By Mike Robbins
Hydrogen -- Star Gas, Everywhere, Yet Unseen. Sunlight is its Child.
(Haiku by Stephen Wetlesen)
October 29, 2013
Police have foiled what they
believe is the first attempt
in Britain to manufacture
guns using a 3D printer.
Officers uncovered
components including a
trigger mechanism and a
magazine capable of holding
bullets during a raid on a
property in Manchester.
Germany is racing past 20
percent renewable energy on
its electricity grid, but
news stories stridently warn
that this new wind and solar
power is costing "billions."
But often left out (or
buried far from the lede) is
the overwhelming popularity
of the country's relentless
focus on energy change.
How can a supposedly
expensive effort to clean up
the energy supply be so
popular?
Prepping is a very
individualized endeavor. A
lot of how you prep has to
do with the disasters that
you think are likely to come
your way. That varies from
region to region and based
upon the individual’s
knowledge and concerns. Some
are very concerned about
specific cataclysmic events
that the rest of us don’t
give any thought to. Based
on that concern, they might
put effort into things that
don’t make sense to you and
me.
Ocean acidification due to
excessive release of carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere
is threatening to produce
large-scale changes to the
marine ecosystem affecting
all levels of the food
chain, a University of B.C.
marine biologist warned
Friday.
Proposed: By detonating a
25-km radius neutron bomb at
the Fukushima plant, it
would turn off the nuclear
reactions taking place,
while also neutralizing the
radiation emitting from
radioactive particles that
have been emitted within
that radius. NASA nuclear
physicist says "not".
The fish live in an
enclosure in the bottom of
the system, where they poop
on a regular basis. A pump
continuously carries that
waste-laden water up into
the top section, where it
serves as a fertilizer for
the plants. The plants'
growing medium mechanically
filters particles out of the
water, while bacteria living
in that medium help
neutralize accumulated
ammonia and other
fish-unfriendly nasties. As
a result, when the water
flows back down from the
biofilter to the fish, it's
been cleaned up.
The earth's climate is
changing. Temperatures are
trending higher. Scientists
want to know if this trend
is part of a natural cycle,
augmented by man's use of
fossil fuels. The Arctic
region is a good place to
look for clues.
Average summer
temperatures in the Eastern
Canadian Arctic during the
last 100 years are higher
now than during any century
in the past 44,000 years and
perhaps as long ago as
120,000 years, says a new
University of Colorado
Boulder study.
Another 68,000 Home
Affordable Refinance Program
(HARP) mortgages closed in
August, putting the
four-year-old refinance
program on pace to close
more than one million loans
in 2013 for the second
straight year.
However, the program
which was once touted for
"underwater homeowners" is
now decidedly less-so. As
home values rise nationwide,
the need for HARP loans at
ultra-high LTVs is
dwindling. It's a program
and product shift which
could hasten the launch of
HARP 3.0.
About 4 million barrels of
spilled oil, as much as BP's
Gulf of Mexico spill, is
flowing into the Arctic
Ocean every year, Greenpeace
says...
Attention is now focused on
the Greenpeace
activists—who were arrested
last month by Coast Guard
agents for trying to hang a
protest banner on an Arctic
Ocean oil platform—and
whether they will languish
in prison for up to 15 years
each on dubious piracy
charges.
Microgrids are emerging as a
credible threat to the
dominance of America’s
100-year-old-plus utility
monopoly. The small-scale
versions of centralized
power systems, once just
used against blackouts, are
now gaining thousands of
customers as homeowners in
states with high power costs
turn to them as a way to
manage rooftop solar
systems, cut electricity
bills and, in some cases,
say goodbye to their power
companies.
Thanks to near record low
prices for wind-generated
electricity, U.S. wind
development is once more
expanding, a national wind
energy group reports.
Construction of new wind
farms dropped dramatically
the first half of this year
following expiration of a
federal tax credit, but
activity is once more
picking up and industry
watchers expect it to
continue at a strong pace
through next year.
Here is a radical
proposal for the budget
conference committee tasked
with working out a spending
agreement: don’t impose pain
on the American people just
because Washington refuses
to do the hard work of
managing itself responsibly.
The current framework for
a so-called “deal” is
lose-lose. Republicans will
agree to let Democrats raise
taxes if Democrats will
agree to let Republicans cut
entitlements. Both sides are
talking about how Washington
can impose pain on the
American people and nobody
is talking about
fundamentally rethinking
Washington.
U.S. energy-related carbon
dioxide emissions declined
3.8 percent in 2012,
according to research from
the U.S. Energy Information
Administration (EIA), with
emissions at their lowest
level since 1994 and more
than 12 percent below the
recent 2007 peak.
There’s something very
special about bioluminescent
algae. They soak up
sunlight, absorb carbon
dioxide, and in return,
breathe out oxygen while
emitting a soft fluorescent
glow. In essence, it’s
nature’s all-in-one version
of a solar panel, a carbon
sink and a light bulb.
Those of us with a
background in finance tend
to think of risk management
in fairly conventional
terms: mitigate, accept,
avoid and transfer risks
according to your
priorities. This approach
works for many types of
risk. But when it comes to
cybersecurity in today�s
utility industry, the nature
of current threats is
changing the way we think
about assessing, managing
and living with risk. In the
utility industry in the
past, when we thought about
security, we tended to think
about compliance, which
meant taking the steps
necessary to meet regulatory
requirements. However, the
nature of today's
cybersecurity threats
threats that could attack,
damage, or gain unauthorized
access to networks,
facilities, data or programs
means the costs of not being
prepared far outweigh the
cost of doing more than
what's required.
-
A legally binding
international treaty to
control the use of toxic
mercury has been signed
into action
-
The treaty is being
hailed as marking the
beginning of the end for
dental amalgam around
the world, as it
mandates that each
nation phase down
amalgam use
-
Each country must do at
least two phase down
steps, such as promoting
the use of mercury-free
alternatives to amalgam,
changing dental
insurance to favor
mercury-free fillings,
and re-training dentists
-
The treaty was signed in
Minamata, Japan, a city
where hundreds of
residents have died, and
thousands have become
ill, due to excessive
mercury poisoning
-
The treaty also requires
the phasing out of many
other mercury-containing
products, including
thermometers, by 2020
The nation's energy
infrastructure is under
attack. The destruction of
the utilities that provide
electricity or its ability
to refine oil is critical to
crippling a nation's ability
to function, based on the
universal use of
hydrocarbons such as coal,
natural gas, and oil.
If an enemy was doing
this to America we would go
to war against it, but this
is being done and the enemy
is the government on which
we depend to ensure the
nation has the energy it
needs to function and grow.
Leading the war on America
has been the Environmental
Protection Agency, but it is
joined by the Department of
Energy, the Department of
the Interior, and other
agencies.
"With reservoir levels again
dropping this year, we
expect water conservation
efforts to date to result in
reduced usage and,
therefore, sales revenue in
this year's financial
results," said Doug Scott,
Fitch managing director. "In
addition, meteorological
models predict the drought
to persist or worsen in many
areas of Texas over the
coming months. Retailers'
ability to offset declining
revenues will be key to
maintaining financial
flexibility."
Earthjustice and the Sierra
Club filed a federal lawsuit
today against the
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) for not
answering Sierra Club
petitions regarding air
pollution from seven
coal-burning power plants in
Pennsylvania, according to
an Earthjustice press
release.
The
leaders of a movement for
self-rule in oil-rich
eastern Libyan unilaterally
announced Thursday the
formation of a shadow
government, the latest
challenge to the weakened
central authority.
The
announcement came several
months after the movement,
backed by some militias and
local tribes, declared the
eastern half of Libya to be
an autonomous state, named
Barqa, claiming broad
self-rule powers and control
over resources.
The act that required
electric utilities to invest
in new renewable-energy
resources is costing
customers less than what the
naysayers warned, writes
guest columnist David
Danner.
The U.S. Department of
Energy's (DOE)
first-of-its-kind
international energy storage
database has surpassed 420
documented energy storage
projects from around the
world. The database provides
free, up-to-date information
on grid-connected energy
storage projects and
relevant state and federal
policies. It is funded
through DOE's Sandia
National Laboratories, and
has been operating since
January 2012.
Today, the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) released its
third year of greenhouse gas
data detailing carbon
pollution emissions and
trends broken down by
industrial sector,
greenhouse gas, geographic
region, and individual
facility. The data, required
to be collected annually by
Congress, highlight a
decrease in greenhouse gas
emissions as more utilities
switch to cleaner burning
natural gas.
-
According to new study,
40 years of nutrition
research funded by the
Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention
(CDC) may be invalid,
due to serious flaws in
nutritional data
collection
-
Caloric intake has been
under reported for the
past four decades, and
the rise in obesity
isn’t necessarily a side
effect of increasing
calorie consumption—it
might just be an
artifact of slight
improvements in the
reporting, the
researchers say
-
Not addressed in this
study is the fact that
the entire “calorie
in/calorie out”
hypothesis is a myth as
well. You don’t get fat
because you eat too many
calories. You gain
weight because you eat
the wrong kind of
calories
-
If you want to lose
weight and, more
importantly, improve
your health, then you
must replace “empty”
calories from processed,
denatured foods with
nutrients from real,
whole foods—especially
healthful fats
-
Research has linked
fluoride in drinking
water with sperm damage
and other threats to
reproductive health
-
Fluoride may have
damaging effects on the
process by which sperm
are attracted toward an
egg (sperm chemotaxis),
which plays a critical
role in allowing
fertilization to occur
-
Sixty animal studies
have found that fluoride
adversely impacts the
male reproductive system
-
Clean pure water is a
prerequisite for optimal
health. Industrial
chemicals, drugs and
other toxic additives
like fluoride really
have no place in our
water supplies
Enrollment figures from
state ObamaCare exchanges
are revealing a pattern that
will alter fundamentally the
terms of the debate over
Obama's signature health
insurance program.
When it was proposed,
considered, and enacted, it
was seen as a program
requiring everybody to buy
private insurance on health
exchanges or face a fine.
Those already covered with
"affordable" and
sufficiently comprehensive
health care policies were
exempt from the mandate.
And, oh yes, for
the poor, the bill expanded
the Medicaid program
substantially.
Scientists in China said
Thursday they had designed a
“smart” window that can both
save and generate energy,
and may ultimately reduce
heating and cooling costs
for buildings.
While allowing us to feel
close to the outside world,
windows cause heat to escape
from buildings in winter and
let the Sun’s unwanted rays
enter in summer.
This has sparked a quest
for “smart” windows that can
adapt to weather conditions
outside.
Courts, councils, and voters
across North America are
weighing in on genetically
modified (GM) crops this
month.
-
On November 5,
Washington State will
cast their votes for the
people's initiative 522,
"The People's Right to
Know Genetically
Engineered Food Act."
Your support is urgently
needed
-
Attorney General Bob
Ferguson has filed suit
against the GMA in
Thurston County Superior
Court on behalf of the
State of Washington,
alleging the association
violated the state’s
campaign disclosure laws
-
Ferguson alleges the GMA
illegally collected and
spent more than $7
million on the No On
Initiative 522 campaign,
while hiding the
identity of its
contributors in order to
shield them from
consumer backlash
-
The lawsuit forced GMA
to establish a political
committee, aptly named
Grocery Manufacturers
Association Against
I-522. A list of the
financial donors has now
been disclosed to the
Public Disclosure
Commission
-
Biotech are now trying
to find a way to label
that will still permit
them to exist and make a
profit. Pushing for
federal labeling is one
part of the plan to
dilute the value of the
label
Besieged by the Obama
administration and its host
of new environmental
regulations, the U.S. coal
industry is beginning to
fight back.
Thousands of miners and
their families will descend
on Washington on Tuesday for
the "Count on Coal" rally,
bringing with them a simple
message for the
Environmental Protection
Agency and other arms of the
federal government that seem
intent on relegating the
fuel to the ash pile of
history.
The amount of new
electric generating capacity
installed during the first
nine months of 2013 is
lagging well behind the pace
set in 2012, according to
figures released recently by
the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission
(FERC).
Capacity installation for
January through September of
2013 is 10,717 MW, compared
to 14,217 MW installed
through September 2012,
according to the Energy
Infrastructure Update for
September issued by FERC’s
Office of Energy Projects.
At least 88 people were
killed and 203 more were
wounded in a series of
coordinated bombings in
Baghdad and other bloodshed.
Mosul suffered a series of
apparently unrelated
attacks, while other towns
experienced the usual
background violence.
I
WAS
a regular patron of my local
Buffalo Wild Wings for
several years. That is until
they posted a sign
banning guns on their
premises. As you can
imagine, I saw that sign and
turned right back around. I
never made it inside.
The operator of Japan's
wrecked Fukushima nuclear
plant said on Saturday there
was no damage or spike in
radiation levels at the
station after a large
earthquake struck in the
ocean east of Japan,
triggering a small tsunami.
There were no immediate
reports of damage on land
from the quake, classified
as magnitude 7.1 by the
Japan Meteorological Agency,
which struck about 370 km
(230 miles) out to sea.
Earlier the agency said the
quake had a magnitude of
6.8.
Led by lithium-ion (Li-ion),
emerging battery
technologies used in the
backup and uninterruptible
power supply (UPS) markets
will grow six-fold from $143
million this year to $896
million in 2020, according
to Lux Research. Li-ion
batteries will account for a
bulk of this market,
reaching $553 million in
2020, and additionally
restoring demand-supply
balance in the Li-ion
market...
Japan's emergency agencies
declared a tsunami warning
for the area of Honshu.
The National Tsunami Warning
Center says there is no
tsunami danger for Hawaii,
Alaska, British Columbia,
Washington, Oregon and
California.
Malaysia is about to
require a higher
concentration of palm oil in
its biodiesel fuel blend,
government and industry and
sources said last week.
The new B7 biofuel blend
would increase the palm oil
component of biodiesel to
seven percent, up from the
current five percent.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy joined
top-elected officials from
seven other states this week
to clear the way for more
electric-car charging
stations and
alternative-fueling options
in Connecticut.
Just days before a recent
March Against Monsanto
protest that took place
globally on October 12,
Mexico, the geographical
birthplace of modern-day
corn, instituted a
regulatory ban on all
plantings of genetically
modified (GM) varieties of
this staple food crop. A
victory for food freedom and
agricultural integrity, the
announcement was made at a
press conference in Mexico
City on October 10, where
officials notified the
public and the press that
all GM corn plantings,
including pilot commercial
plantings, were to be
immediately suspended.
It's not possible to know
the severity of the next big
storm.
But Jersey Central Power
& Light's new president,
James V. Fakult, does know
one thing: "We are much
better prepared."
New Equation: Increase
Charged Particles
→ Decreased Magnetic Field
→ Increase Outer Core
Convection → Increase of
Mantle Plumes → Increase in
Earthquake and Volcanoes
→ Cools Mantle and Outer
Core → Return of Outer Core
Convection (Mitch Battros –
July 2012)
By the time the statue
was almost complete, near
the end of the 19th century,
the “California Scalp
Industry” had paid copy
million, at $50 to copy00
each, for the scalps of
Natives. The scalps were
said to be best accompanied
by the ears lest the bounty
hunters cheat and cut the
scalp into many pieces. What
would the Light of Safe
Harbor have said about that?
Or of the 12,000 children
taken from their families,
brought by train across the
country to the Carlisle
Indian Industrial School, to
be “detribalized.” Some
never saw home again. The
boarding school legacy still
haunts the reservations as
families try to mend the
broken link in their family
chain.
The head of the embattled
National Security Agency,
Gen. Keith Alexander, is
accusing journalists of
"selling" his agency's
documents and is calling for
an end to the steady stream
of public disclosures of
secrets snatched by former
contractor Edward Snowden.
"I think it’s wrong that
that newspaper reporters
have all these documents,
the 50,000—whatever they
have and are selling them
and giving them out as if
these—you know it just
doesn’t make sense,"
Alexander said in an
interview with the Defense
Department's "Armed With
Science" blog.
America’s National Security
Agency (NSA) has spied on
over 60 million telephone
calls made in Spain and 46
million in Italy in one
month alone, documents
leaked by Edward Snowden
show
Resolving the issue of
long-term nuclear waste
storage seems impermeable.
Yucca Mountain is alive, but
barely. Other ideas are
plausible, but remote.
Right now, used nuclear
fuel rods are cooled in
pools for up to five years
before they are stored in
above-ground
concrete-encased barrels.
That was to be a temporary
solution until a permanent
storage site was found.
Yucca Mountain was picked in
1987 and $12 billion later,
engineers have been unable
to prove that water would
not leach into the burial
site. That has forced
designers to keep developing
new barriers that have made
the project
cost-prohibitive.
The performance of the site
has been excellent. “There
has not been a bad sample
out of the system since it
was turned on over two years
ago,” said
WTI crude oil has
undergone a substantial
correction in the last few
days. What's going on?
1. Iran seems to be getting
ready to enter the market as
it prepares for sanctions to
be lifted.
2. Yesterday's employment
report points to weak
economic growth.
3. Related to the slower
growth expectations...
X1 event, X2 event.
There are currently
8 numbered sunspot regions
on the disk. The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on day one
(29 Oct), quiet levels on
day two (30 Oct) and quiet
to minor storm levels on day
three (31 Oct). Protons have
a chance of crossing
threshold on days one, two,
and three (29 Oct, 30 Oct,
31 Oct).
The United States
monitored the phone
conversations of 35 world
leaders according to
classified documents leaked
by fugitive whistleblower
Edward Snowden, Britain's
Guardian newspaper said on
Thursday.
Phone numbers were passed
on to the U.S. National
Security Agency (NSA) by an
official in another
government department,
according to the documents,
the Guardian said on its
website.
Any discussion of how to
move large volumes of US
shale gas to demand centers
should include not only
pipelines and trucks, but
also the nation's waterways,
Tom Ridge, a former
secretary of Homeland
Security, said Monday.
Developing inland ports,
such as those along the Ohio
River, is "a huge
opportunity," Ridge said at
the Platts Appalachian Oil
and Gas conference in
Pittsburgh. "If we look at
what natural gas can do for
the regional economy, what
we see now is just the tip
of the iceberg."
The small hilly town of
Pungesti in eastern Romania
could be sitting on vast
reserves of shale gas and
U.S. energy major Chevron
wants to find it.
But the people of
Pungesti want nothing to do
with it.
Though most of them live
off subsistence farming,
social aid and cash from
relatives working abroad,
they would rather stay poor
than run what they say is
the risk of ruining their
environment.
Solar, wind and even
natural gas will not be
enough to supplant carbon
dioxide-producing fossil
fuel power sources expected
to bring severe global
warming problems to the
planet by 2035, says a
Norwegian doctoral candidate
whose views have attracted
wide support.
Like most climate
scientists, Schalk Cloete
told the Tribune- Review, he
believes in global warming.
But the energy and process
engineering doctoral
candidate argues there's
little we can do to prevent
it before it gets much
worse.
The problem is economics,
human psychology and
technological limits,.
Due to rising sea levels,
storms will make it more
likely that the Port of Long
Beach's wharves will be
damaged, critical roads
submerged, and utilities
harmed, bringing activity at
one of the state's economic
hubs to a disruptive lurch,
experts say.
And to some extent, it's
inevitable...
Despite repeatedly
denouncing the CIA’s drone
campaign, top officials in
Pakistan’s government have
for years secretly endorsed
the program and routinely
received classified
briefings on strikes and
casualty counts, according
to top-secret CIA documents
and Pakistani diplomatic
memos obtained by The
Washington Post.
Any time we experience an
elevation in the free
radicals in our bodies, our
cells and tissues respond by
dramatically increasing
antioxidant defenses. But we
see a progressive decline in
this protective ability with
aging, so, people who are
middle-aged, and especially
those who are older, need to
eat many more foods that
contain antioxidants.
At least 24 people were
killed in shootings and
bombings across the country.
Another 54 were killed.
The worst attack took place
in Mosul.
Some big headlines are now
highlighting the fact that
carbon dioxide emissions are
falling in the United
States. Some even bigger
ones are going to be written
as to whether we should rely
on shale gas to do this job,
or whether this is creating
an even greater issue down
the road.
The area covered by gold
mining in the biologically
rich Madre De Dios region in
the Peruvian Amazon has
quadrupled in the years from
1999 to 2012, finds new
research published online
today.
For the first time,
researchers have been able
to map the true extent of
gold mining by combining
information from field
surveys with airborne
mapping and high-resolution
satellite monitoring.
Last week, an Arizona
Republic investigation
revealed that Arizona Public
Service (APS) repeatedly
lied about funneling money
to political organizations
to attack solar customers.
Now, two Arizona solar
organizations, the Arizona
Solar Energy Industries
Association (AriSEIA) and
The Alliance for Solar
Choice (TASC), are calling
for a thorough investigation
by the Arizona Corporation
Commission and Arizona
Attorney General's Office,
including an immediate
review of APS's political
spending and whether
ratepayers have been, or
will be asked to pay for
such efforts.
To say Anil Navkal is
passionate about solar power
would be an
understatement...
And if Navkal has his way,
by 2014 more than 100 homes
and businesses will be
getting their electricity
and/or hot water from the
sun.
Sitting on a rooftop,
soaking up sun, the humble
solar panel may not look
like a threat to a
multibillion-dollar industry.
But some electric utility
executives say it is. They
even have a name for the
nightmare scenario solar
could create - the
"death spiral."
Sonoma County in California
creates new power agency,
Sonoma Clean Power, that is
to source 70 percent of its
power from carbon-free
resources, with a total of
33 percent to come from
wind, geothermal, biomass
and small-hydro.
The country's unemployment
also dropped for the second
straight quarter. But
experts warn that the
majority of Spaniards will
not feel the improvement any
time soon.
Hurricane strength winds
battered northern Europe on
Monday, killing more than a
dozen people, cutting power
and forcing the cancellation
of hundreds of flights and
train journeys.
At least seven people
died in Germany while there
were four deaths in Britain
and fatalities in the
Netherlands, Denmark and
France as the storm brought
down trees, blew roofs off
houses and turned over
trucks, causing chaos across
much of the region.
Don’t write Big Solar off
yet. With the plunge in
photovoltaic panel prices,
US utilities that once
enthusiastically signed
deals for massive solar
power plants to be built in
the desert began to favor
small installations deployed
near cities that don’t
require the construction of
multi-billion-dollar new
transmission lines. But a
new report shows that
so-called utility-scale
solar—which supplies more
than 10 megawatts (MW) of
electricity from a central
power plant—hit a new record
in the third quarter of
2013.
At least 22 people - most of
them babies and toddlers -
are now believed to have
contracted polio in Syria,
the World Health
Organization has reported.
If confirmed, it would be
the first outbreak of the
disease there in 14 years.
Syria's Health Ministry
began an immunisation drive
on Thursday.
One year
ago, many educated Americans
knew very little about the
National Security Agency
(NSA) � that is, if they had
even heard of it. But thanks
to a man named Edward
Snowden, the entire nation
now knows about the NSA, and
what they know about it
isn’t good.
Of course, we know that
the NSA is spying on us, but
what we may not realize is
that the NSA’s actions are
just the tip of the iceberg
of federal surveillance.
Agriculture Secretary Tom
Vilsack today announced the
availability of $181 million
to develop commercial-scale
biorefineries or retrofit
existing facilities with
appropriate technology to
develop advanced biofuels.
