The Power of Gratitude: It's About What
You Have, Not What You're Going to Get
With the hustle and bustle of everyday
life, it's easy to forget about what and
who you're grateful for.
January 29, 2013
Over the last three months,
oil prices have moved up
from $85 a barrel to $95 a
barrel. The Commitment of
Traders report shows that
large speculators have grown
more bullish during this
same time period.
Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz is
betting $9 billion California will want wind
power from Wyoming, even though the Golden
State says it doesn't and won't.
Gov. Jerry Brown says California
can build its own renewable-energy projects,
and state utility executives told The Denver
Post if they have to look out of state,
they'll look closer than Wyoming, more than
1,000 miles away.
...low concentration
photovoltaics has a big new
project to hang its hat on,
the world's largest LCPV
project in the world, in
fact: A 4.1-megawatt
ground-mounted array with
tracking at the U.S. Army's
White Sands Missile Range in
New Mexico.
Imagine if you had your own
tiny quadrotor unmanned
aerial vehicle (UAV) that
you could control with your
voice, that would
automatically follow you
while avoiding obstacles,
and that could shoot and
stream video of you using an
onboard camera. Now imagine
that you paid less than 50
bucks for it. Well, if the
hype is to be believed,
that’s just what tech firm
Always Innovating is
promising with its MeCam.
A legally binding global
treaty to curb mercury in
the environment, agreed
after a week of gruelling
negotiations in Geneva, will
also include a funding
facility to assist
developing countries in
phasing out the toxic heavy
metal in industrial
processes and in artisanal
gold mining in Africa, Asia
and Latin America.
The US wind industry
installed a record 13.2
gigawatts of new nameplate
generating capacity in 2012
with a surge of new
installations coming in the
last month of the year.
December 2012 alone saw
5.5GW installed – by far the
most ever in a single month
– as developers rushed to
bring projects to completion
ahead of expiration of the
federal Production Tax
Credit.
The Monterey (Calif.)
Regional Waste Management
District's new waste
conversion facility is set
to go online in
mid-February, the first in
the state -- and second in
the nation -- to use dry
anaerobic digestion
technology, The Monterey
County Herald reported.
Canadian environmental
groups today warned that a
new proposal by Kinder
Morgan pipeline company
would “exponentially” raise
the risk of a major oil
spill in the Salish Sea’s
most populous region,
including the cities of
Vancouver and Victoria.
Republican Sen. Saxby
Chambliss of Georgia, who
angered the tea party by
voting in favor of the
fiscal cliff deal, is
expected to announce that he
will not seek re-election to
a third term, according to a
congressional aide who spoke
with the Associated Press.
Chesapeake Energy Corp.has
agreed to allow the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency to run tests at
drilling sites in order to
investigate the risks of
hydraulic fracturing on
drinking water, according to
the EPA. Chesapeake, based
in Oklahoma City, is the
second-largest provider of
natural gas in the United
States.
China's environment minister
said on Thursday that
emissions of four major
pollutants dropped last year
and should fall by a similar
level this year, but
admitted the country faced a
tough task in trying to end
chronic air pollution.
A new report that says
climate change is a matter
of national urgency is
getting a cold reception
from leaders of the House
Energy and Commerce
Committee. The National
Climate Assessment and
Development Advisory
Committee says that the
evidence of the earth’s
warming is becoming more
apparent.
Leading Democratic and
Republican senators said on
Sunday there were
encouraging signs in the
push to overhaul U.S.
immigration laws - a top
priority for President
Obama's second term - and
they would introduce their
plan this week.
Con Ed - which already
charges the highest electric
rates of any major US
utility outside of Alaska
and Hawaii - wants the rate
hikes even as wholesale
prices of natural gas and
electricity hit record lows.
Climate change is getting
renewed attention in
Congress. Representative
Henry Waxman of California
and Senator Sheldon
Whitehouse of Rhode Island,
both Democrats, today
announced the formation of a
Task Force on Climate Change
that will be active in both
the House and the Senate.
President Barack Obama
violated the Constitution
when he bypassed the Senate
to fill vacancies on a labor
relations panel, a federal
appeals court panel ruled
Friday.
A familiar news topic during
the flu season is the
difficulties that the
authorities face in
producing enough flu vaccine
fast enough to control the
outbreak. That’s a serious
enough problem, but when the
influenza outbreak turns out
to be the start of a global
pandemic, then hundreds of
millions of lives could be
at risk. To combat this, the
Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA) has
developed a new way of
making vaccines that has
turned out 10 million doses
of H1N1 influenza vaccine in
a month, in a recent test
run.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.)
and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse
(D-R.I.) on Thursday
outlined a slate of climate
change actions that
President Obama could
execute with his own
authority.
House Speaker John Boehner
long ago abandoned his role
as leader of the Republican
Party, best-selling author
and leading political
analyst Dick Morris declared
to Newsmax TV in an
exclusive interview.
Lately I have been hearing and reading
about the idea that microwave ovens destroy
the nutrients in our foods.
And I have even heard that microwaving
can be outright dangerous.
So I thought this might be an important
topic to investigate.
Well, I have some news
for you…
A Durham advocacy group has
asked attorney general Roy
Cooper to investigate
whether Duke Energy and the
N.C. Utilities Commission
engaged in illegal "backroom
deal-making" during talks to
settle the Duke-Progress
Energy merger probe.
The current debate about the
debt vote is minor league
compared with what will
happen when the government
literally cannot spend more
than it is taking in. That
time may be nearer than you
think.
It is true
that the U.S. government can
always "print" money to pay
its bills, but at some
point, printing more money
becomes self-defeating
because the resulting
increase in the government
bond interest rate and
required interest payment
will spiral out of control.
A fund designed to protect
families from rises in
energy prices and guarantee
investors' returns on costly
generation projects is open
to being raided by the
Government, it was claimed
yesterday.
Energy storage systems not
only harness power but also
inject that energy into the
grid so that providers can
more efficiently meet their
demands. With a focus on
reducing harmful air
emissions and on increasing
the use of cleaner energy,
such systems are getting the
attention they deserve. And
while some suppliers are now
using the technology, they
readily acknowledge that
prices must come down if the
tools are to proliferate.
In Darkush, Syria, civilians
must turn to their
environment for the basic
need of warmth. Day after
day, freezing temperatures
prevail, and tree after tree
is cut down. The national
park to the northwest of
Idlib, a herding area, is
slowly becoming a flatland.
Without the trees, which are
beautiful and rare, the
volume of tourists at the
site is likely to decrease
tremendously. An area once
known for its magnificent
forests is sadly becoming
known for its arboreal
devastation.
Congressional Republicans,
who had previously sought to
use the fast-approaching
federal debt ceiling as a
budget bargaining chip, have
now agreed to extend the
borrowing authority.
Financial markets were
pleased the United States
would continue making bond
payments.
Part of the Obama
administration’s energy
agenda has been rejected by
a federal court. Appellate
judges have tossed aside a
quota mandating that oil
refiners supplement their
product with biofuels made
from woody chips, switch
grass and municipal waste,
called cellulosic ethanol.
-
To speed up flu vaccine production, the
US FDA has approved a new insect-based,
genetically engineered flu vaccine, as
well as vaccines grown in cultures of
dog kidney cells rather than eggs
-
This year’s flu vaccine contains a very
good match to the circulating strains,
yet the reported efficacy of the vaccine
is still only slightly over 60 percent
-
In a wholly irresponsible move, some
“health experts” are now proclaiming the
conventional egg-based flu vaccine safe
for those with severe egg allergies, and
that the benefit of the flu vaccine
(which this year has an official
efficacy rating of about 60 percent)
outweighs the potential risk of lethal
anaphylaxis
Here is the full text of
President Barack Obama’s
second inaugural address on
Jan. 21 as prepared for
delivery:
The global biogas market
reached revenues of $17.3
billion in 2011 and has been
forecast to double over the
next decade, hitting a
market value of $33.1
billion by 2022.
Transparency Market Research
has released a new market
report that states that
global fuel cells demand is
estimated to reach US$910.3
million in 2018. In 2011 the
demand was worth US$355.3
million.
Cops scramble for bullets
while DHS stockpiles 1.2
billion rounds
President Obama’s Inaugural
Address was his boldest,
clearest signal to date that
he intends to take on the
challenge of fighting
climate change as a
signature achievement of his
presidency.
It has been known for a long time that
cities create warmer temperatures due to
heat stored in buildings, roads, and other
man-made structures. They also add heat from
air conditioners, boilers, and other
combustion sources. This is known as the
urban "heat island".
What has not been known until now, is
that cities also raise temperatures in the
areas surrounding them, out thousands of
miles.
-
Exposures to heavy metals and other
toxins are now so widespread, regular
detoxing is more or less an essential
part of life, especially if you’re
planning a pregnancy
-
Chlorella is a potent detox agent for
mercury and other heavy metals. In one
animal study, mice given chlorella along
with methylmercury excreted about twice
the amount of mercury compared to those
not given chlorella
-
Continuous administration of chlorella
has also been found to significantly
lower the amount of methylmercury
transferred from pregnant mice to their
offspring
-
Methylmercury is a neurotoxic compound.
The two primary sources of mercury
exposure is from dental fillings and
seafood, which is why pregnant women are
advised to abstain from fish and avoid
so-called ‘silver fillings’
North America's largest shopping mall
hosts an exact replica of one of Christopher
Columbus's ships—not to mention a
rollercoaster, waterslides, shooting range
and 800 stores, all drawing about 28.2
million visitors a year—but on January 13,
shoppers got a distinctly anti-colonial
surprise.
Mobilized by online social media, a good
3,000 people showed up for an Idle No More
flash mob at the West Edmonton Mall, staging
a full-scale Grand Entry, the ceremonial
procession that opens pow wow gatherings.
-
Honeybees have been disappearing for the
last 10-15 years, and exposure to
insecticides has been one prominent
theory as to why
-
The European Food Safety Authority
(EFSA) has released a report stating
that there are “a number of risks posed
to bees” by three neonicotinoid
insecticides
-
EFSA found that when it comes to
neonicotinoid exposure from residues in
nectar and pollen in the flowers of
treated plants only uses on crops not
attractive to honeybees were considered
acceptable
-
Systemic insecticides known as
neonicotinoids have become the fastest
growing insecticides in the world; it’s
been suggested that even sub-lethal
doses of the insecticides may be
negatively impacting bees
There were fresh-cut flowers and a
bouquet of two dozen microphones at the news
conference held Monday by the notorious
warlord who's now Afghanistan's utilities
minister and a distinguished visitor, his
Iranian counterpart.
And with the flourish of a pen, the
electricity-hungry Afghans had two big power
plants. That they already owned. And never
use.
Ovivo sees energy costs as one of the big
challenges in the industry. We are looking
at different ways we can reduce energy and,
in fact, go for a zero-energy situation.
What we are doing is utilizing the gas
from anaerobic systems and converting that
into electricity, then using that to power
the rest of the systems. The trick is to
make the anaerobic system as efficient as
possible, to get the maximum amount of gas
production from the biomass.
Holes still exist in
Oracle's Java software that
could potentially leave
machines open to remote
execution of malicious code,
according to a researcher.
The deal, which was to be
announced at a news
conference Monday afternoon,
covers border security,
guest workers and employer
verification, as well as a
path to citizenship for the
11 million illegal
immigrants already in the
United States.
Former U.S. Secretary of
State and Nobel Peace
laureate Henry Kissinger is
warning that the United
States and Israel are very
close to facing a crisis
with a nuclear-arming Iran.
While scientists have yet to
isolate cause and effect,
many suspect chemicals used
in drilling and
hydrofracking (or
"fracking") operations are
poisoning animals through
the air, water, or soil.
Despite questions over its
$100 million price tag, the
Los Angeles City Council on
Tuesday refused to delay a
program that would pay
property owners for
generating solar energy.
It should be blatantly clear
by now that we live in a
society that no longer knows
how to take responsibility
for their actions. I would
throw out some phrase like
"kids these days..." but the
truth of the matter is that
the apple doesn't fall far
from the tree when it comes
to the young people of
America.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski
(R-Alaska) said Wednesday
that she plans to drop a
“very comprehensive” energy
blueprint next week — though
it is unlikely to include
proposals on reducing
greenhouse gas emissions.
The gun-grabbers are going
for broke, doing everything
they can to "cash in" on the
recent tragedy in Newtown,
Connecticut.
They're
targeting EVERYTHING --
rifles, shotguns and even
handguns -- and every
gun owner and gun purchase
is to be catalogued and
tracked by the federal
government.
According to the latest
issue of EIA's "Electric
Power Monthly," net U.S.
electrical generation from
non-hydro renewables (i.e.,
biomass, solar, water, wind)
grew by 11.9% during the
first 11 months of 2012
compared to the same period
in 2011. Together, non-hydro
renewable energy sources
accounted for 5.32% of total
generation in 2012 compared
to 4.70% in 2011.
Individually, solar expanded
by 140.7%, wind by 15.0%,
geothermal by 9.6%, and
biomass by 1.7%. Wind
accounted for nearly
two-thirds (63.7%) of the
electrical generation from
non-hydro renewables.
“The world needs a more
diverse generation of
business leaders to drive
greater global
collaboration. If the recent
global economic crisis
taught us anything, it is
that the world can be a
better place when we
collaborate to address the
challenges of our connected
globe.”
In a recent speech to a
Committee of the Republic
event held at the National
Press Club, Dallas Federal
Reserve President Richard
Fisher presented a remedy
for our “Too Big To Fail”
(TBTF) banking system that
is fair, simple and filled
with common sense.
Food waste collected from 11
Manhattan buildings will be
composted and used to
fertilize green rooftops in
the city, The Wall Street
Journal reported.
...He said we must not
"betray our children and
future generations." How? By
lowering the debt? By
balancing the budget? No, by
responding to "the threat of
climate change."
This
is the real Obama:
Determined to balkanize our
once-united nation into
competing interest groups
who bet quadrennially on
elections to secure a place
in the sun. He is only for
some Americans.
OPEC Secretary General
Abdalla el-Badri said Monday
that world oil markets were
well balanced and likely to
remain well supplied through
the current year to meet
expected growth in demand,
but that the oil producer
group did not envisage a
collapse in oil prices.
Ohio State University
expects to save nearly $1
million on its energy bill
this year with the help of
more than 100 spinning wind
turbines in northwestern
Ohio.
“They want Americans to pay
more so Washington can spend
more,” Ryan said. “That’s
not going to help the
economy, and that is not
going to close the gap and
balance the budget.”
Appearing in his first live
television interview since
the election, Ryan said the
president appears to be on a
political conquest.
The Pentagon has
approved a major expansion
of its cybersecurity force
over the next several years,
increasing its size more
than fivefold to bolster the
nation’s ability to defend
critical computer systems
and conduct offensive
computer operations against
foreign adversaries,
according to U.S. officials.
The troubled 685 MW boiling water reactor
at the Pilgrim nuclear facility in
Massachusetts is back online, following a
spate of unexpected shutdowns that have left
critics wondering if the plant is up to
snuff, The Boston Globe reports.
Of the seven shutdowns in the last two
years, five were unexpected, caused by
problems discovered in the plant’s systems.
The most recent shutdown, which began on
Jan. 21, went into effect after workers
found a leak in a safety valve.
When a 20-inch natural
gas pipeline burst and
ignited a massive fire
outside of Charleston, WV,
it took the energy company
there more than 60 minutes
to manually shut down the
line. To improve response
times, a government watchdog
agency is suggesting the use
of automated valves.
Procter & Gamble, makers of
Tide and Tide Free & Gentle
detergents, has agreed in a
California court to reduce
the levels of the chemical
1,4 dioxane in its laundry
products.
On Feb. 15th an asteroid
about half the size of a
football field will fly past
Earth only 17,200 miles
above our planet's surface.
The space rock, designated
2012 DA14, has NASA's
attention. "This is a
record-setting close
approach," says Don Yeomans
of NASA's Near Earth Object
Program at JPL. "Since
regular sky surveys began in
the 1990s, we've never seen
an object this big get so
close to Earth."
Dramatic falls in cost are
making renewable energy
increasingly competitive
with fossil fuels in
countries across the world.
