Nice work with making Jere get assassinated Ed!

Must look for other things to put Jeres head on...

Here is a cool artwork site:

http://www.deviantart.com/

Java Settlers:

http://settlers.cs.northwestern.edu/

http://settlers.servegame.com/ Faster... but down more.

I must end all my posts in CAPS!

"I've taken enough ecology classes to say a thing or two on this subject!"

...

"I don't know if you'll all understand how this proves my point, but it does."

Wow, all us non-ecology types just got SERVED.

More awesome storm photo's ... no wonder people say it was the worst storm EVER.

bbq, my place this saturday (the 17th), 730ish, bring yer own meat cause I can't afford to feed all of you

I'll have smokies and pop on hand, maybe some chips if I get organized, and good ol' bulk hot dogs, yay!

If you got good music that works well with big speakers bring it along, cause I got dick all over here...

sorry, lazy alison forgot to put her name in the post below... hooray three posts in a row! it's been a while

I don't know if you'll all understand how this proves my point, but it does.

go here to see a map of Alberta ecoregions things may be dry, but they're not desert.


oh, and on an entirely different note, isn't it wonderful when you introduce yourself to someone and they react with a voice full of dread and "oh shit"? I had that distinct pleasure today, at SU council, which I thankfully did not have to stay through. I introduced myself to one of the people sitting near me who first introduced himself to me, and as I said my name, Steve Smith, sitting nearby then said "ECOS Director, right?" to which the introducer then responded with oh shit... it was quite, um entertaining considering he's interested in doing some, um, peculiar things to ECOS.

every time i see "Kobayashi" I think of the Usual Suspects...

Anyway, about the whole Global Warming, Climate Change debate... sure we get some of those things right now, but not all the time. The essence of Global Climate Change is that whatever happens now will be magnified to the extremes. So we'll have dry spells, but they'll be blistering, and they'll last longer, and then they'll be followed by floods... or there will be deep-freezes... stuff like that. I know we're experiencing things like that right now, and maybe they are "normal" but you have to think about all the records we've been breaking, and the trends we've been following lately... drier, warmer etc. etc.

And yes, you have to take greater global trends into consideration as well, general warming and cooling of the Earth over time. Sure we were in the "Little Ice Age" a couple hundred years ago, but it's not about whether or not this is a general warming trend, it's the speed at which it is happening that is the greatest concern. Nothing in nature has happened this quickly unless it's caused by a freak event like a gigantic meteorite or enormous volcanic erruption. And nothing like what we're doing now has ever happened that so much carbon dioxide has been released into the atmosphere. Sure, millions of years ago, the atmosphere had a lot more CO2, and the trees were different, and the animals were different, but it's taken millions of years to change from that to this (giving us our coal and oil deposits along the way), and we're putting it all back into the atmosphere in a matter of decades. It's not just about trees, and it's not just about driving your car, or industrialization, it's everything. Nothing has happened on this scale, at this speed before.

And, AD. I must clarify something for you: Alberta was not a desert, nor were all of the western states. Not the way you describe it. I've taken enough ecology classes to say a thing or two on this subject! The plants in these areas have adapted evolutionarily over hundreds of years to (yes) reduced moisture conditions and to grazing, but nothing is true desert. Sure some of the plants, particularly in the states are incredibly desert-like, and you can find pockets of desert here and there, or true "desert plants" like the prickly pear cactus, but none of Alberta ever was (since the last ice age) a desert. The grasslands are just that: grasslands, and they are entirely separate from desert. they may be close on the grander scheme of things (versus forests), but if you want to talk about deserts, go to the tundra, or the Sonoran or maybe Texas. Alberta is not desert. (I don't think even the Athabasca Sand Dunes count as desert.)

Didn't LIME have a song about this?

And now you can search bit torrent.