With the hustle and bustle of everyday
life, it's easy to forget about what and
who you're grateful for.
By Mike Robbins
Hydrogen -- Star Gas, Everywhere, Yet Unseen. Sunlight is its Child.
(Haiku by Stephen Wetlesen)
April 29, 2014
Over the last decade, as
genetically modified, or
GMO, foods have increasingly
taken over our food supply,
we’ve been learning more
about their dangers to our
health.
Now, one courageous
doctor is pointing to
mounting evidence that
leaves no doubt — GMO
foods are even worse than we
were told.
The Global Oceans Action
Summit for Blue Growth and
Food Security concluded
today in The Hague with
commitments from 80
government ministers, the
fishing industry and civil
society to tackle key
threats to the world’s
oceans: climate change,
overfishing, habitat loss
and pollution.
When most people think of
counterfeit goods, they
probably picture things like
handbags or watches. In
fact, there's also a huge
market for knock-off
high-end food products, such
as extra-virgin olive oil.
Scientists from
Switzerland's ETH Zurich
research group, however,
have come up with a possible
method of thwarting the
makers of that bogus oil –
just add synthetic DNA
particles to the real thing.
And yes, consumers would
proceed to swallow those
particles.
AEP-Texas says it is
cracking down on customers
who are using illegal and
dangerous tactics to save
money on their electric
bills.
This week, the utility
company has brought
theft-of-service charges
against three of its
Harlingen customers who
together cost AEP almost
$2,000.
Each person was charged
with a Class A misdemeanor.
The Nevada cattle rancher at
the center of a land dispute
with the federal government
should not have to surrender
his property, an Arizona
official says, because he
has been acting within the
boundaries of the law.
Barry Weller, vice
chairman of the Apache
County Board of Supervisors,
told J.D. Hayworth and John
Bachman on "America's Forum"
Monday on Newsmax TV that he
thinks Cliven Bundy was
right in standing up to the
Bureau of Land Management,
which sought to seize his
ranch.
-
A new study revealed
that mothers’ exposure
to organophosphate
pesticides during
pregnancy was associated
with lower IQ, increased
risk of attention
problems, poorer
cognitive functioning
and other problems in
their children
-
Prenatal exposure to
chlorpyrifos pesticide
was also associated with
lower IQs and poorer
working memory in
three-year-olds
-
Exposure while in the
womb to DDT, a pesticide
banned in 1972 after
close to 30 years of
use, increases women’s
risk of high blood
pressure decades later
-
The pesticide industry
pours millions of
dollars into lobbying
efforts to defeat
increased regulations at
both the state and
federal levels; they’ve
also engaged in tactics
to discredit scientists
revealing pesticide
dangers
-
Eating organic foods as
much as possible is one
of the best ways to
reduce your pesticide
exposure, along with not
using them in your home
(including on pets or
for head lice treatment)
"There's an energy boom
going on in America. It's
not happening on public
lands; it's happening on
private lands. It's out in
West Texas, it's out in
South Texas, it's in North
Dakota, it's in Northeast
Ohio, it's in Pennsylvania
and elsewhere as the
technology to extract more
oil and gas continues to get
perfected," Boehner said.
"That's going to mean lower
energy costs for Americans."
[Ed: short term vs.
long term? How much
are we willing to risk for
short term gain?]
As Boulder prepares for a
possibly lengthy legal
battle with Xcel Energy,
officials with the city's
Energy Future project are
turning their attention to
figuring out how much power
Boulder could realistically
generate locally through
solar and other means, how
the city will measure
progress in cutting
greenhouse gas emissions and
what its approach to natural
gas use will be under a
potential municipal utility.
Large parts of Brazil are so
windy - both with high
and consistent wind
speeds - that this is a
perfect fit. The very same
wind turbines end up
producing more kWhs of clean
power than in other, less
windy parts of the world.
The current goal is to
generate 10% of the
country's electricity from
the wind by 2021, or enough
to pretty much power Sao
Paula, South-America's
largest city with 11 million
people (almost 20 million in
the metro area).
The current drought hitting
California makes the nightly
news in many of the state's
major markets — and for good
reason. It's the worst
drought California has seen
for 15 years. The entire
state is officially in
drought, according to the
April 22 edition of the U.S.
Drought Monitor. Every area
in California is suffering
from "moderate" to
"exceptional" drought, and
most of the state is either
in "extreme" or
"exceptional" states of
drought — the most severe
levels. Reservoirs are key
for providing water to both
cities and farmers.
Tesla has teamed up with
SolarCity to help energy
users firm up their power
supply and deal with
utility-imposed demand
charges. EnergyBiz recently
interviewed JB Straubel,
Tesla co-founder and chief
technology officer. His
edited comments follow.
Duke Energy plans to move an
oversized transformer from
Terre Haute to Rockville on
Monday, starting at 8:30
a.m., an action that will
temporarily close sections
of some roads in Vigo and
Parke counties.
An Egyptian court
sentenced the leader of the
outlawed Muslim Brotherhood
and 682 supporters to death
on Monday, intensifying a
crackdown on the movement
that could trigger protests
and political violence ahead
of an election next month.
In another case signaling
growing intolerance of
dissent by military-backed
authorities, a pro-democracy
movement that helped ignite
the uprising that toppled
autocrat Hosni Mubarak in
2011 was banned by court
order, judicial sources
said.
Accelerated retirements in
either the nuclear power
generation sector or
coal-fired power generation
sector would have an impact
on projections for carbon
dioxide (CO2) emissions, the
U.S. Energy Information
Administration reported.
Accelerated coal-fired power
retirement would
significantly reduce project
CO2 emissions, while
advanced nuclear power
generation retirement would
slightly increase projected
CO2 emissions.
Ethanol was pitched as
the new hope for alternative
fuels in America, but what
if it’s actually worse than
conventional gasoline?
That’s exactly what a new
government-funded study is
saying in an analysis of
cellulostic ethanol — fuel
made from byproducts like
the leftovers from growing
corn.
The study suggests that
while ethanol might cut
emissions in the long term,
in the short term, it
actually produces 7 percent
more emissions than
gasoline. That means it
can’t meet the emissions
targets and goals set by the
2002 CAFE Standards along
with the Obama
Administration and
government officials to
reduce American
contributions to global
climate change.
Free market economists
are not going to be happy
about this...
A major financial news
source just published
shocking details about a
research report by two
employees at the Federal
Reserve Bank. The 36-page
report applauds the use of
“capital controls” in global
markets.
If you’re unfamiliar with
the term “capital controls,”
it’s probably because we
tend to avoid them in the
United States in favor of a
free market economy.
Ruptured aging
pipeline, image
courtesy of
PHMSA. If
employees accept
all of the
available
buyouts, PHMSA
will shrink to a
full-time staff
of 386, putting
it 112 jobs
short of its
approved payroll
for the current
fiscal year.
The federal regulator for
petroleum pipelines and
oil-toting railcars is
offering employee buyouts
that could shrink the
agency's staff by 9 percent
by mid-June—a step that has
confounded observers because
the agency is widely
regarded as being
chronically understaffed.
A federal commission says
NorthWestern Energy
overcharged large electric
customers in Montana by
millions of dollars for
transmission "regulation"
service, and must repay
them.
The company, however,
strongly disputes the ruling
and said Friday it will
examine how it can overturn
it.
"We don't think we owe
anybody a refund," said
NorthWestern Energy...
Fitch Ratings has published
recovery analysis for U.S.
Power companies...
France may be the world's
most nuclear energy
dependent country, but times
are changing as the country
looks to increase the amount
of wind—sourced electricity
in its power mix.
When French President
François Hollande took the
reins of power in 2012 he
pledged to reduce the
country's nuclear dependency
from 75% to 50% by 2025.
A big crowd is expected for
Thursday's public forum to
discuss Pilgrim Nuclear
Power Station's
glitch-filled performance
last year and its ultimate
downgrade by federal
regulators to among the nine
worst reactors in the
country.
It looks like the clean
energy hub in Buffalo is
gaining some momentum.
With a major Japanese
solar panel manufacturer
signing an agreement to
study the feasibility of
setting up a factory in
Buffalo -- it would be a
natural to locate at the
planned RiverBend clean
energy hub -- the push to
build a new industry in
Western New York is starting
to generate some energy of
its own.
The fundamentals of
the U.S. economy suggest
a strong performance in
the rest of the year
after a weather-related
setback in the first
quarter. The absence of
a drag from cutbacks in
federal government
spending adds to the
optimism. The Fed will
complete its asset
purchases by year-end,
with labor market and
inflation developments
driving the timing of
any tightening.
Africa’s Congo
rainforest, the
second-largest tropical
rainforest in the world, has
lost its much greenness over
the past decade, a new
analysis of satellite data
shows.
The study demonstrates
that a persistent drought in
the Congo region since 2000
has affected the greenness
of an increasing amount of
forest area and that the
browning trend has
intensified over the 13
years of the study.
Buendia's winning highlights
one of several efforts
around the world to halt
mega dams proposed in
emerging countries where
surging demand for
electricity outpaces supply.
At least 41 people were
killed and 63 more were
wounded today. Meanwhile,
Iraq forces flew into Syria
to conduct an air strike.
Also, more details about a
failed militant takeover in
Diyala last month were
revealed.
The Iraqi government
claims to have sent military
helicopters to Syria, where
they launched an air strike
against a convoy allegedly
carrying arms to militants
in Anbar. Eight drivers were
killed near Abu Kamal in
Syria.
Several weeks ago I wrote
about the VA employees in
Los Angeles who
intentionally destroyed
veterans’ medical records in
order to eliminate the
shameful backlog of patients
waiting for
appointments–many of them
for months or even years.
This week CNN followed
that report of fraud with an
infuriating story of its
own, this one on the
misconduct of VA officials
in Phoenix.
Marijuana may be
exacerbating the effects of
the California drought.
"Streams in Northern
California's prime
marijuana-growing watersheds
likely will be sucked dry
this year if pot cultivation
isn't curtailed," the Press
Democrat reported.
Microsoft Corp is rushing to
fix a bug in its widely used
Internet Explorer Web
browser after a computer
security firm disclosed the
flaw over the weekend,
saying hackers have already
exploited it in attacks on
some U.S. companies. PCs running
Windows XP will
not receive any
updates fixing
that bug when
they are
released,
however, because
Microsoft
stopped
supporting the
13-year-old
operating system
earlier this
month. Security
firms estimate
that between 15
and 25 percent
of the world's
PCs still run
Windows XP.
Should Parents Be Allowed to
Decide About Vaccines?
-
There are health risks
associated with
vaccines, and vaccines
don’t always work.
Despite that, the
editorial board of a
national newspaper
recently declared that
you should not be free
to make vaccine choices
for yourself or your
children
-
If you are a parent and
follow the federally
recommended vaccine
schedule, your child
will receive no less
than 69 doses of 16
vaccines between day of
birth and age 18. Up to
15 of those vaccines are
mandated in different
states
-
Despite having the
highest vaccination rate
using the most vaccines
mandated by law of any
nation on earth,
American children are
among the sickest in the
developed world
-
Mounting evidence shows
that vaccinated people
can spread infectious
diseases even though
they have been
vaccinated
-
Vaccinated people can
also still get infected
because a) most
vaccine-acquired
artificial immunity is
temporary, and b)
microbes can evolve to
evade vaccines
Taiwan’s government said
it would halt construction
of a nuclear power plant to
quell protestors.
A government official
said lawmakers agreed that
after the safety inspection
was completed for Unit 1, it
would be sealed off and
would not go into operation,
according to The Wall Street
Journal. All work on Unit 2
would be stopped
immediately. The
announcement came after
protestors gathered in
Taipei demanding the
government to move away from
nuclear power.
C3 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be low with a slight chance
for an M-class flare on days
one, two, and three (29 Apr,
30 Apr, 01 May). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on days one
and two (29 Apr, 30 Apr) and
quiet levels on day three
(01 May).
Senate Republicans are
fighting the EPA's effort to
clarify the breadth of its
authority over U.S. waters.
"Senator Pat Toomey and
14 of his colleagues sent a
letter to EPA administrator
Gina McCarthy pointing out
the dubious legal and
scientific basis for [a
proposed EPA rule] and
asking for the maximum
comment period to hear from
affected Americans,"..
Large US banks'
financial results for the
first quarter indicate a
slowdown in asset quality
improvement as loan quality
measures near a cyclical
trough, according to Fitch
Ratings. This trend may
pressure earnings if loan
loss provisioning outstrips
top line revenue growth.
As provision expenses
increased notably for some
banks in 1Q14, reserve
releases fell to $2.5bn
among the 12 large US
commercial banks from $4.3bn
last quarter. We expect
reserve releases to continue
to decline and likely
reverse in 2014 as there is
little room for further
improvement in asset
quality. The Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency
has also heightened
regulatory scrutiny on the
level of loan loss reserves
and the magnitude of
releases.
In the last four years, the
solar generating capacity
has increased by 418
percent, according to the
U.S. Energy Information
Administration (EIA). This
includes residential and
commercial rooftop and other
photovoltaic (PV) capacity
reported by distribution
utilities as net-metered,
utility-scale PV equal to or
greater than 1 MW, and
utility-scale solar thermal
capacity greater than or
equal to 1 MW.
New Mexicans are beginning
to act on the reality that
their Pueblo brethren could
have taught them centuries
ago: The sun is a great
energy source...
A recent news report
indicated that solar energy
jobs are showing the fastest
growth nationally, Grissom
added. The Solar Foundation
announced that solar energy
jobs in 2013 grew by 20
percent over the previous
year; that compares to an
overall national job growth
in that period of 1.9
percent.
Solar Wind Energy Tower,
Inc. the inventor of large
Solar Wind Downdraft Tower
structures capable of
producing abundant,
inexpensive electricity,
today is pleased to announce
that on Wednesday, April 23,
2014, the City Council of
San Luis, Arizona,
unanimously approved a
"Development and Protected
Development Rights
Agreement" which guarantees
the necessary local
entitlements for development
of the first Solar Wind
Downdraft Tower in the City
of San Luis, AZ. on the site
under contract as announced
last week
When it comes to
driving the development of
renewable energy technology,
no greater facilitating
force exists than the U.S.
Department of Defense (DOD).
Acting on a mandate to
achieve 25 percent
reliability on renewable
energy by the year 2025, the
DOD has been busy in its
aggressive pursuit of that
goal — proving that more
often than not, great things
can result from unlikely
alliances.
A nuclear industry group
says that U.S. technical
standards do not allow
Soviet-made reactors in
Ukraine to use U.S. nuclear
fuel.
The International Union
of Atomic Energy and
Industry Veterans said that
using U.S. nuclear fuel in
the reactors could cause
accidents comparable to what
happened at Chernobyl,
according to RIA Novosti/i>. The
Czech Republic stopped
purchasing fuel from
Westinghouse after an
incident at the Temelin
nuclear power plant a few
years ago in which
decompression of heat
elements occurred.
The US on Monday said it has
imposed sanctions on seven
Russian government
officials, including Igor
Sechin, president and
chairman of state-owned oil
company Rosneft, in response
to the escalation of
tensions in Ukraine.
The warming climate is
melting sea ice, opening
U.S. Arctic waters to
shipping and oil and gas
development, but the
National Research Council
warned today that U.S.
personnel, equipment,
transportation,
communication, navigation,
and safety resources are not
adequate for an Arctic oil
spill response.
Militants on Monday
targeted polling stations
across much of Iraq and a
crowd of Kurds jubilantly
dancing on the street as
soldiers and security forces
cast ballots two days ahead
of parliamentary elections,
officials said. The attacks,
including a suicide bombing
northeast of Baghdad, left
at least 46 people dead.
The wave of attacks was
an apparent attempt to
derail the balloting process
and discourage the rest of
the country's 22 million
registered voters from going
to the polls on Wednesday in
the first nationwide
elections since the 2011
withdrawal of U.S. forces.
The weather is not the
only challenge for parched
California water districts.
Outdated water policies may
exacerbate difficulties
caused by the drought.
"The inequities of
California's system of water
rights, a hierarchy of haves
as old as the state," is a
major problem for the Golden
State, according to an
analysis piece in the
Los Angeles Times.
-
Highly toxic
disinfection byproducts
(DBPs) form from
reactions between pool
disinfectants like
chlorine and organic
matter, including hair,
skin, sweat, dirt and…
urine
-
A new study revealed
urination in a
chlorinated pool creates
two DBPs: cyanogen
chloride (CNCl), which
is classified as a
chemical warfare agent,
and trichloramine
(NCl3), which is linked
to lung damage
-
Exposure to DBPs in
swimming pools has been
linked to genotoxic (DNA
damage that may lead to
cancer) and respiratory
effects
-
Since urinating in a
pool introduces uric
acid that will lead to
the formation of
poisonous DBPs when it
interacts with chlorine,
it should be avoided
-
Showering before
entering a swimming pool
is also important to
help reduce the amount
of organic matter
introduced to the water
-
Your diet has major
implications for your
Alzheimer’s risk. Diets
high in carbohydrates,
and diets low in
healthful fats, lead to
Alzheimer’s disease
-
Research from the Mayo
Clinic shows that diets
rich in carbohydrates
are associated with an
89 percent increased
risk for dementia.
Meanwhile, high-fat
diets are associated
with a 44 percent
reduced risk
-
Alzheimer’s is directly
related to chronically
elevated blood sugar
levels
-
Women given
cholesterol-lowering
statin medication have a
44 percent increased
risk for becoming a type
2 diabetic. Diabetes, in
turn, doubles your risk
for Alzheimer’s disease
-
Even if you’re already
having “senior moments,”
you can regenerate cells
in your brain’s memory
center. This occurs
through a process called
neurogenesis. Proper
lifestyle choices are
imperative for this
recovery
April 25, 2014
Three American doctors
were killed Thursday when an
Afghan police officer opened
fire inside one of Kabul’s
leading hospitals in the
latest deadly attack aimed
at foreigners in
Afghanistan.
An unseasonable flood
through a 17 million ton
uraniam tailing pile 500
miles upstream in Moab, Utah
could spell the end of Las
Vegas valley's drinking
water supply. Isn't it about
time mainstream science
started paying attention to
radiation remediation
methods?
High profile intrusions
and physical attacks against
substations have spurred a
lot of discussion about
physical security resulting
in a FERC directive, for
NERC to propose new physical
security standards from
NERC. A holistic approach to
security has been proven to
be more effective and
addresses compliance
requirements In the
Utilities Industry at the
same time.
U.S. home sales are
slowing
nationwide. According to the
National Association of
REALTORS®, 4.59 million
homes sold in the 12-month
period ending March 2014 --
the slowest pace in 21
months.
Yet, homes today are
selling more quickly than
they did earlier in the
year. The Median Days on
Market for March's listed
homes was 55 days -- a
marked decrease from the
month prior.
Fewer homes are selling,
but the ones that do are
selling quickly.
Too bad we can’t
apply limits to weather
shocks!
Shoppers will have
noticed some worrying
changes to the cost of their
groceries in recent months,
with the prices of some
supermarket favourites –
coffee, orange juice, bacon
– rising rapidly this year.
But this might be just the
start of a sustained
increase in prices, at least
for those commodities
produced in countries that
are subject to climate
and/or geopolitical shocks.
ObamaCare has signed up 8
million people. Democrats
are breathing a sigh of
relief, but their trials
have only just begun.
Now a large swath of
America will experience
firsthand the shortages of
doctors, the limited access
to hospitals, the high
deductibles, the large
co-pays, the significant
co-insurance requirements
and the long delays in care
that will accompany
Obama-Care’s implementation.
These Americans will see,
firsthand, what
government-run medicine is
like. And the rest of the
electorate will have a
front-row seat from which to
watch the debacle.
Canadian Solar Inc. (the
"Company" or "Canadian
Solar") (NASDAQ: CSIQ), one
of the world's largest solar
power companies, today
announced that it has been
awarded a module supply
agreement to provide 43MW of
photovoltaic ("PV") modules
to the second largest solar
power plant project in
Japan.
