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Find out what's
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for Link, click Headline“ I cannot
think that we are useless or God would not have created us.
There is one God looking down on us all. We are all the children
of one God. The sun, the darkness, the winds are all listening
to what we have to say. ”
—Geronimo
September 30, 2011
OPEC would normally hold a meeting this time of year, but has
met only once so far in 2011 despite the tumultuous happenings
in the world of oil and in the wider global economy.
High in the deer-and-antelope country of central Wyoming,
Duke Energy’s 11-month-old flagship 200MW Top of the World wind
farm is a sight to behold.
Solar manufacturer Sondra's assets, including a California
plant that it built with the help of a $535 million loan
guarantee from the federal government, will be auctioned on
October 27, a US Bankruptcy Court judge in Delaware said.
Will a monthly debit card fee soon be the norm?
Bank of America said on Thursday that it plans to start
charging a $5 monthly fee when customers make debit card
purchases. The fee will be rolled out early next year.
We have finally been given permission to discuss this
technology that we consider to be at the very top of our list of
emerging clean energy technologies. Solid state, low (for now)
continuous power, commercial in maybe 24 months, cheap, high
power density, no existing physics laws broken.
Researchers at UC Merced have created a new kind of solar
thermal system that generates high temperatures and efficiency
levels without having to track the sun.
China's solar-power companies are
emerging as the industry's dominant force after the collapse of
foreign competitors, but the new market leaders already are
struggling with low prices and overcapacity.
The US$535 million project consisting of Vestas V90
1.8 MW wind turbines, will provide power to the Public
Service Company of Colorado, a subsidiary of Xcel Energy,
under a power purchase agreemen
Council unanimously approved a new rate structure for
Colorado Springs Utilities that will allow community solar
gardens in which residents buy a share of a large solar project
rather than installing panels on their own roof.
A new federally funded study argues that wind energy from
Wyoming is the most cost-effective method to help California
meet its growing energy needs.
Sage Environmental Services, a Seattle, Wash.-based company,
released a documentary this month examining zero waste.Titled
"Unwasted: The Future of Business on Earth," the documentary
gives tips to small businesses on how to meet zero waste goals
with a step-by-step breakdown.
Dominion officials informed the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission on Tuesday night that the reactors tripped because
seismic vibrations caused internal power levels to drop and
control rods to automatically interrupt the nuclear fission
process, shutting the units down, just after the quake struck at
1:51 p.m. approximately 11 miles away.
As concerns continue to rise over man-made carbon dioxide
entering the atmosphere, various groups of scientists have begun
developing filters that could remove some or all of the CO2
content from smokestack emissions
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday turned up the
pressure on the country's military rulers to change a disputed
new election law, even holding out the possibility of a boycott
of upcoming parliamentary elections unless the bill is amended.
Egypt's caretaker military government announced Wednesday
that the emergency law that allows it to jail people without
charges and try civilians before military courts will not be
lifted until the middle of next year.
The announcement angered political activists and human rights
advocates...
Worldwide energy consumption grows by 53 percent between 2008
and 2035 in the Reference case, with much of the increase driven
by strong economic growth in the developing nations especially
China and India...China alone, which only recently became the
world's top energy consumer, is projected to use 68 percent more
energy than the United States by 2035."
The wells, located in Romulus, Mich., about 20 miles west of
Detroit, were opened in 2002, but closed in 2006 after the EPA
said the facility had poor record keeping and inexperienced and
ill-trained operators.
The waste stored in the wells contains contaminants including
heavy metals and chemicals, the newspaper reported.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) announced today that 25 percent of all single-family homes
built nationally in 2010 earned EPA’s Energy Star, up from 21
percent in 2009.
Like a paper bag sitting on a mound of gelatin -- just add
water and you've got a mess.
That's how plaintiffs' expert witness B. Dan Marks described
what happened when a coal fly ash impoundment failed at TVA's
Kingston Fossil Plant, 2008.
Is the tax system in the United States fair?
That's kind
of a trick question, as fairness and unfairness are usually in
the eye of the beholder. Often, a case for fairness boils down
to nothing more than self interest. And because there is no
final word on the subject, the debate can go on forever.
According to Einstein's restricted theory of relativity,
nothing can travel faster than light in a vacuum. Up until
today, that had pretty much seemed to be the case, too. Early
this morning, however, researchers from the Geneva-based OPERA
project announced that the results from one of their recent
experiments indicate that neutrinos can in fact outrun light
particle
The case "could be a precedent," Jaeckle said, paving the way
for districts throughout the state to put up solar systems.
During arguments, Thomas Caffrey, solicitor for the zoning
hearing board, said the application was rejected because the
project, totaling 7,000 panels, was not customarily incidental
to the elementary school.
A fire at Shell's Pulau Bukom refinery on an island near the
Singapore mainland was extinguished late Thursday night, local
time, after blazing intermittently for 36 hours. The massive
fire sent plumes of black smoke high into the atmosphere.
Tellingly, when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave
his speech before the General Assembly of the United Nations
yesterday, he made no mention of the this year’s uprisings in
the Middle East known as the Arab Spring—and with good reason.
The recent emergence of Arab Spring is clearly of historical
significance to the Arab peoples who are so courageous in their
bloody struggles against oppressive governments. But it also
promises to be of importance for those committed to Tribal
sovereignty.
Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reached an all-time
high in 2010, rising 45% in the past 20 years. Rising rapidly
between 1990 and 2010, global atmospheric CO2 levels totaled 33
billion metric tons last year, according to a report published
by the European Commission’s Joint Research Center and PBL
Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. Global CO2
emissions fell 1% in 2009, during the Great Recession, but rose
at an unprecedented 5% rate in 2010. That was similar to
the drop and greater emissions growth in 1975 and 1976, when the
global economy suffered through the first oil crisis, a
subsequent stock market crash and began a recovery in 1976, the
report authors note.
It’s a big testament to natural health advocates when even
mainstream pop culture chimes in to highlight the ridiculous
things in our food – stuff we actually chew and digest. It goes
to show that the hard work in spreading the word does not fall
on deaf ears.
This article only touches on six food industry horrors –
there are many, many more of course. Some of them include the
wood pulp,
orange juice flavor packets,
and fake blueberries
Representing one of the most agriculturally bio-diverse
nations in the world, India has become a primary target for
biotechnology companies like Monsanto and Cargill to spread
their genetically-modified (GM) crops into new markets. However,
a recent France 24 report explains that the Indian
government has decided to take an offensive approach against
this attempted agricultural takeover by suing Monsanto for
"biopiracy," accusing the company of stealing India's indigenous
plants in order to re-engineer them into patented varieties.
Have you tried to lead a friend down a healing path only to
hear, “But organic is sooo expensive! I can eat fast food for
less.” In lieu of doing your own experiment, let’s crunch the
numbers.
A new report claims that Obamacare is only negligibly
responsible for the surge in health insurance premiums this
year, but former New York Lt. Gov. and healthcare expert Betsy
McCaughey says its provisions do come with a steep price and
there is “no tooth fairy.”
In many cities air pollution is reaching levels that threaten
people's health according to an unprecedented compilation of air
quality data released today by WHO (World Health Organization).
The information includes data from nearly 1100 cities across 91
countries, including capital cities and cities with more than
100,000 residents
We've previously looked at the development of cancer
treatments that deliver drugs directly into cancer cells before
releasing their chemotherapeutic payload to reduce the damage
done to healthy cells. But a new protein "switch" approach
developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University changes the
game again by instructing cancer cells to produce their own
cancer medication and cause the cancer cells to self-destruct
while sparing healthy tissue.
Three New York entrepreneurs have unveiled plans to turn a
long abandoned underground train terminal into a lush and
thriving garden
For twenty years – long before 9/11 – the danger of
terrorists armed with surface to air missiles shooting at
passenger planes has been the secret fear of many top political
leaders. In the late 90s, a terrorist network was nabbed
trying to bring them into Newark Airport, but the airline
industry and the government have done nothing to equip passenger
airplanes with any defense against these always deadly missiles.
Now Barack Obama has committed the ultimate sin: He has let
20,000 surface-to-air missiles escape from military depots in
Libya.
Plants absorb carbon dioxide and exhale Oxygen. They are a
major part of the global cycle. The global uptake of carbon by
land plants may be up to 45 per cent more than previously
thought.
Rising inflation is a fact of life worldwide. More ominously,
some authorities in the developed world are signalling that some
inflation would help to get their economies out of the public
debt hole, as happened after the Second World War.
C1 event, Type II Radio Sweep with an estimated speed of 608
km/s was associated with this event...does appear to be
Earthdirected...chance for isolated M-class and X-class
events..Solar wind speeds jumped slightly to 600 km/s...he
geomagnetic field is
expected to be quiet to unsettled with a
chance for isolated active
periods
Scientists have reversed the aging process in human adult
stem cells, which are in turn responsible for replacing aged
cells throughout the body.
Italian Inventor, Andrea Rossi, has invited scientists from
around the world to perform an important test on his E-Cat cold
fusion reactor on October 6th. This test will be held at the
University of Uppsala in Sweden and should hopefully erase all
doubt about the validity of the Energy Catalyzer technology.
The U.S. EPA announced the settlement, saying the company had
more than 480 Clean Water Act violations at 14 on-shore and
off-shore Alaskan processing facilities. The violations included
discharging waste without a permit, exceeding discharge limits,
discharging waste into two National Wildlife Refuges and
creating underwater piles of fish that were left after the
processing was completed.
One of the main drawbacks of wind turbines is the fact that
for maximum efficiency, the power that they generate must be fed
into the grid right as the wind is blowing and their blades are
spinning. While that power can be stored in batteries
for later use, some of it will always be lost in the process.
Sweden's experimental new SeaTwirl system, however, is designed
to kinetically store wind energy until it's required - it's
basically a seagoing flywheel.
Siemens will continue to
work in the power industry but drop out of the nuclear sector
On October 11th - 17th, NST will be opening for Solar Power
International with leading solar training bootcamps. The
instructors are bestselling authors! (in the solar industry).
The falling cost of PV continues to wreak havoc on manufacturers
of other solar power technologies. The latest casualty is
Stirling Energy Systems (SES), maker of the SunCatcher, a 25-kW
solar-powered stirling engine designed specifically for the
utility market.
A solar storm born of a monster sunspot delivered a "glancing
blow" to Earth, with little impact on electrical systems, U.S.
space weather experts said on Tuesday.
"The current storm is probably at its end," said Joe Kunches,
a scientist at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center in
Boulder, Colorado. "It seems that the solar wind that was really
energized ... seems to have passed us by."
Two cases that are currently making their way
to the Supreme Court may well in the short term decide the
constitutional issue of the reach and extent of the federal
government. At stake, in other words, is the future of limited
government. And together, these two cases present an exceedingly
odd situation.
The car is not going to disappear anytime soon and neither is
the combustion engine, despite the inevitable rise in fuel
prices. We have said it before, electrical motors are an
energy-efficient method for driving vehicles but battery
technology is simply not going to advance quickly enough for
all-electric vehicles to be a practical reality for most uses
anytime soon.
Tucked within the pages of the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act was just the latest element of
unsustainability that was dubbed by Democrat Senator Kent Conrad
(ND) as a "Ponzi scheme of the first order, the kind of thing
that Bernie Madoff would have been proud of"--namely, the CLASS
Ac
US crude oil inventories climbed 1.915 million barrels to
340.963 million barrels during the week that ended September 23,
as imports rose while refiners cut runs, data released by the US
Energy Information Administration (EIA) Wednesday showed.
The U.S. EPA is proposing adding groundwater treatment to a
superfund site in southeastern Idaho as part of the final
cleanup decision on the site.
In what the U.S. EPA calls one of the largest and most
comprehensive superfund groundwater cleanups in California, the
agency is ordering a $60 million cleanup of rocket fuel-polluted
groundwater at the Aerojet superfund site.
The conventional 30-year fixed averaged an all-time record
low at 4.01 percent; likewise the 15-year fixed averaged an
all-time record low at 3.28 percent for the week. Of the five
regions surveyed in Freddie Mac's survey, the West region
recorded the lowest average rate for the 30-year fixed dipping
below 4.00 percent to 3.95 percent.
Total net US oil import dependence in July reversed downward
after two months of increases, as the US exported record levels
of several key petroleum products, according to data released
Thursday by the US Energy Information Administration.
oose monetary policies designed to increase jobs demand and
ultimately, economic growth, may open the way to just a little
inflation.
Yet that can be a very dangerous thing, says
Paul Volcker, former head of the Federal Reserve.
- 1 more week of Summer: as
2011 Net Results are pre-determined, one can assess Regions due
for cool down/warm-up....
The rating downgrades reflect the effect of the financial
crisis on Europe and its expansion beyond the PIIGS countries
(Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain). Since April, all
six European nations have witnessed deterioration in financial
market stability and other factors, with the most significant
declines occurring in Austria and the Czech Republic.
The hardest part of zero waste is what does it really mean?
Most of our customers à on average, are saying 92% of material
must be recycled. And at that definition, it´s absolutely
possible.
September 27, 2011
The skies around the Loring Commerce Centre will look a bit
different this fall now that a Massachusetts-based business has
secured the rights to test its airborne wind turbines at the
former air force base.
As four women stepped onto exercise machines and began their
workouts at Drexel University's recreation center, a small neon
sign nearby began to glow.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged the nine
essential countries that have not ratified the Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty to do so quickly, with the aim of
bringing it into force by 2012.
Scientists are warning that death rates linked to climate
change will increase in several European countries over the next
60 yrs.