The U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) remains
focused on carrying out its
mission, despite a time of
significant budget
uncertainty. Today's
announcement is one part of
the Department's efforts to
strengthen the rural
economy.
With damaging weather
becoming more frequent, Con
Edison is toughening its
system as part of a $1
billion plan to fortify
critical infrastructure and
has already completed
several improvements. Con
Edison has built more than a
mile of concrete flood walls
around stations and critical
equipment, and installed
more than 180 watertight
flood doors and barriers, as
well as installing 800
special float-check valves
to protect gas services from
floods.
Groundbreaking initiative is
forcing an investor rethink:
What's the value of fossil
fuel stocks if companies
must leave reserves in the
ground?
A well-heeled coalition of
investors is asking top
fossil fuel companies to
calculate the risks of
plowing billions into new
oil, gas and coal projects.
They fear that carbon
emission limits and slowing
demand will turn them into
bad investments that leave
investors worse off.
When ozone pollution
skyrocketed in the tiny town
of Boulder, Wyo., in 2008,
it was relatively easy to
identify the culprit as oil
and gas drilling, the only
major industry in the rural
area.
Today, a similar
situation in San Antonio,
Texas, will be more
difficult to resolve. The
city has violated federal
ozone standards dozens of
times since 2008, but with
so much industrial activity
in and around the
city—including the Eagle
Ford shale drilling boom
south of San Antonio—local
officials are waiting for
the results of a
state-funded study to
pinpoint the source of the
pollution.
Growth in U.S. solar has
been remarkable. As we've
reported, 8.9 gigawatts of
solar have been installed
through the first half of
2013 and the 10-gigawatt
threshold was crossed
recently. What's more,
three-quarters of U.S. solar
installations have happened
in the last 2.5 years.
Up until now, this demand
had been clustered in six
established state markets
(California, New Jersey,
Arizona, North Carolina,
Massachusetts, and Hawaii).
California alone deployed
846 megawatts in the first
half of 2013.
Even though the lengthy
outage is costing the
company as much as $450,000
a day in lost revenue—about
$90 million so far—Exxon is
proceeding slowly.
They've also been in the
national spotlight, as the
upheaval in tiny Mayflower,
Ark., has come to symbolize
the risks of aging and
overlooked oil pipelines,
especially when they're
hundreds of mile long and
carrying tar sands crude.
From Illinois through Texas,
many people who live along
the pipeline's route are now
worrying about whether or
when the ruptured line will
resume pumping oil through
858 miles of fields,
waterways, cities and
suburban backyards.
Most bracelets aren't likely
to alter your temperature
too much either way, but the
Wristify isn't most
bracelets. Developed by four
MIT engineering students,
the Wristify works on the
principle that heating or
cooling the skin on one part
of the body can make the
entire body feel warmer or
colder. By creating a
personal heating and cooling
device, the Wristify team
ultimately hopes to cut the
amount of energy currently
used to heat or cool entire
buildings.
October 25, 2013
In a recent poll by Gallup,
19% of Americans surveyed
said they trust our
government. The remaining
81% believe that today’s
government cannot be trusted
most of the time or ever.
You might be asking yourself
why Americans don’t trust
the government, but continue
to vote to grow it.
In the last few days,
coordinated attacks across
the western province of
Anbar have left a
significant number of
casualties, particularly
among security personnel. At
least 78 Iraqis were
killed and 53 more were
wounded.
The genome of a Siberian boy
who died 24,000 years ago
offers clues to the identity
of the people who first
settled the Americas. The
complete nuclear genome, the
oldest sequenced to date
from a modern human, shows
close ties to those of
today's Native Americans.
But the boy apparently
descended from people who
had lived in Europe or
western Asia. The finding
suggests that about a third
of the ancestry of today's
Native Americans can be
traced to "western Eurasia,"
with the other two-thirds
coming from eastern Asia.
South America holds great
potential for geothermal
energy, but barriers to
development leaves it
largely underdeveloped.
However some private
investors and development
banks are on the cusp of
unlocking the abundant
energy source.
U.S. institutional
fixed-income investors
struggling with recent
reductions in credit market
liquidity are seeking relief
in derivative products, but
finding they are a
less-than-perfect solution.
A new report, The
Great Transformation: A
Credit Liquidity Story,
from Greenwich Associates
suggests that while
liquidity in the corporate
bond market will never
return to its pre-crisis
state, market structure
changes and product
innovation will provide
investors with improved
access to credit market
exposure.
Coal contributes 60 percent
to India's power mix today;
solar is less than 1
percent. But what was a
factor-of-seven difference
between the cost of coal and
solar two years ago shrank
this summer to just a 1.8x
gap. Can solar catch up
within the next ten years?
The Left broadly
speaking--President Obama,
most of the news media,
left-wing interest groups,
Democrats--believes it sees
an opportunity to create a
wave election similar to
those of 1994, 2006, 2010
and retake majority control
of the House of
Representatives.
There could still be a
late surprise in the June
1-November 30 season, since
the cyclone that mushroomed
into Superstorm Sandy was
just revving up at this time
last year.
But so far, at least, it
has been one of the weakest
seasons since modern
record-keeping began about
half a century ago,..
Live ordnance training
exercises conducted by the
Australian Army last week
touched off a catastrophic
bushfire that has burned
more than 47,000 hectares of
bushland, a New South Wales
Rural Fire Service
investigation has
determined.
Nine countries in the
Black Sea region and
southeast Europe agreed on
Thursday to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions in
large power plants and oil
refineries by 2027 as part
of plans to forge closer
ties with the European
Union.
Aging coal-fired plants
dominate power generating
capacities in Albania,
Bosnia, Georgia, Kosovo,
Montenegro, Macedonia,
Moldavia, Serbia and Ukraine
which are all striving to
intensify energy market
cooperation with the EU.
The state has set a goal for
storing electricity, which
could mean better use of
wind, solar and other
intermittent sources of
power. ..
They could use various
technologies ? such as
rechargeable batteries,
compressed air or flywheels
? to store electricity in
times of surplus and use it
during high demand.
Air quality in cities is of
increasing concern to
China's stability-obsessed
leaders, anxious to douse
potential unrest as a more
affluent urban population
turns against a
growth-at-all-costs economic
model that has poisoned much
of the country's air, water
and soil.
Ten years ago, every city
between Detroit and Ottawa,
including New York, turned
dark in what became known as
the Northeast blackout of
2003, the most severe power
outage to ever occur in the
industrialized world. For
the next four days the lives
of 50 million Americans and
Canadians were turned upside
down, and, due to the
blackout, the lives of
eleven ended.
Wilson Pipestem is
reshaping the ‘R’ word
name-change discussion by
explaining why tradition
should not trump racial
sensitivities--especially
when it comes to Native
youth.
"A key political and policy
objective has to be
continuing reduction in our
oil dependence," Moniz said
in a speech at the Center
for Strategic and
International Studies. "So
even as we produce more oil,
we still need to be focused
on reducing our oil
dependence."
"The amount spilled was less
than 100 gallons containing
a very small amount of
tritium, triggering our
voluntary report to the NRC,
state and county officials
The governors of
California, New York and six
other states have agreed to
put 3.3 million
zero-emission vehicles on
the road within 12 years,
which they said will help
the environment and boost
the economy.
The states will start by
harmonizing building codes
to make it easier to
construct electric car
charging stations and will
consider financial
incentives to promote
zero-emission vehicles,
according to the agreement,
which was announced on
Thursday in Sacramento.
Two environmental groups
filed a federal lawsuit this
week against the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency for its failure to
respond to petitions
regarding air pollution from
seven coal-burning power
plants in Pennsylvania --
including FirstEnergy's
Bruce Mansfield plant in
Shippingport.
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) is
recognizing its 2013
WaterSense Partners of the
Year, including two partners
who received the first-ever
WaterSense Sustained
Excellence awards in
recognition of their
continuous high level of
support.
Today, the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) released its
third year of greenhouse gas
data detailing carbon
pollution emissions and
trends broken down by
industrial sector,
greenhouse gas, geographic
region, and individual
facility. The data, required
to be collected annually by
Congress, highlight a
decrease in greenhouse gas
emissions as more utilities
switch to cleaner burning
natural gas.
Effective immediately,
the start date HARP-eligible
loans must be on, or before,
May 31, 2009 where "start
date" is defined as the note
date -- the date on the
mortgage. Previously, HARP
was only available to
homeowners whose mortgages
were sold and securitized
on, or before, May 31, 2009.
It's a small change, but
one that brings the program
closer to HARP 3.
If you’ve ever been curious
about whether you’ve ever
been seen by a satellite,
there’s now an app for that.
Orbit Logic has just created
SpyMeSat, a mobile app
available for Apple devices
that alerts users when they
are within range of an image
or spy satellite that might
be photographing them.
The fossil fuel
industry is pouring lighter
fluid all over the renewable
energy sector both in the
United States and Europe,
saying that the subsidies
given to those power sources
are landing in the laps of
consumers. What oil, gas and
coal don’t mention, though,
is that they, too, have a
steady diet of government
fat.
... a new report
commissioned by ANH-USA
shows that the real threat
to the economy comes from
NOT
labeling GMO foods! The USA
actually lags behind 64
other countries in GMO
labeling—many of which
refuse to accept unlabeled
imports. We risk not being
able to trade and compete on
a global scale, which will
cost us jobs here at home.
Green Mountain Power (GMP)
has received the 2013
investor-owned Utility of
the Year Award from the
Solar Electric Power
Association (SEPA) presented
for its initiative
incorporating solar as a
cost-effective customer
solution and its decision to
make Rutland the Solar
Capital of New England. GMP
recently expanded its solar
goal in Rutland from 6.25 MW
of solar generation in 2017
to 10 MW by the end of 2015.
Scientists from Australia's
Commonwealth Scientific and
Industrial Research
Organisation (CSIRO) have
discovered that eucalyptus
trees in the Australian
outback are drawing up gold
particles from deep
underground through their
root system and depositing
the precious metal in their
leaves and branches. Rather
than being a new source of
"gold leaf," the discovery
could provide a cheaper,
more environmentally
friendly way to uncover
valuable gold ore deposits.
Documents from whistleblower
Edward Snowden, and
published by The
Guardian, indicate that
the NSA tapped the phones of
35 foreign leaders without
their knowledge or
permission. The revelation
comes on top of the existing
controversy surrounding taps
placed on the phones of
German Chancellor Angela
Merkel and Mexican President
Felipe Calderon.
From laptops to clothes and
almost everything
in-between, how do the goods
needed to power the world
get from one place to
another? Even in our modern,
speed-driven and globalized
economy, 90 percent of
everything still travels as
it did almost 500 years ago:
by ship. The shipping
industry carries necessities
like food and clothing all
over the world, and yet it’s
an industry that goes
largely ignored by people
outside of it.
"Because we use a different
technology, our solutions
are much more stable, have a
longer shelf-life, devices
have a much, much better
up-time, and the 'bleaching'
effect is achieved with a
neutral pH solution, so you
can actually use it without
the worry of ruining
clothing or furniture, etc."
Experimental results are
sometimes so paradoxical and
downright weird that they
open up never-imagined
possibilities�and force
researchers to rethink
previous notions. Just such
a finding surfaced in a
study that gave mice a drug
used to suppress the immune
system and found that it
bolstered the powers of an
influenza vaccine. The
drug's surprising impact on
the immune system may offer
a way to elicit more
effective antibody responses
from vaccines against myriad
other diseases.
Global chemical
contamination is a worldwide
concern affecting every
being on earth. Chemical
exposure, whether it is
through air, water, plants,
soil or our modern living
environment is unavoidable.
But certain chemicals and
compounds having Persistent,
Bioaccumulative, Toxic (PBT)
characteristics are more
dangerous to our environment
than others because of their
inability to break down
easily, are easily
transferred throughout all
forms of environmental
media, and posing risks to
human health and the
ecosystem due to their
toxicity at low
concentrations.
The UN’s
Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC)
recently released a report
strongly reinforcing the
link between humans and
global warming.
Additionally, it warned
that if significant changes
aren’t made to reduce carbon
emissions, global warming
will continue, spelling
disaster for the polar ice
caps, rising sea levels,
erratic heat spells and
changes in rain and climate
patterns.
The loss of fertility is a
slow-burning threat to crop
yields at a time when
importers are counting on
the world's No. 3 corn and
soybean supplier to increase
output to help meet the boom
in demand expected over the
decades ahead.
Keeping a jerry can of
gasoline in your car may
help if you run out of fuel,
but it's also highly
dangerous and is therefore
illegal in most places.
According to the Makers of
Magic Tank Emergency Fuel,
their product is the safe –
and legal – alternative to
packing a jug of gas.
German Chancellor Angela
Merkel complained to
President Barack Obama on
Wednesday after learning
that U.S. intelligence may
have targeted her mobile
phone, saying that would be
"a serious breach of trust"
if confirmed.
The Navajo Nation Council
voted to replace its
33-year-old energy policy on
Tuesday...
But getting the council to
vote on the energy policy
was not easy.
The state is going to have
to spend additional money in
the fight to keep a nuclear
waste repository out of
Nevada, but it's not known
how much more...
If Yucca is built,
Halstead's report said,
there would be one to two
trucks a week and 110
trainloads a year of nuclear
waste traveling within a
half mile of 95,000
residents and 34 hotels.
The real problem with
ObamaCare is not that its
launch has been plagued by
glitches, computer crashes
and blocked screens. These
superficial manifestations
of its incompetent
administration are not the
key problem the program
faces.
The lethal
threat to its future is that
nobody wants it or needs it.
The glitches have permitted
the administration to hide
the dismally low enrollment
figures behind assurances
that people wanted to sign
up but couldn't.
What class of drugs:
-
causes more deaths a
year than heroin and
cocaine combined;
-
accounts for two-thirds
of drug overdose
fatalities;
-
killed 16,000 Americans
in 2010 alone;
-
adds $72.5 billion a
year to the cost of US
healthcare from misuse;
and
-
according to the CDC,
has directly contributed
to a sharp rise in our
country’s suicide rate?
We’ll give you a hint:
they’re FDA-approved.
By the end of 2012, more
than 222,500 wind turbines
with an aggregated capacity
of approximately 281GW were
installed worldwide. Of
this, 44.9GW went up in
2012.
This newly installed
capacity represents an
increase of about 7%
compared to capacity added
in 2011. The world market
growth rate in terms of
cumulative capacity was
about 19%, down slightly on
the 21% registered in 2011.
The average growth rate over
the last five years remains
at an impressive 24.6%,
although this is down from
26.5% in 2011.
M9 event. There
are currently 6 numbered
sunspot regions on the disk.
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
minor storm levels on day
one (25 Oct) and quiet to
unsettled levels on days two
and three (26 Oct, 27 Oct).
Protons have a slight chance
of crossing threshold on day
one (25 Oct), have a slight
chance of crossing threshold
on day two (26 Oct) and have
a slight chance of crossing
threshold on day three (27
Oct).
U.S. regulators and
livestock producers have
failed to curb the use of
antibiotics in cattle, pigs
and poultry despite concerns
that excessive use in meat
production will reduce the
drugs' effectiveness in
humans, a panel of experts
said.
"Meaningful change is
unlikely in the future,"
concluded the 14-member
panel, assembled by Johns
Hopkins University, in a
report released on Tuesday
that quickly drew protests
from livestock industry
groups.
The city does not appear to
be as sensitive to Myrtle
Woldson's wishes. She's the
property owner who does not
want to sell the lot between
Seneca and Spring streets.
She's said no thank you to
Seattle's offer several
times.
Southern California Edison
(SCE) has submitted a
Request for Arbitration to
the International Chamber of
Commerce (ICC), which states
claims against Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries and
Mitsubishi Nuclear Energy
Systems for the
defective steam generators
Mitsubishi designed and
built for the San Onofre
nuclear plant.
Energy Information
Administration (EIA) data
show that 76% of what we pay
for gasoline is determined
by world crude oil prices;
12% is federal and state
taxes; 6% is refining; and
6% is marketing and
distribution. Global markets
set the price that refiners
pay for crude oil.
World prices are driven
by supply and demand, and
unstable global politics.
That means today’s prices
are significantly affected
by expectations and fears
about tomorrow.
A major factor is Asia’s
growing appetite for oil –
coupled with America’s
refusal to produce more of
its own petroleum.
Over the past two days, a
Dispatch investigation
showed how some "submeter"
companies use a lack of
regulation to make a profit
on the resale of electricity
to apartment and condominium
residents. The companies
charge premiums that are 5
to 40 percent higher than
regulated prices, often with
little disclosure.
A team of researchers at the
Vanderbilt University in
Nashville, Tennessee has
designed a supercapacitor
made primarily of silicon
that has shown much improved
power density over its
commercially available
alternatives. The advance
could allow for interesting
integration of battery
technology in everyday
electronics, from solar
cells to smartphones.
-
People who sleep nine
hours or more each night
have a more rapid
decline in their
cognitive function than
those who sleep between
six and eight hours
-
Too little sleep is also
dangerous; when study
participants cut their
sleep from 7.5 to 6.5
hours, there were
increases in activity in
the expression of genes
associated with
inflammation, immune
response excitability,
diabetes, cancer risk
and stress
-
Regular sleeping
patterns are also
important for kids, as
children with irregular
bedtimes have more
problems with learning
and behavior
-
The ‘magic’ sleep number
varies with each person;
sleep enough hours so
that your energy is
sustained through the
day without artificial
stimulation, with the
exception of a daytime
nap
Total world sales of
Building Energy Management
Systems (BEMS) in 2013 will
be $16.7 billion with an
installed value that will
grow to $23.14 billion by
2017, according to Memoori
Research
According to Frost &
Sullivan, South Africa is on
track to becoming one of the
fastest growing renewable
energy markets in the world.
The potential for renewable
energy (RE) generation in
South Africa is high, and
the successful execution of
the Renewable Energy
Independent Power Producer
Procurement Programme
(REIPPP) will stimulate
investments in large
utility-scale renewable
energy systems, driving the
growth of the country's
renewable energy industry,
Frost & Sullivan notes. The
REIPPP aims to generate
3,725 MW of the country's
total electricity from
renewable sources.
The Spectrum Solar Facility,
the largest tracking solar
plant acquired by Southern
Company subsidiary Southern
Power in partnership with
Turner Renewable Energy has
begun commercial operation.
The 30-megawatt (MW) solar
photovoltaic (PV)
installation located in
Clark County, Nevada,
utilizes tracking technology
that enables greater
operating efficiency by
optimally directing solar
panels to track the sun as
it moves across the sky.
A little amount of
appropriately prepared
powder is poured in water
polluted with phenol and
cellulose. A bit of the sun
and after fifteen minutes
harmful compounds disappear,
and the powder can be
filtered off and reused.
Sounds like a fairy tale?
Perhaps, but it is not
magic, only a masterly use
of chemistry and physics by
researchers from the
Institute of Physical
Chemistry of the Polish
Academy of Sciences in
Warsaw.
You see, over the past
decade, study after study
has shown that ONE radiation
treatment is all most folks
need to ease pain once
advanced cancer spreads to
their bones. But an
exhaustive review of
Medicare claims found that
half of patients were
getting 10 or more
treatments!
The Healthy Farmland
Diet is the first
economic analysis of its
kind to show how increasing
consumption of fruits and
vegetables would not only be
healthier for our bodies,
but also healthier for the
environment and local
economies. This report also
demonstrates how modest
government investments can
remove obstacles standing in
the way for consumers and
farmers to reach this goal.
Tucson Electric Power (TEP)
has received an
international award for
predictive maintenance at
the Springerville Generating
Station (SGS).
TEP received the Emerson
Process Experts 2013
Reliability Program of the
Year award for the use of
effective reliability and
maintenance practices that
saved the utility more than
$1.4 million in 2012 alone,
using technology to monitor
and identify equipment in
need of repair or
replacement.
US coal production totaled
about 19.1 million st in the
week that ended Saturday,
the Energy Information
Administration said
Thursday.
The
production estimate, based
on railcar loadings, is 1.5%
higher than the previous
week's estimate and 1.7%
above output in the
comparable week in 2012, the
agency said.
Under Secretary for Farm and
Foreign Agricultural
Services Michael Scuse
announced today that
conservation assistance is
available from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture
(USDA) for those affected by
the Atlas Blizzard that
swept through western South
Dakota earlier this month.
Scuse made the announcement
in Rapid City during a
meeting with western South
Dakota producers.
The US trade deficit,
released today following a
more than two-week delay due
to the partial federal
government shutdown, was a
smaller than expected $38.8
billion in August 2013
although it was up from a
downwardly revised $38.6
billion (previously reported
as $39.1 billion) shortfall
in July. Market expectations
had been for a $39.4 billion
deficit in August.
A doorstop of a report
arrived in inboxes this
morning. Not so subtly
called: “Wake up Before It
Is Too Late,” the United
Nations Conference on Trade
and Development new report
is a rallying cry for action
to move toward greater
sustainability in food and
farming—to ensure food
security in a changing
climate.
News today, adding to
headlines in the past few
weeks, underscores the
rising popularity of U.S.
residential solar (and
especially third-party
ownership). ..The past two
weeks have seen a flurry of
financing deals in U.S.
residential solar:
A 28-year-old woman said she
woke to someone ringing the
doorbell twice. When that
stopped, she heard someone
at the backdoor. Her
8-year-old and 2-year-old
daughters were still asleep,
so she grabbed her handgun
and went to investigate.
Freddie Mac (OTCQB:
FMCC) released
yesterday its U.S. Economic
and Housing Market Outlook
for October showing that the
federal government shutdown,
debt ceiling issues, and the
slowing economy -- including
the severely depressed level
of new home construction --
are slowing the housing
recovery heading into the
fourth quarter of the year.
Wind power could generate
up to 18% of the world's
electricity by 2050,
compared with 2.6% today,
according to new IEA
research.
The Technology Roadmap:
Wind Energy — 2013 Edition
finds that nearly 300
gigawatts of current wind
power worldwide must
increase eight- to ten-fold
to achieve the roadmap's
vision, with the more than
USD 78 billion in investment
in 2012 progressively
reaching USD 150 billion per
year.
According to XPrize, the
oceans are in deep crisis.
They are overfished,
polluted, and rising
atmospheric levels of carbon
dioxide are causing ocean
acidification. Worse,
current pH sensor technology
needed to monitor this are
too expensive, imprecise,
and unstable. In addition,
government cutbacks are
hampering efforts to meet
these challenges.
October 22, 2013
New research indicates that
preventing cancer cell
growth can be as simple as
eating the right foods.
Improve your nutrition
know-how. Fill up on the
following foods that starve
cancer.
With habitat destruction
trends and interaction with
climate change, things are
not looking good for the
Amazon rainforest. According
to a new study, the southern
portion of the Amazon
rainforest is at a much
higher risk of dieback due
to stronger seasonal drying
than projections made by the
climate models used in the
latest report by the
Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC).
One of the biggest
culprits? Drought.
Thundering across the
plains on horseback, along
the routes of two proposed
oil pipelines, Earth’s Army
has wound up its journey to
draw attention to not just
TransCanada’s Keystone XL
pipeline, but also a
lesser-known one being
proposed by Enbridge across
White Earth territory.
On Monday October 14,
while many across Turtle
Island were flocking to
malls in search of Columbus
Day sales, a group of riders
were on Day 2 of their
150-mile journey from the
Pine Ridge Reservation to
the Cheyenne River
Reservation in South Dakota,
tracing the approximate
route of the proposed
Keystone XL pipeline.