Karachi has a
problem: Only 10 percent of
customers pay their water
bills. In a new text-message
campaign that invokes
religious themes, KWSB is
stepping up its efforts to
make customers pay.
Wajid Iqbal Siddiqui, a
KWSB official, said
customers sometimes invoke
religion when asked why they
are not paying their bills.
Duke Energy takes full
responsibility for the Dan
River incident, and has
taken and will continue to
take significant steps on
the site and in the river,
according to Duke Energy's
North Carolina
State President, Paul
Newton.
States and the energy
industry should work
together to improve
carbon-capturing technology
to save coal-burning power
plants and coal-related jobs
threatened by federal clean
air regulations, Gov. Tom
Corbett said on Tuesday...
"If you take one energy
source out of the mix, you
just know the cost of
electricity will go up,"
Corbett told about 100
people at the Nemacolin
Energy Institute gathering.
Energy harvesting is a key
technology for the Internet
of Things, specifically
wireless sensor nodes.
However, it presents
challenging requirements
engineers need to understand
and address for optimal
designs.
The technology lets
devices work autonomously in
locations where human
maintenance is impossible.
Solar, thermal, and
vibration energy can be
harvested easily, but those
energy sources may deliver
varying energy levels or may
not be present at all times.
Southern environmental
leaders who want stricter
controls over the disposal
of coal ash are challenging
utility complaints that such
regulations will push up the
price of electricity.
-
Antibiotic-resistant
bacteria infect two
million Americans every
year, causing at least
23,000 deaths
-
Nearly 25 million pounds
of antibiotics are
administered to US
livestock every year for
purposes other than
treating disease, such
as making the animals
grow bigger faster
-
The European Center for
Disease Prevention and
Control (ECDC) ruled
that antibiotic
resistance is a major
threat to public health
worldwide, and the
primary cause for this
man-made epidemic is the
widespread misuse of
antibiotics
-
Measures to curb the
rampant overuse of
agricultural antibiotics
could have a major
impact in the US, as
evidenced by actions
taken in other
countries.
-
After Denmark
implemented an
antibiotic ban for its
pork industry, the
country had drastically
reduced
antibiotic-resistant
bacteria in their
animals and food – and
their pork industry grew
by 43 percent
Climate change is already
impacting south Florida
coastal communities, which
could see a three-foot rise
in sea level by the end of
the century, a panel of
officials and scientists
testified at a Senate
hearing on Miami Beach on
Tuesday.
"This is ground zero for
sea-level rise," said
Senator Bill Nelson, who
hosted the hearing of the
Senate Subcommittee on
Science and Space at Miami
Beach City Hall.
Once upon a time, sales
of diet soft drinks made up
for the dwindling sales of
their regular calorie
counterparts. As consumer
waistlines expanded, the
search for a low-calorie
alternative became all the
rage. Consumers became
accustomed to artificial
sweeteners as a replacement
for sugar.
The tide has turned, and
consumers are now also
avoiding diet soda -- even
more than their
regular-calorie versions --
due to health concerns.
As the implications of
the global energy crisis
continue to intensify,
cost-effective and truly
sustainable solutions are
crucial. The energy industry
experienced a giant leap
with the production of
first-generation biofuels,
but rising costs and
questionable energy yields
have led to an innovative
second wave of advanced
biofuels that require less
land and offer greater
outputs at cost-competitive
prices.
Supreme Court justices
upheld a case in which an
anonymous tip led police to
pull over a car without
seeing evidence of a crime
themselves.
The international
geothermal power market is
booming at a sustained
growth rate of 4 to 5
percent, according to a new
report from the Geothermal
Energy Association (GEA),
driven by climate change
threats and grid needs.
Currently, there are nearly
700 projects under
development in 76 countries,
according to GEA.
Tight budgets are nothing
new for churches. Overhead
costs, salaries, feeding the
homeless, and supporting
missionaries overseas can
all add-up. Costs like
electric bills or gas for
heating make it hard for any
church to balance a budget
derived from member
donations.
The lion’s share of
fatalities today came out of
Anbar province, where
security operations and
clashes killed dozens of
militants. The number of
casualties in Anbar cannot
be independently confirmed,
because there are few to no
reporters there. The most
dramatic attacked, however,
occurred in a Shabak
community in northern Iraq.
Also, a Diyala province
councilman was shot dead in
that restive province
Texas Gov. Rick Perry
warned the federal Bureau of
Land Management to stay away
from Texas amid new concerns
that it may be looking to
claim thousands of acres of
land in the northern part of
the state.
Not only does the federal
government already own “too
much land,” Perry told Fox
News, the feds are “out of
control.”
This is my first video,
showing the multiplication
of power. The computer is
connected to the [mains]
network in 220v with a
consumption of 750 watts (1
HP) . The output is 2200
Watts. This video covers the
first stage, then a system
of autonomy, without the
mains network required, was
made.
You ask me to
plow the ground. Shall I
take a knife and tear my
mother's bosom? Then when I
die she will not take me to
her bosom to rest.
You
ask me to dig for stones!
Shall I dig under her skin
for bones? Then when I die I
cannot enter her body to be
born again…
An agreement that settles
decades of conflict over
water in the Upper Klamath
River Basin was signed today
by officials from the
federal government, the
states of Oregon and
California, tribal
authorities and water users.
For Earth Day, Tampa
Electric and Legoland
Florida celebrated a first
in the United States, with
their partnership to make
the 150-acre theme park run
completely on renewable
energy for the day, as part
of existing and new
conservation initiatives --
including installations that
will educate park guests
about solar energy.
Amos, the former chief of
the Haisla Nation on the
northern coast of British
Columbia and a community
leader, has argued for years
that the risk - no matter
how small - of an oil spill
in these waters outweighs
any reward the controversial
project might offer.
That resolve is shared by
many in the aboriginal
communities along the
proposed pipeline and marine
shipping route who see the
streams, rivers and oceans
in their traditional
territories as the lifeblood
of their culture.
Nepal's government
decided on Wednesday to send
a delegation of officials to
the base camp of Mount
Everest to cool anger among
Sherpas over its response to
last week's deadly ice
avalanche in which at least
13 guides were killed...
"The mood is obviously
grief-stricken as the Sherpa
community is very
close-knit, and that is now
somewhat turning to anger..
In a recent article
the Ron Paul Institute for
Peace and Prosperity website
posed the question is “The
Cliven Bundy Standoff:
Wounded Knee Revisited?” As
a Dakota woman with painful
family memories of the
atrocities that took place
at Wounded Knee in 1890 when
some 300 Lakota were
massacred by the U.S.
Army—including 200 women and
children—I take issue with
the comparison. Cliven
Bundy’s situation — a
wealthy rancher refusing to
pay his government a
relatively unsubstantial 20
years of grazing fees — is
nothing like what our people
faced at the end of a
terrible war with the United
States. These sort of
careless exaggerations and
conflations of our own
painful and real history of
dispossession by the Right
Wing is both predatory and
despicable.
The study's upshot: the
Columbia Generating Station,
located on the Hanford
Nuclear Reservation in
southeastern Washington, is
a waste of money and should
be mothballed. It's a
conclusion that's drawn
criticism from Energy
Northwest, the
Richland-based consortium of
public power agencies that
runs the Columbia nuclear
plant. Part of the
consortium's problem with
McCullough's study is its
skepticism about the group
that commissioned it:
Physicians for Social
Responsibility, or PSR, a
group critical of nuclear
power for safety and health
reasons.
Maximum water levels in
New York harbor during major
storms have risen by nearly
two and a half feet since
the mid-1800s, making the
chances of water overtopping
the Manhattan seawall now at
least 20 times greater than
they were 170 years ago,
according to a new study.
The wind industry
receives at least $193
million in state tax
incentives each year in
Oklahoma, a group wanting
additional regulations on
future wind developments
said Monday.
Patriot Coal Corporation
(OTC Pink: PATCA) today
issued WARN Act notices at
its Wells mining complex
located near Wharton, West
Virginia, and also at its
Corridor G mining complex
located near Danville, West
Virginia. The Wells complex,
which includes the Black
Stallion Mine, CC10 Mine,
and Wells preparation plant,
employs 450 people and
produced 1.4 million tons of
metallurgical coal in 2013.
The Corridor G complex,
which includes the Hobet 21
Mine and Beth Station
preparation plant, employs
397 people and produced 2.3
million tons of thermal coal
in 2013.
They messed with the
wrong pizza guy.
A gang of robbers
attacked a pizza deliveryman
just before 10:30 p.m.
Monday as he brought food to
a house in the 400 block of
Cornwall Avenue, near Erie
County Medical Center.
In the front hallway of
the house, one of the
robbers, who wore a mask and
had a brown hoodie pulled
over his face, hit the
deliveryman on the head with
a hammer, according to
police.
Massachusetts Senators
Edward Markey and Elizabeth
Warren today called on the
Nuclear Regulatory
Commission to direct the
licensees of Pilgrim Nuclear
Power Station in
Massachusetts and Seabrook
Station in New Hampshire to
immediately implement
mitigation measures against
seismic risks that were
previously unknown.
A Guinness World Record
attempt to assemble the
“largest parade of electric
vehicles” was attended by
431 vehicles in Montreal on
Friday, a much larger
gathering than the previous
world record parade of 305
cars set in Zurich last
July.
Despite political
instability and economical
problems, Ukraine is
pursuing the development of
renewable energy in order to
reduce dependence on gas
supplies and economic
pressures from Russia.
Ukraine’s energy
consumption consists of
about 40 percent natural
gas, which is mostly
imported from Russia.
Renewable energy
accounts for only about
2 percent of its energy
capacity, with solar at
0.3 percent (130 MW) and
wind at 0.2 percent (86
MW).
C3 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be low with a chance for
M-class flares on days one
and two (25 Apr, 26 Apr) and
expected to be very low with
a chance for a C-class
flares and a slight chance
for an M-class flare on day
three (27 Apr). The
geomagnetic field is
expected
to be at quiet
to unsettled levels on day
one (25 Apr) and quiet
levels
on days two and
three (26 Apr, 27 Apr).
Suddenly, we have seen a
spate of “death spiral” talk
about electric utilities.
Grid parity — through
lowered costs — is
supposedly triggering this
decline. Homes are expected
to defect from the grid, or
maintain a limited link with
it for reliability, thanks
to solar panels backed up by
batteries and
gas-generators.
Solar panels are becoming
a familiar site in
communities across the
United States , but what
about solar fuels? A solar
fuel is produced from
sunlight through artificial
photosynthesis, mimicking
what Mother Nature has been
doing for billions of years.
Many chemists and chemical
engineers are working to
make solar fuels a viable
option in the future. In
fact, there's even a
worldwide " Solar Army " on
the job, and California
Institute of Technology
chemistry professor Harry
Gray is known as their
commanding general!
American company Solar
Hydrogen Trends, Inc.
announced in early March of
2014 the invention of
world's first hydrogen
reactor "Symphony 7A"
capable of converting of 1
liter of water (including
sea water) into 1kg of
hydrogen.
And here is
the reaction:
A.
"It's totally impossible…”
B. “This is too good to be
true.”
There are two very
different ways of
recognizing Earth Day In the
Northern Plains and
Washington, perhaps
illustrating, what Native
people call the choice
between two paths, one well
scorched and worn, the other
green.
The number of
record-breaking storms since
2011, especially in the
Northeast, has brought much
attention to utilities and
their ability to handle
emergency response. As
millions of Americans have
been battling power outages
and energy supply shortages
due to this season's record
low temperatures, consumers
are wondering what the
weather might bring next and
if their local power company
will be prepared.
Oregon remains near the
front of most rankings of
the wind industry, a new
study shows, though
development of new wind
resources hit a major lull
throughout the Northwest in
2013 that shows little sign
of ending...
Yet no new projects were
commissioned during 2013.
The slowdown isn't unusual
given the loss of the wind
industry's primary policy
driver, the federal
production tax credit, which
expired at the end of 2012.
It’s good news that there
are mayors and or city
councils around the country
who pledged to actively
fight climate change.
It’s even better news to
learn that they are actually
making progress.
This year is the
centennial of the First
World War. One-hundred years
ago this month, in April
1914, no one thought there
would be a war. But war
began, triggered by events
in Eastern Europe, by the
end of July. It came as an
enormous shock, in
retrospect almost like the
Titanic hitting an iceberg.
In the end, it shattered
Europe, cost tens of
millions of lives,
bankrupted countries and
changed forever those who
survived the horrors.
At several points in the
history of our planet when
society has lost its way,
the Divine has manifested a
Spirit-Speaking person to
help various cultures
reestablish the connection
and balance we have lost.
The Tibetan kuten, the
Huichol axihuatakame, the
Greco-Roman oracle - over
tens of thousands of years,
respected cultures the world
over have shared the
phenomenon of a person being
called to serve as a
material voice for the
Divine.
Twelve states accounted
for 80% of U.S.
wind-generated electricity
last year, according to
preliminary generation data
released in The U.S. Energy
Information Administration’s
(EIA) March Electric Power
Monthly report. California's
wind generation exceeded
geothermal generation for
the first time in 2013.
Texas was again the top
wind power state with nearly
36 million MWh of
electricity.
A law that would make
Vermont the first U.S. state
to enact mandatory labeling
of foods made with
genetically modified
organisms, or GMOs, received
final approval from state
lawmakers on Wednesday and
now heads to the governor's
desk.
The Vermont House of
Representative passed the
bill 114-30. Last week, the
Vermont Senate, by a vote of
28-2, approved the measure,
which requires foods
containing GMOs sold at
retail outlets to be labeled
as having been produced or
partially produced with
"genetic engineering."
This is the question
being asked by researchers
from Uppsala and Stockholm
Universities. And now with a
genomic analysis of eleven
Stone Age human remains from
Scandinavia the researchers
have concluded that the
Stone Age farmers
assimilated local
hunter-gatherers who were
historically lower in
numbers than the farmers.
There has been much debate
as to when the transition
between hunting-gathering
and farming began. Now with
DNA science being used on
human material, scientists
have a whole new way to
learn about this sliver of
time.
Lets start with the bottom
line, or what I usually call
'The Message:'
While Germany might
temporarily abandon nuclear
facilities located in
Germany, they will never
abandon electricity
generated in nuclear
reactors -- at least as long
as German voters prefer a
higher to a lower standard
of living. Put another way,
for every kilowatt of
nuclear-based power lost
because of temporary nuclear
closures that might take
place in the largest economy
in Europe, another will
probably be obtained from
somewhere else in Europe,
sooner or later.
If the world continues
down its current
carbon-spewing course,
global temperatures will hit
a staggering 4.8 degrees
Celsius above preindustrial
levels by the end of the
century, with potentially
disastrous consequences for
humanity, ecosystems and
sustainable development,
according to a new report by
the U.N. Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC).
April 22, 2014
The U.N. Resolution 2117
lists 21 points dealing with
firearms control, but
perhaps of most interest is
point number 11: “CALLS FOR
MEMBER STATES TO SUPPORT
WEAPONS COLLECTION,
DISARMAMENT—”
HOORAY – 53-46
vote – The U.S. Senate voted
against the U.N. resolution.
An “unprecedented” US and
Yemeni aerial campaign in
Yemen killed at least 68 Al
Qaeda militants in a bid to
head off attacks by the
network’s local affiliate,
officials said on Monday.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula (AQAP) has been
linked to a number of failed
terror plots against the
United States, and its
leader has appeared in a
rare video in which he vowed
to attack Western “crusaders
... everywhere in the
world”.
Militants staged successful
attacks deep into the
Shi’ite south today and at a
Shi’ite religious university
in Baghdad. The army also
pounded locations in Anbar
province. At least 79
people were killed and 112
more were wounded.
While today’s victims remain
a mystery, a number of
civilian bystanders were
confirmed killed in
yesterday’s attack, which
targeted a truckload of
“suspects” and destroyed
some nearby cars.
To, well, celebrate Earth
Day, April 22, three former
astronauts will claim they
have evidence that remote
parts of the Earth have
endured 3 to 10 times more
large-scale asteroid strikes
than has been revealed.
Products and services such
as solar PV, utility-scale
renewables and hybrid
electric vehicles have all
experienced double-digit
compound annual growth rates
over the past decade,
accounting for significant
adoption of clean energy
technologies across broad
demographic groups. New
nationwide research
commissioned by SolarCity
and Clean Edge explains what
is behind this expansion.
The federal
government’s treatment of
rancher Cliven Bundy, who
has invoked land rights in
his objection to paying
grazing fees for his cattle,
stands in stark contrast to
what was done to the Dann
sisters and other Indigenous
Peoples on Shoshone
territory when they did the
same thing on lands that
were unquestionably their
own.
The electric power grid, and
therefore the power to your
home and business, can be
disrupted by space weather.
One of the great discoveries
of the 19th century was the
realization that a
time-varying magnetic field
is able to produce an
electrical current in a
conducting wire...
Assessing the impact of
geomagnetic storms on the
electrical power grid
involves a number of
considerations. The path for
current flow that responds
to the varying external
currents in the upper
atmosphere follows
artificial current paths on
the ground (the power lines)
as well as various natural
current paths (e.g. ground
conducting structure below
the surface and in nearby
bodies of water).
A federal investigation of
an Arch Coal subsidiary has
been confirmed by a
corporate spokesman in the
midst of rumors and
speculation that are quickly
spreading throughout the Tug
Valley as to what the
investigation includes and
who it may affect.
Greenland the second largest
body of ice on Earth was
actually green at one point
in history. Researchers,
including a scientist from
Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory, have unearthed
cryogenically frozen ancient
dirt previously buried under
nearly two miles of ice.
Smoke from land clearing
fires in Indonesia causes
hazardous haze pollution in
South East Asia every year.
Record high levels of air
pollution caused by haze
were reached in June 2013 in
Singapore, Malaysia and
Indonesia. In response to
regional pressure after the
latest haze crisis,
Indonesia has finally agreed
to adopt the ASEAN Agreement
on Transboundary Haze
Pollution from 2002.
However, given the pact's
weak compliance provisions,
will the ratification really
be a game-changer in South
East Asia's struggle with
haze?
Gov. Rick Perry fueled
interest in West Texas when
he sent a letter last month
saying the state has "no
choice" but to begin looking
at storing high level
radioactive waste in Texas.
Speaker of the House Joe
Straus had already issued an
interim charge to the House
Committee on Environmental
Regulation to study bringing
in the waste and "make
specific recommendations" on
what would be necessary to
make it happen.
European utilities are
rethinking their business
models as a result of a
sharp drop in their revenue
and asset values. Leonhard
Birnbaum, a member of the
board of management at E.On
SE, offered the view from
Germany during a recent
interview in New York.
In space, no one can hear
you hit the Moon at
near-hypersonic speed.
Today, NASA's Ames Research
Center announced that the
Lunar Atmosphere and Dust
Environment Explorer (LADEE)
made a controlled impact on
the far side of the Moon
some time between 9:30 and
10:30 pm PDT on Thursday,
bringing to an end its
mission to study the lunar
atmosphere.
The owner of Pilgrim
Nuclear Power Station is
being required to spend
about $5 million over the
next three years to prove
the Plymouth plant and the
pools where spent fuel rods
are stored can stand up to
tremors from regional
earthquakes.
The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission had required all
nuclear plant owners in the
eastern and central United
States to submit hazard risk
reports based on updated
seismic data, by the end of
last month.
Utility customers who
want to install rooftop
solar panels or small
wind turbines could face
extra charges on their
bills after legislation
passed the Oklahoma
House of Representatives
on Monday.
Senate Bill 1456
passed 83-5 after no
debate in the House. It
passed the Senate last
month and now heads to
Gov. Mary Fallin for her
approval.