Non-prescription and prescription drug related deaths have
surpassed automobile accident deaths – do you know what that
entails? A lot of tragic funerals…
Egypt's foreign minister said Monday his
country will always respect its landmark peace treaty with
Israel and is seeking ways to strengthen its "strategic
relationship" with the United States
"Being exposed to these compounds is the hidden cost of our
lifestyle," said Lohmann. "It's frustrating that as we ban the
use of some chemical compounds, industry is adding new ones that
we don't know are any better."
Two executives from an electronic-waste recycler have been
indicted on charges of wire and mail fraud, environmental
crimes, exportation contrary to law and destruction or
falsification of records.
Beyond the police roadblocks that mark the no-go zone around
Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, six-foot tall weeds
invade rice paddies and vines gone wild strangle road signs
along empty streets.
That's what climate scientist James Hansen calls the proposed
Keystone XL oil pipeline. That pipeline would run right through
America’s heartland, carrying toxic oil from Canada’s tar sands
to oil refineries on Texas' Gulf Coast. The extraction and
transportation process associated with tar sands oil would
produce more carbon emissions than traditional oil -- while also
causing extreme environmental damage along the way
The two biggest clean energy programs to come out of the
Recovery Act have been the cash grants in lieu of tax credits,
and the federal loan guarantees for projects and innovative
technologies. The loan programs’ time is winding down.
Shale has changed everything.
So great is the
turnaround that combined crude production from the
United States and
Canada
is expected to exceed the peak production of the early 1970s and
to keep the Cushing storage hub oversupplied through at least
2016
Most U.S. voters said they don't think government help is the
best way to develop alternative energy sources, a Rasmussen
Report survey indicated.
More than 2,000 "Moving Planet" clean-energy demonstrations
took place today around the world - at UN Headquarters in New
York, in all 50 U.S. states and in 175 countries.
Over the last 70 years, groundwater in Arizona's alluvial
basins was depleted by more than 74.5 million acre-feet, or
approximately three times the maximum storage of Lake Powell.
The Obama administration Monday cleared the way for the
Supreme Court to decide in its 2011-12 term the president's
signature healthcare law that requires Americans to buy
insurance or face a penalty.
The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since
Alaska 's Prudhoe Bay , and has the potential to eliminate all
American dependence on foreign oil.
There are about 1,500 organic farmers
in Saskatchewan, at last count. They eschew the synthetic
fertilizers and toxic sprays that are the mainstay of
conventional farms. Study after study indicates the conventional
thinking on farming - that we have to tolerate toxic chemicals
because organic farming can't feed the world - is wrong.
Pakistan’s army chief on Monday scrapped a visit to London as
Islamabad refused to bow to mounting US demands for action
against al Qaeda-linked Haqqani extremists holed up in the
country’s northwest.
Many people enjoy potatoes which also have historical
significance such as the great Irish great potato famine that
forced many to emigrate. Fruit are also
perceived as healthy
Want to glimpse into the future of hydropower and the factors
that threaten our cheap rates?
Several C-class flares chance for M-class during the period
(28-30 September). There will also be a chance for an X-class
flare.An isolated period of major to severe storm levels were
observed. he geomagnetic field is expected to be at quiet
to unsettled levels on day one (28 September). Quiet levels are
expected on days two and three (29-30 September).
A Saudi lawyer and rights advocates say authorities will
bring a Saudi activist to trial for defying the kingdom’s female
driving ban.
...the same day that Saudi King Abdullah introduced reforms
giving women the right to vote and run in local elections four
years from now.
The Senate reached a bipartisan spending agreement on Monday
to avert a government shutdown, sidestepping a bitter impasse
over disaster financing after federal authorities said they
could most likely squeak through the rest of this week with the
$114 million they had on hand.
If your child is shy or sad sometimes, he or she could become
easy targets for mental disorder diagnosis and psychotropic
drugs.
A category S1(Minor) Solar Radiation Storm was observed from
23-26 September due to solar activity from active sunspot Region
1302.
Several Category R1 (Minor) - R3 (Strong) Radio
Blackouts were observed during the period. The largest events
were on 22 and 24 September due to flare activity from sunspot
Region 1302.
Thailand's rivers are being increasingly polluted by
industrial wastewater and solid waste dumping, but activists and
residents say the Thai government has no clear strategy for
water pollution prevention.
Actual 'menace to society'
When life hands you a lemon tree, the USDA takes it away! And
don’t even think of making lemonade with any more trees –
they’ll take those too.
A special HFA interview with Bridget Donovan,
aka “The Lemon Tree Lady,” USDA’s Most Wanted.
Worrying about whether to buy organic or non-organic produce?
Chances are you’re probably not getting enough anyway.
Nothing is more inspiring to a home cook than seasonally
rotating fruits and vegetables. The taste, the freshness, color
and variety are dramatically noticeable when one starts buying
seasonal, local, fresh produce.
We drink it, we bathe in it and we play in it. Water is
essential to our everyday lives, yet water quality in streams
and lakes can be profoundly influenced by the organisms that
live in these habitats.
The House Republicans are calling it the TRAIN Act, but
environmentalists are calling it a "train wreck." Today the House passed the Transparency in Regulatory
Analysis of Impacts on the Nation (TRAIN) Act of 2011 (H.R.
2401), which would dismantle core elements of the Clean Air Act.
Turkey's Tupras is not planning to lift any more Syrian crude
oil due to difficulties with financing after the company loaded
its last cargo at the end of last week, crude traders said
Tuesday.
Two Tibetan monks in southwestern China set themselves on
fire, the government and Tibetan freedom activists said, the
latest in a spate of such self-immolations that the campaigners
said represented an unprecedented escalation of protests over
curbs on religious freedom.
Sales of new single-family homes in the US declined 2.3% in
August to a six-month low of 295,000 annualized units, which was
in line with market expectations. The monthly decline is the
fourth consecutive, following the revised drops of 0.3%, 1.6%,
and 2.5% in July, June, and May, respectively
The average US retail price for regular gasoline dropped by
9.2 cents to $3.509/gal in the survey week ending Monday,
according to Energy Information Administration data.
The
national average is 81.5 cents higher than a year ago.
Earth, the blue planet. Earth’s blue appearance in space is
due to that fact that 70% of its surface is covered in water.
Since water played such an essential role in the development of
our planet and the evolution of all living organisms here, it
should come as no surprise that water is essential to all life
on Earth. Without it, every single living thing on Earth would
die.
A GMO (genetically modified organism) is the result of a
laboratory process where genes from the DNA of one species are
extracted and artificially forced into the genes of an unrelated
plant or animal.
There is enough water in the world's rivers to meet the
demands of the expanding global population, but the rivers have
to be better managed, according to a series of studies released
today at the 14th World Water Congress in Porto de Galinhas,
Brazil.
September 23, 2011
Five percent? That's the EIA's projected global increase in
renewable energy generation by the year 2035. You'd think that
nearly 30 years of technological, business and environmental
inroads would make a bigger dent in the world's future energy
mix.
Is there now any doubt we face a gathering storm?
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not a world leader worthy of the world
stage. He is the evil leader of an Shia Islamic death cult. He
is building nuclear weapons. He is calling for the end of the
world and the arrival of the Twelfth Imam. He aspires to be a
mass murderer beyond the scale of Adolf Hitler.
THIS SUMMER, an innovative 20-megawatt
capacity flywheel energy storage plant was officially opened in
Stephentown, N.Y.
The plant, the largest of its type in service in North
America today, will be used by the New York Independent System
Operator to help store excess energy when power generated
exceeds the load. When load levels increase, the energy can be
delivered back to the grid.
Japan's Fukushima nuclear accident six months ago sparked
doubts about the future of nuclear power across the globe and
especially in Europe, highlighted by Germany's decision to quit
the energy source and Italy's referendum to ban it for decades.
But in a sign that the worst such disaster in a quarter of a
century may slow rather than stop nuclear energy growth, other
big economic and political powers used a U.N. meeting this week
to reaffirm their commitment to atomic energy.
US crude stocks tumbled 7.336 million barrels during the week
that ended September 16, as a recovery in production was trumped
by a decline in imports and a jump in refinery operations, data
released Wednesday by the US Energy Information Administration
(EIA) showed.
Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley,
found that napping an hour can dramatically restore and boost
your brain power. Amazingly, they found a nap can actually make
you smarter.
As Americans anxiously watch stock market fluctuations,
mothers and fathers a continent away are making choices about
which of their children to save. In East Africa, worry about
one’s retirement investments is a fairy tale woe compared to the
daily struggle for life that many face.
While touring the grounds
of Duke Energy’s power facilities that included a nuclear energy
plant, this reporter was forewarned that “our every move is
being monitored.” Security has always been tight. But since the
terroristic acts of 2001, the precautions have become much
stronger.
Her malnourished lifestyle altered her genes affecting her
health until the very end. We aren’t doomed to the genes of our
ancestors – we have more control than we think. A lot is
unfolding in the new science of epigenetics; the study of the
effects of outside forces (diet and environment) on the changing
of our gene expressions
What if there was a mobile app to help us understand our
planet? A guide to tell us how to reduce our dependence on
fossil fuels and increase our use of renewable energy? PBS has
answered this need with Earth: The Operators’ Manual—a visually
stimulating and informative one-hour program on how science can
help us respond to
climate
change and move toward clean, green energy
solutions.
Two battery manufacturers are teaming up to combine the
capacity of a golf cart battery with the compactness of a cell
phone battery, in an effort to create technology that can store
power from the wind and sun.
For months, Libyan rebels and their international supporters
insisted that Libya was not going to become another endless
conflict in the model of Iraq or Afghanistan. And when Tripoli
was taken by rebels a month ago, it seemed to many that the war
was over.
With the possible exception of those affected by
hyperthylmesia - a rare condition where a person has an
extraordinary capability to recall events from their past - most
of us wouldn't mind having our memory enhanced. That's just what
appears to have happened to a group of mice when targeted areas
of their brains were electrically stimulated.
A southern California family has been fined for holding
regular
Bible
studies at their home because it violates a city
zoning code, The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
This marks the first time in 10 months that apparent oil
demand has dipped below nine million b/d and reflects a
softening in refined product consumption, compounded by a
shrinking of crude oil use due to refinery repairs and
incidents.
the Chinese government at both the local and national level
indeed has provided rich subsidies to its photovoltaic industry
not unlike the incentives granted by the Bush and Obama
administrations and countless state and local governments to our
industry. It is also true that these investments by the Chinese
include a host of unsuccessful bets.
Carlsbad city officials are asking the state to reject a new
power plant planned just east of the aging Encina Power Station
or force the company behind the proposal to keep its promise to
tear down the seaside Encina station once the new plant is
built.
Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2)increased by 45 %
between 1990 and 2010, and reached an all-time high of 33
billion tons in 2010. Increased energy efficiency, nuclear
energy and the growing contribution of renewable energy are not
compensating for the globally increasing demand for power and
transport, which is strongest in developing countries. This
increase took place despite emission reductions in
industrialized countries during the same period.
Republican leaders were scrambling on Thursday to find the votes
to keep the government funded after the embarrassing defeat of a
spending bill threw into question Congress' ability to pass
basic laws.
Stocks have closed sharply lower after investors sold stocks
with abandon, convinced that the U.S. and the world are headed
for a new recession.
Stocks plunged Thursday, extending a rout around the world.
Indicators across the financial markets had investors concerned
that there's no clear way the U.S. will avoid another recession.
The United States will enforce a Bush-era standard on smog
pollution after the White House, under pressure from
Republicans, killed a tougher plan, the country's top
environmental regulator said on Thursday.
It's all a bit difficult to believe, and I probably wouldn't
be mentioning it to you were it not for some hard facts that
support the key points about the earthquakes not being natural.
They have the same seismological signature as what accompanies a
nuclear blast detonated a few miles below the Earth's surface.
A salt water pipeline leak offshore Alabama has forced
ExxonMobil to halt gas production in the Mobile Bay area of the
Gulf of Mexico, the company said on Thursday.
If you've taken prescription medications for colds and
allergies, you could have inadvertently put your health on the
line. The FDA has announced plans to pull 500 ineffective
prescription drugs off the market. These drugs are cold
and allergy medications that have untested combinations of cough
suppressing ingredients and decongestants - a possibly dangerous
mix.
The FDA has issued a proposed mandate that represents the
greatest threat to dietary supplements since 1994. Back in the
early 1990s, consumers were so alarmed by FDA bullying that they
staged a massive revolt. The result was that Congress passed a
law prohibiting the FDA from banning popular nutrients (as the
agency had threatened to do).
The Federal Reserve said Wednesday it will shuffle $400
billion of its portfolio to try to drive down long-term interest
rates and get the economy going. But economists doubted it would
do much good, the stock market sold off, and the Fed itself was
unusually divided over the strategy.
A federal appeals court Wednesday reversed part of a lower
court’s ruling that let Arizona require that some Medicaid
recipients make co-payments for their medical care.
...fixed-rate mortgages changing little amid sluggish
economic, mixed housing data, and ongoing concerns over the
European debt markets. The 30-year fixed remained unchanged at
4.09 percent, while the 15-year fixed dropped a single basis
point to 3.29 percent, marking a new record low.
What does the flood of shale gas mean for liquefied natural
gas imports, or LNG, in the United States? Odds are that the
growth of such frozen gas that is shipped from aboard will
remain flat at best. But that does not preclude its expansion
overseas or its use in this country if natural gas consumption
endures.
When you can't access your normal food supplies, what
do you do?
Emergency food storage is for more than just camping, of
course. It's perfect for any time that you can't access your
normal food supplies
Stuxnet, the cyberweapon that attacked and damaged an Iranian
nuclear facility, has opened a Pandora's box of cyberwar, says
the man who uncovered it....
With Stuxnet as a "blueprint" downloadable from the Internet,
he says, "any dumb hacker" can now figure out how to build and
sell cyberweapons to any hacktivist or terrorist who wants "to
put the lights out" in a US city or "release a toxic gas cloud."
