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UPDATE: The Shelbyville Times-Gazette has reported that 40,000 dead bodies may be found when New Orleans is drained and other hurricane areas, such as Biloxi, Mississippi, are cleaned up. This estimate was based on an interview by reporter Clint Confehr with mortuary owner Dan Buckner, who says the government has ordered 25,000 body bags for the cleanup. For more information, click here.
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This week on Dreamland Anne Strieber is back! Jim Kunstler is one of her favorite people, and she interviews him in a special edition of Dreamland. Her brilliance, wit and that warm voice are back–and it’s a great interview! In her new diary, she writes excerpts from their recent email conversations.

NOTE: This news story, previously published on our old site, will have any links removed.read more

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Many of us non-mathematicians are intrigued by the movie “Proof,” the TV show “Numbers” and the book “Freakenomics,” even though we don’t fully understand how math problems are solved. Now University of Massachusetts researchers have invented a new algorithm which solves the problem that has puzzled mathematicians for years: how does “six degrees of separation” work? This is the theory, made into a play and then a movie of the same name, that says that there are only 6 people between yourself and anyone in the world you want to make contact with.
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If we could desalinize ocean water in large amounts, many of the world’s water shortage problems would be solved. New research may make it possible to recycle ocean water for drinking. The California Dept. of Water Resources is extremely interested in this, since they are a high population state that is running out of water and is situated right on the ocean. One big problem is how to dispose of the salt that’s removed. The extremely salty water that is the byproduct of this process could be dumped back into the ocean (where it would have to eventually be removed again) or put into ponds for evaporation (which would produce sea salt, which could then be sold) or injected into the ground.
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