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Scientists stirred to ridicule ice age claims   19:00 15 April 04   NewScientist.com news service   Climate scientists have been stirred to ridicule claims in an upcoming Hollywood blockbuster that global warming could trigger a new ice age, a scenario also put forward in a controversial report to the US military.The $125-million epic, The Day After Tomorrow, opens worldwide in May. It will show Manhattan frozen solid after the warm ocean current known as the Gulf Stream shuts down.The movie's release will come soon after a report to the US Department of Defense (DoD) in February predicting that such a shutdown...

It's a bit hard to believe, but that's what a Public Policy Polling survey suggests: that only half of Americans would rather have President Obama in the White House than his predecessor, while 44 percent would prefer George W. Bush to still be president. Here's PPP's Tom Jensen: "Perhaps the greatest measure of Obama's declining support is that just 50% of voters now say they prefer having him as President to George W. Bush, with 44% saying they'd rather have his predecessor. Given the horrendous approval ratings Bush showed during his final term that's somewhat of a surprise and an...

After enduring three years of delays, several lawsuits and the collapse of the real estate market, the $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn took a major step forward on Tuesday when New York’s highest court ruled that the state can seize private property for the 22-acre development. The Court of Appeals ruled 6 to 1 that the state could exercise eminent domain in claiming businesses, public property and private homes for economic development projects like Atlantic Yards. In doing so, the court backed the state’s assessment that the area in question — where some holdouts had refused to sell...

A NOAA-led research mission has located and identified the final resting place of the YP-389, a U.S. Navy patrol boat sunk approximately 20 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, NC, by a German submarine during World War II. Six sailors died in the attack on June 19, 1942. There were 18 survivors. The wreck is located in about 300 feet of water in a region off North Carolina known as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic,” home to U.S. and British naval vessels, merchant ships, and German U-boats sunk during the Battle of the Atlantic. NOAA and its expedition partners...

The 2009 Atlantic tropical season is heating up with Tropical Storm Ana forming about 1000 miles east of the Leeward Islands, and Invest 90, a large Cape Verde system showing substantial promise for development. Currently, neither of the two systems pose an immediate threat to land. Long term forecasts indicate potential threat to Florida, while a third tropical wave is poised off of the So. Florida coast. Tropical Storm Ana Public Advisories Updated every six hours. Tropical Storm Discussion Updated every six hours Three Day Tracking MapStorm Track Archive Nice animated progression of 5 day forecast tracks Buoy Data W...

The Atlantic is wakening up for a while, likely for the next couple of weeks. There are three main areas of concern that I am watching for possible development into tropical systems. First, we have tropical depression 2 which on satellite appears it could already be a tropical storm. Here is a look at some of that satellite analysis estimates on the strength of the current depression. A couple of the satellites are estimating that winds could be as strong as 55 knots and for a system to become a tropical storm it needs winds of 35 knots.

BRAZILIAN search aircraft late have spotted seats and part of a plane wing in the Atlantic where an Air France jet went down nearly a week ago, officials said after two bodies and other items were recovered from the area. "Plane seats, part of the wing (and) various other items (were) localised,"

Internal polling for proponents of Proposition 8, which would ban same-sex marriage in California, shows the race tied; public polls have it tied at 44% to 44% with 12 percent undecided. Internal polling for opponents of proposition 8 have the race within the margin of error. So it's real close. Both sides are accusing other of dirty tactics; someone effectuated a denial-of-service attack on the No side's website. Yes on 8 director Frank Schubert says his side will have 100,000 volunteers on Election Day. (That's unlikely -- initiative directors like to equate their lists with their volunteers -- but even...

I should probably apologize to everyone before showing you this video. But it just the sort of thing that is being embraced in Democratic circles as acceptable behavior. That smug prick Andrew Sullivan posted it on his blog calling it Red, White And MILF. It is so reprehensible that I have no words with which to express my outrage. I am sure some of you won't have that problem. Watch the video here. I don't think anyone wants it on this site.

Forest City Ratner's $4 billion Atlantic Yards development project will be delayed by an additional six months or more in the wake of a ruling by a state Appellate Court. The court rejected a motion put forth by the Empire State Development Corp. to dismiss the lawsuit filed by nine property owners in the footprint of the project challenging the use of eminent domain. The ruling has forced the developer, Bruce Ratner, to reverse a pledge that ground for the project would be broken by the end of the year. "While the Appellate Division Second Department's decision to hear the...