The locals live with the risk. With a surplus of crops
growing in the adjacent countryside, the fruits circulate in
Fukushima like proverbial American fruitcakes at Christmas. We
conspired to regift a box of pears to one neighbor, but they
beat us to it and gave us another box. So we eat them all.
The world's major industrialized nations pledged Tuesday
quick and concrete action with a long-term political and
economic impact to support Arab nations as they move along the
road to democratic reform after uprisings that toppled
authoritarian rulers.
Because wind turbines or solar panels are too obtrusive on
the landscape, geothermal energy may be a better option for
developing renewable energy in the city, Oregon Mayor Mike
Seferian said.
"To us, it's more appealing when it's underground," Mr.
Seferian said at a city meeting last week.
Sabha -- a dusty city southwest of Tripoli -- has long been
considered a staunch pro-Moammar Gadhafi stronghold, but many of
its residents greeted fighters from the new government warmly as
they rolled into the city Tuesday.
Increasing competition, diminishing subsidies and falling
costs for silicon have put increasing pressure on manufacturers
of crystalline silicon (x-Si) cells and modules. These
competitive pressures have prompted many tier-1 players to
develop higher efficiency solar panels, using emerging
technologies such as selective emitter, HIT (heterojunction with
intrinsic thin layer), or buried contact technology, according
to a new report from Lux Research.
Rescue workers with sensors and sniffer dogs searched through
rubble on Wednesday for more survivors of an earthquake that has
killed at least 100 people in a remote Himalayan region and left
many, including 400 foreigners, stranded in far-flung areas.
More than 3,000 people have been rescued in the Indian state
of Sikkim, the epicenter...
They talked about a lot of things at the Alaska Oil & Gas
Congress in Anchorage earlier this week. There's the issue of a
gas pipeline to take natural gas away from the North Slope. Does
it go to Alberta and into the North American grid, or does it go
to Valdez for export as LNG?
Chinquapin the whimbrel made it through Hurricane Irene,
flying from Nunavut to the Caribbean.
Hurricane Irene may have shut down New York City and
caused rivers throughout the northeastern United States to
overrun their banks, but the storm did not daunt one
determined shorebird from its migratory path.
For years, the Pentagon has been saying that climate change
is perhaps the biggest threat to American security of all. Back
in 2004, a report commissioned by Pentagon defense adviser
Andrew Marshall, the man behind the restructuring of the US
military under Donald Rumsfeld, predicted that "abrupt climate
change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as
countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure
dwindling food, water and energy supplies." The report went on
to declare that the threat to global stability posed by climate
change was indeed greater than that of terrorism.
The Tohoku region has been trying to rebuild following a
magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, with some
local governments showing willingness to invest in renewable
energy following the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
plant.
Jefferson County Commissioners have
approved a conceptual settlement in their efforts to address the
County's wastewater debt crisis and avoid the largest municipal
bankruptcy in U.S. history.
News outlets have been forced to admit a large new study that
proves children can benefit from raw milk, and fare unwell
drinking typical pasteurized milk.
The good news is offered begrudgingly. The article below is
mostly a dig at raw milk, citing the usual cry of “dangerous
microorganisms” of which many are beneficial and kill off
harmful bacteria.
A 41-year-old Columbus, Ohio, man pleaded guilty to attempted
illegal disposal of hazardous waste after officials allege he
was smashing old televisions with a hammer to get recyclable
parts out of the electronic waste.
The Department of Defense -- eager to reduce its dependence
on oil in the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq and keen to
become energy-efficient at home -- is aggressively investing in
clean technology, from advanced biofuels to electric vehicles,
solar-powered batteries and blankets for soldiers in the field
and bases that generate their own electricity.
The decision means U.S. and allied troops could be involved
in Libya until Christmas. But the alliance's leader says forces
could be called home 'at any time' if help is no longer
necessary.
Japanese automaker has developed a car powered solely by
compressed air - no petrol, hydrogen or electricity is used to
run the vehicle.
Approximately sixty percent of coalition soldier deaths in
Iraq and Afghanistan are due to improvised explosive devices
(IEDs), placed along the roads. Because these bombs are often
planted in public areas, it is important to detect them in a way
that doesn't harm the surrounding infrastructure, or
unnecessarily require civilians to evacuate nearby buildings.
Researchers from Michigan State University believe that a
laser-based system that they developed could fit the bill.
Nuclear power will continue to play a key role in China's
plan to control greenhouse emissions, and the country to will
also focus on carbon capture and storage as a means of achieving
its emission reduction targets, the nation's top climate change
official was quoted as saying Friday.
The Obama administration is assembling a constellation of
secret drone bases for counterterrorism operations in the Horn
of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula as part of a newly
aggressive campaign to attack al-Qaida affiliates in Somalia and
Yemen, U.S. officials said.
The Ministerial Conference will bring together delegates from
53 countries across the pan-European region as well as delegates
from the United States, Canada and Israel. The conference
focuses on the challenges in protecting water and related
ecosystems, and on how to move towards a green economy.
An international team of scientists said on Thursday they had
recorded sub-atomic particles traveling faster than light -- a
finding that could overturn one of Einstein's long-accepted
fundamental laws of the universe.
The world is on the eve of the next financial crisis, with
sovereign debt its epicenter, said Mohamed El-Erian, chief
executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., which
runs the biggest bond fund.
The Great Lakes have faced various threats for years, from
industrial pollution to invasive species, but another challenge
worries many researchers these days - the emerging chemical
threat.
X1 flare was associated with Types II and IV radio sweeps, a
970 sfu Tenflare, and a full halo CME. This CME is not
expected to be geoeffective.The geomagnetic field is expected to
be quiet on days one and two (23-24 September). Quiet to
unsettled levels, with isolated active levels at high latitudes,
are expected on day three (25 September), due to a weak coronal
hole high-speed stream.
In an unusual move, Republican leaders of the House and
Senate are urging Federal Reserve policymakers against taking
further steps to lower interest rates.
With hydrogen atoms consisting of just a single electron and
single proton, its gaseous form made up of two hydrogen atoms
can be hard to contain. Hydrogen storage, along with hydrogen
production and the lack of infrastructure, remains a major
stumbling block in efforts to usher in hydrogen as a replacement
for hydrocarbon-based fuels in cars, trucks and even homes. But
with the multiple advantages hydrogen offers, developing
hydrogen storage solutions has been the focus of a great deal of
research.
Pure hydrogen doesn't occur naturally and it takes energy -
usually generated by fossil fuels - to manufacture it. Now
researchers at Pennsylvania State University have developed a
way to produce hydrogen that uses no grid electricity and is
carbon neutral and could be used anyplace that there is
wastewater near sea water.
As Defkalion continues to remain silent, Andrea Rossi's one
megawatt -- and mostly self sustaining -- Ni-H cold fusion
reactor nears launch. Rumors are circulating about the launch of
this system, photos and video of the device have been posted, a
test by NyTeknik has been performed on a new model of E-Cat, and
Rossi continues to make remarks on his blog...
Andrea Rossi has developed a game changing technology named
the E-Cat or "Energy Catalyzer." This technology utilizes nickel
powder, hydrogen gas, and an undisclosed catalyst to produce
vast amounts of thermal energy. The technology produces no
pollution, emits no radiation into the environment, and provides
the ability to produce almost limitless, dirt cheap energy.
Simply put, utilizing this technology a few grams of nickel
powder and a similar quantity of ordinary hydrogen gas, can
replace many barrels of oil. Andrea Rossi has made many
sacrifices to develop the E-Cat technology...
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday predicted Arctic
shipping routes along Russia's northern coast would soon rival
the Suez Canal as a quicker trade link from Europe to Asia.
Fracking, the latest craze in the quest to produce oil and
gas, has been blamed for environmental problems ranging from
flammable tap water to minor earthquakes. Now a new risk is
emerging: sand mining.
"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" was how the great
English poet John Keats described autumn. But for OPEC, the next
few months may turn out to be just a season of mists without the
fruitfulness.
As with just about any new technology, however, concerns have
been raised regarding its safety. We've never experienced
anything quite like it before, so how far should we trust it?
According to a recent study conducted at the University of
Plymouth, the answer to that question might be "Not very far."
The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced Wednesday
it will no longer dedicate extra staff hours to increased
groundwater testing at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant,
where a tritium leak was discovered last year.
A defunct NASA satellite the size of a bus that is expected
to fall to Earth on Friday will likely miss North America, NASA
said.
The agency's 13,000-pound (5,900 kg) Upper Atmosphere
Research Satellite, or UARS, has been slowly tumbling from orbit
since its mission ended in 2005.
Typhoon Roke has been downgraded to a low pressure system and
is moving northeast after making landfall Wednesday on the
Pacific coast of Japan's largest island of Honshu. The storm has
claimed 12 lives in six prefectures, from Nagasaki in
southwestern Japan to Kanagawa next to Tokyo; four other people
are missing. Across the country, 367 people have been injured.
A high-level meeting at the United Nations today concluded
that preventing the world's drylands from turning into deserts
will take innovative strategies and must be done at the same
time as climate change and poverty eradication are addressed.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said the nuclear accidents
at Fukushima and Chernobyl were a "wake-up call" requiring
global action to strengthen nuclear safety standards.
The United Nations set up a group that will seek to make
sustainable energy available universally.
Starting the joint U.N.-private sector initiative called
High-Level Group on Sustainable Energy for All,
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said inability to access
affordable and clean energy jeopardizes global efforts to combat
poverty and disease.
Unlike many of my northern friends who have had their fall
garden crops in the ground for weeks now, we in the South are
just getting around to planting those wonderful greens and
sundry vegetables that don't really like the heavy heat of our
summers. And while my "cool garden" spot was definitely a
success in expanding my spring gardening capabilities, this
winter's crop is what I'm really looking forward to tackling.
NASA employees are now holding their breath as the 6.6 ton (6
tonne) out-of-control Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS)
is falling faster than previously expected. Yesterday, NASA
announced that the decommissioned satellite is most likely to
crash into the earth's surface on Friday 23 September ... give
or take a day
Owners of mineral rights beneath the Allegheny National
Forest in Pennsylvania and the producers who want to extract
that oil and gas do not have to wait for the US Forest Service
to perform an environmental impact study before drilling, a
federal appeals court ruled.
The United
States and Pakistan have agreed to limit the number of American
troops in that country, amid frayed relations between the two
nations and a struggle to repair them, U.S. officials told The
Associated Press.
The presence of U.S. forces inside Pakistan is highly
unpopular there, and became more so following the U.S. military
raid inside Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden.
Walmart today announced its plan to install solar panels on
up to 60 additional stores in California, expanding the
company's solar portfolio to more than 75 percent of its stores
in the state, making California the first state in the nation
where Walmart has devoted this level of commitment to renewable
energy.
This year, FAO notes a World Bank finding that in 2010-2011
rising food costs pushed nearly 70 million people into extreme
poverty.
FAO has chosen “Food Prices – From Crisis to Stability” as
the theme for the 2011 World Food Day...
Every president since Nixon has advocated energy
independence. Energy expert Daniel Yergin does not. In fact, he
doesn't think that it would make the United States any more
secure.
September 20, 2011
Following controversy over U.S. state legislatures requiring
young girls to take Gardasil, Merck’s vaccine for human
papillomavirus (HPV), a number of severe side effects have been
observed along with the recent deaths
of 3 young girls. Gardasil is now marketed towards men and women
up to age 26 as a “preventative” tool against anal cancer.
President Mahmoud Abbas said he is sticking to his plan to
seek full United Nations membership for a Palestinian state
although "all hell has broken out" over the move opposed by the
United States and Israel.
With the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry in a downturn on
the heels of the worst recession in U.S. history, and the price
of PV module parts plummeting, it’s good to read some positive
news for a change.
And that’s exactly what ABI Research
offered recently in its projection that the United States will
become the world’s largest PV market by 2013.
U.S. ethanol exports in July set a new monthly record,
according to government data released today. Exports of
denatured and undenatured (non-beverage) ethanol totaled 127.4
million gallons in July, edging out the April total of 120.1
million gallons to set a new record. July exports were nearly
double the amount exported in June.
OPEC countries plan to bring on stream a total of 21 million
b/d of new oil capacity over the next five years, the
organization's secretary-general Abdalla el-Badri said Tuesday.
"Now we have investment of $312 billion for five years to
add more to the supply, about 21 million b/d gross," Badri told
reporters in Dubai.
Prescription drug manufacturers would be forced to develop a
national collection and disposal plan for waste pharmaceuticals
under a bill introduced in Congress.
A solar panel company in eastern China at
the center of violent protests over toxic waste apologized on
Monday for the trouble it had caused and promised to clean up
the mess.
The study, based on a computer model used to simulate
rainfall under different land-use conditions, found that cutting
down tropical forests in West Africa reduces precipitation over
neighboring forest areas by about 50 percent due to increased
temperatures over cropland areas. Higher temperatures affect the
formation of rain clouds.
Congress debates changes to cybersecurity law, some fear the
language too broad
According to the law as it stands right now, here are some
punishable offenses
A new report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration
(EIA) says worldwide energy consumption will increase by 53
percent between 2008 and 2035.
Renewable energy is expected to increase by 2.8 percent each
year and the renewable share of total energy use is forecast to
rise from 10 percent in 2008 to 15 percent in 2035, the report
says. However, fossil fuels will still account for 78 percent of
world energy use in 2035.
A Virginia company has been ordered to spend an estimated $20
million to build a groundwater cleanup system to address
contamination stemming from one of its former facilities in
Industry, Calif., the U.S. EPA announced.
One by one, the PIG economies - first Greece, then Ireland,
now Portugal - have gone to the EU and IMF trough to bail out
their debt-ridden economies.
