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The frog does not drink up the
pond in which he lives. ”
— —Native American Proverb
January 31, 2012
Could it be that the flow of aether in the form of electric
field is the true "electric current", and electron flow is only
a byproduct? Some researchers, including potentially Nikola
Tesla, seem to think so!
Amazon is putting customers in South Carolina on notice that
they are responsible for paying sales taxes on purchases they
made with the online retailer last year...
When you talk to people about solar you often find their
thoughts are loaded with preconceptions, assuming solar is
expensive, impractical, and just for treehuggers. The failure of
Solyndra reinforces these ideas for many, leading them to think,
“You see?” As it happens, these preconceptions are for the most
part no longer true--if they ever were.
The portrayal of American Indian stereotypes: When is it all
going to stop? I begin my rant on what “we as Native people”
face in terms of stereotypes in media, films and even little
plastic toys found in the bargain bins at thrift stores.
Bees have been dying off around the world for more than a
decade now, a phenomenon that has been named "Colony Collapse
Disorder," or CCD.
A third of the U.S. food supply requires the assistance of
the honeybee.
The collapse of bee colonies is probably multifactorial,
rather than a response to one type of toxic assault.
I happen to think I tempted Fate with the wimpy first-aid kit
I brought.
The Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future on
Jan. 26 released its final report to the U.S. Energy Secretary,
detailing recommendations for creating a safe, long-term
solution for managing and disposing of the nation's spent
nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
Whether the city should revamp its approach to addressing
climate change -- including whether to extend an expiring tax to
pay for related programs -- is among the questions facing the
Boulder City Council this week.
California topped a list for new wind turbine installations
with 328 in 2011, adding 921 megawatts of capacity to the local
grid, an industry association said Thursday.
China’s State Grid Corporation has built the world’s biggest
battery in a bid to manage its ageing grid infrastructure.
When it comes to boondoggles, many of the largest have
involved the energy industry. Executives who work in oil, gas,
coal, and green energy, along with the lobbyists they hire to do
their bidding, are the true master manipulators of governments
everywhere, and they have been controlling the system for their
own benefit every since the days of John D. Rockefeller.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will join the
foreign ministers of France and Britain at the United Nations to
push for a resolution on the transfer of power in Syria, the BBC
reports.
Antiquated power lines and towers that are more than 35 years
old are keeping upstate power from downstate customers,
according to state leaders.
Coal-burning plants like AES in Somerset, which are running
at less than capacity and facing closure, don't have a way to
get through to customers in need who are looking elsewhere for
electricity.
Hydrokinetic turbines can be installed in waterways without
interrupting their natural flow, unlike conventional hydropower
facilities that require dams to generate water pressure
artificially. That means you get all the benefits of clean
hydropower without the enormous carbon footprint that comes
along with major infrastructure projects. You can also get
scalability, since hydrokinetic turbines are generally designed
as "drop-in" pieces of equipment that can be tethered to barges
or anchored in place individually.
"Dollar weakness doesn't work at all for economic
well-being," Malpass writes in The Wall Street Journal. "The
corollary to the Fed's policy of manipulating interest rates
downward at the expense of savers is declining median incomes."
At the time the Constitution was written,
education was not even considered a function of local
government, let alone the federal government. ..Are there
serious problems in education that can be solved only at the
federal level?
Twenty-five of
the EU's 27 member states have agreed to join a fiscal treaty to
enforce budget discipline.
The Czech Republic and the UK refused to sign up. UK Prime
Minister David Cameron said his government would act if the
treaty threatened UK interests.
Clean energy can compete with, and even surpass, fossil fuels
if the right investments are made in the technology behind it,
the head of a company specializing in sustainable energy
solutions told the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce during
its annual meeting Thursday.
Extreme heat can cause wheat crops to age faster and reduce
yields, a U.S.-led study shows, underscoring the challenge of
feeding a rapidly growing population as the world warms.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) “Problem
List” contains more banks and thrifts than it has since 1992 and
is continuing to grow. And as the number of total institutions
has been declining for more than 20 years, the percentage of
total institutions identified as problematic is larger than ever
in 2011 at 11.35%.
Federal prosecutors say data from users of Megaupload could
be deleted as soon as Thursday.
U.S. prosecutors blocked
access to Megaupload and charged seven men, saying the site
facilitated millions of illegal downloads of movies, music and
other content.
The temperature fell to minus 8.7 degrees Celsius on Sunday
morning near Japan's crippled nuclear power plant, causing water
pipes and valve seals to rupture, leaking tons of water.
Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant discovered
Sunday that the damaged pipes spilled nearly eight tons of water
from 14 locations. Two additional water leaks were discovered
today, according to plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company.
Supporters of a citizens' initiative that would require
utilities to produce more clean and renewable energy failed to
gather enough signatures to put a question on the November
ballot.
A broad coalition of conservation groups and American Indian
Tribes on January 26 sued the Obama administration for failing
to protect thousands of whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, and
sea lions from U.S. Navy warfare training exercises along the
coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington.
India has joined China in saying it will not cut back on oil
imports from Iran, despite stiff new U.S. and European sanctions
designed to pressure Tehran over its nuclear program.
Militants linked to al Qaeda have taken advantage of Sunni
anger and a security vacuum left by the departure of US forces
to launch a series of bombings, prompting reprisal attacks by
Shia militia
Japan's nuclear disaster has eroded trust in utilities and
shown residents of the rural, mountainous region of Fukui the
risk of radiation, but a dependence on atomic plants for jobs
and funds means speaking out against them is taboo.
Iowa-based MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company has launched a
new renewable energy subsidiary. Dubbed MidAmerican
Renewables, LLC, the new company will be based out of Des
Moines, Iowa and will encompass a new set of subsidiaries:
MidAmerican Wind, LLC, MidAmerican Geothermal, LLC, MidAmerican
Solar, LLC, and MidAmerican Hydro, LLC.
Pressure is building on a Pewaukee power line company to
place a new 138,000-volt power line in western Milwaukee County
underground.
Major businesses and a local environmental group are joining
the Milwaukee Montessori School and St. Therese Catholic Church
in seeking to have portions of American Transmission Co.'s new
power lines buried rather than strung overhead.
In his much-hyped State of the Union address this past week,
President Barack Obama gave a rhetorical bearhug to US energy
development, even stealing a line from Republicans and
pronouncing the need for an "all-out, all-of-the-above strategy"
on increasing energy production.
The U.S. Forest Service today released a new proposal for the
nation's 193-million-acre national forest system that will
weaken rules protecting fish and wildlife from logging,
livestock grazing, mining and off-road vehicles.
Greenhouse gas emissions from palm oil-based biodiesel are
the highest among major biofuels when the effects of
deforestation and peatlands degradation are considered,
according to calculations by the European Commission. The
emissions estimates, which haven't been officially released,
have important implications for the biofuels industry in Europe.
A study panel of health and environmental experts
commissioned by the state of Massachusetts found insufficient
evidence to support claims that noise from commercial wind
turbines directly cause health problems or disease.
The geomagnetic field was quiet, until the arrival of a
glancing blow from the limb event CME that occurred in
association with the X1/1f flare on 27 January.solar wind speed
increase from around 350 km/s to near450 km/s. A weak sudden
impulse. The geomagnetic field is expected to be mostly quiet
for days 1-3
Residents of a town in southern China have been rushing to
buy bottled water after excessive levels of carcinogenic cadmium
were found in a river source of drinking water, state media said
on Thursday in the latest health scare to hit the country.
"U.S. oil and gas companies should stay relatively stable
this year, despite a tepid economic recovery and our expectation
for very weak natural gas prices," said Standard & Poor's credit
analyst Thomas Watters. "Supporting our credit outlook is our
view that oil prices will remain healthy."
Russia on Monday sought to avert a swift U.N. Security
Council vote on a Western-Arab resolution on Syria and said it
wanted to study recommendations from Arab observers before
discussing a plan that calls for President Bashar al-Assad to
cede power.
Researchers in Scotland say a new low-cost "smart paint" can
detect microscopic faults in wind turbines, mines and bridges
before structural damage occurs.
Bird enthusiasts are reporting rising numbers of snowy owls
from the Arctic winging into the lower 48 states this winter in
a mass southern migration that a leading owl researcher called
"unbelievable."
An economic analysis prepared by The Brattle Group and
released yesterday finds that a 100% tariff on imported solar PV
cells and modules from China would result in as many as 50,000
net lost jobs in the U.S. over the next three years.
Furthermore, retaliatory tariffs placed on U.S. exports of
polysilicon to China would put nearly 11,000 more American jobs
at risk in the first year following tariff imposition.
A new study recently published suggests that attentiveness in
kindergarten can accurately predict the child's work-oriented
behavior throughout the rest of their school years and
throughout their entire lives. This conclusion came after years
of analysis and observation from elementary school homeroom
teachers. For a young child, the classroom is the work place, so
skills obtained there are translated directly to their adult
workplaces. This study places even more focus on the importance
of early education in shaping a more productive society.
After a six-year delay, a power plant project that would turn
scrap tires into electricity is moving forward in Toomsboro,
promising to provide 75 permanent jobs in a county with a 10
percent unemployment rate.
The Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM), led by
SolarWorld and supported by more than 150 U.S. employers of more
than 11,000 workers, today recognized the U.S. Department of
Commerce for taking expedited action against a massive, evasive
surge of Chinese solar cell and panel imports ahead of
Commerce's first preliminary determination on duties, now
scheduled for March 2, 2012.
US GDP rose an annualized 2.8% in the fourth quarter of 2011,
up from a 1.8% increase in the third quarter and a 1.3%
second-quarter gain. Market expectations were for a slightly
stronger 3.0% increase in the fourth quarter of 2011.
In his state of the union address this week, President Obama
talked about the American promise - the promise that if
you worked hard, you could do well enough to raise a family, own
a home, send your kids to college, and put a little away for
retirement.
“The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise
alive,” he said. “No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more
important.”
Climate scientists might beg to differ.
