Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten in the Afternoon

Because I was feeling a little guilty about not posting anything yesterday, here are four more news items to round out the second half of your day...

7. GEO-ENGINEERING SCHEME DEVOURED BY CRABS: Climate scientists trying to seed a section of ocean with dissolved iron so as to encourage the growth of CO2 devouring plankton succeeded! And then were quickly thwarted as millions (nay, billions!) of microscopic crab-like predators swept in to devour said plankton. Had the scheme paid off, it would have been a step forward for geo-engineering -- a newish, likely star-trek-inspired field that is attempting to find ways to change the planet's climate to cope with the effects of runaway global warming. Yeah... no way something like that could go awry. (AFP via GoogleNews)

8. ANOTHER REASON TO CHEER THE DEMISE OF THE NATIONAL POST: Over at DeSmog Blog, Mitchell Anderson looks at the ironies and hypocrisies in Lorne Gunter's calls for the dismantling of the CBC now that Gunter's own meal ticket is on the verge of financial collapse. I'd be able to wallow in the schadenfreude at the thought of Gunter lining up at soup kitchen or warming his hands over a flaming oil drum in a shantytown except that I know that CanWest is going to get that handout it's panhandling for. Like Anderson points out in his piece, Harper needs good little soldiers like Gunter and his crew at the Post, while he's happy to see the CBC go down the crapper because they generally won't roll over and be a good dog. (DeSmog Blog)

9. WHAT THE CBC IS CUTTING: To cope with its $171 million deficit, the CBC will be scaling back on sports coverage and on the number of episodes for some marquee shows. It's good to see that there are still no plans to add commercials to CBC radio. But, the most disturbing news is that 80 jobs will be cut from CBC News and jobs will also be lost at the Fifth Estate. (Globe and Mail)

10. ADA LOVELACE DAY: March 24 was the first Ada Lovelace Day, a day in which bloggers celebrated the achievments of women in technology. Ada Lovelace was a 19th century countess who, through her work with Charles Babbage, has been creditted as being the first computer programmer. (My daughter is named after her.) Suw Charman-Anderson, the organizer behind Ada Lovelace Day, hoped to get 1,000 bloggers to pledge to write about women who've done inspiring things in science and technology. 1,980 signed up. You can peruse some of the posts people wrote here. (FindingAda.com)