The European Monetary Union is desperate to make sure that
the acronym of troubled economies doesn’t turn into PIGS. So
far, Spain has been spared.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CIFA) has deemed fish
tested in the wake of the Japan nuclear disaster as radiation
free, but will not divulge where samples were taken from.
By capturing greenhouse gases from hog waste and burning them
to run a turbine, the system produces enough electricity to
power 35 homes for a year. It is expected to be able to prevent
the release of greenhouse gases equivalent to nearly 5,000
metric tons of CO2 per year, the equivalent of taking
900 cars off the road.
Prime Minister Papandreou canceled his US trip and hinted at
further austerity measures after Europe's 'troika' of experts
expressed doubt about the Greek government's plans to avoid
default.
Social Security is always being raided. And some brave person
– typically an elected official or someone aspiring to be – is
always vowing to stop this outrage before our retirement system
is drained to the dregs....
Another way to look at the transaction, however, is that the
Social Security trust funds use the money left over after
benefits are paid to buy Treasury bonds. Either the “assets” in
the trust funds are worthless chits, or they are the safest
investment in the world. But the excess tax revenues have to be
invested in something.
Rescuers dug through mudslides on roads to isolated Himalayan
villages on Monday in search of survivors after a 6.9
magnitude earthquake killed 63 people in India, Nepal
and the Chinese region of Tibet.
I began to search for something that would equip me to teach
my children (and myself) the domestic arts—a sort of home
economics for homeschool, if you will. After talking with
several other homeschool moms I knew, I found an absolutely
wonderful resource that I fell in love with immediately.
Some 300,000 salmon, some weighing up to 99 pounds, once
migrated from the Strait of Juan de Fuca, a Pacific Ocean
outlet, into the Elwha River to spawn and die.
"They are killing the fish, and they are taking away from our
culture and our eating the fish," Smith, 94, told Reuters.
Her testimony helped spur an act of Congress...
Having a good laugh with friends really does help us to deal
with pain, suggests a new study. The international research
team, led by Oxford University, found that when we laugh
properly, as opposed to producing a polite titter, the physical
exertion leaves us exhausted and thereby triggers the release of
protective endorphins. These endorphins, one of the complex
neuropeptide chemicals produced in the brain, manage pain and
promote feelings of well being.
The world temperature should have risen more than it did,
scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research
reckoned.
They knew greenhouse gas emissions were rising during the
decade and satellites showed there was a growing gap between how
much sunlight was coming in and how much radiation was going
out. Some heat was coming to Earth but not leaving, and yet
temperatures were not going up as much as projected.
So where did the missing heat go?
Smart meter installers will knock on all of our doors. This
problem is not going away.
Devvy Kidd has documented her own battle in stopping the
installation. Her issue is one to consider: her husband who has
severe health problems requires medical machine hookups that
sustain his life. Machines that can be compromised under the new
smart grid. Not to mention, this didn’t stop her energy company
from threatening to shut their power off if they did not comply.
New Zealand's largest conservation organization today lodged
an appeal against a permit granted by the New Zealand government
for an open-cast coal mine on Denniston Plateau conservation
land.
US President Barack Obama on Monday introduced a wide-ranging
proposal to save the federal government $3 trillion over the
next 10 years by cutting spending and raising taxes, including
the repeal of a number of tax subsidies for the oil and gas
industry.
The Obama administration is making a last-ditch effort to
head off a major diplomatic embarrassment over the looming
Palestinian request for recognition of its statehood at the
United Nations.
The U.S. is applying diplomatic pressure
on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to persuade them to reopen
negotiations before the United Nations can take action.
The European debt crisis could destroy the European Union and
even throw the continent into war, says Polish Finance Minister
Jasek Rostowski.
More Americans today believe that global warming is occurring
compared to one year ago, according to a new Ipsos poll
conducted on behalf of Stanford University and Reuters news
agency and released today.
A university study finds that warming
streams could exterminate spring-run Chinook salmon in
California by the end of the century unless management options
are adopted that would affect hydroelectric generation.
About 7,500 gallons of raw sewage was spilled into Clark
Creek Wednesday, according to the Statesman Journal in Salem,
Ore.
A major expansion of renewable energy could create millions
of jobs worldwide, stir economic growth in heavily indebted
countries and help fight climate change at the same time, an
American adviser to the German leader Angela Merkel said on
Monday.
Scientists say they can break down peel into simple monomers
that can be used to make plastics and that there is no reason
why the technology could not be in wide use soon.
All life on Earth is carbon-based, which has led to the
widespread assumption that any other life that may exist in the
universe would also be carbon-based. Excluding the possibility
of elements other than carbon forming the basis of life is often
referred to as carbon chauvinism and researchers at the
University of Glasgow are looking to overcome this bias and
provide new insights into evolution by attempting to create
"life" from carbon-free, inorganic chemicals
As Obama tries to rally public support behind tax breaks and
spending on schools and bridges, the reaction on Capitol Hill
indicates that only a few fragments of the plan may become law —
most likely tax cuts to promote consumer demand and hiring. Many
Republicans dismiss Obama’s proposal as a warmed-over version of
the 2009 stimulus law they opposed.
Just days before the Obama administration triumphantly
announced the closing of a $535 million loan guarantee to
now-bankrupt California solar panel maker Solyndra in September
2009, a White House budget staffer fretted that not enough due
diligence was performed on the deal.
Syrian
forces shot dead at least six villagers and two rebel soldiers
on Monday, in a sweep of countryside north of the city of Homs,
one of the most defiant regions in pro-democracy protests,
activists and residents said.
Britain is burning. Strange that it should be so. After all,
the catastrophic economic news of recent days, including the
highly controversial downgrading of U.S. debt by Standard &
Poor's, the burgeoning euro crisis in continental Europe and the
market turmoil that followed both, has been made in New York
City
...this saying resonates with me whenever I think about
off-the-grid living. When you look at someone who has managed to
go off the grid or very close to it, it can be hard to imagine
how you can do the same. It can be intimidating to think of all
the things you would need to do to accomplish that level of
self-sufficiency, so instead of charging forward, it is easy to
want to retreat.this saying resonates with me whenever I think
about off-the-grid living. When you look at someone who has
managed to go off the grid or very close to it, it can be hard
to imagine how you can do the same. It can be intimidating to
think of all the things you would need to do to accomplish that
level of self-sufficiency, so instead of charging forward, it is
easy to want to retreat.
Big agriculture and the life sciences industry have developed
a symbiotic relationship that has proven fruitful – and
profitable – for both sides. The result has been a flood of
genetically engineered seeds, animals, and food crops that have
entered the food chain since the 1980s, forever revolutionizing
the way that farmers produce food for animal and human
consumption. Not content to rely on the carefully crafted
handiwork of the Creator, scientists working in the tradition
started by Dr. Frankenstein so many years ago have total faith
that they can improve on the Lord’s work and produce food
sources that are superior to the plants and animals that have
been feeding billions of humans throughout the ages
In his press conference last week, President Obama spent much
time attacking Republicans for failing to pass a debt ceiling
increase to his liking. He blamed Congress for running up the
bills in the first place, without mentioning it was also his
administration and a previous Congress led by Democrats who
authored and passed the legislation that so mightily added to
our $14 trillion federal debt.
Beneath our feet are many thousands of miles of pipe, some
more than 100 years old. Gas, oil, water and sewage seep, and
sometimes gush, through corroded joints and defective welds
every day. Pipeline owners often know nothing about the
condition of the lines they operate, and even less about where
the next gas explosion or contaminated city water supply will
occur.
At the high pressures and low temperatures which are found at
the bottom of the deep ocean, methane gas and water combine to
form a solid, crystalline substance -- methane hydrate. It is
very widespread in the parts of the deep ocean nearest to the
continents. If the ocean warms, the hydrate can become unstable
and methane gas is unlocked and can make its way into the ocean,
forming plumes of bubbles.
USA National Debt will be the talk of the hallways of our
nation’s Capital this summer. Why? Well, this past May, the USA
government hit its ceiling on how much the Treasury can borrow
to pay its bills – debt, pensions, services, and all of its
employees including solders. The Treasury bought some time and
has indicated that the US will be forced to default if the
ceiling isn’t raised by August 2, 2011.
The U.S. EPA announced that 15 hazardous waste sites have been
added to the National Priorities List of Superfund sites, and
another 11 have been proposed to be added to that list.The
federal program investigates and cleans up the most complex, and
often times abandoned, hazardous waste sites in the country. To
date, 1,652 locations have been listed on the NPL, with 350
cleaned up. The 11 proposals bring the total proposed superfund
sites to 62, the EPA said.
America's solar energy industry continues to advance, with
new federal loans for solar projects planned and the country's
most ambitious photovoltaics program in the works, despite the
high-profile bankruptcy of solar panel-manufacturer Solyndra.
"If you do just one thing -- make one conscious choice --
that can change the world, go organic.... No other single choice
you can make to improve the health of your family and the planet
will have greater positive repercussions for our future."
The Times Atlas of the World exaggerated the rate of
Greenland's ice loss in its thirteenth edition last week,
scientists said on Monday.
The atlas, published by HarperCollins, showed that Greenland
lost 15 percent of its ice cover over the past 12 years, based
on information from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in
Colorado in the United States.
The Greenland ice sheet is the second biggest in the world
and significant shrinking could lead to a global rise in sea
levels.
There is a limited amount of money that the world’s sovereign
governments can borrow in any single given year without
pressuring interest rates to rise above the point of
affordability. This limit is approximately 9% of the world’s
gross domestic product (GDP). The following graph chart
demonstrates this concept.
Rapidly escalating street battles between opponents of
Yemen's regime and forces loyal to its embattled president
spread to the home districts of senior government figures and
other highly sensitive areas of the capital on Tuesday. A third
day of fighting, including a mortar attack on unarmed
protesters, killed nine people, medical officials said.
September 16, 2011
Eng. Andrea A. Rossi and Professor Sergio Focardi of the
University of Bologna (one of the oldest universities in the
world, have announced to the world that they have a cold fusion
device capable of producing more than 10 kilowatts of heat
power, while only consuming a fraction of that. On January 14,
2011, they gave the Worlds' first public demonstration of a
nickel-hydrogen fusion reactor capable of producing a few
kilowatts of thermal energy. At its peak, it is capable of
generating 15,000 watts with just 400 watts input required. In a
following test the same output was achieved but with only 80
watts of continual input.
Researchers at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)
have obtained a formula for building a " Antimagnet." that can
nullify the magnetic field, a discovery that was published in
the New Journal of Physics.
Sea-ice coverage across the Arctic Ocean has dwindled to its
second-lowest level since satellite records started in 1979,
according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Dutch-speaking and Francophone parties reached a breakthrough
yesterday in the world’s longest negotiations to form a new
governing coalition a record 15 months after elections were
held.
"It is widely assumed that bioenergy is inherently
carbon-neutral -- however this assumption is flawed," said the
Scientific Committee of the European Environment Agency, the
EU's environment watchdog.
If we are to reap the
potential of the smart grid, we need to fight against a
century-plus of momentum that continues to favor central over
distributed, or local, resources...The reality today is central
station power has many negative externalities that are not
effectively priced into the electricity they make
Los Angeles-based KB Home plans a nationwide rollout this
week of its first net-zero house, designed to essentially
eliminate monthly electric bills.
If jobs are the Obama
administration’s first priority then one of its early stops is
at the gates of the hydropower sector. There, two federal
agencies have announced $17 million in funding over three years
for research and development to advance the renewable energy
source.
So laws often trample doctors’ natural right and their
patients’ right to choose the healthcare options they prefer.
Recent legislation introduced by Sen. Durbin and the FDA’s
disastrous NDI draft guidance offer even more evidence of
that—as if we didn’t already have enough!
Federal law clearly states that
licensed physicians may “manufacture, prepare, propagate,
compound, or process drugs solely for use in the course of their
professional practice” [21 USC 360(g)]. Furthermore, the Federal
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C) cannot regulate the
therapeutic practices themselves.
There are problems, however.
About 15,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil production
was shut in due to the pipeline leak, Chevron said. The company
said late on Tuesday it will resume partial production within 24
hours.
China's oil demand growth is expected to decelerate further
in the third and fourth quarters, after slowing down in August,
due to the combination of a weak economic outlook and a high
base of comparison for the second half of 2010, analysts from
Bernstein Research and HSBC said in separate research reports
Clean Edge Jobs is the premier source for
clean-tech job seekers, employers, and recruiters.
Search current openings among the job categories listed below.
While President Obama is
touting his new $447 billion jobs program as a bipartisan
endeavor he is remaining committed to his pledge of “change we
can believe in.” Indeed, payroll tax cuts for employers and
employees alike are drawing praise, enabling the president to
also push for better environmental and labor conditions.
The private sector needs to make a "quantum leap" by joining
forces in lobbying efforts, radically changing business models
and increasing investment in order to combat climate change, the
U.N.'s climate chief said on Wednesday.
There’s been a long rash of arrests over recording police
officers on duty; recording that floods the internet with
footage of police abuse. The First Circuit Court of Appeals made
an important decision last week to reaffirm the right to
videotape police on duty.
Record watchers in Dallas had something to cheer about on
Tuesday, or lament, depending on their point of view after this
summer officially logged more triple-digit days in north Texas
than any other on record.
Energy Future Holdings will be happy to keep 500 employees on
its payroll and to continue operating coal plants and mines, if
federal regulators would change a new pollution rule.
The euro zone crisis could wreck the European Union, top EU
officials warned on Wednesday as the leaders of Germany and
France held talks with Greece to avoid a default and widespread
chaos.