Recently, CNN reported an official federal investigation into
a possible cyberattack launched against a sector of America’s
critical infrastructure, a water treatment plant in Springfield,
Illinois. Officials originally thought that this was the first
known cyberattack against America’s critical infrastructure, yet
ultimately, a foreign state wasn't to blame for the attack.
Still, the entire incident highlights how, as tax-paying
citizens, we need our government to do more to ensure that we
are better prepared for cyberattacks
January 27, 2012
The City Council took a deeper look Tuesday at Santa Cruz's
plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent during the
next eight years, one that decreases car trips while increasing
public transportation ridership, bicycle use and solar systems.
The southeastern Afghan province of Nangarhar was once home
to thousands of hectares of olive groves, but residents say
water and electricity shortages, combined with land grabs and
war, have left the industry devastated.
The system's inventor says the Searaser
system, unlike other wave power technologies, does not generate
the electricity in the hostile environment of the ocean but
rather pumps saltwater to an onshore generator.
So far, the complaint by American wind tower manufacturers
against their competition from Asia has mirrored the solar
industry petition filed in October.
Europe may be the big end-market for solar PV demand (at least
for now), but from a manufacturing standpoint Asian firms are
beginning to dominate.
Asia-Pacific markets together added 2.8-gigawatts (GW) of solar
PV installations in 4Q11 on the way to a total of 6GW for the
entire year, an eye-popping 165% growth, thanks in large part to
a massive run-up in China's domestic sector, according to
calculations from Solarbuzz.
A coalition of 11 environmental and public health groups from
seven states has announced plans to sue the government over the
delay in finalizing rules to make coal ash ponds safer.
If, way back in 1911, I had told you that a newly discovered
principle could create a conductor that would carry electricity
over any distance with virtually no loss of power you would have
said “Fantastic! Amazing! This will change everything!” and
you’d have been right … if it had been practical.
Two competing forces with regard to how coal ash is regulated
are headed for a collision. Environmentalist groups have just
said that they would sue the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency to force prompt action while U.S. lawmakers from
coal-producing states are working to head off those attempts.
The concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) industry tenaciously pushed
through these last four years, and now has 33 megawatts (MW) in
the ground, with 60 more expected by mid-year 2012 and about 700
MW more in the pipeline.
Not bad for a relatively new technology, but securing
the pipeline and any future projects could make for a
tough solar race, as bankability issues loom and cheap
PV forces companies to be even more competitive.
Waves and tidal currents could generate up to one-third of
America's electricity usage per year, according to two reports
released by the U.S. Department of Energy that assessed the
potential for ocean power off the east and west coasts.
...a nanomaterial which enables simple detection and removal
of arsenic from drinking water. This nanomaterial responds to
warnings that as many as 60 million people live in contaminated
areas in Southeast Asia without safe drinking water.
First and foremost, as Doiron points out, growing your own
food has the potential "to alter the balance of power, not only
in our own country, but in the entire world."
The state law that has allowed Florida Power & Light and
Progress Energy to charge customers $1 billion so far for
speculative nuclear power plants is unconstitutional, a group of
energy advocates claims in a lawsuit before the state's highest
court.
Increased oil, natural gas and renewable energy production
within the United States and energy efficiency will lower U.S.
reliance on coal and imported energy sources through 2035, finds
the latest forecast by the U.S. Energy Information
Administration, EIA, the statistical and analytical agency
within the Department of Energy.
The US Federal Reserve predicted that interest rates will
stay on hold at least through late 2014 in a dramatic extension
to the period for which it expects to keep rates low.
The Fed’s previous forecast was of rates on hold until
mid-2013. The statement acted as a significant easing in
monetary policy by moving out market expectations of the first
rise in interest rates and led to an immediate fall in bond
yields.
The IEA’s World Energy Outlook Executive Summary released
last November stated “Subsidies that encourage wasteful
consumption of fossil fuels jumped to over $400 billion.” And
additional $100 billion is funneled to the production-side.
Why all the subsidies when demand is so high?
...was designed to “expand the
ability of US law enforcement to fight online trafficking in
copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.”
Because of the vague language included in the act—as well as
some provisions that have been characterized as extreme
overreaching on the part of federal authorities—many opponents
felt that passage of the legislation would cripple, and
eventually destroy, the Internet as we know it.
Google has updated its privacy policy in a way that breaks
down product silos, but allows the search giant to mine data
across all of its services
We distort reality when we omit the health and environmental
costs associated with burning fossil fuels from their prices.
When governments actually subsidize their use, they take the
distortion even further. Worldwide, direct fossil fuel subsidies
added up to roughly $500 billion in 2010. Of this, supports on
the production side totaled some $100 billion. Supports for
consumption exceeded $400 billion, with $193 billion for oil,
$91 billion for natural gas, $3 billion for coal, and $122
billion spent subsidizing the use of fossil fuel-generated
electricity. All together, governments are shelling out nearly
$1.4 billion per day to further destabilize the earth’s climate.
According to the Mohave Valley Daily News, the implosions,
which were originally scheduled for November 2011, had been
rescheduled for Jan. 27. But a spokesperson with majority owner
Southern California Edison was quoted as saying that the
demolition was delayed until late April to dismantle turbines
and other parts of the shuttered coal-fired power plant for
salvage.
worldwide renewable energy capacity grew at rates of 10-60
percent annually from 2004-2009. Grid-connected photovoltaic
(PV) solar power increased the fastest of all renewable
technologies, with a 60 percent annual average growth rate for
the five-year period, according to available statistics.
Solar photovoltaic electricity has been increasing by an
average of more than 20 percent each year since 2002 and until
2010, the cumulative global photovoltaic (PV) solar surpassed
40,000 MW.
North America is at an inflection point in managing organic
materials. Just as paper, metal and plastics were the darlings
of the recycling industry a few decades ago, our society is
defining a new relationship with organic materials — one that
harnesses the full carbon, energy and nutrient potential of
organics. In order to help shape that new relationship, industry
leaders are cultivating North America's awareness and
understanding of anaerobic digestion's features, benefits and
potential role in society. This two-part article explores the
ways the waste, energy and agricultural industries are
integrating this technology into our culture.
"There are forces in the EU that seek to create tension in
relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran by following the US
policies and adopting a hostile approach," the deputy foreign
minister, Ali Asqar Khaji, was quoted as saying by the
semi-official Fars news agency.
Iran is ready to revive talks with the U.S. and other world
powers, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday, but
suggested that Tehran's foes will have to make compromises to
prevent negotiations from again collapsing in stalemate.
The US government sees early signs that Iran's economy has
started to feel the pinch of international efforts to curb
reliance on its petroleum exports, a State Department
spokeswoman said Wednesday.
The US and European Union
have enacted tougher sanctions against Iran in recent weeks to
pressure Tehran into ending its controversial nuclear program,
which the West believes will be used for weapons development.
Does Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu think the West is
taking decisive action to stop Iran from getting the Bomb, or
does he think the West is fiddling while Tel Aviv runs the
rising risk of burning? That's the Big Question as tensions
continue to mount in the epicenter this week. Iran is making new
threats to close the Strait of Hormuz to oil shipments, just
days after test-firing missiles over the Strait.
If you spend a little time with this gardener, you'll begin
to appreciate the pleasure in growing your own food. And the one
thing that seems to unite all gardeners is their tomatoes. Not
only is it one of the first crops that novice gardeners try
their hand at, growing tomatoes is an art form that unites
gardeners from all corners of the earth!
Rooftop solar panels are attracting a new demographic of
customers who are choosing to lease rather than buy, and
enjoying the low upfront costs and immediate savings.
The new third-party-lease business model lets homeowners save
money the very first month, rather than breaking even a decade
later after an initial investment of $10,000 or $20,000.
A natural substance obtained from seeds of the "miracle tree"
could purify and clarify water inexpensively and sustainably in
the developing world, where more than 1 billion people lack
access to clean drinking water, scientists report. Research on
the potential of a sustainable water-treatment process requiring
only tree seeds and sand appears in ACS' journal Langmuir.
When oil gets spilled in a waterway, clean-up crews will
often introduce a solution known as a surfactant. This is a
detergent that lessens the surface tension between the water and
the overlaying oil slick, causing the oil to form into
individual droplets which then sink or get dispersed by wave
action. Unfortunately, such detergents aren't entirely
environmentally-friendly themselves, so the use of them on oil
spills has been criticized as simply replacing one pollutant
with another. Now, however, scientists from the University of
Bristol have created a magnetic soap, that could be removed from
the water once it had done its job.
The USDA’s food safety wing may come under control of the
FDA. This will mean more power, wider scope—and greater
corruption.
Once released into the environment from industrial sources,
trace amounts of heavy metals can remain present in waterways
for decades or even centuries, in concentrations that are still
high enough to pose a health risk. While processes do exist for
removing larger amounts of heavy metals from water, these do not
work on smaller quantities. Now, however, scientists from Rhode
Island's Brown University have combined two existing methods, to
create a new one that removes even trace amounts of heavy metal
from water.
As in much of the country, power plants in Arizona are
responsible for most of the greenhouse gases generated by large
facilities, according to 2010 data from the Environmental
Protection Agency. The data only takes into account single large
sources and not sources like automobiles.
Congress wants to limit your access to research—even though
your tax dollars paid for it. If this bill passes, you’ll learn
only what mainstream medicine wishes you to know.
Barack Obama laid down the battle lines for the presidential
election as he promised a “fairer” tax regime on the day Mitt
Romney, the leading Republican contender, revealed that he paid
federal income taxes at an effective rate of just 13.9 per cent
in 2010.
Since Congress hasn't acted to set a clean energy standard to
spur innovation, U.S. President Barack Obama said Tuesday he
would step in.
In his 2012 State of the Union address, President Obama
announced his intention to sign an executive order to cut
through “red tape” that hinders infrastructure construction.
The world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer is laying off
employees due to over capacity in the market from competition
from Chinese suppliers and lower demand in European and U.S.
markets as unsustainable subsidies decline. Strong headwinds are
blowing against the industry as governments have been forced to
reduce the overly generous subsidies they have provided to wind
producers.