While Pilgrim has conducted
past emergency drills, the
April 30 test will be the
first time the plant will be
scored on its performance by
federal nuclear regulators
during a so-called "hostile
action-based" emergency
exercise. Off-site support
will be scored by
representatives from the
Federal Emergency Management
Agency.
C5 event observed .
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a chance for
M-class flares and a slight
chance for an X-class flare
on day one (22 Apr) and
expected to be low with a
chance for M-class flares on
days two and three (23 Apr,
24 Apr). The
geomagnetic field is to be
at quiet to active levels on
day one (22 Apr) and quiet
to unsettled levels on days
two and three (23 Apr, 24
Apr). Protons greater than
10 Mev have a slight chance
of crossing threshold on day
one (22 Apr).
More than half of
oilfield services companies
and 40% of upstream
companies expect shale oil
and gas plays to provide the
majority of their revenues
in 2014, according to a
global industry survey by
UHY LLP Certified Public
Accountants and PennWell
Publishing’s Oil &
Gas Financial Journal.
This is an increase of about
15% from 2013 levels in the
number of oilfield services
and upstream companies for
which shale is the source of
a majority of revenues.
A groundbreaking study in
Maine has linked drinking
water contaminated with
arsenic to developmental
challenges in children.
"Research involving
hundreds of Maine children
might represent a
breakthrough about whether
exposure to arsenic in
drinking water — even at
very low levels — could lead
to reduced intelligence,"
the Kennebec Journal
reported.
The Sun is at
solar maximum!
Solar Cycle 24
is seeing a
second, higher
peak in the
sunspot number.
The Sun is in
the midst of its
"maximum phase,"
though modest
when compared
with recent
cycles. Data and
imagery show the
comings and
goings of
sunspots,
markers of the
strong local
magnetic fields
that cause the
eruptions
commonly thought
of as space
weather.
Forecasters
expect
intermittent
activity to
continue
throughout 2014
and continuing
for the rest of
the solar cycle.
At times the
activity will be
significant.
Watch the SWPC
web site for
news of those
times.
As a result of the
Heartbleed bug that has made
data on two-thirds of the
world's servers potentially
accessible to hackers, users
have been told to change
their passwords. It goes to
show that not only is the
security of passwords
fragile, but they are
impractical too. So what are
the alternatives?
-
A recent study showed
the toxic herbicide
glyphosate (Roundup) in
the breast milk of a
significant percentage
of American women, even
those actively trying to
avoid chemical
contaminants
-
Glyphosate was also
found in urine and
drinking water samples
at levels 10 times
higher than those in the
EU when tested in 2013
-
A Canadian study found
Bt toxin in the
umbilical cords and
circulating blood of 93
percent of pregnant
women tested
-
US corn and soy fields
are creating an ecologic
crisis, turning
grasslands into
lifeless, barren
expanses, ruining
topsoil, and decimating
already endangered
wildlife
-
Kansas Representative
Mike Pompeo has
introduced the Deny
Americans the Right to
Know (DARK) Act, and
your help is needed to
prevent its passage
-
Two years ago, a
Michigan hog farmer sued
the Michigan Department
of Natural Resources
(DNR) for lost
livelihood after it
accused him of raising
an “illegal” breed of
swine
-
The Michigan Invasive
Species Order uses
physical characteristics
as the determinant
factor for deciding if a
pig is considered an
illegal invasive breed
or not
-
Less than two weeks
before the court date,
where the
constitutionality of
DNR’s Invasive Species
Order would be reviewed
by a judge, the DNR
reversed its decision
saying the pigs were
perfectly legal after
all
-
This is a blatant
attempt by industry-led
forces to shut down
farm-to-table operations
that threaten the status
quo of the factory farm
model
-
The Indiana Board of
Animal Health recently
amended a regulation
that in part based the
legality of wild hogs on
physical
characteristics,
clarifying that it does
NOT apply to swine
raised on a farm
Climate change is making the
news for a number of
reasons, including
Showtime's new series called
"Years of Living
Dangerously." The rise in
greenhouse gas emissions is
responsible for climate
change, and the majority of
scientists agree that most
of the increase is caused by
human activity.
Modern missiles are
miracles of range, accuracy
and lethality, but they are
also incredibly complex and
expensive with a single shot
costing millions of dollars.
Old-fashioned projectile
weapons are cheaper, but
also much less effective.
They have shorter ranges,
less accuracy, and still
need dangerous-to-handle
propellants to fire them.
According to the US navy,
what is needed is something
with an effectiveness
comparable to that of a
missile, but with costs per
round less than that of
conventional naval
artillery.
This is where the EM
railgun comes in. It uses
electromagnetic force to
propel a warhead instead of
a chemical propellant.
April 18, 2014
For the first time, experts
have confirmed that a fully
vaccinated person both
contracted and spread the
measles. The patient in
question—a 22-year-old
theater employee in New York
City—contracted measles in
2011, ScienceNOW reports.
The patient fell into the
rare category— less than 1
percent of people fully
vaccinated for the
measles—of a "vaccine
failure." But rather than
keep her in the hospital,
doctors sent her home on the
assumption that she would
not be able to transmit the
disease to others.
The record-low US residual
fuel oil demand reached last
week was a result decades in
the making and perhaps
illustrative of more to come
as pressure continues to
build from increased
attention on the
environment.
US
Energy Information
Administration data
published Wednesday showed
domestic fuel oil demand
averaged 154,000 b/d during
the week ended April 11, the
lowest figure on record
since the EIA began tracking
the data in 1991.
At least 104 people were
killed today. Many of
them were militants, but a
large number of security
forces and civilians were
among the casualties. At
least 95 people were
wounded. The most
significant attack was on a
government compound housing
the Anbar governor’s office
and provincial council
building.
A blockbuster new study from
Austria which is sure to
send shock waves and
generate massive denials
among vegetarians has
concluded that people who
eat only vegetables are less
healthy in key health
categories and have a poorer
quality of life than people
who include some meat in
their diets.
Getting your home ready
to charge an electric car
will require little time or
money — or a couple months
and thousands of dollars.
It depends on what kind
of electric car you buy, the
wiring in your home and how
quickly you want to juice
your ride.
An increase in severe
weather has led to a
doubling of major power
outages across the country
in the past decade,
according to a new report
from a climate-change
research group.
Despite protecting us
from the impacts of a
changing climate, our
region's trees are also
threatened by wetter and
warmer weather. The urban
forests of today will look
much different by the end of
the century.
By the end of this
century, scientists predict
southern New England's seas
will rise some 3 feet, and
without major cuts to
greenhouse gas emissions,
they say summers here will
soon resemble Georgia's dog
days.
New legislation would
prevent the FDA from denying
appropriate experimental
drugs from dying patients.
Recently, by working
together, we made great
strides in helping dying
patients win access to
potentially lifesaving
treatments. It was your
messages, together with
those of other grassroots
activists, that convinced
the FDA to grant
12-year-old McKenzie Lowe a
right of access to Dr.
Stanislaw Burzynski’s
innovative antineoplaston
treatment.
The natural health
community has been touting
the benefits of raw milk for
years. Now there are two
bipartisan bills in Congress
to help legalize it.
In a
victory for supporters of
the raw milk movement, Reps.
Thomas Massie (R-KY),
Chellie Pingree (D–ME), and
a bipartisan coalition of
eighteen other lawmakers,
have introduced two
congressional bills:
For the fifth consecutive
month, electricity prices in
countries neighboring
Germany have decreased,
recently released Platts
data reveals, due in large
part to increased solar and
wind generation in Germany.
The U.S. Court of Appeals
for the D.C. Circuit has
upheld the Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA)
mercury and air toxics
(MATS) standards for power
plants to the great concern
of the coal industry.
Due in part to regulations
like MATS, almost 300
coal-fueled generating units
in 33 states have announced
their plans to close. Just
this month,...
Who doesn't love a nice
banana? They're tasty
portable snacks, they make a
great daiquiri, and they’re
wonderful additions to a
green smoothie or bowl of
oatmeal. Well, eat your fill
now, because if history is
any indicator, global banana
production may soon be in
serious jeopardy.
The culprit is disease.
Specifically, a strain of a
tropical fungus is targeting
the most popular form of
banana, and there is
currently no effective
treatment.
Police arrested a
65-year-old man in Milford,
Conn., after he allegedly
shot a squirrel in his yard
on Monday. Upon further
investigation, officers
recovered an unregistered
“assault rifle” and three
“large-capacity magazines.”
"Increased life expectancy
means that people live
longer and affect the planet
longer; each year is another
year of carbon footprint,
ecological footprint, use of
natural resources, etc.,"
the authors write. "The
magnitude of this impact is
increased as more people
live longer."
The global economy is
becoming so intertwined with
the Internet, and the
Internet has so many
interlinked vulnerabilities,
that one failure could
cascade into a crash, a new
study suggests.
A federal judge on Friday
overruled a recommendation
that a lawsuit against Duke
Energy over coal ash
contamination on Charlotte's
water source be dismissed.
The Catawba Riverkeeper
Foundation sued Duke last
June over contamination from
the now-retired Riverbend
power plant on Mountain
Island Lake.
Such "citizen suits" are
allowed under the federal
Clean Water Act unless state
authorities are taking
enforcement actions on the
same grounds.
The Maine Organic Farmers
and Gardeners Association
(MOFGA), formed in 1971, is
the country’s longest
existing and biggest state
organic organization in the
country. MOFGA mission is to
help farmers and gardeners:
grow organic food, fiber and
other crops; protect the
environment; recycle natural
resources; increase local
food production; support
rural communities; and
illuminate for consumers the
connection between healthful
food and environmentally
sound farming practices.
A Nevada rancher who
succeeded in reclaiming his
seized cattle from federal
land managers over the
weekend by rallying armed
supporters called on local
sheriffs across the country
on Monday to join his
crusade against government
overreach.
When the Atlantic
hurricane season opens June
1, national forecasters will
roll out a new feature:
color-coded and
broadcast-ready maps to
graphically show the
potential for flooding from
storm surges.
"We are not a storm surge
savvy nation. Yet storm
surge is responsible for
over half the deaths in
hurricanes. So you can see
why we're motivated to try
something new," said Jamie
Rhome, storm surge
specialist for the National
Hurricane Center in Miami.
A single-celled green
alga that can tolerate
extreme conditions may soon
be widely used to clean up
radioactive effluents and
wastewater from nuclear
facilities in an inexpensive
and environmentally-safe
manner.
Most organisms are killed
by the radioactivity, but
the micro-alga Coccomyxa
actinabiotis is
extremely radioresistant and
strongly accumulates
radionuclides.
Most Americans view the
technology- driven future
with a sense of hope.
They just don’t want to
live there.
That paradoxical view—future
technology sounds awesome,
but it’s not for me...
A reliable power system
based on new wind and solar
PV with gas as backup
generates cheaper low-carbon
electricity than a system of
new nuclear power plants,
Berlin-based think-tank
Agora Energiewende said
Thursday in a study based on
current-feed-in-tariffs for
renewables in Germany and
the agreed strike price for
new nuclear in the UK.
Ethanol may be touted as a
more eco-friendly
alternative to fossil fuels,
but it's not without its own
drawbacks. Most importantly,
the corn or other plants
required as feedstock often
take up field space that
could otherwise be put to
use growing food crops.
Also, as with other plants,
the feedstock crops require
large amounts of water and
fertilizer. Now, however,
scientists at Stanford
University have devised a
method of producing liquid
ethanol from carbon monoxide
gas.
Federal agents waved the
white flag Saturday and
retreated from Gold Butte,
Nev., releasing some 389
“trespass cattle” that had
been rounded up as the
result of an ongoing land
dispute between rancher
Cliven Bundy and the United
States.
Imagine yourself for a
moment in the shoes of an
officer in the Ukrainian
military. You might have
served alongside American
troops in Iraq–a war in
which your country had no
direct interest but in which
51 of your fellow Ukrainians
were killed or wounded. Or
you might have served as
part of the NATO forces in
Afghanistan.
Ontario has become the
first jurisdiction in North
America to eliminate
electricity produced from
coal-fired power plants.
The last coal-fired site
in Ontario, the Thunder Bay
Generating Station, will be
converted to a biomass
facility.
One by one, a parade of
Owens Valley residents rose
at a public hearing Tuesday
to assail the Los Angeles
Department of Water and
Power's plan to meet its
renewable energy goals by
covering 2 square miles of
high desert with 1 million
solar panels.
"We believe in economic
development -- but this is
not the kind we want," Jane
McDonald, who helps run a
farmer's market, said at the
DWP's first public
presentation of the project
during an Inyo County Board
of Supervisors hearing.
"Protection of our
livelihoods depends on
protection of this
landscape."
Some materials that would be
stored in a proposed
underground nuclear waste
facility less than a mile
from Lake Huron are hundreds
of times more radioactive
than was told to Canadian
government officials
considering the site.
But we can’t say for sure
whether it's pot that made
them that way
C3 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be moderate with a slight
chance for an X-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(18 Apr, 19 Apr, 20 Apr).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on day one
(18 Apr), quiet to active
levels on day two (19 Apr)
and quiet to minor storm
levels on day three (20
Apr). Protons have a slight
chance of crossing threshold
on days one, two, and three
(18 Apr, 19 Apr, 20 Apr).
After hearing arguments
Wednesday, the S.C. Supreme
Court now will decide
whether SCE&G is responsible
for a $278 million cost
increase at the V.C. Summer
nuclear plant or if the
utility can pass part of
that tab along to
ratepayers.
In November 2012 , the
Public Service Commission
approved the increase for
the Fairfield County nuclear
installation. But some
customers and
conservationists challenged
the increase in court.
The Oklahoma House of
Representatives passed a
bill earlier this week that
may add extra charges to
utility customers who want
to install rooftop solar
panels or small wind
turbines...
Customers who previously
installed those systems
would not be affected. The
bill would only apply to
utilities regulated by the
OCC.
Growth hormones,
antibiotics, and
over-pasteurization are not
the only potential problems
with the milk for sale in
your store.
Girls are
reaching puberty at earlier
and earlier ages; men’s
testosterone and sperm
counts are plummeting. Some
of the usual suspects
include pesticides and
chemicals like BPA in our
food supply, obesity, and
soy formula for infants. But
there may be another
culprit—industrial cow’s
milk.
Japanese small-car maker
Suzuki Motor Corp said on
Wednesday it will introduce
an affordable, simplified
gas-electric hybrid
technology in its cars,
joining rivals in the race
for fuel efficiency.
Japan's fourth-biggest
car maker, which has largely
focused on internal
combustion engines, said it
needs to boost fuel
efficiency to survive in a
competitive industry.
Designer Arturo Vittori says
his invention can provide
remote villages with more
than 25 gallons of clean
drinking water per day..
The water scarcity
issue—which affects nearly 1
billion people in Africa
alone—has drawn the
attention of big-name
philanthropists like actor
and Water.org co-founder
Matt Damon and Microsoft
co-founder Bill Gates, who,
through their respective
nonprofits, have poured
millions of dollars into
research and solutions,
coming up with things
like a system that
converts toilet water to
drinking water and a
"Re-invent the Toilet
Challenge," among others.
Lawmakers in three states
have passed bills to expand
the use of nuclear energy.
Virginia’s governor
signed a bill that will
allow the state’s utilities
to add 70 percent of nuclear
and offshore wind
preconstruction costs over
the past six years to their
expenses for 2013 and 2014,
according to the Nuclear
Energy Institute (NEI).
Bumblebees are among the
most loved and familiar of
garden insects. The sight
and sound of them buzzing
from flower to flower is a
quintessential part of
summertime, but sadly these
charismatic creatures are
now struggling to survive.
In our modern world of paved
gardens and intensive
agriculture our bumblebees
find themselves hungry and
homeless.
The British based
Bumblebee Conservation Trust
has issued a nationwide
challenge to help save the
sound of summer by planting
bee-friendly flowers to help
reverse a decline in their
numbers.
Goal is to engage America’s
research universities in the
effort to accelerate the
development of the emerging
marine and hydrokinetic
energy industry in the US.
According to the US
Department of Energy,
this funding will
support high-impact
research projects
designed to enable the
capture of renewable
wave and tidal energy,
while supporting the
growth of a globally
competitive marine and
hydrokinetic workforce.
Although overall US natural
gas production has
dramatically increased each
year since 2009, production
on federal lands has
declined each year over the
same period, with much of
the decline attributed to a
50% drop in offshore gas
production, according to a
Congressional Research
Service report released
Wednesday.
Since Obamacare passed based
on nothing but lies should
it be repealed and Obama
impeached? ..
knowingly lying about
something is considered
fraud. Bill Clinton was
impeached for much less...
Being sexy means standing
out
Beards, like high-waisted
pants and the trilby hat,
have a tendency to go in and
out of fashion. Right now,
beards are in, but a team of
scientists suggest we may be
nearing “peak beard.” This
is more than just a bit of a
fashion advice—the fact that
we're so fickle about facial
hair says something
interesting about human
sexual selection.
While state lawmakers
have lamented a type of
funding cap for federal
black lung grants, the state
could actually receive more
money for the clinics next
year.
That's because, for the
first time, the state
submitted two applications
for federal grant funding.
Xcel Energy has been
named the top wind energy
provider in the United
States for the tenth year in
a row, as a national leader
in providing wind energy to
its customers. This is
according to a report from
the American Wind Energy
Association (AWEA), which
also named Xcel Utility of
the Year in 2013 for its
commitment to new wind
energy acquisitions and
progressive wind integration
efforts.
April 15, 2014
Millions of children under
five die every year due to
toxically germ-infested
unsafe drinking water -
almost three to four babies
a minute, according to
UN-Water’s estimations.
The Washington Post and The
Guardian won the Pulitzer
Prize in public service
Monday for revealing the
U.S. government's sweeping
surveillance efforts in
stories based on thousands
of secret documents handed
over by National Security
Agency leaker Edward
Snowden.
How do you see grid
modernization developing in
the U.S. through 2020?
The numbers of intelligent,
communicating assets both on
the grid-side and the
customer-side of the meter
are increasing. Data and
information are
proliferating at the edge of
the grid, and we believe
that intelligent,
coordinated action closer to
the edge of the grid follows
logically. The
Administration has
prioritized the need for
increased customer
involvement with the
availability of green button
data to help empower
customers to make informed
energy consumption
decisions.
American Electric Power
Company Inc.says more coal
production will be added to
its energy portfolio by
2020, replacing natural gas.
Previously AEP expected
coal to make up 46 percent
of its generation capacity.
Now, in a revised portfolio
forecast, the company says
coal will make up 51
percent.
For half a millennium,
contact with outsiders has
meant death for indigenous
groups living in isolation
in the Amazon forest, but a
new study from Brazil shows
that some of those groups
managed to recover within a
decade after contact.
The findings offer a
glimmer of hope to peoples
decimated in recent decades
by violent confrontation or
diseases as ordinary as the
flu, to which they had no
resistance and which they
caught from adventurers,
settlers, loggers, gold
miners, oil field workers or
other outsiders
The bar-headed goose
migratory path takes it over
the Himalayan Mountains each
year between China and
Mongolia to their Indian
breeding grounds. This
flight path puts them at
23,917 feet above sea
level...
Exercising at high altitude
is a massive challenge since
at the top of the highest
mountains the air is only
made up of 7% oxygen,
compared with 21% at sea
level. This is why human
climbers often use
supplemental oxygen when
scaling the world's tallest
peaks.
The North Atlantic region
is a pathway for bird flu to
move between Europe and
North America, U.S.
Geological Survey scientists
and their Icelandic partners
have discovered. Across the
world, a separate team of
USGS scientists found sea
otters infected with human
influenza.
USGS and Icelandic
scientists found avian
influenza viruses
originating from both North
America and Europe in
migratory birds in Iceland,
demonstrating that the North
Atlantic is as important as
the North Pacific as a
melting pot for birds and
avian flu.
Researchers at Carnegie
Mellon University's (CMU)
School of Architecture have
developed a dashboard that
helps people to see how much
energy they use at work and
how to reduce this use to
help the environment.