Atlantic photographer and her 'McCain Derangement Syndrome'Rick Moran September 15, 2008 This is an incredible story that pulls back the curtain on the media in a way that has never been done before. Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic Monthly wrote a very unflattering portrait of John McCain for the publication. To take the picture of McCain for the piece, the Atlantic hired Jill Greenberg, a free lance photographer. The controversy arose when Greenberg informed her blog readers that she actually tried to take pictures of McCain in the most unflattering light possible. The New York Post has the story: "Greenberg...

The editor of The Atlantic Monthly said Monday he is sending a letter of apology to John McCain after a woman the magazine hired to photograph the Republican presidential nominee posted manipulated pictures from the photo shoot on her Web site. Photographer Jill Greenberg, who is vehemently anti-Republican and expressed glee that the photos would stir up conservative ire, took pictures of McCain for the cover of The Atlantic’s October issue. During the shoot, she took several other backlit pictures, which she then doctored and posted to her site. In one photo, she added blood oozing from McCain’s shark-toothed mouth...

I don’t feel sorry for The Atlantic magazine. They are quite upset after discovering that Jill Greenberg, the left-wing photographer they hired to take photos of John McCain, is a deranged lunatic who manipulated pictures of the candidate to put him in a bad light — and then posted hateful photoshops of the images on her personal website and gloated about it to the Photo District News website. Sample of her unhinged defacing of McCain’s pics, which looks like something straight out of a Democratic Underground thread: (See article for photos) Atlantic writer Jeffrey Goldberg, whose cover story was tainted...

Editor's Note: This story embargoed for release until 2 pm ET Wednesday, October 17, 2001, to coincide with publication in the journal Nature.) COLUMBUS, Ohio - An international team of scientists reported this week that a rock core drilled from the seafloor off the coast of Antarctica is the first to show cyclic climate changes in polar regions that are linked to cores taken from the ocean bottom in both temperate and tropical zones. These records show ice sheet advances and retreats that match Milankovitch cycles - variations in the Earth's orbit around the sun, in the tilt of the ...

Warmer planet may mean fewer Atlantic hurricanes NewScientist.com news service Mason Inman Contrary to the widespread view that a warming world will bring more hurricanes, a controversial new study suggests the number of cyclones could actually drop in the North Atlantic. Hurricanes have become a lightning rod for arguments over what global warming might have in store. Most researchers agree that, since 1950, the number of hurricanes forming over the Atlantic has increased, and that since at least since 1980, they have become fiercer. Many studies have blamed the increase in Atlantic hurricanes on increasing sea-surface temperatures, which fuel the...

In the aftermath of World War II, statesmen on both sides of the Atlantic recognized that the defense of freedom would require the active engagement of a new generation of leaders. The result was the Atlantic alliance. In the six decades that followed, this alliance helped the West prevail against Soviet communism and ensured the advance of democracy from the Atlantic to the Urals. Today we may be tempted to bask in our achievements and wax nostalgic about all we have been through. But this is no time for nostalgia. At this moment, our alliance now finds itself threatened on...

Strategist says move would show U.S. is committed to Latin America MIAMI — The Navy is considering restoring the 4th Fleet in the Atlantic Ocean, a bureaucratic change that would raise the prominence of Pentagon maritime activities in Latin America and the Caribbean. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the disclosure during a visit to the Southern Command last week — calling it "a great idea" that "as far as I know is moving forward." The move would bring no new vessels to the region but would put Southcom on par administratively with other Pentagon...

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Hurricane forecaster William Gray called Friday for seven Atlantic hurricanes, three of them major, during the 2008 season. Gray's team at Colorado State University issued the prediction six months before the June-November season begins. The preliminary forecast calls for a total of 13 named storms in the Atlantic. It also says it is probable that at least one major hurricane will hit the U.S. coastline. “Despite fairly inactive 2006 and 2007 hurricane seasons, we believe that the Atlantic basin is still in an active hurricane cycle,” Gray said. “This active cycle is expected to continue at...

The new British empire? UK plans to annex south Atlantic Owen Bowcott Saturday September 22, 2007 The Guardian Britain is preparing territorial claims on tens of thousands of square miles of the Atlantic Ocean floor around the Falklands, Ascension Island and Rockall in the hope of annexing potentially lucrative gas, mineral and oil fields, the Guardian has learned. The UK claims, to be lodged at the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, exploit a novel legal approach that is transforming the international politics of underwater prospecting. Britain is accelerating its process of submitting applications to the UN...

Saltier North Atlantic should give currents a boost 13:12 23 August 2007 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic The surface waters of the North Atlantic are getting saltier, suggests a new study of records spanning over 50 years. And this might actually be good news for the effects of climate change on global ocean currents in the short-term, say the study's researchers. This is because saltier waters in the upper levels of the North Atlantic ocean may mean that the global ocean conveyor belt – the vital piece of planetary plumbing which some scientists fear may slow down because of global...