By Mike Robbins
Hydrogen -- Star Gas, Everywhere, Yet Unseen. Sunlight is its Child.
(Haiku by Stephen Wetlesen)
January 31, 2014
Most of us have heard the
famous Jeff Foxworthy “You
Might Be a Redneck…” jokes.
But why should Foxworthy get
to have all of the fun? We
as Native Americans deserve
the right to hear some
stereotypical satire, which
also happens to merit the
truth.
In this lighthearted way
of looking at ourselves,
here are 10 Ways to Tell You
Might Be Native American.
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Back pain accounts for
an estimated 10 percent
of all primary care
doctors visits each
year, costing Americans
as much as $86 billion
annually
-
Back pain is
increasingly being
treated with addictive
drugs and diagnostic
exams that expose
patients to potentially
unnecessary and
dangerous levels of
radiation
-
Back pain is frequently
the gateway that leads
people down a path of
drug addiction and
lifelong disability
-
Poor posture and/or
improper movement is
responsible for the vast
majority of back pain.
Proper alignment of the
bones and joints in your
body during movement is
critical for remaining
pain free
-
Foundation Training and
postural training such
as that taught by Esther
Gokhale are highly
useful, both for the
prevention and treatment
of back pain (as well as
other bodily pains)
A terrified mother claims
she watched in horror as her
demon-possessed 9-year-old
son walked backwards up a
wall and ceiling. Her claims
would be easy to dismiss if
a child services case worker
and a nurse weren’t
reportedly there to witness
it all.
The parliament voted today
to roll back an
anti-demonstration law that
escalated tensions, and the
hardline prime minister
stepped down. But protesters
plan to stay put.
The American Security
Project (ASP) has released a
report regarding the choices
America faces regarding
energy production and
consumption, predicting that
2014 will be a year of
continued upheaval for
America's energy system and
laying out the choices to
ensure the vitality of the
U.S. economy, national
security, and the global
environment.
The report developed
three critical policy
considerations surrounding
the United States' energy
choices: energy security,
economic stability, and
environmental
sustainability. These areas
are examined in terms of
fossil fuels, nuclear power,
and renewable power.
The Commissioner heard about
investor nervousness given
headlines out of California,
including on SONGS and the
San Bruno natural gas line
explosion. Investors were
concerned that California
would return to its previous
politically influenced
anti-capital investment
practices. The
Commissioner pointed out
that if this happens,
investors would demand “an
incremental risk premium for
an extended period of time”
and that would cost
ratepayers “multiple
billions of dollars in added
expenses.”
These billions of dollars
would have a ripple effect
from California, east across
the country as investors
recalibrate how rules are
applied in California and
how that could impact other
states and even federal
policy.
U.S. scientists say
bacterial spores harnessing
the untapped power of
evaporating water could lead
to generators turning
humidity changes into
electricity.
Researchers at Harvard
University report
experiments with a sheet of
rubber coated on one side
with spores that cause the
sheet to bend when it dries
out, in the same way a pine
cone opens as it dries or a
freshly fallen leaf curls,
and then straightens when
humidity rises.
The technology uses
water-based fuel and applies
a current of 12,000 amps,
igniting flashes of power.
In a press release,
BlackLight Power states that
the power source can output
as much power as a central
power generation plant,
exceeding the power of the
four former reactors of the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
plant.
Consider the hybrid car.
Halfway between the
traditional motor and the
fully electric Nissan
Leaf or the Volkswagen
e-Up!, they’re a nod to
green motoring. While
retaining a conventional
diesel engine, they can
harvest kinetic energy from
the car’s braking motion and
use that to power an
additional electric motor.
The toll numbers were high
today as scores of militants
were killed in Anbar
province. Also, several
bombings took place again in
Baghdad, and so did the
failed takeover of a
government building.
Overall, at least 93
people were killed in
the violence, and 101
more were wounded.
The number of Air Force
nuclear missile guardians in
Montana implicated in a
cheating scandal has doubled
to nearly 70 servicemembers,
officials told the
Associated Press.
The increase comes almost
two weeks after the Air
Force announced that 34
launch officers at the
troubled 341st Missile Wing
were implicated in a
test-cheating ring at
Malmstrom Air Force Base,
Mont. The accused, half of
whom knew of the cheating
but did not report it, were
stripped of their security
clearances and removed from
launch duty.
Even
if you've been paying
attention to China's growing
appetite for renewable
energy, and especially solar
energy, these latest
statistics deserve emphasis.
China likely
fulfilled, and maybe
well exceeded, its goals
for 10 GW of solar PV
installations in 2013.
Reports suggest anywhere
from 9.5 GW to 11 GW or
or even 12 GW and maybe
even as high as 14 GW
once final numbers are
in.
Saying that her main
regret during her years as
secretary of State is the
terror attack on the
Benghazi diplomatic annex in
Libya and the deaths of four
Americans, Hillary Clinton
continues her cover-up.
Even as she expresses her
regrets, she pretends that
the reason she did not act
to beef up security at the
compound, and that she lied
afterward, blaming the
attack on an Internet video,
was “imperfect” intelligence
information.
Investigators said the man
indicated he had a gun and
demanded cash from the
register. Instead, the clerk
pulled a gun in
self-defense, and the
suspect took off.
Environmental and
community advocates
protested Monday what they
call an attack on solar
energy by Duke Energy.
Duke executives have said
recently that the utility
pays customers too much for
the surplus electricity
residential roof-top solar
arrays generate.
An official in northeastern
Nigeria says the death toll
from an attack by suspected
Islamist militants has risen
to 85.
People who easily
tolerate cold weather can
thank Neanderthals who
disappeared from Europe and
Asia 30,000 years ago, and
people who suffer from Type
2 diabetes may be able to
blame this same extinct
human species.
New research by
scientists in the United
States and Germany published
this week shows that genetic
material from Neanderthal
humans may increase the risk
of some diseases in humans
alive today.
During Congress' first
hearing in 25 years on US
oil exports -- currently
banned in most cases -- a
divided Senate Energy and
Natural Resources Committee
on Thursday debated the
impact on consumers of
sending some of the
country's plentiful light,
sweet crude abroad.
With financial assistance
from the U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE), Sprint will
deploy hydrogen fuel cell
technology as backup power
to rooftop network sites,
allowing for lower network
site maintenance and cleaner
network energy sources and
increasing network
survivability during power
outages.
More than 40 people were
killed and a school district
supervisor was kidnapped in
separate incidents around
the island of Mindanao, days
after a landmark peace deal
was struck with the largest
Muslim insurgency group in
the Philippines, officials
said Wednesday.
The bloodiest battles
involved a group opposed to
the peace deal, but military
commanders said the timing
of the fighting was not
related to the announcement
of the peace agreement and
was initiated by police
officers and soldiers trying
to arrest rebel fighters.
Rebounding from a
tough two years of slowing
growth, the energy service
company (ESCO) market in the
United States is expected to
resume its expansion in the
coming years. The primary
markets for ESCOs include
K-12 schools, state and
local governments,
universities and colleges,
and hospitals. According to
a recent report
from Navigant Research,
education – combining K-12
and universities/colleges –
will be the largest market
segment for ESCOs,
representing more than $22
billion in cumulative
revenue from 2013 through
2020.
Two
Norwegian politicians have
jointly nominated former
National Security Agency
contractor Edward Snowden
for the 2014 Nobel Peace
Prize, saying his
disclosures of secret U.S.
documents have contributed
to making the world more
peaceful.
Anyone can be nominated
for the prestigious award,
so the submission Wednesday
by Socialist lawmakers Baard
Vegard Solhjell, a former
environment minister, and
Snorre Valen just means
Snowden will be one of
scores of names that the
Nobel committee will
consider.
A new study from North
Carolina State University
indicates that even a sharp
increase in the use of
electric drive passenger
vehicles (EDVs) by 2050
would not significantly
reduce emissions of
high-profile air pollutants
carbon dioxide, sulfur
dioxide or nitrogen oxides.
"EDVs" is a catch-all
term that includes hybrid,
plug-in hybrid and battery
electric vehicles.
Sometimes water and
electricity do mix. A
growing number of wastewater
treatment professionals,
especially those in the
industrial sector, are
turning to
electrocoagulation — a water
treatment process that uses
electric current to remove
various contaminants from
water.
The Environmental
Protection Agency, in a win
for North Carolina
environmental groups, has
agreed to issue by December
the federal government's
first rules on coal ash.
EPA held hearings on ash
in Charlotte and other
cities in 2010 but has not
issued rules on its
disposal. Boone-based
Appalachian Voices,
Asheville's Western North
Carolina Alliance and other
groups filed lawsuits two
years ago to force EPA's
hand.
Today at the 14th National
Conference and Global Forum
on Science, Policy and the
Environment, U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) Administrator
Gina McCarthy announced
grants to four research
institutions for innovative
and sustainable water
research to manage harmful
nutrient pollution. Nutrient
pollution is one of
America's most widespread,
costly and challenging
environmental problems, and
is caused by excess nitrogen
and phosphorus in waterways.
Today, the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) released phase
II of the National
Stormwater Calculator and
Climate Assessment Tool
package. The updated
calculator includes future
climate vulnerability
scenarios.
The
calculator, a part of
President Obama’s Climate
Change Action Plan, is a
desktop application that
estimates the annual amount
of stormwater runoff from a
specific location.
E Source is pleased to
announce that the company is
now receiving 100 percent of
the energy needed to run its
newly remodeled building
from solar and wind power. E
Source has been wind-powered
for several years, but added
solar to its mix after being
chosen as one of five local
businesses to participate in
a local solar garden project
funded by Xcel Energy’s
Solar Rewards Program and
Community Energy Solar.
EU diplomats backed a 6.5
billion euro ($8.9 billion)
deal to help fishermen adapt
to new rules, ending years
of debate over reforms of
the European Union's fishing
policy aimed at ending
decades of over-fishing.
The funding agreement
covers the years 2014 to
2020 and is meant to fund
equipment, such as new nets
that allow smaller fish to
escape, that could help
replenish stocks.
President Barack Obama
promised to clear red tape
away from highway projects
that actually are stalled
because there’s no money for
them, not because rules are
in the way. He’s ordering a
higher minimum wage for a
sliver of the workforce,
which affects no one now and
not many later.
Going it alone — without
Congress making a law — just
doesn’t go as far as
President Barack Obama made
it sound at times Tuesday
night in his State of the
Union speech.
Now He’s Thinking About
Filing Articles of
Impeachment
Just hours after he stormed
out of President Obama’s
State of the Union address
Tuesday, Rep. Steve Stockman
(R-Texas) announced he’s
considering filing articles
of impeachment against the
president.
A former uranium
enrichment site is becoming
a green-power mecca.
Two companies that have
already built solar power
facilities at East Tennessee
Technology Park -- formerly
the sprawling K-25 site --
are teaming up to construct
what will be one of
Tennessee's top 10 solar
farms.
Hopi citizen Diane
Humetewa smiled through a
positive nomination hearing
before the Senate Judiciary
Committee on January 28 in
her effort to be confirmed
as a U.S. district judge in
Arizona.
For decades
large-scale hydropower
developments have been
viewed as something of a
pariah within the renewable
energy sector. Indeed,
despite an acknowledged
contribution to sustainable
energy development —
hydropower’s global kWh
contribution dwarfs all
other renewable technologies
— it has largely been
excluded from considerations
that benefit other forms of
renewable power generation
and has weathered widespread
criticism over projects
deemed unsustainable.
Lawmakers from the state of
Illinois have proposed new
medical marijuana rules that
coerce patients to surrender
their Second Amendment right
in the application process.
The new medical
marijuana "legalization"
bill requires Illinois
citizens to undergo a
background check, be
fingerprinted and pay an
additional $150 fine for
using marijuana for medical
purposes.
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Every feeling you have
affects some part of
your body, and stress
can wreak havoc on your
physical health. Just
because we don’t have
the technology to
visualize the mind-body
connection doesn’t mean
it’s not real
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In a recent experiment
to map emotions,
researchers asked
volunteers to think
about one of 14
predetermined emotions,
and then paint the areas
of a blank silhouette
that felt stimulated by
that particular emotion
-
The experiment shows
that emotions do tend to
be felt in your body in
ways that are generally
consistent from one
person to the next,
irrespective of your
age, sex, or nationality
-
Previous studies have
linked stress to lowered
immune system function,
increased blood pressure
and cholesterol levels,
and altered brain
chemistry, blood sugar
levels, and hormonal
balance
Industrial Heat, LLC
announced today that it has
acquired the rights
to Andrea Rossi's Italian
low energy nuclear reaction
(LENR) technology, the
Energy Catalyzer (E-Cat). A
primary goal of the company
is to make the technology
widely available, because of
its potential impact on air
pollution and carbon dioxide
emissions from burning
fossil fuels and biomass.
Accelerated merger and
acquisition (M&A) activity
in the U.S. oil and gas
industry throughout 2013,
which included a strong
uptick in the last three
months of the year, led to
182 total deals accounting
for $115.9 billion in total
deal value for the year. As
companies continue
concentrating on sustaining
growth and maximizing
shareholder value, PwC
expects continued interest
in M&A activity in the
sector throughout 2014.
Recently, media reports
have raised the concern for
U.S. oil and gas investors
about whether the potential
carbon asset stock prices
constitute a bubble, but a
new report from the
University of California,
Davis suggests that this is
not the case. The study
found instead that
investors' in U.S. oil and
gas companies base their
expectations for future cash
flows on all possible
scenarios, not just negative
ones that crop up in the
media.
Scientists have known for
more than 40 years that the
synthetic pesticide DDT is
harmful to bird habitats and
a threat to the environment.
Now researchers at Rutgers
University say exposure to
DDT, banned in the United
States since 1972 but still
used as a pesticide in other
countries, may also increase
the risk and severity of
Alzheimer's disease in some
people, particularly those
over the age of 60.
Marathon Petroleum Corp
confirmed that two barrels
of diesel spilled into the
Mississippi river on Tuesday
from its
490,000-barrel-per-day (bpd)
Garyville, Louisiana,
refinery.
The global nature of
the derivatives market has
long enabled users to manage
their risk efficiently. This
is something ISDA has
championed throughout its
history, and it’s been our
single biggest concern over
the past few years.
Thankfully, the Group of 20
(G-20) nations shared this
concern when setting their
roadmap for derivatives
reform in September 2009.
After months of tacit
cooperation with rural
vigilantes trying to drive
out a cult-like drug cartel,
the Mexican government is
seeking to permanently solve
one of its toughest security
problems with a plan to
legalize the growing
movement and bring it under
the army’s control.
But the risks are high.
Gunmen and suicide bombers
staged a brazen assault on a
government building in
Baghdad, officials said,
killing two people in the
latest such attack in the
heart of the Iraqi capital
by militants trying to
undermine further the
Shiite-led government's
shaky authority.
The stunning and
little-understood annual
migration of millions of
Monarch butterflies to spend
the winter in Mexico is in
danger of disappearing,
experts said Wednesday,
after numbers dropped to
their lowest level since
record-keeping began
in 1993.