As millions of Americans
race to meet Tuesday's tax
deadline, their chances of
getting audited are lower
than they have been
in years.
Budget cuts and new
responsibilities are
straining the Internal
Revenue Service's ability to
police tax returns. This
year, the IRS will have
fewer agents auditing
returns than at any time
since at least the 1980s.
An increase in severe
weather has led to a
doubling of major power
outages across the country
in the past decade,
according to a new report
from a climate-change
research group...
"Heat waves are hotter,
heavy rain events are
heavier, and winter storms
have increased in both
frequency and intensity,"
the report says. "To date,
these kinds of severe
weather are among the
leading causes of
large-scale power outages in
the United States."
According to McGill
University physics professor
Shaun Lovejoy, we have no
one to blame but ourselves
for global warming in the
industrial era. Lovejoy and
his research team have just
completed an analysis of
temperature data covering
more than 500 years. This
study all but rules out the
possibility that global
warming is just a natural
fluctuation in the earth's
climate.
The concentration of
carbon dioxide, the
greenhouse gas that drives
climate change, hit 402
parts per million this
week—the highest level
recorded in at least 800,000
years.
The recordings came from
the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Association's
Mauna Loa Observatory in
Hawaii, which marked another
ominous milestone last May
when the 400 ppm
threshold was crossed for
the first time in recorded
history.
Next Tuesday, the infamous
April 15, Americans will be
rushing to the Post Office
to send in their annual
report of their income to
the Internal Revenue
Service. If they don’t, the
IRS will come after them
with liens, confiscations,
seizures, and levies,
without any judicial
process. Even worse, the
Justice Department will come
after them with criminal
prosecutions, arguing that
such people are bad people
who are placing a higher tax
burden on the rest of us to
fund the ever-growing
expenditures of the
welfare-warfare state.
East Kentucky Power
Cooperative plans to
deactivate all four units at
its 196-MW Dale coal-fired
power plant in Clark County
over the next year, but the
two largest units, while
inactive, will be
"maintained in place" for a
possible restart, a
spokesman for the generation
and transmission co-op said
Friday.
Yasunidos, an environmental
organization, is preparing
efforts to follow through on
its drive to force a
referendum on development of
Ishpingo-Tambochoca-Tiputini
(ITT), Ecuador's biggest
untapped conventional oil
field, a spokesman said
Monday...
Ecuador's Constitutional
Court (CC) told the group
they had to collect the
signatures, equivalent to 5%
of the smallest OPEC
country's voters, before it
would consider qualifying
the question it wants to put
to voters ("Do you agree
that the Ecuadorean
government [should] keep the
crude of the ITT (field),
known as block 43,
underground indefinitely?").
Ten charging stations were
installed at locations in
Dayton, Centerville,
Franklin, Monroe and Tipp
City. Traffic has been slow
at many of those stations;
in the year that Centerville
has opened two charging
stations to the public each
charger has only been used
an average of five times a
month.
The government has a
water policy conundrum on
its hands.
The EPA and the U.S.
Coast Guard each have a role
in determining ballast water
management discharge
standards. These standards
pertain to how a vessel
discharges water that is
stored onboard to balance
the vehicle. For instance,
vessels are sometimes
expected to incorporate
technologies to support this
process.
Study finds air emissions
from biomass facilities
could be dramatically
improved if so-called
loopholes are closed in
power plant regulations.
A new study charges that
government regulations for
biomass plants are riddled
with loopholes that allow
wood-burning facilities to
spew more toxic emissions in
the air than coal-fired
power plants.
The Electric Reliability
Council of Texas (ERCOT) has
set a new record on the main
Texas grid, reaching more
than 10,000 MW of wind --
the most ever for a U.S.
power system, and the
equivalent of powering more
than five million average
homes.
The Old West-style
controversy -- centering on
a family that has been
ranching in Nevada since the
1800s -- drew armed militia
groups from across the
country to the cattleman's
side this week, especially
after a YouTube video
captured a tussle teetering
on violence between rangers
and protesters.
The criminal indictment, in
connection with the San
Bruno pipeline explosion in
2010, is an additional
source of headline risk and
uncertainty for PG&E.
However, Fitch expects other
key events to have more
significant influence on
PG&E's creditworthiness. The
most notable event will be
the final decision later
this year in California
Public Utilities Commission
(CPUC) orders instituting
investigation into PG&E's
role in the explosion. Other
key events include the
utility's pending 2014
general rate case, which
could be finalized around
mid 2014, and its 2015 gas
transmission and storage
rate case.
Government incentives,
consumer desire for more
fuel-efficient, cleaner
forms of transportation, and
fleet managers' interest in
lower-cost operations are
all driving growth in
electric vehicles (EV) and
alternative fuel vehicles,
including vehicles powered
by fuel cells and natural
gas. This will result in
worldwide sales of electric
and alternative fuel
vehicles of 12.4 million in
2022 – up from 6.6 million
in 2014, according to
forecasts from Navigant
Research.
-
Glyphosate, the active
ingredient in Monsanto’s
Roundup herbicide, is
possibly "the most
important factor in the
development of multiple
chronic diseases and
conditions that have
become prevalent in
Westernized societies”
-
Glyphosate residues are
found in most commonly
consumed foods in the
Western diet courtesy of
GM sugar, corn, soy, and
wheat
-
Research suggests that
glyphosate may “enhance
the damaging effects of
other food-borne
chemical residues and
toxins in the
environment to disrupt
normal body functions
[including gut bacteria]
and induce disease”
-
Glyphosate may stimulate
hormone-dependent
cancers even at
extremely low
“environmentally
relevant” amounts
-
If you buy processed
food, opt for products
bearing the USDA 100%
Organic label, as
organics do not permit
GMOs
Even though the major wind
markets of the past few
years have slowed, overall
global growth of wind energy
will remain solid for the
foreseeable future.
Led by Asia and other
developing regions, the
global wind market will grow
at an annual cumulative
capacity rate of more than
10 percent over the next
five years, according to the
Global Wind Energy Council
(GWEC). The group released
its annual report yesterday
and discussed its findings
on a press call.
There's been little talk
of HARP 3 lately, but that
doesn't mean that program is
stalled.
The rumored HARP upgrade
was conceptually introduced
by the President; backing
the idea that "every
responsible homeowner"
should be able to refinance
to today's low mortgage
rates.
Japan's nuclear regulator
has prioritized the safety
review of the 1,780-MW
Sendai facility, leading to
speculation it could be the
first of the country's
nuclear plants to get
clearance to restart. All
Japanese reactors are shut
while the Nuclear Regulatory
Authority reviews compliance
with new safety regulations
adopted after the Fukushima
I nuclear accident in 2011.
Two large national public
health groups today wrote to
Secretary of State John
Kerry, joining a request for
an in-depth human health
study on the Keystone XL
pipeline before the
President decides whether to
permit the tar sands
pipeline to cross the
Canada-U.S. border.
In an historic action that
will protect people's health
and the environment, and
benefit riverfront
communities, the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency proposed a plan to
remove 4.3 million cubic
yards of highly contaminated
sediment from the lower
eight miles of the Passaic
River in New Jersey. The
sediment in the Passaic
River is severely
contaminated with dioxin,
polychlorinated biphenyls
(PCBs), heavy metals,
pesticides and other
contaminants from more than
a century of industrial
activity. Ninety percent of
the volume of contaminated
sediments in the lower
Passaic are in the lower
eight miles of the river.
Two different
transmission lines that
would cross through Missouri
but end and begin in other
states are the targets of
lawmakers who want to stop
the projects from using
eminent domain.
The transmission lines
already have raised the ire
of landowners, who worry
that the lines will ruin
property values and
interfere with their use of
the land. Now action in the
Legislature could imperil
the projects, which
supporters say would create
over a thousand construction
jobs and bring needed
revenue to the state and
local communities.
At least 57 people were
killed today, and another 19
were wounded. Most of
the fatalities were
militants. Also, militants
were able to shut down the
Falluja Dam a day after
authorities said it was
completely reopened.
'The
Navajo
Nation
has
finally
joined
the
rest
of
Indian
country
in
this
fight,'
syas
Navajo
Nation
Councilman
Joshua
Lavar
Butler.
The Navajo
Nation Council
has adopted a
bill opposing
the use of the
name redskins, a
term that the
United Nations
Special
Rapporteur on
the Rights of
Indigenous
Peoples has
called a
“hurtful
reminder. . .of
the long history
of mistreatment
of Native
American people
in the United
States.”
Federal rangers, facing
about 1,000 of Bundy's armed
supporters, backed down on
Saturday and ultimately
released at least 300 of the
seized cattle, in a decision
the U.S. Bureau of Land
Management said was made to
avoid harm to employees and
the public.
The four-hour standoff
temporarily shut down
Interstate 15 and ended when
the bureau stopped rounding
up cattle, citing safety
concerns, and then agreed to
return the cows.
-
A recent meta-analysis
found that breast cancer
patients who had high
vitamin D levels
(average 30 ng/ml) were
twice as likely to
survive compared to
women with low levels
(average 17 ng/ml)
-
Vitamin D has a number
of anticancer effects,
including the promotion
of cancer cell death,
and the inhibition of
angiogenesis (the growth
of blood vessels that
feed a tumor)
-
Previous research has
shown that a vitamin D
level of 50 ng/ml is
associated with a 50
percent lower risk of
breast cancer
-
Recent research found
that vitamin D in
combination with calcium
appears to reduce LDL
cholesterol levels in
postmenopausal women
-
Vitamin D deficiency may
cause autistic behavior
through its effects on
the brain hormones
serotonin, oxytocin, and
vasopressin, all of
which are associated
with social behavior
Taxpayers are about to give
the federal government a
big, fat Easter egg -- more
than three-quarters of a
billion dollars in tax
revenue that the government
technically doesn't
deserve.
At issue is
refund money that has been
sitting in the federal
coffers since the 2010 tax
year, but that no one has
claimed.
In total,
$760 million is owed to
918,600 people. By statute
-- which gives taxpayers
three years to claim that
money -- the millions become
the property of the federal
government at midnight on
April 15.
It's not too
late to claim the refunds,
but the window is almost
closed.
The Pilgrim Nuclear Power
Station could be affected by
earthquakes from as far away
as 400 miles, according to
the most recent seismic
data, but owners say the
plant can safely withstand
the tremors based on its
recent re-evaluation.
All owners of nuclear
power plants in the eastern
and central United States
were required by the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission to
turn in their re-evaluations
of earthquake-related
hazards at their sites by
the end of March.
Japan’s cabinet approved
an energy plan that includes
reinstating nuclear power in
the country, but the
industry has already
reported billions of dollars
in losses.
The plan defines nuclear
as an “important baseload
power source,” essentially
ending plans to phase-out
nuclear in the country.
However, the policy did not
specify the share of nuclear
in the energy mix, according
to Reuters, and it also said
coal and hydropower are
baseload sources.
Edmond Aviv, 62, clad in a
hat and dark sunglasses, sat
in a green plastic chair
holding the cardboard sign
that is punishment for his
treatment of a neighbor,
whose husband suffers from
dementia, and her seven
children, several of whom
have disabilities
Last week, Ohio Senator Troy
Balderson (R-Zainesville)
introduced SB 310, which
would indefinitely freeze
Ohio's efficiency and
renewables standards (EERS)
at 2014 levels or 2.5
percent for renewable energy
and 4.2 percent for energy
efficiency -- although
utilities with binding
contracts can continue those
efforts.
The Organic Consumers
Association (OCA) today
called on U.S. regulatory
agencies, including the Food
& Drug Administration (FDA),
the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) and the U.S.
Department of Agriculture
(USDA) to ban the use of
glyphosate based on a new
pilot study showing that the
toxic herbicide was found in
the breast milk of American
women. This finding
contradicts industry claims
that glyphosate does not
accumulate in human tissue.
Hundreds of fracking
wells in Pennsylvania pose a
threat to waters sources,
according to a new report.
The research focused on
fracking wells in the U.K.
and Pennsylvania. It "found
that public data from the
U.S. showed that hundreds of
recent shale gas wells in
Pennsylvania have suffered
failures that could cause
water or air pollution,"
The Guardian reported.
The Pipeline and
Hazardous Materials Safety
Administration proposed
$9.78 million in civil
penalties against pipeline
operators for alleged
violations of federal law in
2013, the agency announced
April 7.
PHMSA said in a statement
that 2013 saw the highest
yearly amount of proposed
penalties in the agency's
history. The agency has
proposed more than $33
million in penalties in
pipeline enforcement cases
since 2009, while seeing the
number of serious pipeline
incidents resulting in
fatalities or major injuries
decline each year during
that time period, according
to PHMSA.
Some materials that would be
stored in a proposed
underground nuclear waste
facility less than a mile
from Lake Huron are hundreds
of times more radioactive
than was told to Canadian
government officials
considering the site.
Green Party MP Caroline
Lucas will join party
activists and anti- nuclear
campaigners in a
demonstration at the site of
Somerset's proposed Pounds
16 billion Hinkley C nuclear
power station tomorrow.
What might the oil- and
gas-rich Eagle Ford Shale
region of South Texas look
like in 2018?
A newly released but
largely unnoticed study
commissioned by the state of
Texas makes some striking
projections...
C7 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a chance for
M-class flares on days one,
two, and three (15 Apr, 16
Apr, 17 Apr). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on day one
(15 Apr) and quiet levels on
days two and three (16 Apr,
17 Apr).
The Energy Efficiency
Innovation Collaborative
(EE-INC) has received more
than 120 responses during
the first round of its
Request for Information
(RFI) on energy efficiency
technologies that are
commercially available, but
not yet widely deployed.
EE-INC is a public-private
partnership of energy
industry leaders spearheaded
by the New York Power
Authority (NYPA) and part of
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's
strategic statewide vision
to scale up clean energy,
enhance New York State's
competitiveness for clean
energy businesses, and make
energy systems more
resilient and reliable.
Norwegian company
EnviroNor sparked a healthy
debate in Madrid at the
recent WEX conference when
it put forward an idea to
turn redundant oil and gas
tankers into mobile water
treatment units.
The proposed system works
by converting a used oil,
gas or other product tanker
into a treatment plant by
fitting it with the
necessary equipment,
including filters and
piping, and making
structural modifications to
tank spaces.
A Russian fighter jet made
multiple, close-range passes
near an American warship in
the Black Sea for more than
90 minutes Saturday amid
escalating tensions in the
region, a U.S. military
official said Monday.
With the startup of
TransCanada's Cushing
Marketlink pipeline and
increased rail shipping of
crude directly to the US
Gulf Coast (bypassing
Cushing, Oklahoma), a new
dynamic in the US energy
markets is taking shape. The
glut of crude at Cushing
that used to put downward
pressure on WTI is over.
Many governments had
complained that an earlier
draft was not clear in its
estimate of the costs of
low-carbon energy, which
include solar or wind,
nuclear and fossil fuels
whose greenhouse gas
emissions are captured and
buried underground.
The new draft, which is
being edited by government
officials and scientists in
Berlin before publication on
Sunday, indicates that world
economic losses would be
small compared to projected
costs of heatwaves, floods,
storms and rising sea
levels.
-
In 1950, the number of
starving individuals on
Earth was estimated to
be around 700 million;
100 million people,
primarily in rich
countries, were obese
-
By 2010, the world’s
hungry had marginally
grown to 800 million,
while the number of
obese citizens of the
world had exploded to
500 million
-
Estimates suggest that
by 2030, more than one
billion people,
worldwide, will fall
into the obese category
-
Carb-rich highly
processed foods, along
with rarely ever
fasting, are primary
drivers of these
statistics. Wherever a
processed food diet
becomes the norm,
obesity follows
-
Generally speaking, you
should be looking to
focus your diet on
whole, ideally organic,
unprocessed foods. Avoid
refined sugars and
fructose, and increase
the amount of healthy
fats in your diet
Speaker after speaker drew
applause Tuesday night as
they railed against Ameren
Missouri's plan for a coal
ash landfill along the banks
of the Missouri River.
The study, drawing on
work by more than 1,000
experts, said a radical
shift from fossil fuels to
low-carbon energy such as
wind, solar or nuclear power
would shave only about 0.06
of a percentage point a year
off world economic growth.
"It does not cost the
world to save the planet,"
Ottmar Edenhofer, a German
scientist who is co-chair of
a meeting of the U.N.'s
Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC), told
a news conference in Berlin.
The report, endorsed by
governments, is meant as the
main scientific guide for
nations working on a U.N.
deal to be agreed in late
2015 to rein in greenhouse
gas emissions that have hit
repeated highs this century,
led by China's industrial
growth.
President Bashar al-Assad
said on Sunday that Syria's
three-year conflict was at a
"turning point" due to his
forces' military gains
against rebels, state media
said.
Assad's allies have
portrayed him as confident
and in control and they
expect him to run for and
win a presidential election
in July - a turnaround from
last year when he looked on
the verge of defeat as
rebels advanced towards
Damascus, struck in the
heart of the capital and
took control of key areas.
According to its recently
filed 2014 Integrated
Resource Plan (IRP), Tucson
Electric Power (TEP) will
meet customers' energy needs
through 2028 by reducing its
coal generation capacity by
one-third; acquiring new
cost-effective natural
gas-fired resources; and
continuing its expansion of
renewable power and energy
efficiency programs. The
IRP has been filed with the
Arizona Corporation
Commission.
Toyota has announced the
development of two
hyper-fuel-efficient
small-displacement petrol
Atkinson cycle engines: a
three-cylinder 1.0-liter and
four-cylinder 1.3-liter
which will be introduced
across the range from next
year in 14 different
variations. The smaller
engine will deliver 78 mpg
(US) in the Toyota Aygo, an
improvement of 30 percent.
After concluding that global
warming almost certainly is
man-made and poses a grave
threat to humanity, the
U.N.-sponsored expert panel
on climate change is moving
on to the next phase: what
to do about it.
The
Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change, or
IPCC, will meet on April
12 in Berlin to chart
ways in which the world
can curb the greenhouse
gas emissions that
scientists say are
overheating the planet.
It is also
trying to give estimates
on what it would cost.
The Clean Energy Victory
Bonds Act of 2014 has been
introduced to Congress in an
effort to secure the United
States' clean energy future.
With the uncertainty
surrounding tax incentives
for renewable energy, the
Clean Energy Victory Bond
would extend vital tax
credits for a decade and
provide an opportunity for
average investors to support
the clean energy economy.
Water utility operations
are a focal point in a new
West Virginia law aimed at
protecting the water supply.
The crackdown comes on
the heels of a January
chemical spill that left
300,000 residents without
access to safe drinking
water for several
days, revealing stark
vulnerabilities in the
state's water system.
In the months following
the event, critics noted
policy and infrastructural
weaknesses that enabled the
disaster. A range of voices
said new laws were long
overdue.
-
Onions are rich in
sulfur-containing
compounds and other
phytochemicals that may
boost heart health,
offer protection against
cancer and diabetes,
boost bone health, and
more
-
Onions have a wealth of
beneficial properties.
They’re anti-allergic,
anti-histaminic,
anti-inflammatory, and
antioxidant
-
Onions have a
particularly high
concentration of
beneficial polyphenols,
with more polyphenols
than garlic, leeks,
tomatoes, carrots, and
red bell pepper
-
Wild onions have been
enjoyed since the very
early ages, and were
likely a staple in the
prehistoric diet
-
The US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) has
announced it will update
its outdated advisory
for fish consumption
among pregnant women and
other high risk groups,
but has not revealed
when the revised
advisory will be made
public
-
The seafood industry is
angling for favorable
publicity to pressure
FDA to relax warnings
about mercury exposure
risks from consuming
certain fish
-
In November, the US
ratified the Minamata
Convention on Mercury,
thereby recognizing
mercury as a major
global pollutant, and
promising to take steps
to reduce mercury
exposure
-
The US could embarrass
itself internationally
if it doesn’t follow the
latest science and
provide pregnant women
with the information
they need to protect
their developing babies
from exposure to higher
mercury seafood
-
Two consumer advocacy
groups have filed a
lawsuit against the FDA,
calling for warning
labels about the health
hazards of high-mercury
fish
Rapid development of the
U.S. wind energy industry
has led to significant
reductions in power sector
carbon emissions -- by 96
million metric tons, or 4.4
percent -- according to the
American Wind Energy
Association (AWEA).
