Kentucky Bourbon

Kentucky, where it is said that many a Preston reside (which has raised the state's status in my book), is unfortunately ground zero for the impacts of global warming. Bourbon, the pillar of the Kentucky economy (and which enables all those Prestons to go through life living where they do) appears to be highly sensitive to climatic change. What will become of Kentucky (not to mention the majority of American frat boys) when the delicate environmental balance that nourishes America's life blood is upset?

Thanks to Josh for calling my attention to this imminent doom.

In other global warming news, the crew from the Stablisation 2005 conference have released their proceedings via the UK's DEFRA. The upshot from the Executive Summary - if we're interested in preventing "dangerous climate change" (something everyone is really concerned about, but no one seems to know what it is), we should have gotten started sometime during the late 19th century. Though the effort shies away from explicitly committing to a particular climate threshold, it makes it fairly clear that we've already bought some pretty significant headaches.

Finally, kudos to Rick Piltz, whose sharp critique in the Dec. 27th issue of Eos highlighted the shortcomings of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program's climate change assessment process. In reference to the CCSP's report series, Piltz stated:

"These prospective reports do not amount to an integrated effort to effectively inform society and policy-makers responsible for dealing with the climate change problem, as was called for in the Global Change Research Act of 1990. In addition, the convoluted bureaucratic process under which these reports are being developed has led to lengthy delays in even the early stages of designing and drafting them."

Right on, man.

Beer Bot

From New Scientist:
"Japanese beer maker Asahi plans to give away 5000 personal bartending bots, each of which can store up to six cans of beer in a refrigerated compartment within its belly. At the push of a button the simple robots will open a can and pour the chilled contents into a glass for a thirsty owner."

Become a Republican!

If you're interested, here's how.

Barrett Firearms

For those of you interested in big game (or big vehicle) hunting this year (or who might need a refresher on your rights under the U.S. Constitution's second amendment), check out the website for Barrett Firearms, the company behind the slightly insane but beloved product of America's gun culture: the 0.50 calibre rifle.

Preston

Ethnic Anglos (as well as those suffering under the yolk of an Anglo name) can now check out the geographic distrubtions of their surnames in the UK at Spatial Literacy.Org.

As an example, here's the distribution of "Preston" in 1881 and 1998.



Doesn't look like the Prestons got up to much over that century. The name enjoyed the ranking of 266th most frequent surname in the UK in 1881. That position fell to 301 as of 1998. So for those of you out there with a grudge against a Preston, take comfort in the fact that we're on our way out.

Prestons appear to enjoy popularity in Leicester, UK; ACT, Australia; Nelson, New Zealand; and Kentucky, USA.

As for given names, according to Seven Levitt's book Freakonomics, "Benjamin" ranks as the #1 most common "high end white-boy name" (among Californians at least, not that they're representative of the U.S. or global population). Um. . .great. . . I guess. . .

Eurobeat?

Preparations are underway for Eurobeat 2006- an Australian spoof on the European cultural oddity known as Eurovision.