An international
conference aimed at ending
Syria's civil war will be
held in Geneva in late
November, the head of the
Arab League said Sunday,
after weeks of diplomacy to
bring the opposing sides to
the negotiating table.
Even as the announcement
was made, violence continued
in Syria. A suicide bomber
driving an explosives-laden
truck blew himself up at a
government checkpoint on the
edge of the central city of
Hama, killing at least 30
people, according to both
activists and the state
media.
Ever wondered whether
solar panels would work on
your house?
Or, if you have a strong
sense that they would, how
do you sort through all the
different installers and
types of financing
available?
The Clean Energy Finance
& Investment Authority, a
quasi-public renewable power
agency, has launched a
website for the "solar
curious" in Connecticut.
At least 92 people were
killed and 120 more were
wounded in today’s
attacks. Although there were
not that many attacks, the
severity of those in Baghdad
and Rawa left behind the
substantial body count.
Until about a year ago,
nearly 2 million pounds a
day of agricultural waste
and urban tree trimmings
would go up in smoke or get
trucked to a landfill, and
nobody really benefited from
it.
Not anymore. Now it fuels
a power plant north of
Bakersfield that generates
enough electricity to power
30,000 homes -- and it helps
produce steam that doubles
production in nearby oil
fields.
Now that almost every baby
bottle manufacturer in the
country has already
voluntarily stopped using
toxic bisphenol A (BPA) in
its product formulations,
the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) has
finally gotten around to
issuing a formal ban on the
chemical from baby bottles
and children's drinking
cups. But this ban means
very little, as many
manufacturers have already
begun substituting bisphenol
S (BPS), a potentially more
deadly plastics chemical, in
many BPA-free products,
including children's
products.
Sleep clears the brain of
toxins that have accumulated
in the body during waking
hours, American scientists
have demonstrated for the
first time. The results
suggest a new role for sleep
in health and disease.
Too many of today’s “green
living” advocates are
missing the broader
political strategies that
would enable the small acts
to be more than just
symbolic, feel-good
activities. ..
In one of the most iconic
ads of the twentieth
century, a Native American
(actually, it was an Italian
dressed up as a Native
American) canoes through a
river strewn with trash. He
disembarks and walks along
the shore as the passenger
in a car driving past throws
a bag of litter out the
window. As the camera zooms
in to a single tear rolling
down his cheek, the narrator
announces, “People start
pollution. People can stop
it.”
Chinese ambitions of
expanding in the downstream
overseas have all but ground
to a halt as poor
profitability has dampened
investment appetite.
State-owned behemoths
PetroChina and Sinopec had
at one point seemed keen on
expanding in refining and
storage overseas but while
upstream acquisitions have
continued apace, downstream
investment has dwindled this
year.
Despite China's slowing
economy, U.S. exports to the
PRC grew 6.5 percent last
year to nearly $109 billion,
according to a new report by
the US-China Business
Council (USCBC). Bolstered
by shipments of agricultural
products, transportation
equipment, electronics,
chemicals and machinery,
China remained America's
third-largest export market
in 2012, behind only Canada
and Mexico, according to the
report.
Choking smog all but shut
down one of northeastern
China's largest cities on
Monday, forcing schools to
suspended classes, snarling
traffic and closing the
airport, in the country's
first major air pollution
crisis of the winter.
Not wanting to
disappoint, ICTMN compiled a
list of sources online and
in book form that supports
the history of Christopher
Columbus and his crew.
There is a greater abundance
of energy resources in the
world today than at any
other time in history, and,
if properly managed, the
reserves will be sufficient
to meet even a significant
upturn in demand for decades
to come, according to the
World Energy Council (WEC).
The increased assessment of
reserves, along with
improved energy production
and conversion technologies,
has enabled the energy
industry to meet a growth in
demand that is higher than
anticipated two decades ago.
One of the few things
that frackers need to do
when they operate in
fracker-friendly Colorado is
post information about some
of the chemicals they pump
into the ground. But even
that seems too hard for the
industry.
Following press reports
that Colorado frackers were
failing to report their
chemicals as required on
the FracFocus website, the
Colorado Oil and Gas
Conservation Commission
warned companies it would
begin actively enforcing its
rules in the summer.
Since then, 11 companies
have been cited for failing
to disclose their chemicals
on the website. From
EnergyWire:
The California Public
Utilities Commission (PUC)
has unanimously passed a
decision to build high-tech
energy storage systems that
will further enable
California's renewable
energy future and move the
state closer to building a
modern, sustainable power
grid.
-
A legally binding
international treaty to
control the use of toxic
mercury has been signed
into action
-
The treaty is being
hailed as marking the
beginning of the end for
dental amalgam around
the world, as it
mandates that each
nation phase down
amalgam use
-
Each country must do at
least two phase down
steps, such as promoting
the use of mercury-free
alternatives to amalgam,
changing dental
insurance to favor
mercury-free fillings,
and re-training dentists
-
The treaty was signed in
Minamata, Japan, a city
where hundreds of
residents have died, and
thousands have become
ill, due to excessive
mercury poisoning
-
The treaty also requires
the phasing out of many
other mercury-containing
products, including
thermometers, by 2020
Despite a
self-inflicted fiscal crisis
in the US, continued
austerity in Europe and
relatively subdued momentum
in China, global economic
growth is poised to
accelerate over the next 12
months. The euro zone is
starting to sustain a weak
recovery, and in 2014 the
major developed markets will
expand simultaneously for
the first time in four
years. However, political
risk remains high in the US,
and there is also a risk of
severe disruption in
emerging markets as US
monetary policy shifts to a
less accommodative path.
Roughly 150 activists
gathered Saturday at a
spiritual center in San
Clemente, 9 miles from San
Onofre Nuclear Generating
Station.
Many of them fought for
years -- some for decades --
to see the nuclear power
plant shut down.
Groundwater radiation
levels at Japan's crippled
Fukushima nuclear plant have
soared near a tank that
leaked 300 tonnes of toxic
water in August, struggling
operator Tokyo Electric
Power said.
TEPCO said water samples
collected from a well on
Thursday contained 400,000
becquerels per litre of
beta-ray emitting
substances, the highest
reading since the nuclear
accident was triggered in
March 2011.
In North America, the first
wave of smart meter
deployments has crested as
government-funded programs
wrap up. Many large North
American utilities have
completed their smart meter
rollouts as part of smart
grid upgrades over the last
few years, and are now
pursuing greater efficiency
and reliability through data
analytics and IT
improvements. In other
developed countries,
however, major utilities are
still in the early phases of
smart meter deployments. In
fact, worldwide smart meter
shipments for the first 6
months of 2013 reached 51.4
million, according to
Navigant Research.
Iran could consider offering
crude price discounts in the
future to regain its former
markets, a senior Iranian
oil official said Tuesday,
quoted by oil ministry news
service Shana.
"Basically, Iran doesn't
have any obligation to give
discounts for selling crude
oil because our existing oil
customers at the moment can
make their purchases in
accordance with
international laws without
any worry," Mohsen Ghamsari,
NIOC's international affairs
director, said.
The report, "Liquid Air
Technologies — a guide to
the potential," shows how
liquid air could help
balance an electricity grid
increasingly dominated by
intermittent renewables;
provide strategic energy
storage to keep the lights
on; sharply reduce CO2 and
tail-pipe emissions from
vehicles; and convert low
grade waste heat into usable
energy throughout the
economy.
An increasing number of new
gas builds are projected to
meet reserve margin needs
due to nearly 60 GW of coal
retirements projected over
the next four years in
response to environmental
and fuel market drivers,
coupled with moderate demand
growth as the economy
continues to recover,
according to ICF
International energy
consultants. The impact of
coal generation units
retiring or becoming more
expensive to operate will
drive prices upward,
especially in the Midwest
and Southeast, where most
coal capacity is located.
A group of water experts has
released new guidance for
U.S. resource managers to
expand the availability of
clean water through the
conservation and restoration
of forests and other natural
infrastructure. The
publication, Natural
Infrastructure: Investing in
Forested Landscapes for
Source Water Protection in
the United States, builds on
several innovative efforts
across the United States and
provides real world examples
where water managers are
saving money by investing in
natural infrastructure.
The amount of oil found
on Louisiana's coast has
surged this year, three
years after BP's Macondo
spill in the U.S. Gulf of
Mexico, the state's Coastal
Protection & Restoration
Authority said.
Some 3.01 million pounds
of "oily material" were
cleaned up on Louisiana's
coast from March to August
this year, up from 119,894
pounds in the same period
last year, according to a
report on the state
Department of Natural
Resources website.
Does light leave tracks? How
is it possible for
scientists to observe light
that originated billions of
years ago? These are
questions that intrigue us
and we are amazed when
scientists figure out a way
to observe what to most of
us is un-observable.
The journey of light from
the very early universe to
modern telescopes is long
and winding. The ancient
light traveled billions of
years to reach us, and along
the way, its path was
distorted by the pull of
matter, leading to a twisted
light pattern.
Researchers have created new
human hairs using dermal
papilla cells found inside
the base of human hair
follicles
That growth will require
grid operators to adapt to
unprecedented levels of
variable generation on their
systems -- in part, through
the increased use of energy
storage systems (ESS). In
fact, the worldwide market
for ESSes for wind and solar
power integration will grow
from less than $150 million
annually in 2013 to $10.3
billion by 2023, according
to Navigant.
C1 event observe. here
are currently 8 numbered
sunspot regions on the disk.
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a chance for
M-class flares on days one,
two, and three (22 Oct, 23
Oct, 24 Oct). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on days one
and three (22 Oct, 24 Oct)
and quiet levels on day two
(23 Oct).
New research aims to find
energy-efficient ways to
treat brackish water.
Brackish water is an
in-between substance:
saltier than freshwater but
not as salty as seawater,
according to a definition in
ScienceDaily.
Interest in residential
solar installations is
stronger and broader than
expected among American
consumers, even when those
consumers are educated on
associated costs, according
to E2 (Energy + Environment)
research from Market
Strategies International.
The interest is generally
strong across all age and
income groups with few
exceptions.
Minnesota researchers are
helping a New York company
try to advance new
technology to generate
electricity from rivers and
tides.
The generating units look
like small-scale wind
turbines, with a major
difference: they're placed
on the bottom of rivers or
tidal basins, where water
flow spins the blades.
The back-to-back discoveries
of beached oarfish are
highly unusual, scientists
said. The fish is an elusive
creature that dives to
depths of 3,000 feet and is
thought to have inspired
legends of giant sea
serpents.
Energy use in existing
commercial buildings
accounts for 17 percent of
U.S. greenhouse gas
emissions at a cost of more
than $100 billion per year.
But it doesn’t have to. On
average, 30 percent of the
energy that these buildings
use is wasted through
inefficiencies. Outdated
lighting, oversized
equipment, and poor
operations are just a few
culprits.
France's foreign ministry
has summoned the US
ambassador over allegations
the US National Security
Agency spied on millions of
phone calls in France.
Prime Minister Jean-Marc
Ayrault said he was "deeply
shocked" by the claims made
in the Le Monde newspaper.
The $100 million subsidy
program the state [NY]
launched last summer for
large solar farms has
created a frenzy of
renewable energy
development.
Tesoro Logistics LP said
on Monday it still did not
have a date to restart a
North Dakota oil pipeline
that ruptured in September
and spilled 20,600 barrels
of crude onto farmland.
The company said it is
continuing to clean up the
site of North Dakota's
largest oil spill since the
shale oil revolution in the
state. So far, Tesoro has
collected 3,400 barrels of
oil of the spilt oil.
Texans will take a vote
this November on whether to
amend the state constitution
to green-light billions of
dollars in water
infrastructure spending.
Proposition 6 would
permit the state to
repurpose $2 billion dollars
from the Texas Rainy Day
Fund. Such funds are
typically dedicated to
safeguarding a state in the
instance of a budget
shortfall. The money would
be redirected toward water
projects, according to the
Texas Water Development
Board
One factor that may
continue to provide
tailwinds to US housing
recovery is the rental
market. Rents are rising
faster than inflation,
widening the spread between
housing costs and wages.
A man had been
drinking way too much and
started to yell at my
grandmother. He said as he
pointed a gun at us; “Which
one of you F-ing Redskins
untied my dog? I know it was
one of you F-ing Indians” I
could tell by my
grandmother's stoic look
that wasn’t her first
encounter with the now
infamous term, Redskins. I
could also tell whatever it
meant it wasn’t good.
The purported Yeti, an
ape-like creature that walks
upright and roams the remote
Himalayas, may in fact be an
ancient polar bear species,
according to new DNA
research by Bryan Sykes with
Oxford University. Sykes
subjected two hairs from
what locals say belonged to
the elusive Yeti only to
discover that the genetics
matched a polar bear jawbone
found in Svalbard, Norway
dating from around 120,000
(though as recent as 40,000
years ago).
-
During the 2012-2013 flu
season, the flu
vaccine's effectiveness
was found to be just 56
percent across all age
groups reviewed by the
CDC —in essence, the
statistical equivalent
of a coin toss
-
In average conditions,
when a flu vaccine at
least partially matches
the circulating virus,
100 people need to be
vaccinated in order to
avoid just ONE set of
influenza symptoms
-
Most deaths attributed
to the flu are actually
due to bacterial
pneumonia, and these
days, bacterial
pneumonia can be
effectively treated with
advanced medical care
and therapies like
respirators and
parenteral antibiotics
-
A “universal” flu
vaccine under
development is based on
the finding that people
who have more
virus-killing immune
cells, known as CD8 T
cells, either don’t get
sick or experience only
mild flu symptoms
-
While a vaccine can be
used to stimulate the
production of CD8 T
cells, previous research
shows that vitamin D is
also known to have a
direct immune-modulating
effect on CD8 T cells
Carbon dioxide emissions
from energy production in
the United States fell to
5.29 billion metric tons in
2012 - its lowest level
since 1994 - despite a
growing economy and rising
population, according to
government data released on
Monday.
The Energy Information
Administration, the
statistics arm of the
Department of Energy, said
there was a 3.8 percent drop
from the previous year.
It was front-page news less
than a decade ago, and the
California Fuel Cell
Partnership in West
Sacramento was ground zero
for what was touted as a
forward-looking effort to
green the Golden State. ..
Hydrogen has long been
viewed by advocates and
environmentalists as an
attractive option, because
it can easily be pumped into
a vehicle tank, with the
bonus of no emissions of
either greenhouse gases or
smog-forming pollutants. In
a fuel-cell vehicle,
hydrogen combines with
oxygen, yielding a current
that drives an electric
motor. The tailpipe spews
nothing but water vapor and
heat.
Gizmag presents a
look at five of our
favorite
passively-cooled
homes
Home air-conditioning
offers near-instant
relief from hot weather
but is both expensive
and resource-heavy to
run. Gizmag picks five
of our current favorite
passively-cooled homes
that are environmentally
responsible to keep
comfortably cool, and –
perhaps just as
importantly – very
desirable to live in.
Xcel Energy Inc. on
Friday defended massive cost
overruns during the
five-year upgrade of its
nuclear power plant in
Monticello, Minn.
The utility completed the
$665 million project in
July, and admitted that
replacing pumps, filters and
other equipment cost more
than double the original
estimate.
A proposal to add 750 MW of
wind power capacity to Xcel
Energy's Upper Midwest grid
has been approved by
Minnesota regulators. Four
projects, representing a 42
percent increase in the
company's wind power
capacity in the Upper
Midwest, were approved by
the Minnesota Public
Utilities Commission (PUC).
October 18, 2013
It seems with the many
reports of birth defects,
organ failure, cancer, and
other unsavory health
conditions associated with
GMO consumption, we should
limit the use of GMO in baby
products. After all, babies
are very sensitive to the
foods they consume, and we
already know that pesticides
found in mother’s milk can
be damaging. Below you will
learn of three companies
which represent more than
90% of baby formula sales in
the US that won’t consider
removing GMOs from your
baby’s food.
Columbus and his men
hunted Natives with
war-dogs.
On the second Monday of
October each year, Native
Americans cringe at the
thought of honoring a man
who committed atrocities
against Indigenous Peoples.
Columbus Day was
conceived by the Knights of
Columbus, a Catholic
Fraternal organization, in
the 1930s because they
wanted a Catholic hero.
Much has been made of
the need to develop
climate-change-adaptation
plans, especially in light
of increasingly alarming
findings about how swiftly
the environment that
sustains life as we know it
is deteriorating, and how
the changes compound one
another to quicken the pace
overall. Studies, and
numerous climate models, and
the re-analysis of said
studies and climate models,
all point to humankind as
the main driver of these
changes. In all these dire
pronouncements and warnings
there is one bright spot: It
may not be too late to turn
the tide and pull Mother
Earth back from the brink.
-
There are scientifically
proven ways to boost
your happiness, such as
exercising, sleeping
well and helping others
-
A shorter commute to
work is also strongly
linked to happiness, as
is spending time with
friends and family
-
Getting outdoors,
planning a vacation and
showing gratitude are
other ways to easily
live a happier life
Today's 30-year fixed
rate mortgage rate is
markedly lower than what
Freddie Mac's weekly survey
says it is.
According to the group's
Primary Mortgage Market
Survey (PMMS) released
Thursday, the average
30-year fixed mortgage rate
rose 0.05 percentage points
to 4.28 percent this week.
The survey fails to
capture what happened to
rates after the government
ended its shutdown, and
averted a breach of the U.S.
Treasury's debt ceiling,
however. Today's real
mortgage rates are their
lowest in 18 weeks.
The World Energy Council
(WEC) today issued a
10-point action plan for how
governments, industry, and
decisionmakers should
refocus their efforts and
resources to achieve real
progress in resolving the
energy trilemma of energy
security, energy equity, and
environmental
sustainability.
The air we breathe is laced
with cancer-causing
substances and is being
officially classified as
carcinogenic to humans, the
World Health Organization's
cancer agency said on
Thursday.
More than 90% of Europeans
living in cities are exposed
to unsafe levels one of the
most health damaging air
pollutants, with Bulgaria
having the dirtiest air
among EU countries, says a
new study by the European
Environment Agency (EEA).
Despite falling emission
levels and reductions of
some air pollutant
concentrations over the past
decades, EU air pollution is
still far from being solved,
according to the report,
'Air quality in Europe —
2013'.
As U.S. officials warned
that the technology behind
Obamacare might not be ready
to launch on October 1, the
administration was pouring
tens of millions of dollars
more than it had planned
into the federal website
meant to enroll Americans in
the biggest new social
program since the 1960s.
If you think being stuck in
a strange town late at night
after the last bus has gone
is lonely, then give a
thought for the exoplanet
PSO J318.5-22. Discovered
this year by astronomers at
the University of Hawaii,
this planet was found
floating through
interstellar space without a
parent star and is one of
the smallest free-floating
objects seen outside of the
Solar System.
- For the first
time UTS and US research
has found a link between
toxins produced by
blue-green algae and
motor neurone disease
- Over 90 per cent
of motor neuron diseases
have had no known cause
or cure
A recently identified
link between a toxic amino
acid found in blue-green
algae and several motor
neuron diseases could help
researchers devise a therapy
for the fatal conditions.
In a bold move being closely
watched by utilities,
environmentalists and the
clean technology industry,
California adopted the
nation's first energy
storage mandate for
utilities Thursday.
Canada's wind energy
industry is well-positioned
to build on its rapid growth
and strong prospects for the
next few years as provincial
governments define the
policy framework that will
inform new electricity
supply choices for the next
decade.
Teams of international
scientists have decrypted
the effectiveness of two
types of bacteria, which
could be used in the future
to help combat oil spill
disasters. According to a
report written by scientists
from the Helmholtz Centre
for Environmental Research
and the Helmholtz Centre for
Infection Research in the
peer-reviewed journal
Applied and Environmental
Microbiology, Alcanivorax
borkumensis converts
hydrocarbons into fatty
acids which then form along
the cell membrane.
Environmentalists have
long criticized fracking
because of its potential
effects on the environment,
including alleged dangers to
the drinking water supply.
But lately, some
scientists are making the
controversial claim that the
dangers of fracking go far
beyond these hazards. They
say fracking may actually
cause earthquakes.
The world's oceans are
vast, containing massive
amounts of water. Oceanic
water is thought by some to
be so vast that it can't be
seriously impacted by man or
by climate change.
But a new study looking
at the impacts of climate
change on the world’s ocean
systems concludes that by
the year 2100, about 98
percent of the oceans will
be affected by
acidification, warming
temperatures, low oxygen, or
lack of biological
productivity — and most
areas will be stricken by a
multitude of these
stressors.
In addition to producing
drinking water-quality
effluent through its water
reuse project, UAJA has a
composting facility to reuse
the most troublesome of
wastewater byproducts —
sludge. The Class
A-designated compost is sold
to the public for $2 for
small containers or $5 per
cubic yard, providing a rich
soil amendment to
landscapers, nurseries, and
homeowners. At the same
time, it offsets the sludge
disposal costs typical of
conventional treatment
facilities.
A British scientist says he
may have solved the mystery
of the Abominable Snowman —
the elusive ape-like
creature of the Himalayas.
He thinks it's a bear.
DNA analysis conducted by
Oxford University genetics
professor Bryan Sykes
suggests the creature, also
known as the Yeti, is the
descendant of an ancient
polar bear.
If you'd like to quit the
pharmaceutical flea market
once and for all, a massive
new study has uncovered a
simple remedy that's sitting
in the back of your closet
right now. This cure has
plenty of strings attached
-- but not how you think.
A group of West Virginia
residents have sued
FirstEnergy Corp. over
pollution and alleged
property damage from a coal
waste dump the company has
agreed to shut down because
of arsenic, sulfates and
other contaminates that
leaked into drinking water.
October 17 marks the 40th
anniversary of the start of
the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo --
an event that arguably
launched the United States'
ongoing pursuit of a
national energy policy.
Forty years ago, the U.S.
economy was dominated by
fossil fuels (i.e., oil,
coal, natural gas) which
accounted for 93% of the
nation's energy consumption.
Petroleum - more than 30% of
which was imported -
accounted for almost half of
fossil fuel consumption with
roughly half used in the
transportation sector and
17% burned to generate
electricity.
In crisis-hit Greece,
government decisions taken
in haste and despair to save
the country from default,
risk having a serious impact
on the environment. A new
bill seeks to relax
restrictions on construction
of public and private
forestland even for those
areas, which are considered
protected.
Recently, the Federal
Home Finance Agency (FHFA)
took two steps which hint at
HARP 3's imminent launch.
For homeowners with
non-Fannie Mae and
non-Freddie Mac mortgages,
in particular, the news is
welcome.
HARP 3 may be launched
within days.
Recent Department of
Homeland Security reports
have highlighted poor
security among the nation's
water utilities, where
operations networks and
control systems are
inadequately protected. The
security situation in
critical infrastructure is
raising ratepayer concerns
and prompting utilities to
ask hard questions about
which actions can truly
improve their cybersecurity
situations.
More and more adults are
getting off the grid,
growing their own food and
using alternative forms of
energy. And their children?
They’re hopelessly plugged
into the grid... What
happened to a child using
his or her imagination, for
creativity and exploration?
As we plant heirloom seeds,
what kind of seeds are we
planting in our kids?
Although the Eid al-Adha
holiday began rather
quietly, militants unleashed
a torrent of violence today
that left 76 people dead
and 229 more wounded.