“But even with that relatively slow rate of growth at the end
of the year, the actual demand for December was the highest
daily rate the country's oil demand has ever reached,” said
Calvin Lee, Platts senior writer for China.
several C-class events, the largest a C7 flare, CME appears
to be directed well north of the ecliptic plane, slight chance
for an isolated M-class event, The greater than 10 MeV Proton
event that began at 23/0530Z and reached a maximum value of 6310
pfu,he geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet to unsettled on
days one and two (27-28 January) due to a recurrent coronal
hole high speed stream
A coalition of renewable energy, environmental and labor
groups says a proposal to dramatically increase solar generation
in New York would end up costing the average homeowner only an
additional 39 cents on his monthly electric bill.
Two words jumped out at me in listening to the President's
State of the Union address, and the Republican response:
"collapse" and "implode." Did they strike you, too?
Those in the renewable energy industry looking for clues as
to whether President Obama would continue to talk up renewables
will not have been disappointed by his 2012 State of The Union
speech. Here is a run down of what was said as it relates to
some of the hot energy topics in the country...
Statins are taken by one in four Americans over the age of
45, even though diet can fix high cholesterol quicker and more
safely. Here’s new evidence of the drugs’ dangers.
In the face of potentially catastrophic effects on global
food production, some have proposed drastic solutions to
counteract climate change such as reflecting sunlight away from
the Earth. A new study from the Carnegie Institution for Science
examining the effects of sunshade geoengineering has concluded
that such an approach would be more likely to improve food
security than threaten it.
When Patty Tegeler
looks out the window of her home overlooking the Appalachian
Mountains in southwestern Virginia, she sees trouble on the
horizon.
"In an instant, anything can happen," she told Reuters. "And
I firmly believe that you have to be prepared."
A government watchdog says U.S. taxpayers are still owed
$132.9 billion that companies haven't repaid from the financial
bailout, and some of that will never be recovered.
The Woodlands Township in Texas has begun a single-stream
recycling service.Waste Management Inc. began delivering
96-gallon recycling carts to single-family homes on Jan. 2 and
should complete the deliveries by the end of the month,
according to the Houston Chronicle.
US crude oil stocks rose 3.558 million barrels last week as
imports edged higher and refiners cut back utilization rates,
data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed
Wednesday.
At 334.767 million barrels, crude stocks are 3.5% higher than
the five-year average.
An overwhelming majority (70%) of executives at middle market
energy companies see the potential for U.S. energy independence
within 15 years, yet they expressed concern that the regulatory
environment, along with trouble in the financial world and
opposition to fracking, could dash that promise.
The nation will be more energy independent in the future as
it boosts its production of oil, natural gas and renewable power
such as solar and wind, the U.S. government predicted Monday.
Environmental activists said in a report Tuesday that nearly
3.3 million New Jerseyans drink water from supplies at risk of
contamination if there's a leak or accident at a nuclear plant.
One of the most pronounced themes to emerge from President
Obama’s State of the Union address is his dedication to shale
gas that he says is this country’s newfound fortune. So why the
disdain from oil and gas producers?
In the developing world, where land-intensive wind turbines
are being rapidly constructed, wind power has often turned clean
energy into dirty business.
Polluted streams, rivers, lakes and municipal water may soon
be getting the Wright State treatment.
Sharmila Mukhopadhyay and her researchers are developing near
molecular-sized "nano-brushes."
January 25, 2012
The European debt crisis has now claimed France, which just
lost its coveted AAA rating amid a Standard & Poor's downgrade,
and eventually U.S. financial systems could be due for a fresh
bruising, says Robert Wiedemer, financial commentator and
best-selling author of "Aftershock."
Even as the National Transitional Council (NTC) declared
Libya “liberated” following the violent death of former
strongman Col. Muammar Gadhafi, analysts were warning that civil
war might continue to rage on as militia groups and armed
factions struggle to seize power. And with real elections
tentatively scheduled for 2013 at the earliest, the worst may be
yet to come.
A new zero-emissions engine capable of competing commercially
with hydrogen fuel cells and battery electric systems appeared
on the radar yesterday when respected British engineering
consultancy Ricardo validated Dearman engine technology and its
commercial potential.
The Arab League will seek United Nations Security Council
endorsement for a plan to peacefully end the rule of Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad and pave the way for a democratically
elected government within six months, it was announced on Sunday
night.
Lock up your satellites and batten down your power-lines
because a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) is headed our way.
According to the National Weather Service's Space Weather
Prediction Center (SWPC), it is the strongest Solar Radiation
Storm since May, 2005.
Scientists have devised a new way to produce ethanol directly
from seaweed, offering the potential to generate biofuels that
don't compete with terrestrial food production and won't suck up
scarce freshwater, reports a study published today in Science.
If you want to see what the future of affordable housing
looks like in Brownsville, take a gander at the little blue
house at 3132 Westwind Drive in the Inwood II subdivision.
Fed by a steady stream of coal barges, the aging power plants
that loom over Chicago's Little Village and Pilsen neighborhoods
are by far the city's largest industrial sources of climate
change pollution.
It doesn’t take a major weather event or a terrorist attack
to prove the good sense of being prepared. But what does it
take to activate and cultivate the way of thinking that puts you
in a good place, prepared for anything?
When Thursday was all said and done, it ended up being the
biggest coordinated attack in the history of Anonymous – more
than a dozen major websites down and over 5,000 worldwide
participants. Many on the interwebs rejoiced.
Oil production in North Dakota has boomed to the point that
the state now produces nearly as much oil each day as OPEC
member Ecuador.
The speed of light is considered to be the limit at which no
object can go faster. But here on Earth, nature has its own
speed limit which affects its fastest creatures every day. The
speed at which an animal can go, and human aircraft for that
matter, is directly dependent upon how far that animal can see.
Using complex mathematical equations, researchers at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have effectively
quantified nature's speed limit. They found that given a certain
density of obstacles, there exists a speed at which a bird can
reasonably fly without collision.
The Senate of France has passed legislation that transfers
two Pacific atolls used for atmospheric and underground nuclear
testing back into the public domain of French Polynesia.
As the U.S. economy worsens, protests such as those carried
out by the Occupy Wall Street movement will turn ugly, breaking
down into waves of violent unrest across the nation, says
billionaire financier George Soros.
Finance professionals believe there will be a renewed global
economic downturn in 2012, as the largest ever quarterly survey
of professional accountants shows that international trade
continued to dry up at the end of last year.
If you wanted to create a laboratory for clean energy, you
might pick these attributes: an isolated market; one that’s
almost wholly dependent on fossil fuels; and it has abundant
wind and sun. One such lab already exists. It’s called Hawaii.
A huge pool of fresh water in the Arctic Ocean is expanding
and could lower the temperature of Europe by causing an ocean
current to slow down, British scientists said Sunday.
Using satellites to measure sea surface height from 1995 to
2010, scientists from University College London and Britain's
National Oceanography Center found that the western Arctic's sea
surface has risen by about 15 cms since 2002.
Hundreds of angry Libyans violently stormed the transitional
government’s headquarters in the eastern city of Benghazi on
Saturday, looting office supplies as the country’s interim
leader was trapped in the building.
Fire. It has the ability attract humans like light attracts
moths. As I strolled through the base area of Solitude, Utah at
the Outdoor Retailer winter demo earlier this week, I was
immediately drawn to the large drums overflowing with flames ...
and not because I was particularly cold - I had just stepped out
of the car and it was a pretty mild day by ski resort standards.
No, it was fire for fire's sake that immediately caught my
interest.
CAIRO: Islamists will dominate Egypt's first parliament
following Hosni Mubarak's ousting almost a year ago, as the
country prepares for the anniversary of the protests that ended
his three-decade rule.
Last week the Insider Report disclosed that an Israeli
teenager identified only as “OxOmer” launched a cyberwar
counterattack against Saudi hackers who divulged tens of
thousands of Israeli credit card numbers on the Internet.
Now the Saudi hackers have struck again, attacking the
websites of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and El Al Israel
Airlines.
Las Vegas is rightfully proud to be
the doorway to thousands of tourists who travel to Grand Canyon
National Park and the Colorado River. As our economy matures, we
are becoming a destination for those seeking unique outdoor
experiences. And of course, Southern Nevada has another
inseparable tie to the Colorado River: The river gives us a
safe, reliable water supply, providing more than 90 percent of
our water needs.
After the 2010 mid-term elections, Americans heard the
refrain “jobs, jobs, jobs” from both the public-at-large and
their elected representatives. President Obama’s decision to
immediately deny the Keystone XL Pipeline undermines that
objective. But his choice is procedural and not philosophical,
which means he will bend.
One major source of tension between Beijing and some of its
Pacific neighbors is their overlapping claims to the South China
Sea.
Fitch Ratings says 2012 will be a critical year for the
pharmaceutical industry, as drug makers struggle with record
patent expirations, disappointing results of expensive clinical
trials, and ongoing regulatory challenges against an already
challenging economic backdrop.
Just after the 2008 presidential election, a national mandate
for utilities to obtain a fixed percentage of their electricity
from renewable energy seemed almost inevitable.
The average federal employee earns 57 percent more in salary
and 85 percent more in total compensation, including benefits,
than the average private-sector worker.
There were no details about the agreement, which followed the
signing of an implementation agreement between China's Sinopec
and Saudi Aramco to build a 400,000 b/d oil refinery at Yanbu on
Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast.
Experts say whether residential electric-generating solar, or
photovoltaic panels, make sense depends on myriad
considerations, from your home's location and the direction it
faces to the age of your roof and tree cover in your yard. The
systems can either be bought, the option chosen by Daniels and
Miller, or leased.
The President directed his administration "to open more than
75 percent of our potential offshore oil and gas resources," a
policy that will have an enormous impact on the marine
environment of the United States
Scientists are reporting hints that
embryonic stem cells can ease blindness in some people.
It's the first results from the use of
embryonic stem cells in humans.
So where do you get "living" food when it's the dead of
winter? With sprouts, of course!