Their report blamed the
displacement of the milkweed
the species feeds on by
genetically modified crops
and urban sprawl in the
United States, extreme
weather trends and the
dramatic reduction of the
butterflies' habitat in
Mexico due to illegal
logging of the trees they
depend on for shelter.
The Wind Coalition and
the Climate and Energy
Project released new poll
data showing that Kansans
overwhelmingly — and we
mean overwhelmingly —
support the development of
renewable energy resources
in the their state.
Controversial pesticides
ingested by bumble bees can
seriously impact the
insects’ ability to collect
food, even at very low
levels of contamination,
finds new research from the
University of Sussex and the
University of Stirling.
The study shows that even
tiny doses of a
neonicotinoid pesticide
called imidacloprid reduce
the amount of pollen
collected by bumblebee
colonies by 57 percent, and
that the effects last for at
least a month after
exposure.
Net
metering was one of the
solar energy industry's
hottest topics in 2013 — and
barely a month into 2014
it's promising to stay that
way.
The group alleged to
be behind last year's
failed attempts to
repeal several states'
renewable portfolio
standards, the American
Legislative Exchange
Council (ALEC), has
since pivoted to train
its sights on what it
sees as a more
attractive target: net
metering policies and
distributed-generation
solar "freeriders." The
Edison Electric
Institute takes a less
aggressive but similar
stance against net
metering, arguing that
distributed generation
solar users take far
more from the grid more
than they give.
By helping to minimize the
hydrocarbons and other
pollutants that are emitted
in a car's exhaust,
catalytic converters serve
an important purpose.
Because they contain
precious metals such as
platinum, however, they can
also be expensive. Now, a
British scientist has
developed a new type of
converter that should be
cheaper, longer-lasting and
more effective, plus it
should boost the vehicle's
fuel efficiency.
The plant, which restarted
both reactors over the
weekend, suffered the
shutdown after snow and ice
during a storm Jan. 21
apparently affected a
ventilation louver filter
and caused a short circuit.
After the electrical supply
system shut down, so did
several plant systems and
components that rely on
electricity, the nuclear
regulatory agency said
Monday.
My how the mighty have
fallen. I was going to
report on all the lies in
Obama’s State of the Union
last night. But it appears
he’s more than a pathetic
liar, he’s actually a thief
too. Obama started out his
career at the Brandenburg
Gate in Germany with
thousands watching. Now he
plagiarizes George W. Bush’s
speeches? That’s a pretty
long fall.
After seeing some of their
comments, however, I thought
some of the best surrogates
for Republicans last night
were the Senate Democrats
running for reelection.
During his State of the
Union address, President
Obama again touted the use
of natural gas and
renewables to help reduce
carbon emissions in the
U.S., but did not mention
coal or nuclear.
The reaction from the energy
industry to President
Obama's State of the Union
address Tuesday night is in
and the results are mixed.
Excavations at a makeshift
graveyard near a now-closed
reform school in the Florida
Panhandle have yielded
remains of 55 bodies, almost
twice the number official
records say are there, the
University of South Florida
announced on Tuesday.
M6 event observed
It also
produced a Type II (2161
km/s) radio emission, a
Tenflare (220 sfu) and a
coronal mass ejection
which may have an
Earth-directed component.
Analysis is underway. There
are currently 5 numbered
sunspot regions on the disk.
slight chance for an
X-class flare on
days one, two, and three (31
Jan, 01 Feb, 02 Feb).
Potential for a glancing
blow as early as Day 2 (01
Feb) from the CME described
above could push the
geomagnetic field to
unsettled to active levels
with a slight chance for a
minor (G1) storm period.
Central banks of
several nations who are
experiencing sharp currency
declines are taking action
to stabilize the situation.
Putting something called
"Natural Engineering" to
work in a five-year research
project, Newcastle
University in cooperation
with the Environment Agency
are discovering the benefits
utilizing the land’s natural
defenses to slow river flow
downstream and prevent
flooding. Slowing down water
in anticipation of flooding
events is being tested all
over the world.
Is there money to be made on
your roof? With the
never-ending availability of
sunshine and the evolution
of solar technology many are
recognizing the benefits of
solar. The decision making
process though is not for
the faint of heart.
Recognizing the difficulty
in breaking through the
process a company called
Generaytor out of Tel Aviv
has developed a free
web-based app to show how
much money can be saved and
made with rooftop solar
panels.
The Solar Foundation (TSF)
has released its fourth
annual National Solar Jobs
Census, which found that the
U.S. solar industry employed
142,698 Americans in 2013,
including the addition of
23,682 solar jobs over the
previous year -- a 19.9
percent growth in employment
since September 2012.
A brand new Super Bowl
commercial unveiled by
Budweiser Wednesday morning
has already gone mega-viral
— and it’s pretty clear why.
UBS Wealth Management
Americas (WMA) yesterday
released its quarterly
UBS Investor Watch
report, that shows
Millennials (people ages
21-36) are the most fiscally
conservative generation
since the Great Depression.
While Millennials describe
their risk tolerance as
either conservative or
somewhat conservative (34%),
their average asset
allocation is extremely
conservative, with the
average portfolio dedicating
52% to cash, compared to 23%
cash for other investors.
Developing nations
these days have access to
energy-saving technologies
that did not exist when
wealthy, industrialized
countries were at a similar
stage of their own growth.
As these developing nations
evolve in the future, will
they wind up consuming less
energy per capita than
today’s rich countries
consumed during their
parallel stages of
development? Can today’s
developing countries
“leapfrog” their way into a
lower-carbon economy without
passing through a pattern of
high energy use, as North
America, Europe and Japan
did in the past?
While U.S. banks are
locked in fierce competition
for the business of the
country’s strongest and most
promising small businesses,
companies in the market for
credit and banking services
are reaping the rewards. In
this challenging
environment, Synovus
Financial, BB&T, Frost Bank,
and Iberiabank took top
honors for the most awards
in Greenwich Associates
2013 Greenwich
Excellence Awards in Small
Business Banking.
30-year fixed-rate mortgage
(FRM) averaged 4.32 percent
with an average 0.7 point
for the week ending January
30, 2014, down from last
week when it averaged 4.39
percent. A year ago at this
time, the 30-year FRM
averaged 3.53 percent.
At Ben Bernanke’s last
meeting as Chairman, Federal
Open Market Committee (FOMC)
members agreed to trim the
size of the monthly
securities purchase program
to $30 billion of agency
mortgage-backed securities
(MBS) and $35 billion
longer-term Treasury bonds
per month from $35 billion
and $40 billion,
respectively. This was the
second reduction in the size
of the purchase program. No
change was made to the fed
funds target band of 0.0% to
0.25%. In the statement, the
Fed said that the economy
had improved and reiterated
that the risks to the
outlook for the economy and
labour market have “become
more nearly balanced.”
The US solar industry now
employs more than 142,000
individuals, having added
upwards of 23,000 new jobs
in 2013.
Broader domestic social
issues and an international
policy that moves away from
"a permanent war footing"
took center stage in
President Obama's State of
the Union address (SOTUS)
last night. Domestic energy
policies, including
renewable energy, largely
took a back seat to the
President's bigger talking
points: hiking the minimum
wage for federal
contractors, urging final
immigration reforms, strong
pushes in employment and
job-training, education,
retirement savings, and
healthcare.
In a survey of more than 600
utility executives and 800
consumers in 14 countries
regarding the state of the
utility industry, Itron has
found that the industry is
at a critical tipping point,
According to the research,
94 percent of utility
executives believe the
industry needs to be
transformed, and 80 percent
of consumers are
dissatisfied with the
current amount of
information they are
receiving from their
utility. The findings
highlight the need for
utilities to do more to
achieve operational
efficiencies and to take a
more active role in
educating consumers about
energy and water use. Some
of these results were
released at DistribuTECH
this week in San Antonio.
Chemical Spill in West
Virginia shows the
vulnerability of our water
supplies...
A well-designed, installed
and maintained rainwater
harvesting system can
provide significant amounts
of high-quality water for
potable and non-potable,
residential and commercial
use.
Freedom Industries, the
company at fault for the
spill, knew a second
chemical had escaped its
plant into the Elk River,
but failed to tell
government officials until
days after the major spill,
which prevented thousands of
residents from using tap
water for days, the
Associated Press reported on
Saturday.
January 28, 2014
Mortgage rates have dropped
for the third straight week,
and the momentum lower is
picking up. Purchasing power
among buyers has grown since
the start of the year, and
refinance opportunities for
existing U.S. homeowners are
re-opening.
Since Earth is the only
known inhabited planet and
we happen to live here, it’s
only natural to regard it as
the ideal place for life to
exist, and to assume that
another life-bearing planet
would be fairly similar.
However, that is not the
opinion of scientists René
Heller and John Armstrong
who contend that there might
be a planet even more
suitable for life than Earth
4.3 light years away
orbiting the star Alpha
Centauri B.
The amount of Arctic sea ice
has plummeted in recent
decades—a bold manifestation
of the rise in temperature
resulting from the rapid
increase in carbon dioxide
(CO2)
in the atmosphere. After
staying below 300 parts per
million (ppm) for some
800,000 years, the
concentration of CO2
in the atmosphere
skyrocketed as humans
started burning more and
more fossil fuels. In 2013,
atmospheric CO2
averaged 396 ppm.
The Atlantic Coast ULSD
differential Monday rose to
a record premium over the US
Gulf Coast on tight supply
and winter demand for ultra
low sulfur heating oil.
The 47.52 cents/gal
premium over US Gulf Coast
increased 6.76 cents/gal
from Friday's previous
record premium.
-
Beet roots contain
valuable nutrients that
may help lower your
blood pressure, fight
cancer and inflammation,
boost your stamina, and
support detoxification
-
Beet greens are equally,
if not more, nutritious
with nutrients that may
strengthen your immune
system, support brain
and bone health, and
more
-
Beet roots have the
highest sugar content of
all vegetables, so they
should be eaten in
moderation
-
Try adding beet roots
raw to salads or as part
of your vegetable juice;
beet greens can be
sautéed with spinach or
Swiss chard
Biologists on Friday
examined the carcasses of 25
dead pilot whales found off
the coast of southwest
Florida, collecting samples
from the animals to try to
determine the cause of a
recent spike in whale
deaths.
Bill props up fossil fuels
at the expense of clean
energy programs, but Obama
retains considerable leeway
in tackling climate via
executive actions.
Caffeine is one the world’s
favorite productivity fuels
and in many countries people
choose a caffeinated drink,
mainly coffee, to ignite the
day. Although some people
rightly worry about
over-consuming the stuff,
findings of a new study
suggest that a moderate
daily dosage may enhance our
memory.
Ozgur Sahin, Ph.D., believes
that water evaporation is
the largest power source in
nature. In an effort to
demonstrate the potential of
this untapped resource,
Sahin and his fellow
researchers have created
prototype electrical
generators with rubber
sheets that move in response
to changes in humidity
thanks to a coating of
bacterial spores.
Lands covering an area the
size of Brazil could be
degraded by 2050 if
conversion of natural lands
to crop lands continues,
warns a report by the UN
Environment Programme,
presented at the ongoing
World Economic Conference in
Davos.
Whenever the topic of
plant-derived biofuels is
raised, the issue of turning
valuable arable land over to
the task of growing
feedstock is generally not
far behind. A discovery by
the Sustainable Bioenergy
Research Consortium (SRBC)
that desert plants fed by
seawater can produce biofuel
more efficiently than other
well-known feedstocks could
help alleviate such
concerns.
Ultimately, all humanity and
all life have is the
biosphere, the thin layer of
life just above and below
Earth’s surface, composed of
ancient, miraculously
evolved natural ecosystems.
The natural Earth is a
marvel – a complex coupling
of species within
ecosystems, whereby life
begets life.
Twenty percent of China's
air pollution can be
attributed to goods exported
to America, with some of
those emissions drifting
back to the Western United
States, finds a study
published this week in the
journal Proceedings of the
National Academy of
Sciences.
Ruggedly handsome, the actor
could ride a horse through
the wide-open spaces of the
Southwest, from Texas to
Colorado to Arizona or
wherever else the Phillip
Morris tobacco company sent
him to light up while
representing a true American
icon, the cowboy. And he
really did smoke Marlboro
cigarettes, as many as three
packs a day.
Tokyo Electric Power Co.
(TEPCO) said workers have
removed 10 percent of the
fuel assemblies from Unit 4
at the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear power plant.
TEPCO said on its website
that it has transferred 198
of 1,533 fuel assemblies
from the spent fuel pool to
a common pool as of Jan. 20.
Of those, 176 are spent fuel
assemblies and 22 are new
fuel.
- The
average combined global
land and ocean surface
temperature for December
2013 was the third
highest for December
since records began in
1880, at 0.64°C (1.15°F)
above the 20th
century average of
12.2°C (54.0°F).
- The
globally-averaged land
surface temperature for
December 2013 tied with
1998 as the fifth
highest for December on
record, at 1.16°C
(2.09°F) above average.
The globally-averaged
ocean surface
temperature tied with
2004 as the seventh
highest for December on
record, at 0.46°C
(0.83°F) above average.
- The
average combined global
land and ocean surface
temperature for
January–December 2013
tied with 2003 as the
fourth warmest such
period on record, at
0.62°C (1.12°F) above
the 20th
century average.
-
Before there was
Monsanto, junk food
companies were already
hard at work influencing
American politics to
further their own
agenda. In fact, the
junk food industry has
had full control over
federal policy for more
than six decades
-
The Grocery
Manufacturer’s
Association of America
(GMA), which represents
the biggest junk food
manufacturers in the
world, has a detailed
plan for combating GMO
labeling efforts across
the US
-
This includes the
pursuit of statutory
federal preemption—an
industry-friendly, soft
law that does not
include a labeling
requirement. This
federal solution would
trump state rules
-
The GMA has sued
Washington State for the
right to hide corporate
campaign funds—a move
that threatens the
transparency of the
state’s elections on
every issue
-
GMA is also trying to
get the FDA to permit
GMOs to be labeled
“natural”
So-called vehicle-to-grid
(V2G) technologies are
enabling electric vehicle
(EV) batteries to provide
ancillary services to the
grid that can complement
intermittent renewable
energy sources or shave
demand during peak hours --
something utilities,
automakers and consumers are
seeing as a business
opportunity
One of the
stove's panels opens
cans, pops bottle
tops, cuts wood and
more
The I.C.E. Stove puts
a unique spin on the
multitool. Not only can
the wood stove cook
dinner and boil water in
the wild, it can saw the
firewood and crack a
beer. The stove then
breaks down into four
panels that pack flat
and weigh less than a
pound (0.5 kg) in your
backpack.
"This is a major milestone
in this 3-year long E-Cat
saga we've been following --
perhaps the biggest yet. And
it's a great day for the
LENR world, colloquially
called 'Cold Fusion' in
general. It's also a
vindication of this
technology that we've been
featuring in our Top 5
Exotic Free Energy
Technologies listing nearly
as long." -- Sterling D.
Allan
A unique direct action
took place on the first
morning of a recent
conference on federal
recognition: The panel
discussions stopped for
almost two hours while
everyone participated in a
ceremony for the signing and
witnessing of a declaration
asserting the inherent
sovereignty of indigenous
nations.