The International Renewable
Energy Agency (IRENA) is
giving expert briefings on
the costs various types of
renewables, which are
projected to keep falling
rapidly, at its booth at the
World Future Energy Summit
(WFES) on 15-17 January,
part of Abu Dhabi
Sustainability Week.
A government report Monday
criticized the U.S. Treasury
Department for approving
“excessive” salaries and
raises at firms that
received taxpayer-funded
bailouts during the
financial crisis.
Russia is gradually losing
hope that Syrian strongman
Bashar al-Assad can cling to
power, and sees his chances
fading with each passing
day, former President and
current Prime Minister
Dmitry Medvedev says.
From The Skylark of
Space to Star Wars,
no self-respecting science
fiction spaceship would
break orbit without a
tractor beam on board. We’re
still a long way from
locking on to errant
shuttlecraft, but a team led
by Dr. Tomas Cizmar,
Research Fellow in the
School of Medicine at the
University of St. Andrews,
Scotland, has turned a laser
into a tractor beam that
works on the microscopic
level.
"With officers laid off and
furloughed, simply calling
911 and waiting is no longer
your best option," he said
in the ad. "You can beg for
mercy from a violent
criminal, hide under the
bed, or you can fight back.
... Consider taking a
certified safety course in
handling a firearm so you
can defend yourself until we
get there."
Tucson-based solar-energy
developer Solon Corp. has
turned on one of its biggest
solar plants in the state, a
10-megawatt (DC)
photovoltaic plant near
Kingman.
George Soros, one of the most outspoken
critics of Germany’s proposed austerity
policies to solve the European debt crisis,
said the euro is here to stay and will gain
as other nations seek to devalue their
currencies.
Soros, who made $1 billion shorting the
British pound in 1992, said that while the
causes of the euro crisis haven’t been
solved, the acute phase of the turmoil is
over.
LAWRENCE LIVERMORE National
Laboratory has started an
incubator program with the
goal of accelerating the
development of innovative
energy technologies. Dubbed
the hpc4energy Incubator,
the program allows selected
participants to tap the
lab's research expertise and
use some of the world's
highest performance
computing systems.
The Obama administration has
delayed a decision on
TransCanada Corp's rerouted
Keystone XL oil pipeline
until after March, even
though Nebraska's governor
on Tuesday approved a plan
for part of the line running
through his state.
One problem when you try to field
super-big wind turbines: All the components
involved get super heavy as well.
No surprise, then, that there are efforts
afoot to figure out ways of lightening up
the next generation of utility scale
turbines able to generate 10 MW peak power.
One of the latest efforts in this area is a
project called Suprapower ( for
SUPerconducting, Reliable, lightweight, And
more POWERful offshore wind turbine). This
research project aims to develop a new
compact superconductor-based generator able
to work in offshore wind turbines.
The infastructure for free
energy is not free. Even the
crude oil is there for the
taking. It's the drilling,
pumping, transporting,
refining and making it
available that cost money.
The Earth does not charge
for the oil. The water is
free, the gold is free the
trees are free. If we were
not charged for the crude
oil then the Gasoline in the
US would cost about 50 cents
per gallon. Even if we are
able to tap into the vacum
for unlimited energy,
someone would charge money
for it if they are able.
History has been clear that
when individual tax rates
are lowered or tax rates on
dividends or capital gains
are lowered, the next few
years’ tax receipts go up,
not down. Presidents Ronald
Reagan, George W. Bush, Bill
Clinton and John F. Kennedy
all lowered tax rates or
capital gains and dividends
rates and more tax revenues,
not less revenues, were
received.
Egypt: Explosion in Violence
Shows Morsi’s Lack of
Control
Mali/UK: Cameron Troop
Deployment Decision Leads to
Fear of Mission Creep
Shale Gas Deal With Shell
Could Make Ukraine Energy
Independent
Rustmann Frustrated With
Clinton’s Non-Answers on
Benghazi
Syria: Russia and Israel
Express New Fears of Regime
Collapse
Colombia: Peace Talks
Threatened by New FARC
Attacks
Global GDP Growth Continues
to Wane
North Korea Likely to Test a
Nuclear Device in 2013
UK Takes Step Towards EU
Exit
New U.S. Special Ops Unit to
Advise Mexico on War with
Cartels
Jordan: Election Results a
Big Win for King
China Is Creating a
Dangerous New Credit Bubble
North Korea's threat
yesterday that it intends to
“settle accounts with the
U.S.” by the use of force
was unusually vitriolic and
troubling in that it
appeared to erase signs of
moderation by Kim Jong Un.
It was also a direct
challenge to President
Barack Obama and American
leadership in the world.
U.S. prime money
market fund (MMF) exposure
to eurozone banks decreased
slightly during December
2012, with the notable
exception of French banks,
according to a new Fitch
Ratings report. This
represents the first time
since end-June 2012 that MMF
eurozone holdings decreased.
US new orders for durable
goods jumped by 4.6% in
December 2012, which was
above market expectations
for a 2.0% increase and
followed a revised 0.7% (was
0.8%) gain in November.
Much of the overall gain
resulted from a jump in
defence aircraft orders;
however, excluding the
transportation component,
orders still climbed by
1.3%, which was above market
expectations for a 0.8%
gain.
The average US retail price
for regular gasoline jumped
4.2 cents to $3.357/gal for
the survey week ending
Monday, the Energy
Information Administration
said.
At that level,
the national average is 8.2
cents lower than that of the
corresponding week a year
ago, EIA data shows.
The expansion of US
liquefied natural gas
exports is shaping up as the
first significant clash
between the top Republican
of the Senate Energy and
Natural Resources Committee
and its incoming chairman.
The article cites the fact that although
we have more electronic gadgets than ever
before "electricity use is barely growing,"
challenging our nation's utilities.
I am sure that we all feel sorry for the
utilities, because they now have to rethink
how they can find a new way to hold us
hostage.
Last week, Reza Kahlili — a
former Iranian Revolutionary
Guard Corps officer who
became a double-agent for
the CIA —
reported the
following:
“An explosion deep within
Iran’s Fordow nuclear
facility has destroyed much
of the installation and
trapped about 240 personnel
deep underground, according
to a former intelligence
officer of the Islamic
regime.
An Iowa foods company is now
diverting more than 99% of
its waste from a local
landfill, achieving
landfill-free certification
from a third-party verifier.
As 21st century technology
strains to become ever faster, cleaner and
cheaper, an invention from more than 200
years ago keeps holding it back. It's why
electric cars aren't clogging the roads and
why Boeing's new ultra-efficient 787
Dreamliners aren't flying high.
And chances are you have this little
invention next to you right now and probably
have cursed it recently: the infernal
battery.
Who’s betting on UK shale
gas…and who’s betting
against it? Right now
there’s a dramatic gulf
between pessimistic
statements at last week’s
World Energy Forum meeting
in Davos that UK shale gas
is no great game changer,
and the fact that the next
few days might witness an
energy major farming in to
the one company that intends
to revolutionise UK gas
production.
Keeping guns away from the
mentally ill sounds like a
promising way to prevent
mass shootings. But studies
show it might have little
impact.
The government stockpiles over
1.6 billion rounds of ammo.
Since last spring, the federal government
has purchased over 1.6 billion
rounds of ammunition. The Department of
Homeland Security has been the biggest
stockpiler, but other agencies are in on the
game, too - including FEMA, the National
Weather Service, and, believe it or not, the
Social Security Administration.
That's five rounds, by the way, per U.S.
citizen.
“Unless we take action on climate change,
future generations will be roasted, toasted,
fried and grilled,” Christine Lagarde,
managing director of the International
Monetary Fund told a World Economic Forum
audience Wednesday.
Her comment highlights the growing
urgency over climate issues evident here at
the WEF annual meeting in the form of
reports and panel discussions.
Buildings are a major consumer of energy
and responsible for 30 to 40 percent of all
carbon dioxide emissions and 12 percent of
all fresh water used.
Public policy, when effectively
introduced and enforced, can be the cheapest
and most efficient method for reducing
energy use, carbon emissions and water
waste, reducing buildings' environmental
footprint, according to Worldwatch
Institute.
January 25, 2013
The bloody hostage crisis in
Algeria, which ended late on
January 19th when Algerian
special forces launched a
final assault on the
compound, has exposed the
vulnerability of oil and gas
installations to jihadist
attack as instability
increases across the Middle
East and North Africa.
A federal judge in Chicago has imposed a
35-year prison sentence for an American who
played a key role in a 2008 terrorist attack
on Mumbai, India, that killed more than 160
people.
David Coleman Headley conducted
meticulous scouting missions before 10
gunmen carried out the devastating assault
often called India's 9/11.
The Obama administration is
likely to rely mostly on
existing rules and on
flexing executive power to
execute its second-term
environmental agenda,
sidestepping Congress as it
sets about radically
reducing greenhouse gases
generated by major
polluters.
Climate change has shrunk
Andean glaciers between 30
and 50 percent since the
1970s and could melt many of
them away altogether in
coming years, according to a
study published on Tuesday
in the journal Cryosphere.
The global growth
of renewable energy over the last few years
cannot be disputed, but can it really play a
major role in the world of large-scale
electricity generation?
Some would say it already is. Wind
power is the obvious example.
There are few other weather
phenomenon which effect a
country's agriculture,
economy, and people greater
than the Monsoon. The
monsoon is defined as a
seasonal reversing of wind
accompanied by a significant
change in precipitation. For
many parts of the world, and
particularly south Asia, the
monsoon provides much needed
rainfall. However, the
amount of rainfall and
number of tropical storms
brought about by each year's
monsoon has been extremely
difficult to predict.
Scientists from the
International Pacific
Research Center at the
University of Hawaii at
Manoa have made a
breakthrough for predicting
the summer monsoon rainfall
over East Asia as early as
the spring of that year.
-
A new report published in the Journal of
the National Cancer Institute highlights
increasing rates of human papillomavirus
(HPV)-related cancers, and uses this as
a platform to peddle “efforts to
increase vaccination coverage
-
Research has shown that the HPV
vaccine’s effectiveness is not only
overstated (through the use of selective
reporting or "cherry picking" data) but
also completely unproven
When the wind blows, Roger Beale saves
money.
The retired engineer built a
100-foot-tall wind turbine in his backyard
to generate power and cut back on electric
bills.
At an upcoming seminar at the Sedalia
Center in Bedford County, he'll talk about
the benefits of turbines and how others can
build their own.
While installers and developers sweat over
rooftop systems and utility-scale projects
in the desert, bankruptcies have been
tearing through the list of manufacturers.
The current brutal round of consolidation
began before Solyndra collapsed last year
and stability still looks a long way off in
the US and globally.
China's dependence on
foreign crude oil and
refined oil products is set
to increase, but the
government has placed a cap
at 61% of total requirements
for the end of the current
five-year economic plan in
2015, according to a new
government blueprint for
energy development.
The majority of consumers
living in shale gas
exploration areas from West
Virginia to Michigan believe
the shale industry will mean
economic opportunity for
those areas, according to
Echo research commissioned
by Huntington Bank.
Controversial research into making bird flu
easier to spread in people is to resume
after a year-long pause.
Some argue the research is essential for
understanding how viruses spread and could
be used to prevent deadly pandemics killing
millions of people.
Research was stopped amid fierce debate
including concerns about modified viruses
escaping the laboratory or being used for
terrorism.
The climb in crude stocks
supported data released by
the American Petroleum
Institute (API) on
Wednesday, which showed a
3.166 million-barrel
increase in commercial crude
inventories over the same
week.
A research team involving
several scientists from the
University of Colorado
Boulder has found an
unexpected silver lining in
the devastating pine beetle
outbreaks ravaging the West:
Such events do not harm
water quality in adjacent
streams as scientists had
previously believed.
Frigid arctic air held the U.S. Midwest
and Northeast in its icy grip on Wednesday,
with the cold so dangerous that municipal
emergency warming centers opened up and ski
resorts shut down.
The National Weather Service warned the
wind chill could make the temperature feel
like 40 degrees below zero Fahrenheit(minus
40 degrees Celsius) in parts of Northern
Minnesota until noon on Thursday.
The asteroid mining business
got a bit more crowded as a
new concern called Deep
Space Industries (DSI)
enters the ring. The company
announced its public
launching at the Museum of
Flying in Santa Monica,
California where a panel
presentation of officials
and guests outlined DSI’s
philosophy and plans for
becoming a major force in
opening up asteroid mining
within a few years.
After years of gains against
destruction of the Amazon
rainforest, Brazil appears
to be suffering from an
increase in deforestation as
farmers, loggers, miners and
builders move into
previously untouched
woodland, according to data
compiled by the government
and independent researchers.
As Total's Gonfreville
refinery in northwest France
gears up for restart, with a
much boosted diesel
production capacity, last
year's refinery upgrade
program in Europe and the
Mediterranean is nearing
completion.
Gasoline prices could create
headwinds for US economic
recovery. The recent sharp
rise in gasoline inventories
(below) was thought to
provide some relief to the
consumer by bringing down
fuel prices - at least in
the near-term.
Control...
That's the first thing I
think of when I think about
the power
of a president
to BAN rifles, magazines of
10 rounds or more,
and
whatever else
they can cook up
in Washington...
You
and I know that isn't going
to stop violent people from
inflicting damage on
innocent Americans...
Evil people have always
existed...
And they
always will.
Former Navy SEAL commander
and Montana State Sen. Ryan
Zinke reacted sharply
Wednesday to news the Obama
administration will drop the
prohibition against women
serving in military combat
roles, warning it is “nearly
certain” to cost lives.
A top Democratic lawmaker
tried on Thursday to revive
a U.S. assault-weapons ban,
riding a wave of support for
gun control after the
killing of 20 children and
six adults at a school in
Connecticut last month.
Senator Dianne Feinstein
and several other Democrats
said they were introducing a
bill to ban semi-automatic
weapons and high-capacity
ammunition clips.
-
Microbes in your gut can change
profoundly throughout your life, and you
can change them through diet,
medications, and hygiene.
-
Five strategies to help improve your gut
flora include avoiding antibiotics,
eating more whole plant foods and
fermented foods, opening a window to the
outdoors, and working in your garden.
Sandy, Irene, Katrina...
Hurricanes are fast becoming
household names and have
many people worried over the
connection between extreme
weather and the amount of
greenhouse gases people are
pumping into the atmosphere.
No one can predict for sure
what will happen decades or
centuries from now as such
gas concentrations increase.
But scientists have a pretty
good picture of what did
happen in the past;
greenhouses gases were
released into the atmosphere
in massive amounts at least
once before—around 56
million years ago.
Greenland is less vulnerable
than expected to a runaway
melt that would drive up
world sea levels, according
to scientists who found that
only a quarter of the ice
sheet thawed in a warm
period more than 100,000
years ago.
Street surveillance cameras
in one of the world's most
dangerous cities were turned
off last week because
Honduras' government hasn't
paid millions of dollars it
owes. The operator that runs
them is now threatening to
suspend police radio service
as well.
The House overwhelmingly
passed a bill Wednesday to
permit the government to
borrow enough money to avoid
a first-time default for at
least four months, defusing
a looming crisis setting up
a springtime debate over
taxes, spending and the
deficit.
“I wish I had been less
prepared.”
That
is a quote you have never
heard, nor will you ever
hear it from anyone. Why?
Because it’s insane! No one
in their right mind would
ever want to not be ready
for something important in
their life.
Iberdrola Renewables added
three new wind farms to its
U.S. fleet at the end of
2012, adding to a portfolio
of clean energy projects
that now spans 19 states.
The farms, which all reached
commercial operation in
December, represent a total
investment of approximately
$700 million, and have most
of the power subscribed
under long-term contracts.
The Idle No More movement will rally in
Oklahoma and Alabama to protest the
desecration of a sacred site.
Idle No More activists will hold
simultaneous demonstrations in Tulsa,
Oklahoma, and Wetumpka, Alabama, to protest
the Poarch Band of Creek Indians
construction of a $246 million casino
expansion at Hickory Ground—a sacred
ceremonial site and burial ground of
Muscogee Creek Nation ancestors,
Save Hickory Ground announced on its
Facebook page.