‘Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a
power obtainable at any point of the universe. Throughout space
there is energy. — Nikola Tesla, 1892
The most toxic product Americans own in their lifetime is the
automobile. It is filled with flammables, carcinogens, e-waste,
inhalants and pollutants, and it´s capable of violent safety
violations.
Toyota Motor Corp has developed a way to make hybrid and
electric vehicles without the use of expensive rare earth
metals, in which China has a near-monopoly, Japan's Kyodo News
reported.
Disguised as an “International Arms Control Treaty” to fight
against “terrorism,” “insurgency” and “international crime
syndicates,” the UN Small Arms Treaty is in fact a massive,
GLOBAL gun control scheme.
A U.S. aircraft carrier sailed through the Strait of Hormuz
and into the Gulf without incident on Sunday, a day after Iran
backed away from an earlier threat to take action if an American
carrier returned to the strategic waterway.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) released an early
version of its annual energy outlook on Monday, which predicted
a slowdown in growth of energy use over the next two decades
amid economic recovery and improved energy efficiency.
Investors all want the Fed’s money printing operations to
succeed. That’s part of the reason the stock market jumps so
much any time they print money.
The US on Monday welcomed EU sanctions banning Iranian oil
and petrochemical exports to Europe, saying Washington hoped
that Tehran would be motivated by the loss of its oil revenue to
negotiate a settlement to the nuclear crisis.
A weaker sun over the next 90 years is not likely to
significantly delay a rise in global temperature caused by
greenhouse gases, a report said Monday.
New Mexico’s largest bank, Wells Fargo & Co. announced
Monday that financing has been completed for a 53.5-megawatt
multi-site solar project in the state.
The project is one of the largest photovoltaic solar power
efforts in the U.S., according to a news release. It was fully
activated in December 2011.
The study, reported in the Journal of Pain, reports that
women seeking medical care for a wide range of medical problems
in the hospital or clinics at Stanford University School of
Medicine reported higher pain intensity, on average, compared
with men with the same diagnoses.
Pimco CEO and co-CIO Mohamed El-Erian says the world’s
economies are at a tipping point.
"Rather than a
traditional bell-shaped distribution curve for advanced
economies, the world is now increasingly facing what can be best
characterized as a bimodal distribution — one can think of it as
like the back of a two-humped camel," El-Erian writes at CNN.
January 20, 2012
Summary: The solution to SOPA
won’t be found in Washington - and shouldn’t be. The only way to
really combat piracy is for Silicon Valley and Hollywood to
start working as a team.
US crude oil stocks fell 3.438 million barrels to 331.209
million barrels the week that ended January 13, as imports
sharply declined amid a moderate rise in petroleum product
demand, data released by the U.S. Energy Information
Administration (EIA) showed Thursday.
The Turn of the Century marked a turning point for Arizona
and the nation. Americans began to realize that the country’s
natural resources were being used up faster than they were being
replenished. Far-sighted individuals saw that something had to
be done at a national level to save what was left of the
nation’s antiquities, wildlife, water, soil, timber, and unique
natural landscapes.
Ben Franklin, the first American genius, achieved fame and
notoriety for his electricity research, which included that
famous kite-flying experiment. But did you know that he first
described the concept of treating energy efficiency as an energy
resource?
Ethanol derived from natural gas and coal would compete with
corn-based ethanol for a share of the U.S. motor fuel market
under a bill unveiled by six U.S. House members on Wednesday.
...if a parent decides not to use them, their child could be
taken away by child protective services, according to the
guidelines.
Chinese Premier Wu Jiabao said Wednesday after talks in Qatar
that China was not worried about its oil trading with Iran and
while Beijing is opposed to a nuclear-armed Iran, the business
of international trade should not be disrupted.
In what could be a life-saving discovery, a toxic molecule
sometimes found in drinking water has been linked to the
development of neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's.
Summary: What you need to do,
my dear politician friends, is to stop listening to the
lobbyists and start listening to the innovators.
Research will be moving forward this year toward development
and design certification of small modular nuclear reactors, said
Peter Lyons, the Department of Energy assistant secretary of
nuclear energy.
Electricity is at the heart of the U.S. energy economy. And
the numbers say so.
A report by the Manhattan Institute
cites this fascinating statistic: In 1950, 20 percent of the
U.S. gross domestic product was directly dependent on
electricity. By 2008, that number had tripled to 60 percent.
Additionally, the report states that over 85 percent of the U.S.
energy growth since 1980 was met by electricity.
Long-term energy demand forecasts have always been as much
art as science.
They involve so many elements and can encompass such a wide
array of approaches that any prediction can only be taken as a
general guide as to what might -- rather than what will --
happen. As Danish physicist Niels Bohr said: "Prediction is a
very difficult art, especially when it involves the future".
Neil Ford
Amidst a year of frustrating inactivity in the geothermal
industry, many are holding hope for a brighter 2012. The
industry holds more than 700 MW of projects in its pipeline to
be completed before the federal tax credit expires in 2013. One
project that has the upper hand in this race is Gradient
Resource's 60-MW Patua project, about 38 miles east of Reno,
Nevada,...
The
global average temperature last year was the ninth-warmest in
the modern meteorological record, continuing a trend linked to
greenhouse gases that saw nine of the 10 hottest years occurring
since the year 2000, NASA scientists said on Thursday.
In a move to create jobs and help preserve California's
leadership in renewable energy, the state and the federal
government have expanded a partnership to bring more solar, wind
and other clean energy sources on line.
Natural gas is seen as the bridge to solving the
intermittency of supply issues that renewable energy faces as it
contends to take an ever-larger share of the generation load.
But is there enough infrastructure available to get gas to
peaking and other plants when wind and solar resources
inevitably back off? And, if there aren’t who pays for the new
supply lines?
The big difference in the Navajo Nation oath, which sets it
apart from every state and federal oath, is the concluding
affirmation: “With this, I will make life good.”
Where else do attorneys pledge, as a condition of admission
to practice, that they will “make life good”? The phrase filled
me with a sense that life is good, that humans have the capacity
to acknowledge all our relations and commit ourselves to this
good life. The Navajo oath of office is built on a way of life
completely different from the dominant view of Western
civilization: It expresses commitment to life rather than to
self-interest. Chief Justice Yazzie emphasized in his remarks
that the commitment to good life is for all people, not just the
individual.
Japan has asked the US to be flexible on the tougher regime
of sanctions covering imports of Iranian crude that were signed
into law December 31 by President Barack Obama, the country's
Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yukio Edano said Friday.
Japan will allow nuclear reactors to operate for up to 60
years in revised regulations on power plant operators, the
government said on Wednesday, even as it looks to shift
gradually away from atomic power in the wake of the Fukushima
disaster.
La Nińa, "the diva of drought," is peaking, increasing the
odds that the Pacific Northwest will have more stormy weather
this winter and spring, while the southwestern and southern
United States will be dry.
When someone has gallstones, treatment typically involves the
removal of their gallbladder. This is usually done
laparoscopically, in a procedure known as a cholecystectomy. A
group of scientists from the Second People's Hospital of Panyu
District and Central South University in China, however, have
created an endoscope that they say is able to locate and remove
gallstones while leaving the gallbladder intact.
A group of researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and
Harvard Medical School, led by Bruce Spiegelman and Pontus
Boström, have discovered a hormone that mimics some of the
results of a workout by facilitating the transformation of white
fat into brown fat.
Election years are always a terrible time to make big
decisions. Everything leaders do is influenced by calculations
regarding their re-election. Whether something is right or wrong
often matters less than what will bring about more votes. The
decision by the Obama Administration to put to rest the
controversial Keystone XL pipeline project is no exception.
However, this in itself does not mean the decision is without
merit.
When US refiners release fourth quarter earnings in a couple
weeks it's going to be ugly. That point was driven home today
when Hovensa, the joint Hess-PDVSA refinery in St. Croix, said
it was joining a list of other East Coast refineries in shutting
its doors.
OPEC's new 30 million b/d crude production ceiling came into
effect at the beginning of January, but OPEC's latest monthly
oil market report on January 16 showed that the group's output
had already exceeded the new ceiling by more than 800,000 b/d in
December.
U.S. communities routinely use zoning laws to control where
businesses may operate in a neighborhood. Now there's a move to
zone the ocean. A number of coastal states and the federal
government have fledgling plans to coordinate competing uses for
their off-shore waters.
Today Mozilla joins with other sites in a virtual strike to
protest two proposed laws in the United States, called
SOPA and the
PROTECT IP Act. On January 24th, the U.S. Senate
will vote on the
PROTECT IP Act to censor the Internet, despite opposition
from the vast majority of Americans.
The expiration of tax credits for renewable energy projects
in the US and fiscal pressure on state and federal governments
should translate into a difficult environment to finance and
build renewable energy facilities, a panel of speakers agreed
during a webcast Wednesday.
Have you ever considered what that rotten food in your
refrigerator costs? The average American family of four throws
out an estimated $130-175 per month in spoiled and discarded
food. That's real money going straight into the garbage or
compost bin instead of paying off your credit card bills.
Energy produced by wind, solar and other renewable sources
will grow by fourfold by 2030, but the clean-energy sector will
account for only a small fraction of total output, a BP report
said on Wednesday.
Renewable energy, excluding hydropower, will total 860
million metric tons of oil equivalent (Mtoe) by 2030, accounting
for around 5 percent of the world's total energy production of
16,605 Mtoe.
One of the biggest criticisms leveled at biofuels that are
derived from crops such as wheat, corn and sugar cane, is that
they result in valuable land being taken away from food
production. For this reason there are various research efforts
underway to turn seaweed into a viable renewable source of
biomass. Now a team from Bio Architecture Lab (BAL) claims to
have developed a breakthrough technology that makes seaweed a
cost-effective source of biomass by engineering a microbe that
can extract all the major sugars in seaweed and convert them
into renewable fuels and chemicals.
Just who should regulate shale gas production is seeping its
way into this year’s presidential race. The White House has said
that the unconventional form of natural gas is an essential
“bridge fuel” that uses extraction processes that must be
federally regulated.
Smart electric grids will need even smarter cybersecurity to
keep them safe from would-be hackers, an energy expert said at a
scientific conference Friday.