The Internet of Things (IoT)
is a broad term referring to
applications as diverse as
Internet-connected vehicles,
consumer electronics and
smart phones. However, the
edge of the Internet of
Things network will consist
of simpler sensors and
wireless devices that
provide, among other things,
the identification of
objects, sensing, control
and automation, according to
Raghu Das, CEO, IDTechEx.
While natural gas production
in the Marcellus Shale has
increased the volumes of
wastewater produced in the
region nearly sixfold, shale
wells in the play produce
about one-third the
wastewater per unit of gas
recovered than do
conventional wells, a new
study has found.
"Despite producing less
wastewater per unit of gas,
developing the Marcellus
shale has increased the
total wastewater generated
in the region by [about]
570% since 2004,
overwhelming current
wastewater disposal
infrastructure capacity,"..
Navigant research defines a
microgrid as "an integrated
energy system network
consisting of distributed
energy resources (DER) and
multiple electrical loads
and/or meters operating as a
single, autonomous grid
either in parallel to or
'islanded' from the existing
utility power grid." While
remote microgrids number in
the thousands, many are
still powered by diesel
generation. However, an
increasing number of remote
microgrids showcase smart
and much cleaner combustion
technologies capable of
reducing diesel consumption
by as much as one-third,
even without any renewable
generation, according to
Navigant Research.
Nearly three years after
a major earthquake and
tsunami caused the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power
station disaster, Millstone
Power Station here is
undergoing more than $10
million in equipment and
facilities upgrades to
enable it to better
withstand natural disasters.
The work is taking place
at Millstone and the
nation's other nuclear power
plants after orders were
issued by the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission in
March 2012 for enhancements
of safety and emergency
response capabilities in
response to the 2011
disaster in Japan, in which
three reactor cores melted
down and large amounts of
radiation were released.
Jim Rogers has
helped steer the evolution
of the U.S. electric utility
industry for 25 years. His
passionately held,
innovative insights about
the business grew out of a
varied career that included
stints as a journalist,
lawyer and consumer
advocate. He chaired the
Edison Electric Institute,
the industry trade
association. And he has
appeared on the Colbert
Report.
After recently stepping
down from leading Duke
Energy, he spoke with
EnergyBiz about the future
of the industry and the
challenges that await him.
His edited comments follow.
This Week in Free EnergyT:
January 23, 2014 - Platinum
Invests present world's
first free energy car and
plane . Randell Mills
explains upcoming Blacklight
Power demo . LENR to Market
Digest . Videos from
Sterling's Visits to
Brillouin . MidTech still
awaiting circuit components
. QMoGen Free Energy as a
metaphor for Empowered Man .
H2Only Battery: Produce
Electricity from Water .
Eric Dollards Advanced
Seismic Warning System .
Reply from Nagendra Singh
regarding his OzzoG motor .
3D Printing Energy Global
Network (FreeEnergyNews)
-
Honey bees all around
the world are dying in
unprecedented
numbers—many hives
literally disappearing
without a trace—in a
mysterious phenomenon
dubbed Colony Collapse
Disorder (CCD)
-
Queen of the Sun: What
Are the Bees Telling Us?
takes a fresh look at
the global bee crisis,
from multiple angles,
and offers proactive
life-affirming solutions
-
Certain pesticides
called neonicotinoids
have been identified as
having a particularly
devastating impact on
bee health and survival
by weakening the bee's
immune system
-
Monoculture—the practice
of growing of just one
type of crop on a
massive scale—is another
major contributing
factor
-
Suggestions for actions
you can take to help our
honey bees are included,
as well as resources for
educators
-
In 2013, Arkansas
Governor Mike Beebe
signed into law HB 1536,
which legalized the sale
of locally produced raw
milk from the farm.
-
Four months after the
bill took effect, as of
January 20, no illnesses
have been caused as a
result of this increase
in raw milk sales
-
Statistics suggest raw
milk produced by
grass-fed cows from
small, clean, well-run
farms is actually less
dangerous than drinking
pasteurized milk
-
Whether you drink milk
or not, the assault
against raw dairy
products is an assault
to your food freedom
Moving to a cleaner economy
will require greater
investment in education,
broader rollout of energy
efficiency, green building
programs and a level playing
field that allows renewable
power to compete with the
fossil fuel sector, local
policy makers, business
leaders and others said
Friday.
According to the latest
"Energy Infrastructure
Update" report from the
Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission's Office of
Energy Projects, renewable
energy sources (i.e.,
biomass, geothermal,
hydropower, solar, wind)
accounted for 37.16% of all
new domestic electrical
generating capacity
installed during
calendar-year 2013 for a
total of 5,279 MW.
The benefits of fossil fuel
energy to society far
outweigh the social costs of
carbon (SCC) by a magnitude
of 50 to 500 times,
according to a study
released by the American
Coalition for Clean Coal
Electricity (ACCCE).
"It is without question or
debate that our national and
global societies have
benefited from fossil fuels.
And those benefits will
continue to be realized from
coast to coast and around
the globe for generations to
come,"..
The U.S. is expected to
retire up to 60 GW of
coal-fired capacity by 2020,
according to the latest
report from Black & Veatch.
The report, Energy
Market Perspectives: 2014
Energy Market Outlook,
shows that most of those
retirements are expected in
the Eastern U.S. The report
also says that the economy
and natural gas prices will
slow the development of new
nuclear power projects over
the next 25 years, coupled
with continued deferrals and
cancellations of new units
and more uprate projects.
M1 event observed.
There are currently 5
numbered sunspot regions on
the disk.Solar activity is
expected to be low with a
chance for M-class flares on
days one, two, and three (28
Jan, 29 Jan, 30 Jan).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet
levels on day one (28 Jan),
quiet to unsettled levels on
day two (29 Jan) and quiet
to active levels on day
three (30 Jan).
Educating Americans about
the benefits of solar energy
is at the heart of a new
social media campaign,
America Supports Solar,
launched by the Solar Energy
Industries Association
(SEIA) in conjunction with
National "Shout Out For
Solar" Day and SEIA's 40th
anniversary as a national
trade association. SEIA
plans to use this platform
as a way to showcase the
industry's innovations,
continued growth and
successes.
At least 45 people were
killed across Iraq, and
another 82 were wounded.
The air strikes and clashes
continued in
rebel-controlled areas of
western Iraq, while bombings
and shootings terrified
residents in central and
northern Iraq.
In the past, we've seen
solar ovens that can whip up
a hot meal using only the
sun's rays, but Solar Cool
Technologies has a new
product that harvests that
same energy to accomplish
just the opposite. We quite
literally crossed paths with
the Solar Cooler and its
designers at a Las Vegas
casino during CES where they
were showing off the new
Solar Cooler. The Solar
Cooler, as its name implies,
is a portable container for
food and drinks that keeps
its contents cold using a
compact refrigeration system
connected to solar panels.
Interplanetary dust, dust
that has come from comets,
asteroids, and leftover
debris from the birth of the
solar system, continually
rains down on the Earth and
other Solar System bodies.
These particles are
bombarded by solar wind,
predominately hydrogen ions.
This ion bombardment knocks
the atoms out of order in
the silicate mineral crystal
and leaves behind oxygen
that is more available to
react with hydrogen, for
example, to create water
molecules.
Although it's a marvel of
modern engineering, Gizmag
writer Jonathan Fincher
noted that it lacks any
particularly interesting
features, such as a camera.
Well, late last year, Hubsan
released its X4 H107D FPV.
It's not much bigger than
the Proto X, and it has
a camera that transmits a
real-time video signal to
the user.
Conservative radio host Rush
Limbaugh expressed disgust,
though not shock, that the
mainstream media ignored an
“earth-shattering” story out
of Wisconsin that “should
have caused a political
earthquake.”
The state of Wisconsin’s
unemployment rate is
“rapidly falling” and the
government’s budget ended
the year with a $912 million
surplus, Limbaugh explained.
He says the dramatic
turnaround is due in large
part to the conservative
policies of Gov. Scott
Walker.
The agrarian elders, as they
were called, were invited to
Esalen because the
organizers of the event
wanted to document what
these rock stars of the
sustainable food movement
knew and to discuss an
overriding concern: How will
they be able to retire and
how will they pass their
knowledge to the next
generation?
If you're underwater on
your conforming,
conventional mortgage, you
may be eligible to refinance
without paying down
principal and without having
to pay mortgage insurance.
Here are the details of
the government's new HARP
refinance program.
A federal appeals court
ruled Wednesday that the
U.S. Interior Department
wrongly awarded offshore oil
leases in the Chukchi Sea
near Alaska in 2008 without
considering the full range
of environmental risks posed
by drilling in the Arctic.
A three-judge panel of
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals sent the on-going
dispute - pitting
environmental groups and
Native Alaska tribes against
the federal government and
energy companies - back to
U.S. District in Anchorage,
Alaska.
Prices of the fuel, a
liquefied petroleum gas,
have rocketed to all-time
highs in Midwestern states,
distributors are rationing
supplies, and some schools
have shut due to a lack of
the fuel during this year's
second bout of Arctic
weather.
With its successful products
and ample funding from
venture investors, Nest was
already considered a
successful startup. But
Google’s acquisition cements
the idea that innovative
companies can make desirable
products that improve energy
efficiency, long a staple of
the clean tech investment
category.
Wheaties breakfast cereal,
manufactured by General
Mills, has been found to
contain so many microscopic
fragments of metal that
individual flakes can be
lifted and carried using
common magnets, a Natural
News Forensic Food Lab
investigation has found and
documented. Photos of the
microscopy investigation are
posted now at
labs.naturalnews.com
A recently deciphered
4,000-year-old tablet from
ancient Mesopotamia
purportedly contains the
specifications for an ark to
endure a great flood — and
it predates the Biblical
story of Noah.
It describes a huge vessel,
two-thirds the size of a
soccer field, with high
walls and made with so much
rope that “stretched out in
a line would reach from
London to Edinburgh.”
“…one of the most
important human
documents ever
discovered.”
Obamacare requires everyone
to have health insurance. In
more than half of the states
in the country, that comes
through an expansion of
Medicaid, the joint
federal-state program for
the poor. Under a 1993
federal law, states can
recoup the costs of Medicaid
by seizing the property of
deceased Medicaid
recipients.
January 24, 2014
A second chemical was
released during a spill that
contaminated the water
supply for 300,000 West
Virginians, state officials
said Wednesday, though the
newly identified substance
appears to be less toxic
than the coal-cleaning agent
already known to have
leaked.
Ritter calls the report a
"comprehensive menu of
options" and was developed
over eight months with the
help of more than 100 CEOs,
energy experts, academicians
and thought leaders who
participated in a series of
roundtables last year. Not
all of the participants
agreed with all of the
ideas, but the report
reflects the recommendations
that received the strongest
support.
Late last year, US
Department of Agriculture
chief Tom Vilsack boasted
that US agriculture exports
had hit an all-time high in
fiscal 2013, and hailed
"historic work by the Obama
Administration to break down
barriers to US products and
achieve new agreements to
expand exports." Underlying
Vilsack's glee is the idea
that growing huge amounts of
food here and selling a big
chunk of it overseas
bolsters the US economy and
stabilizes rural America.
Agricultural exports
cause $36 billion in
annual healthcare costs,
along with about 5,100
premature deaths.
The expansion of the some
biofuel crops may
unwittingly increase the
risk of mosquito-borne
disease by altering the
insects' life cycle, a study
suggests.
The so-called
first-generation biofuel
crops, most notably maize,
are increasingly being
replaced by
second-generation biofuel
crops, such as perennial
grasses, which require less
energy, water, fertilizers
and pesticides to thrive.
Tuesday’s Internet outage
in China is dividing experts
over what caused the
networking error, with
authorities calling it a
hacking attack, and others
blaming it on the country’s
censorship systems.
The outage briefly
crippled the Internet in
China, with many local
websites inaccessible to
users. User traffic was
mysteriously redirected to a
U.S.-based IP address
belonging to a company that
has hosted software capable
of circumventing China’s
online censorship.
China's solar panel
industry is showing signs of
booming again after a
prolonged downturn - raising
fears of another bust when
the splurge of public money
that is driving a spike in
demand dries up.
Lured by generous power
tariffs and financing
support to promote renewable
energy, Chinese firms are
racing to develop
multi-billion dollar solar
generating projects in the
Gobi desert and barren hills
of China's vast north and
northwest.
A second day of spikes in
spot natural gas prices in
the eastern US continued to
boost power prices in New
England, New York and the
Mid-Atlantic Wednesday.
Although expected peak
loads across the populous
swath of the Eastern
Seaboard were high and
forecast temperatures were
far below normal, they were
mostly below levels seen
when a polar vortex brought
the coldest weather in 20
years to the same area
earlier in January.
"These animals are showing
signs of being underweight,
being dehydrated, and
they've likely been out of
their home range," said
Blair Mase, a regional
marine stranding coordinator
for the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA). "We have no idea why
they're in shore."
These days there is a lot of
interest in plants and the
healing
they can teach
us, but if you are
interested in engaging one
ofthe
sacred plant
teachers--plants such as
peyote, ayahuasca or special
mushrooms--you should
remember the story of
disrespectful
use as if
your life depended on it.
The power of these plants
is beyond imagination...
The European Union announced
Tuesday a partial suspension
of the free trade
negotiations with the United
States to hold a three
months-long public
consultation due to worries
about some of the deal's
proposed rules for
investment.
Non-governmental
organizations, lawmakers and
some officials have voiced
unease over what they say
are loopholes in the
proposed rules on investment
that might expose
governments to lawsuits by
multinational firms.
New shipping rules are
soon to be agreed for the
Arctic, where summer sea ice
has shrunk by about
two-thirds over three
decades, opening a new ocean
with vast natural resources.
Maritime nations are
close to a landmark deal on
the Polar Code, aimed to
improve safety, lead to
lower insurance premiums and
help the rise of traffic,
industry insiders said.
The nation "will soon
begin production of large
amounts of fresh water
through the desalination of
sea ice, according to a
university research team and
a Chinese company," Xinua
news agency reported.
Is
commercialization of this
technology on the horizon?
One company is betting on
it.
"A research team from
Beijing Normal University
signed a sea ice
desalination technology
transfer agreement with
Beijing Huahaideyuan
Technology," the report
said.
A government review panel
warned today that the NSA's
collection of Americans'
phone records is illegal and
advised that the program be
terminated. The
recommendations by the
Privacy and Civil Liberties
Oversight Board go further
than the Obama
administration has been
willing to accept.
A scientific team in China
fortuitously recorded the
first optical spectrum of an
example of ball lightning.
The ball lightning, which
was accompanied by a cloud
to ground lightning strike,
appears to have consisted at
least partially of vaporized
soil from the location of
the strike. While ball
lightning may result from a
variety of sources, this
observation provides
considerable evidence that
the vaporized silicon
explanation is valid,
although possibly not
unique.
The year 2013 tied with
2009 and 2006 for the
seventh warmest year since
recordkeeping began in 1880,
continuing a long-term trend
of rising global
temperatures, NASA
scientists said today.
NASA’s Goddard Institute
for Space Studies in New
York, which analyzes global
surface temperatures on an
ongoing basis, released an
updated report Tuesday on
temperatures around the
globe in 2013.