For the Iranian government, the Bushehr
nuclear
power plant is proof to a world
worried about Tehran's intentions that its
atomic program is aimed only at securing a
modern, clean energy source for its people.
But for villagers living next to the
facility, as well as Arab capitals nearby,
the plant poses a potential danger that is
less geopolitical and more immediate: the
risk of contamination.
In recent months, a
territorial dispute over a
set of islands in the East
China Sea has strained
Chinese relations with
Japan. The dispute flared
when Japan announced it had
bought the islands from
private owners.
The Center for Biological
Diversity alleged Thursday
in a lawsuit that the
California Division of Oil,
Gas and Geothermal Resources
has allowed hydraulic
fracturing to expand without
legally required oversight.
"A looming fracking boom
threatens to transform
California, creating serious
pollution risks to our air,
water and climate," Vera
Pardee, the senior attorney
for the center, said in a
statement. "Existing rules
clearly cover fracking, but
state officials don't
regulate or even track this
dangerous way of extracting
oil and gas. The state needs
to stop ignoring the law and
start protecting our
environment."
It’s a new day -- and the first one
of President Obama’s second term. And while
his inaugural address was not intended to
draft public policy it was meant to provide
the nation a blueprint of what issues he
feels deserve attention.
To that end, he clearly stated that
dealing with climate change would be a
priority and that the development of
renewable energy would be one means by which
to achieve that aim. During the fall
campaign, the president devoted sparse time
to such issues that had become hugely
contentious. Now, though, with a second term
locked up, he is showing renewed signs of
confidence.
A discovery made by NASA's
High-Resolution Coronal
Imager, or Hi-C, has
revealed surprising magnetic
'braids' of super-hot matter
in the Sun's outer
atmosphere which is
suggested to be the cause of
why the Sun's atmosphere is
hotter than its surface.
A day after President
Barack Obama highlighted
climate change in his
inauguration speech,
Nebraska Governor Dave
Heineman, a Republican,
approved the new route
through the state for the
contested Keystone XL
pipeline wending its way
through the U.S. from Canada
to the Gulf of Mexico.
Gelatins take on a
semi-solid state when cool,
and become a liquid when
heated, right? Well, not
always. Chemists from
Radboud University Nijmegen,
in The Netherlands, have
created a “super gel” that
behaves in the opposite
manner – it’s liquid when
cool, and stiffens when
heated. What’s more, it
reportedly absorbs water 100
times better than other
gels. To make it, the
researchers copied the
protein structure of human
cells.
The attack on the gas plant
in Algeria took place in the
middle of a complex,
sprawling desert region the
size of the continental
United States.
In his inaugural speech for
his second term in office,
U.S. President Barack Obama
has upped the ante,
promising to show global
leadership on climate change
and support the development
of clean energy...
Emissions from oil and
natural gas operations north
of Denver could add to ozone
pollution in that region,
according to a new study by
researchers at the
University of Colorado
Boulder’s Cooperative
Institute for Research in
Environmental Sciences
(CIRES).
Looking toward improved
batteries for charging
electric cars and storing
energy from renewable but
intermittent solar and wind,
scientists at Oak Ridge
National Laboratory have
developed the first
high-performance,
nanostructured solid
electrolyte for more
energy-dense lithium ion
batteries.
Every major global issue
requires spearheading by
influential individuals.
Global warming had Al Gore
and the famine in Ethiopia
in the 80s had the
fundraising supergroup Band
Aid. At long last, the issue
of overpopulation is being
raised by someone with good
exposure in the media.
Alexandra Paul, host of the
PBS documentary JAMPACKED
and star of over 75 films
and televisions shows,
including the series
Baywatch, gave a speech on
overpopulation to the TEDX
event in Topanga, California
Has California gone too far
in taxing millionaires?
Police say an 82-year-old
Ellsinore man shot a man who
reportedly broke into his
home Friday night.
Kroll Factual Data,
Inc. (“Kroll Factual Data”)
announced yesterday a 1.1
percent average increase
throughout the country of
possible fraudulent activity
associated with the loan
applications processed by
the company between
the second and third
quarters of 2012. In certain
metropolitan statistical
areas (MSAs) of the country,
the increase from the second
to third quarter was even
more pronounced, rising by
more than 50 percent. In the
meantime, the federal
Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau issued new
regulations on Jan. 17,
2013, that among other
things require lenders to
verify borrowers’ financial
records and thus ability to
repay mortgages.
The cuffs, believed to
have been used to restrain
Indian children sentenced to
boarding schools in the
early part of the 20th
century, resonated for many
readers as a chilling
reminder of the atrocities
perpetrated against Native
peoples, a ruthless campaign
that targeted the youngest,
the most innocent, the most
precious.
Recent investigations
highlight industry
preference in FDA, expose
frequent use of cheap and
dangerous additives
Parents in suburban
Nashville are furious after
an elementary school
announced plans to limit the
number of times they could
visit their children during
lunchtime.
During the entire farce of
the Senate Hearing on
Benghazi, nobody mentioned
the words video or film or
movie. Or the word
cover-up. It would be like
covering a moon shot without
mentioning the word space.
Reality to the Senate:
The only reason for the
hearing was to determine how
the decision to cover-up the
Benghazi killings by
pretending it was a
demonstration gone awry. It
was not to decide how to
avoid these situations in
the future or to ask about
State Department
procedures. We just
re-elected a president who
won, in part, by
deliberately deceiving us
about a terror attack on
September 11th, the eleventh
anniversary of the original
attack. He pretended that
the violence was connected
to a video and it was not.
That is what these hearings
should have been about.
Instead, they were about
everything but.
Researchers at the
University of Buffalo have
created spherical silicon
nanoparticles they claim
could lead to hydrogen
generation on demand
becoming a “just add water”
affair. When the particles
are combined with water,
they rapidly form hydrogen
and silicic acid, a nontoxic
byproduct, in a reaction
that requires no light, heat
or electricity. In
experiments, the hydrogen
produced was shown to be
relatively pure by
successfully being used to
power a small fan via a
small fuel cell.
A Cinnaminson solar investor
has sued Public Service
Electric & Gas Co. in New
Jersey over its
much-ballyhooed program to
install 200,000 photovoltaic
panels on utility poles,
claiming that PSE&G drove
down the value of solar
power by producing so much
of it.
The roughly 8 million tons
of soot produced each year
by burning everything from
coal in power plants to oil
in ship's boilers is bad
news for the planet. A new
study finds that soot is
warming the climate about
twice as fast as scientists
had estimated and, for the
first time, points
policymakers to the soot
sources that will make the
best targets for climate
regulations.
Three states are the latest
states to introduce Ag-Gag
laws and lawmakers in 10
other states introduced
similar bills in 2011-2012.
Last month, we heard about
how a team led by North
Carolina State University’s
Dr. Michael Dickey had
created an electrical wire
that could be stretched up
to eight times its regular
length ... and still carry a
current. This was possible
thanks to a conductive
liquid metal alloy of
gallium and indium,
contained inside the wire’s
elastic polymer outer
housing. Now, Dickey's team
has developed a new wire
that not only can be
stretched, but that will
heal itself when severed.
Virginia witnessed more construction of
green buildings and new offices per capita
last year than any other state in the
nation, according to a study released
Wednesday.
The results surprised even the growing
industry of environmental architects,
engineers and contractors, who said they
knew Virginia was making strides, just not
this big.
The U.S. Supreme Court has
ruled that the Los Angeles
County’s Flood Control
District can side-step
responsibility for the high
levels of polluted
stormwater found in the Los
Angeles and San Gabriel
Rivers, but only
temporarily.
Switzerland is getting the
chance to vote on a proposal
to phase out nuclear power
earlier than the government
wants.
The way that America’s
political situation is
playing out right now has me
perplexed, at my own “side”
most of all. Not that the
president and his ruling
party would slam us with
more intrusive laws, gun
control, financial
restrictions, domestic
spying, illegal wars, and
increased taxes as soon as
his election was won, that
is. No, that was no surprise
to me. Who the hell among us
didn't see this anti-liberty
agenda coming as soon as he
was safely re-elected?
Bottom line: If you honestly
didn’t see this coming, then
you need to develop a better
sense of situational
awareness.
Tunisia: Unrest Stills
Simmers at Source of Arab
Spring
China: Q4 GDP Uptick Masks
Need for Economic Reforms
Israel: Netanyahu Likely to
Forge Broad Coalition After
Election Setback
787 Dreamliner Likely to
Rebound from Battery Problem
Eastern Europe Dreams of
Shale Success
Britain and Australia Seek
Defense Collaboration
Sometimes the hardest part
of a journey is taking the
first step, especially when
the road ahead seems long
and difficult to navigate.
When it comes to sustainable
energy management, many
municipalities want to get
there, but are afraid to get
lost along the way. The
landscape is fraught with
twists, turns, and
uncertainties, prompting
many to simply stay put. But
what if they had a guide to
see them through the
organizational and technical
roadblocks? Such a guide
exists — it’s called the
Energy Roadmap.
As a result of the Fukushima
accident, Japan's newly
established Nuclear
Regulatory Authority (NRA)
is proposing stringent rules
to prevent accidents and
ensure safety at the
country's nuclear power
plants.
With the stroke of his pen the day after
New Year’s, President Barack Obama extended
a $5 billion farm subsidy program that he
opposes and many farmers say they no longer
need.
The day before, the U.S. Senate and House
— where there is broad agreement that the
direct farm payments program should be
scrapped — both voted to keep the money
flowing as part of a last-minute agreement
to avert most of more than $600 billion in
automatic tax increases and spending cuts
slated to take effect this month.
The UN is launching an inquiry into the
impact on civilians of drone strikes and
other targeted killings.
There is a need for "accountability and
reparation where things have gone badly
wrong", the British lawyer heading the
investigation told journalists.
You see, to responsibly
armed Americans, it's NOT
about the odds that some
lunatic might run in and
start shooting.
It's
about the principle of being
able to protect yourself,
your loved ones, and even
complete strangers at a
moment's notice.
Federal ocean safety
regulators have launched an
expedited, high-level
assessment of the 2012
offshore Arctic drilling
program in the Beaufort and
Chukchi seas, Secretary of
the Interior Ken Salazar
said today.
The outlook for major
U.S. banks' equity trading
and investment banking
businesses may be
brightening somewhat in
early 2013, but weak volumes
and a still sluggish M&A
environment are likely to
hold back revenue growth in
the near term, according to
Fitch Ratings. Until a
lasting resolution of U.S.
fiscal problems is agreed,
moreover, equity volumes and
trading bank revenues are
still exposed to downside
risk.
As the U.S. Congress
prepares a temporary patch
for the nation’s debt
ceiling, the world’s CFOs,
controllers and other
management accountants are
predicting at least some
impact on their own
operations and a weaker
position for the U.S. in the
long run. That’s according
to a survey of
1,300 Chartered Global
Management Accountant
designation holders
conducted last week by
the American Institute of
CPAs and Chartered Institute
of Management Accountants.
Existing home sales in the
US unexpectedly slipped by
1.0% to 4.94 million
annualized units in December
2012 from a revised 4.99
million (previously reported
as 5.04 million) in
November. Market
expectations had been for
sales to rise to 5.10
million in December.
The drop in sales was
outpaced by an 8.5% decline
in the number of homes
available for sale in
December. With inventories
falling faster than sales,
the months’ supply of unsold
homes declined to 4.4 from
4.8 in November. This marked
the lowest months’ supply
since May 2005.
Freddie Mac (OTCBB: FMCC)
yesterday released the
results of its Primary
Mortgage Market Survey®
(PMMS®), showing fixed
mortgage rates moving higher
from the previous week. The
30-year fixed averaged 3.42
percent, its highest reading
since September 29, 2012.
Regardless, fixed-mortgage
rates still remain highly
affordable near their
all-time record lows, and
should continue to aid in
the ongoing housing
recovery.
January 22, 2013
Solar photovoltaic (PV) will hold its
spot as the fastest growing technology in
the U.S. energy industry for the next four
years. The prices of solar modules have been
in a free fall since 2008, accelerating PV
systems' commercialization, while
encouraging the development of new financing
models for the residential sector.
According to AP, the EPA took rare and
severe steps in late 2010 in response to an
alert that a Texas family’s water was
“bubbling like champagne.” The homeowner,
Steve Lipsky of the Fort Worth suburb
Weatherford, further claimed that he could
ignite the water coming from his garden
hose. In response, the EPA superseded state
authority and issued an emergency order —
both unusual measures — due to the
“immediate danger” posed by the methane
present in Lipsky’s well. Yet now, even
after an independent report (sanctioned by
the EPA itself) seemed to provide clarity on
the issue by connecting a nearby
gas-drilling operation to the contamination,
the EPA has curiously rescinded the mandate
that would have required the implicated
company, Range Resources, to ensure clean
water to homeowners.
As people in Beijing and northern China
struggle with severe air pollution this
winter, the toxic air is also making life
hard for plants and even food crops of
China, say researchers who have been looking
at how China's plants are affected by air
pollution.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s 2011
legislation curbing the collective
bargaining rights of some public unions and
not others was upheld in its entirety by a
U.S. appeals court panel.
In a 74-page decision issued Friday, the
Chicago-based court reversed a Milwaukee
federal judge’s finding last year that
portions of the law were unconstitutional.
The drought that crippled many
communities across the nation last year
shows little sign of retreating, and the
threat of persistent water scarcity is
spurring efforts to preserve every drop.
As the drought of 2012 creeps into 2013,
experts say the slow-spreading catastrophe
presents near-term problems for a key U.S.
agricultural region and potential long-term
challenges for millions of Americans.
Former President Bill Clinton has a
warning for top Democratic donors: Don't
underestimate weapons rights supporters.
Clinton, speaking to a group of
Democrats at the Obama National Finance
Committee Saturday, said gun control gets a
special emotional response from people in
rural states, and dismissing pro-gun
arguments can backfire.
Just like the controversial compound it's
designed to replace, a chemical used in cash
register receipts and other consumer
products messes with hormones, according to
research published today. The study by
University of Texas scientists is the first
to link low concentrations of bisphenol S
(BPS) -- a bisphenol A (BPA) alternative --
to disruption of estrogen, spurring concern
that it might harm human health. Researchers
exposed rat cells to levels of BPS that are
within the range people are exposed to. And,
just like BPA, the compound interfered with
how cells respond to natural estrogen, which
is vital for reproduction and other
functions.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration
recently decided not to ban a chemical
called bisphenol-A (widely referred to as
BPA) from the food supply even though its
health dangers have been well known for
years. More than 130 studies have found
evidence of its disastrous effect on human
health.
California’s CO2 emissions fell in 2011
for the third straight year, putting the
state in a good position for meeting its
target of reducing carbon emissions to 1990
levels by 2020, according to the California
Air Resources Board (CARP)
Immigration to the United States is down
sharply from the levels of 1982 to 2007, and
equaled just 0.6 percent of the 2010
population in the last two years, according
to new data from the Census Bureau.
Immigration topped 1 percent of the 2010
population only in New Jersey, New York, and
Florida, and was only slightly above the
national average in California. In Arizona,
with its enforcement of anti-illegal
immigrant laws, immigration was actually
down.
About $700 billion a year of new spending
on renewable power, low-carbon transport and
energy efficiency is needed to meet the
United Nations goal to cap temperature
rises, a report for the World Economic Forum
showed.
Four Luminant coal-burning power plants
in East Texas, including one in Tatum, have
made an environmental group's national top
10 list for power plants that emit the most
mercury.
Coca-Cola will give 3 million euros ($4
million) to conservation group WWF over the
next three years to help kickstart a
campaign to protect the Arctic from the
impacts of global warming, the world's
biggest soft-drinks maker said.
The Europe-wide campaign, which launched
on Thursday in London, is aimed at raising
awareness and funding to help protect the
natural habitat of the polar bear, which is
under threat from climate change.
Deka’s Slingshot water purification
system (pictured) uses a vapor
compression distillation system that runs on
low levels of electricity. The system boils
and evaporates any dirty water source —
river water, ocean water and even raw sewage
— and then allows the pure water to condense
and be collected.
