Right now, as I understand it, Google, as well as other search engines, place a high priority on sites that are updated frequently (in addition to other criteria, including linking from similar sites). This means that blogs are obviously one of those types of pages that can possibly appear frequently in searches. Yet, from having been on JU, we've seen the type of blogging that is possible - ranging from the stellar, well-researched and well-thought out, to the nonsensical (aka Tracey Give...

Well folks, Just like the computer models and climatologists predicted two decades ago, increased hurricane activity is one major sign that global warming is here, now. If Frances hits major landfall, it is predicted to become the most destructive hurricane in recorded human history. Welcome to the future. It's here now. CNN image & story Weather versus Climate When smart people turn dumb JW

Global warming deniers often point to the inaccuracy of daily weather forecasts as a reason that global warming can only be considered a wild theory, at best. "How can they be right about climate, when they can't even tell you what the weather will be like next week?", they say. For instance, in Canada, our national forecasting agency got it terribly wrong this summer. In making their seasonal forecast, they looked at the ocean water on the West Coast and in the Labrador Sea. Chief cli...

Well, I read in the newspaper the other day, that someone at the Repulican party convention had compared George Dubya Bush favourably as on par with Winston Churchill as a great war-time leader. PULLLUEEEEEASSSSE! Winston Churchill managed to rally a disheartened nation to his side, through his fiery rhetoric. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest war-time leaders ever. George Dubya, on the other hand, manages to mumble stuff about "evil-doers" and split the nation almost evenl...

In my full-time job, I often appear at people's homes unexpectedly and have the opportunity to view their homes from top to bottom. That means I get to see a slice of life as it exists for those people, at that moment. I also get to see the full-price spectrum - from the wealthy through to the poor. And what I hate most about the poor is the way they talk to their kids. As a generalization, they have no qualms about using me, a total stranger to leverage their kid into some type of beh...

Why is it that "Conservatives" these days promote little conservation, but instead tend to be the most voracious consumers? Why do "Liberals" tend to support legislation impeding liberal trade with other nations? Why do Conservatives tend to argue that any form of legislation promoting environmental conservation is bad, while Liberals think that severe restriction via legislation is the only means of achieving environmental betterment? Please feel free to add your insights into the...

To those of you old enough to remember, don't these times remind you of the early 1970s? 1. Oil price escalation amid supply concerns; 2. Evidence of inflation, amid weakness in job growth (anybody remember the term coined for this? "Stagflation"); 3. An increasingly unpopular war begun for what turned out to be, in retrospect, dubious reasoning; 4. Exploding public deficit and burgeoning public debt; 5. Despite evidence of inflation, only limited movement on interest rates; 6. Stock ...