Europe's seas are changing at an unprecedented rate as ice
sheets melt, temperatures rise and marine life migrates due to
climate change, a report by the Climate Change and European
Marine Ecosystem Research (CLAMER) project warned.
Increasingly Pharma is funding the FDA. No wonder the agency
seems to dance to their tune.
Freddie Mac (OTC:FMCC.ob - News) today released the results
of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing
fixed-rate mortgages remaining near their 60-year lows as
ongoing investor concerns over the European debt market kept
Treasury bond yields low. The 30-year fixed averaged 4.09
percent, a new all-time low. The 15-year fixed, a popular
refinancing option, also reached a new record low for the week
averaging 3.30 percent.
When most of us think of highly customized aviation alcohols, we
probably think of the little bottles of Johnnie Walker. But a
handful of companies such as Cobalt, Gevo, Terrabon, LanzaTech
and ZeaChem are shaking up the emerging aviation biofuels
markets by developing renewable aviation fuels from ethanol
and/or biobutanol.
Lawrenceville Plasma Physics LLC has announced that they have
indisputable evidence that they have achieved 1 billion degrees
via plasma confinement. With another year of experimentation
followed by three years of development, they could be ready to
bring to market a 5 MW plant (size of the largest wind turbines)
that only costs $300,000.
The following offers LOADS of information regarding the
medicinal qualities of ginger! It includes many more benefits
than listed in the title, some cautions, and a simple recipe to
start enjoying it today.
The world will see far more incremental barrels of heavy
crude in the market over the next two decades than the
additional condensate supply that will come on stream, according
to an analyst at Hart Energy, a provider of specialized data and
information products to the energy industry.
Lawmakers are considering a House bill that would give
Americans who hold permits to carry firearms in their home
states the right to carry their weapons across state lines.
With over three decades of experience in the solar energy
industry, this is a tag line I hear all too often from the folks
who are more familiar with traditional energy sources. For some
reason, people in the US have a hard time understanding that
solar energy is cost effective;
Policeman chase anti-austerity
protesters near the Italian Parliament building in downtown Rome
Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2011. The confrontations came as the
Chamber of Deputies was holding a final vote on the entire
austerity package. Hundreds of people, some hurling smoke bombs,
marched through streets near Parliament.
There is no law actually prohibiting him from operating this
business, it is true, but, the enforcement side of the city–the
police–have determined that the lack of a law regulating a
business constitutes operating in violation of a law. Nielsen’s
drivers have received around 200 tickets and arrests now, over a
law that does not exist.
Default notices sent to
delinquent U.S. homeowners surged 33 percent in August from the
previous month, a sign that lenders are speeding up the
foreclosure process after almost a year of delays, RealtyTrac
Inc. said.
In one of Kenya's deadliest tragedies, more than 100 slum
dwellers scooping leaked oil from Nairobi storm drains were
killed today when the fuel exploded into flames. At least 160
others were seriously injured and were taken to Nairobi area
hospitals.
With the curtain coming down on the Space Shuttle Program,
NASA has set its sights on the future with the announcement of a
heavy-lift launch vehicle that is designed to take man beyond
the moon to explore near-Earth asteroids, Mars and its moons,
and beyond.
NASA has recently announced that an out-of-control, retired
satellite will come crashing into the earth's surface "sometime"
towards the end of September.
enior aides to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin originally
told me the PM was not going to come to the opening session of
the United Nations General Assembly this year. But things have
changed. Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, Iran and
Turkey are intensifying and Israel is becoming increasingly
isolated.
Above the objections of the governor and law enforcement, and
against the protests of Democrats who decried the lack of public
notice, the Republican-controlled House yesterday voted to allow
citizens to use deadly force in self-defense wherever they have
"a right to be" without attempting to retreat
When the President of the United States summons a joint
session of Congress in prime time and delivers a nationally
televised speech on the key issue facing the nation and speaks
well and forcefully but does not move up in the polls, he is
clinically dead.
OPEC crude production is still rising, as the latest Platts
survey shows. Total output from all 12 members rose to 30.13
million b/d in August from 30 million b/d in July.
The International Energy Agency projects that solar power
will grow steadily, producing nearly a quarter of the world's
electricity within four decades. Conservatively, that means more
than $3 trillion worth of solar panels will need to be
manufactured -- a vast economic and employment opportunity to be
seized by companies that succeed in this sector.
Scientists are beginning to get a picture of the
environmental impact of Tropical Storm Irene, which ripped
through some of the East Coast's most pristine rivers,
triggering hundreds of oil, chemical and sewage spills
Federal policymakers should find ways to enhance the
production, distribution and use of US-produced biomass gas, the
American Gas Foundation said in a report released Tuesday.
chance for isolated M-class flares, The geomagnetic field was
at predominantly quiet levels. The greater than 2 MeV electron
flux at geosynchronous orbit was at high levels throughout the
period. The geomagnetic field is...expected to be at unsettled
to active levels,
with isolated minor storm levels at high
latitudes on day two (17
September) as the CME
continues.
Rising
seas forecast from climate change will likely wash away some of
California's most iconic beaches by century's end, along with
hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate, roads and tax
revenues, a new study found on Wednesday.
Scores on the critical reading portion of the SAT college
entrance exam fell three points to their lowest level on record
last year, and combined reading and math scores reached their
lowest point since 1995.
The world's largest integrated
fixed-film activated sludge (IFAS) process is currently under
construction in Providence, RI, and is designed to protect water
quality and reduce the amount of nitrogen flowing into
Narragansett Bay.
The legislation still faces opposition from Republicans
controlling the House. They promise action on a competing plan
in the House next week that would provide $3.7 billion in
disaster aid but require $1 billion in immediate aid for the
2011 budget year to be "paid for" with offsetting cuts to an
Obama administration-backed loan program to encourage the
production of fuel-efficient vehicle
Bringing the number of planets discovered outside our solar
system to 645, the 50-planet haul includes 16 super-Earths
(planets with a mass between one and ten times that of Earth),
including one that orbits at the edge of the habitable zone of
its star.
This means that property owners can now install solar PV on
their apartment buildings or commercial multi-tenant properties
and virtually distribute those benefits across various tenants,
even if those tenants are not physically connected to the PV
array.
A steep drop in the cost of
solar
panels in recent months has spurred a significant
increase in the number of planned non-residential projects in
the U.S., an energy research company (Solarbuzz) reports. Large
cuts in factory gate module prices over the summer have resulted
in a significant increase in photovoltaic (PV) project
development activity in the US.
Billionaire investor George Soros has warned Europe's debt
crisis risks triggering another Great Depression unless euro
zone leaders adopt a series of radical policy measures,
including the creation of a common treasury.
According to a study by the Automotive Aftermarket Industry
Association, 88% of auto repair shops recycle tires and 95%
recycle motor oil.
Tucson Electric Power Co. has stopped accepting new
applications for residential renewable-energy incentives through
the end of 2011, after a recent surge in reservations.
The Climate Reality Project (formerly known as the Alliance
for Climate Protection) has just kicked off its "24 Hours of
Reality" live streamed event.
Nice guys and girls do finish last – they live longer! That’s
nice as in nice thoughts, happy-go-lucky and positive.
Worrying about health problems can be more
self-fulfilling than we thought. Researchers studying adults
since their early adulthood in the ’60s found that the
optimists survive in the end. They can even withstand
serious health problems better.
The World Health Organization (WHO)
defines health as "a state of complete physical, mental and
social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or
infirmity." Based on that definition, two Israeli doctors, Dr.
Dina Eisen and Dr. Lilach Meltski, have developed a system
called "Synapsot," or otherwise "Optimistic Health Promotion,"
that encourages patients to be healthy by being happy.
"It’s really not much more complicated
than that," say the doctors.
After breather, CDDs are resuming anomalous levels across
South-Central, joining West.... - Teleconnections are still
confounding operational model runs, so Markets will dictate if
Vendors promote Hurricane hype or North Plains "Cold"..... -
"Nooner" Model runs have output biases/trends that are known
weeks ahead; not the "surprise" they're made out to be....~
Southeast Quad taking turn at tamer temperatures while Northeast
Quad will re-warm....
What Carbon Sciences is doing is developing a unique process
for turning CO2 (carbon dioxide), combined with methane or
natural
gas, into a “drop in” fuel. By drop in he means
that it works with existing pumps and doesn’t require its own
infrastructure, a drawback of liquid or compressed natural gas
as a
transportation fuel.
The U.S. wind industry
continued a recovery from the depths of last year. Is it enough?
The industry’s trade association is looking ahead and doesn’t
like what it sees.
The Security Council is considering a new resolution that
would establish a U.N. mission in Libya, unfreeze assets of two
major oil companies and lift a ban on flights by Libyan
aircraft,...
The funding for the Gujarat Solar Power Transmission Project
will support the 500 megawatt Patan Solar Park, Asia's largest
such project, located at Charanka village about 60 km (40 miles)
from India's border with Pakistan.
Meant to be a "one-stop shop" for companies interested in
building large-scale renewable-energy projects on Army
facilities, the Energy Initiative Task Force will work to
increase the use of solar, wind, geothermal power and other
technologies in the face of declining Pentagon budgets.
Retail spending in August remained unchanged in the month and
compared to expectations of a 0.2% gain. The increase represents
a slowing from a 0.3% rise in July that was revised down from an
initially estimated increase of 0.5%.
Government backing fades for corn ethanol but next-generation
biofuels gets a $510 million boost.
The Guardian reported that the financial crisis in the U.S. and
the country's pressing need to cut its federal budget by $1.3
trillion had combined to spur lawmakers to reevaluate three
decades of corn ethanol subsidies.
An unprecedented streak of declining U.S. credit card
delinquencies is rapidly dropping to a near six-year low,
according to latest Credit Card Index results from Fitch
Ratings.
It appears that the Feds were going to get this lemon tree,
one way or another and threatened her with a potential SWAT raid
ifshe did not comply. Food Police thuggery at its finest.
The chief US regulator for offshore drilling Tuesday
dismissed complaints about slow permitting and said the oil and
natural gas industry "needs to step up its game if it is
genuinely interested in a more efficient process."
United States ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker said
Wednesday that his embassy was hit with six grenades in a
Taliban attack, but played down the insurgents' raid as "not a
very big deal".
During the first five months of 2011, US fuel ethanol
production increased 59,000 b/d compared with the same period in
2010, the Energy Information Administration said Wednesday in
analysis posted on its website.
A vitamin pill that costs about a dime a day could help
prevent millions of people from developing Alzheimer's disease.
Researchers at Britain's Oxford University found that seniors
who took a combination of three B vitamins for two years did 70
percent better on memory tests than those who took a placebo.
Climate change is warming ocean waters, causing the spread of
bacteria predicted to cost millions in health care as people are
exposed to contaminated food and water and to marine diseases at
work or at play.
Scientists have long debated about the impact on global
climate of water evaporated from vegetation. New research from
Carnegie's Global Ecology department concludes that evaporated
water helps
cool Earth as a whole, not just the local area of
evaporation, demonstrating that evaporation of water from trees
and lakes could have a cooling effect on the entire atmosphere.
Right about now in my area of the country, we're winding down
the summer harvest. We're picking those last lingering tomatoes,
filling the cupboards with a little more canned squash, and
putting the last of the corn into the freezer
(FD&C) gives authority to the FDA to regulate interstate
commerce of supplements, drugs, and devices. According to the
FD&C, by definition, only drugs can claim to cure, prevent,
mitigate, or treat a disease [section 201(g)]. Nothing else may
make that claim—certainly not a food or supplement.
Just as the Idaho National Laboratory finished cleaning up
one of its nastiest nuclear waste dumps, some leaders in eastern
Idaho are looking for ways to bring a different kind of nuclear
material to the state.
During the second quarter of 2011, nearly all of the U.S. saw
normal to above-normal wind speeds compared to long-term
averages, according to data reported by AWS Truepower.
The Mall of America in Minnesota has its own
counter-terrorism unit and they stand by using it to the fullest
extent!
September 13, 2011
In light of the 10th anniversary of 9/11, security experts
are warning that cyber attacks could be the biggest area of
threat. This news, however, should not come as a major shock,
since attacks have been on the rise recently and have even
managed to reach organizations such as Sony and Epsilon.
Shiite pilgrims have been a
favorite target for Sunni insurgents trying to revive the
sectarian violence that brought Iraqi to the brink of civil war
just a few years ago, and the bus attack bore the hallmarks of
al-Qaida, said the lawmaker, Jawad al-Hassnawi
An Amish farm in Pennsylvania has been stopped from selling
contraband milk after a year-long federal government sting
operation.
An angry crowd lingering near the Israeli embassy in Cairo
after an attack on the building a day earlier turned on
journalists reporting the incident Saturday, accusing at least
one of being an Israeli spy.
U.S. researchers have revealed a startling discovery they
made while trying to get to the bottom of the allure of the
mindless munching that often accompanies watching television or
movies. The problem, they say, comes down to association, and
they've come up with a solution that doesn't involve shunning TV
forever: Simply eat with your nondominant hand.
The world's first sewage-powered hydrogen fueling station is
now open. Drivers of hydrogen-fueled cars can exit the 405
freeway at Euclid Avenue in Orange County, California and fill
up with converted sewage waste that offers the equivalent of 70
miles per gallon.
Congress is back this week and that means lawmakers will
resume their largely symbolic debate over energy policy and
Environmental Protection Agency regulations — one that will set
the parameters for their tussle over spending strategy for next
year.
A data spreadsheet of banks by States.
Test results of water samples taken from the Anacostia River
show that a black substance that has plagued a portion of the
river since mid-August is a rare algal bloom, the U. S.
Environmental Protection Agency announced recently.
Initial testing by biologists from EPA and the Maryland
Department of the Environment ruled out that the discoloration
was a petroleum product or other hazardous substance.