When Google
bought Nest last week for
$3.2 billion, I was a bit
surprised. I had figured the
learning thermostat maker
was on the IPO track. Google
had also retired its own
PowerMeter energy monitoring
project in 2011. There were
more than a few PowerMeter
postmortems which stressed
that “Google isn’t an energy
company.” That’s still true,
but it is a big data
company, and its
planet-serving data centers
give it a strong ongoing
interest in promoting energy
efficiency.
The two companies have
announced they will stop
selling their wares in the
nation's most populous state
rather than try to comply
with a law that requires
some handguns to have
technology that imprints a
tiny stamp on the bullet so
it can be traced back to the
gun. The companies, and many
gun enthusiasts, say
so-called "microstamping"
technology is unworkable in
its present form and can
actually impair a gun's
performance.
Ethnobotanists, people who
study the relationship
between plants and people,
have long documented the
extensive use of medicinal
plants by indigenous shamans
in places around the world,
including the Amazon. But
few have reported on the
actual process by which
traditional healers diagnose
and treat disease.
Throughout history, humans
have responded to climate.
Take, for example, the
Mayans, who, throughout the
eighth and 10th centuries,
were forced to move away
from their major ceremonial
centers after a series of
multi-year droughts,
bringing about agricultural
expansion in Mesoamerica,
and a clearing of forests.
Much later, in the late 20th
century, frequent droughts
caused the people of Burkina
Faso in West Africa to
migrate from the dry north
to the wetter south where
they have transformed
forests to croplands and cut
the nation's area of natural
vegetation in half.
At least 21 people
were killed, and 28 more
were wounded in the
latest attacks and clashes.
Another 26 men were
executed.
The Iraqi government
announced the execution of
26 men on terrorism charges.
According to reports, one of
the men had been a Sahwa
leader in Baghdad. Despite
international condemnation,
the government continues to
execute people, and over 150
death sentences were carried
out last year. The main
concerns are unfair trials
and trumped-up charges.
Forget earthquakes and
tsunamis: one of the
fastest-growing threats to
nuclear operations could
come from blobby, brainless
creatures.
As threats go, the humble
jellyfish hardly looks like
a formidable opponent.
The Kenyan government has
sent Kenya Forest Service
guards, with police support,
to Embobut Forest in the
Cherangany Hills to forcibly
and illegally evict
thousands of Sengwer
indigenous people from their
ancestral forest lands and
burn their homes and
belongings.
Libyan Prime Minister Ali
Zeidan vowed Tuesday to stay
at his post, as Islamist
ministers quit in protest at
persistent lawlessness that
saw him briefly abducted
last year.
Zeidan accused the
Justice and Construction
Party -- the political arm
of the Libyan branch of the
Muslim Brotherhood that has
been bloodily repressed in
neighbouring Egypt since the
ouster of elected president
Mohamed Morsi -- of seeking
to destabilise his
government.
Cameras on Lookout Mountain
soon will record the license
plate of every vehicle that
ventures into the well-off
residential enclave.
If you were a shrew
snuffling around a North
American forest, you would
be 27 times less likely to
respond to climate change
than if you were a moose
grazing nearby.
That is just one of the
findings of a new University
of Colorado Boulder
assessment led by Assistant
Professor Christy McCain
that looked at more than
1,000 different scientific
studies on North American
mammal responses to
human-caused climate change.
The CU-Boulder team
eventually selected 140
scientific papers containing
population responses from 73
North American mammal
species for their analysis.
The average temperature
of Earth maintained its
warming trend in 2013,
despite seasonal and
regional variations that
included a shrinking ice cap
in the Arctic and a
massively growing one in the
southern hemisphere, U.S.
scientists said on Tuesday.
NASA said the planet's
average temperature in 2013
was 58.3 degrees Fahrenheit
(14.6 degrees Celsius),
tying 2006 and 2009 for the
seventh warmest year since
1880 when global climate
record-keeping began.
The origin of life is
basically inevitable from a
mathematical standpoint,
according to one physicist,
and “should be as
unsurprising as rocks
rolling downhill.”
-
During the recession
years of 2008-2011,
Google searches for
ulcers and headaches
skyrocketed. Since then,
this trend has
continued, with more
people being sicker than
pre-recession
-
Migraine headache is one
of the most common
health conditions in the
world, regardless of the
economic climate. It’s
also one of the top 20
causes of disability
among adults
-
A recent study found
that expectation plays a
very important role in
how you respond to
migraine treatment. The
placebo effect accounted
for more than 50 percent
of the therapeutic value
of the drug
-
Preventing recurring
headaches begins by
avoiding the triggers.
Eat whole foods
(avoiding most processed
ones) and manage your
stress effectively
-
Other lifestyle
strategies for long-term
prevention and
non-pharmaceutical
treatment options for
acute relief are
addressed
If you think that monitoring
solar energy plants has to
be boring, you should talk
to employees of Phoenix
Solar. They had to discover
that solar modules and
copper wires are not only an
essential element of
renewable energies, but can
also appeal to a very
different kind of
“customer”.
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a slight
chance for an M-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(24 Jan, 25 Jan, 26 Jan).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet
levels on days one, two, and
three (24 Jan, 25 Jan, 26
Jan).
Even today's best
rechargeable lithium
batteries do lose their
ability to hold a charge
after a while, and are
considered toxic waste once
discarded. In just a few
years, however, they may be
replaced by batteries that
are refillable and
biodegradable, and that will
also have a higher energy
density yet a lower price
... and they'll run on
sugar.
Hundreds of survivors of
Typhoon Haiyan, one of the
strongest storms ever to
make landfall, were forced
to flee by tropical
depression "Agaton" after
emergency shelters were
damaged or destroyed on the
eastern central island of
Samar.
Tents collapsed under the
weight of the rain and
emergency plastic sheets
have been torn away,
humanitarian agency Oxfam
said.
Efforts by a variety of
organizations to quantify
global support for fossil
fuels have generated
estimates that range from
$523 billion to more than
$1.9 trillion, depending on
the calculation and what
measures are included,
creating widespread
confusion. The Worldwatch
Institute, however, is clear
on one thing -- the level of
support has rebounded to
2008 levels following a dip
in 2009-2010 during the
global financial crisis.
If you're suffering from
"mystery symptoms" like low
energy, brain fog,
moodiness, difficulty
sleeping or just a vague
feeling of malaise — chances
are you're suffering from a
vitamin deficiency
that affects 1 in 2 older
adults.
With yet another heat
wave set to descend before
summer releases its grip,
the last things we may want
to think about are puffy
coats and long johns.
But that is what’s in
store for winter 2013–14,
according to predictions
from the Farmers’
Almanac released
officially on Monday August
26.
“The ‘Days of Shivery’
are back!” proclaimed
...
To turn Henry Kissinger’s
famous quote around, even
those with enemies can be
paranoid. So it is with
Hillary Clinton.
Few were surprised by
recent revelations that her
staff labored for weeks
after her 2008 campaign to
amass an “enemies list” of
those who received
Clintonian largesse and
failed to reciprocate.
Like former President Nixon,
she wanted to
institutionalize revenge
and, like Santa, wanted to
keep tabs on who was naughty
or nice.
Three bombs hours apart
hit Cairo police
headquarters and policemen
in the Egyptian capital,
killing at least five people
on the eve of the
anniversary of the 2011
uprising against Hosni
Mubarak.
The first bomb struck the
Cairo security directorate
around 6.15am on Friday
(3.15pm AEDT), killing four
people and wounding more
than 70, the health ministry
said.
Two protesters have been
killed in clashes with
police in the Ukrainian
capital Kiev.
Prosecutors confirmed
they had died from bullet
wounds. They are the first
fatalities since
anti-government protests
began in November.
Wednesday's clashes began
after police moved in to
dismantle a protest camp.
At least 48 Muslims were
killed when Buddhist mobs
attacked a village in an
isolated corner of western
Burma earlier this month,
the United Nations said
Thursday, calling on the
government to carry out a
swift, impartial
investigation and to hold
those responsible
accountable.
Presidential spokesman Ye
Htut, who has vehemently
denied reports of a
massacre, said he “strongly
objects” to the U.N. claims.
A federal appeals court
ruled Wednesday that the
U.S. Interior Department
wrongly awarded offshore oil
leases in the Chukchi Sea
near Alaska in 2008 without
considering the full range
of environmental risks posed
by drilling in the Arctic.
A three-judge panel of
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals sent the on-going
dispute - pitting
environmental groups and
Native Alaska tribes against
the federal government and
energy companies - back to
U.S. District in Anchorage,
Alaska.
Oil started to flow on
Wednesday through the
southern US leg of the
controversial Keystone XL
pipeline, its Canadian
operator said, while
Washington mulls whether on
not to approve its northern
half.
U.S. Midwestern states
are scrambling to address a
deepening shortage of the
home-heating fuel propane
just as another cold snap
envelops the region,
threatening to strain
supplies that are already at
historic lows.
Demand has been boosted
by the combination of record
freezing weather at the
start of this year and a
late, wet, record corn
harvest last October and
November, when large
quantities of propane were
used to dry out crops.
Propane stocks have been
drained and prices in the
region are the highest since
at least 1990.
A new study by the World
Bank and the International
Finance Corp. found that the
U.S. ranks well behind
countries like Rwanda,
Belarus and Azerbaijan in
terms of how easy it is for
an entrepreneur to start a
new business. The U.S. did
narrowly beat Uzbekistan,
though.
In 2013, M&A activity in
global energy, mining and
utilities (EMU) totaled
$426.7 billion -- a decline
of 26.5 percent from 2012
when global M&A hit $580.7
billion. The sector was
overshadowed by technology,
media and telecommunications
activity in 2013, putting an
end to the EMU's three-year
consecutive increase and
previous dominance,
according to Mergermarket.
Often the general public is
confused about renewable
energy installed capacity
verses the capacity factor
of renewable energy power
plants. Below, discover why
capacity factor doesn't
matter.
South Carolina Electric &
Gas' V.C. Summer reactor
project is coming under fire
as a "nuclear debacle," with
claims of half a billion
dollar cost overruns,
pushed-back end dates for
project completion and
significant construction
challenges. The ire comes
from Friends of the Earth.
Rising global
temperatures are likely to
double the frequency of the
most severe El Niños - the
periodic atmospheric
disruptions which affect
weather across the globe.
Tim Radford reports.
An El Niño is part of a
natural cycle: a huge
blister of heat in the
equatorial Pacific, usually
around Christmas-time.
A new initiative has been
launched by the World Bank
that aims to link the water
and power industries better
globally.
Called Thirsty Energy,
the initiative will help
design “assessment tools and
management frameworks” to
help governments “coordinate
decision-making” when it
comes to scaling up water
and power projects.
Despite pessimism, new
entrants into the $600
billion water industry are
bringing emerging
technologies that will
disrupt the industry and
create new opportunities,
according to Lux Research.
West Virginia's governor
on Monday proposed
legislation to regulate
above-ground storage tanks,
a move that comes after a
spill of coal-processing
chemicals shut off drinking
water to about 300,000
people.
Governor Earl Ray Tomblin
said the proposed rules
would regulate above-ground
tanks, including those near
public water supplies and
distribution systems.
The United States leads
the world, by a large
margin, in the production of
at least one thing:
prisoners. We have 25
percent of the world's
inmates, but just 5 percent
of the world's population.
Where do they come from?
Well, since the Anti-Drug
Abuse Act of 1986, the
number of American inmates
has risen from approximately
300,000 to a currently
estimated 2.3 million. This
statistic points to the role
of drug-related victimless
“crime” in creating
prisoners.
Most supporters of renewable
energy development are
probably pretty comfortable
with the way things are
going. Wind and Solar
generation has been
increasing both in
"nameplate capacity" and in
actual production of
electricity. There have not
been any significant grid
failures that can be blamed
on renewables. Apart from a
consolidation within the
solar cell manufacturing
sector there have not been
any notable bankruptcies
within the electricity
generating sector. All
visible signs are positive
for a continued expansion of
renewable resources.
In
the annals of impressive
eating, there was The Cat
That Swallowed the Canary
and The Eggplant That Ate
Chicago. Now, add The
Microbe That Consumes the
Methane.
A microbe capable of
digesting methane could
save countless tons of
greenhouse gas from
reaching the atmosphere
during the hydraulic
fracturing process.
Hydraulic fracturing,
also known as fracking,
uses pressurized water
to fracture rock to
release natural gas.
It's been a boon to
local economies and a
source of inexpensive
fuels — but if nothing
is done to capture the
byproduct methane, which
is typically flared in
the air, it can also
contribute heftily to
greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere.
January 21, 2014
More than $41 million in
concessional loans for
renewable energy projects
will be provided to Republic
of Ecuador, Sierra Leone,
the Maldives, Mauritania,
Samoa, and Mali by the
International Renewable
Energy Agency (IRENA) and
the Abu Dhabi Fund for
Development (ADFD).
Yesterday, the government
and allied Sunni tribes
implemented a security
operation in Anbar province,
but they did not release
figures until today. Also, a
senior official warned of a
worsening situation in the
Falluja area. Meanwhile,
Baghdad saw a number of
bombings today, but only a
few reports of violence came
out of other regions.
Overall, at least 73
Iraqis were killed and 111
more were wounded in the
latest round of violence.
MIT researchers have
developed a new approach to
harvesting solar energy that
could improve efficiency by
using sunlight to heat a
high-temperature material
whose infrared radiation
would then be collected by a
conventional photovoltaic
cell. This technique could
also make it easier to store
the energy for later use.
According to Enformable,
workers with Tokyo Electric
Power Co. were operating a
remote-controlled robot to
remove debris from Unit 3
when they discovered a
stream of water running
through the building before
going down a drain. The
robot sampled the water and
found it has 24 million
becquerels per liter of
radioactive materials
including strontium, Cesium
134 and Cesium 137.
Beijing's mayor pledged on
Thursday to cut coal use by
2.6 million tonnes and set
aside 15 billion yuan ($2.4
billion) to improve air
quality this year as part of
the city's "all-out effort"
to tackle air pollution,
state news agency Xinhua
said.
All Native Americans
should be deeply concerned
about a recent federal court
decision ordering the BIA to
decide who can be a member
of one California tribe and
how the tribal government
should be organized – all
for the sake of protecting
“potential” tribal members
instead of the will of the
tribe.
CEPGI has been tracking
green patent trends by
technology sector, assignee,
and geography since 2002.
Until very recently, fuel
cell patents were the
perennial leader. But as of
the last report for Q2 2013,
solar patents took the lead.
With California facing water
shortfalls in the driest
year in recorded state
history, and drinking water
supplies at risk in many
California communities,
Governor Jerry Brown today
proclaimed a State of
Emergency and directed state
officials to prepare for
these drought conditions.
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin
described the situation in
nine counties Friday night
as "pretty bad," both for
residents being told the
only thing they should do
with their running water is
flush their toilets and
schools, restaurants, hotels
and other businesses forced
to close.
Scientists have
identified just how powerful
some unlikely food and
drinks can be in preventing
the most common form of
diabetes.