According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel,
the Wisconsin Republican
Party’s Resolutions
Committee voted earlier this
month in favor of a proposal
that says the state GOP
“supports legislation that
upholds Wisconsin’s right,
under extreme circumstances,
to secede.”
April 11, 2014
At least 42 people were
killed and 74 more were
wounded. An unidentified
police colonel warned that
the tense situation in Anbar
could soon be on Baghdad’s
doorstep.
Seventy years ago today, two
men pulled off the greatest
escape in human history —
from a Nazi death camp in
southern Poland.
Most of the world doesn’t
know their names, but we
should.
Rudolf Vrba was only 19 when
he escaped Auschwitz. Fred
Wetzler was only 25.
American Rivers yesterday
announced its annual list of
America’s Most
Endangered Rivers®,
naming California's San
Joaquin River the Most
Endangered River in the
country. Outdated water
management and excessive
diversions, compounded by
the current drought, have
put the San Joaquin River at
a breaking point.
As the inventor one of
the web’s foundational
technologies, JavaScript,
and the co-founder of the
organization behind one of
its most popular browsers,
Firefox, Brendan Eich has
done more than most people
to promote a free society
and an unrestricted exchange
of ideas.
But that didn’t count for
much when various tech and
gay rights publications
reacted with outrage to his
recent appointment as CEO,
on the basis that he had
donated $1,000 six years ago
to support California’s ban
on same-sex marriage.
As summer approaches,
government and utility
officials are preparing to
ramp up the fight against
algae on Lake Erie.
"There are many programs
under way designed to
achieve reductions, from a
wider use of cover crops to
one launched in the Holiday
Inn French Quarter in
Perrysburg last week that
creates Ohio’s first
statewide certification
program for fertilizer
applicators," the Toledo
Blade reported.
Cooperation from
agriculture is an important
part of the plan. Experts
are calling for a steep
decrease in runoff from
farms.
"It is now likely
(estimated at a greater than
70 percent chance) that an
El Niño will develop during
the southern hemisphere
winter", from May-July, the
bureau said.
"Although the El
Niño-Southern Oscillation
(ENSO) is currently neutral,
surface and subsurface ocean
temperatures have warmed
considerably in recent
weeks, consistent with a
state of rapid transition."
Autism can be triggered
by abnormal levels of lipid
molecules in the brain that
affect the interaction
between two key neural
pathways in early brain
development in the womb,
researchers at York
University have learned.
The scientists discovered
that environmental causes
such as exposure to
chemicals in some cosmetics
and common over-the-counter
medications can affect the
levels of these lipids.
New research shows that
biochar in soil strongly
stimulates plant growth,
more than doubling yields.
However the extra growth may
come at the cost of reduced
plant defences against
pests.
At least 78 people were
killed and 123 were wounded
today across Iraq. Baghdad
was subjected to bombings
again, while Anbar suffered
from shelling and clashes.
Scattered violence occurred
elsewhere.
Almost all Louisiana
communities are complying
with a state water treatment
mandate designed to ward off
the brain-eating amoeba.
"Around 95 percent of the
state's drinking water
systems have complied with
an emergency rule issued
last year requiring
increased disinfectant
levels in drinking water and
increased monitoring of
water quality," the state's
Department of Health and
Hospitals
recently announced.
U.S. utilities have even
more reason to be concerned
about the country's water
supply. A new survey of
major U.S. corporations
reveals that most companies
believe water challenges
will significantly worsen in
the next five years, but the
majority of companies are
doing nothing about it.
A new bill in the
California state legislature
aims to mitigate the drought
crisis.
"Proposed legislation by
Assemblyman Mike Gatto,
D-Los Angeles, would require
recycled water for
irrigation at newly
constructed homes and
commercial buildings,"
TBJ Now reported.
“I envision a time where
people who buy a new house,
particularly in the desert
parts of California, would
have a hot pipe and a cold
pipe and a recycled water
pipe. If they want to run
their garbage disposal or do
their laundry with the
recycled water then they’re
making an environmental
choice and one that’s also
cheaper,” Gatto said to CBS
Los Angeles.
The Ontario Court of
Appeal ruled in December
that Ontario was a proper
jurisdiction for the
Ecuadorean plaintiffs to
press Chevron to pay up, and
Chevron wants the Supreme
Court of Canada to say the
Ontario courts have no
jurisdiction.
It was the latest twist
in a two-decade conflict
between Chevron and
residents of Ecuador's Lago
Agrio region in the Amazon
jungle, which want the
Ontario courts to force
Chevron to pay up the
judgment awarded to them in
an Ecuadorean court in 2011.
The California-based company
no longer has any assets in
Ecuador.
Russian forces rely on
Ukrainian engines, weapons,
and aircraft – and Kiev,
fearing invasion, is
considering pulling the plug
on its supplies.
Researchers led by a
Washington State University
biologist have found that
arid areas, among the
biggest ecosystems on the
planet, take up an
unexpectedly large amount of
carbon as levels of carbon
dioxide increase in the
atmosphere. The findings
give scientists a better
handle on the earth's carbon
budget — how much carbon
remains in the atmosphere as
CO2, contributing
to global warming, and how
much gets stored in the land
or ocean in other
carbon-containing forms.
Duke Energy and Piedmont
Natural Gas have issued a
request for proposal
together to build and
operate a second major
wholesale natural gas
pipeline into North
Carolina, with a capacity of
as much as 900 million cubic
feet per day, to meet
growing demand for the fuel
in the Carolinas and,
potentially, surrounding
states.
Congress is leading a
manhunt at the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission
.
Lawmakers are livid
because of a FERC leak of
sensitive information about
vulnerabilities in the
electric grid to the Wall
Street Journal last month.
The article noted that a
coordinated attack on nine
key -- but unnamed --
substations could cause a
bicoastal blackout of weeks,
even months.
It has shrouded England's
most famous monuments for
days, prompted a rash of
calls to the emergency
services over health fears
and even stopped Prime
Minister David Cameron from
taking his early morning
jog.
A freak combination of
weather conditions has left
parts of the country covered
in a smog haze made up of
high levels of particles,
including dust from the
Sahara.
The clock is ticking on the
written public comment
period on an application to
build a solar power plant on
more than 7,000 acres of
what environmentalists say
is critical land uniting
Death Valley and the Mojave
Preserve.
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's chief
said on Monday that new
carbon pollution standards
due in June will be flexible
enough for all states to
meet but will be
environmentally stringent
and federally enforceable.
EPA Administrator Gina
McCarthy gave her first
remarks since the agency
sent its proposed rule,
which aims to curb carbon
emissions from more than
1,000 existing power plants
in the United States, to the
White House's Office of
Management and Budget for
review.
A pioneering European
Union survey into the impact
of pests and diseases on
honey bees found death rates
were lower than feared, in
part countering concerns
about the collapse of
colonies of the
crop-pollinating insects.
The study of 32,000 bee
colonies across 17 EU member
states from late 2012 until
summer 2013 found winter
mortality rates ranged from
3.5 percent to 33.6 percent.
Exelon is calling for energy
policy and market reforms in
order to ensure a clean and
reliable energy supply. The
energy industry has
experienced large shifts in
how energy is produced and
consumed, with an influx of
low-cost natural gas, rapid
expansion of subsidized
renewable generation, smart
grid deployment,
behind-the-meter
technologies and low demand
growth reshaping the energy
landscape. Market rules have
to keep up with that
evolution, Exelon contends.
Exxon laid out its
intentions Monday to reopen
the 650-mile northern
section of the Pegasus,
saying the investigation
into the Arkansas spill is
complete.
A Cleveland Indians
fan, painted in redface and
donned in a faux Native
American headdress,
justified his brazen actions
Friday afternoon by stating
his attire was not racist –
just “Cleveland Pride.”..
Deadspin reported that
fans hurled insults at the
protesters. They flipped off
the group, shouted
“(expletive) off!” and “go
back to the reservation.”
The number of financial
institutions on the Federal
Deposit Insurance
Corporation’s (FDIC)
“Problem List” declined from
its peak in 2010. Despite
this, the number of troubled
banks is still very high
from a historical
perspective. Combined with
the declining number of
institutions overall, the
percentage of total
institutions identified as
problematic remains at 7%.
U.S. financial regulators
on Thursday told banks to
upgrade their systems as
soon as possible if they are
vulnerable to the recently
uncovered “Heartbleed” bug,
which exposes data to
hackers.
The Federal Financial
Institutions Examination
Council, an interagency
group that includes the
Federal Reserve and the
Federal Deposit Insurance
Corp, said banks also should
set up temporary patches for
any systems using the Web
encryption program known as
OpenSSL and warn their
outside service providers to
take action.
Researchers said this
week they found evidence of
hackers scanning the
Internet in search of Web
servers running the widely
used encryption program.
Shopping for the lowest
mortgage rates may soon get
more difficult.
The Federal Reserve
revealed Wednesday that in
between its last two Federal
Open Market Committee (FOMC)
meetings, it held an
"emergency meeting" to
discuss market changes; and,
that the group stands
prepared to hold the Fed
Fund Rates near zero percent
so long as inflation remains
low.
Inflation is the enemy of
mortgage rates. Therefore,
once Wall Street senses
inflationary pressures in
the U.S. economy, home
buyers and refinance
households can expect
mortgage rates to rise
quickly in response.
Fitch Ratings has affirmed
129 U.S. Utility, Gas &
Power companies' ratings.
Globally, countries are
seeking alternative energy
sources that can accommodate
demand and consumption needs
while preserving the
ecosystem. Hydrogen is among
the contenders, but faces
issues and challenges as a
mainstream fuel.
"The process to extract
hydrogen from water --
electrolysis -- is a
net-loss equation that
consumes more energy than
the hydrogen it extracts can
generate," explained Pramod
Dibble, Frost & Sullivan
energy and environmental
research analyst. "It is
very difficult to store
hydrogen, as it leaks out
from almost any containment
vessel. Although compressed
hydrogen leaks much less
than at atmospheric
pressure, the act of
compression requires about
two percent of the useable
energy in the hydrogen,
which is already less by
volume than fossil fuel
sources."
The U.S. Senate Finance
Committee approved a bill
Thursday that would extend
tax credits for
hydroelectric power.
The Expiring Provisions
Improvement Reform and
Efficiency Act (EXPIRE),
includes a two-year
extension of production and
investment tax credits for
renewable energy, including
hydropower.
A proposed bill in Illinois
banning the sale and
distribution of natural or
“raw” milk, is not going
anywhere this session after
legislators heard from
“thousands” of natural milk
proponents. The restriction,
which was introduced as an
amendment to an unrelated
bill, would have banned the
sale and distribution of raw
milk in Illinois. The
sponsor, Daniel Burke
(D-23rd district), chose not
to move the bill out of
committee after legislators
were inundated with calls
and emails from concerned
Illinois citizens.
Inspectors ventured into
an underground nuclear waste
disposal vault in New Mexico
on Wednesday to begin an
on-site investigation of a
radiation leak nearly seven
weeks ago that exposed 21
workers and forced a
shutdown of the facility.
The mission by experts
from the company that
manages the site marked the
first time since the mishap
that workers have been sent
deep into the salt caverns
of the Waste Isolation Pilot
Plant, where drums of
plutonium-tainted refuse
from nuclear weapons
factories and laboratories
are buried.
Japan's Kyushu Electric
Power Co. may not be allowed
to restart its two-unit
Sendai nuclear plant by June
30 to meet summer peak
demand for electricity,
Shoji Shitanda, director for
nuclear power safety at the
Kagoshima prefectural
government, said Thursday.
Japan's nuclear
regulator has prioritized
the safety review of the
1,780-MW Sendai facility,
leading to speculation it
could be the first of the
country's nuclear plants to
get clearance to restart.
All Japanese reactors are
shut while the Nuclear
Regulatory Authority reviews
compliance with new safety
regulations adopted after
the Fukushima I nuclear
accident in 2011.
People with mentally
challenging jobs, like air
traffic controllers, doctors
and financial analysts, tend
to stay mentally sharper
while on the job and
following retirement,
results of a new study
suggest.
"Working in a job that
involves a lot of thinking,
analyzing, problem solving,
creativity, and other
complex mental processing is
related to higher levels of
cognitive functioning not
only before retirement
(while we are still working)
but after retirement as
well," lead author Gwenith
G. Fisher, of Colorado State
University in Fort Collins,
said in an email.
Mexico plans to build a $1.4
billion "energy corridor"
between the Gulf Coast and
the Pacific, state energy
company Pemex said Thursday,
in what appears to be part
of a drive to reduce the
country's dependence on the
US market.
Pemex said
the strategy is based on
linking the nation's
concentration of oil and gas
production on the Gulf Coast
with potential markets in
Asia, Central and South
America.
Contrary to a recent
report with encouraging
figures on childhood obesity
in the United States, a new
study presents a more
sobering picture of the
nation's pediatric weight
problem.
Severe obesity, which
sets kids up for a lifetime
of
health problems, has
increased over the past 14
years, North Carolina
researchers found. They used
the same data that
researchers from the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention mined for
their encouraging report in
February.
"We found that the number
of extremely obese kids
seems to be increasing,"
said lead researcher Asheley
Cockrell Skinner, an
assistant professor of
pediatrics at the University
of North Carolina. "This is
particularly true for
school-age girls and teenage
boys."
“Thus he learned
that there are spirits in
the water – that water is
life.” – Wichita Legend
of the Water Spirit...
The tragedy of
Malaysian flight 370, which
disappeared en route to
China, has brought attention
to a distressing fact about
our “civilized” society,
that we are now drowning in
our own garbage. For a full
month, searchers have had to
comb through an ocean full
of waste, making an already
extremely difficult task
almost impossible.
Three nuclear energy plants
owned by Constellation
Energy Nuclear Group, LLC
(CENG) have joined Exelon
Generation's nuclear fleet,
which includes five reactors
capable of generating more
than 4200 MW at full power.
The fleet was already the
nation's largest commercial
nuclear operation.
The Nez Perce tribe once
hunted bison in what is now
Yellowstone National Park,
and some tribal leaders want
to revive the practice,
which ended with Western
settlement and the near
total extermination of the
once-vast U.S. bison herds.
Today, remnants of the
bison, or buffalo, herds
still roam the grasslands
and river valleys of
Yellowstone, a huge park
that covers parts of
Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
As the Obama
administration continues
making a series of missteps
in foreign policy, Americans
are losing confidence in
their Commander in Chief.
From Russia’s invasion
of Ukraine to Syria’s use of
chemical weapons to the
Benghazi situation in Libya
and the near-breakdown of
the Israeli-Palestinian
peace process, Americans do
not see the White House and
State Department
providing strong, steady,
principled, bipartisan
leadership. Rather, they see
confusion, weakness, and
vacillation.
New York’s hastily-passed
gun control law “mandates
that law enforcement
personnel seize, without a
warrant, probable cause or
hearing” some firearms, a
lawsuit in U.S. District
Court in New York’s Eastern
District alleges
A field test has
demonstrated for the first
time that elevated levels of
carbon dioxide restrict
plants' ability to transform
nitrate into proteins,
indicating that the
nutritional quality of food
crops is at risk as climate
change intensifies...
"Food quality is declining
under the rising levels of
atmospheric carbon dioxide
that we are experiencing,"
said lead author Arnold
Bloom, a professor in the
Department of Plant
Sciences.
The Obama administration
officially unveiled a
long-awaited proposal to
expand its authority to
regulate water.
"Proposed by the EPA and
the Army Corps of Engineers,
the draft waters of the U.S.
rule is aimed at defining
the scope of the Clean Water
Act (CWA) after two Supreme
Court decisions in the last
15 years led to confusion
about which waterways were
under federal protection,"
the Los Angeles Times
reported, citing EPA
administrator Gina McCarthy.
According to
the government document,
released in March, the
proposal "would enhance
protection for the nation’s
public health and aquatic
resources, and increase CWA
program predictability and
consistency by increasing
clarity as to the scope of
'waters of the United
States' protected under the
Act."
In 2007, for the meager sum
of US$3.6 billion, Ecuador’s
President Rafael Correa
offered the world a chance
to buy into a conservation
plan, called the Yasuní-ITT
Initiative, to save his
country’s easternmost sector
from oil extraction.
Scientific tests find no
evidence of forgery in
ancient papyrus referring to
Jesus having a wife
In a race against time,
researchers propagate native
solitary bees as an
alternative to our most
important pollinators ..
It's an intriguing an
interesting article, about
an interesting little bee.
It's sad, though, that
instead of working to
restore the honeybee, we're
already looking for an
alternative.
While Exelon expects a
recovery in power prices, it
may not come in time to save
some of the company's
nuclear plants, a senior
company executive said in
Las Vegas Tuesday.
"Nuclear power has taken the
biggest punch" of all
generation sources in the
current low power price
environment, Kenneth Cornew,
president and CEO of Exelon
Generation, said in an
interview.
Exelon
owns the largest fleet of
nuclear power stations in
the US. Of the company's
total 35-GW power generation
capacity, nuclear accounts
for 55%. But several of
those plants are
"financially challenged,"
Cornew said.
C4 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a chance for
M-class flares on days one,
two, and three (11 Apr, 12
Apr, 13 Apr). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet
levels on day one (11 Apr)
and quiet to active levels
on days two and three (12
Apr, 13 Apr).
The U.S. Department of
Energy suspended several
joint projects with
Russia-backed nuclear agency
Rosatom in the peaceful use
of nuclear energy citing
“Russia’s actions in
Ukraine.”
The suspension refers
specifically to a number of
scheduled technical meetings
on scientific topics.
Rosatom said in a statement
that it considers the move
“a mistake.”
Yellowstone National Park
assured guests and the
public on Thursday that a
super-volcano under the park
was not expected to erupt
anytime soon, despite an
alarmist video that claimed
bison had been seen fleeing
to avoid such a calamity.
Yellowstone officials,
who fielded dozens of calls
and emails since the video
went viral this week
following an earthquake in
the park, said the video
actually shows bison
galloping down a paved road
that leads deeper into the
park
In 2012, more than half of
U.S. states met their energy
efficiency targets, with
most states meeting or
exceeding their goals. This
is according to new research
by the American Council for
an Energy-Efficient Economy
(ACEEE). Implementing energy
efficiency programs can save
utilities money by
eliminating the need to
build more power plants.
In 2011, 25 year-old
paraplegic Rob Summers was
able to temporarily regain
limited use of his legs,
thanks to an experimental
technique known as epidural
electrical stimulation of
the spinal cord. Now, in a
new study, Summers and three
other paraplegic test
subjects have shown even
more promising results,
thanks to the technology.
Most of the responsibilities
that go along with caring
for a new baby are
exhausting and tedious.
Consider diaper changes,
late-night feedings and
crazy nap schedules. It’s
the baby bonding — the
kisses, cuddles and hugs —
that’s the fun part of the
job, yet a new study reveals
that many parents are too
stressed and stretched to
experience those special
intimate moments with their
newborns.
The US Navy believes it
has finally worked out the
solution to a problem that
has intrigued scientists for
decades: how to take
seawater and use it as fuel.
The development of a
liquid hydrocarbon fuel is
being hailed as “a
game-changer” because it
would significantly shorten
the supply chain, a weak
link that makes any force
easier to attack.
As the Eastern US ends what
seems to have been the most
severe winter in memory, it
is hard to remember that the
global climate is still
warming. A severe winter in
a region doesn't mean that
the entire hemisphere had an
extreme winter. And it
really doesn't imply much
about long term trends. A
key indicator of long term
trends is the length of the
Arctic melt season.