In January 2011, I plotted the size of state solar markets
against their average installed cost and found surprisingly
little correlation.
Once a critical limiting element of agricultural production,
excess nitrogen now overflows from fields and stockyards,
typically in the forms of ammonia and nitrate, contaminating
drinking water and air, and altering the chemistry and
constituency of ecological communities.
Extension crucial to its survival
U.S. wind power faces an uncertain future as lawmakers
grapple over whether to extend a key tax credit that has for
years helped the business compete financially with fossil fuels.
Could clean energy reverse climate
change? Could continued investment in renewable energy
alternatives liberate the world’s poor and put an end to
poverty? Could large-scale solar power and hydropower projects
increase efficiency and provide cheap, clean power to millions
of people all over the world who currently live without access
to reliable electricity?
Earth is not a pleasant home for around a billion or more of
its inhabitants. For many humans, it can be difficult or
impossible to obtain the necessities of life -- food, clean
water, healthcare, and shelter. This challenge is made far worse
by high energy prices that boost the price of all these
commodities. As a result, millions of individuals die agonizing
deaths from starvation, hunger, disease, and exposure to the
elements. If exotic energy technologies such as cold fusion had
not been suppressed for the past twenty years, many of these
human lives could have been saved.
More than 70 percent of the 98,000 miles of roads in Kansas
are unpaved, Smith said.
"One of the problems with unpaved roads is that they are made
from loose granular soils with particles that are not bound to
each other on the road surface," Smith said. "This limits the
speed of vehicles and often generates a lot of dust, denigrating
the quality of the road."
When the tsunami hit the nuclear reactors at Fukushima in
March of 2011, the price of potassium iodide pills jumped from
$10 to $540... in a span of just 5 days.
Potassium iodide pills protect your thyroid from absorbing
radioactive iodine. In the days following the disaster just
about everybody who didn't have any were trying to get some
The state House of Representatives approved the wording of a
constitutional amendment banning a state income tax Thursday,
taking a step toward going before voters in 2014.
TransCanada could reapply to build its Keystone XL crude oil
pipeline from Canada to Texas after the Obama administration's
expected decision to reject the conduit, a source familiar with
the matter said on Wednesday.
US wholesale electricity prices are in a "trough" and could
stay there until the "structural oversupply" of natural gas is
mopped up by more generators switching to gas from coal,
Macquarie Equities Research said Tuesday.
Power prices
are down because of unseasonably warm weather and low gas
prices, the report said. "We find little upside to long-term gas
fundamentals in the US," Macquarie said, adding that coal prices
are also moving lower under pressure from gas prices.
The United States topped China for the first time since 2008
as global clean energy investment reached a new record of $260
billion in 2011, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The
analysis company reported on January 12 that the total was up 5%
over 2010, as solar spending outpaced investments in wind.
Drawn by rapid climate changes in the resource-rich Arctic,
China, India and Brazil, which have no Arctic territories, are
knocking on the door of the increasingly influential Arctic
Council looking for admission as permanent observers.
A number of high profile websites are going dark today to
protest the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT
IP Act (PIPA). The bills are designed to protect intellectual
property holders by toughening measures against copyright
infringers. Opponents say that aspects of the bill pose grave
threats to free speech and internet entrepreneurship, with some
high profile web-masters claiming that the bill, if passed,
would threaten the very existence of their sites despite not
hosting copyright-infringing material directly. Wikipedia,
Reddit and Boing Boing are among the sites effectively shutting
down today.
We have lived in a culture of spend, spend, spend, for years
now. We’ve been bombarded with messages that we deserve only the
best, that we should “just do it,” that for all those wonderful
moments in life, there’s Mastercard. We’ve mortgaged our homes,
our futures, and our children on this mad dash to accumulate...
stuff.
With the 2012 presidential election just around the corner,
the top issue remains that of job creation. To that end, the
shale gas sector says that it is poised to bolster the nation’s
wealth in the form of jobs and gross economic output.
Federal and state funding for renewable projects slowed down
in 2011 due to deficits and backlash against increased
governmental spending. Tax credits, however, remained to help
offset the cost of new renewable projects.
On December 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
quietly posted a notice in the Federal Register that it was
effectively reneging on its plan to reduce the use of
antibiotics in agricultural animal feed - a plan it has been
touting since 1977.
Now, with virtually no public
announcement, the FDA has decided it will continue to allow
livestock producers to use the drugs in feed, unabated; a move
that is threatening food safety by contributing to the spread of
new, antibiotic-resistant "super-germs."
The future of the U.S. electricity portfolio is a complex
matter that asks the industry to find a path forward that
acceptably balances many different factors. Once one
acknowledges that every generating technology carries physical,
financial and environmental risks, the conversation can begin in
an intellectually honest manner. In the case of the nuclear
industry, the issues frequently discussed are the costs of new
construction, safety and fuel management.
Now that France’s Total and China’s Sinopec have invested
$4.5 billion in two of this country’s premier natural gas
developers, common wisdom is suggesting that the fate of
shale-gas here will outshine all competing energy forms. But is
that logic well considered?
The renewable energy industry failed to get a favored tax
incentive extension added to a Senate tax bill that ultimately
blew up in the House of Representatives. And that could
ultimately be good news for developers of wind, solar and other
clean energy projects.
January 17, 2012
A rise in the atmosphere of aerosols - miniscule particles
which include soot, dust and sulphates - has led to more
rainfall in certain parts of the world and could provide vital
clues for future climate predictions, a scientific study shows.
Alarmed over a string of earthquakes linked to deep wells in
nearby Youngstown, authorities in Mansfield, Ohio have
threatened to block construction of two similar waste disposal
wells planned within their city limits.
Islamist militants have seized full control of a town
southeast of Yemen's capital, raising their flag over the
citadel, overrunning army positions, storming the local prison
and pledging allegiance to al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri,
residents said Monday.
This ironworker and grandfather was arrested on December 6,
2011 by Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Police at the behest of the
Franklin County District Attorney Derek Champagne by sealed
indictment, on the charge of stealing 240 acres of wooded
property located in the middle of Akwesasne, which are deeded to
Horst Wuersching of Mount Vernon, New York. Wuersching purchased
the clouded deed in 1981 from a Massachusetts family at that
time for $17,500. Kanaretiio disagreed with all of it, buying or
selling, for he considers this land, the birthright of the
unborn children of his family, and all indigenous families in
Akwesasne, his homeland.
The BodyWave is the first device of its kind to measure
brainwaves through the body rather than the scalp, allowing you
to control a computer with your mind via an armband alone
International water scientists recently issued a call for
action over the growing threat to the world's groundwater
supplies from over-extraction and pollution.
"The pollution is quite terrible. I've heard stories of
cattle dying," Wu said, from his hospital bed in Kunming, the
capital of Yunnan. "I've seen the water in the river and it's
all yellow. I've never drunk the water."
A Sherpa who has climbed Mount Everest a record 21 times,
will trek hundreds of kilometers (miles) along some of the
world's highest mountains to highlight the impact of climate
change on the Himalayas, organizers said on Monday.
The symbolic Doomsday Clock calculated by a group of
scientists was moved a minute closer to midnight on Tuesday,
with the group citing inadequate progress on nuclear weapons
reduction and climate change.
Greece must urgently break a deadlock in debt swap talks
triggered by "unreasonable" demands from its partners, the head
of a group of representing its private sector warned on Monday,
as Athens raced against the clock to prevent an unruly default.
The path of least emissions may not always be the fastest way
to drive somewhere, but drivers can reduce their tailpipe
emissions without significantly slowing travel time, finds new
research from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
PC Magazine reports that up to 7,000 sites are
planning to black out, most notably reddit, Boing Boing and, as
of January 16, Wikipedia’s English-language sites.
Iran's OPEC Governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi said Tuesday that
Europe would be committing "economic suicide" if it applied an
embargo on Iranian oil exports, semi-official news agency Mehr
reported.
Iran will go on working on the power plant project in the
Syrian city of Jandar despite five Iranian technicians having
been abducted on December 21, 2011 by a group of unknown gunmen,
the Iranian deputy energy minister said.
Ali Zabihi told the Mehr news agency that 70 per cent of the
project has been completed and under normal situations will be
inaugurated by the end of the spring.
The U.S. government will spend beyond its means and the
Federal Reserve will print money to juice up the economy as part
of an election-year popularity ploy, says international investor
Jim Rogers.
La Nina events
may make flu pandemics more likely, research suggests.
US-based scientists found that the last four pandemics all
occurred after La Nina events, which bring cool waters to the
surface of the eastern Pacific.
In a landmark interview, Andrea Rossi, the inventor of the
E-Cat (cold fusion energy catalyzer), announced many
breakthroughs in the development of his technology, answered a
wide range of questions, and shared many details regarding the
upcoming ten kilowatt heat unit for home use.
Race is not simply about the physical description of human
variation. Since its origin in Western science in the eighteenth
century, race has been used both to classify and rank human
beings according to inferior and superior types. Although race
as a concept developed in the West during the age of
Enlightenment, prominent Enlightenment thinkers—Carolus
Linnaeus, Johann Blumenbach, Lewis Henry Morgan and Samuel
George Morton, among others—greatly influenced European ideas
about economics, government and science as well as race.
Concepts of race eventually spread to many parts of the
non-Western world through international commerce, including the
slave trade, and later colonial conquest and
administration—which have used it as a tool of social division,
even among “mixed-race” peoples.
Not too long ago, the United States’ explicit policy
regarding Native Americans was termination. The goal was to
marginalize and eradicate Native people and cultures. As a first
step, the government stole Native land and resources, murdered
Native families and herded the survivors onto bounded
reservations offering little chance of survival. The next step
was instituting a legal policy during the 1940s, 50s and 60s
stripping Native nations of any remaining rights. True to form,
this officially coined “Termination Era” witnessed the
government terminating over 100 tribes through legislative
mandate.
Researchers claim a newly discovered molecule found in the
Earth's atmosphere holds the potential to help offset global
warming by actually cooling the planet. The molecule is a
Criegee biradical or Criegee intermediate, which are chemical
intermediaries that are powerful oxidizers of pollutants
produced by combustion, such as nitrogen dioxide and sulfur
dioxide.