One Slingshot unit can purify up to
300,000 liters of water each year, producing
10 gallons of clean water an hour while
consuming less than 1 kW of electricity,
according to Deka.
Colorado’s solar-power industry is
readying a “Million Solar Roofs” campaign to
raise the amount of solar power generated in
the state to 3,000 megawatts — nearly
one-fifth of the state’s electricity use.
Calling it a win-win situation is an
understatement.
Every day in rural Penobscot County, a
large dairy farm harnesses clean-burning gas
from cow manure and food waste, and it
generates enough electricity to power 800
homes continuously. The process, commonly
known as cow power, has the potential to
earn the facility $800,000 a year. It also
creates byproducts -- animal bedding and a
less-odorous fertilizer -- that save the
farm about $100,000 a year.
Competitive currency devaluations are the
order of the day, as countries suffering
weak economic recoveries seek a quick boost
in growth, says Alessio de Longis, portfolio
manager of the Oppenheimer Currency
Opportunities Fund.
A falling
currency lifts a nation’s economic growth by
boosting its exports and depressing imports.
What many
protected citizens of the United States are
unaware of is that the U.S. military spends
a great deal of money and exhausts countless
resources trying to figure out how to move
its defensive and offensive properties
around the world when or if needed. During a
time of crisis, this can be quite
challenging. Now, researchers at the Defense
Advances Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
want to develop a plan to secure these
assets on the ocean floors and have them
launch on cue.
Mercury is one of
the six most poisonous metals on earth.
Human toxicity occurs at doses of five
millionths of one gram. Compare that to a
nickel which weighs about five grams. Then
think of how many metal fillings you have in
your mouth that are an amalgam composed of
45 percent to 52 percent mercury.
Although the
American Dental Association has known about
mercury’s extreme toxicity for many years,
they told the public and their own doctors
that as an amalgam, mercury was not released
into the body but rather stayed locked
safely inside the filling.
-
The US is currently in the middle of at
least three widespread outbreaks of
influenza and flu-like illness,
including an unusually aggressive
influenza virus, a novel norovirus,
whooping cough (pertussis), as well as
an uptick in laryngitis, and strep with
cough
-
Apparently many flu shot recipients are
coming down with influenza and flu-like
illness despite having been vaccinated—a
strong indication that flu vaccines are
ineffective in keeping people well
despite the fact that the vaccines
available this year are a good match to
the actual flu strains in circulation
Nebraska now has about 80 flex-fuel pumps
with the addition of two new ones at the
Stop N Go in Hartington, Neb., and in
California, Pearson Fuels just received a
grant to install several more.
Leave it to
engineers to improve the design of an
animal. Electrical engineers at Michigan
State University have made numerous
improvements to the “design”, if you will,
of fish, most notably, improving upon its
ability to glide long distances.
Climate change and changes in weather can
affect species in many ways. From altering
migration patterns, to varying plant growth
leading to deviating diets, to extending or
decreasing hibernation periods, climate can
ultimately influence the success of a
species. In an attempt to study some of
these effects, a group of Norwegian
scientists have found that extreme climate
events can cause population fluctuations not
only among single species, but also in a
relatively simple high arctic community.
In 2012, there were at least 3,527
monthly weather records for heat, rain and
snow broken by extreme weather events that
hit communities throughout the US, according
to an updated interactive extreme weather
mapping tool and year-end review released
today by the Natural Resources Defense
Council. The 2012 tally exceeds the 3,251
records smashed in 2011 and catalogues these
record-breaking extreme events in all 50
states.
Total assets of Fed's balance sheet broke
through $3 trillion last week, hitting a new
high, as securities purchases are stepped up
(including treasuries).
Severe floods in Jakarta eased on Friday,
a day after unusually heavy monsoon rains
swamped parts of the Indonesian capital in
waist-deep water and left more than 18,000
people homeless.
However, authorities warned of more rain
and disruptions in the city of about 10
million people after Thursday's floods
killed six people and turned Jakarta's main
thoroughfare into a stream of red mud.
A gamma ray burst, the most powerful
explosion known in the Universe, may have
hit the Earth in the 8th Century.
In 2012 researchers found evidence that
our planet had been struck by a blast of
radiation during the Middle Ages, but there
was debate over what kind of cosmic event
could have caused this.
Now a study suggests it was the result of
two black holes or neutron stars merging in
our galaxy.
This collision would have hurled out vast
amounts of energy.
House Republicans will vote next week to
raise the nation’s $16.4 trillion debt
ceiling for three months and stop pay for
members of Congress in until the Senate
passes a budget — something it has not done
in nearly four years.
Hawaiian Electric Co.’s Robbie Alm said
Thursday that Hawaii will meet, and probably
even exceed, its preliminary mandate of
achieving 15 percent clean energy by 2015.
Iraq’s premier Monday called on
ExxonMobil to respect the country’s
constitution in rare talks with the US
firm’s chief, an apparent reference to a
deal with the Kurdish region Baghdad says is
illegal.
Nuri al-Maliki also appeared to once
again rule out production-sharing deals that
Exxon has signed with Kurdistan, arguing
that Iraq’s substantial oil reserves “belong
to all Iraqis,” an oft-cited phrase in
Iraq’s constitution that central government
officials see as justifying per-barrel
service fees.
A number of factors are converging to
create an ideal opportunity for the utility
industry.
No matter how you slice it, things are
looking grim. The economic picture is
looking worse with every passing day. Long
term unemployment hasn't been this high
since the World War II era. Over a quarter
of working Americans are dipping into their
401K funds to pay current expenses. Taxes
are going up everywhere, a record number of
Americans are on food stamps, and our
government is printing money like there's no
tomorrow.
A 5-year-old girl was suspended from
school earlier this week after she made what
the school called a “terrorist threat.”
Her weapon of choice? A small, Hello
Kitty automatic bubble blower.
A major draft federal report concludes
that climate change is already affecting
U.S. residents through heat waves, droughts
and other changes, and warns that
temperatures could increase as much as 10
degrees Fahrenheit if global carbon
emissions keep soaring.
-
Up to 2 million children in the European
Union (EU) are born with methylmercury
exposures that exceed the EU’s safe
limit.
-
Of them, 200,000 have levels above the
World Health Organization’s (WHO)
recommended maximum for mercury
exposures.
-
Exposure to mercury while the brain is
still developing has been linked to
lower IQ, and therefore a lower lifetime
learning potential; if the effects of
mercury on developing brains were
converted into IQ points, controlling
mercury pollution would save 700,000 IQ
points per year in the European Union
alone.
-
The use of mercury in dentistry is one
of the primary causes of widespread
mercury pollution around the globe,
along with personal health risks from
mercury vapor release.
If you go by the numerous polls out
there, you'd have to think Americans are the
most schizophrenic people in the world. That
was my conclusion after trying to figure out
a way to open this week's Letter From the
Editor. I needed a hook, something to make
my point about the topic I was going to
discuss. Instead I came away more confused
than ever and wondering how in the world we
would be able to remain a free people.
Russia said
Monday that it is sending two planes to
Lebanon to start evacuating its citizens
from Syria, the strongest sign yet that
President Bashar Assad’s most important
international ally has serious doubts about
his ability to cling to power.
Nuclear-powered rocket engines are not
new. In the 1960s, both the U.S. and the
Soviet Union developed and tested thermal
nuclear rockets fitted with flight-worthy
components.
Politicians in Washington are once again
squabbling over raising the debt ceiling
even though the national debt already stands
at $16.4 trillion — or $52,000 for each of
America’s 333 million people.
“Although the government won’t send each
of us a bill for $52,000, Americans will pay
the debt in five increasingly awful
ways,”...
Scientists and advocates today unveiled
new research showing that the Keystone XL
tar sands pipeline would damage the climate
much more than previously thought, by
dramatically expanding tar sands production
and because it will lead to increased
combustion of a particularly dirty form of
oil.
Dry weather should continue through at
least the end of January in the
drought-stricken U.S. Plains and a blast of
Arctic cold air in the Midwest early next
week poses a threat to unprotected livestock
and possibly some wheat, an agricultural
meteorologist said on Friday.
Candidate Barack Obama promised a lot
along his historic route to the White House
four years ago - 508 promises to be exact,
according to the nonpartisan fact-checkers
at Politifact.com who tracked the fate
of each.
He fulfilled or reached compromise on 73
percent of what he promised, according to
Politifact. As Obama begins his second term
Monday, his legacy will also be shaped by
the broken promises of his first four years
in the White House.
The oil industry on Tuesday escalated its
attacks on the federal biofuel mandate as it
rolled out a national ad campaign aimed at
promoting the nation’s refineries.
The ad blitz from the American Petroleum
Institute will be an “all hands on deck”
effort across TV, print, radio and online...
The state says it is close to winning its
long battle to stop high-level nuclear waste
from being stored at Yucca Mountain.
Preserved natural lands are a national
treasure that protect wildlife and allow us
to see and enjoy the natural landscape of
our beautiful country as it has existed for
millenniums, without human "improvements".
But there are lots of areas in national
parks, monuments, and wildlife areas that
are not pristine. These areas are targeted
for low-impact energy development by the
Obama administration.
The ban on plastic grocery bags enacted
in San Francisco and several other
California communities has an unexpected
side effect — an increase in food-borne
illnesses, emergency room visits, and even
deaths.
The culprit: the reusable grocery bags
that shoppers use instead, which are
breeding grounds for E. coli and other
harmful bacteria, according to a new report
by university researchers.
Revolution in Saudi Arabia and the
possible overthrow of the ruling House of
Saud would be a "disaster" for US interests
while prolonged instability would cause
havoc in oil markets and the economy at
large while handing Iran a "strategic
windfall," a former US intelligence official
said in a recent analysis.
Raising The Debt-Limit...View the
humorous Sunday Cartoon
-
Preliminary study findings report that
drinking sweetened beverages – whether
they’re sweetened with sugar or
artificial sweeteners – is associated
with an increased risk of depression.
-
Those who drank more than four cans or
glasses of diet soda or other
artificially sweetened beverages had a
nearly 30 percent higher risk of
depression compared to those who did not
consume diet drinks. Regular soda
drinkers had a 22 percent increased
risk.
Mickelson said “drastic changes” are
ahead for him due to federal and California
state tax increases that have pushed his tax
rate to what he figures adds up to “62, 63
percent.” The left-hander will talk more
about his plans — possibly moving out of
California or even retiring altogether...
Distilling is basically the act of
removing impurities from something or
concentrating the essence of something in a
liquid form. One of the most common liquids
that people distill is water. Water can be
distilled very simply with the right
supplies, and the ability to create pure,
drinkable water can save your life.
Algeria/Mali: Insiders Likely Aided
Hostage Takers
As Taiwan Changes, Support for President
Falls Off
China Moving Aggressively in the Arctic
Iran Postpones Talks As It Approaches
Nuclear Threshold
Turkey: Peace Talks With Kurdish Rebels
Derailed by Murders
U.S. Outflanked by China’s Grand Strategy
for a ‘New Silk Road’
Havana Eases Travel In Bid to Boost
Flagging Economy
Poland: Bruised by Eurozone Weakness But
Still Resilient
Australia: The Good Times Can't Last. Or
Can They?
Nations around the globe need to press
forward with fiscal and reform promises,
especially in the United States and Europe,
to reduce the uncertainties shackling
growth, the head of the IMF said, warning
that the global economy barely dodged a
bullet last year.
For the first time, the United States
does not rank in the top 10 of the Legatum
Institute’s annual ranking of the World’s
Happiest Countries.
The country ranked No. 10 last year in
Legatum’s Prosperity Index, which has been
computed for the past six years, but this
year the United States ranks No. 12.
The wind power industry may have won the
production tax credit war, but there’s still
one more battle to fight.
The sector is eagerly waiting for federal
tax experts to give detailed guidance that
interprets a language change to the PTC, the
crucial industry support that was extended
by one year in the final fiscal cliff
package.
After much dithering, Congress earlier
this month gave a lift to wind-power
producers by renewing a tax credit worth
more than $12 billion over the next decade.
But the public subsidies alone likely
won't be enough to propel more than a dozen
proposed wind farms in Washington to quickly
start spinning their giant blades. Cheaper
natural gas, environmental concerns and
plentiful renewable-energy sources for
utilities are among a confluence of factors
that have taken much wind out of new
turbines' sails.
While some economists have mocked worries
about inflation given its quiescence over
the last five years, some troublesome signs
have emerged on the price front, according
to Wall Street Journal columnist Spencer
Jakab.
The primary concern is the
staggering amount of easing the Federal
Reserve has embarked upon before, during and
after the 2008-09 financial crisis. That
accommodation has led to a tripling of money
supply.
January 18, 2013
With global energy consumption projected
to rise nearly 40 percent by 2030, the
advanced energy economy has the potential to
create dramatic new opportunities for
economic growth and prosperity in the U.S.
and around the world.
"It is time we moved beyond categories
like 'clean' and 'dirty' and recognize that
advanced energy represents the future of
energy," said Hemant Taneja,..
According to Alex Jones on a
recent appearance on
Piers Morgan Tonight,
should the gun grabbers
attempt to take away the
constitutional rights of the
American people, a second
revolution would be in the
making. But is the answer to
this Orwellian 1984
society we find ourselves
in, actually another 1776?
Algerian special forces completed an
operation to free hostages from a natural
gas complex deep in the Sahara Desert, but
the army provided no information on the
death toll, Algeria's state news agency
reported Thursday.
Reports on the crisis have been
conflicting.
After years of stockpiles
and capacity constraints, a
sea change in US crude flows
began last week when the
Seaway Pipeline expanded to
400,000 b/d. The pipeline
marks the first capacity to
link the oil hub of Cushing,
Oklahoma, and the Texas Gulf
Coast.
Another South Korean nuclear
reactor was shut down
Thursday due to a
malfunction just two weeks
after two of three troubled
reactors were restarted amid
mounting electricity demand
due to a prolonged cold
spell.
The poll by the Pew Research
Center found that 63 percent
of Americans believe that
Roe v. Wade should not be
completely overturned,
compared to 29 percent who
believe it should be. These
opinions have changed little
from surveys conducted in
2003 and 1992, Pew reported.
he nation’s first
utility-scale,
grid-connected wave energy
test facility will be
located at Newport on the
Oregon coast, where powerful
waves roll in from across
the Pacific Ocean.
Chemical engineers at UC Berkeley have
created a new, cleaner fuel out of an old
concoction that was once used to
make explosives.
The fuel, which uses a century-old
fermentation process to transform plant
material into a propellant, could eventually
replace gasoline and drastically cut down on
greenhouse gas emissions, according to the
team of Berkeley scientists.
Emitted by diesel engines,
brick kilns and wood-fired
cookstoves, black carbon is
second only to carbon
dioxide as the most powerful
climate pollutant, according
to the study published in
the Journal of Geophysical
Research-Atmospheres.
Waning infestations of the
bloodsuckers have been
linked by doctors to pubic
depilation, especially a
technique popularized in the
1990s by a Manhattan salon
run by seven Brazilian
sisters. More than 80
percent of college students
in the U.S. remove all or
some of their pubic hair --
part of a trend that’s
increasing in western
countries.
Business and
capitalism get conflated —
in our media, our language
and in our thinking. They
are not the same thing. One
is a sector, the other a
methodology. By inextricably
linking the two, we confine
the practice of real,
turbo-charged capitalism to
business, and we dangerously
limit the capacity of
non-business organizations
to innovate, fund, and bring
to scale the kind of
breakthrough ideas that will
begin to solve the huge
social problems we face
today.
The 'Equation' I published
in 1998 is receiving a lot
of attention, and from the
right people. A new surge of
climate scientists are
coming forward with what
they say are "new studies".
In short, they have shifted
their understanding of what
is behind 'warming and
cooling trends'. They have
come to realize the Sun is a
major influence in climate
patterns.
Environmental groups have
filed a lawsuit against the
N.C. Environmental
Management Commission,
appealing a prior decision
that state officials were
correct in declining to fine
or stringently monitor for
potential groundwater
contamination from coal-ash
ponds at 14 power plants
throughout North Carolina,
including the Sutton Plant
in Wilmington.
