Alternative boondoggles; climate and agriculture in 2080; insects and radiation …

• 1 - Alternative boondoggles
  “If we take $20Bn as the cost per mission and $450Bn as the cost to develop the technology to go there, the direct cost of the Iraq war would be sufficient to develop a gold-plated Mars expeditionary capability and send six crews of astronauts to Mars…”
  (tags: economics Iraq war budgets exploration Mars space)
• 2 - Merlot from Yorkshire, Hampshire too hot to make wine: expert’s prediction for 2080
  “Stretches of the Thames Valley, Hampshire and the Severn Valley are expected to warm by as much as 5C by 2080, making them too hot to grow grapes. Instead, the areas will be more suited to currants, raisins and sultanas …”
  (tags: agriculture futurism horticulture UK environment)
• 3 - Bugs harmed by nuclear radiation?
  “True bugs (and possibly other overlooked life forms) appear to be sensitive bio-indicators of harmful radiation, she said. They may be tiny skittering ‘canaries,’ suffering first from a poison none of us can feel or see.”
  (tags: Chernobyl environment biology insects radiation)
• 4 - Interview: Protest The Hero - Tim Millar, guitarist
  “There’s so many stupid pop songs it’s really hard to pick the worst. I think it’d be funny to erase a song like the American national anthem just because it’d have such a big effect on history.”
  (tags: paulgraven ProtestTheHero interview music)

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