The Obama administration banned new uranium mining claims
around the Grand Canyon for the next 20 years, a move hailed by
conservationists on Monday as key to the president's
environmental legacy but slammed by opponents as a job-killer.
A report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance said that a
sluggish economy did not hamper investments in new clean energy
projects as they increased 5 percent to $260 billion in 2011, a
record high
potential for a glancing blow from the CME beginning late on
19 JanuarySolar activity is expected to be at low levels with
a chance for M-class activity for the next three days (17 - 19
January) The geomagnetic field is expected to be at mostly quiet
to unsettled levels isolated active periods, are expected due to
anticipated effects from a glancing blow from the 16 January CME
Nigerian officials have suspended fishing off the southern coast
after about 40,000 barrels (1.7 million gallons) of crude oil
was spilled from a Shell production platform in the Bonga oil
field.
The oil leaked into the Atlantic Ocean on December 20, 2011
during what the company called a "routine operation" to transfer
oil to a tanker from Shell's Bonga floating production, storage
and off-take vessel.
When the massive tsunami smacked into Fukushima Daiichi, the
nuclear power plant was stacked high with more uranium than it
was originally designed to hold and had repeatedly missed
mandatory safety checks over the past decade.
The trade dispute between China and America
over solar power is heating up. Leading the battle on this side
of the Pacific is SolarWorld, one of a handful of companies that
asked the U.S. Department of Commerce to investigate whether
Chinese manufacturers have dumped solar panels in America at
prices below their costs.
Before Galileo Galilei and Sir Isaac Newton, the Lakota
studied astronomy. Many indigenous peoples did. They were
natural scientists. What sets indigenous “ethnoastronomy” apart
from mainstream western astronomy is native peoples didn’t feel
the need to separate their spiritual beliefs from other areas of
their lives.
The 3,500 year old, 118-foot tall cypress appears to have burned
down as a result of a lightning stormA 118-foot,
3,500-year-old bald cypress tree named “The Senator” burned to
the ground yesterday morning. Located in Big Tree Park in
Longwood, Florida, the Senator is thought to have been set on
fire by a lightning strike two weeks ago.
"Fukushima is still a work in progress, but we can assure you
we're not going to let that tragedy go by without learning from
it and making what I think is a safe industry even safer," said
Ray Golden, TVA's manager of nuclear communications.
"We want to demystify nuclear power," he said.
Warmer summers in the far Northern Hemisphere are disrupting
weather patterns and triggering more severe winter weather in
the United States and Europe, a team of scientists say, in a
finding that could improve long-range weather forecasts.
Fresh, clean water is a limited resource. While most of the
planet is covered in water, it is salt water that can only be
consumed by humans and other species after undergoing
desalination, which is an expensive process. Occurrences such as
droughts further limit access to clean and fresh water, meaning
people need to take steps to reduce water use and save as much
water as possible. In some areas of the world, access to water
is limited due to contamination. People who have access to fresh
water can take steps to limit their use of water to avoid waste.
Varmus has a distinguished track record in basic research on
cancer treatment,...this is paralleled by frank ignorance of
well-documented and longstanding scientific evidence on cancer
prevention.”
The winter season has arrived on schedule.
For those of you in cold and snowy climates, now is a
good time to review the maintenance and condition of your power
system.
January 10, 2012
More than 100 tons of trash was left behind after the Rose
Parade and Rose Bowl football game in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan.
2.According to the Pasadena Sun, about 50 tons of trash,
3,500 beverage containers and five tons of cardboard were left
along the parade route.
It's official: 2011 was the driest year on record in Texas,
according to the National Weather Service. It was also the
second-hottest ever.
Occupy Wall Street Protesters need to occupy a mirror and
look deep into its reflection before complaining of hardship,
because by world standards, a good chunk of them probably are
one percenters themselves, a World Bank economist concludes.
The 2011 “Climate B.S. of the Year Award” goes to the entire
field of candidates currently stumping in New Hampshire for the
Republican Party presidential nomination, the Pacific Institute
announced Thursday.
With mounting evidence linking hundreds of small earthquakes
from Oklahoma to Ohio to the energy industry's growing use of
fracking technology, scientists say there is one way to minimize
risks of even minor temblors.
Only, it costs about $10 million a pop.
Someone intentionally set off fireworks under a blackbird
roost in Beebe, Arkansas on New Year's Eve, killing about 200
birds on the first anniversary of the similar death of 5,000 of
the birds, authorities said on Monday.
Unless China is able to curb its dependence on coal and the
severe air pollution that dependence is causing, the country
will face difficulties attracting foreign investment and a
growing risk of social instability as citizens protest to demand
greater environmental protections.
Around 16,444 tons of recyclables were saved from the
county´s landfill, which is 71% more than in 2006, according to
the Columbus Dispatch.
Meanwhile, 1.1 million tons of garbage went to the county
landfill, with much of it being recyclable materials such as
paper and cardboard, the paper reported. Trash in the landfill
increased 30% last year.
Consumer credit surged 10 percent in November, its biggest jump
in a decade in a positive signal for the economy as consumers
tapped their credit cards and the government doled out more
student loans.
A drug discovered nearly four years ago that builds muscles
in lazy mice may also prevent heatstroke, according to lab
research reported on Sunday.
A new geospatial application developed by the U.S. Department
of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) allows
users to easily and accurately map potential renewable energy
resources in the United States.
Gasoline could cost 4.5 cents a gallon more starting as early
as this week, and it's not because of rising oil prices.
The warning comes as British Gas is considering cutting gas
prices by up to ten per cent over the next few months. The move
follows sharp falls in wholesale gas costs over the past two
months. Any cut by British Gas would be expected to start a
price war.
Just a month after declaring water in Dimock safe, officials
from the Environmental Protection Agency are taking another look
after new evidence suggested that drinking water could be
polluted worse than originally thought.
Despite improving manufacturing data and better-than-expected
unemployment figures in the United States, investors aren't
going to come back roaring with a vengeance as long as the
European debt crisis sticks around, says Mohamed El-Erian, CEO
of Pimco, the world's largest bond fund.
Based on "any information"—even a newspaper article or an
anonymous tip—the Environmental Protection Agency can issue an
administrative compliance order directing a property owner to
stop discharging pollutants or restore a damaged wetland. The
government says such directives, similar to stop-work orders by
local zoning inspectors, allow it to respond rapidly to prevent
environmental damage.
The country is currently exchanging electricity with
Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Pakistan, Nakhichevan,
Turkey, and Turkmenistan. It also plans to add 5,000 megawatts
(MW) of capacity to its power grid annually.
Iran's decision to begin enriching uranium at a fortified
underground facility marks a significant advancement in its
nuclear weapons program and is another display of defiance
toward the international community.
The U.S. Internal Revenue
Service is reopening a program that allows citizens to
voluntarily disclose assets they are holding offshore. The
agency said it has collected $4.4 billion from two previous
programs.
Ithaca has sourced 5 percent of its energy from wind farms
since 2006 and is targeting a carbon footprint 20 percent
smaller than 2001 levels by 2016, and it is not the only U.S.
municipality to go 100 percent renewable.
The recycling list now includes boxes, cases, cups,
containers and plates. Residents also can recycle trays,
tube-shaped containers, lids and caps,
Toxic air pollutants from power plants—mercury, lead,
arsenic, and others—are linked to health problems such as
cancer, heart disease, neurological damage, birth defects,
asthma attacks, and even premature death. Mercury, for example,
is a potent neurotoxin that poses a threat to fetal and infant
brain development. And coal plants are far and away the greatest
source of mercury air emissions in the United States.
Arizona Senator and 2008 presidential candidate John McCain
says President Obama has placed the United States in “great
peril” with his policy on troop withdrawals in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Michigan paper mill will be able to burn more wood waste to
create electricity for operations thanks to a $45 million
project.
a state-of-the-art wind turbine that will provide the energy
necessary to create hydrogen gas, which is being used to power
the town’s fuel cell cars. This “closed loop” energy system is
completely “green” in producing fuel for vehicles that emit no
pollutants.
To help minimize risks from climate change, New York State
has set two goals:
- Reduce emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse
gases by 80 percent from 1990 levels, by the year
2050 ("80 by 50"), and
- Improve resilience to climate change in
all the state's communities.
North Sea crude oil price values had a record year in 2011,
supported by a tight supply situation in Europe and the
Mediterranean basin, said traders.
A 4.0 magnitude earthquake in Ohio on New Year's Eve did not
occur naturally and may have been caused by high-pressure liquid
injection related to oil and gas exploration and production, an
expert hired by the state of Ohio said on Tuesday.
Not every company working on free energy technology likes
publicity. Many companies doing cutting edge research and
development desire to keep a low profile. This can be for many
reasons, such as remaining under the radar from competitors, not
revealing the existence of their technology to the powers that
be, or even just the ability to work in peace -- free of
disruptions from other parties.
Pakistan’s president has a weak hold on power, and that power
is weakening in the face of multiple scandals, a power struggle
with the military and a damaged relationship with the United
States, all of which are fueling rumors of a coup attempt.
What's going to happen on the day our bluff gets called as a
country? When all $15 trillion of the IOUs and paper promises
made by our politicians come due? When not even the Chinese are
interested in rolling over our debt one more time?
low level C-class flares, a chance for M-class activity, The
geomagnetic field is expected to be mostly quiet on days 1 - 2
(10 - 11 January). A coronal hole high speed stream is
expected to move into geoeffective position on day 3 (12
January) causing quiet to unsettled conditions with a chance
for active periods.
Local solar advocate Jack Star points to several recent
developments that have him feeling optimistic about solar energy
in the Savannah area
Billionaire investor George Soros said a collapse of the euro
and breakup of the European Union would have "catastrophic"
consequences for the global financial system.
"Today, the euro is potentially endangering the political
cohesion of the European Union,"...
If solar energy is eventually going to matter — that is,
generate a significant portion of the nation’s electricity — the
industry must overcome a major stumbling block, experts say:
finding a way to store it for use when the sun isn’t shining.