Dark chocolate, berries
and even red wine contain
flavanoids, and now it has
emerged that eating high
levels of the compounds can
provide protection from type
2 diabetes by helping the
body regulate sugar levels.
A South Carolina judge has
dismissed contempt of court
charges filed against the
biological father of a young
girl caught up in a custody
dispute.
An intense quasar can, like
a flashlight, illuminate
part of the surrounding
cosmic web
The hidden tendrils of dark
matter that underlie the
visible Universe may have
been traced out for the
first time.
Some of the largest
natural resource exporters
with floating exchange rates
have seen their currencies
come under significant
pressure over the past year.
Cultural identity is your
own sense of your culture.
Especially in America, which
is truly a melting pot of
ethnicity and cultures, it
can become difficult to
maintain your knowledge of
your heritage. When you are
in an environment that is
outside the culture you
identify with, you may feel
awkward or alone. You can
find more information
here...
Although some might think
existing industry would fear
competition for the best
workers, McPherson said that
was not the case.
To many Americans, one
word still sums up the solar
industry -- Solyndra.
The Fremont company's
high-profile bankruptcy in
2011 cast a pall over solar
power in the public's eye,
creating an image of failed
startups and wasted
investments.
Yet many California and
Bay Area companies are in a
period of explosive growth.
Companies such as SolarCity,
Sungevity, SunPower and
Sunrun are installing panels
at a heady pace, and adding
jobs along the way.
For years, sprawling hog
farms in Northwest Missouri
have deposited animal waste
into nearby lagoons.
Bill Homann has always
thought the manure could be
turned into something more
useful. Now, the director of
administration and
compliance at Murphy-Brown
Missouri believes what's
known as digester technology
has reached the point of
allowing hog manure to be
turned into a sustainable
energy source.
Monsoon rains have
inundated parts of the
Indonesian capital, forcing
more than 30,000 people to
evacuate and posing a
challenge for its wildly
popular governor, Joko
Widodo, a possible
presidential candidate.
Soldiers were deployed to
help nearly 50,000
resident...
The new study, from the Yale
and George Mason University
research teams on climate
change communication, shows
a 7-percentage-point
increase in the proportion
of Americans who say they do
not believe that global
warming is happening. And
that's just since the spring
of 2013. The number is now
23 percent; back at the
start of last year, it was
16 percent:
An armed man entered a
Orrville, Ala., Dollar
General on Thursday, waved
his gun in the air and
threatened to kill everyone,
AL.com reports. Though
motive is unclear, he never
got the chance to hurt
anyone because a customer
carrying a concealed handgun
neutralized him with a
deadly shot.
Australia can expect even
longer and hotter heat waves
than the one now scorching
wide swathes of the country,
a climate research group
said on Thursday, raising
questions about its
long-term position as an
agricultural powerhouse.
A blistering heat wave
has settled over Australia's
south and southeast for
nearly a week, with soaring
temperatures causing worry
after players and fans alike
collapsed at the Australian
Open Tennis Tournament in
Melbourne.
I decided that I would
articulate why it offended
me. What did it do to my
self-esteem, my pride and
honor? I didn’t want to
argue the political
correctness of the mascot; I
wanted to put into words how
it made me feel. I wanted to
figure out what
psychological affects Indian
mascots have on Native
American youth.
You are a debt slave. Don’t
believe it? 43% of all
American families spend more
than they earn each year.
According to the Federal
Reserve, and I’ll describe
the fictional premise upon
which they stand
momentarily, the average
American household is at
least $75,000 in debt.
The utility industry has
been like the proverbial
frog that's been put in a
pot of cold water, and the
heat's been turned up. And
it's been turned up slowly.
The many challenges ahead
are going to fundamentally
change this industry.
Leaders in this industry in
the future are going to have
to run to the problems that
they see on the horizon,
embrace the problems, and
then try to convert the
problems and challenges they
see into opportunities to
create value for their
customers as well as their
investors.
Mortgage markets improved
for the second straight week
last week, defying analysts
who believed that a QE3
taper would lead mortgage
rates up.
30-year fixed rates are
down about one-eighth
percentage point since the
Fed announced that its
mortgage rate-suppressing
program would shrink by $10
billion monthly.
A new study finds that the
mental benefits of greenery
are immediate and
long-lasting
Picture the knights of the
round table. They’re
probably tall and strong,
wearing armor and drinking
out of chalices. And they’re
probably all white. And
while most of that picture
is relatively accurate, the
whiteness is not. Meet Sir
Morien, the black knight of
the round table.
The Energy Department's
National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL), along
with partners from the
Electric Power Research
Institute and the University
of Colorado have completed a
comprehensive study to
understand how wind power
technology can assist the
power grid by controlling
the active power output
being placed onto the
system. The rest of the
power system's resources
have traditionally been
adjusted around wind to
support a reliable and
efficient system. The
research that led to this
report challenges that
concept.
Your insurance company, the
police or other authorities
can use the information from
your box (called an Event
Data Recorder or EDR) and
use it against you. You do
not own the box and have no
ability to control its
information.
Though the couple
billion-dollar Curiosity
rover seems to get all the
attention on the red planet
these days, it’s one of the
veteran rovers on Mars that
captured an event that is
stunning scientists and
space fans alike.
The crux of the issue
surrounds these photos
snapped by the rover
Opportunity on two different
missions.
In the field of exotic new
materials, we've examined
one of the strongest ones
and another declared to be
impossible; scientists now
report creating "forbidden"
materials out of ordinary
table salt that violate
classical rules of
chemistry. Not only does the
development challenge the
theoretical foundation of
chemistry, but it is also
expected to lead to the
discovery of new exotic
chemical compounds with
practical uses and shed
light on the deep interiors
of planets.
Senate Republicans attacked
the Environmental Protection
Agency's plan to slash
carbon pollution from
coal-fired power plants
Thursday, saying it would
damage the economy, as newly
energized Democrats retorted
that climate change is
costing jobs in industries
such as Northwest oyster
beds and Utah ski resorts.
Boxer added that
reforming the Toxic
Substances Control Act is
"really important."
"We need to make sure
that we identify dangerous
chemicals and are making
progress on chemical
reforms," Boxer said on
Tuesday.
As builders worked
feverishly to get the Black
Sea resort ready for winter
games so closely tied to
President Vladimir Putin's
legacy, they failed to
notice the effects their
work was having on the
village below.
Until the walls of
Vorochkova's two-storey home
fell. Tell-tale cracks
snaked through neighboring
houses.
The water sector watched
closely this week as
Congress moved a massive
spending bill.
A single stretch of water
off the north coast of
Scotland could provide
sufficient renewable tidal
energy to power about half
the country, engineers say.
Tidal turbines placed in
the Pentland Firth between
mainland Scotland and the
islands of Orkney could
generate 1.9 gigawatts of
power, engineers from
Edinburgh University and
Oxford University reported.
Senior war crimes
prosecutors say photographs
and documents provide 'clear
evidence' of systematic
killing of 11,000 detainees
In American universities,
engineering students
typically learn that
military and civil
engineering originated in
Europe, and they study the
European tradition almost
exclusively—with maybe a
glance back at Egypt or
China. But the Inca, whose
great era of imperial
expansion ran roughly from
1438 to 1533, were also
master builders, and
Smithsonian-affiliated
researchers are now bringing
their accomplishments to
light.
-
The American Dietetic
Association (now calling
itself the Academy of
Nutrition and Dietetics
or AND) is threatening
your freedom of choice
about whom you consult
for nutrition and
dietary advice
-
AND is trying to create
a de facto monopoly for
registered dietitians
(RDs), helping pass
state laws that prevent
almost anyone else from
legally giving
nutritional advice, with
devious tactics to
eliminate the
competition
-
Tactics include
incentives for RDs to
spy on non-RD
practitioners in order
to gather evidence of
violation of monopoly
laws, paving the way for
steep fines and even
criminal prosecution of
non-RD practitioners
-
AND is largely partnered
with and funded by the
processed food/junk food
industry, with
continuing education
sponsored by Coca-Cola,
PepsiCo, Mars, Nestle,
and Kraft Foods
-
The Center for Nutrition
Advocacy has organized
the broader nutrition
community; as a result,
over the last two years,
no state has succeeded
in passing a monopoly
law and some are even
overturning them
While we address
conventional methods such as
solar, wind and geothermal;
we specialize in
unconventional or
"exotic" modalities such
as cold fusion, overunity
electromagnetic motors,
magnet motors, gravity
motors, and vortex
technologies. Here are five
of the best exotic
technologies we've found so
far, which are closest to
the market.
Trust in governments
worldwide took a dive last
year with Washington's
reputation a notable
casualty as President Barack
Obama grappled with a budget
showdown, the Snowden spying
crisis and the botched
rollout of "Obamacare".
Just 37 percent of
college-educated adults told
the Edelman Trust Barometer
that they trusted the U.S.
government - 16 points down
on a year earlier and seven
points below the global
average.
There was another night
of violence in central Kyiv
as anti-government
protesters continued to
battle with police, defying
a protest-ban .
With tensions high, the
two sides confronted each
other near the capital’s
main government buildings.
Protesters hurled missiles
at police who in turn tried
to clear the area.
U.N. Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon has withdrawn
his invitation for Iran to
participate in Syria peace
talks, a spokesman said,
after the invite spurred
objections from the United
States and the Syrian
opposition.
The secretary-general's
original invitation
threatened to unravel the
carefully planned meetings
later this week in
Switzerland, first in
Montreux and then in Geneva.
Though it was Secretary of
State John Kerry who earlier
this month floated the
possibility of Iranian
involvement -- with
conditions -- Ban Ki-moon
went a step further. To the
dismay of the Obama
administration, he invited
Iran without first demanding
that it publicly accept the
premise that its ally Bashar
Assad must leave power.
The US said Monday it had
taken the necessary steps to
pause efforts to further
reduce Iranian crude oil
exports by allowing the six
current customers of Iranian
oil to maintain their
purchases at current levels
for the duration of the
Geneva agreement between
Iran and world powers that
entered into force Monday.
A protected valley cut
into the vast, flat lands of
southern Saskatchewan has
been a focal point for
Northern Plains Indians for
6,000 years—twice the age of
King Tut's tomb. Only
unearthed in the mid 1970s,
the site has yielded a
wealth of information on the
lifestyle of Indians of the
past, and has also become a
major center for Native
people of today. The place
is known as Wanuskewin
Heritage Park.
Freedom Industries Inc.,
facing lawsuits and
investigations after its
storage tank spilled a
chemical that tainted water
for 300,000 residents, seeks
federal bankruptcy
protection.
An American oceanographer
who helped write an
international report on
climate change has condensed
several of its key findings
- such as how choices made
today may shape the future
world - into a collection of
succinct poems in the Haiku
style.
There are a lot of very
talented people out there,
so right away, you will see
some very professional
drawings emerge,
followed by many
replications. There will
be animations showing
the inner workings of the
design. There will be
theories set forth as to
how/why it works. And, as to
be expected, there will be
skeptics naysaying
everything. Some of them can
say very rude and mean
things. You just have to
shrug it off and pretty much
ignore it, and not let it
get to you.
Governments may have to
extract vast amounts of
greenhouse gases from the
air by 2100 to achieve a
target for limiting global
warming, backed by
trillion-dollar shifts
towards clean energy, a
draft U.N. report showed on
Wednesday.
January 17, 2014
The average conforming
30-year fixed rate mortgage
rate fell 0.10 percentage
points last week to 4.41%,
on average, lowering the
benchmark rate to a
multi-month low.
— What He Did Before He Left
Made People Cry
A week after her death,
commencing with days and
nights filled with many
firsts, Ballantyne did
something strangely novel:
He ate alone at a
restaurant.
Large-scale mining in the
Bristol Bay watershed poses
serious risks to salmon and
native cultures in this
pristine corner of southwest
Alaska, the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency said in a report
released on Wednesday.
The EPA said a mine could
destroy up to 94 miles of
salmon-supporting streams
and thousands of acres of
wetlands, ponds and lakes.
The report focused on the
impact of mining in an area
where a Canadian-based
company wants to build a
large copper and gold mine.
West Virginia officials on
Tuesday lifted more of a ban
on drinking tap water for
customers who had been
affected by a chemical spill
that left the state's water
supply nearly unusable for
hundreds of thousands since
last week.
The use of clean energy
technology has seen a sharp
rise in military sites in
the U.S., as the armed
forces push into green
sources of power around the
country, a report said.
The Army, Navy, Air Force
and Marine Corps. have
looked for ways to reduce
its energy bills in recent
years even as the Pentagon's
budget is squeezed.
Combined, the U.S. military
goes through $4 billion
worth of power on its bases,
according to a report from
Pew Charitable Trusts.
Both highly critical and
bipartisan, a Senate report
declared Wednesday that the
deadly assault on the
American diplomatic compound
in Benghazi, Libya, could
have been prevented. The
account spreads blame among
the State Department, the
military and U.S.
intelligence for missing
what now seem like obvious
warning signs.
Boeing is seeking
approval to fly
aircraft on green
diesel
Over the past few
years, we've heard about
"green" airliners
running on a mixture of
jet fuel and biofuels
made from things like
plants and recycled
cooking oil. Now, Boeing
is looking at blending
jet fuel with green
diesel, which is already
used to fuel trucks.
Carbon dioxide emissions
rose two percent in the U.S.
last year, according to
preliminary data from the
Energy Information
Administration. Emissions
rose largely due to
increased coal consumption,
the first such rise in U.S.
emissions since 2010. Still,
the annual emissions remain
well below the peak hit in
2007 when emissions hit 6
billion tons.
The U.S. emitted around
5.38 billion tons of CO2
last year from burning
fossil fuels, up from 5.27
billion tons in 2012. The
rise in emissions is linked
to increased coal
consumption during the
second half of 2013 when
rising natural gas prices
made coal more competitive.
Coal is the world's most
carbon-intensive fuel
source.
In recent months, a number
of companies have announced
plans to develop geothermal
energy projects at locations
across the Caribbean,
including Nevis Island,
Dominica and St. Vincent.
Why is the Caribbean such a
promising region for the
development of geothermal
energy facilities? And what
are the prospects for the
expansion of the geothermal
sector across the region?
Thousands of chemicals
serving a variety of human
needs flood into sewage
treatment plants once their
use life has ended. Many
belong to a class of
chemicals known as CECs (for
chemicals of emerging
concern), which may pose
risks to both human and
environmental health.
Louisiana utilities are
still wrestling with the
consequences of the
brain-eating amoeba...
The amoeba struck three
times in the last two years
in this state. One person
passed away in DeSoto Parish
and two passed in St.
Bernard Parish.
For decades, scientists
have been grappling with the
consequences of climate
change and working toward
viable solutions. Climate
engineering, also known as
geoengineering, is the most
controversial possible
solution.
Currently, one of the
most talked about
geoengineering ideas is
Solar Radiation Management
(SRM), which intends to
block shortwave solar
radiation, thus cooling the
Earth to offset rising
temperatures. In other
words, SRM may be one way in
which global temperatures
could be artificially
stabilized. But a new study
in the Journal of
Geophysical Research:
Atmospheres, finds that
while SRM-style
geoengineering may succeed
in cooling the Earth, it
would also disrupt
precipitation patterns
around the world.