Government officials and
top climate scientists will
meet in Berlin from April
7-12 to review the 29-page
draft that also estimates
the needed shift to
low-carbon energies would
cost between two and six
percent of world output by
2050.
It says nations will have
to impose drastic curbs on
their still rising
greenhouse gas emissions to
keep a promise made by
almost 200 countries in 2010
to limit global warming to
less than 2 degrees Celsius
(3.6 Fahrenheit) over
pre-industrial times.
Gas drilling facilities have
sporadic emission spikes
that spew toxins harmful to
human health, but states
rarely monitor these
fleeting events.
At least 52 people were
killed and 52 more were
wounded. Also two men
were executed on
terrorism charges, bringing
this year’s total to 46 put
to death.
The U.N.'s climate chief
called on the oil and gas
industry on Thursday to make
a drastic shift to a clean,
low-carbon future or risk
having to leave
three-quarters of fossil
fuel reserves in the ground.
"The time for
experimentation, for
marginal changes and for
conditional response is now
over," Christiana Figueres
told the International
Petroleum Industry
Environmental Conservation
Association (IPIECA) in a
speech in London.
SAC Capital Advisors'
$1.2 billion criminal
settlement for insider
trading received final court
approval on Thursday, as a
U.S. judge accepted a guilty
plea from the hedge fund
firm run by billionaire
Steven A. Cohen.
At a hearing in Manhattan
federal court, U.S. District
Judge Laura Taylor Swain
accepted SAC Capital's
guilty plea to fraud charges
and payment of a $900
million fine.
While the US economy
continues to grow, the rate
of growth is slowing. This
troubling trend suggests
that the US economy is, once
again, at risk of slipping
into recession.
This should not be a
surprise given the historic
patterns of economic cycles,
the overall weakness
blanketing much of the
global economies and the
escalating political
conflicts abroad.
-
In the 21st century, as
increasing numbers of
people are becoming fed
up with industrial
agriculture, dissenting
from our monopolized
food system by planting
your own backyard garden
may be the only path to
good health and freedom
-
Growing your own food is
the way of the future,
ironically, by getting
back to our foundational
roots of
self-sufficiency and
oneness with nature
-
You can influence your
health, biological
diversity, and protect
the environment by
planting nutrient-dense
foods in your yard (or
in containers on your
patio)
-
2014 has been designated
the International Year
of Family Farming to
bring attention and
recognition to the
family farmers that are
helping to nourish the
world
-
Initiatives are also
underway around the
globe to protect
agricultural traditions,
encourage youth to
engage in sustainable
farming, and reconnect
people to the sources of
their food
-
Research shows that
calories from bread,
refined sugars, and
processed foods promote
overeating, whereas
calories from whole
vegetables, protein, and
fiber decrease hunger
-
Calories are not created
equal, which is why
trying to lose weight by
counting calories
doesn’t work
-
Obesity involves
resistance to the
hormone leptin, which
regulates appetite,
calorie burning, and
body fat levels
-
To lose weight, replace
processed foods with
homemade meals. Replace
grain carbs with
vegetables, small
amounts of high-quality
protein, and plenty of
healthful fats
Investing in habitat that
attracts and supports wild
bees in farms is not only an
effective approach to
helping enhance crop
pollination, but it can also
pay for itself in four years
or less, according to
Michigan State University
research.
Many residents of
southeastern Colorado lack
access to safe drinking
water, but that could change
as the result of a major
project approved by the
federal government late last
month.
The effort is part of the
larger Fryingpan-Arkansas
Project (Fry-Ark), "a water
delivery system designed and
built to provide clean water
for agricultural, municipal,
and industrial use across
southeastern Colorado," the
Interior Department said in
its recent decision on the
Arkansas Valley Conduit.
Rapid development of the
U.S. wind energy industry
has led to significant
reductions in power sector
carbon emissions. In 2013,
the U.S. wind fleet reduced
power sector emissions by 96
million metric tons, or 4.4
percent, the equivalent of
taking 16.9 million cars off
the road. Wind energy is the
lowest cost and most
scalable zero-emission
electricity source.
Electricity produced by a
wind project results in an
equivalent decrease in
electricity production at
the most expensive currently
operating power plant, which
is almost always the least
efficient fossil-fired power
plant.
Some people are surprised
that there are still users
of Windows XP. Personally,
I'm surprised that there are
still users of Window
According to Freddie
Mac's weekly survey of more
than 100 U.S. banks, the
average conforming 30-year
fixed rate mortgage rate
fell to 4.34% this week, and
appear headed lower into
next week, too.
Since the release of the
March jobs report, rates
have been in steady decline.
In the first ever testing on
glyphosate herbicide in the
breast milk of American
women, Moms Across America
and Sustainable Pulse have
found ‘high’ levels in 3 out
of the 10 samples tested.
The shocking results point
to glyphosate levels
building up in women’s
bodies over a period of
time, which has until now
been refuted by both global
regulatory authorities and
the biotech industry.
April 8, 2014
At least 42 people were
killed and 74 more were
wounded. An unidentified
police colonel warned that
the tense situation in Anbar
could soon be on Baghdad’s
doorstep.
eventy years ago today, two
men pulled off the greatest
escape in human history —
from a Nazi death camp in
southern Poland.
Most of the world doesn’t
know their names, but we
should.
Rudolf Vrba was only 19 when
he escaped Auschwitz. Fred
Wetzler was only 25.
They are my heroes.
Eich had never advocated his
beliefs on the issue
publicly, and there was no
question about his treatment
of or respect for gay
employees and associates at
Mozilla. Yet that donation,
indicating a sliver of
difference with the left,
was enough to force him out
of his own company. He
resigned yesterday.
As summer approaches,
government and utility
officials are preparing to
ramp up the fight against
algae on Lake Erie.
"There are many programs
under way designed to
achieve reductions, from a
wider use of cover crops to
one launched in the Holiday
Inn French Quarter in
Perrysburg last week that
creates Ohio’s first
statewide certification
program for fertilizer
applicators," the Toledo
Blade reported.
Cooperation from
agriculture is an important
part of the plan. Experts
are calling for a steep
decrease in runoff from
farms.
Almost all Louisiana
communities are complying
with a state water treatment
mandate designed to ward off
the brain-eating amoeba.
"Around 95 percent of the
state's drinking water
systems have complied with
an emergency rule issued
last year requiring
increased disinfectant
levels in drinking water and
increased monitoring of
water quality," the state's
Department of Health and
Hospitals
recently announced.
U.S. utilities have even
more reason to be concerned
about the country's water
supply. A new survey of
major U.S. corporations
reveals that most companies
believe water challenges
will significantly worsen in
the next five years, but the
majority of companies are
doing nothing about it.
A new bill in the
California state legislature
aims to mitigate the drought
crisis.
"Proposed legislation by
Assemblyman Mike Gatto,
D-Los Angeles, would require
recycled water for
irrigation at newly
constructed homes and
commercial buildings,"
TBJ Now reported.
“I envision a time where
people who buy a new house,
particularly in the desert
parts of California, would
have a hot pipe and a cold
pipe and a recycled water
pipe. If they want to run
their garbage disposal or do
their laundry with the
recycled water then they’re
making an environmental
choice and one that’s also
cheaper,” Gatto said to CBS
Los Angeles.
The Ontario Court of
Appeal ruled in December
that Ontario was a proper
jurisdiction for the
Ecuadorean plaintiffs to
press Chevron to pay up, and
Chevron wants the Supreme
Court of Canada to say the
Ontario courts have no
jurisdiction.
It was the latest twist
in a two-decade conflict
between Chevron and
residents of Ecuador's Lago
Agrio region in the Amazon
jungle, which want the
Ontario courts to force
Chevron to pay up the
judgment awarded to them in
an Ecuadorean court in 2011.
The California-based company
no longer has any assets in
Ecuador.
Researchers led by a
Washington State University
biologist have found that
arid areas, among the
biggest ecosystems on the
planet, take up an
unexpectedly large amount of
carbon as levels of carbon
dioxide increase in the
atmosphere. The findings
give scientists a better
handle on the earth's carbon
budget — how much carbon
remains in the atmosphere as
CO2, contributing
to global warming, and how
much gets stored in the land
or ocean in other
carbon-containing forms.
Duke Energy and Piedmont
Natural Gas have issued a
request for proposal
together to build and
operate a second major
wholesale natural gas
pipeline into North
Carolina, with a capacity of
as much as 900 million cubic
feet per day, to meet
growing demand for the fuel
in the Carolinas and,
potentially, surrounding
states.
Congress is leading a
manhunt at the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission
.
Lawmakers are livid
because of a FERC leak of
sensitive information about
vulnerabilities in the
electric grid to the Wall
Street Journal last month.
The article noted that a
coordinated attack on nine
key -- but unnamed --
substations could cause a
bicoastal blackout of weeks,
even months.
It has shrouded England's
most famous monuments for
days, prompted a rash of
calls to the emergency
services over health fears
and even stopped Prime
Minister David Cameron from
taking his early morning
jog.
A freak combination of
weather conditions has left
parts of the country covered
in a smog haze made up of
high levels of particles,
including dust from the
Sahara.
The clock is ticking on the
written public comment
period on an application to
build a solar power plant on
more than 7,000 acres of
what environmentalists say
is critical land uniting
Death Valley and the Mojave
Preserve.
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's chief
said on Monday that new
carbon pollution standards
due in June will be flexible
enough for all states to
meet but will be
environmentally stringent
and federally enforceable.
EPA Administrator Gina
McCarthy gave her first
remarks since the agency
sent its proposed rule,
which aims to curb carbon
emissions from more than
1,000 existing power plants
in the United States, to the
White House's Office of
Management and Budget for
review.
Exxon laid out its
intentions Monday to reopen
the 650-mile northern
section of the Pegasus,
saying the investigation
into the Arkansas spill is
complete.
A Cleveland Indians fan,
painted in redface and
donned in a faux Native
American headdress,
justified his brazen actions
Friday afternoon by stating
his attire was not racist –
just “Cleveland Pride.”
According to Deadspin,
the man, who goes only by
the name “Rodriguez,”
approached Cleveland
American Indian Movement
member Robert Roche of the
Apache Nation just before
the season opener at
Progressive Field in
Cleveland, Ohio.
The man allegedly
proceeded to taunt Roche and
the protesters by stating
that Chief Wahoo is not
offensive and that “it’s
Cleveland pride,” Deadspin
reported.
The number of financial
institutions on the Federal
Deposit Insurance
Corporation’s (FDIC)
“Problem List” declined from
its peak in 2010. Despite
this, the number of troubled
banks is still very high
from a historical
perspective. Combined with
the declining number of
institutions overall, the
percentage of total
institutions identified as
problematic remains at 7%.
A hyperlink to each issuer's
rating summary page at
www.fitchratings.com
Globally, countries are
seeking alternative energy
sources that can accommodate
demand and consumption needs
while preserving the
ecosystem. Hydrogen is among
the contenders, but faces
issues and challenges as a
mainstream fuel.
"The process to extract
hydrogen from water --
electrolysis -- is a
net-loss equation that
consumes more energy than
the hydrogen it extracts can
generate," explained Pramod
Dibble, Frost & Sullivan
energy and environmental
research analyst. "It is
very difficult to store
hydrogen, as it leaks out
from almost any containment
vessel. Although compressed
hydrogen leaks much less
than at atmospheric
pressure, the act of
compression requires about
two percent of the useable
energy in the hydrogen,
which is already less by
volume than fossil fuel
sources."
The U.S. Senate Finance
Committee approved a bill
Thursday that would extend
tax credits for
hydroelectric power.
The Expiring Provisions
Improvement Reform and
Efficiency Act (EXPIRE),
includes a two-year
extension of production and
investment tax credits for
renewable energy, including
hydropower.
Inspectors ventured into
an underground nuclear waste
disposal vault in New Mexico
on Wednesday to begin an
on-site investigation of a
radiation leak nearly seven
weeks ago that exposed 21
workers and forced a
shutdown of the facility.
The mission by experts
from the company that
manages the site marked the
first time since the mishap
that workers have been sent
deep into the salt caverns
of the Waste Isolation Pilot
Plant, where drums of
plutonium-tainted refuse
from nuclear weapons
factories and laboratories
are buried.
People with mentally
challenging jobs, like air
traffic controllers, doctors
and financial analysts, tend
to stay mentally sharper
while on the job and
following retirement,
results of a new study
suggest.
"Working in a job that
involves a lot of thinking,
analyzing, problem solving,
creativity, and other
complex mental processing is
related to higher levels of
cognitive functioning not
only before retirement
(while we are still working)
but after retirement as
well," lead author Gwenith
G. Fisher, of Colorado State
University in Fort Collins,
said in an email.
Contrary to a recent
report with encouraging
figures on childhood obesity
in the United States, a new
study presents a more
sobering picture of the
nation's pediatric weight
problem.
Severe obesity, which
sets kids up for a lifetime
of
health problems, has
increased over the past 14
years, North Carolina
researchers found. They used
the same data that
researchers from the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention mined for
their encouraging report in
February.
Three nuclear energy plants
owned by Constellation
Energy Nuclear Group, LLC
(CENG) have joined Exelon
Generation's nuclear fleet,
which includes five reactors
capable of generating more
than 4200 MW at full power.
The fleet was already the
nation's largest commercial
nuclear operation.
The Nez Perce tribe once
hunted bison in what is now
Yellowstone National Park,
and some tribal leaders want
to revive the practice,
which ended with Western
settlement and the near
total extermination of the
once-vast U.S. bison herds.
Today, remnants of the
bison, or buffalo, herds
still roam the grasslands
and river valleys of
Yellowstone, a huge park
that covers parts of
Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
A field test has
demonstrated for the first
time that elevated levels of
carbon dioxide restrict
plants' ability to transform
nitrate into proteins,
indicating that the
nutritional quality of food
crops is at risk as climate
change intensifies...
"Food quality is declining
under the rising levels of
atmospheric carbon dioxide
that we are experiencing,"
said lead author Arnold
Bloom, a professor in the
Department of Plant
Sciences.
The Obama administration
officially unveiled a
long-awaited proposal to
expand its authority to
regulate water.
"Proposed by the EPA and
the Army Corps of Engineers,
the draft waters of the U.S.
rule is aimed at defining
the scope of the Clean Water
Act (CWA) after two Supreme
Court decisions in the last
15 years led to confusion
about which waterways were
under federal protection,"
the Los Angeles Times
reported, citing EPA
administrator Gina McCarthy.
In a race against time,
researchers propagate native
solitary bees as an
alternative to our most
important pollinators ..
It's an intriguing an
interesting article, about
an interesting little bee.
It's sad, though, that
instead of working to
restore the honeybee, we're
already looking for an
alternative.
Humans and honeybees have
maintained a fruitful and
mutually-beneficial
relationship for some three
thousand years, it would be
a moral tragedy if we
betrayed that relationship
now thanks to our own
environmental poisons. A
metaphor, perhaps, for the
way we are betraying our
relationship with the entire
ecosystem.
We should be ashamed.
C4 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a chance for
M-class flares on days one,
two, and three (08 Apr, 09
Apr, 10 Apr). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet
levels.
The U.S. Department of
Energy suspended several
joint projects with
Russia-backed nuclear agency
Rosatom in the peaceful use
of nuclear energy citing
“Russia’s actions in
Ukraine.”
The suspension refers
specifically to a number of
scheduled technical meetings
on scientific topics.
Rosatom said in a statement
that it considers the move
“a mistake.”
Yellowstone National Park
assured guests and the
public on Thursday that a
super-volcano under the park
was not expected to erupt
anytime soon, despite an
alarmist video that claimed
bison had been seen fleeing
to avoid such a calamity.
The research from Princeton
University, Columbia
University and the
University of Bristol in
England reveals that 4 out
of 10 babies in the United
States aren’t receiving the
attention and affection from
their moms and dads that’s
necessary for forming strong
parental attachments.
The US Navy believes it has
finally worked out the
solution to a problem that
has intrigued scientists for
decades: how to take
seawater and use it as fuel.
The development of a liquid
hydrocarbon fuel is being
hailed as “a game-changer”
because it would
significantly shorten the
supply chain, a weak link
that makes any force easier
to attack.
A new study by researchers
from the National Snow and
Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and
NASA shows that the length
of the melt season for
Arctic sea ice is growing by
several days each decade. An
earlier start to the melt
season is allowing the
Arctic Ocean to absorb
enough additional solar
radiation in some places to
melt as much as four feet of
the Arctic ice cap’s
thickness.
Government officials and
top climate scientists will
meet in Berlin from April
7-12 to review the 29-page
draft that also estimates
the needed shift to
low-carbon energies would
cost between two and six
percent of world output by
2050.
It says nations will have
to impose drastic curbs on
their still rising
greenhouse gas emissions to
keep a promise made by
almost 200 countries in 2010
to limit global warming to
less than 2 degrees Celsius
(3.6 Fahrenheit) over
pre-industrial times.
Gas drilling facilities have
sporadic emission spikes
that spew toxins harmful to
human health, but states
rarely monitor these
fleeting events.
At least 52 people were
killed and 52 more were
wounded. Also two men
were executed on
terrorism charges, bringing
this year’s total to 46 put
to death.
"The time for
experimentation, for
marginal changes and for
conditional response is now
over," Christiana Figueres
told the International
Petroleum Industry
Environmental Conservation
Association (IPIECA) in a
speech in London.
She urged an "urgent
transformation" to greener
production after top
scientists warned on Monday
that climate change would
damage food supplies, slow
economic growth and
aggravate the underlying
causes of armed conflicts.
While the US economy
continues to grow, the rate
of growth is slowing. This
troubling trend suggests
that the US economy is, once
again, at risk of slipping
into recession.
This should not be a
surprise given the historic
patterns of economic cycles,
the overall weakness
blanketing much of the
global economies and the
escalating political
conflicts abroad.
Nevertheless, for those
who have yet to recover from
the last recession, this is
a dose of unwelcome and
discouraging news. On a
positive note though, absent
an unexpected external event
(i.e. non-economic), any
recession is likely not to
hit until late 2014 or early
2015.
-
Research shows that
calories from bread,
refined sugars, and
processed foods promote
overeating, whereas
calories from whole
vegetables, protein, and
fiber decrease hunger
-
Calories are not created
equal, which is why
trying to lose weight by
counting calories
doesn’t work
-
Obesity involves
resistance to the
hormone leptin, which
regulates appetite,
calorie burning, and
body fat levels
-
To lose weight, replace
processed foods with
homemade meals. Replace
grain carbs with
vegetables, small
amounts of high-quality
protein, and plenty of
healthful fats
Investing in habitat that
attracts and supports wild
bees in farms is not only an
effective approach to
helping enhance crop
pollination, but it can also
pay for itself in four years
or less, according to
Michigan State University
research.
The paper, published in
the current issue of the
Journal of Applied Ecology,
gives farmers of
pollination-dependent crops
tangible results to convert
marginal acreage to fields
of wildflowers, said Rufus
Isaacs, MSU entomologist and
co-author of the paper.
Many residents of
southeastern Colorado lack
access to safe drinking
water, but that could change
as the result of a major
project approved by the
federal government late last
month.
The effort is part of the
larger Fryingpan-Arkansas
Project (Fry-Ark), "a water
delivery system designed and
built to provide clean water
for agricultural, municipal,
and industrial use across
southeastern Colorado," the
Interior Department said in
its recent decision on the
Arkansas Valley Conduit.
Rapid development of the
U.S. wind energy industry
has led to significant
reductions in power sector
carbon emissions. In 2013,
the U.S. wind fleet reduced
power sector emissions by 96
million metric tons, or 4.4
percent, the equivalent of
taking 16.9 million cars off
the road. Wind energy is the
lowest cost and most
scalable zero-emission
electricity source.