Solar PV will remain the fastest growing
energy technology in the U.S. over the next
four years, according to Frost & Sullivan.
The research firm estimates the solar PV
market will earn revenues of $3.04 billion
in 2016, up from $1.73 billion in 2011.
Annual installations in the residential
sector are projected to grow at a CAGR of
11.9 percent from 2011 to 2016.
As nations see Japan's
success in weakening the
yen, some begin to take
notice. Emerging markets
nations often attempted to
devalue their currencies in
the past in order to improve
competitiveness. But these
days developed economies are
doing it as well. This
morning the Russians called
these policies "currency
wars", which is a good way
to describe the latest
developments. And such
policies are not limited to
Japan.
In early December, media
reports suggested the Assad
regime in Syria was
preparing to use chemical
weapons. Now a report by
Foreign Policy magazine says
Damascus may have actually
used such weapons of mass
destruction in late
December. Could such
revelations lead to a U.S.
or Israeli strike on Syria's
remaining WMD stockpiles?
The planting of ten of thousands of olive
trees in arid areas in Israel have proved
highly beneficial, according to a study
which said the trees provide shade for
animals, purge the air and even produce
excellent olive oil.
The foundation of this
nation was real property
ownership. That's why the
settlers came here. To
insure private ownership of
land, the nation's founding
fathers made it unlawful for
government to own land
except for the ten square
miles of Washington D.C.,
and such as may be needed
for erection of Forts,
Magazines, Arsenals,
dockyards, and other needful
buildings. (The
Constitution)
In America today people think they own
their land, but unless they have the Land
Patent on the land they do not own it.
Most people today obtain "Real Estate" by
contract and then on fulfillment of the
contract they transfer control of land by
"Warranty Deed".
The "Warranty Deed" is merely a "color of
title". Color of Title means: "That
which is a semblance or appearance of title,
but not title in fact or in law."
Forecasts for a return to
dry weather for the balance
of January in the already
drought-stricken U.S.
western Midwest and Plains
are renewing worries among
agriculture interests
following the worst drought
in more than 50 years in
2012.
Evidence that the planet’s
temperature is rising came
flooding in this week, and
in response environmental
and public health groups
have launched “100 Days of
Climate Action,” from
Inauguration Day to Earth
Day
It is dangerous to bet
against Einstein.
Cosmological research shows
that the rate at which the
Universe expands is
increasing, rather than
decreasing as was previously
thought. The concept of
"dark energy" with a
negative pressure was
introduced to describe this
acceleration. Now
measurements of the proton
to electron mass ratio
(PEMR) over the past seven
billion years strongly
suggest that the models of
dark energy are far more
contrived in explaining
accelerating expansion than
is Einstein's
self-proclaimed "biggest
blunder" – the cosmological
constant.
Environmental groups filed suit Monday in
Circuit Court in Richmond to block a
discharge permit renewal for the aging
coal-fired Yorktown Power Station, claiming
the state failed in its duty under the Clean
Water Act to first evaluate its
environmental impact.
Discharge permits must be renewed every
five years, and the Virginia Department of
Environmental Quality (DEQ) did so for the
Yorktown plant last November.
Total toxic air releases in
2012 were down 8 percent
from the 2010 figure, a
survey by the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency found.
When you’re trying to keep a
rogue asteroid from hitting
Earth, you’d better get it
right the first time. With
this in mind, the European
Space Agency (ESA) is
looking for new ideas to
help develop a US-European
asteroid deflection mission.
With a target date of
October, 2022, the purpose
of the mission is to send a
pair of spacecraft to a
near-Earth asteroid where
one will impact it while the
other observes the effect.
U.S. authorities should
break up the country's
largest banks to protect
against the risk of
institutions that are "too
big to fail" and that would
saddle ordinary Americans
with the cost of a bailout
the next time they get into
trouble, a senior Federal
Reserve official said on
Wednesday.
The Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC)
has proposed changes to a
rule that will speed up the
process and reduce the costs
to interconnect
smaller-sized solar power
projects to the grid while
maintaining system
reliability and safety. The
changes were necessary, the
organization claims, because
of market changes that were
due to state renewable
energy goals and policies.
- Fitch Ratings has the U.S. on credit
watch
- The firm may downgrade the U.S.
credit rating from AAA
- S&P downgraded its rating from AAA
during the 2011 debt ceiling debate
Heavy monsoon rain triggered severe
flooding in large swathes of the Indonesian
capital, Jakarta, on Thursday, bringing the
city to a halt with many government offices
and businesses forced to close because staff
could not get to work.
At least 20,000 people were forced from
their homes in the capital and weather
officials warned the rain could get worse
over the next few days.
Should the government be
recommending
mercury-containing flu shots
to everyone, especially if
they are useless for 97.5%
of adults?
We are a part of something
more important than the 2nd
Amendment. We are a part of
a story that will be passed
down through memories and
quality time spent with
friends and family. We are a
part of something that will
shape our future, long after
we have passed on.
FreedomWatch’s suit is based
on the argument that the
White House group conducted
illegal meetings with
lobbyists without public
notice that’s required. The
suit, which was filed in
Florida federal court, seeks
to eliminate the task force
and prevent any of its
proposals from becoming law,
The Hill reports.
A tight supply system meant
that France was importing
over 2 GW of power and if
the high demand outturn
continues, the evening peak
prediction of 89.8 GW at
19:00 Friday could also be
surpassed.
-
New research into physical activity
suggests that not only can you get a
phenomenal workout in just 20 minutes or
sometimes even less, but the little
things – such as making an effort to
stand more instead of sitting – also add
up.
-
One study found people who exercised
moderately, running one to 20 miles per
week at a pace of about 10-11 minute
miles (a jogging rate), had an even
lower risk of dying than those who ran
more than 20 miles a week or at a pace
faster than seven miles per hour,
suggesting more is not necessarily
better (and may actually be worse).
With the debate over gun
violence reshaped by the
shooting deaths of 20
children and six adults at a
Connecticut elementary
school last month, lawmakers
across the country are
pushing proposals to arm
teachers in the classroom.
But many of them may be
wasting their time.
House Democrats are pushing
legislation to repeal the
federal debt ceiling, saying
the borrowing limit has no
practical purpose and has
come to be used for
political maneuvering that
can have devastating
economic repercussions.
House leaders took over the
legal defense of DOMA that
year when the Obama
administration decided the
Act was unconstitutional and
announced they would no
longer defend it.
You will join other
Americans in paying more
than $500 billion in
nineteen new types of taxes
and fees over the next
decade to fund health
reform.[1] Some of the new
taxes will be indirect and
will be passed on to you in
the form of higher prices,
higher premiums, or lower
wages. You will pay other
taxes directly. According to
the Joint Committee on
Taxation, about 73 million
taxpayers earning less than
$200,000 will see their
taxes rise as a result of
various health reform
provisions.[2]
With another deadline
looming at the end of this
year, the industry would do
well to consider
alternatives to the
Production Tax Credit that
would mean less reliance on
federal tax credits as a key
source of clean energy
financing. A new financing
model for clean energy
development could be such an
alternative.
If ever a concept grabbed
hold of hearts and minds in
Indian country in the past
couple decades surely it
would be that of
sovereignty. Native people
talk about it with
reverence, demanding that it
be respected by the federal
government, and expect their
tribal governments to assert
it. Even the federal
government speaks the
language of sovereignty when
it claims to uphold the
“unique
government-to-government
relationship” it has with
tribes. Never mind that what
the feds mean when they use
the word “sovereignty” is
that unique brand of
quasi-sovereignty they
believe they bestow upon
tribal nations via the
federal Indian legal system,
not sovereignty in the
international sense, the
kind nation-states mean when
they talk about it. The same
is true with the concept of
self-determination.
Iran authorities have often
cited Khamenei's religious
edict, made more than seven
years ago, in attempts to
counter Western suspicion
that Iran could be moving
toward nuclear arms. But
Iranian leaders now appear
increasingly desperate to
reopen talks with world
powers as a possible way to
ease sanctions.
New research refutes the common belief
that meeting the world's energy demand using
100 percent renewable resources could take
up a significant amount of land.
According to the World Wildlife
Federation (WWF), less than 1 percent of
total global land mass would be required to
meet 100 percent of projected electricity
demand by 2050 if such electricity was
generated using only solar PV. If
well-planned, PV technology will not
conflict with conservation efforts, WWF
contends.
The nine-member commission
represents the six Cape Cod
towns within the boundaries
of the Seashore along with
county, state and federal
representatives. The
commission wrote to the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory
Commission in March stating
its opposition to the
relicensing of the Pilgrim
nuclear plant due to the
potential threat to public
safety and the environment.
Outsourcing was well worth
his time. He continued
receiving his six-figure
salary and only paid a fifth
of that to a company in
Shenyang, China. It took a
while for his company to
figure out the scam [sic]."
[editor's note: In what
imaginary universe is
subcontracting a "scam?" The
guy got great performance
reviews. He was hired to get
he work done, and the work
got done
A carbon tax advocacy group,
the Carbon Tax Center, sees
the tax as a kind of
economic sanction to force
social and technological
change. It says such a tax
will reduce the use of
fossil fuels and their
attendant emissions of
carbon dioxide. By driving
the costs up, the tax will
force energy suppliers to
seek other forms of fuel.
And it will force consumers
to use lower-carbon products
-- including home energy and
vehicle fuels -- to save
money.
The French military assault
on Islamist extremists in
Mali escalated into a
potentially much broader
North African conflict on
Wednesday when, in
retribution, armed attackers
in unmarked trucks seized an
internationally managed
natural gas field in
neighboring Algeria and took
at least 20 foreign
hostages, including
Americans.
Starting this month, NASA
will send a remotely piloted
research aircraft as high as
65,000 feet over the
tropical Pacific Ocean to
probe unexplored regions of
the upper atmosphere for
answers to how a warming
climate is changing Earth.
So what exactly can this air
crisis be attributed to?
Historically, air pollution
around Beijing has greatly
been influenced by
coal-fired power stations.
However, population growth
along with increasing
development is causing the
nation to choke on it's own
expansion. With thousands of
new cars taking to the road,
and pollution that is
exacerbated by weather
patterns and cold spells,
air quality and human health
are suffering.
In 2012, Plains Exploration
& Production (PXP) Company
contended that research
(funded by PXP) showed that
their oil recovery
operations, including
hydraulic fracturing
(fracking), in the Los
Angeles Inglewood oil field
had no known adverse public
effects. But new research
contradicts these findings.
The National Rifle
Association issued a
statement in response to the
newly-signed New York law
banning assault weapons and
requiring background checks:
"The National Rifle
Association and our New York
members are outraged at the
draconian gun control bill
that was rushed through the
process late Monday evening.
An Oct. 29 inspection of
Millstone Power Station's
preparations before
Superstorm Sandy revealed
there was no gauge in place
to determine when
floodwaters reached a
critical level, the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission
announced Wednesday.
Nuclear watchdog groups warn
the the nuclear industry is
rushing regulators tasked
with a new court-ordered
environmental impact
statement for the spent
nuclear fuel piling up at
reactor sites across the
country.
This year 2013 marks the first full year
many of the massive provisions of
ObamaCare take effect.
But few know the actual law.
At over 2,700 pages — with an additional
13,000 pages of regulations (so far) — the
ObamaCare law is longer
than the Bible and far more demanding in its
requirements and taxes!
ObamaCare will affect the life of each
and every American, including you.
"President Obama is
considering 19 separate
steps on gun control he can
take without congressional
action .... Those steps
could include tougher
measures on gun trafficking,
freeing up federal agencies
to conduct more research on
gun control and giving
schools flexibility to use
grants to improve safety,
the AP reported. Mr. Obama
said at a news conference
Monday that he will unveil
his proposals this week,
which are likely to be a mix
of items that would require
Congressional approval and
steps Mr. Obama could take
on his own."
As the Northeastern
coastline is still busy
cleaning up after damages
from Hurricane Sandy months
after its landfall, offshore
wind proponents are moving
ahead with plans that they
hope will help mitigate
future storm impacts
OPEC has lowered its
estimate of the demand for
crude oil produced by its
member countries this year
to 29.65 million b/d,
100,000 b/d lower than its
previous forecast a month
ago and some 715,000 b/d
below estimated December
output of 30.365 million
b/d.
An industry economist on
Thursday blasted opposition
to expanding liquefied
natural gas exports as a
"knee-jerk reaction" to
energy experts and,
potentially, the start of an
all-out export ban.
In the developed world,
ageing is most commonly
associated with shrinking
workforces relative to the
rest of the population,
giving rise to pension cuts,
postponed retirement and
higher taxes on the young.
As an economy still in
transition, China need not
fret about such issues.
For a start, China's state
pension system is far from
generous and its
coverage low. Rather, the
country's biggest fear is
that of worsening labour
shortages—a phenomenon that
was first reported in the
mid–2000s and was
subsequently the subject of
much attention in the
national media.
...household formation and
historically low new home
inventory is stimulating
construction of new homes in
the US. The large shadow
inventory, which many view
as holding back resi
construction, is simply
converting some portion of
homeowners into renters. But
for every renter there is an
owner - and there are just
not enough existing homes
for sale. That's why US
housing starts hit a new
post-recession high.
...found that of the 81
percent of US adults who use
the internet, 72 percent
have gone online to look for
health information in the
past year. Some 59 percent
of that online health
information seeker group
went online to specifically
try to figure out what
medical condition they or
someone they know has. Pew
calls this group “online
diagnosers” and it includes
about 35 percent of all US
adults.
In just days, President
Obama will cross his fingers
and swear to uphold the
United States Constitution
at his second inauguration
ceremony.
In the
meantime, he and his
anti-gun pals are scheming
to shred it.
Worldwide solar energy costs
have dropped below the cost
of diesel generation for
communities living away from
the electricity grid. It's
just one example renewable
energy's entry into a cycle
of falling costs, increased
deployment, and accelerated
technological progress,
according to the
International Renewable
Energy Agency (IRENA).
There are currently 4
numbered sunspot regions on
the disk. IB. Solar
Activity Forecast: Solar
activity is expected to be
low with a slight chance for
M-class flares on days one,
two, and three (18 Jan, 19
Jan, 20 Jan).
Geophysical Activity
Forecast: The geomagnetic
field is expected to be at
minor storm levels on day
one (18 Jan), active levels
on day two (19 Jan), and
minor storm levels again on
day three (20 Jan).
CONTINUED ALERT: Electron
2MeV Integral Flux exceeded
1000pfu
Known for years as a
champion of so-called
pork-barrel politics,
Maryland Senator Barbara
Mikulski has steered
government
money to many pet
projects, from astronomy
research to new buildings on
military bases, protecting
federal agency operations in
her home state.
Significant cost reductions
are making renewable energy
increasingly competitive
with fossil fuels in
countries across the world.
Much like on Earth, waste is a problem in
space.
But unlike life on the blue planet,
humans floating above don't have a curb, bin
or dumpster for their refuse.
Sixty years ago, a plot of
land in Cumru Township was
picked for the towering
Titus Station Generating
Plant because of access to
the Schuylkill River, a rail
line and coal.
States with booming clean energy markets
share a formula for success.
In these states, specifically Colorado,
Ohio and Iowa, policy and economic
development work together to stimulate
demand for clean energy products and
services; seed innovation in clean energy
solutions; and recruit and support new
firms, jobs and workforce skills in clean
energy, according to research from the
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).
The other 98% is frequently flushed,
thrown in the trash or left in cupboards,
solutions that can create environmental
hazards or cause the drugs to fall into the
wrong hands.
An estimated one-third of the more than
13 million pounds of pharmaceuticals sold in
Wisconsin each year goes unused, the study
said.
Net metering is a program
that provides rooftop solar
customers with utility bill
credits for the surplus
clean energy that their
solar systems feed onto the
electric grid. Net metering
has been a key driver of the
rapid expansion of solar
across California's
rooftops, with two-thirds of
home solar installations now
occurring in low and median
income neighborhoods,
according to a July 2012
California Solar Initiative
report.
Increased competition abroad
and uncertain policies at
home put the ability of
America to compete in the
global clean energy
marketplace at risk, a
report says.
