The Animal That Amplifies Itself


Amplify: to make a thing bigger or more powerful.


The characteristic that most distinguishes humans from our animal cousins is not the use of tools.  Nor is it the use of language.  Many animals use twigs or stones as tools.  Many animals have the ability to communicate alarm, distress, food sources and other matters.

The only thing, I suggest, that clearly separates humans from all other living things is that we are the only species which can amplify its behaviors.  Whatever biological faculty we wish to use we have a machine to amplify that faculty.  We invented machines to enhance our chances of survival.

Understanding Climate : #6 - Hypsography




I am trying to explain in this series the most important aspects of the sciences most relevant to climate as a cross-disciplinary study.  My intention is to help my readers to build up a sort of 'mental model' of the most important components of the earth's climate sytems.

The first parts covered mainly astronomical considerations: axial tilt, orbital eccentricity and solar variation, for example.

I now turn to the topic of hypsography.


New readers may wish to start at Understanding Climate : #1 - Components Of Climate.

Understanding Climate : #5 - Variations In Sunshine




Insolation variation

63 Years Old Solo Balloonist Reaches North Pole

Jean-Louis Etienne has made the first solo balloon voyage to the North Pole, traveling 3,130 kilometers - 1,945 miles - in five days from Norway to the tundra of eastern Siberia.

Jean-Louis Etienne has always liked rising to new challenges, especially when they combine adventure and scientific objectives. Adventures are the stuff that dreams are made of. They reveal a new way of looking at things, especially to young people, and can be a very effective means to convey scientific knowledge that in other forms sometimes falls on unreceptive ears.