Electricity produced by a
wind project results in an
equivalent decrease in
electricity production at
the most expensive currently
operating power plant, which
is almost always the least
efficient fossil-fired power
plant.
[editor's note: Some people
are surprised that there are
still users of Windows XP.
Personally, I'm surprised
that there are still users
of Windows ]
- Pilot study shows
build-up of glyphosate
herbicide in Mothers’
bodies
- Urine testing shows
glyphosate levels over
10 times higher than in
Europe
- Initial testing
shows Monsanto and
Global regulatory bodies
are wrong regarding
bio-accumulation of
glyphosate, leading to
serious public health
concerns
- Testing
commissioners urge USDA
and EPA to place
temporary ban on all use
of Glyphosate-based
herbicides to protect
public health, until
further more
comprehensive testing of
glyphosate in breast
milk is completed.
April 4, 2014
As many as 102 people
were killed and 62 more were
wounded today. Dozens of
people were killed during an
attack on an army base in
Yusufiya. The Interior
Ministry and local officials
gave inconsistent casualty
figures.
A woman at a Brampton,
Toronto, courthouse who
sprung into action last week
after an officer was shot in
the abdominal area recounted
the heart-pounding moments
in a recent interview,
revealing the disturbing
comments some allegedly
directed toward her for
helping a cop.
Despite many individual
efforts to decrease energy
usage for 2013 increased by
2.3 Quadrillion thermal
units over the previous
year. These statistics have
been monitored and presented
by the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory (LLNL)
in the most recent energy
flow charts measuring
renewable, fossil and even
nuclear energy.
Arizona Public Service has
submitted its Integrated
Resource Plan with the
Arizona Corporation
Commission, which it files
every two years. The report
identifies three major
trends shaping Arizona's
energy future.
First, the report predicts
that energy from renewable
sources will double by 2029
with rooftop solar tripling
over the same time period.
Savings from energy
efficiency measures,
intended to reduce customer
demand, are forecast to
triple by 2029.
Researchers at the
Georgia Institute of
Technology and the US
Department of Energy’s Joint
BioEnergy Institute have
engineered a bacterium that
could yield a new source of
high-energy hydrocarbon fuel
for rocketry and other
aerospace uses.
High-energy, specific-use
hydrocarbon fuels such as
JP-10 can be extracted from
oil, along with more
commonly used petroleum
fuels, but supplies are
limited and prices are high
– approaching US$7 per
liter. That’s where the new
bacterium, engineered by
Georgia Tech scientists
Stephen Sarria and Pamela
Peralta-Yahya, could come
in.
The Food and Drug
Administration rule change
would mean brewers would
have to meet the same
standards as livestock and
pet-food manufacturers,
imposing new sanitary
handling procedures, record
keeping and other food
safety processes on brewers.
Beer makers complain that
the new rules, if adopted,
would force them to dump
millions of tons of "spent
grains," which are left over
after barley, wheat and
other grains are steeped in
hot water.
Snow levels atop
California's Sierra Nevada
mountains, key indicators of
how much water will be
available for
drought-stricken farms,
residents and wildlife this
summer, remained
precariously low despite
recent storms, officials
said Tuesday.
The snowpack, which melts
in the spring and feeds
streams and reservoirs
throughout the state, has
just a third of the amount
of water it normally
contains this time of year,
said Mark Cowin, director of
the state Department of
Water Resources.
The West Basin Municipal
Water District (West Basin)
of Carson, Calif., recently
reached 150 billion gallons
of total recycled water at
its Edward C. Little Water
Recycling Facility located
in the city of El Segundo --
a new milestone at a time
when the state faces one of
the worst droughts to date.
This amount of water would
serve approximately 3.7
million people for one year.
Change is afoot in the
global clean-energy market.
According to our Clean
Energy Trends 2014
report released on March 26,
the year 2013 marked a
significant tipping point in
the history of clean energy.
For the first time since
Clean Edge began tracking
global markets in 2000, the
world installed more new
solar photovoltaic
generating capacity, 36.5
GW, than wind power (35.5
GW). Record levels of new
solar deployment in China,
Japan, and the U.S.,
combined with a down year in
the wind industry, enabled
this unprecedented
crossover.
On April 16, 2013 six men
launched an attack on a
critical power station in
California. The attack
consisted of hundreds of
AK-47 rounds being unleashed
on 10 large transformers —
and it was first called
“vandalism.” But the former
chairman of the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission
calls it “the most
significant incident of
domestic terrorism involving
the grid that has ever
occurred.” It has largely
gone unreported, although
TheBlaze did cover it last
December. Dr. Peter Vincent
Pry tells TheBlaze, “If it
was a terrorist attack, the
electric power industry and
the media are almost
certainly in error to
describe it as a ‘failed
attack.’” Former CIA
director James Woolsey adds,
“Without electricity we
aren’t a civilization, and
this is a major societal
vulnerability.”
As the wind blows, the wings
move in opposing directions,
the bottom wings moving
upwards as the top move
downwards, or vice versa.
This motion is then
converted into rotary
movement inside the column
using two timing belts and
two free wheels. The rotary
force is then transferred to
an electricity generator to
complete the kinetic to
electricity power
transformation.
Duke Energy shareholders are
calling for an independent
internal investigation into
the circumstances
surrounding the February 2,
2013 spill of more than
30,000 tons of coal ash and
27 million gallons of
contaminated water at the
Duke Energy Cape Fear plant
into the Dan River in North
Carolina. The North Carolina
Department of Environment
and Natural Resources found
that Duke Energy failed to
take all reasonable measures
to prevent the spill. The
events have shaken
shareholder confidence in
Duke Energy and its board.
Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good
defended her company's
response to the February
coal ash spill into the Dan
River, saying Duke will
"continue to cooperate" with
inquiries into the event.
IIASA is an
interdisciplinary research
institute with three core
research themes — Energy and
Climate Change, Food and
Water, and Poverty and
Equity. .. Today, we are one
of, if not the
leading institution working
on fostering
cross-disciplinary
approaches to understanding
the Earth system.
Egypt's cabinet on
Wednesday approved the use
of coal for power generation
after a fierce debate within
the government over whether
the highly pollutant fuel
should be permitted for use
by the energy-intensive
cement industry.
Struggling to avoid
public unrest over
blackouts, the government
has cut natural gas supplies
to factories, prompting
cement companies to renew
their demand to use the
fuel.
-
State-mandated diagnosis
of autism by a clinician
for consideration in
special education is
linked with a near 99
percent decrease in the
rate of incidence for
autism and ID.
-
Mounting research
indicates that brain
disorders are the result
of excessive exposure to
toxins from multiple
sources, including the
mother, while in utero
-
One recent study found
that for every one
percent increase in
genital malformations in
newborn males within a
particular county, there
was an associated 283
percent increase in
autism
-
The correlation between
genital malformation and
autism offer strong
support for the notion
that autism is the
result of parental
overexposure to
environmental toxins
-
Fluoride alone, which is
still being added to
many public water
supplies around the US,
can contribute to a
seven-point drop in a
child’s IQ score, on
average
-
When the US National
Toxicology Program was
enacted in 1978, some
62,000 chemicals that
were already in use were
simply grandfathered in,
even though they’d never
been tested for toxicity
A GBP31-million
($51.6-million) project to
develop hydrogen fuel
cell-powered electric cars
and hydrogen refueling
stations across five EU
member states was launched
by the Mayor of London's
Office Thursday.
Seventeen of the 68
species of European
bumblebees are threatened
with extinction, finds a new
study assessing the species
group at the European level.
“We are very concerned
with these findings. Such a
high proportion of
threatened bumblebees can
have serious implications
for our food production,”
said study coordinator Ana
Nieto, European biodiversity
officer with the
International Union for the
Conservation of Nature,
IUCN, which maintains the
Red List of Threatened
Species.
To accommodate high
levels of Roundup residues
in GM soya, limits were
raised 200-fold - with no
scientific justification and
ignoring growing evidence of
toxicity. What Monsanto
calls 'extreme levels' are
now the norm - but only in
GM crops.
Food and feed quality are
crucial to human and animal
health.
In a major study, the United
Nations Scientific Committee
on the Effects of Atomic
Radiation (UNSCEAR) said it
did not expect "significant
changes" in future cancer
rates that could be
attributed to radiation
exposure from the reactor
meltdowns.
A consortium of energy
companies, auto
manufacturers, government
laboratories, and other
stakeholders is driving the
acceleration of the rollout
of an infrastructure for
hydrogen-powered vehicles
and related technologies.
H2USA was launched last year
by the Department of Energy
(DOE) and other stakeholders
to focus on furthering the
infrastructure for
hydrogen-powered vehicles,
such as those powered by
fuel cells.
Journalist Sharyl Attkisson,
who recently resigned from
CBS News, dissected former
CIA Deputy Director Michael
Morell’s Wednesday testimony
on the infamous Benghazi
talking points. She not only
outlined his claims in
detail on Twitter, but she
also produced a new article
on her website,..
The days of simple, low-tech
appliances are long past,
but don't worry, CNET is
here to guide you through
the latest advances and
options with our appliance
buying guides. Want a dryer
that self-diagnoses? Done.
Remote-start your dishwasher
from your smartphone? Easy.
For six years, Iowa has
collected more than $20
million for a tax that
didn’t exist.
When questioned about it,
the Legislature adopted the
solution preferred by small
children who’ve done
something wrong — they
pretended it never happened.
The report of the second
working group of the IPCC’s
Fifth Assessment Report
(AR5), dealing with impacts,
adaptation and
vulnerability, and offering
new insights into key risks
due to climate change, was
released this week (31
March) in Yokohama, Japan.
"Nobody on this planet is
going to be untouched by the
impacts of climate change,"
IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri
warned.
A new poll finds that 80% of
Americans fear a “Second
Holocaust” — the complete
annihilation of Israel and
her six million Jews — if
the world allows Iran to
build nuclear warheads.
What’s more, 68% of
Americans fear a “nuclear
holocaust” inside the United
States if Iran builds The
Bomb.
At least 54 people were
killed and 67 more were
wounded today. Although
attacks were scattered
across the northern half of
Iraq, as usual, three
attacks targeted army troops
and recruits in the Kirkuk
suburbs of Riyadh, Nissan
and Rashad.
Obesity is developing at
an alarming rate even in
developing countries.
Maybe the global obesity
epidemic has nothing to do
with eating too much food.
Research suggests the
problem may be rooted in
your food's packaging.
A Kaiser Permanente study
has found that girls between
9 and 12 years of age with
higher-than-average levels
of bisphenol-A (BPA) in
their urine had DOUBLE the
risk of being obese compared
to girls with lower levels
of BPA.
If you find that you
regularly get sick with
colds, the flu, and
other bugs that are
going around, it may not
be your immune system
that is to blame fault.
Your toothbrush may be
compromising your
health.
The average toothbrush
is a “lightning rod” for
dangerous viruses and
bacteria, warns a
leading dentist.
People in Japan on
Tuesday began their first
homecomings in three years
to a small area evacuated
after the Fukushima
disaster, but families are
divided as worries about
radiation and poor job
prospects have kept many
away.
The reopening of the
Miyakoji area of Tamura, a
city 220 km (140 miles)
northeast of Tokyo and
inland from the wrecked
Fukushima nuclear station,
marks a tiny step for Japan
as it attempts to recover
from the 2011 disasters.
With a
heavy and steady load
applied, you can measure
individual cell or battery
voltages. Unequal voltages
will indicate weak cells.
You can also locate weak
connections this way.
In June 2012, the Sunrise
Powerlink, a 117-mile,
500-kilovolt transmission
line, was completed after
years of review, permitting
processes and controversies.
San Diego Gas & Electric
(SDG&E) developed the line
to facilitate the
development and generation
of renewable energy in the
Imperial Valley,
California’s southwest
desert, and to bring power
to the San Diego region.
A major earthquake of
magnitude 8.2 struck off the
coast of Chile on Tuesday,
triggering a tsunami that
hit the northern part of the
country, but the government
reported no deaths or
serious damage.
The U.S. Geological
Survey said the quake was
shallow at 12.5 miles below
the seabed and struck about
100 km northwest of the
mining port of Iquique near
the Peruvian border.
Milwaukee aldermen on
Wednesday approved a
resolution directing two
city departments to create
an energy independence plan
that could reduce reliance
on utilities for
electricity, natural gas and
heat to operate city
facilities and
infrastructure.
It may be a little late for
April Fool’s, but some
skepticism is nonetheless
warranted when reading that
researchers have shown
nanoparticles to disobey a
fundamental law of physics
which dictates the flow of
entropy and heat in, it was
believed, any situation.
Specifically, researchers
from three universities
theoretically proposed then
demonstrated that a
nanoparticle in a state of
thermal non-equilibrium does
not always behave as larger
particles might under the
same conditions, with
implications for various
fields of research.
The length of the melt
season for Arctic sea ice is
growing by several days each
decade, and an earlier start
to the melt season is
allowing the Arctic Ocean to
absorb enough additional
solar radiation in some
places to melt as much as
four feet of the Arctic ice
cap’s thickness, according
to a new study by National
Snow and Ice Data Center
(NSIDC) and NASA
researchers.
My name is Jenny Beth
Martin, and I am the
Co-Founder and National
Coordinator of Tea Party
Patriots.
I am proud to announce that
Tea Party Patriots has
thrown its full support
behind Congressman Jim
Bridentsine's (R-OK) HJ Res
104, a bill to permanently
repeal the 16th Amendment
and dismantle the IRS.
NSA used 'back door' to
search Americans'
communications Director of
national intelligence
confirms use of new legal
rule Data collected under
'Prism' and 'Upstream'
programs
U.S. consumer
favorability for 10 concepts
-- including solar energy,
wind energy, hybrid
vehicles, and electric cars
-- has rebounded, according
to a national annual
consumer survey. Navigant
Research has conducted this
survey to gauge public
perceptions of energy and
environmental concepts since
2009.
Of particular interest,
the survey found that
overall impressions of solar
energy are increasingly
positive among 79 percent of
respondents. Positive
sentiments had dropped since
2009 when 81 percent of the
respondents had a favorable
view of solar energy but now
appear to be on an upswing.
Despite studies showing that
raw milk is safe, getting
the laws changed to allow
sales of milk is an uphill
battle, as this recent
article in POLITICO points
out.
But many states
have already legalized the
sale of raw milk in certain
circumstances, and several
more are working on laws to
loosen regulations. Here’s
state-by-state a breakdown
(Source: POLITICO) of what’s
happening:
Increases in global
energy requirements
could lead to a rise in the
energy sector’s water
footprint of up to 66% in
the next 20 years, new
research suggests.
The report, entitled
The Water Demand of Energy:
Implications for Sustainable
Energy Policy Development,
said that renewable sources,
such as biofuels and
large-scale hydropower have
large water footprints which
must be considered in energy
policies.
C5 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a chance for
M-class flares on days one,
two, and three (04 Apr, 05
Apr, 06 Apr). he
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
minor storm levels on days
one and two (04 Apr, 05 Apr)
and quiet to unsettled
levels on day three (06
Apr).
According to a new report
released this week by
Integrity Florida, and
funded by the Southern
Alliance for Clean Energy ,
Florida's electric utilities
exert power over state
politics at a level
surpassed only by their
monopoly control over
electricity itself.
South Dakota's U.S.
senators both said they
believe Congress will extend
the production tax credit
for wind energy projects.
The so-called PTC was
omitted from a package of
temporary tax-break
extensions, but both Sen.
Tim Johnson, D-S.D., and
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.,
said they expect the Senate
Finance Committee to put a
two-year extension of the
tax break in the legislation
before it goes to the Senate
floor.
Within a few short years we
could see an energy
explosion that changes
everything. It promises to
come years to decades sooner
than conventional (hot)
nuclear fusion. And it could
be a lot cheaper, more
scalable, and more
transformative.
(But keep it to yourself.
Most media people are.)
Back in 2009, CBS News's 60
Minutes boldly announced:
"Cold Fusion Is Hot Again."
Great news, one would think,
because if real, the
technology could end carbon
pollution, lower the cost of
everything, and revitalize
whole cultures. But the news
failed to catch fire in the
general media. Why?
In 2014, for the first time,
China will install more PV
capacity than the whole of
Europe, according to IHS
Inc., largely due to recent
policy changes. Those
changes include a recent
announcement by the Chinese
National Development and
Reform Commission (NDRC)
that it would increase its
target for ground-mount PV
projects, as well as its
total installation goal, was
key in driving up the
forecast.
-
Recent studies show poor
sleeping habits cause
brain damage and even
accelerate onset of
Alzheimer’s disease
-
Sleep is necessary for
maintaining metabolic
homeostasis in your
brain. Without
sufficient sleep, neuron
degeneration sets in—and
catching up on sleep
during weekends will not
prevent this damage
-
Sleep deprivation causes
disruption of certain
synaptic connections
that can impair your
brain's ability for
learning, memory
formation, and other
cognitive functions. It
also accelerates onset
of Alzheimer's disease
-
Maintaining a natural
rhythm of exposure to
sunlight during the day
and darkness at night is
a crucial component of
sleeping well
-
Other helpful tips for
improving your sleep
include keeping the
temperature in your
bedroom below 70 degrees
F, and avoiding
electromagnetic fields
Did you know that a solar
storm in 1921 knocked the
entire national telegraph
system completely offline?
Or that a relatively minor
solar storm in 1989 caused
an enormous blackout in
Quebec? Scary stuff. And
here's more bad news...
It's always useful to have
fresh herbs to hand in the
kitchen, but they can easily
wither if not well-fed and
watered. Click and Grow
wanted to overcome this
problem. Its Smart Herb
Garden is now available. It
plugs into the wall and lets
users grow their herbs
without having to lift a
finger.
Being able to increase the
amount of electricity
generated by a single PV
module is an important facet
of the work that solar PV
manufacturers undertake in
their R&D efforts. The
greater the efficiency of
the panel, the less panels
are needed to produce a
certain amount of energy.
This in turn then lowers
installed costs for solar PV
developers.
Solar Hydrogen Trends, Inc.
develops innovative
breakthrough technology with
the world’s first hydrogen
reactor for production of
unlimited hydrogen; reactor
uses water as main fuel and
is 100% carbon free!
“Endless fuel from water…”
Around two dozen solar
power proponents rallied
outside the Maine Public
Utility Commission office
Wednesday to protest
proposed electricity rate
changes they say will
discourage individuals from
investing in renewable
energy sources.
Most rally attendees
donned yellow "Solar for ME"
t-shirts handed out by
members of out-of-state
advocacy groups before
filing into the building for
the public hearing on the
proposed changes.
A Georgia soldier first
tried to reason with his
teen daughter. He warned her
that there would be
consequences if she failed
to keep her room clean.
For whatever reason, the
girl did not heed her
father’s words.
Four South Mississippi
lawmakers are asking the
state House to oppose
storing nuclear waste
anywhere in the state.
The day after Northern
District Public Service
Commissioner Brandon Presley
failed to get a similar
resolution passed there,
Reps. Hank Zuber and Jeffrey
Guice of Ocean Springs,
Scott DeLano of Biloxi and
Greg Haney of Gulfport filed
a concurrent resolution "to
oppose the siting of a
high-level radioactive waste
repository within the
borders of the state of
Mississippi."
Pressure makes diamonds, but
according to recent
findings, there may also be
a much quicker, hassle-free
way. A team of researchers
at Stanford University has
stumbled upon a new way of
turning graphite (the
material used for pencil
leads) into a diamond-like
carbon structure simply by
applying hydrogen over a
platinum substrate, without
the need to apply external
pressure of any kind. The
discovery could lead to
easier and more flexible
manufacturing of diamonds
used in cutting tools and
other industrial devices.
Inspection teams were set to
venture into an underground
nuclear waste disposal vault
in New Mexico on Wednesday
to look for the source of a
radiation leak nearly seven
weeks ago that exposed 21
workers and forced a
shutdown of the facility.