In the first chapter of his autobiography, Nikola Tesla
describes what he considered an ailment as a child, in which
images would flash into his vision, and he couldn't get them
out. As a teen, he would follow these to mentally travel the
world. Then he learned to use this gift for inventing.
On December 31, 2011, President Barack Obama signed the
National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2012. By doing so,
he thereby placed his imprimatur as President of the United
States on a provision in that Act that codifies in U.S. law the
military detention of anyone in the world, without charge or
trial, and without a time limit. Even U.S. citizens can be held
until the end of hostilities in a climate of war that has been
called “generational.
As an American Indian, I find this development unbelievably
fascinating, and unnerving. Think about the irony:
It's not just Democrat or Republican - dozens of third-party
candidates are also running for president this fall.
The basic idea of the theory can be stated in one sentence.
"Take advantage of centrifugal force and put it to work, instead
of wasting it." Of course the problem is that most mainstream
scientists don't think centrifugal force is real. They think it
is a fictitious force that does not really exist.
Four years after the
banking system nearly collapsed from reckless mortgage lending,
federal prosecutors have stayed on the sidelines, even as judges
around the country are pointing fingers at possible wrongdoing.
“He always believes that he can be victorious. I believe he
has an impeccable character,” West said.
“I think if we
can get those types of things restored in Washington in the
individuals we’re sending there as elected officials, then the
greatest days of this nation will be ahead of us.”
Todd Palin, the husband of former vice presidential candidate
Sarah Palin, has endorsed the GOP presidential candidacy of
former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. However, Palin told ABC News
that the former Alaska governor has yet to decide on which
candidate will get her support.
On Dec. 18, 2010, a police slap of a vegetable-cum-fruit
peddler in the Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid triggered an "Arab
Spring" that no one had forecast and that quickly spawned a
long, dark Arab winter.
"Our belief is that for these sanctions to be most effective,
they need to be multilateral and have multilateral
participation, they need to be timed and phased in a way that
avoids negative repercussions to international oil markets and
in ways that might cause more damage to ourselves than to Iran,"
Carney told reporters during a daily briefing.
The United Nations health body said it was "deeply concerned
about the potential negative consequences" of work by two
leading flu research teams who this month said they had found
ways to make H5N1 into a easily transmissable form capable of
causing lethal human pandemics
The newest strain of the notorious Zeus malware family is
capable of defeating common methods of user authentication
employed by financial institutions.
January 6, 2012
The Mayans had it right. If you're going to predict the
future, it's best to aim far beyond your life expectancy, lest
you wind up red-faced in a bunker overstocked with Spam and
ammo.
American Exceptionalism about the environment is one of the
shining stars of our democracy.
Argentina is again challenging British control of the
Falkland Islands and moving to assert its ownership of the
territory, setting up a likely confrontation over the islands in
2012. Argentina is likely motivated by nationalism and new oil
riches in the Falklands, as well as lessening international
support for Britain’s claims on the islands.
Corporate Directors say that setting appropriate goals for
executive performance remains their biggest pay issue for 2012 –
and give themselves high marks for their progress toward that
goal...
One of the greatest problems of large scale solar power
facilities is that they do not produce electricity at night, and
when they do produce power, it is constantly fluctuating with
the sun's strength. Under development in the deserts of Tonopah,
Nevada is a new technology that will effectively store solar
energy in the form of molten salt. When the sun goes down,
thermal energy from the salt will be able to produce electricity
for eight to ten hours.
The December delinquency rate for U.S. commercial real estate
loans in CMBS rose seven basis points to 9.58%. After a positive
November report that saw the delinquency rate fall 26 basis
points, the rate reversed course and moved higher in December
for the third time in the last four months and the eighth time
in 2011. The value of delinquent loans is now $58.5 billion.
The law Congress passed just before Christmas to force a
quicker decision on the Keystone XL pipeline gives the Obama
administration two choices: approve or deny TransCanada's
application by February 21. Or does it?
This past week saw at least 80 stories on the web, 4 from
mainstream news, regarding Andrea Rossi's E-Cat powered by LENR
or cold fusion. The hottest theme was Rossi's assertion that he
is in discussion with Home Depot to distribute 1 million home
heat units this Autumn for less than $2,000 USD. Reality will
probably dictate a longer time-line.
European governments have agreed in principle to ban imports
of Iranian oil, EU diplomats said yesterday, dealing a blow to
Tehran months before an Iranian election.
European Union governments moved closer to halting oil
purchases from Iran, stepping up the confrontation over the
Islamic republic’s nuclear program.
A federal nuclear-safety administrator has rejected an
anti-nuclear activist group's petition for immediate shutdown of
the Fermi 2 nuclear power plant and others with designs similar
to those of the Fukushima reactors that melted down and exploded
after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami. But he has agreed that
regulators should review specific elements of the plants'
operation in light of the Japanese disaster.
Market size of global hydrogen production is estimated to 53
million metric tons in 2010, in which 12% is shared by merchant
hydrogen and rest with captive production. With decreasing
sulfur level in petroleum products, lowering crude oil quality
and rising demand of hydrogen operated fuel cell applications,
global hydrogen production volume is forecasted to grow by
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.6% during 2011 - 2016.
Hydrogen production market in terms of value is estimated to be
$82.6 billion in 2010.
Cities all around the nation, reported the New York Times
last week, are going dark at night. Because of severe budget
shortages, cash-strapped towns and cities are turning off public
streetlights. In many areas, people are now afraid to go out at
night.
The U.S. welfare state has "run up against a brick wall" of
economic reality and fiscal book-keeping and only a "true
revolution" involving major entitlement overhaul will improve
the economy, says former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan.
In
the United States, the rise of the tea party among Republicans
coupled with the shift to the left of many Democrats have made
it very difficult for the country's leaders to agree on policy.
President Barack Obama on Thursday unveiled a new defense
strategy that will shrink the country's armed forces at a time
of tight budgets but pledged to maintain U.S. military
superiority in the world.
"Our military will be leaner
but the world must know -- the United States is going to
maintain our military superiority with armed forces that are
agile, flexible and ready for the full range of contingencies
and threats," Obama told a news briefing at the Pentagon.
Brent crude futures, trading near $113 a barrel today, may rally
to $125 should the European Union ban imports of Iranian oil,
according to Societe Generale SA.
Such a move would require about 600,000 barrels a day of
replacement supply from Saudi Arabia, depleting the country’s
spare capacity...
Mounting sectarian tensions in Iraq are leading to political
instability and violence as historical animosity between
majority Shiites and minority Sunni Muslims is increasing...
It's a terrible thing to fear your government. For the past
65 years, we've deluded ourselves into thinking that our
government is a benign entity which only has the best interests
of its citizens at heart. After all, our government is all about
freedom, civil liberties, justice, and constitutional rights...
right?
Kamakura Corporation reported today that the Kamakura index
of troubled public companies improved, falling 1.14% to 6.50% in
December. The index has deteriorated in six of the last eight
months.
The oceanic heat content (average temperature in the upper
300m of the ocean) anomalies strengthened across the eastern
Pacific
Fred Fleitz, managing editor of LIGNET and a long-time former
CIA analyst, warns in a special interview of the danger of
miscalculation on Iran as a European oil embargo threatens to
tighten the noose around its neck.
The C-1 is a proposed fully-electric and fully-enclosed
self-balancing motorcycle
The fact that the system is able to passively acquire and
track targets has far reaching implications for US aircraft and
crew survivability: users are able to detect threats to the
aircraft such as surface-to-air missiles well outside their
lethal engagement envelope.
The implication of the technology is that a given target can
be destroyed more easily as the material increases the
probability of what is termed a "catastrophic kill."
A commonly-available, inexpensive polymer has been shown to
be very effective at capturing carbon dioxide from sources such
as smokestacks
Iran threat growing
"An annual report submitted by National Council for the Child
to President Shimon Peres on Wednesday indicates that one out of
every three Israeli children is poor," reports the Jerusalem
Post this week.
Despite a flurry of diplomatic activity, including the visit
by a high-level US diplomat to the region, North Korea shows no
signs of changing its policies. To some extent, North Korea
appears to be taking advantage of the urge for “calm and
stability” that is coming from many nations, including the
United States.
President Barack Obama on Thursday unveiled a new defense
strategy that will shrink the country's armed forces at a time
of tight budgets but pledged to maintain U.S. military
superiority in the world.
If you had to name one important benefit of living an
off-grid lifestyle, what would that be? There are many reasons
for adopting a more holistic, natural way of life, one that is
more in tune with creation and our role in it. However, if I had
to stand here and list one benefit that made this whole effort
worthwhile, it would be the advantages to my health.
A prototype system has been created for cleaning and heating
the air in chicken and swine barns
Renewables now provide 12% of domestic energy production, 14%
more than 2010; and renewable electrical output increased 25%,
which contributes to 13% of U.S. power.
two C-class events observed. radio sweep, lack of a CME
in imagery, no Earth impacts are expected. a slight chance for
M-class flares for the next The geomagnetic field has been
at predominantly quiet levels for the past 24 hours. From
05/1200-1500Z, the mid latitudes observed unsettled
conditionsthree days (06 - 08 January). a slight chance for
minor storm levels at high latitudes
Unlike conventional solar panels, whose installation sites
are limited to roofs and other specific places, the new material
can be used for walls of buildings and other structures in sunny
locations.
Populations of honeybee have been in a seemingly unstoppable
downward spiral, and scientists are still grasping to find the
cause. A new study from the San Francisco State University
suggests that one factor may be a parasitic fly, Apocephalus
borealis, which lays its eggs in the bees' abdomens. The
parasitic eggs cause atypical behavior in the bees, causing them
to abandon their hives. Like a scene out of Alien, the eggs
eventually hatch and the newborn flies burst out of the bee,
killing it in the process.
The year 2012 will be an important test of the commercial
viability of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). Two automakers,
Chevrolet and Nissan, ended 2010 with the launch of their first
highway-capable PEVs for the mass market.