The capital suffered several
bombings, but so did towns
in the ethnically diverse
north. Also, fugitive vice
president Tareq al-Hashemi
offered to return to Iraq if
the European Union will help
guarantee him a fair trail.
Hashemi fled after, what
many claim, was a
politically motivated
campaign to take power away
from Sunni politicians.
September 06, 2011-The
twists and turns of the last
tracks left by humans on the
moon crisscross the surface
in this LRO image of the
Apollo 17 site. In the thin
lunar soil, the trails made
by astronauts on foot can be
easily distinguished from
the dual tracks left by the
lunar roving vehicle, or
LRV. Also seen in this image
are the descent stage of the
Challenger lunar module and
the LRV, parked to the east.
Issues will not make
recovery possible for the
Party as long as the voter
regards it as irresponsible,
immature, quarrelsome,
obstinate, and arrogantly
uncompromising. These
character defects will
override the strongest of
issue identifications. If
voters ascribe these traits
to the Party, it will never
win their support whether or
not it is right on the
issues.
Even though more and more
countries are becoming
involved in
energy-efficiency policies,
numerous factors have
affected energy-efficiency
progress globally, there has
been a general slowdown in
energy-efficiency
improvements, according to
research from the World
Energy Council (WEC) and
France's energy and
environment agency, ADEME.
...not everyone who dons a
white jacket and calls
himself a medical researcher
is concerned about your
health. In fact, an awful
lot of them likely don't
care whether you live or
die, just as long as that
next million-dollar check
from Big Pharma clears.
A study from the U.S.
Government Accountability
Office says that U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) inspectors
may not be enforcing rules
at nuclear power plants the
same across the country,
according to the Associated
Press, which received a copy
of the report before it was
released.
The GAO report shows that
3,225 of these violations
from 2000 through the end of
2012 across 21 reactors in
the West region. In the
Southeast region, there were
1,885 violations at 33
reactors. The Midwest region
had 3,148 violations with 24
reactors, while the
Northeast region had 2,518
violations at 26 reactors.
After a marathon hearing,
the Kauai County Council
passed a hotly debated bill
on Wednesday that could lead
to prison time or fines for
employees of agricultural
companies if they don’t
divulge specifics about
pesticide use, abide by
strict setback rules for
spraying chemicals or
disclose when they grow
genetically engineered
crops.
The operator of Japan's
wrecked Fukushima nuclear
plant, under fire to put
right repeated contamination
mishaps, promised on Tuesday
to draft in extra workers
and improve equipment as
part of plans to make the
site safe and keep the
company solvent.
Tens of thousands of
residents of Bohol island,
which took the brunt of
Tuesday's 7.2 magnitude
quake, remained living
outdoors, for fear of
aftershocks bringing down
damaged homes.
Authorities have recorded
more than 1,200 aftershocks
including one of magnitude
5.5.
Massive shifts in the fuels
used to generate electricity
are requiring major
investments for electric
transmission grid
improvements, a recent study
by PJM Interconnection
reveals. In 2012, PJM, which
plans improvements to the
regional power grid,
authorized more than 750
electric transmission
improvement projects
totaling more than $5
billion.
FirstEnergy's plan to close
its Little Blue Run coal ash
impoundment in Beaver County
contains more than 160
"deficiencies," including a
failure to acknowledge
arsenic contamination of
groundwater, according to
the Pennsylvania Department
of Environmental Protection.
Chaos has erupted as
Chief Aaren Sock and council
members from Elsipogtog
First Nation are among at
least 40 people arrested by
riot-gear-clad police
raiding a Mi'kmaq blockade
protesting shale gas
exploration in New
Brunswick.
Details are still
emerging, but amateur photos
and video have appeared
online showing heavily armed
police on the site and what
appear to be snipers in
nearby fields and forests.
There are also photos of
several police vehicles on
fire. Those arrested, which
may include elders
conducting ceremonies at the
site, are being detained by
the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police (RCMP). There were
also some reports of shots
fired.
Proposed US rules might
cause oil and natural
companies to spend a little
more money on development
but are unlikely to slow the
rapid growth of production,
a former US regulatory
official said Thursday.
Part one: how much renewable
electricity capacity was
installed worldwide at the
end of 2012, and which
technologies were the most
popular?
The largest solar event of
the period was a M1 event
observed at 17/1541Z from
Region 1861 (S08W69). There
are currently 12 numbered
sunspot regions on the disk.
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a chance for
M-class flares on day one
(18 Oct) and expected to be
low with a slight chance for
an M-class flare on days two
and three (19 Oct, 20 Oct).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on day one
(18 Oct) and quiet levels on
days two and three (19 Oct,
20 Oct).
EPRI has published a
five-year update report for
its Smart Grid Demonstration
Initiative, a seven-year
collaborative research
effort focused on design,
implementation, and
assessment of field
demonstrations to address
prevalent challenges with
integrating distributed
energy resources in grid and
market operations to create
a Virtual Power Plant.
A report from the World
Energy Council says there is
a greater abundance of
energy resources globally
today than at any other
time, with the nuclear share
of total global electricity
production reaching 13.5
percent in 2012. The report
was released during the
World Energy Congress in
Daegu, Korea.
According to “World
Energy Resources 2013,”
global energy reserves are
sufficient to meet even a
significant upturn in demand
for decades to come, thanks
to improved energy
production and conversion
technologies.
Saudi Arabia has rejected
Friday a seat on the U.N.
Security Council just hours
after it was elected as one
of the Council's 10
nonpermanent members.
In a statement issued
through the state Saudi
Press Agency, the Middle
Eastern nation thanked those
countries "that have given
(it) their confidence" but
said the 15-member body is
incapable of resolving the
world's conflicts.
Energy efficiency is
the low-hanging fruit of a
sustainable energy future,
but it's not being harvested
to anything like the extent
it needs to be across our
nation. Utilities are a key
to changing this picture. No
other industry is better
placed to put its strengths
to work to help customers
save energy and money while
reducing pressures on the
environment -- and providing
value to shareholders, too.
A stunningly well-preserved
skull from 1.8 million years
ago offers new evidence that
early man was a single
species with a vast array of
different looks, researchers
said Thursday.
He tells New York Times he
left NSA documents with
journalists in Hong Kong.
Taiwan's total crude imports
in August plunged 22.8% year
on year to an average
704,000 b/d due to lower
refinery runs, according to
data released Monday by
Taiwan's Bureau of Energy at
the Ministry of Economic
Affairs.
This was the
lowest level since November
2011, when crude imports
averaged 613,000 b/d.
Everybody who has studied
the current fiscal situation
will tell you that there is
no real way that the U.S.
would default on any of its
debts. With $250 billion of
tax revenues coming in on
average each month and debt
service, including interest,
averaging only $25 billion
each month, how is a default
possible? We don't need
borrowed funds to pay the
debt. Tax revenues, which
will continue to flow in a
debt-limit stalemate, are
quite enough.
Several countries, including
Scotland and the
Philippines, have recently
announced impressive plans
to obtain all of their power
from renewable energy. With
many countries setting their
sights on much lower,
incremental goals, these
lofty aspirations have
jarred the industry and
sparked a debate.
...we’re
always talking about
the importance of being
prepared.
You know
the old saying about guns:
“It’s better to have it and
not need it than to need it
and not have it.” The same
can be applied, I think, to
the simple idea of being
prepared.
New sensing technology
reveals that the alpine
swift, a small migratory
bird, can remain aloft for
more than 200 days without
touching down.
Mom always encouraged you to
eat fish, saying it was
"brain food," and modern
science has once again
proved mom right. Studies
conducted during the last
couple of decades showed
that omega-3 fatty acids
found in fish are beneficial
for heart health, and more
recent studies have shown
that fish oil does indeed
keep the brain healthy. Fish
also is proving to be a
great ally in the fight
against many of the diseases
of aging.
I always told my kids that
if you want to make God
laugh, just tell him you
have plans. Life's a series
of twists and turns, and I'm
finally old enough to admit
something most youngsters
can't -- we have no idea
where it's taking us next.
Five brands accounted for
the largest amounts of beer
consumed by people before
they were treated for
injuries at an emergency
department in a large U.S.
city, according to a pilot
study.
Of the five brands
(Budweiser, Steel Reserve,
Colt 45, Bud Ice and Bud
Light), three are a type of
"malt liquor," which has a
higher alcohol content than
regular beer.
Investigation says at least
400 non-combatants killed in
Pakistan by drone strikes
and demands US comes clean
over casualty figures
Fitch Ratings'
preliminary index results
indicate that prime 60+ day
delinquencies will rise,
ending a streak of six
straight months of decline.
We also expect an increase
in Fitch's preliminary
Retail 60+ Day Delinquency
Index. We expect collateral
performance to be stable for
the rest of this year and to
remain above pre-crisis
levels, despite this likely
increase in delinquencies.
Continued rating stability
in the sector is
anticipated.
The U.S. Supreme Court
agreed on Tuesday to hear a
challenge to part of the
Obama administration's first
wave of regulations aimed at
tackling climate change,
accepting its biggest
environmental case in six
years.
The court said it would
not review the underlying
determination that
greenhouse gases are a
public health concern or a
separate regulation that
limits greenhouse gas
emissions from motor
vehicles.
For automobile
manufacturers, the electric
elephant in the room
continues to be bulky and
weighty battery packs. This
week, Volvo unveiled an
innovative potential
solution to the problem that
it has been working on for
the past three and a half
years with other European
partners; replace steel body
panels with carbon fiber
composite panels infused
with nano-batteries and
super capacitors.
Ranchers in South Dakota
who lost large parts of
their cattle herds to a
winter storm are not asking
for blankets or food to help
them recover. They want
pregnant cows and heifers of
breeding age, said a group
organizing donations on
Tuesday.
Twenty cattlemen so far
have pledged cows to help
replenish western South
Dakota herds devastated in
the October 3-5 storm...
The thousands of tonnes
of waste seashells created
by the edible seafood sector
are being put to use by the
University of Bath in a new
waste water cleaning
project.
Dr Darrell Patterson,
from the University’s
Department of Chemical
Engineering, used waste
mussel shells to create a
cheaper and more
environmentally friendly way
of ‘polishing’ waste water,
which could be used to
remove unwanted substances
like hormones,
pharmaceuticals or
fertilisers.
The U.S. water
infrastructure is caught in
a recurring cycle of debt
and rate increases even as
its condition and resilience
continues to deteriorate,
according to a new study
released by the Columbia
University Water Center in
conjunction with Veolia
Environment and Growing
Blue.
Water utilities are under
tremendous pressure to
efficiently and economically
manage the precious resource
of water. The same holds
true for electric power
utilities as they struggle
to meet increasing demands
for power, while at the same
time being strapped by
government regulations
affecting the ability to
create new generation
capacity.
The world will face several
significant challenges in
balancing global energy
needs and addressing the
energy trilemma over the
next four decades. That is
according to the World
Energy Council (WEC) based
on a three-year study
conducted by more than 60
experts in 30 countries.
Food is treated as a private
good in today's industrial
food system, but it must be
re-conceived as a common
good in the transition
toward a more sustainable
food system that is fairer
to food producers and
consumers. If we were to
treat food as a commons, it
could be better produced and
distributed by hybrid
tri-centric governance
systems implemented at the
local level and compounded
by market rules, public
regulations, and collective
actions. This change would
have enormous ethical,
legal, economic, and
nutritional implications for
the global food system.
October 15, 2013
Climate change is a
global problem, but that
doesn’t mean it’s going to
hit us all the same time.
If you live in Moscow,
scientists estimate that
your local climate will
depart from the historical
norm in the year 2063. In
New York, that date is the
year 2047. And if you happen
to reside in Mexico City or
Jakarta, those numbers are
2031 and 2029, respectively.
Indians are most
"inconvenient" when they are
… alive.
It’s not news to
anyone that Natives have
been duped, massacred,
assimilated, deceived and
often betrayed outright
since the days of
Christopher Columbus. But
King racks up anecdotal
evidence that, governmental
apologies notwithstanding,
the prevailing attitude is
still more enamored of the
dead Indian than the
living.
Australian scientists
have made a significant
advance in the understanding
of Alzheimer's disease, a
condition they describe as
an accumulation of brain
"rust".
An imbalance in the
metals needed for healthy
brain function has been
found at the root of the
degenerative disease which
afflicts 10 per cent of
people aged over 60.
Brayton Point marks 150th
coal plant set to retire
Massachusets' Brayton
Point Power Station will be
retired by 2017, marking 150
coal plants that have
announced such plans since
2010.
In 2010, analysts
predicted 30,000 MW of coal
would be retired over the
next decade. In the three
years since those
predictions, coal
retirements have nearly
doubled to more than 58,000
MW -- more than one sixth of
the entire nation's coal
capacity and more than one
quarter of all coal plants
in the country.
What started out as a
rate-reform bill that had
been pushed by California’s
utilities ended up as a law
to increase the state’s
renewable energy offerings.
Among the big winners are
the rooftop solar
businesses, which expect to
see more people buy their
product now that the law has
passed.
Regular consumption in
childhood tied to 39 percent
lower odds of benign breast
disease by age 30
As more desalination plants
get built in the Middle
East, the need to save the
vast amount of fossil fuels
burnt every day in powering
these plants is greater than
ever. With Concentrated
Solar Power (CSP) being a
relatively new technology,
how feasible will it be to
integrate it into the
region’s existing
desalination plants?
As dawn broke over the
Atlantic on October 12,
1492, a perilous ten-week
journey across a timeless
ocean gave way to encounters
and events that would
dramatically shape the
course of history, and be
forever regarded by
Europeans as the
“discovery”' of America.
Today, we recall the courage
and the innovative spirit
that carried Christopher
Columbus and his crew from
Palos Span to North America,
as we celebrate our heritage
as a people born of many
histories and traditions.
Upset that the U.S. fiscal
impasse threatens to trigger
a default that would roil
financial markets worldwide,
Beijing suggests 'building a
de-Americanized world.'
China said on Monday it
would give rewards amounting
to 5 billion yuan ($816.91
million) for curbing air
pollution in six regions
where the problem is
serious, underscoring
government concern about a
source of public anger.
Gas-fired generation
continued to lose ground to
coal for the month of
September 2013 when compared
to the same time last year,
according to energy data
from Genscape.
Initial investigations
following a 20,600-barrel
leak on Tesoro Logistics LP
pipeline in North Dakota
point to corrosion on the
20-year-old pipeline, state
regulators said on Friday.
The six-inch pipeline was
carrying crude oil from the
Bakken shale play to the
Stampede rail facility
outside Columbus, North
Dakota when a farmer
discovered oil spouting from
the pipeline on September
29.
Developing zinc-air
batteries for renewable
energy
Renewable energies such
as solar and wind power need
reliable storage
technologies if they are to
supply energy when consumers
need it. A research project
is working to develop a new
class of small, low-cost
batteries based on zinc-air
flow technologies.
If renewable energies
such as solar power and wind
are to offer alternatives to
fossil fuels, they need to
prove they can deliver
reliable power when
consumers need it. A key
aspect of this is to improve
energy-storage technologies
as current solutions have a
number of limitations in
terms of weight, capacity
and cost.
Decisions in two branches of
Ecuador’s government have
set the stage for a final
battle over oil extraction
in Yasuni National Park, a
mega-diverse rainforest
reserve in that country’s
portion of the Amazon Basin
where President Rafael
Correa has decided to drill
for oil.
The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
said on Thursday the El Nino
phenomenon is unlikely to
cause extreme weather in the
Northern Hemisphere into
spring 2014.
In its monthly report,
the Climate Prediction
Center (CPC) said that
atmospheric and oceanic
conditions over the last
month indicated a neutral El
Nino forecast heading into
the spring, with warmer
conditions gradually
increasing.
Exciting and dramatic
changes have taken place in
the Elwha River in the last
two years with the removal
of two dams. The Glines
Canyon Dam (1927) and the
Elwha Dam (1910) were
removed to restore the
watershed’s ecology
unblocking passage for
migratory salmon. Salmon
have already begun to find
their way up the newly freed
river.
After treating so many
people with nutritional
problems, I have come to
realize that the biggest
issue is that most people
lack willpower. ..
Permanent weight loss and
good health require that you
change your lifestyle and
nutrition permanently.
So-called yo-yo dieting is
extremely harmful and can
result in permanent damage
to the heart and kidneys as
well as other organs.
Mainstream medicine would
have you believe that
surgery is the only
treatment for cataracts --
but you do have several
proven, natural options at
your disposal.
-
Biochar is created by
slowly heating biomass
(wood and other plant
materials) in a
low-oxygen environment,
such as a kiln, until
everything but the
carbon is burned off and
then putting it into the
ground
-
Biochar can help reverse
rising CO2 levels in the
atmosphere; improve
overall soil quality,
and raise soil’s water
retention ability. It
may also help “filter”
toxic chemicals in the
soil
-
Adding biochar to just
10 percent of the
world’s croplands would
store 29 billion tons of
carbon dioxide
equivalent. This roughly
equals the world’s
annual greenhouse
emissions
-
More importantly,
addition of biochar
would radically improve
the soil fertility and
allow the production of
far healthier crops
-
US soils alone could
absorb up to 330 million
tons of carbon annually
with better carbon
management practices.
That’s enough to offset
all car emissions in the
US, while simultaneously
boosting food production
by 12 percent
Iran's president stepped
up his challenge to the
country's hard-line factions
on Monday, calling for the
lifting of restrictions on
academic freedoms and for
granting Iranian scholars
more opportunity to take
part in international
conferences.
The message from Hassan
Rouhani underscores the
increasing friction between
his moderate-leaning camp
and entrenched forces such
as hard-line student
organizations that have
questioned the scope of the
new president's overtures to
Washington.
Researchers at the
University of London found
that children with steady
bedtimes are less likely to
misbehave—in other words,
well-rested kids are sitting
quietly on the carpet in
kindergarten. Children with
inconsistent bedtimes are
more likely to have
behavioral problems,
including hyperactivity,
problems with peers and
emotional difficulties.
Let Them Eat Dog Food
Two centuries have passed
since then yet it appears
that little has changed in
the attitudes of governments
and the ruling class toward
their sheep. Today,
figuratively speaking, Jacob
Lew, Treasury Secretary of
the United States under the
feckless Obama
administration is saying the
very same kind of thing to
the nation’s vulnerable sick
and old people living on
Social Security, Medicare,
as well as other low level
commoners with respect to
the looming government
shutdown:
In a development that's
being hailed as a major
breakthrough in the search
for an Alzheimer's disease
cure, British researchers
say they have identified a
drug-like compound that
combats the debilitating
condition and may also work
against other
neurodegenerative illnesses
like Parkinson's.
A mass evacuation saved
thousands of people from
India's fiercest cyclone in
14 years, but aid workers
warned a million would need
help after their homes and
livelihoods were destroyed.
Mortgage markets worsened a
bit last week. One week
after posting the fastest
rate-drop in more than 4
years, U.S. mortgage rates
edged higher between Monday
and Friday
"The world's most valuable
individual prize -- the Mo
Ibrahim prize for good
governance in Africa -- has
gone unclaimed yet again.
The $5m (£3.2m) prize is
supposed to be awarded each
year to an elected leader
who governed well, raised
living standards and then
left office. This is the
fourth time in five years
there has been no winner. A
committee member said the
group looked 'for excellence
in governance but in
leadership also.'" [editor's
note: How many decades has
it been since an American
politician would have
qualified?
Today America
celebrates a man who
committed obscene slavery,
rape and genocide,
comparable to the horror
perpetrated by Adolf Hitler.
Indian Country Today Media
Network lists a few of
Columbus' most offesnive
cruelties inflicted upon the
Caribbean inhabitants.
There's big
energy-efficiency news on
the standards front.
Officials have approved an
updated code to reduce
energy waste in new homes,
while overcoming attempts to
roll back the current code's
energy-saving measures,
passing a proposal known as
RE-188, which adds a new
optional compliance pathway
to the 2015 International
Energy Conservation Code
(IECC).
A technology using only
sunlight and waste water to
produce hydrogen gas could
provide a sustainable energy
source, U.S. researchers
say.
Scientists at the
University of California,
Santa Cruz, say the
solar-microbial device can
also improve the efficiency
of waste water treatment.
-
According to recent
research, stress appears
to be related to the
onset of Alzheimer’s
disease, by triggering a
degenerative process in
your brain and
precipitating disruption
of your neuroendocrine
and immune system
-
The researchers found
that nearly three out of
four Alzheimer's
patients had experienced
severe emotional stress
during the two years
preceding their
diagnosis, compared to
just over one in four in
the control group
-
Alzheimer’s disease
currently afflicts about
5.4 million Americans,
including one in eight
people aged 65 and over
-
Research suggests the
best hope is in
prevention focusing on
diet, exercise and
staying mentally active
-
Avoiding gluten and
casein appears to be of
critical importance, as
is making sure you’re
getting plenty of
healthful fats
(including demonized
saturated fats). Fasting
also has a remarkably
beneficial influence on
your brain health
NM university makes
forward-thinking investment
with self-healing grid
As part of a plant to
reduce outages and improve
its power supply
reliability, Eastern New
Mexico University (ENMU) has
completed a high-speed
fault-clearing system, using
advanced relays that detect
and isolate underground
distribution faults within a
fraction of a second.
The collection program,
which has not been disclosed
before, intercepts e-mail
address books and “buddy
lists” from instant
messaging services as they
move across global data
links. Online services often
transmit those contacts when
a user logs on, composes a
message, or synchronizes a
computer or mobile device
with information stored on
remote servers.
I've found a great way to
continue my gardening hobby
in the winter – even in the
coldest, snowiest weather
you could imagine. Yes, you
can still garden in the
snow. Here's my
secret:
I grow microgreens.
Indoors. Even in the dead of
winter.
As the industry eyes a
potential shortage of
skilled workers, the New
York State Energy Research
and Development Authority
(NYSERDA) and Green
Jobs-Green New York is
taking steps to avoid such a
scenario for the state,
offering energy-efficiency
and renewable energy
training courses to help
current workers move ahead
in clean-energy careers and
unemployed workers or those
entering the workforce for
the first time gain
clean-energy skills and
professional credentials.
We all remember the term
“brinkmanship” from the Cold
War, coined by President
Eisenhower’s Secretary of
State, John Foster Dulles.
In an interview in Life
magazine, Dulles
defined it thus: “The
ability to get to the verge
without getting into the war
is the necessary art.” On a
charitable reading, this
appears to be President
Obama’s strategy in the
battles over government
funding and the debt limit.
And there are indeed several
similarities between the
Cold War strategy and
Obama’s current stance. But
there is one vitally
important difference.
In the US our problem is not
lack of food - yet. It is
lack of food that sustains
life and health - now.
We have allowed the
supposed regulators,
the Fraud and Death
Administration and
Useless Department
of Agriculture, to
get into bed with
the worst [read,
"richest", read
"ruthless"]
corporations so that
our food is now the
worst in the
developed world.
54% of our kids have
a chronic disease
for which they take
one or more drugs.
Our life expectancy
is shameful. Our
illness care costs
us more, and buys us
less than in any
other first world
country, and a lot
of second world
ones, as well.
Yes, vaccines are a
factor - a big one.
Yes, drugs are a
factor - a big one.
Yes, Chemtrails
are a factor - a big
one. But the
biggest, like our
big, obese bellies,
is our PHUDE. Our
make-believe,
illness-promoting,
disgusting PHUDE.