The signs read: "No Need-No
Benefit, No Eminent Domain,
Deny the Mega Transmission
Lines, www.BlockGBEmo.com"
Change is taking place in
the tropical Pacific Ocean,
where NOAA (National Oceanic
and Atmospheric
Administration) researchers
have found that carbon
dioxide (CO2) concentrations
have increased as much as 65
percent faster than
atmospheric CO2 since 1998.
Rising CO2 concentrations of
this magnitude indicate that
tropical Pacific waters are
acidifying as fast as ocean
waters in the polar regions,
which may have grave
repercussions for marine
food webs, biodiversity,
fisheries and tourism.
In a small Wisconsin
town, many residents have
gone without clean tap water
since 2012. But now it
appears they will have clean
tap water restored by the
end of the summer.
It all started with a
gasoline pipeline break
nearly two years ago.
The world will need far
tougher curbs on greenhouse
gases, by both developed
nations and emerging
economies, to keep global
warming from exceeding a
promised ceiling, a draft
U.N. report shows.
Rich nations led by the
United States would have to
halve their emissions by
2030 from 2010 levels to
keep warming below an agreed
2 degree Celsius (3.6
Fahrenheit) ceiling above
pre-industrial times,
according to the draft
obtained by Reuters.
Although the term
"climate" does not appear in
the text of the bill,
Bridenstine's office has
said the intent of the
measure was "shifting funds
from climate change research
to severe weather
forecasting research."
The measure also directs
the Office of Oceanic and
Atmospheric Research (OAR)
to develop better
forecasting capabilities and
improve tornado and
hurricane warning systems.
Sixty-three percent of US
adults favor the use of
nuclear power as one of the
country's sources of
electricity and 34% oppose
it, a slight decline from
support expressed in
September, according to a
poll conducted by Bisconti
Research and Quest Global
Research for the Nuclear
Energy Institute and
released Wednesday.
On Monday, April 1, more
than 130 water utility
leaders from 46 states
visited Capitol Hill to
advocate for the creation of
the Water Infrastructure
Finance and Innovation
Authority (WIFIA) during the
American Water Works
Association's (AWWA) Water
Matters! Fly In.
Longstanding efforts to
reduce pollution in
Pennsylvania's Chesapeake
Bay Watershed continue to
yield progress, according to
the Department of
Environmental Protection
(DEP). On Monday, March 24,
the Chesapeake Bay Program
(CBP) released its
annual Chesapeake Bay
Watershed Model progress run
results for 2013, which
represent the estimated
amounts of phosphorus,
nitrogen and sediment
conveyed to the Bay.
The Netherlands—arguably
America’s agricultural
twin—has drastically reduced
its use of antibiotics in
meat, and Dutch citizens are
already reaping the health
benefits. So what is the
U.S. waiting for?
-
Positive thoughts and
attitudes are able to
prompt changes in your
body that strengthen
your immune system,
boost positive emotions,
decrease pain and
chronic disease, and
provide stress relief
-
One study found that
happiness, optimism,
life satisfaction, and
other positive
psychological attributes
are associated with a
lower risk of heart
disease
-
A team of researchers at
UCLA showed that people
with a deep sense of
happiness and well-being
had lower levels of
inflammatory gene
expression and stronger
antiviral and antibody
responses
-
Self-acceptance was
found to be the
strongest predictor of
life satisfaction in one
survey (but many people
have difficulty
accepting themselves)
-
Emotions are known to be
contagious among people
in direct contact (this
is true for friends,
acquaintances, and even
strangers), and new
research suggests they
may also be contagious
via social media
Each billing statement lists
the amount of water a
household used, how that
number stacks up against
comparable homes in the
area, and a rating of
"great,” “good,” or “take
action.” The statement also
includes the image of a face
smiling, looking neutral, or
frowning.
‘The World Water Council has
been working on the water
and energy issue since the
6th World Water Forum, and
this new collaboration will
give us the means to push
forward and encourage
harmonised policies,’ adds
Benedito Braga, WWC
President. ‘Water needs
energy and energy needs
water. Understanding the
interaction between these
two vital elements is
paramount to developing a
water secure future.’
April 1, 2014
The battery-powered Tesla
Model S is one of the
world’s fastest and quietest
luxury cars, but you might
not know the latter if you
watched the "60 Minutes"
interview with Tesla founder
Elon Musk that first aired
on Sunday.
Now CBS says it regrets
the "error" that led to that
impression.
The World
Meteorological Organization
finds 13 of the 14 warmest
years on record have
occurred in the 21st
Century. And it says each of
the last three decades has
been warmer than the
previous one, with 2001 to
2010 being the warmest
decade on record.
As electricity prices
continue to rise, an
increasing number of
industries are considering
combined heat and power
(CHP) as an alternative for
power generation, due to the
option of using both natural
gas and biomass as fuel.
In fact, Europe's CHP
installed capacity will
increase from an estimated
202 GW in 2014 to 245 GW by
2020, according to research
and consulting firm
GlobalData, driven by
growing electricity demand
and increasing environmental
awareness.
After being fined $70,000
last year for failing to
verify equipment
reliability, the Tennessee
Valley Authority is now
meeting all regulatory
standards for construction
of its newest nuclear
reactor, regulators said in
a letter released today.
Michael Lewis is not talking
about the stock market that
you see on television every
day. That ceased to be the
center of U.S. financial
activity years ago, and
exists today mostly as a
photo op. This is the stock
market that Lewis is talking
about; the one where most of
the trades take place now,
inside hundreds of thousands
of these black boxes located
at more than 60 public and
private exchanges, where
billions of dollars in stock
change hands every day with
little or no public
documentation. The trades
are being made by thousands
of robot computers,
programmed to buy and sell
every stock on the market at
speeds 100 times faster than
you can blink an eye. A
system so complex, it’s all
but invisible.
Scientists at MIT are
developing hybrid materials
that are a cross between
living bacterial cells and
non-living components such
as gold nanoparticles or
quantum dots. The resulting
"living materials" are able
to respond to their
environment like regular
living cells, while also
doing things like conducting
electricity or emitting
light.
At least 56 people were
killed and 55 more were
wounded in scattered
attacks across Iraq today.
In one attack, an important
bridge fell into the
Euphrates, killing several
people.
The stress of natural
disasters can break people's
hearts, according to a new
study. Researchers found
dramatic rises in "broken
heart syndrome" in Vermont
after a huge storm ravaged
the state and in Missouri
after a massive tornado.
A report by the
Senate Intelligence
Committee concludes that the
CIA misled the government
and the public about aspects
of its brutal interrogation
program for years —
concealing details about the
severity of its methods,
overstating the significance
of plots and prisoners, and
taking credit for critical
pieces of intelligence that
detainees had in fact
surrendered before they were
subjected to harsh
techniques.
India's high vulnerability
and exposure to climate
change will slow its
economic growth, impact
health and development, make
poverty reduction more
difficult and erode food
security, a new report by
scientists said on Monday.
Despite some early March
rain in California, and a
few storm systems moving in
this week, the late season
moisture will sadly fall far
short of that which is
needed to pull the state out
of its four-year drought.
Attention has consequently
turned towards how
California will ensure
reliable water supplies in
years ahead, should
precipitation levels remain
below average.
Turkey’s premier is bound
to tighten and extend his
grip on power, emboldened by
sweeping local poll wins
that came despite damaging
graft claims and Internet
clampdowns, analysts said on
Monday.
Over the last few years much
of the talk with regards to
the electric vehicle sector
has focused upon battery
restrictions with many
people calling for greater
investment in the sector.
There was a general
consensus emerging that
lithium ion batteries had
perhaps been pushed to their
technological limit and we
may need to strip back the
battery sector and go back
to square one. However,
researchers at the
University of Limerick have
announced a ground breaking
breakthrough which could
effectively double the life
of an electric vehicle
battery.
Millions of underwater
U.S. homeowners are eligible
to refinance -- yet few are
taking advantage of today's
low rates.
If you're current on your
mortgage and have a mortgage
backed by Fannie Mae or
Freddie Mac, there’s a
program to help you lower
your mortgage rate and
payment. It’s called HARP
mortgage program and more
than 3 million U.S.
homeowners have used it
already.
However, the program's
expiration date is
approaching.
For the first time since the
collision of a bulk carrier
and a barge Saturday spilled
168,000 gallons of oil in
the Houston Ship Channel,
authorities have reopened
all lanes of traffic.
Although cleanup is still
incomplete, ships are now
permitted to sail in and out
of this busy waterway.
Morgan Stanley’s
investigation into the
potential of consumers to go
off-grid in a major way in
the US depends on a number
of factors.
The falling cost of solar we
know about, and the rising
cost of poles and wires is
also well understood.
The new element is the
falling cost of battery
storage. This has been
mooted and debated for some
years, but the most recent
announcement by Tesla, the
electric vehicle
manufacturer, that it plans
a $5 billion “gigawatt”
scale battery manufacturing
facility that will bring
down the cost of batteries
by more than half – brings
it much closer to reality.
Hundreds of protesters in
southern China marched
against a chemical plant and
environmental degradation on
Sunday in a demonstration
that the Maoming city
government called a "grave
violation" by criminals
causing chaos.
The effects of climate
change are “already
occurring on all continents
and across the oceans,” yet
the world is “ill-prepared
for risks from a changing
climate,” concludes the
latest assessment, issued
today, from the
Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change.
“Increasing magnitudes of
warming increase the
likelihood of severe and
pervasive impacts that may
be surprising or
irreversible,” warns the
report from the UN panel
For the first time since
Japan's Fukushima nuclear
disaster more than three
years ago, residents of a
small district 20 km (12
miles) from the wrecked
plant are about to be
allowed to return home.
The facilities are designed
to store contaminated soil
and other radioactive wastes
from decontamination work
after the disaster at the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
power plant in 2011.
From the time Exxon's
Pegasus ruptured one year
ago, there have been
difficulties with getting
spill-related information to
the public.
Every parent asks
themselves this question.
If you're lucky enough to be
brought up with firearms
around, this probably isn't
a big deal for you.
However, within the last
five years, more Americans
are first-time gun owners
with little to no
experience.
Sandia National Laboratories
engineers have been studying
the most effective ways to
use solar photovoltaic (PV)
arrays that are relatively
easy to install, have
relatively small maintenance
costs and can run unassisted
for decades.
Gas contracts on European
prompt markets extended last
week's losses Monday on
reduced demand ahead of the
summer season when the
market switches to injecting
gas into storage facilities,
which are at healthy levels.
Greenhouse gas emissions
from food production may
threaten the UN climate
target of limiting global
warming to 2 degrees
Celsius, according to
research at Chalmers
University of Technology in
Sweden.
Carbon dioxide emissions
from the energy and
transportation sectors
currently account for the
largest share of climate
pollution.
Sometimes bad things come
in small packages.
A microbe that spewed
humongous amounts of methane
into Earth's atmosphere
triggered a global
catastrophe 252 million
years ago that wiped out
upwards of 90 percent of
marine species and 70
percent of land vertebrates.
That's the hypothesis
offered on Monday by
researchers aiming to solve
one of science's enduring
mysteries: what happened at
the end of the Permian
period to cause the worst of
the five mass extinctions in
Earth's history.
Goats are not just cute and
somewhat comical, but also
surprisingly intelligent,
new research finds
Scientists from the Carnegie
Institution for Science and
the Gemini Observatory have
reported the existence of a
new member of our solar
system. The distant dwarf
planet, dubbed 2012 VP113,
is believed to be one of
thousands of distant objects
that make up the
hypothesized "inner Oort
cloud."
Don't worry about hitting
some arbitrary
X-cups-of-water-a-day target
North and South Korea fired
hundreds of artillery shells
into each other's waters
Monday in a flare-up of
animosity that forced
residents of five front-line
South Korean islands to
evacuate to shelters for
several hours, South Korean
officials said.
NYMEX May crude settled near
flat Monday, down 9 cents at
$101.58/barrel, with the
rest of the complex lower as
risk-on trade flow
diminished on reports that
Russia partially withdrew
troops from its border with
Ukraine.
What caused Exxon’s Pegasus
pipeline to split apart
while the line was running
well below maximum pressure?
It's still anyone's guess.
Sixteen percent of coal
plant operators are still
deciding which sites will
upgrade or retire. The
expenses associated with the
necessary equipment to
control emissions, such as
flue gas desulfurization
(FGD) and dry sorbent
injection (DSI), play a
major role in the decision
process.
A Pakistani court has
charged former President
Pervez Musharraf with
treason for implementing
emergency rule and
suspending the constitution
in 2007. Musharraf has
already been found guilty of
the murder of former Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto.
X1 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be moderate with a slight
chance for an X-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(30 Mar, 31 Mar, 01 Apr).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet
levels on days one and two
(30 Mar, 31 Mar) and quiet
to active levels on day
three (01 Apr). Protons have
a slight chance of crossing
threshold on days one, two,
and three (30 Mar, 31 Mar,
01 Apr).
X Flare hit earth over the
past weekend.
Most people are familiar
with coral reefs, but very
few have ever heard of their
algal equivalent — rhodolith
beds. Yet, these structures
provide crucial habitat for
many marine species. In the
first study of its kind,
published in mongabay.com's
Tropical Conservation
Science, researchers unveil
just how important these
beds are for bottom-dwelling
organisms, and the species
that depend on them.
-
Research is mounting
that an environmental
toxicant, especially an
endocrine-disrupting
chemical such as
glyphosate in Roundup,
may be involved in
increasing rates of male
infertility
-
Roundup exposure induced
cell death in Sertoli
cells (required for male
sexual development and
sperm health) in rat
testis
-
The exposure was a low
dose (36 parts per
million), which is well
within the US
Environmental Protection
Agency’s food safety
exposure levels
-
Separate research showed
that glyphosate led to
severe oxidative stress
in male testes, which
leads to the generation
of reactive oxygen
species (ROS); ROS is
linked to male
infertility
Russia said Monday it was
pulling a battalion of
several hundred troops away
from the Ukrainian border
but kept tens of thousands
in place, prompting a
worried response from the
Kiev government about what
the U.S. warned was still a
"tremendous buildup."
-
Cocoa powder is rich in
antioxidants. However,
it was thought that
these molecules were
poorly digested and
absorbed due to their
large size
-
New research revealed
that your gut bacteria
breaks down and ferments
the components in dark
chocolate, turning them
into anti-inflammatory
compounds that benefit
your health
-
Beneficial gut microbes
including
Bifidobacterium and
lactic acid bacteria
“feasted” on chocolate,
creating
anti-inflammatory
compounds that may
reduce inflammation of
cardiovascular tissue
-
A wide range of
accumulating scientific
research has linked
chocolate consumption to
over 40 distinct health
benefits
-
The closer your cocoa is
to its natural raw
state, the higher its
nutritional value;
ideally, your chocolate
or cocoa should be
consumed raw (cacao)
The settlement calls for
SDG&E and SCE to refund
money for the replacement of
steam generators collected
since February 2012.
"The settlement ensures
that customers will not have
to pay for San Onofre's
faulty steam generators
post-shutdown and also
allows shareholders to
recoup the majority of their
non-steam generator
investment in the plant,
which provided clean,
reliable, low-cost energy to
the region for more than 40
years," Jeffrey W. Martin,
CEO of SDG&E, said.
On the heels of a
shareholder resolution filed
by As You Sow -- which asked
Southern Company to consider
the presidential
administration's goal of
reducing carbon emissions by
80 percent by 2050 --
Southern Company has agreed
to produce a comprehensive
report on the company's
renewable energy projects
and its future plans to
integrate more renewable
energy into its operations.
-
The typical American
home contains about
three to 10 gallons of
toxic materials in the
form of household
cleaning products. Even
"green" alternatives can
contain harmful
ingredients
-
Ingredients in common
household cleaners and
detergents that can
create a toxic indoor
environment include
glycol ethers,
phosphates, volatile
organic compounds,
phthalates, and more
-
Common household items
such as white vinegar,
baking soda, lemon
juice, coconut oil, and
vodka can usually cut
through dirt and
sanitize just as well as
their toxic counterparts
-
Coconut oil is a
household staple that
can replace countless
commercial products.
It’s particularly useful
for cleaning,
sanitizing, and
conditioning wood,
leather, and metal items
-
DIY recipes are included
for kitchen, bath,
laundry, and
multi-purpose use
"Solar energy is one of the
most popular and least
controversial green
technologies in the eyes of
consumers," says Clint
Wheelock, managing director
with Navigant Research. "But
it is followed closely by
wind energy, which gained a
favorable response from 72
percent of Americans."
-
Fluoride is a poisonous
chemical added to many
municipal water supplies
across the US, Canada,
and elsewhere without
the permission of the
residents
-
One of the consequences
of this mass-medication
is dental fluorosis,
which is present in 41
percent of 12- to
15-year-olds in the US
-
37 studies out of 43
show water fluoridation
lowers IQ in children;
26 studies show a
statistically
significant reduction in
IQ of seven points
-
Since about 2009, about
130 communities have
stopped water
fluoridation. The new
minister of health in
Israel announced that
this year, she’s lifting
the mandatory fluoride
requirement in Israel
-
Queensland recently
lifted the mandatory
requirement for
fluoridation, which led
to 17 district councils
stopping fluoridation
(or deciding not to
start)
Global warming poses a
growing threat to the
health, economic prospects,
and food and water sources
of billions of people, top
scientists said in a report
that urges swift action to
counter the effects of
carbon emissions.
The latest report from
the U.N. Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) says the effects of
warming are being felt
everywhere, fuelling
potential food shortages,
natural disasters and
raising the risk of wars.
Ukraine's National Committee
for Power Regulation (NCPR),
the government's energy
sector regulating body, said
on Monday it has moved to
increase average natural gas
prices for industrial
consumers by 29.1% starting
April 1.
-
What started as a ban on
raw milk to protect
consumer health quickly
escalated when the
federal health
authorities realized
just how deadly and
tainted American meat is
-
The food and
food-contaminant
combination that causes
the most harm to human
health is campylobacter
in poultry, which
sickens more than
600,000 people and costs
the US an estimated $1.3
billion a year
-
The FDA and USDA will be
joining forces to assure
“undisputable safety” of
all meats sold to
Americans by banning raw
meat sales
-
As an extra measure, all
animals will be tagged
with transmitters to
ensure no direct
farm-to-consumer sales
will occur
-
Tagging of livestock for
traceability purposes is
already part of the
USDA’s Animal Disease
Traceability Framework
program, which regulates
interstate sales of
livestock
Happy April Fool's Day!
A U.S. regulator on
Monday allowed Exxon Mobil
Corp to restart operations
on the Texas leg of its
Pegasus pipeline, which
spilled thousands of barrels
of oil into a residential
area in Arkansas last year.
The Pipeline and
Hazardous Materials Safety
Administration (PHMSA)
approved Exxon's restart
plan for a 210-mile (338-km)
stretch of the pipeline from
Corsicana to Nederland at 80
percent of the operating
pressure in place before the
March 29, 2013 incident in
the small town of Mayflower,
Arkansas.
According to the latest
issue of EIA's "Monthly
Energy Review" (with data
through December 31, 2013),
energy production from
renewable sources (i.e.,
biofuels, biomass,
geothermal, hydropower,
solar, wind) increased by
4.01% in 2013 compared to
calendar year 2012.
The wind energy industry has
seen a lot of growth over
the past decade, and has
become a dominant force in
the renewable energy
industry, up against
traditional heavyweights
like solar. Public support
for wind is growing with
each year, and leading wind
companies like Vestas are
developing more efficient
and taller turbines.
The tremor, a relatively
light event by seismic
standards, struck the
northwest corner of the park
and capped a flurry of
smaller quakes at
Yellowstone since Thursday,
geologists at the University
of Utah Seismograph Stations
said in a statement.
The latest earthquake
struck at 6:34 a.m. near the
Norris Geyser Basin and was
felt about 23 miles away in
two small Montana towns
adjacent to year-around
entrances to the park -
Gardiner and West
Yellowstone.