California will be subject to more frequent and more
dangerous heat waves that will kill thousands of elderly people
each year, finds a new climate-modeling study commissioned by
the California Air Resources Board.
Earlier this month, the State Oceanic Administration ordered
a complete shutdown of production at the Penglai 19-3 oil field
and said that it will make claims against the US oil major for
damage to the marine environment due to an oil spill.
A decision by the township's Board of Adjustment on whether
14 wind turbines can be installed on lamp posts at a Walmart
parking lot was postponed until next month.
Eating high levels of chocolate could be associated with a
significant reduction in the risk of certain cardiovascular
disorders
Economist Barry Eichengreen says Europe doesn’t have months,
much less years, to resolve its crisis because it’s mere days
away from disaster. "At this point, it has only days to avert
the worst," Eichengreen writes in Project Syndicate.
It's been about 18 months since the sovereign debt crisis in
Europe began attracting attention in global financial circles.
In that time, the crisis has grown into the biggest challenge
the European Union has faced since the adoption of the euro as
its single currency 12 years ago.
...it is important to check the financial security offered by
a financial institution prior to opening an account and then
periodically monitor the company's condition going forward.
Low-rated banks and thrifts should be avoided in favor of highly
rated companies.
Nuclear power plants in the flood zone in Pennsylvania have
maintained normal power generation as water levels in adjacent
rivers peaked, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil
Sheehan said Friday.
France's main opposition Socialist party called late Monday
for audits of nuclear reactors to be extended to waste and fuel
treatment sites following an explosion at the Centraco treatment
facility in southern France.
Germany may be getting ready to give up on Greece.
After almost two years of fighting to contain the region’s
debt crisis and providing the biggest share of three European
bailouts, Chancellor Angela Merkel is laying the groundwork for
what markets say is almost a sure thing: a Greek default
For the first time scientists examined melatonin suppression
in a various types of light bulbs, primarily those used for
outdoor illumination, such as streetlights, road lighting, mall
lighting and the like. Exposure to the light of
white
LED bulbs, it turns out, suppresses melatonin
five times more than exposure to the outdoor lights filled with
high pressure sodium bulbs that give off an orange yellow
light. Melatonin is a compound that adjusts
our biological clock and is known for its anti-oxidant and
anti-cancerous properties. All devices have their effects, both
positive and negative it seems.
Is it possible to make valid climate predictions that go
beyond weeks, months, even a year? As most know
weather is not easily predictable. UCLA
atmospheric scientists report they have now made long-term
climate forecasts that are among the best ever — predicting
climate up to 16 months in advance, nearly twice the length of
time previously achieved by climate scientists
Oil prices have remained stubbornly high this year, with
Dated Brent currently averaging more than $110/barrel, seemingly
at odds with the worsening economic outlook in many key
oil-consuming countries
When it comes to what drivers are paying at the pump for
gasoline, keep in mind that despite driving less, prices are
being moved by a power greater than US consumer--the world
market.
Energy officials are scheduled to open financial bids for the
country's first nuclear reactor next week as the Kingdom's
atomic energy programme moves closer to another mileston
Have you every paid great attention to your body after
watching a thriller, action film, or intense drama? You may have
felt your body tense up, chest constricted, and blood pressure
rising.
By the same token, positive, funny movies can have a
beneficial impact on our health, especially for the heart and
cardiovascular system. New studies continue to prove that
laughter is a crucial medicine.
A new official analysis shows that many health workers are
indeed choosing alternative methods for themselves. Around 38
percent of the public has used some type of complimentary
medicine and nearly twice that amount in the conventional
medical community have used an alternative therapy for healing.
But even these numbers exclude use of herbal supplements and
vitamins.
More than 100 schools in 11 Valley school districts are
tapping into the power of the sun this school year to offset a
portion of their electric needs. The school districts have
agreed to participate in SRP’s new Community Solar program and
are among the first customers to receive energy from the new
Copper Crossing Solar Ranch in Florence.
Since the former rebels swept
into Tripoli in late August, the outside world has begun slowly
opening back up to Libya.
Did you know 79 million American adults have blood sugar
levels that, while still in the normal range, are too
high — and a warning sign for further
problems?
You hear a lot said about the last recession. Some say that
it was the worst recession that we’ve had since the Great
Depression.
Every mobile worker knows the nightmare: The rechargeable
battery in the mobile phone or laptop computer is dead, contact
with the outside world is severed, customers are angry and the
boss is throwing a fit.
In a few years, such crises could become a thing of the
past...
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) acted Friday to end
review of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository,
handing a victory to the Obama administration in its ongoing
effort to kill the project.
You could have less than 20 minutes warning to respond to the
next disaster, terrorist attack, or pandemic. Union thugs in the
streets, London's burning, and America's social fabric hangs on
by a thread.
I’ve been canning for quite a long while now. As many of you
know from past emails, I was a city girl who took up canning for
all the wrong reasons
As renewables fight for their share of the transforming
energy generation mix, the solar industry surely has more chance
of success if we act together. However, to what extent could CSP
& PV ally? Do inherent differences between both technologies
make co-existence ideal, but difficult to achieve?
What the market is telling us, is that despite all of these
well-meaning but ineffective moves, the U.S. dollar is still the
ugliest belle at the ball, and that the U.S. dollar problems are
much more deeper than all of the worries in the world.
the largest residential solar fund created in the U.S., was
to aid SolarCity in continuing to offer attractive, innovative
financing alternatives to homeowners who are interested in solar
but are put off by the daunting up-front installation costs.
two C-class flares, Solar activity is expected to be low with
a chance for isolated M-class events for the next three days
(13-15 September). a favorably positioned coronal hole high
speed stream. The geomagnetic field is expected to be
quiet to unsettled with isolated active periods for days one and
two (13-14 September)
Solyndra Inc.'s announcement Aug. 31
that it plans to file for bankruptcy protection has reignited
criticism that government loans and incentives for the
renewable-energy industry are bad investments.
The rising flood waters of the Susquehanna River could force
the operators of the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station and Three
Mile Island in Dauphin to shut down the nuclear powered plants.
One of the limitations of traditional copper electrical
wiring is the fact that the metal's resistance causes the wire
to heat up, and some of the energy being carried through the
wire is lost in the form of that heat. Wires made from
superconducting materials, however, would have no resistance, so
could transfer much more energy.
Long before it understood the value of oil, the desert
kingdom of Saudi Arabia knew the worth of water.
But the leading oil exporter's water challenges are growing
as energy-intensive desalination erodes oil revenues while peak
water looms more ominously than peak oil -- the theory that
supplies are at or near their limit, with nowhere to go but
down.
Radioactive material released into the sea in the Fukushima
nuclear power plant crisis is more than triple the amount
estimated by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co, Japanese
researchers say.
“This is an incredible success story, said Jan Jarrett,”
PennFuture’s president and CEO. “In just four years, solar has
grown from 3 MW to 100 MW and has helped to create as many as
6,700 jobs and more than 600 solar businesses.
(New York) is seeking to dismiss a lawsuit that would force
abandonment of a multi-state program that controls greenhouse
gas emissions from power plants to combat man-made climate
change.
Relying more on natural
gas than on coal would not significantly slow
down the effects of climate change, even though direct
carbon dioxide emissions would be less, a new
study has found.
Feeding a
supercomputer with news stories could help predict major world
events, according to US research.
A study, based on millions of articles, charted deteriorating
national sentiment ahead of the recent revolutions in Libya and
Egypt.
Syrian troops mounted deadly new raids against dissent Monday
as President Bashar Assad's embattled regime won key support
from longtime ally Russia, which said a U.N. resolution on Syria
must not contain sanctions.
The nexus between climate change and nuclear risks is not
always obvious at first glance. However, a rising incidence and
intensity of natural disasters can have grave implications for
nuclear security and safety, explains Rob van Riet, WFC
Coordinator Peace and Disarmament Working Group
With Washington locked in a debt-ceiling stalemate, debt
seems to be on everyone’s mind. So, how does US debt compare
with that of European countries, embroiled in a debt crisis of
their own? In April, the International Monetary Fund estimated
that the US government's gross debt amounted to 99 percent of
gross domestic product. That’s high, but less than four of
Europe's five largest debtors.
The production estimate, based on railcar loadings, is 0.8%
lower than the previous week's estimate and 3.8% below the
estimate for the comparable week in 2010, the agency said.
The blistering heat experienced by the United States during
August, as well as the June through August months, marks the
second warmest summer on record, according to scientists at
NOAA's National Climatic
Data
Center (NCDC) in Asheville, N.C. The
persistent heat, combined with below-average precipitation
across the southern U.S. during August and the three summer
months, continued a record-breaking drought across the region.
Florida, Arizona and Georgia are among the worst states1
for consumers seeking to avoid weak banks and bank failures,
while West Virginia, Maine and Iowa are among the best,
according to a new study by Weiss Ratings, the nation’s leading
independent provider of bank and insurance company ratings.
Terry Pearson could never figure out why her electric bill
was higher than her three neighbors' in their Eden Prairie twin
home.
Europe’s economy remained in critical, but stable
condition Thursday, as risks mounted of a double-dip
recession in big economies like Italy and Spain that could
compound woes elsewhere, including the United States.
Markets grew ever more skeptical that European policymakers
will be able to agree on measures to stem the crisis in time, as
investors lose faith in the region’s convoluted decision-making
proces
European banks are teetering on the brink of a full-blown
crisis, with investors concerned that a liquidity squeeze would
leave some institutions vulnerable to collapse, and fears that
some lenders have been shut out of the international money
markets. But what would trouble in Europe spell for the Middle
East?
“We are moving into a dangerous period,” Zoellick said in an
interview with Bloomberg Television in Singapore today. While
the U.S. is likely to avoid a return to recession, escaping with
slow growth, the euro zone is facing a “particularly sensitive
time,” he said.
A total of 18,405 megawatts of wind power were installed in
the first half of this year around the world, up from 16,000 MW
in 2010.
Unsurprisingly, China accounted for a huge chunk of the 2011
installations, with 8,000 MW of new wind power. The U.S.
followed far behind, at 2,252 MW; that represents a big increase
over a lackluster 2010 for the U.S....
The WTI-Brent spread has reached epic proportions as the
European-based crude continues to trade more than $26/barrel
over its US-based counterpart.
Embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has authorized
his vice president to negotiate a transfer of power with
opposition parties, the state-run Saba News Agency reported
Monday.
September 9, 2011
An international team of scientists, led by Dr Stephen Barker
of Cardiff University, has produced a prediction of what climate
records from Greenland might look like over the last 800,000
years.
When Kurt Soper was approached two years ago by Rewards for
Recycling, a community-based incentive recycling program, to be
in his Davison Township, Mich., community, he said the benefits
were obvious.
Arizona State University exceeds 10 megawatts (MW) of
solar-energy capacity, making it the only higher education
institution in the United States to have a solar capacity of
this size. According to Ameresco Southwest, Inc. - formerly APS
Energy Services, Inc. - 10 MW is enough energy to power 2,500
Arizona homes.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the leaders of Pacific
island nations Wednesday issued an urgent call for international
action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as climate change
endangers the security, well-being and livelihoods of the
peoples of the region.
ConocoPhillips said late Tuesday that it will establish a
fund to address its "responsibilities" related to the oil spills
at Penglai 19-3 oil field in China's Bohai Bay.
As farmers market shoppers have long known, buying food
directly from the people who grew it is a great way to add
freshness and flavor to your table and more fruits and
vegetables to your diet.
But locally grown food is not only good for your taste
buds—it creates jobs, keeps money in local economies, promotes
community development, and can reduce the environmental and
public health costs of the food we eat.
"Culturomics" is an emerging field of study into human
culture that relies on the collection and analysis of large
amounts of data. A previous culturomic research effort used
Google's culturomic tool to examine a dataset made up of the
text of about 5.2 million books to quantify cultural trends
across seven languages and three centuries. Now a new research
project has used a supercomputer to examine a dataset made up of
a quarter-century of worldwide news coverage to forecast and
visualize human behavior.
Delaying the revised
ground-level pollution standards is a) political b) technical or
c) financial? While the administration flatly denies it, the
answer is that the decision is politically motivated so as to
win over those independent voters now sitting on the fence.
New study concludes that natural gas offers greenhouse gas
advantages over coal despite higher EPA estimates of methane
emissions from natural gas systems.
As polar bears stalked their ship, scientists drilled into
the Arctic sea ice this week to try and figure out why it's
disappearing so fast.
The U.S. appeals court in Virginia threw out two challenges
to the Obama administration’s healthcare overhaul, saying it
lacked authority to decide whether the measure is
constitutional.
With the rulings, the Richmond-based
court today became the second of three appellate panels this
year to leave the law intact. The decisions came in separate
cases challenging the statute’s requirement that individuals buy
insurance or pay a penalty.
Nearly half of its population lives in poverty, but a stark rise
in education and literacy puts Kenya on the shortlist of nations
poised for greater prosperity.
Former Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson is poised to lead a
new global effort to restore trees to millions of hectares where
forests once flourished. The Bonn Challenge to restore 150 million hectares of
degraded and deforested lands by 2020 was launched last week at
a meeting of government officials, business leaders, and
international forest experts in Bonn in support of the 2011
International Year of Forests.
Two years after the economic stimulus plan, a new government
audit finds that about one-third of the money authorized for an
energy efficiency program has not been spent.
New Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yoshio Hachiro
hinted that some of the nuclear reactors currently undergoing
stress tests will be brought back into operation before April if
their safety can be confirmed.
Concerns about water and chemicals used in fracking fluids
are driving Halliburton to develop more environmentally
sensitive fluids and reduce fresh-water use, the company's CEO
said Tuesday.
"We know water is an emotional issue,"...