A hot water resource tapped
first for growing roses,
then for raising fish, is
now supplying New Mexico's
first commercial-scale
geothermal electricity...
"Renewable energy has its
issues, like fossil fuels,
but geothermal overcomes a
lot of the challenges,"
Goodman said.
Unlike wind and solar, a
geothermal plant can supply
energy nonstop.
Where crude oil is
concerned, Canada waits for
no country. It doesn’t
matter how wealthy or how
friendly that country is --
or whether that country is
the United States.
With the Canada-to-Texas
Keystone XL pipeline stuck
in limbo on the U.S. side,
Canada’s Energy Board
recently gave a thumbs up to
a $6.5 billion pipeline
designed to carry 525,000
barrels of oil per day from
the oil sands of Alberta to
ships on the British
Columbia coast. The final
destination is most likely
Asia.
“The tide is out and the
table is set…” Justin
Finklebonner gestures to the
straits on the edge of the
Lummi reservation. This is
the place where the Lummi
people have gathered their
food for a millennium. It is
a fragile and bountiful
ecosystem, part of the
Salish Sea, newly corrected
in it’s naming by
cartographers. When the tide
goes out, the Lummi fishing
people go to their boats—one
of the largest fishing
fleets in any Indigenous
community. They feed their
families, and they fish for
their economy.
This is also the place
where corporations fill
their tankers and ships to
travel into the Pacific and
beyond.
At least one billion cubic
metres of fresh water could
be produced by desalinating
ice from the Bohai sea in
China by 2023, Chinese news
agency Xinhua has
reported...
China’s sea ice programme
was reported to have started
in 1996 when Shi Peijun, a
professor from Beijing
Normal University, found
that low saline ice could
ease the water shortage
around the Pan-Bohai Bay
area in North China, after
desalination.
If your face turns red after
a few drinks, it could be a
sign of added risk for
alcohol-linked high blood
pressure, new research
suggests.
Egyptians overwhelmingly
approved a new constitution
by referendum, state media
reported on Thursday, a
widely expected outcome that
nudges army chief General
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ever
closer to a bid for the
presidency.
The vote advances a
transition plan the
military-backed government
unveiled after deposing
Islamist president Mohamed
Mursi last July following
mass unrest over his rule.
-
"Food" is a 30-minute
documentary that
investigates how demand
for more and cheaper
food has dramatically
altered the entire food
chain
-
Fish no longer eat other
fish, and cattle eat
very little grass, which
is their natural food
source. Instead, cattle
eat corn, chickens eat
corn and fish, and fish
eat byproducts from cows
and poultry
-
Modern agricultural
practices are taking a
heavy toll on soil and
environmental health,
and the way we raise
animal foods, results in
animal products that are
far inferior compared to
their ancestral past
-
Besides corn, virtually
all beef sold in
American grocery stores
comes from cattle
injected with hormones.
Corn fattens the cattle,
so hormones are used to
make the animal produce
more lean muscle tissue
-
About half of the
world’s seafood now
comes from fish farms.
Wild fish eat other
fish, but farmed fish
can be fed a concoction
of soy protein and beef
or chicken byproducts,
including cattle blood,
bone, and chicken
feathers
A massive ancient subglacial
trough, deeper than the
Grand Canyon in the United
States, has been discovered
far beneath the ice of West
Antarctica.
Their effect on the surface
of the ocean is negligible,
producing a rise of just
inches that is virtually
imperceptible on a turbulent
sea. But internal waves,
which are hidden entirely
within the ocean, can tower
hundreds of feet, with
profound effects on the
Earth's climate and on ocean
ecosystems.
Groups challenging
construction of high-voltage
power lines say slowing
utility sales should make
the state Public Service
Commission rethink its
decision to approve a
high-voltage power line
linking La Crosse and
Rochester, Minn.
The PSC approved the $500
million project in 2012, and
utilities involved in it,
including Xcel Energy and
Dairyland Power Cooperative,
began construction last
year.
The number of U.S.
households that use only
all-natural fertilizer,
insect, and weed controls
increased from an estimated
5 million households in 2004
to 12 million in 2008
according to results of
NGA's 2004 and 2008
Environmental Lawn and
Garden surveys. This trend
reflects the increasing
importance people attribute
today to maintaining lawns
and gardens in an
environmentally friendly
way. And this trend is
expected to increase in the
future.
Changing solar energy not
into electricity but
hydrogen fuel and storing it
for later can allow devices
to run after the sun goes
down, U.S. researchers say.
While solar energy has
long been used as a clean
alternative to fossil fuels
such as coal and oil, it
could only be harnessed
during the day when the
sun's rays were strongest,
scientists at the University
of North Carolina said.
If solar energy is going
to have a shot at being a
clean source for powering
the planet, they said, a way
to store it for nighttime
use must be found.
Just days after Prime
Minister David Cameron
offered local authorities a
tax break for approving
fracking projects in their
area, a study has been
released addressing the
impact of shale gas
extraction on water
supplies.
The pollution tainting
the water of American
Indians and West Virginia
residents is nothing new,
Native leaders said as the
state’s attorney general and
other authorities launched
probes into a massive
chemical spill into the Elk
River.
"We had an absolute
unmitigated disaster here
for six days now where
people are without water,”
West Virginia Attorney
General Patrick Morrisey
said of the spill, which cut
off water for 300,000
residents. “This is not only
utterly unacceptable. It's
outrageous on every level.”
At least 115 people were
killed and 145 more were
wounded in a continuing
bomb spree in Baghdad and
ongoing clashes in Anbar
province. Several cities
near the capital were also
targeted today.
Researchers have discovered
a new way to increase plant
growth by suppressing the
natural response to
environmental stress. The
scientists have found a
modifier protein that can be
used to interfere with the
plant's growth repression
proteins independently of
the previously identified
hormone Gibberellin. They
believe this will lead to
higher crop yields, even in
unfavorable conditions.
[genetic modification?]
A conservation group
concerned about groundwater
contamination around Duke
Energy's coal-fired power
plant in southeastern Stokes
County plans to ask a
Superior Court judge today
for permission to join a
lawsuit filed against Duke
by the state of North
Carolina citing groundwater
contamination at all of the
utility company's power
plants.
The Sacramento Kings NBA
team just
became the first major
professional sports
franchise to accept Bitcoin,
according to an announcement
from payment processor
BitPay.
One of the most prominent
and longstanding
technological, conceptual
and policy challenges in the
field of utility energy
efficiency has been
determining a program's net
savings impacts...
Even among evaluation
professionals, while the
majority support the use of
net savings for program
reporting and calculating
lost revenues, there is no
consensus on whether net
savings is the metric that
should be used, much less on
what specific methodologies
should be utilized to
determine net savings,
according to the research.
One of the least publicized
aspects of ObamaCare is its
bailout of insurance
companies. Far from warring
against them, as Hillary
Clinton did in 1993, the
Obama program is their new
best friend.
In the state of Michigan, it
is legal to openly carry a
handgun. However, when a
police officer in Grand
Rapids responded to a March
3 call about a man doing
exactly that, he drew his
weapon and ordered the man
to the ground.
Researchers at Harvard have
developed an inexpensive,
high capacity, organic
battery that uses
carbon-based materials as
electrolytes rather than
metals. The researchers say
the technology stands to be
a game-changer in renewable
energy storage by solving
the intermittent generation
problems faced by renewable
sources, such as wind and
solar. The battery offers
large volume electricity
storage not possible with
solid-state batteries and at
a fraction of the cost of
existing flow battery
technology.
Wildlife in Switzerland
is seeking relief from
warming temperatures by
moving higher up the
mountains, reports Tim
Radford.
Animals and plants are
already today adapting to
the rising temperatures at a
surprising pace.
The price tag for the
crisis last week that almost
forced operators to shut off
power to parts of the state
grid isn't likely to show up
on your next electric bill,
but traders say the close
call produced market
conditions that eventually
could hit consumers.
The cold spell pushed
wholesale electricity prices
to the regulatory cap of
$5,000 per megawatt-hour for
about an hour and a half --
the first time the price has
reached the maximum since
the state's Public Utility
Commission increased the cap
from $4,500 in June 2013.
In much of west Texas, the
iconic Prickly Pear cactus —
with its plum-like fruit and
forbidding spiked pads — is
at best considered a
nuisance, and at worst a
downright hazard to
livestock. But in most of
the rest of the semi-arid
world — from Mexico and
Chile, large swaths of India
and South Africa, as well as
Spain and Morocco — Opuntia
ficus-indica (Prickly Pear)
is used in dye-making, as
feed for livestock, and,
little by little, as
feedstock for anaerobic
biogas production.
-
Honey bees all around
the world are dying in
unprecedented
numbers—many hives
literally disappearing
without a trace—in a
mysterious phenomenon
dubbed Colony Collapse
Disorder (CCD)
-
Queen of the Sun: What
Are the Bees Telling Us?
takes a fresh look at
the global bee crisis,
from multiple angles,
and offers proactive
life-affirming solutions
-
Certain pesticides
called nicotinoids have
been identified as
having a particularly
devastating impact on
bee health and survival
by weakening the bee's
immune system
-
Monoculture—the practice
of growing of just one
type of crop on a
massive scale—is another
major contributing
factor
-
Suggestions for actions
you can take to help our
honey bees are included,
as well as resources for
educators
Despite their noble cause of
harnessing clean, renewable
energy from the sun, solar
panels tend to be
aesthetically uninspiring.
Solar start-up Rawlemon aims
to change all that with a
new, and undeniably
beautiful, take on
concentrated photovoltaic
(CPV) technology.
Created by Andre Broessel, a
German architect inspired by
his daughter’s toy marbles,
the Rawlemon design uses a
spherical lens to
concentrate sunlight on a
small photovoltaic panel and
combines this with a
dual-axis pivot that tracks
the movement of the sun.
New research by computer
scientists at Trinity
College Dublin and IBM
Dublin could allow companies
to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions and drive down
costs of operations using
mathematical algorithms to
effectively balance the load
between different computer
servers worldwide. All of
the services on the Internet
today are based in the
cloud, which means Twitter,
Facebook or Google mail
requests are dealt with by
one of thousands of PC
servers located at a small
number of warehouse-sized
cloud-computing facilities
around the world.
Hijacking sperm cells to
create little robots might
seem far out, but that's
exactly what researchers
from the Dresden Institute
for Integrative Nanosciences
have done. Their "spermbots"
consist of live sperm cells
in little tubes, that can be
magnetically controlled to
move in a desired direction
until they reach their
destination and do their job
– they're currently robust
enough to even guide a
specific sperm cell to an
egg cell. The scientists
hope that further
development will allow the
technology to offer a viable
alternative to parents
trying to have a child
through in-vitro
fertilization. When
perfected, the spermbots
could also be used as a safe
means for drug delivery and
gene manipulation.
C2 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be low on days one, two, and
three (17 Jan, 18 Jan, 19
Jan). The geomagnetic
field is expected
to be
at quiet...
Germany's No.2 utility RWE
is preparing to sue for
millions of euros of damages
after a federal court
confirmed that a state's
decision to shut down the
company's Biblis nuclear
plant for three months in
2011 was illegal.
-
As you get older, the
activity of
heat-generating,
calorie-burning brown
fat is reduced
-
This “failing” of brown
fat is likely a key
reason why there’s a
tendency to gain weight
with age
-
Slender people tend to
have more brown fat than
obese people, and young
people have more than
the elderly
-
Exposure to cold
temperatures and
exercise can help you to
increase your body’s
activation of brown fat
and may even turn “bad”
white fat into
beneficial brown fat
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski
(R- Alaska ) today spoke on
the Senate floor about the
economic and geopolitical
opportunities that increased
energy exports present for
the United States .
"The energy resurgence
has fueled a beneficial
expansion of the U.S. energy
trade. The evidence is clear
that exports can help
facilitate enhanced
production by opening up
U.S. supply to global
markets," Murkowski said.
"Trade is creating jobs,
increasing supply, and
enhancing our nation's
security. Competition and
efficiency are strengths of
the American economic
system, not defects."
Researchers say an
antibiotic-resistant
"superbug" appears to be
slipping past wastewater
treatment plants in Northern
China.
Researchers found
significant levels of this
threat in wastewater that
had been chlorinated and
released into the
environment. They found even
higher amounts in dewatered
sludge applied to soils,
according to a blog post by
researchers at Rice
University.
The Fed's
"full-allotment overnight
reverse repurchase agreement
facility" (FRFA) - a
mechanism to control
short-term rates - is no
longer just an academic
exercise. Given how
dysfunctional the interbank
market has become, using the
fed funds target as the only
post-QE monetary tool is no
longer an option. FRFA
allows the Fed to set a
floor under the overnight
secured lending rate (repo)
by offering to borrow funds
from a broad array of market
participants - not just
banks - at a fixed rate.
...a staggering 97% of
chicken breasts sold
throughout America are
contaminated with harmful
bacteria!
You heard
that right -- 97%!
Since emergency is
a common English word, most
U.S. kids can roughly define
it before reaching middle
school. Yet most U.S. adults
(even those not duped
by Koch brothers'
propaganda) seem utterly
clueless that our
climate--and therefore
humanity itself--is facing
one.
This article is written
for the shockingly few
adults who grasp the dire
urgency of global warming,
and who realize we now
need our government's
command-and-control powers
as desperately as we would
in the wake of a Category 5
hurricane. I hope it offends
everyone else.
If the hype is to be
believed this time around
(and you'd be forgiven for
being skeptical about the
arrival of this
long-promised but never
really delivered
technology), then the stars
could be aligning for
hydrogen fuel cell-powered
cars to take some modest
steps toward reality.
Bees are integral to the
pollination of major crops
around the world, so the
more that we understand how
they go about their
business, the better we can
facilitate the process and
thereby boost yields. With
this in mind, scientists
from Australia's
Commonwealth Scientific and
Industrial Research
Organisation (CSIRO) are
taking the unprecedented
step of equipping up to
5,000 honeybees with RFID
(radio frequency
identification) tags.
Border patrol is unleashing
a fleet of
ultra-maneuverable,
pint-sized robots to explore
the growing number of drug
tunnels beneath the
US-Mexico border.
A NASA satellite caught an
image of the giant fire at
the Gascoigne Wood
Interchange Newgen Recycling
facility in
Sherburn-in-Elmet. The
village of about 6,000
people near Leeds was first
settled centuries ago,
dating back to Roman times.
Institutional investors
managing trillions of
dollars should shift their
portfolios away from fossil
fuel investments toward
cleaner energy sources to
put a stop to the dangerous
rise in global temperatures
causing climate change, the
United Nations' climate
chief said on Wednesday.
Today’s Beige Book
report, compiled in
preparation for the January
28 and 29, 2014 Federal Open
Market Committee (FOMC)
meeting, provided an overall
assessment that the economy
“continued to expand across
most regions and sectors,”
while the number of
districts reporting
“moderate” growth increased
to nine from seven in the
previous report, thus
indicating some
strengthening in activity.
In Part I of her recent
feature on the US
Government's commitment to
renewable energy," Felicity
Carus identified
some weapons in President
Obama's arsenal in the fight
to support RE projecs,
infrastructure and industry.