-
Raw milk is used to make
some of the world’s
finest cheeses, from the
Italian Parmigiano
Reggiano to the famous
French-made Camembert
-
Raw cheese has a richer
and deeper flavor than
cheese made from
pasteurized milk because
heat destroys the
enzymes and good
bacteria that add flavor
to the cheese
-
Raw cheese has flavors
derived from the
pastureland that
nourished the animals
producing the milk, much
like wine is said to
draw its unique flavors
from individual
vineyards
-
The US government has
been threatening to ban
raw-milk products,
including raw cheese,
despite a lack of
evidence showing them to
be dangerous
Disastrous consequences
evolved as a result of the
industrial age and beyond as
financial gain was revered
at the expense of
environmental and social
considerations. These
consequences are worst in
small single company towns
gone bust — communities
built so as to concentrate
workers on a singular
economic enterprise. Many of
these communities are now
landscapes of abandoned
assets, economic atrophy and
poisoned land and water.
State energy officials
are scrambling to fill a
large hole in California
electricity supplies now
that the San Onofre nuclear
plant has been permanently
closed by Southern
California Edison Co.
It's not just an energy
problem; it could also
become a political hot
potato. Power blackouts
helped fuel the recall of
Gov. Gray Davis a decade
ago, and Gov. Jerry Brown
may be paying close
attention as a result.
Solar activity has been at
low levels for the past 24
hours. There are currently
10 numbered sunspot regions
on the disk. The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on days one
and three (15 Oct, 17 Oct)
and quiet to unsettled
levels on day two (16 Oct).
R1 (minor) radio blackouts
occurred on 09, 11 and 13
October. G1(minor)
geomagnetic storms occurred
on 08-09 October.
In academics, 50 percent
might not mean much, but
when it comes to solar panel
research, 50 percent
efficiency is an important
benchmark.
The Fraunhofer Institute
for Solar Energy Systems has
recently broken the previous
record of 44 percent
efficiency with a new solar
cell structure that reaches
44.7 percent efficiency;
solar efficiency calculates
the ratio of surface area to
energy output based on the
amount of radiation from
sunlight hitting a given
area.
Scientists
Just Discovered Water Near a
Star 170 Light Years Away
The star GD61 is a white
dwarf. As such, it’s
insanely dense—similar in
diameter to Earth, but with
a mass roughly that of the
Sun, so that a teaspoon of
it is estimated to weigh
about 5.5 tons. All things
considered, it’s not a
particularly promising
stellar locale to find
evidence of life.
But a new analysis of the
debris surrounding the star
suggests that, long ago,
GD61 may have provided a
much more hospitable
environment.
The US Navy's top SEAL,
four-star Admiral William
McRaven, is pushing hard for
a modern suit of armor
called the Tactical Assault
Light Operator Suit (TALOS).
Though not exactly
an Iron Man suit, it's that
ballpark. As a result, a
Broad Agency Announcement
has now been issued seeking
proposals and research in
support of the design,
construction, and testing of
TALOS, with a basic version
hopefully seeing service
within three years.
A Massachusetts high school
honor student says she was
stripped of her role as
captain of the volleyball
team and suspended for five
games for showing up at a
party to drive her
intoxicated friend home.
Now there's even more
information for fracking
proponents and
environmentalists to
disagree on.
For a quick reminder,
fracking (or hydraulic
fracturing) is the process
of withdrawing natural gas
from shale rock layers
within the earth. It is of
particular interest to the
water sector because of its
byproducts. "The shale is
hydraulically fractured with
water and other fracking
fluids," according to the
pro-fracking site Energy
From Shale. That means
wastewater is leftover at
the end. Currently, there is
an energetic debate about
the dangers of that water
and how to clean it.
Syrian warplanes bombed
several rebel-held areas
Tuesday and opposition
fighters fired mortar rounds
and homemade rockets at
Damascus on the first day of
a major Muslim holiday,
activists said.
The fighting during Eid
al-Adha, or the Feast of
Sacrifice, showed how
entrenched both sides have
become in Syria's civil war,
now in its third year.
Previously, combatants
occasionally attempted to
observe holiday cease-fires.
Mullah Mohammad Omar also
called on his fighters to
intensify their insurgent
campaign against Afghan and
NATO forces, and urged all
Afghans to boycott next
year's elections, including
the vote to elect a
successor to President Hamid
Karzai.
The storm was just so
sudden, South Dakota cattle
rancher Kathy Jobgen
remembers.
A freezing rain, followed
by an avalanche of four feet
of snow and winds of 70
miles an hour, hit thousands
of cattle still grazing on
"summer pastures" at a time
when the animals had not yet
grown their protective
winter coats and were ill
prepared for the harsh
conditions.
Tesoro Corporation Monday
said it has begun developing
plans to restart the segment
of a six-inch diameter Tioga
to Black Slough, North
Dakota, that was shut
September 29 following a
leak of about 20,000 barrels
of crude oil
-
Peppermint offers
benefits to the
respiratory system,
including for coughs,
colds, asthma, allergies
and tuberculosis
-
Inhaling the peppermint
aroma may offer memory
enhancement and stress
relief
-
Peppermint essential oil
can even be used
topically for pain
relief, hair and skin
care, fresh breath and
toothpaste
-
Science now shows that
chocolate may be good
for you. Five chemical
compounds contained in
raw, unadulterated
chocolate are
highlighted to show
exactly what they are
and how they work.
-
First, antioxidant
polyphenols that
neutralize free radicals
provide some of the most
compelling aspects of
eating chocolate because
they can reduce
processes associated
with the development of
diseases like
Alzheimer’s, heart
disease and cancer.
-
Second, chocolate
contains anandamide,
named after the Sanscrit
word for “bliss,” which
is a neurotransmitter in
the brain that
temporarily blocks
feelings of pain and
anxiety.
-
The caffeine and
theobromine in chocolate
have been shown to
produce higher levels of
physical energy and
mental alertness while,
counter-intuitively,
lowering blood pressure
in women.
-
Chocolate’s
heart-friendly
properties may be due to
the presence of
epicatechins,
antioxidants which are
found in higher
concentrations in darker
and raw forms.
-
Studies showed that
one-and-a-half ounces of
dark chocolate a day for
2 weeks reduced stress
hormone levels.
Japan, where residents of
Minamata suffered lethal
mercury poisoning in the
mid-1950s, today became one
of the first countries to
sign a new international
treaty to reduce mercury
emissions and to phase out
many products containing the
toxic metal.
Germany is facing important
choices about the pace of
renewables development, and
how it should be funded,
that will have a significant
impact on economic growth
and the country's ability to
remain competitive in the
global economy as rising
electricity costs present a
growing challenge, according
to global analytics firm
IHS.
Similar to a hybrid electric
system, KERS stores braking
energy, reapplying it to the
wheels when the driver calls
for acceleration. But
Volvo's flywheel system
doesn't need batteries.
Instead, Volvo fits the
flywheel to the rear axle of
the car. As the driver
brakes, the flywheel spins
up, storing the car's
forward momentum. A
continuously variable
transmission connects the
rear axle to the flywheel.
When the driver accelerates,
the flywheel slows as the
transmission sends its
energy to the rear wheels.
In September 2013 the
'Montreal Protocol'
committed G20 countries to
reducing the 'super
Greenhouse Gases'-
hydrofluorocarbons produced
primarily from fossil fuels,
and as part of this,
alternatives to coal,
natural gas and oil must be
found, as a matter of
urgency.
For the privileged eaters of
the Western world, so much
of eating is done routinely:
cereal for breakfast, a
sandwich for lunch, probably
a protein and vegetable for
dinner. Sometimes, the act
of eating is so second
nature that the guidelines
that dictate how and when we
eat are invisible—guidelines
such as eating a steak for
dinner but not for
breakfast, or eating lunch
in the middle of the day.
Eating wasn’t always
dictated by these rules—so
why is it now?
A year after Usain Bolt made
history at the London
Olympics and declared
himself "a living legend," a
bombshell dropped largely
unnoticed in The Gleaner,
the Caribbean's oldest
newspaper: A former director
of the Jamaica Anti-Doping
Commission alleged the
island didn't drug-test its
athletes for entire months
before they dazzled at the
Summer Games.
October 11, 2013
Colonization and
the corporate mentality that
grew out of it have been
ravaging Indian country for
centuries. But since the
1800s, increased
industrialization have
stepped up the scale of
destruction to Mother Earth.
From the BP oil spill in the
Gulf of Mexico, to the PCBs
left at the General Electric
federal Superfund site in
Mohawk territory, industry
has been as hard on the
environment as it has on
Indian country. Below, some
of the most egregious
examples of what industry
has wrought on Turtle
Island.
A staggering 35 percent of
household wealth in Russia
is owned by just 110 people,
the highest level of
inequality in the world
barring a few small
Caribbean islands, a report
by a major investment
bank says.
By contrast, billionaires
worldwide account for just
1-2 percent of total
wealth...
Spanish technology and
engineering company Abengoa
SA said on Wednesday the
280-megawatt Solana solar
thermal power plant in
Arizona entered service
earlier this week.
"Electricity is just
fascinating to me," said
Sean Bullock, a Taylor
senior who has been with
Beginners Learning
Alternative Designs for
Energy, or BLADE, since the
club started in January
2012. "It's really inspiring
not just to me but, I think,
to the other students who
weren't fascinated by
electricity."
Poverty is a root
cause of crime, and without
solving the poverty issue it
may not be possible to solve
the violent crime issues
plaguing Indian
reservations. Where there
are high rates of poverty,
so there are high rates of
crime. The official poverty
rate for individual Indians
in the United States on
reservations is 29.4
percent, compared to the
U.S. national average of
15.3 percent. The
reservation poverty rate for
Indian families on
reservations is 36 percent,
compared to the national
average of 9.2 percent.
Urban Indians have a poverty
rate of 22 percent, which is
better than reservation
poverty rates. Some of the
worst poverty rates are on
reservations in the states
of Washington, California,
Wisconsin, Michigan, North
Dakota, South Dakota,
Arizona and New Mexico,
where poverty rates often
are higher than 60 percent.
It's official: California
governor Edmund G. "Jerry"
Brown has signed Assembly
Bill 327, which addresses
several topics critical to
solar energy in the nation's
biggest solar energy state:
extending net metering and
the renewable energy
portfolio standard (RPS).
An environmental
engineering consultant hired
by the city to assess health
risks at the Campostella
Square site said the buried
substance poses no immediate
threat to the public.
But the cost of fixing
other portions of the
property, owned by the
Chesapeake Redevelopment and
Housing Authority, would run
into the millions of
dollars, the consultant
said.
After ousting two state
senators last month for
backing gun-control
legislation, activists aim
to recall Sen. Evie Hudak.
If the recall bid succeeds,
Republicans take control of
the Senate.
We've received a
number of questions
regarding the recent post on
the trajectory of the US
loan-to-deposit ratio. Many
are wondering how such
fluctuations are even
possible. That's because the
classic view in money supply
analysis is that deposits
are generated only through
loans. When a bank provides
a loan, deposits are created
as a result, and when the
loan is repaid, deposits
decline accordingly. So how
is it that US deposits are
now growing while loan
growth has stalled?
A federal judge ruled on
a lawsuit filed in April
2012 by environmental and
public health groups arguing
that the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
challenging the EPA's lack
of federal regulations for
the disposal of coal ash.
Cuts in EU greenhouse gas
emissions have almost
reached the 20 percent
target set for 2020,
official figures showed on
Wednesday, stoking a debate
on how quickly the bloc
should promise deeper cuts.
The European Environment
Agency (EEA), a scientific
body set up to inform EU
policymakers, said emissions
in 2012 were around 18
percent lower than in 1990.
While the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA)
endlessly stonewalls in
establishing enforceable
guidelines for the
appropriate use of
antibiotics in livestock,
the conventional meat
industry continues to shove
about 30 million pounds of
these drugs annually down
the throats of animals. And
recent figures released by
the Pew Charitable Trusts
reveal that antibiotic use
in meat and poultry
production now outpaces the
amount used to treat sick
people by a factor of five.
As
a result of the federal
government shutdown,
essentially all services
provided by the Bureau of
Land Management will be
suspended, with the
exception of law enforcement
and emergency response
functions. Approximately
4,000 recreation facilities,
including visitor centers,
facilities, campgrounds,
boat ramps and other
recreation sites, will be
closed.
While data is
difficult to come by, there
are signs that the sharp
drop in consumer confidence
since the federal goverment
shutdown is translating into
weaker consumer spending.
For example the ICSC-Goldman
same store sales index has
unexpectedly declined.
A series of developments
supporting floating offshore
wind power signals not just
a maturing industrial
sector. It also, perhaps,
suggests a deeper
transformation.
How will my city hold up
against the next superstorm?
What's the truth about the
effect of fracking on my
drinking water? These days
our communities are faced
with more and more complex
issues. To make smart
decisions that protect the
health, welfare, and
environment of our
communities, we need access
to current, accurate
scientific information.
Just prior to the
adoption of a global treaty
on mercury[i], a new Zero
Mercury Working Group[ii]
report[iii] highlights the
importance of the treaty
being ratified as soon as
possible to reduce global
pollution and exposure to
mercury. The treaty is
expected be signed next week
near Minamata, Japan, where
a major mercury poisoning
incident was first
discovered in the 1950's
Nothing. Not a single
dime, notwithstanding the
false claims being made.
More than ninety percent
of American consumers want
food labels to say whether
they contain genetically
modified organisms (GMOs).
The big food companies have
been claiming—in advertising
and published articles—that
the new labels would cost
too much,
The white moose had
wandered the woods near Cape
Breton, Nova Scotia, for
years, sacred to the Mi’kmaq
and thus undisturbed.
But when a handful of
non-indigenous hunters came
along last week, their first
instinct was to kill it.
They not only slaughtered
the precious animal, but
also posed gleefully for
photos, which they posted
immediately on Facebook and
other social media sites.
Obama says he's willing
to sign a short term
Continuing Resolution and a
limited increase in the debt
limit lasting a few months.
Of course, he says the bills
must be clean, without
conditions, but that is a
good place to start serious
moves.
Yes, if you can afford
it—and if not, here are some
strategies. It’s a decision
we need to make every time
we go to the store: should I
buy organic? Except for
those few for whom money is
no object, the decision to
eat organic exacts a high
toll on our wallets: we pay
40% to 100% extra for the
privilege of eating food
grown without pesticides,
fungicides, herbicides,
antibiotics, and chemical
fertilizer. Most of us hope
it’s having a positive
effect on our health, but we
don’t really know.
Israeli firm Applied
CleanTech has developed a
sewage mining system that
picks out and recycles
useful fibers from raw urban
and industrial wastewater,
increasing the efficiency of
treatment plants and
reducing the amount of
unwanted sludge.
Congressional Reform Act
of 2013
Ecuadorean villagers and
a U.S. lawyer who represents
them are not entitled to a
jury in an upcoming trial
over whether they used fraud
to win an $18 billion
pollution award against
Chevron Corp, a U.S. judge
ruled on Monday.
Chevron alleges that the
villagers and their lawyer,
Steven Donziger, used fraud
and bribery to obtain the
award in an Ecuadorean court
in 2011. At the trial in
federal court in New York
that begins on October 15,
the oil company is seeking
to prevent them from
profiting from the award.
An interesting case is
creating potentially
unbearable headwinds for a
Kansas-based coal plant.
There, the state’s supreme
court just reversed a state
environmental ruling that
had issued an air permit.
The judges sent the case
back to regulators, noting
that consideration must be
given to federal laws and
proposals.
Six workers at Japan's
crippled Fukushima nuclear
plant were exposed to a leak
of highly radioactive water
on Wednesday, the latest in
a string of mishaps the
country's nuclear watchdog
has attributed to
carelessness, saying they
could have been avoided.
Two Pinellas lawmakers
are calling for the defeat
of a proposed settlement
between state regulators and
Duke Energy that would force
customers to pay $3.2
billion for nuclear power
they'll never get.
-
Preventable medical
mistakes are the
third-leading cause of
death in the US, right
after heart disease and
cancer. In all,
preventable medical
mistakes may account for
one-sixth of all deaths
that occur in the US
annually
-
According to the latest
estimates, between
210,000 and 440,000
Americans die from
preventable hospital
errors each year
-
The US has the most
expensive health care in
the world. It spends
more on health care than
the next 10 biggest
spenders combined, yet
ranks last in health and
mortality when compared
with 17 other developed
nations
-
An estimated 30 percent
of all medical
procedures, tests and
medications may be
unnecessary – at a cost
of at least $750 billion
a year
-
Once you’re
hospitalized, you’re
immediately at risk for
medical errors, so one
of the best safeguards
is to have someone there
with you to act as your
personal advocate
Alberta's oil sands
operators will continue to
grapple with the logistical
bottlenecks of hauling
oversized equipment from the
US despite about $1.2
billion being invested in
improving existing road
networks along the
Texas-Alberta trade
corridor, a provincially
elected representative said
Thursday.
At least 38 people
were killed and 25 more were
wounded in random
attacks across the country.
Most of them took place
north of Baghdad, but heavy
clashes took place just
south of the capital.
The United States has
found so many innovative
ways to save energy that the
nation has more than doubled
its economic productivity
from oil, natural gas, and
electricity over the past 40
years, according to a new
report by the Natural
Resources Defense Council
(NRDC). This means energy
efficiency has contributed
more to meeting America's
needs than all other
resources combined, NRDC
contends.
The oil complex rallied
Thursday on signs that the
US government made progress
toward ending its budget and
debt-ceiling impasse, while
concerns over Libyan oil
supply also supported
prices.
NYMEX
November crude settled $1.40
higher at $103.01/barrel and
ICE November Brent settled
$2.74 higher at $111.80/b.
A spoonful of peanut
butter and a ruler can be
used to confirm a diagnosis
of early stage Alzheimer’s
disease, according to
researchers at the
University of Florida's
McKnight Brain Institute
Center for Smell and Taste.
Members of Congress
expressed outrage Tuesday
that families of fallen U.S.
military personnel are being
denied death benefits while
Democrats and Republicans
grope for a way to end the
partial government shutdown.
The GOP-led House readied a
quick fix.
This is no news flash,
but plastics don't
biodegrade. And yet almost
50% of it never sees a
landfill. Worse,
approximately 80% of the
plastic debris in our oceans
comes from the land.
Plastics inevitably become
part of our ecosystem from
top to bottom. Of course, we
think of the most pure
environments as those in the
highest mountaintops. The
springs percolate into the
headwaters on our mountain
peaks, cascade down, hopping
rocks and tumbling through
forests into lakes,
eventually emerging into
larger rivers and ultimately
out into the oceans. Along
the way human influence
affects their purity.
Generally, we have
hypothesized that water
starts pure and becomes more
polluted with each tier of
drainage but recent research
suggests that we are not
starting with as clean a
slate as we thought.
Tropical regions will be
the first to experience
unprecedented climate
change, leading to
significant upheaval for
biodiversity and
communities, according to a
study published in Nature
today.
Regions near the equator
will be subject to mean
temperatures hotter than
anything experienced on
record an average of 15
years before the rest of the
world, putting a strain on
their rich biodiversity,
which is adapted to stable
climate conditions, finds
the study.
C1 event observed.
Recently several M Class
events observed.There are
currently 8 numbered sunspot
regions on the disk. a
chance for M-class flares on
days one, two, and three (11
Oct, 12 Oct, 13 Oct).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on days one
and two (11 Oct, 12 Oct) and
quiet levels on day three
(13 Oct).
Fayhan al-Ghamdi, who
often preached on
television, was convicted of
beating his daughter Lama
with canes, burning her with
electrical cables, crushing
her skull and tearing off
her nails. She was also
raped repeatedly and died
months later in a Saudi
hospital.
Billions of people could
be living in regions where
temperatures are hotter than
their historical ranges by
mid-century, creating a "new
normal" that could force
profound changes on nature
and society, scientists said
on Wednesday.
Temperatures in an
average year would be hotter
by 2047, give or take 14
years, than those in the
warmest year from 1860-2005
if the greenhouse gas
emissions continue to rise,
with the tropics the first
affected area, a new index
indicated.
How do you find a site
that's hosted on the Tor
system? In theory, you can't
- which is why there are
questions over how the FBI
could image it and take it
down last week
For the global solar
photovoltaic industry, it is
not a question of whether
poor-quality or
lesser-quality PV modules
are making their way into
the marketplace. They are.
The more relevant question
is when will the industry
begin to see the effects of
these lesser quality
modules, and where will the
impacts will be felt?
Southeast Asian nations
agreed on Wednesday to adopt
a new system to improve
monitoring of smog caused by
fires, an attempt to make
plantation companies more
accountable following the
region's worst air pollution
crisis in 16 years.
Thick haze, mostly from
land-clearing fires in
Indonesia, blanketed
Singapore and swathes of
neighboring Malaysia earlier
this year, stoking
diplomatic tensions as air
pollution climbed to the
most hazardous levels since
a similar crisis in 1997.
For the last few election
cycles, Ohio has been known
as the key battleground
state. But now it may be
known for something else --
helping to establish a trend
in the field of hydraulic
fracturing. Ohio's
environmental regulators may
soon allow “fracking
wastewater” to be stored in
centralized impoundments.
Unlike the suit brought
by 26 state attorneys
general, this lawsuit does
not make a constitutional
objection to the Affordable
Care Act. Instead, it uses
the language of the law to
challenge the elaborate
system of subsidies, tax
credits and individual or
employer mandates and fines
the act has spawned.
Many are predicting a
financial disaster if the
U.S. Congress fails to raise
the debt ceiling by October
17. Given the political
volatility around the issue
and the current government
shutdown, a catastrophic
outcome cannot be ruled out.
But a deep financial crisis
is unlikely, because
President Obama and the
Treasury Department have
many levers available to
help them avoid worst-case
scenarios, at least for the
near term, says Wharton
finance professor
Franklin Allen
After the group's
September 2013
meeting, Federal Reserve
members were divided about
the future of QE3. Some
members favored holding QE3
at full strength, while
other members favored the
start of a gradual
reduction. But that was
before a congressional
showdown threatened U.S.
economic output.
A prolonged shutdown of
government services may
prolong QE3 into late-2014.
The year 2013 will be
remembered as the year that
utilities in the United
States crossed the Rubicon
of renewable energy. At
first glance you might think
this is a purely partisan
matter, one of liberals and
conservatives scoring points
off each other; however, it
is actually the result of
our republican (with a small
‘r’) form of government,
wherein the profound wisdom
of our founding fathers once
again proves its worth.
Frankly, what has happened
should make each and every
American proud.
After years of economic
malaise, Europe appears to
be finally turning the
corner. But a US default
would change all that.
The U.S. Supreme Court
meets later this week to
consider whether to
undertake a legal review of
the Obama administration's
first wave of regulations
tackling climate change.
For the second week
running on Monday, the nine
justices took no action on
the cases, but the court
later in the day listed them
on its online docket for its
next private meeting on
Friday. That is when they
will decide what new cases
to take.
Massive shale-driven
production growth in the
U.S. Northeast and soaring
demand from the Southeast
will turn the nation's
traditional south-to-north
and west-to-east pipeline
natural gas flows and price
spreads upside down,
according to experts at
Bentek Energy.
Top Internal Revenue
Service Obamacare official
Sarah Hall Ingram discussed
confidential taxpayer
information with senior
Obama White House officials,
according to 2012 emails
obtained by the House
Oversight and Government
Reform Committee and
provided to The Daily
Caller.