Raging wildfires and scorching heat across the South over the
last week, added to the human, economic and agricultural toll of
a historic drought that climatologists said was only growing
more dire.
On the outside, the eucalyptus home with cream trim looks
pretty much like any other going up on White Oak Way. Beneath
the exterior siding and shingles, however, there is a world of
difference.
The dreaded La Nina weather anomaly, blamed for both drought
and record snowfall in the U.S., has returned and will garner
strength during the coming winter, the Climate Prediction Center
forecast Thursday.
La Niña conditions returned in August 2011 due to the
strengthening of negative sea surface temperature (SST)
anomalies across the eastern half of the equatorial Pacific
Ocean
Libya's new rulers sent a column of
extra fighters towards the tribal bastion of Bani Walid
overnight, preparing a showdown with supporters of ousted leader
Muammar Gaddafi, possibly including his sons or even Gaddafi
himself.
Modern day magicians and miracle workers rolled in one,
electric utility workers risk their lives in one of the most
hazardous jobs in the nation by handling powerlines coursing
with enough energy to turn sand into glass just so the lights
come on when we flip a switch.
A City Council member in Los Angeles has asked the city
attorney to draft an ordinance that would ban single use bags in
the second largest city in the country.
A manhunt is under way in the United States for two or three
suspects linked to a credible but unconfirmed al-Qaida car bomb
threat in New York or Washington ahead of the 10th anniversary
of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Yale University researchers have now identified a key genetic
gear that keeps the circadian clock in plants ticking.
Switching from coal to natural gas, even though natural gas
emits far less carbon dioxide, wouldn't significantly slow down
climate change, a U.S. study says.
The study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research
underscores the conflicting ways in which fossil fuel burning
affects Earth's climate.
New gardeners are often amazed that, once the harvest starts
coming in, it often comes in all at once – leaving them with
bushels and bushels of produce. So much produce in fact, that
they can’t possibly eat it all at once.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is helping
four solar start-ups ramp up innovations through its Department
of Energy (DoE) funded Incubator Program.
Spend now, cut over 10 years
The White House said yesterday it will include a financial
rescue plan for the US Postal Service in a broader $1.5 trillion
deficit reduction package it is due to send to Congress in the
coming weeks.
Police are investigating whether a twin suicide bombing at
the home of a top paramilitary official that killed at least 23
people in Quetta on Wednesday is linked to the recent arrest of
three top Al Qaeda operatives in the Pakistani city.
In rejecting the plant, the city said the land use was
incompatible; trucks would damage area roads; and the facility
would have used an unproven technology.
The nation's largest independent wind energy developer is
proposing to build an 80-megawatt wind farm in Eastern North
Carolina, about 120 miles east of Raleigh.
Dominion's Chesapeake plant stores fly ash, a toxic byproduct
of burning coal, in a landfill off the Elizabeth River. The
substance has been a topic of controversy and litigation after
the Battlefield Golf Course was built using 1.5 million tons of
fly ash in 2009.
Despite the tendency of marijuana users to experience the
"munchies," pot
smokers may have a lower risk of obesity that
those who don't use the drug, a new study finds.
Last
month's record earthquake in the eastern United States may have
shaken a Virginia nuclear plant twice as hard as it was designed
to withstand, a spokesman for the U.S. nuclear safety regulator
said on Thursday.
Independent pollster and political analyst Scott Rasmussen
tells Newsmax that Wednesday night’s GOP debate was “rockier”
than expected for leading candidate Rick Perry, and says his
stance on the Social Security issue could be the “chink in the
armor” of his campaign.
Instead of watching people sit around bemoaning the fact that
they have lost their connection with the earth and what it means
to actually be responsible for their lives, the guests on
today's show have spent years trying to educate and help people
return to their roots in nature...
Solar activity was high. Region 1283 (N16W42) produced two
major flares. Geomagnetic field activity was at quiet levels.
Activity is expected to increase to unsettled levels late on 09
September with a chance for active levels due to a CME arrival.
Geomagnetic Sudden Impulse. Electron 2MeV Integral Flux
exceeded 1000pfu
As governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney created a fund to
invest in green energy, said alternative energy could generate
jobs and approved bills allowing cities to build fields of solar
panels...
Eight years later, it appears Romney, as he seeks the
Republican nomination for president, has had a change of heart.
American homes are more cluttered than ever with devices, and
they all need power: Cellphones and iPads that have to be
charged, DVRs that run all hours, TVs that light up in high
definition.
Short-term memory loss and other signs of mild cognitive
impairment appear to be a better Alzheimer’s disease predictor
than levels of cerebrospinal fluid proteins and other
biomarkers, according to a new study.
Convergence Energy of Lake Geneva is building one of the
largest solar projects in the state, and the first that allows
individual investors to buy a stake in the project.
It’s amazing how many questions and comments I’ve received
about Solyndra in the past few days. My Dad, friends,
acquaintances, and the press have all sheepishly nudged me. "Did
you hear about Solyndra?" It's not like they're gloating. It
feels more like someone young has just died a tragic death, and
they are seeking meaning behind this sudden solar biz train
wreck
The event may include an earth-directed Coronal Mass
Ejection, but at this early point in the eruption it is too soon
to be more speci
A BILLION AND a half people around the world still don't have
access to electricity. Could hybrid mini grids be the best way
to provide electricity – particularly to rural, often isolated,
areas?
Hybrid Air Vehicles, a British Company founded in 2007 by the
late Roger Munk and a direct descendant of those previously
unsuccessful efforts, has recently achieved two massive
commercial wins that seem to indicate that the airship has a
very rosy future indeed.
Turning from 1st generation biofuels produced from food crops
to 2nd generation biofuels produced from ligno-cellulosic
feedstocks has been praised by many, but 2nd generation has a
long way to go to reach full commercialisation.
The falling cost of distributed renewable
generation has been one of the key drivers of the transformation
of the U.S. electric grid.
Inextricably linked, unavoidably interconnected and, at
times, conflicted and conflagrant, the relationship between
energy and water is the ultimate duality—polarized and
indivisible. Those of us working in the fields of water resource
management and/or energy efficiency and reliability know that
while our concerns are often interchangeable and our challenges
similar, we nevertheless find ourselves operating in two
separate spheres, focusing only on our own specific challenges
and demands and rarely glancing up to take a look at the big
picture.
The renewable energy industry is mulling over the
announcements coming out of the UK regarding what seem on the
surface to be ambitious emissions reduction targets. But what
does it actually mean for renewable energy?
All who realize how disastrous Obama's economic policies have
been and what a terrible effect they are having on our economy
expected August's net job-creation numbers to be low. Few
thought they would be nil.
The backpack-size "Switchblade" drone and its launch tube
give individual soldiers a new level of precise control over an
explosive weapon.
US Gulf Coast production of ultra low sulfur diesel steadied
last week just below the previous week's record, government
statistics showed Thursday, although total US output dipped as
East Coast refineries shut due to hurricane threats.
The US solar industry achieved a positive trade flow of
US$1.9 billion globally in 2010, according to the Solar Energy
Industries Association's (SEIA) and GTM Research’s U.S. Solar
Energy Trade Assessment 2011.
Baucom, now retired, is adamant that America’s dependence on
foreign oil — relatively unchanged over the past three decades —
undermines our national security and our ability to dictate our
energy future. He argues that climate change will ultimately
result in more natural disasters, more famine and more global
instability, and that too will require more American military
intervention.
Blizzards. Tornadoes. Floods. Record heat and drought,
followed by wildfires.
The first eight months of 2011 have brought strange and
destructive weather to the United States.
As freedomistas we fail (and have failed and will fail) over
and over again. Sometimes we fail because we’re trying to change
a system that’s got more inertia than we realize. Other times
our failings are more personal: We don’t believe in the welfare
state, but times get so hard we accept food stamps; we want to
build a country retreat but the spouse is adamantly against it;
we try to organize a community effort, only to feel as if we’re
herding the proverbial cats.
None of this means that it’s not worth the effort. Or that
it’s impossible. It only means we need to re-evaluate, screw our
heads back on, and try again in a different way.
Gentle yoga classes may help people with Type-2 diabetes take
off a small amount of weight and steady their blood sugar
control, a small study suggests.
September 6, 2011
The Henry Hub is the pricing point for natural gas futures
contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).
A recent medical study revealed that over 5 million older
individuals in the United States have difficulty remembering
things and making daily decisions, or experience other
memory-related problems.
Bartering and trading, while not the norm for doing business
in the past fifty years, is making a strong come back. With
tightened budgets, people are once again bartering and trading
to acquire everything from designer purses to piano lessons for
the kids. The concept of bartering is not a new one. It's
mankind's original business model - an ancient form of getting
goods and services. The sluggish economy almost begs for
bartering to make a resurgence in communities all over America.
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) praised California's Air
Resources Board (CARB) for approving a blueprint today for
reducing climate change pollution that complements new state and
federal actions designed to improve air quality. California's
plan will work alongside other public health rules, including
more stringent ozone and air toxics standards.
Canada is now at the
epicenter over the battle to reduce carbon emissions. At issue
are the plentiful tar sands that could help feed this nation’s
oil appetite as well as the required 1,700 mile pipeline that
would wend its way down while stopping in refineries in Texas.
Researchers have shown for the first time that a single
intravenous infusion of a genetically engineered virus can home
in on cancer, killing tumor cells in patients without harming
healthy tissue.
Carbon capture and
sequestration may have gotten a second wind now that the Obama
administration is helping to finance new projects. But the move
appears to contradict the current political and regulatory
climate -- one that favors austerity over more subsidies.
You trust your weapons to perform when you need them, but can
they trust you to take care of them when they need it? Cleaning
a weapon is easy; anybody can simply field strip their weapons
and feel good about what they are doing, but truly caring for
your weapons will keep them battle ready and looking great for
years and years.
“If you use Wesson brand cooking oils, you might be able to
join a class action suit against food giant ConAgra for
deceptively marketing the products as natural.” One plaintiff is
making waves by suing ConAgra because he relied on their “100%
natural” labels, only to find out they are made mostly with
genetically modified ingredients.
The U.N. nuclear agency said Wednesday it is 'increasingly
concerned' about a stream of intelligence suggesting that Iran
continues to work secretly on developing a nuclear payload for a
missile and other components of a nuclear weapons program,"...
There are enough sites in SE Asia to make CSP viable, but
investors have been looking the other way...Until now.
The sun is shining on Pennsylvania solar power production,
which for the first time tops 100,000 megawatts, producing
enough electricity to power more than 12,600 homes.
But dark clouds are rolling in. Solar power installations
have expanded so quickly and so successfully in the commonwealth
due to federal and state incentive and funding programs that
they have far out-stripped the solar power goals...
Taking a risk by going on an adventure and exploring a new
environment, is an essential part of understanding the natural
world within which we live. But sometimes accidents occur.
Usually completely unaware, humans put themselves at risk of
being attacked or even worse - being eaten.
But how do you
ascertain what is a potential threat and what is not? Know your
enemy.
Common myths are that taking iodine as a supplement causes or
exacerbates thyroid disorders, and that Americans get plenty of
the nutrient in salt, but neither is the case, says
Brownstein,...
“Iowans continue to have more E85 fueling options – and they
are taking advantage of them in record fashion,” said Iowa
Renewable Fuel Association Executive Director Monte Shaw. “E85
remains a good bargain – for our pocketbook, our economy, our
national security, and our environment.”
Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in
August for the 25th consecutive month and the overall economy
grew for the 27th consecutive month...
The Environmental Protection Agency has spent the last year
collecting emissions data from lots of polluters, ranging from
power plants to pig farmers. The deadline is Sept. 30.
A recent industry analysis projects the amount of solar power
installed to grow to 15.5 percent per year, but revenues are to
stay flat until 2016. Lux Research provided the report
The FBI and Homeland Security have issued a nationwide
warning about al-Qaida threats to small airplanes, just days
before the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
In a sweeping move, the government on Friday sued 17
financial firms, including the largest U.S. banks, for selling
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac billions of dollars worth of
mortgage-backed securities that turned toxic when the housing
market collapsed.
Full Article
Currently one gigawatt of
concentrating solar power (CSP) plants is under construction in
the United States. But the continued progress of that growth is
shaky, given the political realities of the country and the
massive amounts of capital such projects require.
More children today have food allergies as compared to 20
years ago, although it is unclear why.
The United States will return to a gold standard of some sort
after the 2012 presidential elections because current economic
policies that weaken the dollar in hopes of fueling economic
growth can’t last forever, says publisher and former Republican
presidential hopeful Steve Forbes.
Global
concern about climate change has risen only very slightly over
the past two years, as consumers have focused on more immediate
economic worries, according to an opinion poll published on
Sunday.
Europe needs $1 trillion in capital to shore up its banks,
U.S. employment looks bleak thanks to languishing small
businesses and China's growth may be due for a breather,
according a key Goldman Sachs strategist
The creation of jobs tops
the political agenda. But the methods by which the two parties
hope to achieve that is a source of contention.
Blood letting. Mercury. Lead based products. GMOs. The
absolute horrors of common practices aren’t fully realized until
decades later; sometimes centuries.
Antibiotic use, it turns out, does more damage than just
leading to drug resistant diseases. We may never fully recover
from the gut damage. There are already mass problems with food
assimilation and breathing difficulties continually on the rise.
House GOP leadership on Monday outlined plans to delay or
kill a suite of environmental rules in coming months, signaling
an expansion of legislative and political attacks against
regulations that business groups call burdensome.
"Recent revolutions in the Arab world and the deteriorating
ties with Turkey are raising the likelihood of a regional war in
the Middle East, IDF Home Front Command Chief, Major General
Eyal Eisenberg warned Monday," reports Ynet News. "'It looks
like the Arab Spring, but it can also be a radical Islamic
winter,' he said in a speech at the Institute for National
Security Studies in Tel Aviv."