In this follow-up article,
Carus talks about other
variables impacting the
renewables market in the US.
Renewable energy credits
(RECs) are also a large
component of President
Obama's executive order,
whether from on-site
generation or off-site
generation.
Last week's U.S.
employment surveys for
December support Fitch's
view that the healing of the
labor market is not
proceeding quickly enough to
drive a significant pick-up
in U.S. economic growth.
Despite a decline in the
headline unemployment rate
to 6.7% in December, labor
productivity and
participation rates have
stayed weak since the
recession. We remain
concerned that high levels
of unemployment and
under-employment will
continue to dampen consumer
spending and delay the start
of a more robust economic
recovery.
- The US producer
price index (PPI) rose
by an expected 0.4% in
December 2013, and the
year-over-year rate
increased to 1.2% from
0.7% in November
- Energy prices
increased 1.6% in
December following a 0.4
dip in November. Food
prices fell 0.6%
following an unchanged
reading in November
Iranian foreign minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif said
Thursday he was confident
OPEC member countries would
allow Iran to win back its
market share on global oil
markets once Iranian oil
exports return to normal
levels.
January 14, 2014
On the global financial
stage, China is playing
chess while the U.S. is
playing checkers, and the
Chinese are now accelerating
their long-term plan to
dethrone the U.S. dollar.
You see, the truth is that
China does not plan to allow
the U.S. financial system to
dominate the world
indefinitely. Right now,
China is the number one
exporter on the globe and
China will have the largest
economy on the planet at
some point in the coming
years.
Much of the naturally
occurring radioactivity in
fracking wastewater might be
removed by blending it with
another wastewater from acid
mine drainage, according to
a Duke University-led study.
“Fracking wastewater and
acid mine drainage each pose
well-documented
environmental and public
health risks. But in
laboratory tests, we found
that by blending them in the
right proportions we can
bind some of the fracking
contaminants into solids
that can be removed before
the water is discharged back
into streams and rivers,”
said Avner Vengosh,
professor of geochemistry
and water quality at Duke’s
Nicholas School of the
Environment.
Five years after the
Obama administration's
renewable energy initiative
touched off a building boom
of large-scale solar power
plants across the desert
Southwest, the pace of
development has slowed to a
crawl, with a number of
companies going out of
business and major projects
canceled for lack of
financing.
Andrea Rossi, founder,
leader, and technology
driver at Leonardo
Corporation has opened the
ECAT LENR device’s web site
where pre-orders can be
made. For those concerned
about the risks, there isn’t
a provision for funding,
entering personal financial
details or entering other
revealing personal details.
One simply gets a place on
the list. It’s kind of like
“take a number” at a retail
establishment.
- Arizona Public
Service brought online
four utility-owned solar
projects totaling 62 MW
in December, bringing
new large-scale and
rooftop solar for the
utility to 410 MW in
2013. Overall, APS has
about 750 MW of solar on
its system.
- The largest chunk of
the new solar came from
Abengoa's 280-MW Solana
generating station near
Gila Bend, Arizona,
which started operating
in October. Power from
the plant, which has
energy storage capacity,
is sold to APS under a
long-term contract.
- APS is on track to
adding 200-MW of
utility-owned solar
under a program approved
by the Arizona
Corporation Commission.
The atmosphere
above the northern Alaskan
town of Barrow has
unprecedentedly high levels
of molecular chlorine,
according to researchers who
say the trend could continue
as seasonal variation in ice
increases each year.
Molecular
chlorine, derived from sea
salt released by melting sea
ice, reacts with sunlight to
produce highly reactive
chlorine atoms. These atoms
are responsible for speeding
up the degradation of
methane and the oxidation of
mercury to more toxic
forms.
As the head of the United
Nations, Ban Ki-Moon,
visited Iraq, Baghdad
erupted in series of blasts
that targeted civilians.
Fighting continued in Anbar
province, while the usual
violence occurred elsewhere.
Overall, at least 46
people were killed and 99
more were wounded.
Despite its ignominious
collapse into bankruptcy,
Fisker Automotive of Anaheim
has attracted the attention
of two of the world's
richest men. Today, in a
Delaware bankruptcy court a
judge may decide which of
their companies' dueling
plans can move forward. Both
anticipate restarting
production of Fisker's
luxury-car.
Mickelson still lives in
California, but other
wealthy people say they have
moved out mainly or partly
because of skyrocketing tax
rates. Whether you
sympathize or not,
millionaires' migrating out
of California has serious
consequences to the state's
bottom line and is something
state leaders are
watching closely.
China's wetlands have
shrunk nearly 9 percent
since 2003, forestry
officials said on Monday,
aggravating water scarcity
in a country where food
production, energy output
and industrial activity are
already under pressure from
water shortages.
China has more than a
fifth of the world's
population but only 6
percent of its freshwater
resources, and large swathes
of the nation, especially in
the north, face severe water
distress.
Congressional negotiators
unveiled a bipartisan, $1.1
trillion spending bill
Monday night that will
reverse a 1 percent cut to
cost-of-living increases for
disabled veterans and
provide $1.525 billion in
aid to Egypt, among other
provisions.
The measure fleshes out
the details of the budget
deal that Congress passed
last month; it would fund
the government through
October. The budget pact
gave relatively modest
relief to the Pentagon and
domestic agencies from the
deep budget cuts they would
otherwise face.
Once again, the subject
of free speech with regard
to Yelp reviews has been
brought up in court. A new
decision has proven
controversial because if the
court is wrong (which is
very possible due to an
apparent lack of real
evidence), Yelp users who
chose to leave reviews
anonymously will have heir
identifies revealed for
engaging in the practice
that millions of others do
on the Internet. The
decision could set a
dangerous precedent for
other potential suits
involving negative online
reviews and anonymity.
Peter McCurdy was
informed months ago that his
HSA insurance would no
longer be allowed under the
Affordable Care Act.
Begrudgingly,
the Painesville, Ohio,
pastor signed up for health
insurance under the federal
exchange when he decided he
couldn’t afford private
options.
Utilities are
increasingly aware of the
cyberthreats that are facing
them, but they are not
adequately staffed to
address mounting threats,
according to Doug Westlund,
the chief executive officer
of N-Dimension Solutions.
Cyberthreats and other
disruptive challenges
confronting utilities will
be the focus of the
EnergyBiz Securing Power
Forum in Washington March
3-4.
A new study adds fodder
to the debate over whether
fracking contaminates ground
and surface water.
"Water samples collected
at Colorado sites where
hydraulic fracturing was
used to extract natural gas
show the presence of
chemicals that have been
linked to infertility, birth
defects and cancer," the
Los Angeles Times
reported.
Falling levels of
nitrogen in the atmosphere
across Europe may be much
more economically beneficial
than previously believed,
according to a recent study.
Indeed, scientists think
the UK alone benefits by
around £65 million a year.
Levels of atmospheric
nitrogen have fallen by
around a quarter in Europe
since 1990, mostly because
of tighter rules on
emissions from engines and
industry. Scientists are
still working to understand
the consequences.
It's seen as a key
milestone after the
military-led coup that
ousted former president
Mohamed Morsi last year
Egyptians headed to the
polls Tuesday morning to
begin two days of voting on
a draft constitution that
would strengthen the
country’s military-backed
leadership.
Massive security
deployments are in place to
protect polling stations;
the AP reports that 160,000
soldiers and more than
200,000 policemen are
guarding voting locations
across the country. In Cairo
early Tuesday morning, a
bomb went off outside of a
courthouse before the polls
opened, causing significant
damage but no casualties.
Water and who should
provide it - the public or
private sector - has become
the first issue to be pushed
onto Brussels' policy agenda
via a new mechanism meant to
involve ordinary people in
EU decision-making.
Some public power
agencies in California could
be financially pressured in
2014 by the drought's impact
on hydropower production,
Fitch Ratings says. While
the financial impact is
expected to be manageable,
utilities with a greater
reliance on hydroelectric
generation may be forced to
use more expensive
generation and purchased
power to replace the
potential shortfall in
hydropower output for the
third year in a row. Eight
of the 14 Fitch-rated public
power issuers receive
between 10%-32% of their
power supply from
hydroelectric resources
according to Fitch's report
In 2014, Georgia Power
will file a request with the
Georgia Public Service
Commission (PSC) to
decertify Plant Mitchell
Unit 3 in Albany, Georgia.
Further, the company will
cancel the previously
proposed conversion of the
coal-fired unit to biomass
after an extensive review
and analysis deemed the
conversion would not be cost
effective for its customers.
1) The Arctic rapidly
warming: 2) The jet stream
is slowing down: 3) As a
result, extreme weather
ensures: With a slower, more
chaotic jet stream, there's
a much greater likelihood of
weather systems getting
stuck on their paths around
the planet.
A government study
recently concluded that
parts of New York may have
to boost their efforts to
monitor methane seeping into
the environment.
The study by the U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS)
found that water in some
areas of upstate New York
contains high levels of
methane.
Miller lost her son 15
years ago in a car accident
and it has been tough for
her ever since, but the
community pulled together
with a healing sweat and
talking circles with
children in the community.
“Because of his death the
culture came back,” Miller
says in the video. “I guess
he was sent here for 15
years for that reason. So
everything I do is pretty
much dedicated in the memory
of my son.”
She says they are
starting over in her
community, and that they
haven’t had clan mothers in
a long time. This can partly
be attributed to the
historical trauma caused by
the boarding school
experience.
“There’s a pain and
there’s a hurt and there’s
an anger. People will say
‘well that happened a long
time ago so why do you still
hang onto it?’ Well that’s
what we mean by historical
trauma, it’s still in
there,”
While many
pharmaceutical medications
are disruptive to the
overall functioning of the
body, numerous herbs
actually support the natural
healing powers of our own
bodies. Herbs can be so
effective at healing that we
are still using them even
after thousands of years. A
primary reason many of us
frown on herbal medicine in
modern times is because
mainstream Western medicine
shuns it. Big pharma spends
billions of dollars to make
sure we buy patented
medications rather than
medicine from mother nature.
-
The modern agricultural
system is responsible
for putting more carbon
dioxide into the
atmosphere than the
actual burning of fossil
fuels
-
Herds raised according
to modern, conventional
practices contribute to
desertification—turning
land into desert—which
does not support plant
life and photosynthesis,
thereby worsening
atmospheric CO2 levels
-
According to an African
ecologist, dramatically
increasing the number of
grazing livestock is the
only thing that can
reverse both
desertification and
climate change
-
According to estimates,
grazing large herds of
livestock on half of the
world’s barren or
semi-barren grasslands
could take enough carbon
from the atmosphere to
bring us back to
preindustrial levels
-
Integrating biological
farming principles can
increase plant
performance by 200-400
percent. What’s more,
not only does it improve
the quantity, it also
improves the quality of
the food you’re growing
Swiss plants, butterflies
and birds have moved 8 to 42
meters uphill between 2003
and 2010, as scientists from
the University of Basel
write in the online journal
PLoS One.
Climate warming is
changing the distribution of
plants and animals
worldwide. Recently it was
shown that in the past two
decades, European bird and
butterfly communities have
moved on average 37 and 114
kilometers to the north,
respectively.
Insurers have raised
concerns that too few young
people are signing up for
heath insurance through the
ObamaCare exchanges after
newly released statistics
showed that less than a
quarter of people who have
enrolled are between the
ages of 18 and 34.
According to the numbers
released Monday by the U.S.
Department of Health and
Human Services, only 24
percent – or 489,460 – of
the 2.2 million people who
signed up for ACA were in
the coveted 18-to-34 age
range. That means the
government has hit only 18
percent of its stated goal
of registering 2.7 million
adults in the 18-to-34 age
range.
The decline of large
predators such as lions,
leopards, wolves, otters,
and bears is changing
landscapes from the tropics
to the Arctic, finds a new
study from scientists in the
United States, Australia,
Italy and Sweden.
An analysis of 31
carnivore species published
today in the journal
“Science” shows for the
first time how threats such
as habitat loss, persecution
by humans and loss of prey
combine to create global
hotspots of carnivore
decline.
The U.S. Supreme Court
upheld Monsanto Co's biotech
seed patents on Monday,
dealing a blow to a group of
organic farmers and other
activists trying to stop the
biotech company from suing
farmers if their fields
contain a few plants
containing the company's
genetically modified
traits...
Monsanto has genetically
engineered its specialty
seeds to withstand dousings
of glyphosate, the main
ingredient in the company's
Roundup herbicide.
Nearly 700 people have
been killed in nine days of
fierce clashes between an al
Qaeda affiliate and other
Islamist and rebel groups,
activists said Sunday.
Forces from the al
Qaeda-affiliated Islamic
State of Iraq and Syria have
increasingly come into
conflict with Free Syrian
Army fighters and other
hard-line factions opposing
the Syrian regime, while
ISIS attempts to impose its
strict form of Islamic
Sharia law on areas coming
under its control in
northern Syria.
President Obama has said
controversial NSA
data-collection programs
helped America avert dozens
of threats. But the data
suggest the programs' impact
was minimal, a report says.
Peru is to expand its
Camisea gas project although
it threatens uncontacted
Amazon tribes with
extinction, reports David
Hill. The decision also
ignores UN pleas to stop the
operations.
The Peruvian government
is pushing ahead with plans
to expand gas operations in
a supposedly protected
reserve in the Amazon
despite calls by the United
Nations to suspend them.
Pine Island Glacier, the
largest single contributor
to sea-level rise in
Antarctica, has started
shrinking, say scientists.
The work, published in
Nature Climate Change, shows
the glacier's retreat may
have begun an irreversible
process that could see the
amount of water it is adding
to the ocean increase
five-fold.
C1 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 (14 Jan) and
expected to be low with a
slight chance for an M-class
flare on days two and three
(15 Jan, 16 Jan). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet
levels on days one, two, and
three (14 Jan, 15 Jan, 16
Jan). Protons greater than
10 Mev have a chance of
crossing threshold on day
one (14 Jan).
For each American living in
poverty, we now spend
$17,000 annually on these
programs. And after 50 years
of this strategy, there are
still nearly 50 million
Americans living in poverty
today, and President Obama
calls “inequality” is “the
defining issue of our time.”
The war, he says, is “far
from over.”
The Senate confirmed one
of President Barack Obama's
key judicial nominees on
Monday, completing an
overhaul of the country's
second most powerful court
into one dominated by
Democratic-appointed
judges...
Wilkins' confirmation is
a fresh demonstration of
Senate Democrats' ability to
push through most
presidential nominations by
a simple majority, thanks to
a weakening of filibusters
that they muscled through
the chamber in November.
Greenpeace has found a
huge plume of black water
covering an area estimated
as 50 Olympic standard
swimming pools off the coast
in Eastern Shishi City,
China, where a discharge
pipe of an industrial zone
lies under the sea surface.
Lab testing found toxic
chemicals including hormone
disruptor Nonylphenol and
heavy metal in the water
discharged by factories in
the industrial zone.
A quasi-public agency
responsible for promoting
clean-energy technologies in
the Bay State has released a
study that found no
significant effect of wind
turbines on home values...
For projects within a
half mile of an operating
turbine, the effect on home
prices was about a half
percent in the positive
direction, according to the
report.