Lois Lerner, then head of
the IRS Tax Exempt
Organizations division, also
received an email alongside
White House officials that
contained confidential
information.
A probabilistic
comparison of the investment
risks of nuclear power and
natural gas-based
electricity generating
plants has been carried out
using a total-lifecycle
power plant model. Although
the cost of the gas plant
(with carbon tax) is found
to be slightly cheaper, that
choice of fuel carries a far
greater cost uncertainty,
suggesting a greater
long-term investment risk
than nuclear power.
Expansion of nuclear
power generating capacity
has slowed considerably --
just 75 GW were added in the
last 25 years, compared to
296 GW during the preceding
quarter century, according
to Worldwatch Institute.
Today, nuclear power is the
only mainstream energy
technology that does not
show significant growth with
its share of global primary
energy supply falling from
6.4 percent in 2002 to just
4.5 percent in 2012.
October 8, 2013
That means if the US
Treasury fails to make a
principal or interest
payment on any treasury
security, an ISDA credit
event will be triggered
after three days. Markets
move much faster than
politicians.
The Pentagon on Sunday
called back to work most of
its roughly 400,000 civilian
employees, based on
administration lawyers’
legal interpretation of the
recent government slimdown.
The order was given by
Defense Secretary Chuck
Hagel, five days after
roughly 800,000 federal
workers were sent home after
Congress failed to reach a
deal to fund the government.
Rachel Carson and, more
recently, Sandra Steingraber
have successfully drawn
popular attention to the
risks of pesticides on
wildlife. Many of the
environmental consequences
of pesticides have now been
well documented by
scientists; however, studies
investigating the
evolutionary consequences of
pesticides on non-target
species are largely missing.
Not surprisingly, most
studies looking at how
species evolve in response
to pesticide-use have been
on target species such as
mosquitoes and crop pests,
which show that some target
species have evolved
resistance to common
pesticides. But, in a new
study in Evolutionary
Applications, Rickey Cothran
and his colleagues at the
University of Pittsburgh are
the first to show evidence
that non-target species, in
this case frogs, may also
evolve resistance to two
popular pesticides.
The U.S. housing market
is expanding. It's reducing
the need for one of this
year's most popular mortgage
refinance programs -- the
HARP mortgage. As home
values climb nationwide,
fewer U.S. homeowners are
requesting ultra-high LTV
mortgages.
Through the first 5
months of 2013, the majority
of HARP mortgage queries
called for loan-to-values of
105% or lower.
Astaxanthin, a powerful,
natural antioxidant that
gives the reddish color to
salmon, is a new nutritional
superstar. According to
experts, this amazing
supplement, which is in the
carotenoid family, is
thousands of times more
powerful at scavenging free
radicals than vitamin C, and
may be a major key to
preventing the degenerative
diseases of aging.
The ATF agent who blew the
whistle on Operation Fast
and Furious has been denied
permission to write a book
on the botched anti-gun
trafficking sting "because
it would have a negative
impact on morale," according
to the very agency
responsible for the scandal.
Baghdad once again
suffered a series of
coordinated bombings.
Today’s mostly occurred
during a 40-minute window.
Violence, meanwhile,
continued outside the
capital as well. Overall, at
least 71 people were
killed and 164 more were
wounded.
-
During the 2009 H1N1
pandemic, those who had
more virus-killing
immune cells, known as
CD8 T cells, either did
not get sick or had only
mild flu symptoms
-
Researchers believe that
getting a vaccine that
prompts your body to
produce more CD8 T cells
may protect you from
getting infected with
the flu, or at least
from having severe
symptoms, resulting in a
‘universal’ flu vaccine
-
Vitamin D has a direct
immune-modulating effect
on CD8 T cells and
vitamin-D deficiency may
worsen CD8 T-cell
deficiency
-
It may be, then, that
the best ‘universal flu
vaccine’ there is
doesn’t need to be
‘developed’ or ‘created’
– it already exists in
the form of natural
vitamin D
-
A town in the UK is
considering adding
fluoride to milk served
in its primary schools
in order to promote
better dental health; 10
other areas of the UK
have already introduced
fluoridated milk to its
students
-
Fluoride is a toxic
substance that is
biologically active in
the human body where it
accumulates in sensitive
tissues over time,
wreaks havoc with
enzymes and produces a
number of serious
adverse health effects.
-
25 human studies have
linked fluoride with
lowered IQ in children,
including recent
research from Harvard,
and 100 animal studies
linking it to brain
damage
-
Soda and other sweet
beverages, including 100
percent fruit juices,
have long been known to
increase your risk of
cavities. Many of these
types of beverages
supply a double-whammy
because they also cause
dental erosion
-
I believe it’s virtually
impossible to have
wholly undamaged teeth
without an optimal diet,
no matter what other
questionably preventive
methods you chose to use
It's a common misconception
that preserving your own
food is a complicated,
mysterious process that only
the truly domestic can
understand.
"Diarrheal disease is a very
important public health
problem in Botswana," said
lead author Kathleen
Alexander, who led a unique
30-year analysis (1974-2003)
on the incidence of diarrhea
in Botswana. "As a
water-restricted country,
Botswana is predicted to be
heavily impacted by climate
change. I wanted to
understand how climate
change might influence this
already critical problem and
what mitigation action was
necessary to avert potential
impact on human health."
Better observational data
and geographically precise
climate models are needed to
allow scientists to predict
the effects of rising
atmospheric greenhouse gas
concentrations at a local
level, says a major climate
change report.
Deficiencies in these
areas prevent reliable
temperature and rainfall
predictions being made on a
regional scale,..
- the nature and
magnitude of potential
high-altitude EMP
threats to the United
States from all
potentially hostile
states or non-state
actors that have or
could acquire nuclear
weapons and ballistic
missiles enabling them
to perform a
high-altitude EMP attack
against the United
States within the next
15 years;
- the vulnerability of
United States military
and especially civilian
systems to an EMP
attack, giving special
attention to
vulnerability of the
civilian infrastructure
as a matter of emergency
preparedness;
- the capability of
the United States to
repair and recover from
damage inflicted on
United States military
and civilian systems by
an EMP attack; and
- the feasibility and
cost of hardening select
military and civilian
systems against EMP
attack.
The disclosure threatens to
create a lasting rift
between the two nations.
Canadian Foreign Minister
John Baird visited Brazil in
August to court the country,
now the world’s
sixth-largest economy, as a
crucial bilateral business
partner. On Monday, the
Canadian ambassador in
Brasilia was asked to
account for the brewing
scandal.
The federal government
shutdown and looming
deadline to raise the debt
ceiling have merged into one
major problem on Capitol
Hill, though neither issue
has a resolution in sight as
the government shutdown
heads into its second week.
Democrats and Republicans
dug further into their
respective positions Monday:
Republicans are calling on
Democrats to negotiate over
a short-term spending bill
and a debt-ceiling increase,
and President Obama says he
is ready to negotiate over
any topic - once the
Republicans pass legislation
to re-open the government
and raise the U.S. borrowing
limit without any
conditions.
Exposure to pollution
from diesel exhaust fumes
can disrupt honeybees'
ability to recognize the
smells of flowers and could
in future affect pollination
and global food security,
researchers said on
Thursday.
In a study published in
the Nature journal
Scientific Reports,
scientists from Britain's
University of Southampton
found that the fumes change
the profile of the floral
odors that attract bees to
forage from one flower to
the next.
Repeated warnings that
antibiotics don't work for
most sore throats and
bronchitis have failed to
stop overuse: Doctors
prescribed these drugs for
most adults seeking
treatment at a rate that
remained high over more than
a decade, researchers
found...
Antibiotics can
have bad side effects,
including stomach pain and
severe diarrhea, and
inappropriate prescriptions
put patients at needless
risk. The practice also can
cause drug-resistant germs.
Gunmen in
southwestern
Pakistan torched a
dozen tankers
carrying fuel to
NATO troops and
killed a driver,
police said, the
latest strike
against supply
convoys heading for
Afghanistan since
Pakistan shut a key
border crossing in
this 2010 file
photo.
The U.S. Army is spending
billions of dollars shifting
toward solar energy,
recycled water and
better-insulated tents. The
effort isn’t about saving
the Earth.
The outlook for the global
geothermal market is
positive with sustained
growth projected despite
lagging U.S. markets,
according to the Geothermal
Energy Assocation (GEA). As
the United States works to
meet higher state RPS
requirements and new climate
change goals, it is hoped
that the value of geothermal
will be recognized and spur
growth.
Swarms of giant hornets
have killed 42 people and
injured 1,640 in China's
northwestern province of
Shaanxi in recent weeks, the
official Xinhua news agency
said on Thursday.
Authorities are
destroying nests, putting up
warning signs and raising
public awareness via
television, radio and the
Internet, it said. Residents
have been told to wear long
sleeves when they go out,
and not to try to drive away
the swarms.
National, community and
utility-wide efforts to move
toward greater renewable
energy use are well
publicized. However,
many consumers are becoming
frustrated with the
relatively slow pace of
those authorities and are
looking for ways to pursue
renewable energy use on
their own, perhaps even with
a goal of being "off the
grid."
But how
can an individual consumer
turn their back on a
monolithic energy supply and
generation infrastructure
that has been over a century
in the making?
According to Commerce
Department documents, 6,601
of the 12,001 employees of
the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
-- or 55 percent of the
agency's workforce -- have
been sent home without pay
due to the federal
government shutdown. At
NOAA's Climate Prediction
Center in Maryland,
employees who provide
operational climate
forecasts have stayed on the
job, but those who monitor
climate conditions have been
furloughed.
In a ceremony under a
Tree of Peace in the center
of the Hague, Onondaga
Faithkeeper Oren Lyons
presented a replica of the
Two Row Wampum to the
Ambassador for Human Rights
of the government of the
Netherlands.
Those Registering Only
With The Federal Form Should
Not Be Permitted To Vote In
State Elections
Arizona law requires those
registering to vote on a
state form to provide
evidence of citizenship. An
alternative federal form,
established under the
National Voter Registration
Act, requires only the
signature of the voter,
without additional evidence,
to establish that the voter
is a citizen.
'We are entering an unknown
territory of marine
ecosystem change,' warns
report. 'The next mass
extinction may have already
begun.'
The news, the evidence that
supports it, and the warning
that accompanies it could
hardly be more dire.
In what could become a
marquee environmental case
of the Supreme Court's next
term, the justices on Monday
are expected to consider
reviewing a lower court
ruling that upheld U.S.
EPA's regulations to reduce
heat-trapping gases.
Nine petitions are asking
the court to reverse aspects
of an appellate court's June
2012 ruling that backed
EPA's first rules following
the Supreme Court's landmark
Massachusetts v. EPA
decision, which instructed
the agency to regulate
greenhouse gases as harmful
pollutants under the Clean
Air Act.
Regulators with Japan’s
Nuclear Regulatory Agency
(NRA) told the Tokyo
Electric Power Co. (TEPCO)
that the company needed to
improve its management of
radioactive water.
According to GlobalPost,
regulators criticized TEPCO
for “rudimentary mistakes”
that resulted in several
leaks of contaminated water
at the crippled Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The president of the utility
has reportedly been summoned
to the NRA to discuss the
matter.
Following Rossi’s E-Cat,
Another Cold Fusion Device
Attracts Commercial Interest
- Brillouin Energy has
entered into its first
international licensing
agreement covering three
nations. The firm is
involved in on-going
negotiations for other
potential international
partners. This makes the
second Cold Fusion or Low
Energy Nuclear Reaction
(LENR) Lattice Assisted
Nuclear Reaction (LANR) and
Brillouin’s Controlled
Electron Capture Reaction
(CECR) idea to attract
commercial interest.
One of the shortages that
everyone expects to occur in
a power grid-down situation
is a shortage of any type of
fuel. For this reason, some
people have at least one
vehicle that runs off of
diesel, and have put a
system together to make
their own bio-diesel. But
now, there’s something new
to add to the mix — making
your own diesel and even
gasoline out of scrap
plastic.
The market for plug-in
electric vehicles (PEVs) has
expanded in recent years in
parallel with the deployment
of publicly accessible
charging stations, mainly
funded by government
programs. Today, the large
public investments for
electric vehicle supply
equipment (EVSE)
infrastructure that
characterized industry
growth in North America and
Western Europe over the past
3 years are beginning to
slow. According to a new
tracker report from Navigant
Research, there are now
almost 64,000 public
charging stations installed
globally.
The Federal Reserve of the
United States will begin
circulating a new $100 bill
on Tuesday. The redesigned
bank note, which has been
delayed by more than 2 and a
half years, includes a
number of measures designed
to make it more difficult to
counterfeit, including a 3D
security ribbon and a new
"bell in the inkwell."
The fate of nuclear power in
America is tied to the
national economy. A return
to growth will spur renewed
interest in nuclear
generation, according to
Michael Rencheck, Areva
chief executive officer.
North Korea has placed its
military on alert and warned
of "disastrous consequences"
in response to a United
States-led military drill
near the Korean peninsula.
A North Korean military
spokesman Tuesday told state
media all troops have been
ordered to "keep themselves
ready to promptly launch
operations at any time."
Many Americans have
never been to a Native
American reservation.
They’re often geographically
isolated and underdeveloped,
perpetually left off the
various lists of tourism
destinations. With sparse
and scattered populations,
tribal governments have
faced many obstacles in
exploring economic
development, including high
unemployment and
infrastructural
deficiencies. This creates a
cycle of poverty and
dependence that has
continued for decades.
Public sentiment regarding
who should manage nuclear
waste storage facilities is
shifting. According to new
research, a majority of
Americans now believes that
an independent federal
authority accountable to a
board of directors would do
a better job than a federal
agency in managing a nuclear
waste storage facility.
The world's oceans are
under greater threat than
previously believed from a
"deadly trio" of global
warming, declining oxygen
levels and acidification, an
international study said on
Thursday.
The oceans have continued
to warm, pushing many
commercial fish stocks
towards the poles and
raising the risk of
extinction for some marine
species, despite a slower
pace of temperature rises in
the atmosphere this century,
it said.
This week,
Oregon passed SB 633, known
by many as the Monsanto
Protection Act, in a special
legislative session.
The act would prevent
local governments from
enacting or enforcing any
measures which regulate
agricultural, flower,
nursery and vegetable seeds
or their products.
Essentially, it would
prevent counties and
municipalities from banning
GMO crops. The Oregon
Farm Bureau claims that this
is because it does not want
local governments to be able
to elevate some farming
practices over others.
According to a new study,
treated liquid wastes from
hydraulic fracturing
released into local
streams in the state of
Pennsylvania still contained
elevated levels of salts and
other contaminants,
potentially threatening
aquatic life and human
health.
The study also reports
high levels of radioactive
materials in stream
sediments at the disposal
site. Published in the ACS
journal Environmental
Science & Technology, it
states that the scientists
recommend the use of
advanced treatment
technologies to further
remove the potentially
harmful material.
Power grid
vulnerabilities are finally
garnering some attention by
government officials.
An electrical grid joint
drill simulation is being
planned in the United
States, Canada and Mexico.
Thousands of utility
workers, FBI agents,
anti-terrorism experts,
governmental agencies, and
more than 150 private
businesses are involved in
the November power grid
drill.
Technology is same as that
used by NASA to detect
objects in space
Referred to as FINDER, short
for Finding Individuals for
Disaster and Emergency
Response, a portable radar
device has been created that
can locate victims beneath
as much as 30 feet of
crushed material
C6 event observed .
There are currently 6
numbered sunspot regions on
the disk. Solar
activity is likely to be low
with a slight chance for an
M-class flare on days one,
two, and three (08 Oct, 09
Oct, 10 Oct). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet
levels on day one (08 Oct),
quiet to unsettled levels on
day two (09 Oct) and quiet
to active levels on day
three (10 Oct).
NIF researchers
reportedly discovered that
for the first time, the
experiment produced a fusion
reaction in which the
process of compressing and
heating a hydrogen fuel
pellet led to more energy
being released than absorbed
into the pellet.
In the past,
“inefficiencies” in the
system created
inconsistencies in how much
of the energy generated by
its 192-beam laser — the
most powerful one in the
world, according to Lawrence
Livermore National
Laboratory, which hosts the
NIF — was being delivered to
the popcorn-sized pellet.
-
Between October 18 and
November 5, Washington
State voters will mail
in their ballots for the
people's initiative 522,
"The People's Right to
Know Genetically
Engineered Food Act."
Your support is urgently
needed
-
Mounting peer-reviewed
research reveal a wide
variety of health
hazards associated with
consuming genetically
engineered foods and the
chemicals that accompany
these crops
-
Part of the original
industry rationale for
using GE crops was that
they could be sprayed
with less toxic
herbicides, such as
Roundup—which was touted
as harmless and
biodegradable
-
Now, mounting research
reveals that Roundup may
actually be one of the
most toxic chemicals
ever to enter our food
supply
-
49 percent of American
farmers are now battling
Roundup resistant weeds
in their corn- and soy
fields. In an effort to
get rid of them, they’re
resorting to
ever-increasing amounts
of Roundup and more
toxic herbicides such as
2,4-D and Dicamba
Stand-up comedians have
long joked that some
things, like the actual
components of chicken
nuggets, are better left
mysterious.
Recently, Mississippi
researchers found out
why: two nuggets they
examined consisted of 50
percent or less chicken
muscle tissue, the
breast or thigh meat
that comes to mind when
a customer thinks of
"chicken."
In the U.S., two thirds of
the population has fluoride
in their water, according to
The Guardian
report, which provides a
useful breakdown of fluoride
practices in various corners
of the world.
If you drink water from a
municipal supply in the US,
you’re probably drinking
fluoridated water; here are
10 eye-opening fluoride
facts that are imperative to
understand.
The project has identified
four European test sites,
each with its own unique set
of issues; including leakage
control, water quality
management, energy
optimizations and ageing
pipe network. The
SmartWater4Europe consortium
seeks to overcome these
hurdles by developing and
demonstrating an integrated
solution for smart
management of water
distribution channels.
Arizona Public Service's
(APS) 280 MW Solana
Generating Station near Gila
Bend is being hailed for its
use of concentrated solar
power (CSP) technology and
thermal energy storage.
Solana is one of the
largest power plants of its
kind in the world, using CSP
technology to produce
electricity by collecting
the sun's heat to create
steam that turns
conventional turbines. The
process begins with 2,700
parabolic trough mirrors,
which follow the sun to
focus its heat on a pipe
containing a heat transfer
fluid.
A comprehensive new report
outlines ways to create
50,250 new American jobs and
save more than $61 billion
in future energy costs by
expanding the use of
innovative and
cost-effective solar heating
and cooling (SHC) systems
across the nation. Prepared
by BEAM Engineering, a
Boston-based consulting firm
which focuses on energy
system design and
implementation, this new,
first-of-its-kind report
provides a roadmap for
dramatically increasing SHC
capacity in the U.S. from 9
gigawatts thermal to 300 GW
thermal by 2050 through the
installation of 100 million
new SHC solar panels
nationwide
Arizona Public Service (APS)
Company's history of
generating electricity from
dirty fossil fuels dates
nearly all the way back to
the gunfight at the O.K.
Corral. Now, Arizona's
largest utility is taking
aim at the state's clean
energy future by targeting a
key incentive for solar
power.
The destruction of Syria's
chemical weapons has begun,
international monitors have
said.
The operation is being
overseen by a team from the
Organisation for the
Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons (OPCW).
Tokyo Electric Power Co.
President Naomi Hirose on
Monday showed the firm's
intention of not relying on
an electricity rate hike in
securing some one trillion
yen over the next 10 years
for measures to deal with
radioactive water leaks at
its stricken Fukushima No. 1
nuclear power plant
Although Tucson Electric
Power's (TEP) Power Partners
pilot project is not yet
complete, preliminary
findings have shown
increased customer
satisfaction and consumer
engagement, as well as
improved energy efficiency
as a result of the program's
personalized
energy-efficiency
suggestions, goal setting
and performance tracking
tools, and expert advice.
We know how the short
end of the US treasury curve
is expected to react to a US
technical default. But what
about the long end of the
curve? A survey from
JPMorgan suggests that
investors are divided.
The US federal
government impasse is
clearly having a material
impact on the economy. The
impact is both direct - from
government employees and
many companies that do
business with the federal
government - and indirect
from the hit to the American
consumer and consumer
spending. Here is part what
the direct impact looks
like:
-
Americans spend twice as
much on health care per
capita than any other
country in the world;
more than 17 percent of
US gross domestic
product, or $2.7
trillion dollars every
year, is spent on health
care
-
Despite all of this
spending and
pill-popping, the US
ranks dead last in terms
of quality of care among
industrialized
countries, and Americans
are far sicker and live
shorter lives than
people in other nations
-
A review of US
healthcare expenses
revealed that 30 cents
of every dollar spent on
medical care is wasted,
adding up to $750
billion annually. Major
areas of waste include
excess administrative
costs, inflated prices,
and fraud
-
Generic medications can
cost 100 times less than
their brand-name
equivalent, and usually
cost less than most
insurance co-pays. This
means you might actually
pay LESS by purchasing a
generic medication out
of pocket
-
Most diagnostic tests
and procedures are
inexpensive to perform.
However, the charges for
these tests and
procedures typically
have no relation to the
actual cost. Hospitals
routinely bill 10 or
more times what they
expect to be paid
In 2011, when he was
traveling to shoot photos
for a new book on the
disappearing wildlife of
East Africa, Across the
Ravaged Land,
photographer Nick
Brandt came across a truly
astounding place: A natural
lake that seemingly turns
all sorts of animals into
stone.
Getting too little or too
much sleep is associated
with chronic diseases such
as heart disease and
diabetes, a new study finds.
..
Compared to optimal
sleepers, short sleepers
were more likely to have
heart disease, stroke,
diabetes, obesity and
frequent mental distress.
The same was true for long
sleepers, and the
associations with heart
disease, stroke and diabetes
were even stronger with more
sleep.
-
There are NO
peer-reviewed scientific
papers establishing the
safety of GMO crops.
There are, however, both
clinical and
peer-reviewed scientific
papers showing the
hazards of GMO crops,
including harmful
secondary effects
-
Epidemiological patterns
show there’s an
identical rise in over
30 human diseases
alongside our increased
usage of glyphosate and
the increased prevalence
of genetically
engineered proteins in
our food
-
Glyphosate is not “just”
an herbicide. It was
originally patented as a
mineral chelator. It
immobilizes nutrients,
making them unavailable
for your body. It’s also
patented as a potent
antibiotic that can
devastate human gut
bacteria
-
The EPA recently doubled
the amount of glyphosate
allowed in food. Soybean
oil is now allowed to
contain a whopping 4,000
times the limit at which
it can impact your
health
Uncertainty is growing about
the future of a reactor at
Japan Atomic Power Co.'s
nuclear power plant in
Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture,
that was once appeared
certain to be decommissioned
for safety reasons. ..
In earthquake-prone Japan,
utilities are not allowed to
build reactors or other key
facilities for nuclear power
generation above faults that
could move and damage them.
Drivers in Virginia may
not be aware that big
brother is watching them.
The state government has
been quietly collecting
driver data from the
Department of Motor Vehicles
to create a database of
residents, according to the
Richmond Times-Dispatch.