Stutzman Refuse Disposal, a
subsidiary of Waste
Connections Inc. in South
Hutchinson, Kan., is
expanding its single-stream
recycling line, allowing the
facility to completely
process all materials
on-site.
In order to truly appreciate
the nature of the breakdown
of our system of government,
you must first understand
the court system as
originally set up by the
framers of our Constitution.
Under this system, courts
only operated under three
venues: common law, equity,
and admiralty.
It’s About:
PROTECTING THE EARTH.
Idle No More is an
inherently grassroots and
localized movement, informed
by the founders, but with
local flair.
Terrorist Attack on Algerian
Gas Plant Pre-Planned
Cypriot Bailout Will Test
EU’s Resolve
Former Navy SEAL Says
Clinton Faces Tough
Questions on Benghazi
Mali Conflict Turns Global
as Islamists Take Hostages
in Algeria
China’s Anti-Satellite Test
Will Add to Space Arms Race
Worry
Brazil May Get Red Card For
World Cup, Olympics
Afghanistan: Money Drain an
Ominous Sign
Mali: Islamist Rebels
Tougher Than France
Anticipated
Japan Slowly Shifting Course
on Defense Policy
Australia: Oil and Gas
Production to Remain Stable
in 2013
A Return of Exchange Rate
Volatility in 2013
France’s Underlying Malaise
Will Soon Hit Spotlight
Russia’s Newest Submarine: A
Loud Message to World
Saudi Arabia and Iraq at
Odds Over Oil Production
Czech Election Could Lead to
Communist Resurgence
Radical Islam a Growing
Concern in the Balkans
Expert: Peace Will Prevail
in Northern Ireland
India/Pakistan: Kashmir
Violence Raises Tensions But
Probably Will be Contained
China: ConocoPhillips
Resumes Operations; China
Eyes Shale Gas
Sneaky “tricks of the trade”
employed by the meat
industry include “pink
slime” made of otherwise
unusable scraps, meat glue,
and reconstituted meat—all
of which fool you into
thinking you’re buying
something of higher quality
than you are
The current world record for
triple-junction solar cell
efficiency is 44 percent,
but a collaboration between
the U.S. Naval Research
Laboratory (NRL), the
Imperial College of London,
and MicroLink Devices Inc.
has led to a multi-junction
photovoltaic cell design
that could break the 50
percent conversion
efficiency barrier under
concentrated solar
illumination.
In a tidy white lab on the southern edge
of Berkeley, scientists are trying to
duplicate one of nature's greatest tricks,
pulling energy out of thin air.
They're designing artificial leaves that
can convert sunlight, carbon dioxide and
water into chemical fuel, much like the
photosynthesis of flowers and trees.
Utility spending on electric
efficiency programs will
double by 2025 and energy
savings from these
customer-funded programs
will offset the majority of
predicted load growth for
that period, according to a
report released Thursday by
a Department of Energy
national laboratory.
The US Environmental
Protection Agency on Tuesday
released its final
amendments to emission
standards for small,
stationary engines used to
generate power for oil and
gas production and in power
emergencies, saying the rule
changes will save hundreds
of millions of dollars while
slashing pollutants.
- Consumer spending increased in all
Fed Districts. The holiday shopping
season was reported as being modestly
better than the previous year; however,
several Districts noted that sales were
below expectations. The outlook for
future sales is positive, although
business contacts expressed concerns
that consumers will spend cautiously due
to “ongoing fiscal uncertainty” and as
such lowered their expectations.
- Reports of manufacturing activity
were mixed.
Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said Wednesday
that the country should stop
relying on oil revenue in
the state budget as one way
to fight international
sanctions.
In a
speech broadcast on state
radio, the Iranian president
said "restrictions imposed
on selling oil, the
sanctions against the
central bank and money
transfers" were designed to
pressure the Islamic
Republic and prevent its
progress.
Freddie Mac (OTCBB: FMCC)
yesterday released the
results of its Primary
Mortgage Market Survey®
(PMMS), showing mortgage
rates largely unchanged from
the previous week helping to
keep homebuyer affordability
high, refinancing strong and
should continue to aid the
ongoing housing recovery.
Americans are not opposed to
more domestic energy
production, but they are
unwilling to achieve it by
sacrificing clean water,
increased energy efficiency,
and expanded wind and solar
power in the process,
according to a major new ORC
International survey
conducted for the nonprofit
Civil Society Institute
(CSI) and Environmental
Working Group (EWG).
The production level was the
lowest recorded by the EIA
since it started recording
weekly production in the
reporting week ended June 4,
2010.
Weekly ethanol
inventories, however,
reversed course after a
three-week decline as they
grew 507,000 barrels, or
2.6%, to a four-week high of
20.361 million barrels.
Radiocarbon dates of tiny
fossilized marine animals
found in Antarctica’s seabed
sediments offer new clues
about the recent rapid ice
loss from the West Antarctic
Ice Sheet and help
scientists make better
future predictions about
sea-level rise. This region
of the icy continent is
thought to be vulnerable to
regional climate warming and
changes in ocean
circulation.
Liberals would have you
believe that one of the
greatest dangers you face is
another Newtown, Connecticut
type shooting. They would
have you believe that if we
just ban all assault weapons
... or all guns, period ...
you'll be much safer.
Tell that to the
criminals.
Whole Foods Market CEO John
Mackey drew a lot of heat
for comparing Democratic
healthcare reform to
socialism in 2009. And now
he’s doubling down, calling
Obamacare “fascism” instead.
"Technically speaking,
it's more like fascism,"
Mackey told NPR in an
interview aired Wednesday,
referring to the Affordable
Care Act.
Most of us in the
electric energy sector in
the developed world tend to
think of electricity as a
basic human right, with
instant availability at any
hour. We are accustomed to
having affordable, reliable
electric service that's
provided by highly
interconnected power
systems. Now we are moving
toward more efficient
service as a result of smart
control of transmission and
distribution systems, with
smart metering offering new
consumer services. For
nearly a century, our
prosperity and economic
growth have depended on
availability of reliable and
affordable electricity.
-
A small but growing group of worm
farmers are creating a natural
fertilizer product known as
“vermicompost,” which is said to improve
plant growth and make plants more
resistant to disease and insects than
plants grown with other composts and
fertilizers
-
Worms’ digestive process naturally
excretes beneficial microbes into the
soil, which drastically alter the soil’s
composition
-
Whereas conventional farming and the use
of synthetic fertilizers rapidly
depletes the soil of nutrients,
vermicompost helps restore microbial
diversity -- and the worms can even
transform manure waste from industrial
farms into this valuable compost
January 15, 2013
The year 2012 was warmest
year for the continental
United States since record
keeping began 107 years ago,
the U.S. National Climatic
Data Center announced today.
Suicides in the U.S.
military surged to a record
349 last year, far exceeding
American combat deaths in
Afghanistan, and some
private experts are
predicting the dark trend
will grow worse this year.
The U.S. Climate Extremes
Index indicated that 2012
was the second most extreme
year on record for the
nation. The index, which
evaluates extremes in
temperature and
precipitation, as well as
landfalling tropical
cyclones, was nearly twice
the average value and second
only to 1998.
North Slope crude oil
production for the last six
months has been trending
below levels forecast by
Alaska's revenue department,
according to production data
made available by the
department Friday.
Environmental factors
contribute to higher rates
of disease and injury among
Americans compared to people
in other high-income
countries, , finds a new
report from the National
Research Council and
Institute of Medicine.
Australia experienced a wave of migration
from India about 4,000 years ago, a genetic
study suggests.
It was thought the continent had been
largely isolated after the first humans
arrived about 40,000 years ago until the
Europeans moved in in the 1800s.
But DNA from Aboriginal Australians
revealed there had been some movement from
India during this period.
A collaborative effort by
the Rice lab of chemist
James Tour and the Moscow
lab of chemist Stepan
Kalmykov determined that
microscopic, atom-thick
flakes of graphene oxide
bind quickly to natural and
human-made radionuclides and
condense them into solids.
The flakes are soluble in
liquids and easily produced
in bulk.
This summer, life in
Australia resembles a
compulsory and very
unpleasant game of Russian
roulette. A pool of hot air
more than 1,000 miles wide
has formed across the
inland. It covers much of
the continent, and has
proved astonishingly
persistent.
Asteroid 2012 DA14 is about
40 meters (131 ft) in size,
has a mass of 130,000 tons,
is traveling relative to the
Earth at a speed of some 6.3
km/s (14,100 mph) ... and
will miss us by less than
32,000 km (20,000 miles) on
February 15.
Australia's record-breaking heatwave has
sent temperatures soaring, melting road tar
and setting off hundreds of wildfires - as
well as searing new colors onto weather
maps.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has
added dark purple and magenta to its
color-coded weather forecasting map to
represent temperatures of 51 to 54 degrees
Celsius (123.8 to 129.2 Fahrenheit),
officials said.
As a small business owner, I
knew it was coming. As a
skeptic of any pronouncement
by the White House relating
to healthcare, I knew
consumers and small
businesses would get socked
with higher rates. And as an
employer who works with
private health insurance
providers, I knew they would
be able to manipulate
Obamacare to make even more
money. It has all come to
pass as I had feared.
Campaign groups say US
president could use
bipartisan summit to launch
a national climate strategy
Why doesn't Vice President Biden take his
gun commission to Chicago, the murder
capital of the United States and a place
with some of the strictest gun laws in the
country?
Chicago had more than 500 gun homicides
in 2012, or roughly 19 per 100,000 people.
By way of comparison, New York City had
just 237 gun homicides with more than three
times the population -- only about 3 gun
homicides per 100,000 people.
This puts the city of Chicago at more
than 6 times the national gun homicide rate.
Green schemes to fight climate change by
producing more bio-fuels could actually
worsen a little-known type of air pollution
and cause almost 1,400 premature deaths a
year in Europe by 2020, a study showed on
Sunday.
The report said trees grown to produce
wood fuel - seen as a cleaner alternative to
oil and coal - released a chemical into the
air that, when mixed with other pollutants,
could also reduce farmers' crop yields.
Duke Energy Renewables
nearly doubled the amount of
operational renewable
capacity in 2012, adding 770
MW of wind capacity and 28.5
MW of solar capacity to give
the company a total of more
than 1,700 MW, the Duke
Energy subsidiary said
Monday.
About 1.5 million red wiggler worms were
brought in from Georgia and installed in the
facility, which has reduced the trash sent
to landfills by about 70% since it was
conceived three years ago, according to
officials.
Worms chow down on travelers' food scraps
as well as plant matter and other trash, and
excrete nutrient-rich "castings," which the
airport will use as fertilizer, the article
indicates.
Air quality in Beijing was the "worst on
record" on Saturday and Sunday, according to
environmentalists, as the city's pollution
monitoring centre warned residents to stay
indoors with pollution 30-45 times above
recommended safety levels.
The Chinese capital, home to around 20
million people, has been wrapped in thick
smog since Friday, reducing visibility and
disrupting traffic.
The operator of three
coal-fired power plants in
Maryland has agreed to pay a
total of $2.2 million in
penalties and fix
long-standing pollution
problems at the landfills in
Southern Maryland and
Montgomery County where it
disposes of the ash from
those plants, according to
court documents.
-
Scientists using fMRI tests have shown
that fructose triggers changes in your
brain that may lead to overeating and
weight gain. When you drink a beverage
containing fructose, your brain does not
register the feeling of being full, as
it does when you consume simple glucose
-
Fructose is also metabolized to fat in
your body far more rapidly than any
other sugar, and the metabolism of
fructose by your liver creates a long
list of waste products and toxins,
including a large amount of uric acid,
which drives up blood pressure and can
cause gout
Coming off the hottest year on record in
the United States, Sen. Bernie Sanders
(I-Vt.) said today that he will introduce
legislation to move aggressively to reverse
global warming.
“The scientific data is clear that global
warming is real and significantly caused by
greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil
fuels,” Sanders said.
Conservatives are taking aim
at the pork-laden $50.7
billion Superstorm Sandy aid
package that Northeastern
governors and lawmakers hope
to push through the House
this coming week.
Too
much of the aid will go to
recovery efforts for past
disasters and other projects
unrelated to the
late-October storm, they
say.
So you like the idea of generating power
from the sun, but don't want a dozen solar
panels bolted to your house's roof?
For the first time in Minnesota, an
electric power cooperative is offering its
customers an alternative -- investing in a
community-owned solar-power array, and
getting credit for the output on their
utility bills.
The Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) has seen the future
of naval warfare and it’s
falling upward. As part of
an effort to reduce the
logistics of sending
equipment into trouble
areas, the agency’s Upward
Falling Payloads project is
aimed at developing storage
capsules capable of
remaining on the deep seabed
for years. These would
contain non-lethal military
assets that could be
deployed on the spot years
in advance and rise to the
surface as needed.
The United States Global Change Research
Program (USGCRP) released its draft National
Climate Assessment this week, just a week
after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration confirmed the United States
experienced its warmest year on record.
The report is the flagship climate change
assessment for the United States, according
to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
Although government support
for Electric Vehicles (EVs)
in Europe is waning, the
increasing availability of
vehicle charging
infrastructure that enables
vehicles to charge at home,
at the workplace, and in
public places is
facilitating market growth.
With electric and
electrically assisted
vehicles now available in
the mainstream market, the
fundamental question is no
longer if there is a market;
rather, the question is how
fast that market will grow.
“Government overreach” is a
phrase bandied about a lot
these days and — politics
being what they are — it’s
usually wise to consider the
source. This time, however,
the charge comes from a
federal judge, who recently
ruled that the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) overstepped its
authority in attempting to
regulate stormwater flow
into a Virginia watershed.
Most people are surprised to
learn that the flu is one of
the nation’s most lethal
diseases, killing up to
20,000 Americans a year.
This flu season is shaping
up to be particularly
severe.
President Obama’s $90
billion green stimulus
program leveraged billions
in private investment,
reduced carbon emissions and
added 720,000 jobs, Joseph
Aldy, a Harvard University
economist and former special
assistant to the president
for energy and environment,
argued in a new research
paper.
-
Genetically engineered crops and food
products pose a threat to your health,
resistance to disease, soil, and the
global food supply
-
GE seed wars in India have resulted in a
group of Indian scientists being found
guilty of infecting and hiding the fact
that indigenously created Bt cotton
contained a Monsanto gene in a rush to
get the seed to market
For many economies, 2012 was
a year to forget. Austerity
in the developed world and a
slowdown in China dented
global growth. The downturn
caused hardship for
households and businesses,
and headaches for many
politicians. Markets also
endured their torrid
moments, mainly reflecting
ever-changing perceptions of
the risk of a break-up of
the euro zone. In the US,
electoral politics got in
the way of constructive
economic debate. In 2013
global economic prospects
look slightly brighter.
Here, we list some of the
key economic themes that are
likely to occupy
governments, businesses,
consumers and investors in
the year ahead:
Analysts forecast the Global
Flywheel Energy Storage
market to grow at a CAGR of
12.35 percent over the
period 2011-2015. One of the
key factors contributing to
this market growth is the
increasing investment in
smart grid construction. The
Global Flywheel Energy
Storage market has also been
witnessing increasing
investment in energy storage
technology. However, the
lack of familiarity with
flywheel technologies could
pose a challenge to the
growth of this market.
...To get there, the
Governor announced a $1
billion Green Bank to
leverage public dollars with
private-sector matching
funds to spur the cleantech
economy in the state. The
Bank will be funded by a
portion of money from the
energy efficiency portfolio
standards, renewable
portfolio standards or
system benefit charge to
attract the private
investment.
During the 70s, when a major
corporation opened up a
plant in our town, they put
all prospective employees
through pre-hire, a day-long
concerted effort to weed out
misfits, people who couldn't
be team players, and those
who wouldn't fit in with
assembly line work. They
also took this opportunity
to catalog those individuals
who were innovative and
could think for themselves.
The consequences of climate
change are now hitting the
United States on several
fronts, including health,
infrastructure, water
supply, agriculture and
especially more frequent
severe weather, a
congressionally mandated
study has concluded.
Hydrogen has been hailed as
the fuel of the future, but
producing it cleanly using
platinum as a catalyst is
simply too costly to service
the world's energy needs. On
the flipside, producing
hydrogen with fossil fuels
not only releases CO2 as a
byproduct, but is
unsustainable, negating
hydrogen's green potential.