With a nod to biology, scientists at the National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST) have a new approach to the
problem of safely storing hydrogen in future fuel-cell-powered
cars. Their idea: molecular scale "veins" of iron permeating
grains of magnesium like a network of capillaries
Tyranny has been advancing for decades ever since the Federal
Reserve got a toe-hold in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson
signed the Federal Reserve Act into law.
One year after the notorious BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill
in the Gulf of Mexico and two decades after the Exxon Valdez
spill in Prince William Sound off the coast of Alaska the
scientific lesson is clear – microbes matter! Despite vast
differences in the impacted marine ecosystems and the
circumstances of these two worst oil spills in U.S. history,
oil-degrading microorganisms played a significant role in
reducing the overall environmental impact of both spills.
New research from one of the world’s most prestigious
scientific organizations indicates that cosmic rays and the sun
— not manmade carbon emissions — are the major factors
influencing global climate.
Conservationists and politicians meeting in Bonn on Friday
launched a new initiative to restore 150 million hectares
(580,000 square miles) of deforested and degraded forests,
reports the World Resources Institute (WRI), an NGO that is
involved in the effort.
A recent survey found that 60 percent of the Japanese
population had lost confidence in the safety of the country’s
nuclear power plants, and less than half think more nuclear
plants should be built.
The U.S. Postal Service may have to shut down this winter
unless Congress steps in with emergency action to shore up its
finances, according to The New York Times.
With almost 100 million people in developing countries
exposed to dangerously high levels of arsenic in their drinking
water, and unable to afford complex purification technology,
scientists recently described a simple, inexpensive method for
removing arsenic based on chopped up pieces of ordinary plastic
beverage bottles coated with a nutrient found in many foods and
dietary supplements.
Some sharp jabs are
shifting the political campaign into high gear. The candidates
are now fixating on climate science and their positions may be
less about philosophy and more about where they get their money
and what each needs to do to win their respective nominations.
The Environmental
Protection Agency is pursuing regulatory initiatives that the
agency says will protect minority and poor Americans from
pollution that disproportionately affects them, their health and
basic principles of “environmental justice.”
Renewable sources accounted for more than 20 percent of the
country's electricity generation in the first half of 2011
Despite broad consensus among major insurers that climate
change will affect extreme weather events, only an eighth of
such companies have formal policies in place to deal with
growing climate change risks, according to a report issued today
by business sustainability coalition Ceres.
3x-ray event observed, CMEs ,Numerous C-class flares, C1
x-ray event,A chance for additional M-class activity exists
through 06 September.The geomagnetic field is expected to be at
quiet to unsettled levels for day one (05 September) due to
continuing effects from a coronal hole high speed stream (CH
HSS).
The sun is entering a period of increased activity, and
massive solar eruptions are beginning to wreak havoc on modern
technology. A recent solar eruption disrupted radio
communication in China, and there is concern that further
eruptions could disrupt daily life on a wider scale.
SolarWorld, Germany's No.2 solar company by sales, will shut
down production at one of its U.S.-based solar module plants,
looking to cut costs in response to falling prices, demand and
tougher competition that squeeze margins.
If you drive your car into a ditch, your goal should be
getting it out, right?
For the past few years, I have
heard various organizations and people blamed for the financial
and economic crisis that has affected the United States
With all due respect, shouldn't our goal be to get the car out
of the ditch?
If you've ever appreciated the warmth of tropical ocean
waters during a winter vacation, you understand the enormous
volume of the sun's heat stored in the ocean...just waiting to
be tapped into as an inexhaustible source of power. That same
power can help solve some of the world's biggest problems from
thirst to clean energy. Here are the top five:
If there's a conclusion to be found in the Federal Trade
Commission's latest report on the reasons for high gasoline
prices, it's tough to detect.
Actually, it's easy, if you define conclusion as statements
of fact. The report is full of them.
Depending on the therapy and the circumstances requiring
help, therapy might be counterproductive.
A report to be published in American Psychologist looks into
the after effects of 9/11 victims and suggests that trauma and
Post Traumatic Stress was made worse by regression and reliving
the tragic event repeatedly.
Could there be a spiritual correlation between getting cancer
and how the patient heals?
Conventional medicine often segregates the physical aspect of
sickness. It is often left out of the equation completely. One’s
soul, spirit, and mind are very personal: the predisposition for
and response to cancer will vary for each person.
Winds were expected to weaken gradually in the next couple of
days and up to 20 inches of rain was expected to fall on
southeast Louisiana, the Miami-based center said.
The storm has temporarily shut over 60 percent of offshore
oil production.
There's an underground movement across much of the country to
bury power and other utility lines to shield against widespread
outages like that caused by Tropical Storm Irene last week.
Finally! The mainstream admits that vaccines are dangerous
and cause certain side effects, sometimes serious ones!
Despite evidence that some wastewater treatments multiply
nitrous oxide emissions, researchers say planners need to look
at the big picture.
It is critical that you realize that the MOMENT
you're forced to draw your gun in self-defense there will be
100+ decisions that you'll need to make in a split second.
What Japan may teach us
“A new strategy is
needed, not just to address these damages and costs but because
this generation has a fundamental ethical obligation to avoid
burdening future generations with the entire task of finding a
safe permanent solution for managing hazardous nuclear materials
they had no part in creating,” says their report.
Wall Street braced for losses on Tuesday after world stock
markets took a beating over fears that the U.S. economy was
heading back into recession.
More drops were expected
today, but across the globe there were varied results. European
exchanges opened mixed Tuesday, with neither large gains or
losses and Asian exchanges fell, some by more than two percent.
September 2, 2011
One in every two American adults will be obese by 2030,
adding hugely to the country's health costs, according to
studies published on Friday that highlight the growing burden of
the world's obesity pandemic
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission estimates that more than 10
million people were victims of identity fraud in 2009, which
according to Javelin Strategy and Research, amounted to $54
billion stolen by identity thieves.* Sadly, those numbers will
only go up as the data from 2010 and 2011 is collected.
Japan's new prime minister has made clear he sees nuclear
power playing a part in energy supply for decades -- so one of
his first challenges is to convince a skeptical public to allow
shut reactors to restart
Although larger blades cover a larger area, they are also
heavier, which means more wind is needed to turn the rotor. The
ideal combination would be blades that are not only bigger, but
also lighter and more durable. A researcher at Case Western
Reserve University has built a prototype blade from materials
that could provide just such a winning combination.
While financial contributions are certainly a great help to
health care practitioners in developing nations, one of the
things that they really need is rugged, portable,
low-cost medical equipment that is compatible with an
often-limited local infrastructure.
About 1,000 gallons of a biodegradable detergent spilled from
a chemical plant into a southwestern Pennsylvania river, killing
a small number of fish and prompting an investigation by state
environmental authorities, officials said on Thursday.
High manufacturing costs, a niche product form factor,
massive competing investments from China and a sluggish economy
are all being blamed for the demise of Solyndra, one of the most
high-profile and innovative solar panel makers in the U.S.
The Fremont, Calif.-based solar panel maker, whose large
fabs are a landmark along Silicon Valley's I-880 freeway,
announced it plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Western states could generate big economic and public health
dividends by more aggressively pursuing a low-carbon,
clean-energy strategy that relies on renewable energy,
conservation and smart grid technologies, according to a new
report from the Grid West Group.
A group of scientists led by researchers from the Universitat
Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology (ETH Zürich) has quantified dust and iron fluxes
deposited in the Antarctic Ocean during the past 4 million
years. The research study published in Nature evidences the
close relation between the maximum contributions of dust to this
ocean...
Adding a common antibiotic to treatment regimes for some
patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can
reduce sudden intensifying of symptoms, such as worsened cough,
wheezing, and labored breathing. It can also improve general
quality of life...
Progress Energy has applied for a permit to drill its first
main power line under the Cape Fear River.
A new book on digestive health offers a simple formula to
help you overcome common problems such as gastric reflux,
diverticulitis, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) — without
spending a penny on prescription drugs.
The cost of building thousands of miles of high-voltage
transmission lines to bring West Texas wind power to major
markets has risen nearly 40 percent from original estimates,
according to a state report.
Record-breaking triple-digit temperatures were prolonging a
devastating drought that has been baking the South and the dry
spell could extend into next year and beyond, climate experts
said on Thursday.
The demise of Solyndra, Spectrawatt and Evergreen Solar is a
gut punch to proponents of U.S.-based solar cell manufacturing.
Observers cite several reasons for Solyndra's failure, but
mounting evidence suggests that companies that build solar cells
in the U.S. will have a difficult time competing with rivals in
China, where manufacturing is cheaper and the government has
poured money into crystalline panel production.
President Barack Obama has bowed to the demands of U.S.
manufacturers and asked the Environmental Protection Agency to
withdraw the draft Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
...before the federal government’s implementation of blood
quantum law, one’s native identity in terms of Tribal membership
was not solely based on blood ancestry. Membership was more
dependent on one’s adherence to the Tribe’s culture and belief
system, speaking the native language, and by being an active
part of their society. Tribes adopted members without blood
ancestry and absorbed prisoners and captives. Intermarriage
between members of various Tribes wasn’t uncommon.
Employment in the U.S. unexpectedly stagnated in August as
employers became less confident in the strength of the recovery.
The jobless rate held at 9.1 percent.
Tropical Storm Katia was expected to strengthen into a
hurricane over the Atlantic on Wednesday, while another mass of
thunderstorms that could become a named storm this week
triggered evacuations of some oil workers from the Gulf of
Mexico.
Since 1992, a coal ash pond next to the Ameren power plant
here has been 'seeping," as the company puts it, leaking into
the surrounding area, according to state records.
Nature herself may be the best opponent of genetically
modified crops and pesticides. Not only plants, but insects are
also developing resistance. The Western rootworm beetle – one
of the most serious threats to corn – has developed resistance
to Monsanto’s Bt-corn, and entire crops are being lost.
A ski resort in Arizona seeks to be the first in the world to
rely completely on treated wastewater for artificial snow
production, but is facing opposition from environmental groups
and Native American tribes...
Because American Indians lived everywhere in this country,
the NPS could tell Native stories at almost every site. After
all, it has chosen to tell the stories of settlers at most park
units. Unfortunately, the NPS usually leaves out the Native
stories in the parks, letting Indians vanish from most park
landscapes.
TVA may have to spend more than $10 million for an intensive
set of nuclear regulatory inspections at the utility's Browns
Ferry Nuclear Plant.
Recent court decisions may help. Plus, new research shows how
dangerous Monsanto’s GMOs really are.
In August 2010, part of the Petermann Glacier about four
times the size of Manhattan island broke off. This is a huge
island which would take years to melt and move south....U.K.has
indicated that another section of the glacier, about twice the
size of Manhattan, appeared close to breaking off. Alun Hubbard:
"Although I knew what to expect in terms of ice loss from
satellite imagery, I was still completely unprepared for the
gob-smacking scale of the breakup, which rendered me
speechless." ... "What the breakup means in terms of inland ice
acceleration and draw-down of the ice sheet remains to be seen,
but will be revealed by the GPS data recovered, which we are now
processing at Aberystwyth."
two C2/Sf flares, The geomagnetic field was quiet. Solar wind
speeds, as measured at the ACE satellite, showed a steady
decline from about 350 km/s to end the period near 290 km/s.
For many years the citizens of Washington, D.C. struggled for
the basic right to elect their own leaders. In 2011, they
should use their political home rule to maximize the economic
benefits of local renewable energy with “electricity home rule.”
Solar power, heavily reliant on lead batteries to store the
energy it creates, could greatly boost lead pollution in
developing countries, U.S. researchers say.
In another indication of the power of last week's
magnitude-5.8 earthquake, officials at North Anna Power Station
said yesterday that 25 of 27 vertical steel casks that hold
highly radioactive spent fuel shifted on their pads.
Spice up your food life! Using spices like paprika, cinnamon,
turmeric and more can do more for you food than flavor.
Powdering your meals with some spices not only protect
against fatty acids, but also against the effects carbohydrates,
insulin spikes, and gas.
Concrete is the most widely used building material for
residential and
commercial
buildings. From its humble origins in Roman
times, this mixture of Portland cement, aggregate, water, and
chemical additives is now a $35 billion industry in the US
alone, employing over two million workers. However, when it
comes to greenhouse gases,
concrete is believed to be a major culprit.
Energy researchers and environmental advocates are excited about
the prospect of gaining more efficient large-scale biofuel
production by using large grasses like miscanthus or switchgrass
rather than corn.
The most depressing part of the story, however, was how these
great leaders were manipulated by the US Government agents and
military leaders to do their dirty work of destroying the man
who was among the greatest Indian leaders of all time.
U.S. farm income will soar past $100 billion for the first
time in 2011 following rising cash receipts for everything from
corn, wheat and cotton to soybeans, the Agriculture Department
said on Tuesday.
Did you know that in 2009, around 3.3 million babies died
during their first month after birth? Even though that number is
down from 4.6 million in the early 90′s, the US mortality rates
are still relatively high.
Significant levels of the world's most-used herbicide have
been detected in air and water samples from two U.S. farm
states, government scientists said on Wednesday, in
groundbreaking research on the active ingredient in Monsanto
Co's Roundup.
According to a new Nielsen survey,
concern about climate change/global warming among online
consumers around the world took a back-seat to other
environmental issues such as air and water pollution, water
shortages, packaging waste and use of pesticides.
La Nina, a weather phenomenon typically linked to flooding in
the Asia-Pacific, African drought and a more intense hurricane
season over the Atlantic, could occur in a weak form this year,
the World Meteorological Organization said Thursday.
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