In June, after years of
offshore wind power projects
being thwarted in the United
States, the first offshore
wind turbine began spinning
off the U.S. coast. The
turbine was not a
multi-megawatt, 400-foot
behemoth off of
Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
New Jersey, or Texas — all
places where projects had
long been proposed. Rather,
the turbine was installed in
Castine Harbor, Maine,
rising only 60 feet in the
air and featuring a
20-kilowatt capacity —
enough to power only a few
homes.
Yes, all cars are
susceptible to fires, but
even ones that received a
5-star safety rating overall
and in every subcategory by
the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration?
How long will it take
for the US Treasury to run
out of funds if the October
17th deadline comes and goes
without an increase in the
debt ceiling? The answer is
- less than a couple of
weeks...
In such a scenario, the
Treasury would be forced to
dramatically cut back on
current spending with
adverse implications for the
economic recovery. Even if
it were to prioritise debt
service - something the
Treasury has repeatedly
stated it has neither the
legal authority nor
logistical capability to do
- it would likely incur
arrears on a range of
payment obligations and thus
continue to incur debt, but
in a disorderly and
disruptive manner.
October 4, 2013
A federal grand jury on
Thursday indicted 13 members
of the Internet hacking
group Anonymous for
allegedly carrying out
cyber-attacks worldwide,
including targets that
refused to process payments
for WikiLeaks, the
anti-secrecy website founded
by Julian Assange.
At least 28 people were
killed and 98 more were
wounded across the
country today. Baghdad was
again struck with a series
of bombings, but so were
many other towns across the
region.
Energy and water are
inherently linked on both
the supply and end-use
sides, hence the
energy-water nexus. New
research from the American
Council for an
Energy-Efficient Economy can
help utilities recognize the
connection between energy,
water and energy efficiency
in order to save water,
energy and costs.
Unfortunately, the attack on
Adobe also compromised
customer names, encrypted
credit or debit card
numbers, expiration dates,
and other information
relating to customer orders
Successful
microalgae-to-biodiesel
conversion has been the goal
of some renewable energy
researchers for more than
two decades. But after years
of research on how to best
grow these Carbon Dioxide
(CO2)-loving plants in open
ponds, a commercially viable
solution has remained
elusive.
The Arizona Corporation
Commission (ACC) is
recommending the rejection
of two Arizona Public
Service Company (APS) net
metering proposals. A
recommendation from the
Arizona Corporation
Commission staff calls for
the rejection of two Arizona
Public Service Co.
alternatives to deal with
how solar customers are
compensated for producing
excess energy. The ACC
report contends that the
current net metering
structure is not fair for
all customers and must be
changed.
The APS plant that gave
birth to commercial solar
power in Arizona quietly
comes of age this month in
Flagstaff. Instead of
celebrating with a glamorous
“Sunny Sweet 16” party, this
teenager will simply keep
turning sunlight into clean,
renewable energy for APS
customers.
Mortgage rates have
dropped to a 12-week low,
re-igniting the national
Refinance Boom and helping
to make homes more
affordable for today's U.S.
home buyers.
The average conventional
30-year fixed-rate mortgage
rate is now 4.22%
nationwide. FHA and VA
mortgage rates have made
similar improvements.
-
Anal secretions from
beavers, called
castoreum, smell like
vanilla and are used to
flavor baked goods,
pudding, chewing gum and
more
-
Castoreum falls under
the category of a
natural flavor, so you
won’t see it listed
specifically on a food
label
-
Many natural flavors are
created in a laboratory
and bear little
resemblance to the
natural product from
which they came; the
resulting chemical may
even be identical to
those created
synthetically to make
artificial flavors
-
Remember that both
artificial and natural
flavors are trying to
simulate the flavors
that nature readily
provides when you eat
fresh, whole foods
Early results from
government tests on dead
bees this spring and
summer show levels of
controversial pesticides
are comparable with
those detected last
year, when Health Canada
declared a link between
the seed-coating
chemicals and “unusually
high” bee deaths, the
Star has learned.
The news represents
stronger evidence that
types of neonicotinoids
— a class of
insecticides that act on
the nervous system —
lathered on corn and soy
seeds are contributing
to reported bee
declines, say beekeepers
and environmentalists
who want the substances
banned in Canada.
Bigfoot is real, and
there's now both DNA and
video evidence to prove it,
claims one group of devoted
Sasquatch researchers.
The group's
"never-before-seen footage"
of an alleged Bigfoot
creature sleeping in the
woods of Kentucky has been
presented this week along
with various blood and hair
samples said to be unlike
anything seen before.
an outbreak so serious that
it's going to kill the
equivalent of every man,
woman, and child in Naples,
FL every single year. I'm
guessing you haven't even
heard about this plague --
and that's exactly how Big
Pharma wants it.
Because they're causing it.
An alarming new
study from the Centers for
Disease Control and
Prevention claims that at
least 23,000 Americans a
year are being killed by
super diseases that have
become resistant to
antibiotics. And the real
number may be much, much
higher.
BP's manager in charge of
controlling the Macondo
blowout in 2010 was never
trained to permanently plug
a ruptured oil well and said
in court on Wednesday the
British company was not
fully prepared for the worst
offshore oil spill in U.S.
history.
California’s quest to regain
its status as the land of
golden opportunity is now,
partly, centered on the
allowance of drilling in the
Monterey Shale formation,
which holds about 15.4
barrels of recoverable crude
oil. The governor there just
signed a new fracking law
that gives producers access
to the region
"California Gov. Jerry Brown
on Tuesday signed a bill
outlawing so-called revenge
porn and levying possible
jail time for people who
post naked photos of their
exes after bitter breakups.
Senate Bill 255, which takes
effect immediately, makes it
a misdemeanor to post
identifiable nude pictures
of someone else online
without permission with the
intent to cause emotional
distress or humiliation. The
penalty is up to six months
in jail and a $1,000 fine."
-
Agricultural usage
accounts for about 80
percent of all
antibiotic use in the
US, so it's a MAJOR
source of human
antibiotic consumption
-
According to a new CDC
report, antibiotics used
in livestock plays a
role in antibiotic
resistance and “should
be phased out”; 22
percent of
antibiotic-resistant
illness in humans is in
fact linked to food
-
MRSA infection has been
rapidly increasing among
people outside hospital
settings as well.
Increasing evidence
points to factory-scale
hog facilities as a
source
-
Previous research
suggests you have a
50/50 chance of buying
meat tainted with
drug-resistant bacteria
when you buy meat from
your local grocery store
-
Excessive exposure to
antibiotics—which
includes regularly
eating antibiotic-laced
CAFO meats—also takes a
heavy toll on your
gastrointestinal health.
This in turn can
predispose you to
virtually any disease
The gap between solar and
wind, and hydropower is
steadily shrinking in China.
We review some new projects
being built in the country
and elsewhere.
WITH 30GW of new
capacity installed
during 2012, global
cumulative hydropower
capacity jumped to
1127GW by the year-end,
providing an estimated
3524TWh of electricity
generation annually.
Thus, this technology is
still by far the one
with the highest
cumulated installed
capacity among renewable
energy sources.
Just over half (51%)
of the hydro capacity
installed in 2012 was in
China.
A man from one of the
lowest-lying nations on
Earth is trying to convince
New Zealand judges that he's
a refugee — suffering not
from persecution, but from
climate change.
The 113th Congress, which is
on track to pass fewer bills
than any recent Congress,
did pass two hydropower
bills that were signed by
President Obama on August 9,
2013. The two bills, the
Hydropower Regulatory
Efficiency Act of 2013
(“HERA”) and the Bureau of
Reclamation Small Conduit
Hydropower Development and
Rural Jobs Act (“Reclamation
Act”), will expand the
federal government’s
authority to develop
hydropower on existing water
resources and streamline the
permitting process for new,
small hydropower projects.
Because of the remote, but
still present, danger of
such an event happening,
finding ways to deflect
asteroids is of great
interest to scientists and
engineers. The idea floated
by researchers at
Strathclyde University in
2012 involves sending a
fleet of small satellites
that fires lasers at a
potentially dangerous
asteroid. The purpose
wouldn't be to destroy it in
a spectacular Death
Star-like explosion, but to
nudge it into a new orbit.
By setting the price that
the plant's operator would
receive for wholesale
electricity over 20 years,
Maryland's Public Service
Commission tried to pre-empt
federal authority, the
decision found. That
violated the supremacy
clause of the Constitution,
which states that federal
law wins out in cases where
state law conflicts.
Democrats are closing the
government to protect a
lemon of a law.
Obamacare went into
effect yesterday despite
widespread evidence it was
not ready to launch, even
three years after the law
was passed.
The implementation
problems are not small. The
“exchanges,” websites where
Americans who don’t have
insurance (or whose
employers have dropped their
coverage) must buy new
policies, had major
technical breakdowns in 47
states yesterday.
Duke Energy has issued a
request for proposals
seeking options to generate
electricity to replace the
nuclear generators at the
Crystal River plant -- and
is under fire for it. Duke
Energy operates two other
coal-fired generators at the
plant and has told state
regulators it plans to phase
out these units sometime
before 2020 because they are
too expensive to operate and
require substantial
upgrades.
Deputies are checking
Midlands hospitals for
someone with a gunshot wound
after a would-be burglar
broke into an armed
85-year-old woman’s
residence early Sunday.
The locked-and-loaded
Kennerly Road woman said she
was awakened by her dog
barking at about 2:15 a.m.
She said she grabbed her
handgun and went to
investigate. When she
entered her dining room, she
came face to face with an
intruder, according to the
incident report.
Energy Secretary Ernest
Moniz dismissed the
"controversy" surrounding
the loan program that gave
taxpayer funding to a
now-bankrupt solar energy
company, calling the program
"a terrific success" despite
the high-profile
bankruptcies.
With no end in sight to
the federal government
shutdown — and worries
mounting by the minute about
its impact on the U.S.
economy — what can the
private sector do to help
spur job creation and
economic growth in the
future?
Here’s one good idea: The
Solar Energy Industries
Association (SEIA) has just
released a comprehensive new
report outlining ways to
create 50,250 new American
jobs and save more than $61
billion in future energy
costs by expanding the use
of innovative and
cost-effective solar heating
and cooling (SHC) systems
across the nation.
The fewest nuclear
reactors in two years are
shutting to refuel
nationwide this fall,
limiting price increases for
natural gas, coal and power.
Twenty-one plants are
going offline from September
to November, compared with
30 last year, according to
data compiled by Bloomberg.
Shutdowns by companies from
Exelon Corp. to Duke Energy
Corp. may be 18 percent
below the 10-year average as
the 18-to-24-month refueling
cycle enters a lull.
Rain has been scarce in
South Texas, where the oil
and gas boom is depleting
precious aquifers...
Farmers in South Texas are
struggling with uneven crops
and some that never emerged
as the Rio Grande Valley
suffers through its driest
stretch ever recorded.
A
renewable industry
investment executive told
geothermal industry leaders
in Las Vegas Monday (Sept.
30) that slow growth and
unfair renewable tax
incentives threatened the
future of geothermal power.
While the solar power
sector is growing
rapidly, the geothermal
energy industry is
“struggling to stay
relevant,..
In 2014, global photovoltaic
(PV) installations are
forecast to rise at their
fastest pace in three years,
exceeding 40 GW for this
first time and generating
installation revenue of more
than $86 billion, according
to IHS Inc.
-
Saying no is a single
strategy that can have
endless benefits to your
stress levels and
well-being, but how you
say no matters
-
Saying “I don’t” instead
of “no” or “I can’t”
effectively improved
study participants’
ability to make
healthier choices and
stick with their goals
-
“I don’t” is a powerful
choice, an affirmation,
whereas “I can’t” is a
restriction being
imposed upon you
-
Erase the phrase “I
can’t” from your
vocabulary and replace
it with “I don’t” when
you’re trying to avoid
potentially
self-defeating habits,
temptations, or
obligations
According to Avner Vengosh,
professor of geochemistry
and water quality at Duke
University’s Nicholas School
of the Environment, high
concentrations of
radioactivity, salts, and
metals have been found
downstream from a
wasterwater treatment plant
in a western Pennsylvania
creek. The plant is used to
remove specific metals from
hydraulic wastewater, but
the Duke team found that
certain metals, such as
chlorides and bromides,
haven’t been successfully
removed. In fact, they
contribute to four-fifths of
the total downstream
chloride flow.
The total coal traded and
cleared on the ICE Futures
platform rose for the second
consecutive month in
September to the highest
monthly volume on record,
jumping 51% on-month to
146.7 million mt, according
to data released Wednesday
in energy exchange ICE
Futures Europe and
electronic trading platform
globalCOAL's monthly report.
The total was also a
little more than double the
65.2 million mt of coal
traded and cleared in
September 2012.
The shutdown of U.S.
government operations and
services due to the
political stalemate in
Washington will have a
minimal impact on U.S.
municipal credits provided
the shutdown is short lived,
as expected, according to
Fitch Ratings. However, if
extended, the impact of
funding reductions will
become more pronounced.
The Penan indigenous
people affected by the Murum
dam in the Malaysian state
of Sarawak on the island of
Borneo have renewed their
blockade of the dam site.
They say are protesting
because the state government
has failed to fulfill their
demands for fair
compensation, enough land
for farming and a share in
the profits flowing from the
dam.
Jack Dorsey tweeted the
account on Tuesday, asking:
"Are citizens of Iran able
to read your tweets?"
The reply said he was
working to ensure they would
"comfortably b able 2 access
all info globally as is
their right".
Okay folks. Settle down. Let
me set the stage for this
discussion before you all
drape yourselves in partisan
rhetoric...
But what if... what if the
dysfunction we're now
experiencing at the hands of
our elected officials was
exactly what the
founding fathers designed
into the DNA of the nation?
My point here is that there
is no “perfect” time to
start training to use a
firearm. For all the people
you and I know who are too
scared or too embarrassed or
too young or too old to try,
remember that good
instruction and a little
patience go a long way.
The United States and Japan
agreed on Thursday to
broaden their security
alliance, expanding Japan’s
role while maintaining an
American military presence.
The deal underscored the two
countries’ efforts to
respond to growing
challenges from China and
North Korea in a time of
budget constraints.
A Japanese fast-food chain
has announced plans to grow
rice and vegetables on a
farm 100 km (60 miles) from
the crippled Fukushima power
plant, site of the world's
worst nuclear disaster since
Chernobyl in 1986.
The moon jellyfish
reportedly clogged pipes in
the cooling system of the
Oskarshamn nuclear power
plant, forcing operators to
shut down the 1,400 MW
plant. The article said
workers were making
preparations to restart the
reactor.
"The U.S. government can
prosecute misdemeanor
driving offenses on Indian
reservations, a federal
magistrate judge ruled
Tuesday in rejecting a
request to dismiss charges
against a Blackfeet tribal
leader and Montana state
senator. U.S. Magistrate
Judge Keith Strong said the
federal government shares
jurisdiction with tribal
governments. He rebuffed
arguments by Shannon
Augare’s attorney, who said
the federal government’s
case against the Blackfeet
Tribal Business Council
member and Democratic
senator was an intrusion of
tribal sovereignty."
Kamakura Corporation
reported Tuesday that the
Kamakura troubled company
index ended the month of
September at 6.27%, a
decrease of 0.17% since last
month. The index reflects
the percentage of the
Kamakura 35,000 public firm
universe that has a default
probability over 1.00%. A
decrease in the index
reflects improving credit
quality.
"How's the weather?" has
just become a topic of
interstellar conversation.
Using data from NASA's
Kepler and Spitzer space
telescopes, astronomers have
mapped the first clouds
discovered on an extrasolar
planet. Not only does this
technique give us an
interesting bit of pure
science, it could also be
applied in the search for
more earth-like planets
according to NASA.
An armed mob broke into the
Russian Embassy compound in
the Libyan capital, Tripoli,
on Wednesday, a day after a
Russian woman was accused of
killing a Libyan Air Force
pilot, Libyan officials
said. The Russian Foreign
Ministry said none of the
embassy’s staff members were
wounded; Libyan officials
said one of the attackers
was killed by random
gunfire.
Hydrogen fueling stations in
the U.S. using Linde North
America fueling technology
have reached over half
million fills -- and still
climbing -- powering a
variety of vehicles,
including forklifts, cars
and buses.
The arbitrary nature of the
death penalty as practiced
in the US is laid bare in a
new study that shows that
just 2% of counties across
the nation have generated
most of the executions in
the past 40 years.
If the House Republicans
come away from the shutdown
exercise with only one
accomplishment: the end to
the taxpayer subsidy of
health plans for Congress,
its staff, and federal
appointed officials, it will
be a very, very big win
which will resonate
throughout the land.
The flood of stories on
government spying will not
be slowing soon -- in fact
the majority of the most
important documents
detailing how the U.S.
National Security Agency
collects personal data have
not been published yet,
journalists from U.K.
newspaper The Guardian
said on Tuesday.
With a bit of dedication, a
business could save 10-20
percent off their bill,
according to Bettison. Smart
for Small Business targets
customers using
50,000-300,000 kWh of
electricity annually, which
Bettison described as a
“single location business”
such as a restaurant or a
small office.
The war, which started in
November 1872, pitted the
small Modoc Tribe—numbering
fewer than 400
people—against the United
States Army. Led by Captain
Jack and Schonchin John, the
Modoc fought to retain
rights to their homeland, a
six-square-mile reservation.
“The war really was about
greed,” said Taylor Tupper,
spokeswoman for the Klamath
Tribes. “It’s not a secret
that the federal government
and certain individuals
wanted the land for
themselves. This was
happening across the nation.
The land was going to be
taken, tribes were supposed
to disappear, to no longer
exist.”
Unlike other solar-powered
electrical plants, the new
Solana Generating Station
keeps the sun's energy
working after dark to
produce electricity for APS
customers across Arizona.
Solana represents an
important technological
advance in solar energy
production compared to the
more-common photovoltaic
technology, which needs
direct sunlight in order to
produce electricity. The
three-square-mile facility
near Gila Bend uses
concentrated solar power
(CSP) technology and thermal
energy storage to capture
the sun's heat to generate
clean, renewable
electricity.
A new radioactive water
leak has been discovered at
Japan’s crippled Fukushima
nuclear plant, its operator
said on Wednesday, according
to Japanese news agencies.
Tokyo Electric Power
(TEPCO) said the highly
radioactive water had leaked
at the Fukushima No. 1 plant
from a different storage
tank to the one where a
similar leak was found in
August, Jiji and Kyodo news
agencies reported.
The chances of changing it
in the Senate now are very
low, but they could take up
the bill under unanimous
consent and voice vote as
soon as today or perhaps
tomorrow, so please write
your senators one more
time—and phone them as
well!—because miracles do
sometimes happen.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) says it
will operate as normal for
one week during the
government shutdown, but
there will be changes if the
shutdown lasts for a longer
period.
No, I'm not talking about
higher insurance costs and
unnecessary red tape between
you and your doctor.
What’s coming could be much
worse for your family's
health – and wealth -- for
decades to come.
We’ve put together a website
that shows you what’s
coming… when it’s coming…
and how to “opt-out” of this
next crisis.
iven that iPhones can
already be used to perform
skin exams, perhaps it
shouldn't come as a surprise
that they're now able to do
eye exams, too. Researchers
from Harvard Medical
School's Massachusetts Eye
and Ear Infirmary have
devised a way of using the
phones to perform fundus
photography, which is the
photographing of the retina.
While the iPhone just
requires an app and a lens
to perform the task, a
complete fundus camera can
cost tens or even hundreds
of thousands of dollars.
Former U.S. Treasury
Secretary Henry Paulson and
New York City Mayor Michael
Bloomberg are sponsoring a
study of how climate change
will affect the United
States and what that
disruption will cost.
The true price of deadly
storms, prolonged drought
and other extreme weather
that most scientists believe
is climate change brought
about by human actions is
unknown. That knowledge
could aid business and
government leaders trying to
respond to the changes, the
men said in a video
statement announcing the
study.
It's a gross topic but a
serious problem. Half a
million Americans get
Clostridium difficile, or
C-diff, infections each
year, and about 14,000 die.
The germ causes nausea,
cramping and diarrhea so bad
it is often disabling. A
very potent and pricey
antibiotic can kill C-diff
but also destroys good
bacteria that live in the
gut, leaving it more
susceptible to
future infections.
Recently, studies have shown
that fecal transplants —
giving infected people stool
from a healthy donor — can
restore that balance. But
they're given through
expensive, invasive
procedures like
colonoscopies or throat
tubes. Doctors also have
tried giving the stool
through enemas but the
treatment doesn't always
take hold.
The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission has put PPL's
Susquehanna nuclear plant on
notice for a string of
recent safety violations.
Issued by the NRC were
one "notice of violation"
and two, less serious
notices of "non-cited
violations." All involved
breaches of radiation
protection requirements by
contract workers at the
Luzerne County facility.
Municipal renewable energy
initiatives are hardly a new
concept. In many cases the
main goal is a heightened
environmental sensitivity,
and often installing more
renewable energy is just one
component of broader
policies that might also
include eco-friendly
transportation or more
efficient waste management
or a district heating
system. In other examples,
renewable energy has been
identified as an engine for
economic rejuvenation.
C1 event observed.
There are currently 4
numbered sunspot regions on
the disk. Solar
activity is expected to be
very low with a chance for a
C-class flares on days one,
two, and three (04 Oct, 05
Oct, 06 Oct).
Leading climate
scientists said on Friday
they were more convinced
than ever that humans are
the main culprits for global
warming, and predicted the
impact from greenhouse gas
emissions could linger for
centuries.
The Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) said in a report that
a hiatus in warming this
century, when temperatures
have risen more slowly
despite growing emissions,
was a natural variation that
would not last.
It said the Earth was set
for more heatwaves, floods,
droughts and rising sea
levels from melting ice
sheets that could swamp
coasts and low-lying islands
as greenhouse gases built up
in the atmosphere.
When it comes to fueling
power plants, natural gas
has become the path of
“least resistance.” But one
impediment to becoming the
“fuel of choice” has been
concerns over excessive
methane releases, which is
the most potent greenhouse
gas of them all. A new
study, though, is easing
some of those worries.
Basic laws of supply and
demand dictate that as
global demand for energy
continues to rise, the price
of energy will rise as
well. These expected energy
price increases, along with
environmental and security
concerns, have led to an
explosion in the renewable
energy industries,
especially at the individual
consumer level.
Low-cost gas and reduced
energy demand are hammering
the US nuclear industry.
Some plant operators are
finding ways to fight back.
An international team
tasked with overseeing the
effort to rid Syria of its
chemical weapons has arrived
in Damascus.
The Organisation for the
Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons said Tuesday that
the inspectors are focusing
on the initial planning
phase of helping the
embattled country destroy
its chemical weapons
production facilities.
They plan to visit nearly 50
sites as part of the
mission.
Some are not convinced the
plan will work.
What is easier, removing
96.5 parts of something from
3.5 parts of something else
or removing 3.5 parts of
something from 96.5 parts of
something else? All else
being equal, of course it is
easier to remove the lesser
component from the larger.
But that is not how most
water desalination
technologies work today.
Reverse osmosis (RO) and
vacuum distillation (VD) all
work by removing the water
from the salt water. So, how
can you remove salt from
water?
The U.S. Department of
the Treasury released a
report on the potential
macroeconomic effects of
debt ceiling brinksmanship.
The report states that a
default would be
unprecedented and has the
potential to be
catastrophic: credit markets
could freeze, the value of
the dollar could plummet,
and U.S. interest rates
could skyrocket, potentially
resulting in a financial
crisis and recession that
could echo the events of
2008 or worse. By looking
at the disruptions to
financial markets that
ensued in 2011, the report
examines a variety of
economic indicators –
including consumer and small
business confidence, stock
price volatility, credit
risk spreads, and mortgage
spreads – through which a
similar episode might harm
the economic expansion.
