Another Ice Age? - TIME Magazine, June 1974

In Africa, drought continues for the sixth consecutive year, adding terribly to the toll of famine victims. During 1972 record rains in parts of the U.S., Pakistan and Japan caused some of the worst flooding in centuries. In Canada's wheat belt, a particularly chilly and rainy spring has delayed planting and may well bring a disappointingly small harvest. Rainy Britain, on the other hand, has suffered from uncharacteristic dry spells the past few springs. A series of unusually cold winters has gripped the American Far West, while New England and northern Europe have recently experienced the mildest winters within anyone's recollection.

As they review the bizarre and unpredictable weather pattern of the past several years, a growing number of scientists are beginning to suspect that many seemingly contradictory meteorological fluctuations are actually part of a global climatic upheaval. However widely the weather varies from place to place and time to time, when meteorologists take an average of temperatures around the globe they find that the atmosphere has been growing gradually cooler for the past three decades. The trend shows no indication of reversing. Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age.

Telltale signs are everywhere —from the unexpected persistence and thickness of pack ice in the waters around Iceland to the southward migration of a warmth-loving creature like the armadillo from the Midwest.Since the 1940s the mean global temperature has dropped about 2.7° F. Although that figure is at best an estimate, it is supported by other convincing data. When Climatologist George J. Kukla of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory and his wife Helena analyzed satellite weather data for the Northern Hemisphere, they found that the area of the ice and snow cover had suddenly increased by 12% in 1971 and the increase has persisted ever since. Areas of Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, for example, were once totally free of any snow in summer; now they are covered year round.

Scientists have found other indications of global cooling. For one thing there has been a noticeable expansion of the great belt of dry, high-altitude polar winds —the so-called circumpolar vortex—that sweep from west to east around the top and bottom of the world. Indeed it is the widening of this cap of cold air that is the immediate cause of Africa's drought. By blocking moisture-bearing equatorial winds and preventing them from bringing rainfall to the parched sub-Sahara region, as well as other drought-ridden areas stretching all the way from Central America to the Middle East and India, the polar winds have in effect caused the Sahara and other deserts to reach farther to the south. Paradoxically, the same vortex has created quite different weather quirks in the U.S. and other temperate zones. As the winds swirl around the globe, their southerly portions undulate like the bottom of a skirt. Cold air is pulled down across the Western U.S. and warm air is swept up to the Northeast. The collision of air masses of widely differing temperatures and humidity can create violent storms—the Midwest's recent rash of disastrous tornadoes, for example.

Another Ice Age? - TIME

Penn & Teller: Bullshit! "Being Green"

Penn and Teller consider the popularity of the "green movement", a largely bogus and hypocritical philosophy that links sanctimonious politics to an "ethical" lifestyle while doing little or nothing to actually create a healthier ecosystem.

"Leadership and the Sexes" - Michael Gurian

Author Michael Gurian visits Google's headquarters in Mountain View, CA, to discuss his book "Leadership and the Sexes". This event took place September 10, 2008, as a part of the Authors@google series. For more info, please visit http://www.michaelgurian.com/
Leadership and the Sexes presents brain science tools with which readers can look into the brains of men and women to understand themselves and one another. The book also provides five Gender Tools, which can be used immediately in executive, management, design, and marketing teams. The gender science presented in this book has been used successfully by such diverse corporations as IBM, Nissan, Proctor & Gamble, Deloitte & Touche, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Brooks Sports, and many others. This gender science helps leaders increase their organization's competitive edge, profits, and bottom line.
Michael Gurian is a thought-leader, corporate consultant, family therapist, and the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-five books, including Leading Partners, The Wonder of Girls, Boys and Girls Learn Differently!, The Wonder of Boys, and The Minds of Boys. The co-founder of the Gurian Institute, he has spearheaded a national effort to provide communities and corporations with training in brain-based gender issues.
Link to the Gurian Institute: http://www.gurianinstitute.com/



YouTube - Authors@Google: Michael Gurian

Jonathan Haidt: Moral Psicology - The difference between liberals and conservatives

About this talk

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt studies the five moral values that form the basis of our political choices, whether we're left, right or center. In this eye-opening talk, he pinpoints the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend to honor most.

About Jonathan Haidt

Jonathan Haidt studies how -- and why -- we evolved to be moral. By understanding more about our moral roots, his hope is that we can learn to be civil and understanding of those whose morals don't.



http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.html