Syrian authorities have released more than 500 prisoners
accused of involvement in anti-regime activities, state TV
reported Thursday, in what appeared to be another gesture to
comply with the Arab League plan to end the regime's 9-month-old
crackdown on dissent.
Solar firms alarmed over proposal that would cut subsidies
for commercial jobs
State regulators this week will decide on a proposed
renewable- energy plan filed by Tucson Electric Power Co. for
next year that would sharply cut back on ratepayer subsidies for
commercial renewable-energy installations - a move solar
installers say could cripple the industry.
A study published in the American Heart Association’s journal
Circulation showed that each extra hour of television watching
(the ultimate sitting sedentary activity) per day was associated
with an 18% increase in deaths from heart disease and an 11%
increase in overall mortality. People who watched TV for at
least four hours a day were 80% more likely to die of
cardiovascular disease than those who watched two hours or less,
and 46% more likely to die of any cause.
During the last decade, technologies have been developed and
demonstrated at scale to economically produce natural gas from
shale rock formations. ...This single opportunity is not
sufficient to jump-start the US economy. But there are many
other similar opportunities with a total value over $40
trillion. Together, they could create millions of good jobs,
stimulate sustainable economic growth, improve energy security,
and enhance environmental protection. Some of the best
opportunities are as follows:
Kurdish resentment toward Ankara is growing as Prime Minister
Erdogan and his ruling party continue to respond to unrest with
violence and military crackdowns rather than constitutional
reform.
This new technology will allow savings of 45% of the
desalinated water costs and it will reduce 74% of the energy
consumption in the purification facilities.
Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC) yeterday released the results of its
Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS), showing average fixed
mortgage rates starting the year at or near their all-time lows.
The 30-year fixed averaged 3.91 percent matching its all-time
record low amid recent data showing signs of improvement in the
housing market and manufacturing industry. This marks the fifth
consecutive week the 30-year fixed has averaged below 4.00
percent.
While large offshore turbines can be very effective at
harnessing the power of the wind, they do pose at least one
challenge - how do you get them out into the ocean?
January 3, 2012
Nigerian villagers say oil washing up on the coast comes from
a Royal Dutch Shell loading accident last month that caused the
biggest spill in Africa's top producer in more than 13 years.
A pan-Arab body called Sunday for the immediate withdrawal of
the Arab League monitors in Syria because President Bashar
Assad's regime has kept up killings of government opponents even
in the presence of the observers.
The Ogallala Aquifer is vast. It underlies portions of eight
large states -- 174,000 square miles of crop and rangeland all
the way from South Dakota to Texas. But it is also invisible. So
it's not surprising that until the debate over the Keystone XL
pipeline erupted, few people had ever heard of it.
It's been an exciting few weeks since Andrea Rossi
demonstrated his one-megawatt E-Cat power plant with apparent
success. Critics still believe that the test was a sham, the
mystery customer is a fake, and there is no concrete evidence
the technology works. Rossi has been busy since then, and the
E-Cat bandwagon is rolling onwards. But now he has rivals in the
cold fusion business. Is this evidence that the technology is
real and can be replicated? Or just that someone else wants a
piece of a possible scam of the decade?
A bill that would significantly increase hydropower spending
in the 2012 Fiscal Year has gained congressional and
presidential approval.
With 2011 drawing to a close, now is a good time to take
stock of energy efficiency accomplishments over the past year.
On the plus side, many energy efficiency investments were made
this year. While exact figures are not available yet,
utility-sector spending on energy efficiency programs is likely
to be more than $6 billion for the year.
LIGNET, a global intelligence and forecasting site, says that
Iran will be the wild card of 2012, and her actions in the
coming months could foretell peace or war. LIGNET adviser Gen.
Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA, offers his blunt
assessment of Iran, calling it “the single most worrisome topic”
the U.S. security community faces.
European banks hold as much as $10 trillion in claims against
their U.S. counterparts, which reflects how vulnerable the North
American financial system is to Europe's debt crisis, Forbes
reports, citing Princeton University research.
Foreign investors are selling Treasury positions in record
numbers, even at a time when such assets are performing well.
In the week ended Dec. 28, foreign investors sold the
second-highest amount of U.S. bonds in history at $23 billion,
Zero Hedge reports, citing Federal Reserve data.
Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich blasted the
Justice Department for blocking a South Carolina voter
identification law and suggested the Obama administration wants
to "steal elections."
The wind turbine market has experienced significant growth
over the last five years and is expected to continue its
momentum, reaching approximately US $96 billion by 2016 with a
CAGR of 12% over the next five years for annual installations.
Hurricanes and typhoons could contribute to other natural
disasters that occur long after the rain and winds subside. A
new study led by University of Miami (UM) scientist Shimon
Wdowinski finds a link between earthquakes and tropical storms,
and shows that they may have actually initiated some major
temblors, including the recent 2010 quakes in Haiti and Taiwan.
AeroShot claims its portable tube-like device containing 100
mg of caffeine — set to hit U.S. stores in January — provides a
"healthy energy boost" just in time for the New Year. But health
experts aren't so sure inhaling your caffeine is such a good
idea.
...by changing the distribution of the Earth's mass, the
earthquake that devastated Japan last Friday should have sped up
the Earth's rotation, resulting in a day that is about 1.8
microseconds (1.8 millionths of a second) shorter.
Mercury is an extremely toxic material. It is known to
emitted to the atmosphere but what happens to the Mercury after
that? How is it removed or processed? Humans pump thousands of
tons of vapor from the metallic element mercury into the
atmosphere each year, and it can remain suspended for long
periods before being changed into a form that is easily removed
from the atmosphere. New research shows that the upper
troposphere and lower stratosphere work to transform elemental
mercury into oxidized mercury, which can easily be deposited
into aquatic ecosystems and ultimately enter the food chain
Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC) released the results of its Primary
Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS), showing average fixed mortgage
rates finishing the year near their all-time historic lows
helping to keep homebuyer affordability high. Averaging 3.95
percent, the 30-year fixed has been at or below 4.00 percent for
the past nine consecutive weeks and only twice in 2011 did it
average above 5.00 percent.
The majority of new generating capacity projected in the next
10 years will rely on natural gas as its primary fuel, according
to a recent assessment by the North American Electric
Reliability Corporation (NERC).
A newly released U.S. Geological Survey study of decreasing
groundwater resources in the Denver Basin aquifer provides
information on water movement within the system and how it
responds to changes in climatic and human activities.
The typical New Year's resolution is about losing weight.
However, there are other aspects of our health that perhaps
deserve more attention. One, for instance, is keeping a healthy
mind. Alzheimer's disease is a terrible affliction of the mind
and it is associated with a shrinking of the brian. A new study
which was just published before the New Year suggests brain
shrinkage can be avoided if people consume the right diet.
President Obama ended 2011 by signing a major defense bill,
despite what he called "serious reservations" about provisions
regarding interrogations of terrorist suspects, sanctions
against Iran, and relations with Russia.
Leaving behind a year of bruising legislative battles,
President Barack Obama enters his fourth year in office having
calculated that he no longer needs Congress to promote his
agenda and may even benefit in his re-election campaign if
lawmakers accomplish little in 2012.
Ohio has suspended operations at five deep wells used to
dispose of fracking-related fluids after nearly a dozen
earthquakes in the town of Youngstown over the past year, the
latest sign of local unease over the booming shale gas industry.
Since the start of 2011, PESN has been covering the
emergence, testing, and commercialization of Andrea Rossi's
E-Cat (Energy Catalyzer) technology. As 2012 approaches, it is
clear that nickel-hydrogen cold fusion technology is going to
change the world, as the production of a million E-Cat home
units is planned.
Doctors are almost unanimous in their dislike of Obamacare.
And their predictions about the future of health care are gloomy
indeed. Here are a few facts and figures you should be aware of:
Wind turbine prices in the U.S. have fallen by nearly
one-third on average since 2008, according to a new report from
the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. However, this turbine
price decline since 2008 began from elevated levels, after
turbine prices had doubled in the period from 2002
through 2008.
A few nominal C-class flares occurred. slight chance for an
M-class flare for the next 3 days (3-5 January). The geomagnetic
field is expected to be mostly quiet for day 1 (3 January).
Activity is forecast to increase to mostly unsettled
conditions with possible active periods on day 2 (4 January)
with an anticipated solar sector boundary crossing (SSBC).
Conditions should return to mostly quiet on day 3 (5
January).
Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association, is one
of the nation's most respected Christian leaders and has been at
the forefront for decades in fighting for traditional values
against a rising tide of secularism.
Injecting drilling wastewater and other brine deep
underground probably caused several earthquakes near Youngstown
in 2011, according to a scientist who is helping Ohio study the
tremors.
After a decade of diplomatic crises, see-sawing tensions, and
increasing frustration on both sides, 2012 promises to mark the
re-defining moment for the alliance between the U.S. and
Pakistan.
1. Food prices have gone up, and
more people need help feeding their families
2. The food we can afford
could make us sick (or even kill us)
3...
A stunning report written by the late Eugene Mallove details
the efforts of professors, researchers, and even the former
President of MIT to squash cold fusion at all costs. If you have
any doubt that Pons and Fleischmann had enemies desperately
trying to discredit them, this article will erase it!
Evansville-based Powers Energy of America is still planning
on buying land in south Lake County and building a facility that
will convert trash into ethanol in about three years from now.
The declining net import dependence of the US is no longer
news. But that doesn't mean that each month's release of data
doesn't have an endless series of comparisons and twists to be
digested.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas offers a glimpse into how
the markets are doing domestically and internationally.
...the deeper truth is that, certainly in the United States,
there is a disconnect between the urgency of this civilizational
crisis and the response to it on the part of the broad
progressive citizenry, those tens of millions of people who
believe generally in human rights and fact-based
decision-making.
The renewable energy industry
failed to get a favored tax incentive extension added to a
Senate tax bill that ultimately blew up in the House of
Representatives. And that could ultimately be good news for
developers of wind, solar and other clean energy projects.
Previous
news
for News of January 2012 go to:
for News of December 2011 go to: News_Dec11
for News of November 2011 go to:
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