-
Antidepressant-induced
violence and homicide is
an international
problem, but it is
particularly apparent in
the US due to the
widespread use (and
misuse) of these drugs
-
31 commonly-prescribed
drugs are
disproportionately
associated with cases of
violent acts. Five of
the top 10 most
violence-inducing drugs
are antidepressants.
Commonly used ADHD drugs
are also on the list
-
Research has found that
one in every 250
subjects taking Paxil or
Prozac were involved in
a violent episode. In a
study group of 25,000
people, this included 31
assaults and one
homicide
-
ADHD drugs were
responsible for nearly
23,000 emergency room
visits in 2011—a more
than 400% increase in ER
visits due to adverse
reactions to such drugs
in a mere six years
-
The American Psychiatric
Association recently
issued a statement
urging doctors and
patients to reconsider
the practice of using
anti-psychotic
medications as the first
line of treatment for
dementia, behavior
problems, and insomnia
The operator of Japan's
crippled Fukushima nuclear
plant said on Tuesday that
four tonnes of rainwater
contaminated with low levels
of radiation leaked during
an operation to transfer the
water between tank holding
areas.
Tokyo Electric Power Co,
or Tepco, has been trying to
contain contaminated water
at the Fukushima site after
it found 300 tonnes of
radioactive water had leaked
from a tank at the plant.
Fukushima suffered triple
nuclear meltdowns and
hydrogen explosions after a
March 2011 earthquake and
tsunami.
TVA today announced that
it generated more
electricity at its 29
hydroelectric dams in fiscal
2013 than any other year in
its 80-year history.
TVA said the dams
provided 18.5 million
megawatt-hours of energy,
breaking the previous record
set in 1973 by 122,000
megawatt-hours.
Late yesterday, under threat
of a lawsuit, the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA)
responded to a nearly
four-year-old petition,
calling for the immediate
withdrawal of the vast
majority of
arsenic-containing compounds
used as feed additives for
chickens, turkeys and hogs.
A lawsuit filed by Center
for Food Safety (CFS), the
Institute for Agriculture
and Trade Policy (IATP) and
seven other U.S. food
safety, agriculture, public
health and environmental
groups compelled the FDA to
respond. The FDA will
withdraw three of the four
arsenicals and all drug
approvals associated with
them. Of the 101 drug
approvals for arsenic-based
animal drugs, 98 will be
withdrawn.
Researchers have shown that
it is possible to compromise
the functioning of a
cryptographic chip without
changing its physical
layout. Based on altering
the distribution of dopants
in a few components on the
chip during fabrication,
this method represents a big
challenge for cyber-security
as it is nearly impossible
to detect with any currently
practical detection scheme.
The
U.S. Army is spending
billions of dollars shifting
toward solar energy,
recycled water and better-
insulated tents. The effort
isn’t about saving the
Earth.
Instead, commanders
have found they can save
lives through energy
conservation. It’s
especially true in
Afghanistan, where
protecting fuel convoys
is one of the most
dangerous jobs, with one
casualty for every 24
missions in some years.
US natural gas exports to
Mexico will more than double
in 3 years -- from an
average of 2 Bcf/d in 2013
to 4.5 Bcf/d in 2016,
according to a report from
Barclays Capital.
The
expected increase comes as
natural gas demand in Mexico
has been strong and is
poised to accelerate
further, driven by new power
generation and industrial
use, and enabled by "a
massive expansion of the
country's pipeline network,"
said the report, issued late
Tuesday.
US utilities generated
71,574 GWh in the week that
ended Saturday, down 2.3%
from the 73,293 GWh
generated in the
corresponding week of 2012,
the Edison Electric
Institute said Wednesday.
The weekly total was
3,650 GWh below the 75,224
GWh produced in the week
that ended September 21, EEI
said.
A new campaign to inform
Americans about the value of
water and the challenges
facing the nation's water
infrastructure was created
by the Value of Water
Coalition, a group
comprising the leading
organizations responsible
for ensuring the safety,
reliability and
sustainability of U.S.
waters.
As India progresses on the
path of development in this
new age of resource scarcity
and increasing population
pressure leading to
increased waste generation,
the issue of waste
management assumes critical
importance.
Infrastructure needs have
never been so great, and yet
capital investment is
historically low. A handful
of strategic water projects
may hold the key to
kick-starting a new age of
infrastructure spending and
renewal.
City officials hope to
obtain a $5 million grant to
pay for overhauling
Watertown's wastewater
treatment plant to turn its
sludge into methane gas.
Money that migrant
workers send to their
families and homeland is far
more valuable to developing
countries than foreign aid
and is expected to grow 6.3%
this year, a new World Bank
study said Wednesday.
Migrants are expected to
send $414 billion in
remittances home this year
to developing countries, the
study said, and the figure
will likely surpass $500
billion by 2016.
An assault on the
transmission grid in
Arkansas is likely the
result of a grievance with
the utility or the
developer's chosen path. The
incident, under
investigation by the FBI,
underscores the need for
greater vigilance of those
assets that are the
lifeblood of the American
economy.
October 1, 2013
Nuts are nutritional powerhouses, packed with heart-healthy fats,
protein, vitamins, and
minerals. Once maligned as
too fat-filled to be
beneficial for health,
doctors now say that certain
types of nuts are excellent
choices for snacks.
A series of bombings took
place in mostly Shi’ite
neighborhoods of Baghdad,
including Sadr City. Due to
the effectiveness of the
many bombings, different
sources have been giving
highly conflicting casualty
figures, but at least 65
were killed and 203 more
were wounded.
Most people think of
history as a series of
stories—tales of one army
unexpectedly defeating
another, or a politician
making a memorable speech,
or an upstart overthrowing a
sitting monarch.
Peter Turchin of the
University
of Connecticut sees things
rather differently. Formally
trained as a ecologist, he
sees history as a series of
equations. Specifically, he
wants to bring the types of
mathematical models used in
fields such as wildlife
ecology to explain
population trends in a
different species: humans.
The AES Corporation (AES)
today announced it is now
operating more than 100 MW
of grid-scale storage
resources with the
commercial operation of its
40 MW resource in Ohio.
Located at Dayton Power and
Light's (DP&L) Tait
generating station in
Moraine, Ohio, the project
is providing fast-response
frequency regulation
services to PJM
Interconnection to stabilize
the grid that serves more
than 60 million people.
Algae-derived biofuels
can reduce the life cycle of
carbon dioxide emissions by
at least 50 percent compared
to petroleum fuels, a U.S.
university study found.
The peer-review study --
the first to analyze
real-world data from an
existing algae-to-energy
demonstration scale farm --
indicates the environmental
and energy benefits of algae
biofuel are at least on
equal footing with, and
likely better than,
first-generation biofuels,
Algal Biomass Organization
of Preston, Minn., said
Thursday in a release.
Last week, the Centers for
Disease Control (CDC) issued
a report that confirmed a
connection between the
routine use of antibiotics
in livestock and a growing
number of superbugs, such as
methicillin-resistant
staphylococcus aureus
(MRSA), that are resistant
to most antibiotics.
According to the CDC, this
growing bacterial resistance
results in the deaths of at
least 23,000 people a year
and sickens 2 million more.
If you’re one of the
millions of Americans
with an implanted
medical device – an
artificial joint, heart
stent, defibrillator,
gastric band, or others
– you’re probably
confident that it’s safe
because it has been
tested.
In most cases, you’d be
wrong.
According to a comprehensive
new analysis by the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory,
obtaining 25 percent of
electricity in the western
U.S. from renewable energy
will reduce carbon dioxide
pollution by up to 34
percent and save $7 billion
annually in fossil fuel
costs. The report also puts
to rest the fossil fuel
industry myth that wind
energy’s pollution savings
are smaller than expected
because fossil-fired power
plants run at lower
efficiency when wind is
generating electricity.
A brain-eating amoeba was
found in the drinking water
in St. Bernard Parish, LA,
resulting in the death of a
four-year old boy playing on
a Slip 'N Slide last month.
According to the state
Department of Health, the
municipality is fighting the
threat by adding chlorine to
its water lines to kill off
any remaining parasites. The
parasite in question,
Naegleria fowleri, afflicts
people who inhale it with
the symptoms of meningitis,
including headaches and
vomiting. The amoeba
generally enters through the
nose and eats the brain.
In the midst of California's
ongoing economic recovery, a
new survey finds that
residents are unsure about
fracking and the effect of
the state's climate change
law AB 32.
A cancer-causing
industrial solvent known as
TCE continues to threaten
the water supply in Michigan
even though the government
has been trying to address
the problem for years, a
scenario that is hardly
unique to that part of the
country.
New infrastructure,
including wells, has been
constructed in Knapp, MI in
the last decade to safeguard
local drinking water
sources, costing millions of
dollars. But TCE "continues
to vex state officials and
residents as it creeps
toward new wells that Knapp
and others dug to replace
tainted ones,"..
The ability of microbes to
resist antibiotics—fed by
overuse of these drugs in
both people and food
animals—can “spread between
continents with ease” and
lead to possible pandemics,
according to the Centers for
Disease Control.
In a
recently released report,
Antibiotic Resistance
Threats in the United
States, 2013, the CDC states
that at least 2 million
Americans are sickened each
year by bacteria that are
resistant to one or more
types of antibiotics,
leading to at least 23,000
deaths.
Four companies were cited
for 30 safety violations for
the death of a worker at the
Arkansas Nuclear One plant.
The U.S. District Court in
Eastern Louisiana ordered
the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency on
Friday to decide within 180
days whether it will require
new limits on the nutrient
pollution that is causing
the growth of dangerous
algae in the waters of
Illinois and the Mississippi
River basin. Attorneys at
the Natural Resources
Defense Council led the
suit, filed on behalf of
Prairie Rivers Network and
other members of the
Mississippi River
Collaborative. Too much
nitrogen and phosphorus is
causing the Gulf of Mexico
Dead Zone, toxic algae
blooms and is polluting
drinking water.
Water, like gold, is where
you find it and NASA’s
Curiosity Mars rover has
discovered water in the
Martian soil in greater
quantities than expected.
The unmanned explorer’s
analysis of the first soil
samples taken in Gale Crater
indicate that water is
present globally and
uniformly in the Martian
topsoil, and isn't found
just at the polar ice caps.
The director of a Hillary
Clinton documentary has
cancelled the project,
saying political
interference had made the
film impossible.
It was recently reported
that a very rare triple
swarm of earthquakes rocked
Yellowstone National Park.
In fact, Bob Smith, a
geophysics professor out of
the University of Utah, says
he has never seen even two
swarms occur together before
in all the 53 years that he
has been monitoring seismic
activity. Now, he he’s
seen three.
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency has added
an option to reduce
pollution from the 2,250 MW
coal-fired Navajo Generating
Station in Arizona that
would require shutting down
one of the plant’s three
units. The proposal to meet
compliance under the EPA’s
regional haze rule was
submitted by a group that
includes Salt River Project,
the operator of the
facility.
SRP has previously said
installing one selective
catalytic reduction (SCR)
system on each of the three
units would around $544
million, with costs possibly
exceeding $1.1 billion if
additional equipment is
needed. Under its proposal,
one unit at the plant would
be shut down by Jan. 1, 2020
and installing SCRs on the
other units would be delayed
until 2030.
The well-named weak
interaction between
particles is so weak that
neutrinos (particles that
interact only through the
weak interaction and
gravity) pass easily through
a light-year of lead without
interacting with any of the
lead nuclei.
While standards for existing
plants will help reduce
power sector carbon
emissions, they could lead
to an overreliance on
natural gas if they are not
designed in the right way.
In addition, the U.S. will
need to make much deeper
cuts in emissions to limit
some of the worst impacts of
climate change...
-
Beets fertilized with
human urine were 10
percent larger, and
those fertilized with
urine/ash were 27
percent larger than
those grown with
conventional fertilizer
-
Urine is naturally rich
in nitrogen, potassium
and phosphorus – the
same ingredients in
conventional fertilizers
-
Urine is sterile, free
and readily available,
although
urine-separating toilets
required for widespread
collection are rarely
used
-
Urine represents a
viable natural
alternative to chemical
fertilizers, as do other
sustainable options,
like enriching the
microorganisms in the
soil
As Congress once again dukes
it out over the healthcare
reform law, a key part goes
into effect
Since October 2012, electric
power companies have
announced the retirement of
five nuclear reactors at
four power plants. The five
reactors have a combined
capacity of nearly 4,200
megawatts. The recent
retirements are the first
since 1998. Decisions to
retire the units involved
concerns over maintenance
and repair costs and
declining profitability.
Units
-
According to the latest
statistics, 17 percent
of British boys and 16
percent of girls now
fall in the obese
category. In the US, 18
percent of American
children between the
ages of six and 11 are
obese
-
In the US, the poorest
people have the highest
obesity rates—an
indication that the
problem stems from their
food choices.. Something
in the cheapest and most
readily available foods
is creating metabolic
havoc
-
Refined fructose,
typically in some form
of corn syrup, is now
found in virtually every
processed food and fast
food meal you can think
of, and fructose
actually “programs” your
body to consume more
calories and store fat
-
Grains are another
culprit, as they quickly
turn into sugar in your
child’s body. These
types of carbs (fructose
and grains) affect the
hormones insulin and
leptin, both of which
are very potent fat
regulators
-
The simplest way back
toward health, for
children and adults
alike, is to focus on
WHOLE, ideally organic,
foods -- foods that have
not been processed or
altered from their
original state
Risk analysis groups
have detected an
increased frequency of
Atlant
hurricanes due to
climate change, forcing
insurance companies to
rethink their models.
When it comes to the
calculating the likelihood
of catastrophic weather, one
group has an obvious and
immediate financial stake in
the game: the insurance
industry. And in recent
years, the industry
researchers who attempt to
determine the annual odds of
catastrophic weather-related
disasters—including floods
and wind storms—say they’re
seeing something new.
Forget using tape recorders
and smartphones to play back
spoken messages – what if
you could simply hear them
through a finger? Disney
researcher Ivan Poupyrev has
come up with a system that
allows for just that. Using
the human body as a sound
transmitter, the technology
lets you hear audio messages
when someone touches your
ear with their finger. Even
more strikingly, it also
lets you hear those spoken
messages off the surface of
any ordinary object you
might touch, like a knife or
a ring.
Men with low testosterone
may have a slightly
increased risk of developing
or dying from heart disease,
according to a new review.
Researchers analyzed
studies that looked at
testosterone levels and
cardiovascular disease
and were published
between 1970 and 2013.
Testosterone is a male
sex hormone involved in
sex drive, sperm
production and bone
health. Over time, low
testosterone may
contribute to an
increase in body fat and
a loss of muscle bulk
and body hair.
Many of the incentive
programs that have helped
California - and San Diego
in particular - lead the
nation in solar installation
projects are quickly running
out. Thanks to the stunning
popularity of adding rooftop
solar panels to homes and
businesses, the incentive
programs are being depleted
of cash earlier than
projected.
"There have been a number
of federal and state
incentives that are designed
to get more adoption of
solar power, but pretty soon
these policy initiatives are
going to sunset," said Holly
Smithson, president of clean
energy trade group CleanTech
San Diego.
The force is clearly with
them.
In a reported first,
researchers at Harvard and
the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology have developed
a newfangled technology that
theoretically could be used
to construct an actual
lightsaber.
Until now, photons, or
the mass-less particles that
constitute light, were
thought to not interact, but
rather simply pass through
each other, just two beams
of luminescence during a
laser-light show.
-
On November 5,
Washington State will
cast their votes for the
people's initiative 522,
"The People's Right to
Know Genetically
Engineered Food Act."
Your support is urgently
needed
-
The “NO on 522” campaign
has already raised more
than $11 million—nearly
four times the amount
raised by the
pro-labeling camp.
Monsanto alone has
donated $4.8 million to
the anti-labeling
campaign
The “Monsanto Protection
Act” has been removed from
the Senate Continuing
Resolution appropriations
bill, which funds the
government for another three
months past September 30,
2013. The U.S. House added
the rider to the version
they sent to the Senate.
A report from SNL Energy
says that 36,471 MW of
nuclear capacity could be at
risk from hurricanes in the
continental United States.
The report uses hurricane
hazard zones defined by the
American Red Cross
stretching from Maine and
down the coast to Texas.
According to the latest
issue of EIA's "Electric
Power Monthly," with data
through to July 31, 2013,
net electrical generation
from non-hydro renewable
energy sources (i.e.,
biomass, geothermal, solar,
wind) increased by 15.21%
during the first seven
months of 2013 compared with
the same period in 2012.
Solar grew by 85.32%, wind
by 208.87% and geothermal by
1.08%.
To accommodate higher
amounts of wind and solar
power on the electric grid,
utilities must cycle (start
and stop their conventional
generators) more frequently
to provide reliable power to
their customers. New
research from the Energy
Department's National
Renewable Energy Laboratory
(NREL) quantifies the
potential impacts of
increasing wind and solar
power generation on the
operators of fossil-fueled
power plants in the West.
"The National Security
Agency has been mining for
several years its massive
collections of e-mail and
phone call data to create
extensive graphs of some
Americans’ social
connections that can include
associates, travel
companions and their
locations, according to the
New York Times. The social
graphing began in 2010 after
the NSA lifted restrictions
on the practice, according
to an internal January 2011
memorandum, the Times
reported online Saturday. It
based its article on
documents obtained by former
NSA contractor Edward J.
Snowden and interviews with
officials."
NASA released satellite
images of the island that
appeared after last week's
7.7 magnitude earthquake.
Small emerging markets are
the next big opportunity for
global solar growth,
according to IHS, where
photovoltaic (PV)
installations are expected
to rise at about triple the
global average from 2012
through 2017.
-
here are only 2-4 human
rabies cases in the US
each year, but annual
prevention costs are
more than $300 million
-
The Texas Department of
Health is using
helicopters to spread
100,000 rabies vaccines
for skunks in the
wilderness; other states
have also conducted
similar vaccination
efforts
-
No one knows if such
programs are effective
or if the indiscriminate
spreading of a
pharmaceutical product
into the environment is
going to have any
unforeseen consequences
to wildlife or the
surrounding ecosystem
The first rainwater
harvesting and reuse system
in an Atlanta, GA school is
helping students and
teachers reduce the amount
of water used in toilet
flushing by 50 percent. Two
30-GPM UV Pure Upstream
systems provide the final
step of the treatment
process at D.M.
Global remote microgrids are
multiplying due to a number
of factors, including high
costs for existing energy
services in many parts of
the world and declining
costs for solar
photovoltaics and other
renewable distributed energy
generation technologies. In
fact, Navigant Research
reports that worldwide
revenue from remote
microgrids will grow from
$3.1 billion in 2013 to more
than $8.4 billion in 2020.
The combination of an
aggressive state renewable
portfolio standard,
continued federal tax
credits, grants, and other
support, along with the
implementation of a state
greenhouse gas emissions
cap-and-trade program, has
encouraged significant
additions of renewable
capacity in California.
T
A long-awaited analysis of
"net metering," the policy
that allows homeowners,
school districts and
businesses to offset the
cost of their electric use
with the rooftop solar power
they generate and export to
the grid, finds the policy
will cost California's
nonsolar customers $1.1
billion a year by 2020.
Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov told journalists
during a press conference
that the West should help
encourage those rebels who
don't harbor "extremist or
terrorist views" to join the
talks to settle the 2 ½-year
conflict.
"The goal now is to waste no
more time and seat those
reasonable opposition
members at the discussion
table with the government,"
said Lavrov. "Those who
aren't thinking about
founding a caliphate on
Syrian territory, who aren't
thinking only about how to
seize power and then use it
at their own discretion."
With no end in sight to the
ongoing solar trade dispute
between the United States
and China, the Solar Energy
Industries Association
(SEIA) is offering an
industry compromise between
the U.S. and Chinese solar
industries, which could
serve as the centerpiece for
a fair, negotiated
settlement of outstanding
issues, benefit end users,
and encourage the
proliferation of solar
energy in the United States
and globally.
Small modular reactors,
also known as SMRs, may one
day become prevalent at the
Savannah River Site.
However, a recent report by
a union organization
denounces the use of them.
The report, "Small Isn't
Always Beautiful," was
released earlier this month
by the Union of Concerned
Scientists. The nonprofit
group concluded in the
report that it would be
difficult for the small
reactors to generate less
expensive electricity, and
be safer than the larger
reactors.
The pro-environment Greens'
caucus said Snowden, who
leaked a trove of documents
on U.S. surveillance
agencies' programs, deserves
to win because he "risked
his freedom to protect us."
October 1, 2013: South
Korean Hyunmu-3 cruise
missiles are displayed
during a ceremony marking
the 65th anniversary of
Armed Forces Day at a
military airport near Seoul,
in Seongnam, South Korea.
South Korea displayed the
domestically-built missiles
capable of hitting all parts
of North Korea and other
sophisticated weapons at the
country's biggest Armed
Forces Day ceremony in a
decade.
Knowing its vital role to
the industry, the Water
Environment Federation (WEF)
works year-round to craft a
technical program that
addresses the most pertinent
topics in wastewater. For
this, the 86th
edition, WEF has neatly
identified eight trending
and essential focus areas,
helping to bring order to
the (controlled) chaos that
accompanies a show of this
size and scope.
As a former trainer reveals,
the U.S. government deployed
nonhuman operatives—ravens,
pigeons, even cats—to spy on
cold war adversaries
Major General Charles 'Mark'
Gurganus and Major General
Gregg Sturdevant have both
been asked to retire over
the September 2012 attack
Fifteen Taliban insurgents
slipped into Camp Bastion
and destroyed $200million in
U.S. aircraft Prince Harry
was at the base at the time
and Taliban said suicide
squad had intended to kill
him
It will be difficult for
small reactors -- which are
less than a third the size
of a standard 1,000-megawatt
nuclear reactor -- to
generate less expensive
electricity and maintain the
level of safety associated
with large reactors,
according to a new report
from the union of Concerned
Scientists (UCS).
Wells Fargo bank said it
will pay $869 million to
Freddie Mac to settle claims
of potential fraud in home
loans it sold to the US
government-controlled
mortgage company.
In a short statement
issued Monday night, the
California based bank said
the agreement will allow it
to substantially resolve
liabilities on home loans it
sold to Freddie Mac before
2009 and the emergence of
the financial crisis.
The accord was announced
five days after Citigroup
said it would pay Freddie
Mac $395 million to settle
similar claims.
That’s right, a messy
desk is a sign of an
innovative mind at work, not
a chaotic one. At least
that’s the sage suggestion
from a team of researchers
at the University of
Minnesota.
Here’s how they reached
this conclusion.
The debate over health care
got me wondering in recent
days: Why does health care
cost so much in the first
place? And why are costs out
of control? For instance, in
1970, health care costs were
roughly the same as the
consumer price index (CPI),
a measurement of how much
things cost. Today, the CPI
is five times its 1970
levels while health care
costs are nearly 19
times their 1970 costs,
on average.
But why?
Hint: Government
intervention.
The state’s biggest
utilities, in a milestone
for New England’s wind power
industry, have signed
long-term contracts to buy
wind-generated electricity
at prices below the costs of
most conventional sources,
such as coal and nuclear
plants.