However, hydrogen may yet
make good on its promise
thanks to a group of
scientists at the University
of Cambridge.
Israel's leading
environmental groups have
launched a campaign to get
the Knesset to reject the
recommendations of a
government-appointed panel
on gas exports, the
environmental organizations
said in a joint statement on
Monday.
We rarely send out alerts,
and the DHS never suggests
disabling common software...
so this is something to take
seriously.
Vinegar has many uses, many
of which can be attested to
by our grandmothers as well
as modern day make-do and
naturally minded folks. But
where does vinegar come
from? How is it made?
Whatever will we do if for
some reason vinegar becomes
unavailable in the stores?
Former U.S. Attorney General
Edwin Meese III declared in
an exclusive Newsmax TV
interview that President
Barack Obama could easily be
impeached if he bypassed
Congress and enacted
gun-control legislation by
executive order.
Scientists are once again
reporting alarmingly high
methane emissions from an
oil and gas field,
underscoring questions about
the environmental benefits
of the boom in natural-gas
production that is
transforming the US energy
system.
The blistering sun that
beats down on Fuentes de
Andalucía, southern Spain,
can make for a pretty torrid
working environment. But
even the most scorching
midsummer rays are not hot
enough for the molten salt
that forms the lifeblood of
the Gemasolar power tower
plant there.
Gemasolar is
famous for being the first
CSP plant in the world that
can provide round-the-clock
solar power, thanks to a
thermal energy storage tank
that can feed the turbine
for up to 15 hours after the
sun has set. It does this by
heating molten salt from
270ºC up to around 565ºC.
The salt’s heat can be used
in place sunlight for many
hours before it cools, but
there is a catch: if its
temperature drops below
240ºC, it will freeze.
Over the past year, the
stationary fuel cell
industry has experienced
healthy growth due to a
surge in U.S. and foreign
government interest in
reliable and resilient
energy sources. The sector
is now at a point where, if
all government policy
relevant to stationary fuel
cells was carried out, the
global market potential
would surpass three
gigawatts (GW) in 2013, and
increasing to more than 50
GW by 2020. According to a
new report from Pike
Research,...
NASA has successfully
launched two Radiation Belt
Storm Probes into Earth's
orbit to start a two-year
mission to study the two
giant donuts of plasma
trapped in radiation
surrounding the planet.
Just 96 days since their
launch, NASA's twin Van
Allen Probes have already
provided new insights into
the structure and behavior
of the radiation belts that
surround Earth, giving
scientists a clearer
understanding about the
fundamental physical
properties of these regions
more than half a century
after their discovery.
A National Council drawn
from eight federal agencies
signed on Thursday to shape
the Obama Administration’s
new 21st Century
Conservation Service Corps,
21CSC, a jobs program to put
youth and returning veterans
to work protecting and
restoring public lands,
waterways and cultural
sites.
Within a decade, more than
35 million buildings may be
generating their own solar
electricity (without
subsidies) at prices lower
than their utility offers,
sufficient to power almost
10% of the country.
On Jan. 13, 2013, at 2:24
a.m. EST, the sun erupted
with an Earth-directed
coronal mass ejection or
CME. Not to be confused with
a solar flare, a CME is a
solar phenomenon that can
send solar particles into
space and reach Earth one to
three days later.
The sustainability movement faces
formidable obstacles to a needed transition
to financial stability.
Until now, investment in renewable energy
has depended on subsidies from the federal
and state governments. But subsidies are not
always available, and that makes business
models that count on them unreliable for
providing renewable energy, yet good for
losing taxpayer and investor money.
Meanwhile, treating renewable energy
investment as a sale of goods to the utility
companies - in effect, a commodity
transaction - introduces unneeded risk and
volatility.
President Barack Obama
signed legislation on
Thursday that gives him and
former President George W.
Bush lifetime Secret Service
Protection.
The
Former Presidents Protection
Act reverses a law from 1994
that says presidents are
only protected for 10 years
after leaving office.
President Obama said on
Monday that he hasn't ruled
out executive action to make
new regulations against
guns.
"I'm confident
that there are some steps we
could take that don't
require legislation, that
are within my power," Obama
said at a White House press
conference.
In 2003, Ontario's
government made a decision
to stop burning coal. Since
that time, Ontario has cut
its use of coal by nearly 90
percent, and more than 80
percent of its power
generation comes from water,
nuclear, and renewables.
Oracle Corp. issued a patch
for a flaw in its Java
software that caught the
attention of the U.S.
Department of Homeland
Security -- but security
experts warn that computer
users aren't out of the
woods yet.
Large amounts of ozone —
around 50% more than
predicted by the world’s
state-of-the-art climate
models — are being destroyed
in the lower atmosphere over
the tropical Atlantic Ocean.
A team of scientists from
the National Center for
Atmospheric Science and the
Universities of York and
Leeds made the discovery,
which is significant because
ozone in the lower
atmosphere acts as a
greenhouse gas and its
destruction also leads to
the removal of the third
most abundant greenhouse
gas; methane.
The government reports that
consumer prices rose 1.8
percent in the year through
November. But don’t believe
that hype, says Peter
Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific
Capital.
“The CPI
[consumer price index] isn’t
an accurate measure of
inflation,” he tells Yahoo.
“It’s sheer
propaganda. Prices are
rising at a much more rapid
rate than the CPI would
suggest.”
A storm moving up the Mississippi River
valley will help replenish the river, low in
parts from drought, and ease concerns that
shipping could be halted along a shallow
stretch from St. Louis to Cairo, Illinois.
Shipping groups had warned as recently as
last week of an effective closure of the
river along that busy stretch, through which
billions of dollars of grain, coal,
fertilizer and other commodities flow every
year.
Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid and other Democratic
leaders told President
Barack Obama on Friday to
consider side-stepping
Congress if no agreement
could be reached next month
on raising the nation’s
$16.4 trillion debt ceiling.
There are currently 6
numbered sunspot regions on
the disk. Solar
activity is expected to be
low levels with moderate
levels likely on days one,
two, and three (15 Jan, 16
Jan, 17 Jan).
-
Your body is designed to detoxify
mercury and other heavy metals. An
impaired metabolism can lead to mercury
toxicity
-
Your two principle sources of mercury
exposure are inorganic mercury from
dental amalgams and methylmercury from
seafood consumption; these two types of
mercury differ in their toxicity levels,
biological effects and detoxification
pathways
Inexpensive natural gas is
not only altering the
traditionally favorable
dispatch position of
coal-fired power but even
challenging the economics of
solar and wind power.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio is
developing a wide-ranging
immigration reform plan —
including steps to give more
than 12 million illegals
currently in the U.S. legal
status — in an effort to
seize the initiative on a
contentious issue that polls
show is hurting the
Republican Party with the
nation’s rapidly growing
Hispanic population.
A judge Friday morning
rejected claims that the
Franklin County Commission
acted unlawfully by
approving a zoning amendment
that would enable Ameren
Missouri to develop a new
coal ash landfill next to
its Labadie power plant.
Ebola is an incredibly aggressive virus
that kills 90 percent of people it infects,
and it is often feared that its use as a
biological weapon could wipe out millions of
people—because it has no known cure. Now,
though, scientists are one step closer to
finding a solution, because they can now
successfully cure monkeys which contract the
virus.
There have been some suggested Ebola
cures in the past, but they had to be
administered within minutes of
infection—which is completely impractical.
The latest analysis of data
coming from NASA's Kepler
telescope has revealed that
nearly all the Sun-like
stars in our galaxy appear
to have planets orbiting
them, and that at least 17
percent of them – about one
in six – are hosting a
planet the size of our own
in close orbit.
Armed with a gun
and ready to shoot, a Shawnee woman defended
her home as man broke down her door. It
happened in broad daylight and she didn't
back down.
With the "appropriate
authorizations" from the US
Congress, the Obama
administration plans to have
an interim storage facility
by 2021 that would have an
initial focus on accepting
spent fuel from shut power
reactors, the US Department
of Energy said Friday in a
report.
-
Military cadets practicing
transcendental meditation (TM) twice
daily significantly reduced levels of
stress, anxiety and depression.
-
Positive changes, including improvements
in critical thinking, mental resilience,
and behavioral coping, were also noted
among the meditating cadets
-
Meditation acts as a form of “mental
exercise” that can help regulate your
attention and emotions, while improving
well-being.
-
New research suggests the beneficial
brain changes from meditation persist
even after the meditation session is
over, resulting in enduring beneficial
changes in mental function
Five coalitions representing
more than 150,000 diverse
small businesses nationwide
Friday asked the Obama
administration to proceed as
soon as possible with
greenhouse gas regulations
for fossil fuel-fired power
plants.
The adoption of U.S.
utility-scale photovoltaic
(PV) and concentrating solar
power (CSP) plants is
expected to accelerate
during the next decade,
according to research from
Frost & Sullivan. This will
move the technology forward
as a contender in a pool of
conventional forms of
electricity generation.
A businessman is hoping to build what
would be the area's largest solar farm on
privately owned land off Route 97 in North
Beverly.
The farm would feature 8,000 solar panels
on 8 acres of grassy land...
Nowhere is coal's effect more visible
than here at Illinois' largest coal-fired
power plant, where the train cars are
flipped upside down, tracks and all, to feed
boilers the size of skyscrapers.
Once reviled as one of the dirtiest coal
plants in the U.S., today the Baldwin plant
is a different kind of poster child.
This year is going to be a
good year for lawyers, which
means it will be a bad year
for everyone else.
Neither Congress nor the
Obama administration has
showed the least interest in
any form of litigation
reform. The Bar Associations
are consumed with diversity
and inclusion programs when
not pushing for more pro
bono work.
Afghanistan: Obama’s New
Exit Plan Jeopardizes
Stability
Iraq: Muqtada al-Sadr’s Bold
Power Play
Al-Qaeda in Sinai Growing
Stronger, Threatening Egypt,
Israel
Bonds: Five Themes for a
Turbulent Year
Egypt Might Ride Out Dire
Economic Crisis in 2013
Sunny, with a mild chance of catastrophe?
A massive solar storm, like the one that
knocked out radio communications all over
the U.S. in 1958, is coming, and this time
the devastation could total as much as $2
trillion, experts told FoxNews.com. Call it
the perfect solar storm.
An Arizona-based
environmental group is
challenging Placer County's
plans to build a small power
plant near Truckee that
would burn forest waste
wood, questioning whether
such biomass facilities
warrant their reputation as
producers of green energy.
Up to half of all the food produced
worldwide ends up going to waste due to poor
harvesting, storage and transport methods as
well as irresponsible retailer and consumer
behavior, a report said on Thursday.
The world produces about four billion
metric tons of food a year but 1.2 to 2
billion metric tons is not eaten, the study
by the London-based Institution of
Mechanical Engineers said.
For more than four decades,
the so-called
"oil-for-security" deal has
worked like this: Saudi
Arabia and other Middle
Eastern countries have
assured the US that they
will supply as much crude as
America wants to buy. In
exchange, the US military
has helped keep the peace in
the critically important but
volatile Persian Gulf region
-- a security presence that
has allowed those countries
to keep their oil exports
flowing.
The federal government has
rejected a new rule that
would have required
high-efficiency furnaces in
northern states, a victory
for critics who warned the
costly standard could
backfire and drive urban
homeowners to less efficient
heating methods.
The US trade deficit widened
to a larger than expected
$48.7 billion in November
2012 from October’s $42.1
billion (previously reported
as $42.2 billion) shortfall.
Market expectations were for
a much smaller $41.3 billion
deficit in November.
Exports rose by $1.7 billion
(1.0%) following an outsized
3.5% drop in October;
however, this was more than
offset by an $8.4 billion
(3.8%) jump in imports that
more than retraced a 2.1%
drop in the previous month.
Treasury yields have risen
at the start of the new year
but have since stalled. 1.9%
yield seems to be the
ceiling on the 10-year note
for now.
The White House has
officially responded to a
petition calling on the US
government to "begin a
construction of a Death Star
by 2016." Though the news
for proponents of space
fascism wasn't good, Paul
Shawcross, Chief of the
Science and Space Branch at
the White House Office of
Management and Budget, did
respond in the spirit of the
original petition…
Just as Saudi Arabia has
earned a vast income from
oil over the last century,
it could equally well earn a
similarly vast amount from
solar, spread over a much
longer period in the future.
The Kingdom is blessed with
an abundant supply of solar
potential. If the Saudis
were to use up each day’s
solar energy supply, or
12,425 TWh of electricity,
each day would provide a 72
year supply.
CES 2012 was overshadowed by
the looming threat of SOPA.
At the time, Congressmen Ron
Wyden and Darrell Issa met
with the tech industry to
drum up support for their
SOPA alternative – OPEN.
SOPA eventually was declared
officially dead late last
year, but Wyden is back at
CES 2013 with a laundry list
of proposed legislation that
could affect the tech
industry in profound ways.
January 11, 2013
Upwards of $350m for thorium reactor
research in China; space-based nuclear
power; and a sliver of hope that a
comprehensive US nuclear waste legislation
bill will be up for discussion by the year’s
end. 2013 looks like a year of technological
change and eventful government decision
making.
Just as East Berliners, before the Wall
was built, voted with their feet, fleeing
west, Americans are voting with their
checkbooks, paying hundreds and thousands of
dollars to buy the guns liberals loathe.
The reflexive response of the gun
controllers is to blame this on that
malevolent force, the gun lobby, at whose
apex is the NRA.
Industrial and medical accidents have
resulted in about 3,000 cases of acute
radiation syndrome with over 100 deaths over
the past 60 years. Far larger numbers are
possible in the future from major reactor
accidents or the use of dirty bombs. In the
aftermath of a major incident, the radiation
dosages of victims must be sorted out
quickly, so that suitable treatment can
begin as soon as possible.
Everywhere around the country, wind
energy developers are dusting off plans for
wind farms following the one-year renewal of
a federal tax credit as part of the "fiscal
cliff" bill.
A teacher at a high
school in California has been praised by
police for averting a serious shooting
incident.
The teacher and a campus supervisor
talked a gunman into putting down his weapon
after he had shot and injured one pupil at
Taft Union High School.
An unexpected rise in China's trade
surplus announced today had a material
impact on global markets. The increase in
trade activity shows that China's economy
may be picking up steam faster than
originally anticipated.
When Xi Jinping
became the new leader of China's Communist
Party two months ago, hopes were high for
reform in the giant nation. But despite what
appears to be sensitive handling of a strike
by journalists and a challenge to Beijing's
tight control of the press, signs of change
seem tentative.
California’s first AD-based Renewable
Natural Gas Fueling Station is also being
developed at the site by Atlas Disposal
Industries and is expected to open in the
spring 2013. Natural gas produced by
CleanWorld’s digestion system will be used
to fuel Atlas clean-fuel trucks, along with
clean-fuel vehicles from area jurisdictions
and agencies. Electricity to run the station
also will be generated by the digester
system – a first in the United States
A 2004 paper estimates that humanity
could stabilize rapidly rising annual carbon
emissions at 2004 levels by 2054 if it
embarked on seven massive campaigns that
would each prevent 25 billion tons of carbon
emissions over 5 decades; the options
included building a fleet of nuclear
reactors and ending tropical deforestation.
The authors dubbed each campaign a "wedge,"
after the angular shapes formed on a graph
used to illustrate the concept. Now, a new
study has offered a provocative update to
the saga. Colleagues call for a more
audacious plan, and calculate that at least
a whopping 19 wedges—and perhaps as many as
31—will be needed to stabilize and then
phase out carbon pollution.
UK electricity generation shifted further
from gas-fired power towards coal-fired
generation in 2012, a trend that looks set
to continue in 2013 as rising gas prices
erode the profits of combined cycle gas
turbine use -- allowing coal burn to soar in
line with falling fuel and emissions
allowance costs.
Following the sale of his television
network to Al Jazeera for half a billion
dollars, when combined with other
investments since leaving public service in
2000 for the private sector, Al Gore’s net
worth of at least $300 million makes him
richer than Mitt Romney.
