Since this is a science blog, I always want to publish about science when it is delicious. Experts admitted surprise at the findings because so many other studies have linked red meat to physical health risks.  The team made the link after a study of 1000 Australian women.  Professor Felice Jacka, who led the research by Deakin University, Victoria, said: "We had originally thought that red meat might not be good for mental health but it turns out that it actually may be quite important.  "When we looked at women consuming less than the recommended amount of red meat in our study, we found that they were twice as likely to have a diagnosed depressive or anxiety disorder as those consuming the recommended amount.  "Even when we took into account the overall healthiness of the women's diets, as well as other factors such as their socioeconomic status, physical activity levels, smoking, weight and age, the relationship between low red meat intake an...

737's being manufactured in Wichita Spirit Aerosystems, based in Wichita, already the manufacturer of much of the Boeing 737 (9,723 built since 1966), large parts of the 787-Dreamliner, and many other airplanes announced a few minutes ago that they are expanding their facilities. They are going to add 1,000  new jobs and spend $1 billion  on their expansion in our city.  Tom Gentile, CEO of Spirit, said they had received bids from all over the world to locate this business. Mr. Gentile said they chose Wichita as it was the best location with the most qualified workers.  Congratulations Wichita and Spirit. 

This is the forecast for Thursday: "Extreme" is the worst category. I fully expect additional fires today and especially tomorrow. The fires often start because high winds (forecast up to 70 mph in this case) down power lines. The sparks cause the fire. Dr. Cliff Mass has an intriguing proposal to turn off power when forecasts of extreme fire conditions are in effect. Suggest reading his blog posting at the red link. -- update -- Here is a forecast from the NWS Los Angeles with forecast winds for 4am Thursday PST. This is an extraordinarily serious situation. It does make one wonder if turning off the electricity in the areas with the highest forecast winds for a few hours would be an effective mitigation measure as Dr. Mass suggests.

Here is some wisdom on hurricanes and global warming from Bjorn Lomborg .

It is vital to observe fire-prevention safety rules through Thursday.

After a dry October and November in the central and intermountain United States, I am getting worried that a drought may be developing over the next couple of months. Here is today's location of a large high pressure system along the West Coast. And, here is the forecast for 15 days from now. You'll note nothing much has changed except the high has gotten even larger and stronger. This means any large storms move east from the Pacific will be blocked from coming into the western half of the United States. It is my experience that this is often a precursor of a drought. I'll be keeping an eye on the situation as December progresses.

Of course, the problem may have been that a MARTA bus didn't drive between the Silverdome and the camera.