over gates.... it is as thought they can't bring themselves to admit that gates has a positive attribute.
I hate to bring down the moon on everyone, but gates simply wins by a landslide in this category.
Yes, I know he is rich and that you don't like him for his business practices, and that we are all special flowers who do our little part to help humanity and should all be thanking each other for our little sacrifices....
But the giant foot of absolute impact strikes us in the face like a shovel full of cold reality..... Gates gives an enormous amount... in an absolute sense.
If Jobs didn't exist it would have little to no impact on the unfortunate of our world... if gates never existed it would have an enormous impact.
Gates (together with his wife who we can't exclude) are among the world's most effective philanthropists and will leave a lasting impact on this world.
There is a big difference between drilling in South Alabama and drilling into the ocean crust. The continental crust is somewhere around 30-40 Km thick around Alabama... while it is only 5-7 km thick in the part of the ocean where they plan to drill.
They will indeed hit mantle if the project is successful. However, as post above, we already have samples of the mantle retrieved by other drilling projects, and from natural processes.
The difference here is the location of drilling, as the mantle in this part of the world is thought to be undergoing a different movement from that of say, Siberia (or Southern Alabama).
Your rig never hit mantle, it probably drilled into granite. The rocks they will encounter on this journey will be basalt, then gabbros, then olivines and associated mafics.
Not as exciting as the headlines make it, but important never-the-less.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually during the Geologic History of our planet Volcanoes are suspected to be responsible for many of the drastic climatic shifts we can identify in the geologic record.
That article mentions very little about volcanic activity, and it is more an attempt to measure what is influencing climate right now (as in the past few hundred years).
In the past, there have been episodes where the mantle has expelled C02 at a much greater rate than we humans can manage to do... and for thousands of years to boot.
However, if this was to occur today, global warming would be the least of our problems, what with all the ash, earthquakes, tsunamis, and eventual cooling associated with these events.
From a human perspective global warming is a threat because we do not handle change very well. Even the small increase in C02 levels, and the effects this has on our biosphere, can threaten our entire culture... from the perspective of life on earth, this warming is nothing special.
When you see your local marsh dry up and get replaced by a wet pasture, or your river level rise a few feet, this can seem like a threat to everything you have come to know and love... but when you consider that as little as 60 000 years ago the entire Northern Part of our continent was ploughed over by a 2 km thick ice sheet, it sort of marginalizes our effect on the earth.
I keeping reading these little anecdotes from people relating their troubles in early school years to their incredible intellectual gain later in life... this article has nothing to do with this.
The term "Slow Starters" (which isn't even mentioned in the article yet somehow got mixed up with it) does not imply dumb kids who did great later on... it refers to the prolonged development of the outer layer of the brain... the authors have found a correlation between a how long the cortex thickens in childhood and higher IQ.
Stop posting your life's story about how you grew up with nobody believing in you, and how your misinterpretation of this article makes you feel better about yourself.
I find it amusing how people here actually choose jobs over gates.... it is as thought they can't bring themselves to admit that gates has a positive attribute.
I hate to bring down the moon on everyone, but gates simply wins by a landslide in this category.
Yes, I know he is rich and that you don't like him for his business practices, and that we are all special flowers who do our little part to help humanity and should all be thanking each other for our little sacrifices....
But the giant foot of absolute impact strikes us in the face like a shovel full of cold reality..... Gates gives an enormous amount... in an absolute sense.
If Jobs didn't exist it would have little to no impact on the unfortunate of our world... if gates never existed it would have an enormous impact.
Gates (together with his wife who we can't exclude) are among the world's most effective philanthropists and will leave a lasting impact on this world.
There is a big difference between drilling in South Alabama and drilling into the ocean crust. The continental crust is somewhere around 30-40 Km thick around Alabama... while it is only 5-7 km thick in the part of the ocean where they plan to drill. They will indeed hit mantle if the project is successful. However, as post above, we already have samples of the mantle retrieved by other drilling projects, and from natural processes. The difference here is the location of drilling, as the mantle in this part of the world is thought to be undergoing a different movement from that of say, Siberia (or Southern Alabama). Your rig never hit mantle, it probably drilled into granite. The rocks they will encounter on this journey will be basalt, then gabbros, then olivines and associated mafics. Not as exciting as the headlines make it, but important never-the-less.