As the US Presidential Election is now
behind us and 2013 is beginning, it is
critical that our country begin to focus on
solving problems. As one of this
generation's most pressing problems is
related to energy and sustainability, my
sincere hope is that the debate on this
topic leads us forward in a way that
benefits our economy, environment, and
security. Good debate, based on facts and
reality, will lead us to a better place.
Poor debate, based on fiction and myths,
will lead us nowhere. And going nowhere on
one of the most important challenges of this
generation is unacceptable.
Direct Energy, one of North America's
largest energy services providers, is
expanding the company's footprint in Arizona
with a new, comprehensive call center, which
will play an important role in the company's
growth.
A new study found that those who drink a
fair amount of sweetened sodas and fruit
drinks – whether diet or regular – have an
increased risk of depression. Java-drinkers,
on the other hand, have a slightly lower
risk of the blues.
"The Black Mountain solar farm joins our
growing portfolio of projects in Arizona,"
said Duke Energy Renewables President Greg
Wolf. "With Black Mountain now producing
electricity, Duke Energy has established a
solid presence in the state with 37 MW of
solar power in commercial operation. We're
pleased to be bringing clean, renewable
energy from the Black Mountain project to
Arizona homes and businesses."
The U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals has
denied a petition filed against the Nuclear
Regulatory Agency by three anti-nuclear
groups, ruling the agency was within the law
in denying them a hearing to challenge
NextEra Energy Seabrook's nuclear power
plant's application to extend its operating
license 20 years, from 2030 to 2050.
The US is by far the world's greatest user
of energy per capita in the world. Each
American uses about 87,000 kilowatt-hours
per year – that is twice as much as the
European Union (EU), the next closest
consumer! Understanding energy trends in
this country is extremely important for
investors who want to understand how the
energy landscape will look 10, 20 or 30
years from now.
ENSO-neutral conditions continued during
December 2012. Equatorial sea surface
temperature (SST) anomalies were positive in
the western Pacific, near zero in the
central Pacific, and slightly negative in
much of the eastern Pacific
E.ON Climate & Renewables (EC&R) North
America announced today it has more than
2,700 megawatts (MW) of nameplate capacity
in operation across its 18 wind farms
located in 5 states.
The company completed construction on
three projects in Texas and Indiana in 2012,
totaling approximately 500 MW:
The land will become part of the Salmon
River Division of the Silvio O. Conte
National Fish and Wildlife Refuge. With the
acquisition of a piece of the Connecticut
Yankee property, the Salmon River Division
now includes 416 acres of land in the state,
said Andrew French, a Massachusetts-based
project leader for the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service.
The Financial Industry Regulatory
Authority (FINRA) marked 2012 with
significant accomplishments in detecting
fraudulent activity, implementing
cross-market surveillance, increased
transparency of securities markets and
fulfilling its regulatory mandate to protect
investors, assessing $68 million in fines,
ordering a record $34 million in restitution
to harmed customers and taking measures to
ensure market integrity.
Fireflies ... they’ve allowed us to image
the bloodstream and they’ve inspired the
creation of a light that could run on waste.
Now, they’ve helped an international team of
scientists get over 50 percent more light
out of existing LED bulbs. The secret lies
in the insects’ scales.
“The measures are aimed at restarting
the solar sector
in France,” Batho said in a statement. They
will encourage manufacturing and seek to cut
an industry trade deficit that grew to 1.35
billion euros ($1.8 billion) in 2011, she
said.
Happy New Year! I’m ready for a fresh
start, what about you? I’m ready to see
decision makers from all sides of the
political spectrum step up and speak out
about the reality and risks of human-caused
climate change and finally commit themselves
to finding bipartisan solutions.
Share:
I'm tired of hearing that we can't
afford to shift to cleaner energy—it's just
not true.
Manufacturing orders were much weaker
than expected in November. After a
marginally smaller revised 3.8 percent jump
in October, orders dropped 1.8 percent on
the month and on a workday adjusted basis,
were 1.0 percent lower on the year.
... the new "libertarian network" (see
video) will broadcast from "showy new
offices" in New York City with a promise to
feature topics that no one else will do,
such as "episodes exposing the NSA for
turning America into a 'surveillance state,'
and warning that the UN 'want[s] your guns,'
both big issues in libertarian circles."
Google is continuing to search for
profitable green energy investments. Its
latest find is near Amarillo, Texas where it
invested $200 million in a wind plant that
generates 161 megawatts.
Coal shipments on the Great Lakes in 2012
fell to 25,347,709 short tons compared with
27,616,116 st in 2011, an 8.2% decline,
according to figures released Wednesday by
the Cleveland-based Lake Carriers'
Association.
The upgrades, identified in an audit that
was paid for through an energy block grant,
would mean $1.7 million worth of
improvements to lighting, ventilation, pool
pumps and other utilities in seven Greeley
buildings, said Joel Hemesath, Greeley's
director of Public Works.
American and Thai authorities may well
have jointly scooped up one of the world's
top 20 bank-hacking criminal masterminds,
someone who is part of a global
cyber-conspiracy to commit bank fraud to the
tune of $100 million. Or, the man arrested
in Bangkok on Sunday may simply be a
happy-go-lucky guy with a bunch of computer
equipment and an odd sense of humor.
The Republican majority on the House
Energy and Commerce Committee said in a Jan.
8 statement that Georgia Power’s recent
announcement of plans to retire 15 mostly
coal-fired units totaling over 2,000 MW is
the latest impact of the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency’s “War on Coal.”
-
Antibiotic-resistant disease is a major
threat to public health, and the primary
cause for this man-made epidemic is the
widespread misuse of antibiotics—both in
medicine and agriculture
-
Recent research shows children whose
mothers took antibiotics during their
pregnancy were more likely to develop
asthma. Children predisposed to asthma
were twice as likely to develop asthma
if their mother used antibiotics during
the third trimester, compared to those
whose mother did not use antibiotics
Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World starts
with filmmaker and narrator Cori Brackett's
poignant story about how she discovered
aspartame's ill effect on her health (when
she was diagnosed with M.S.). The film
includes interviews with an impressive list
of medical experts from across the U.S. and
documents the devastating health effects of
long-term aspartame use. A must-see movie
that can literally save your life.
Despite decades of study, scientists
remained unsure as to how insulin binds to
the insulin receptor on the surface of cells
to allow them to take up sugar from the
blood and transform it into energy. Now, a
definitive answer has now been found with a
team of scientists capturing the first
three-dimensional images of insulin
“docking” to its receptor.
Now that President Obama has nominated
Senator Chuck Hagel for Defense Secretary,
we will see who the real friends of Israel
are. Jews in New York State, in particular,
are very interested in whether their Senator
-- Chuck Schumer -- has the moxie to stand
up against the Hagel nomination.
The obstacles blocking the construction
of the Keystone XL pipeline are falling
one-by-one. The presidential encounter was
huge. But the next biggest would be that of
the state of Nebraska, which had put the
brakes on the original deal.
OPEC had a relatively easy 2012 with oil
prices holding above the $100/barrel mark
despite a still fragile global economy.
There were no major public disagreements
over output policy between members, unlike
in 2011 when the cartel’s June conference
ended without an agreement on production
levels and with Saudi Arabian oil minister
Ali Naimi describing the meeting as the
worst ever.
Mali's president
asked France for help Thursday to counter an
offensive by extremist and terrorist groups
who control the northern half of the country
and are heading south.
Graphene oxide can quickly remove
radioactive material from contaminated
water, U.S. and Russian researchers say
they've discovered.
Insects are like the Borg from Star
Trek. As soon as you find something
that kills them, they adapt ... and suddenly
they're stronger and more resistant than
ever. In despair, we fork over billions of
dollars year after year to giant
multinational chemical companies in exchange
for their promises that this
insecticide is the one that will do the
trick, once and for all.
Try to poison a bug, and you're
the one who gets hurt
“CPAs in communities large and small
and from coast to coast are increasingly
troubled by the government’s inability to
come to grips with this economic
calamity-in-the-making”
Fermi is picking up crazy charged
particles via electromagnetic waves - and
it's detecting so many of them Fermi has
been able to produce the first all-sky map
of the very high energy universe.
The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is a
space observatory being used to perform
gamma-ray astronomy observations from low
Earth orbit.
The rules being unveiled Thursday by the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau impose
a range of obligations and restrictions on
lenders, including bans on risky
“interest-only” and “no documentation” loans
that helped inflate the housing bubble.
Some BIG solar news from New York! Today, in
his 2013 State of the State, Governor Andrew
Cuomo made some significant solar proposals.
Proposals that will work to fundamentally
transform the state's solar market while
broadening access to solar, enabling the
industry to scale and reducing the cost.
eyond firearms restrictions, Biden has
said the panel will examine ways to boost
mental-health programs in schools and steps
to alter a culture in the U.S. that
glamorizes guns and violence.
Other
recommendations to the Biden group include
making gun-trafficking a felony, getting the
Justice Department to prosecute people
caught lying on gun background-check forms
and ordering federal agencies to send data
to the National Gun Background Check
Database.
Some steps could be taken
through executive action, without the
approval of Congress,
A man was shielding his infant son when
he shot another man who had just robbed him
Monday night on the Hilltop, police say.
The failure of a PPL Electric Utilities
underground power line produced a spark,
igniting an unknown pocket of gas that
exploded and shook a downtown Scranton
intersection last month, a spokesman for the
utility said Wednesday.
Searches for flammable gas since the Dec.
28 blast turned up nothing, PPL spokesman
Rich Beasley said. UGI Utilities found no
traces of natural gas from its lines and PPL
monitors found no other gas afterward
either, Beasley said.
Solar activity has been at low levels for
the past 24 hours. The largest solar event
of the period was a C8 event observed at.
There are currently 8 numbered sunspot
regions on the disk. increasing chance
for an M-class flare. Geophysical
Activity Forecast: The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet levels for the next
three days
Researchers from Massachusetts Eye and
Ear and Harvard Medical School have been
able to stimulate resident auditory hair
cells to become new ones, resulting in
partial hearing recovery in mice whose
hearing has been damaged by noise trauma.
The laser
weapons system can cut through a steel
girder
A laser weapons system that can shoot down
two drones at a distance of over a mile has
been demonstrated by Rheinmetall Defence.
Last week's passage of the American
Taxpayers Relief Act may have settled the
fight between Democrats and Republicans over
changes in the country's tax code. But it
simply provides a 2-month reprieve for
resolving the spending side of the crisis, a
hiatus that leaves the status of thousands
of federal programs up in the air. In the
next few months, Congress and the Obama
administration must decide whether to
prevent a blunt ax known as sequestration
from lopping tens of billions of dollars
from all discretionary government spending
in the current fiscal year, including
research.
Production from wells in Shell's
ultra-deepwater Perdido Hub in the US Gulf
of Mexico is now reaching over 115,000 b/d
of oil equivalent, nearing total capacity,
Shell Oil President Marvin Odum said
Wednesday.
"While Hurricane Sandy generated
record-breaking storm surges, Oyster Creek
Generating Station is a robust and
well-fortified facility, designed to
withstand such events," D'Ambrosio said
Tuesday.
Environmentalists disagreed with Martin's
conclusion.
"I beg to differ that everything went as
planned," said Janet Tauro of Grandmothers,
Mothers, and More for Energy Safety, or
GRAMMES. She is also the chairwoman of the
board of directors of NJ Environmental
Federation.
-
Younger people are increasingly at risk
of stroke, according to new research
showing the rate of strokes among those
younger than 55 nearly doubled between
1993 and 2005
-
In 1993, 20- to 54-year-olds accounted
for 13 percent of strokes; in 2005, the
rate had risen to 19 percent
Each January, CBO prepares “baseline”
budget projections spanning the next 10
years. Those projections are not a forecast
of future events; rather, they are intended
to provide a benchmark against which
potential policy changes can be measured.
Therefore, as specified in law, those
projections generally incorporate the
assumption that current laws are
implemented.
I’ll bet you’re sick of reading and
hearing about gun control by now.
To be
honest, I'm with you, but maybe for
different reasons…
Some folks will
admit that they are just annoyed by the
constant
rhetoric from the news media.
Others will say that they care more
about
other issues like the economy. As for me, I
am tired of the gun
control debate for
one reason:
I don’t believe our
right to bear arms should be up for debate
at all!
New evidence shows that both apple cider
and red wine vinegars, which are made from
whole apples and red grapes, may help you
to:
- Fight fat
- Enhance your
immune system
- Lower blood
pressure
- Lower risk
of heart disease
- Prevent
cancer
- Combat acid
reflux
- Cure
irritable bowel syndrome
- Relieve the
pain of shingles
- Slow the
aging process
- and more
Egypt’s Situation in 2013 'Very Chaotic
and Very Dangerous'
Syria: Assad Speech Reflects Regime
Confidence
Truce Between Sudan and South Sudan
Unlikely to Hold
Pentagon: Huge Increase in Attempts to
Steal US Defense Tech
North Korea: Nothing New in Kim Jong Un
Remarks
...
Three new power plants officially began
serving North
Carolina customers at the end of
2012, representing a combined investment of
nearly $3.65 billion and marking another
significant milestone in Duke Energy's
commitment to meet electricity needs with
advanced, cleaner generation.
The U.S. military's drones – or Unmanned
Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) – were probably the
most talked about robots of 2012. Every
other week it seemed there was some story or
other that grabbed headlines around the
world, giving them a rather nasty
reputation. However, robotics technology is
about much more than just killing machines
and here are ten noteworthy examples from
the past year that prove it.
Shifting
alliances, changing roles, unpredictable
weather, and one noteworthy automobile—this
year’s energy landscape included familiar
players but some unanticipated outcomes.
A modest 2013 increase in global oil
demand will be narrowly outstripped by
rising non-OPEC supply, leaving the call on
OPEC crude flat to declining, UAE OPEC
governor Ali Yabhouni said Wednesday.
Addressing the Gulf Intelligence UAE
Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi, he forecast
global oil demand would rise by 800,000 b/d
year-on-year, compared with a 900,000 b/d
increase in non-OPEC supply.
An electronics recycling company and its
two top executives were convicted of lying
to customers, saying they were recycling
hazardous components responsibly while they
sent items to developing countries.
Freddie Mac (OTCBB: FMCC) yesterday
released the results of its Primary Mortgage
Market Survey® (PMMS), showing fixed
mortgage rates moving higher following
December's employment report. The 30-year
fixed averaged 3.40 percent, its highest
reading in eight weeks. The all-time record
low for the average 30-year fixed was 3.31
percent set November 21, 2012.
The continuing new paradigm in the
relationship among various streams of US
crudes, and between crude and natural gas,
is logically pulling in its next
rearrangement: propane.
Recent changes in the Environmental
Protection Agency’s (EPA) surface water
treatment rules mandate, among other things,
more aggressive monitoring and control of
various pathogens, notably including
Cryptosporidium. That microbe, which can
cause severe illness or death, is highly
resistant to chlorine-based disinfection
practices.
Visions of a hydrogen economy are no
closer now than they were decades ago,
according to Lux Research, with hydrogen
fuel cells turning a modest $3 billion
market of about 5.9 GW in 2030.
Despite some setbacks in the last five
years, waste-to-energy (WtE) is predicted to
make a comeback and are an increasing source
of America's renewable power.
The WtE industry struggled in the latter
part of the last century due to economic
uncertainty and regulatory conditions that
made substitute landfills and recycling
facilities more attractive waste disposal
options, causing some firms to struggle with
profitability and close facilities.
In 2011, Global Water Intelligence
estimated a global market size of US$316
billion, of which approximately US$203
billion is accounted for by industrial and
utility water-related expenditures,
(excluding energy and labor).
Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd. (YGE)
says its preliminary tally of module
shipments in 2012 exceeded 2.2 gigawatts
(GW), a record high for the company, roughly
a 37% increase from the ~1.6 GW it shipped
in 2011. 4Q12 results aren't due until late
February 2013, but Yingli now says
preliminary data suggests 4Q12 shipments
also achieved a new record.
[Editor: Thank you all for
your kind responses. It does seem that
my work means something to you. I,
therefore, will continue publishing my
ENERGY NEWS for as long as I can. ]