West Virginia officials
on Monday lifted a ban on
drinking or bathing with tap
water in some areas of the
state hit by a chemical
spill that affected hundreds
of thousands of people for
five days, Governor Earl Ray
Tomblin said.
A key state senator is
touting an idea that he says
could simultaneously address
two of Texas' most pressing
problems -- the threat of
water and electricity
shortages.
Sen. Troy Fraser, a
Horseshoe Bay Republican
whose district includes
northwest Travis County, is
suggesting that new power
plants be built at sites
where brackish groundwater
can be desalinated and used
as a substitute -- albeit
more expensive -- for fresh
water. Electricity is the
largest cost of desalinating
brackish water, which is
saltier than fresh water.
The recent cold snap
wouldn't have been so
unusual in the past...
The cold snap that
gripped the nation, says
Borenstein, wasn't even that
cold. It's just that, thanks
to climate change, we're now
so used to above-average
temperatures that one little
blip of a return to what
used to be known as “winter”
has us all riled up.
The use of a clear "ball
lens" to concentrate light
into a beam of energy may
improve solar power
efficiency by up to 50
percent...
Fundamentally, his
Betaray concept isn't a
radical departure from other
panel technologies out there
since it also uses solar
cells to collect sunlight.
The energy, however, arrives
in the form of an
energy-dense beam that's
concentrated up
to 10,000 times. Above the
miniature array of solar
cells is a large
water-filled glass orb that
works similarly to a
magnifying glass in focusing
the light that’s present
during all sorts of
less-than-ideal conditions,
like when skies are cloudy
or when the only available
light is the low-intensity
illumination reflected by
the moon.
The hydrogen vehicle,
which will travel 300 miles
on a single fueling, will be
a 'zero-emission,
electric-drive, mid-size,
four-door sedan.'
Toyota said California
plans to add 20 new fuel
stations by 2015 to the 10
existing ones. The goal is
to have about 100 in the
state, and to have a station
within a six-minute drive of
an owner's home or business.
Four nuclear power
plants, sources of low-cost
low-emissions electricity,
have announced closings
during 2013. Power plants
across the country,
including ones in
California, Wisconsin,
Florida and Vermont, are
being shut down. Meanwhile
utility companies choose to
build new natural gas fired
plants rather than extending
operation of nuclear
reactors
The ban on tap water for
parts of West Virginia was
lifted on Monday, ending a
crisis for some of the
300,000 people who were told
not to drink, wash or cook
with water after a chemical
spill tainted the water
supply...
Complaints came in to
West Virginia American Water
about a licorice-type odor
in the tap water. The source
was the chemical
4-methylcyclohexane methanol
that leaked out of a 40,000
gallon tank at a Freedom
Industries facility. State
officials said they believe
about 7,500 gallons leaked
from the tank. Some of the
chemical was contained
before flowing into the
river and it's not clear
exactly how much entered the
water supply.
In the U.S., road crews
scatter about 137 pounds of
salt per person annually to
melt ice. Where does it go
after that?
After it dissolves—and
is split into sodium and
chloride ions—it gets
carried away via runoff and
deposited into both surface
water (streams, lakes and
rivers) and the groundwater
under our feet.
New solar photovoltaic
(PV) installations in the
United States reached a
record 4.2 GW in 2013. In
fact, since 2012, the U.S.
market has grown 15 percent,
making it the leading solar
market outside the
Asia-Pacific (APAC) region,
according to the NPD
Solarbuzz.
Saudi Arabia – known for
its massive oil resources –
is making a serious push for
a different kind of energy:
Nuclear power.
Last week the country
signed a deal with France's
AREVA and EDF on a series of
initiatives aimed at
supporting Saudi Arabia's
nuclear energy program.
January 10, 2014
The domestic surveillance
state is sometimes called
the electronic police state.
Those in political power use
law enforcement to closely
monitor the opinions and
peaceful behavior of
citizens in order to
forestall and punish
opposition. Typically the
surveillance involves secret
files, covert wiretapping,
informants, the collection
of personal data such as
sexual preferences, and
other tactics that are
odious to a free society.
The domestic surveillance
state is often associated
with the East German Stasi
or the Soviet KGB. But its
roots are deep in American
soil, and it is reaching
full growth with the “war on
terror.”
Hawaiian Electric Co. and
the Hawaii Natural Energy
Institute are launching a
project in a West Oahu
neighborhood to see whether
battery technology can be
effectively used to open the
utility's grid to greater
amounts of solar power
produced by rooftop
photovoltaic panels.
Bolivia's President Evo
Morales has assumed the
chairmanship of the Group of
77 nations and said he would
use his new international
platform to have coca leaf,
which can be refined into
cocaine, removed from the
list of internationally
banned drugs.
At least 62 people were
killed, including a
Saudi Arabian, and 54
more were wounded in the
latest round of violence.
Few casualties were reported
in Anbar province today. The
deadliest attacks took
place, instead, north of
Baghdad.
What does Germany requesting
the return of its gold from
the Federal Reserve have to
do with you? Glenn Beck
argued on his radio and
television programs
Wednesday that if what he
suspects is true, it could
bring about an unprecedented
financial crash on a global
scale. His radio co-host Pat
Gray described it as
potentially “cataclysmic.”
More than 300 U.S. and
international environmental
and clean energy groups are
expressing their
disagreement with climate
change scientist Dr. James
Hansen's claims that nuclear
power is the solution to
global warming. A joint
letter from more than 311
groups -- including 237 from
46 U.S. states and the
District of Columbia and 74
from 44 other nations around
the world, which includes
those on the ground dealing
with the aftermath of the
Fukushima nuclear reactor
disaster -- is being issued
in response to a November 3,
2013 statement from Hansen
and three of his academic
world colleagues, Ken
Caldeira, Kerry Emanuel, and
Tom Wigley.
"With the current extreme
temperatures, higher
electric bills could result
due to increase use of
electrical energy," SVEC
officials said in a release.
"With lows hovering around
zero, significant increases
in electric bills could be
possible. Any unnecessary
electrical usage should be
curtailed to a minimum
during this time, as
electricity supplies are
tight."
President Obama’s mission
as 2014 starts is simple: He
has to distract attention
from the healthcare debacle.
Healthcare reform isn’t
working and won’t work. So
he needs to create a
diversion.
With his poll numbers
lagging around 40 percent,
the president naturally
wants to stop the erosion of
his base, so he is resorting
to hot-button class warfare
issues to build his support
back up.
Hydrocore, Inc. is
contracting with Pilot
Travel Centers to purchase
diesel fuel produced from an
East Tennessee County waste
using its proprietary plasma
arc gasification technology.
Hydrocore’s Elemental
Recovery process utilizes
the source material to make
products and offers any
municipality a single
source, waste disposal
solution.
When so many Americans
are paying much higher
prices for health insurance
under Obamacare and others
can’t even afford to buy
coverage, it is wrong for
our money to be used to bail
out giant insurance
companies.
But as Charles
Krauthammer points out in
his recent column, an
insurance company bailout is
already written into the
law, just waiting to kick in
if the best-laid plans of
the politicians and the
bureaucrats go awry.
Today, the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) announced
agricultural grants for
Integrated Pest Management
(IPM) practices to reduce
the use of potentially
harmful pesticides and lower
risk to bees all while
controlling pests and saving
money.
As the new year dawned,
nuclear fusion researchers
in the European Union woke
to a new funding system
aimed at sharpening their
focus on generating energy.
Gone are the annual block
grants to national fusion
laboratories; now, teams
must compete to participate
in "work packages"
supporting the international
ITER reactor in France and
preparing for a prototype
power reactor before the
middle of the century. The
change is the handiwork of
the European Union's nuclear
research arm, Euratom, which
funds both ITER construction
and related fusion research
in labs across the
continent.
When utilities began
replacing customers'
electric meters with a
"smart" version, they warned
that anybody insisting on
keeping an old meter would
have to pay a bigger monthly
bill.
US Midwest refining margins
largely rebounded this week
amid a surge in regional
gasoline prices, after a
cold snap cut production at
some area refineries.
Cracking margins for
West Texas Intermediate were
around $18.37/b Wednesday,
up from just $12.86/b
Friday. West Texas Sour
cracking margins rose to
$18.54/b Wednesday, up from
$12.76/b.
Right now, the Sun is
sporting a huge sunspot
called AR1944. It’s grown in
size over the past few days
to a staggering 200,000
kilometers (125,000 miles)
across. ..sunspots are
regions of intense
magnetism, and these
magnetic fields store huge
energies. They can be
unleashed in vast explosions
called solar flares … and
AR1944 popped off a good one
on Jan. 7.
Is the HAARP Project a
Weather Control Weapon?
"It isn't just conspiracy
theorists who are concerned
about HAARP. The European
Union called the project a
global concern and passed a
resolution calling for more
information on its health
and environmental risks.
Despite those concerns,
officials at HAARP insist
the project is nothing more
sinister than a radio
science research facility."
We bet there are many of you
reading this article who
think nothing of taking
Vitamin C and lots of
liquids for a cold or using
Aloe Vera gel for a burn.
But, how many of you think
about using natural
treatments for bladder or
vaginal infections, for a
strep throat, or for more
serious infections such as
hepatitis or pneumonia? Most
of the time the proper use
of natural substances such
as vitamins and herbs and
homeopathic remedies will
help you get over these
conditions.
But it's important to
know what works best for
each condition, evaluate
whether or not it's working,
and to assess the
consequences of unsuccessful
treatment.
Failure to reduce carbon
dioxide emission can cause
global temperatures to rise
by a minimum of 4°C by 2100
and double by 2200,
according to a University of
New South Wales study.
Researchers said that global
climate is more affected by
carbon dioxide emission than
previously believed.
The study also said that
as the planet gets warmer;
fewer clouds are formed,
giving way to rising
temperatures.
-
Your body releases sweat
to help regulate its
body temperature to
prevent you from
overheating
-
Sweating also helps your
body to eliminate
toxins, which supports
proper immune function
and helps prevent
diseases related to
toxic overload
-
Sweating may help kill
viruses and bacteria
that cannot survive in
temperatures above 98.6
degrees Fahrenheit, as
well as on the surface
of your skin
-
Virtually any type of
intense exercise will
prompt you to sweat, but
you can also induce
sweating via a sauna,
either traditional or
infrared
-
Be sure to replace
fluids and electrolytes
after a session of heavy
sweating
-
McDonald’s recently
ended up with a PR
nightmare after
suggesting its own
employees forgo fast
food fare for healthier
options like salad and
water
-
In response to the
controversy, McDonald’s
shut down the website in
question, which was
aimed at providing “work
and life advice” to
employees
-
The average fast food
worker makes less than
$9 per hour, and more
than 50 percent of US
fast food workers are
enrolled in some form of
public assistance
program, costing US tax
payers an estimated $7
billion annually
-
The Western diet, high
in ultra-processed food,
is a major source of
many of our modern
diseases. McDonald’s and
other fast food
restaurants are not
necessarily the root of
the problem, though.
They’re simply an
outgrowth of the food
system
-
US food subsidies are
grossly skewed toward
factory-farmed meats,
grains, and sugars. What
you end up with when you
get paid to mass produce
those ingredients is a
cheap fast food diet
US nuclear power plant
refueling and maintenance
outages in 2014 will take
about 4,500 more net
megawatts out of service in
2014 than in 2013, according
to an analysis by Platts of
historical refueling data
and a review of US Nuclear
Regulatory Commission
documents.
NASA's Near-Earth Object
Wide-field Infrared Survey
Explorer (NEOWISE) may have
only come back online last
September after a 31-month
hibernation, but it’s
already producing results.
According to the space
agency, the unmanned
spacecraft discovered a
never-before-seen asteroid
on December 29 – the first
discovery of its new mission
to seek out potentially
hazardous near-Earth objects
(NEOs).
The Ford C-MAX Solar Energi
concept car will officially
be unveiled at the Consumer
Electronics Show on January
7 in Las Vegas, and is the
first vehicle to incorporate
solar panels on its roof.
Every White House toots its
own horn, but this was a bit
much. The Obama
administration’s signature
domestic policy achievement
has been marked by an
unwillingness to directly
answer basic questions about
the law and its
implementation. When it
comes to Obamacare, the most
transparent administration
in history is anything but.
"Schools and restaurants
closed, grocery stores sold
out of bottled water, and
state legislators who had
just started their session
canceled the day's business
after a chemical spill in
the Elk River in Charleston
shut down much of the city
and surrounding counties
even as the cause and extent
of the incident remained
unclear.
"The federal government
joined the state early
Friday in declaring a
disaster, and the West
Virginia National Guard
planned to distribute
bottled drinking water to
emergency services agencies
in the nine affected
counties.
One particular new law
requires anyone in
possession of a so-called
“assault” weapon or
high-capacity magazine to
register or declare them
with state police—or risk
felony charges and a minimum
one year in prison.
The holiday season means an
increase in trash; the more
you shop, the more you throw
away. This holiday Miller
Recycling would like to
share a few simple recycling
tips.
The study shows that
electricity can be supplied
from a new wind farm at a
cost of AUD 80/MWh (USD 83),
compared to AUD 143/MWh from
a new coal plant or AUD
116/MWh from a new baseload
gas plant, including the
cost of emissions under the
Gillard government's carbon
pricing scheme. However even
without a carbon price (the
most efficient way to reduce
economy-wide emissions) wind
energy is 14% cheaper than
new coal and 18% cheaper
than new gas.
M3 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be moderate with a chance
for
X-class flares on
days one, two, and three (09
Jan, 10 Jan, 11 Jan).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
severe storm levels on day
one (09 Jan),
unsettled to severe storm
levels on day two (10
Jan) and unsettled to active
levels on day three (11
Jan). Protons are expected
to cross threshold on days
one, two, and three (09 Jan,
10 Jan, 11 Jan).
Japanese nuclear
scientists say they plan to
create a controlled nuclear
meltdown looking for clues
how to deal with possible
future disasters.
The Japan Atomic Energy
Agency said Thursday said it
will use a scaled-down
nuclear reactor to
deliberately create
conditions of a serious
malfunction. The experiment
will start later this year
at a research facility in
Ibaraki, north of Tokyo.
It appears that some cases
of Alzheimer’s are more like
an infectious disease.
Scientists placed diseased
brain matter in mice who
later developed the disease.
The question of its
transmissible qualities were
also questioned in the
documentary Under Our Skin.
Many who have been diagnosed
with Alzheimer’s, especially
younger patients, have
turned out to have Lyme
disease affecting the brain.
Saudi Arabia is responsible
for 18% of the world's
desalination capacity.
Behind this amount and 28
desalination plants is the
Saline Water Conversion
Corporation (SWCC). Governor
of the organisation, H.E. Dr
Abdulrahman Al-Ibrahim,
speaks exclusively to WWi
magazine about plans to
increase current solar
powered desalination
capacity by ten times and
privatisation progress
Super-Earths are massive
terrestrial planets that are
fairly common in the Milky
Way. While the name implies
that these extrasolar
planets would be similar to
Earth, the name only refers
to the mass and does not
imply anything about the
surface conditions or
habitability. However,
Northwestern University
astrophysicist, Nicolas B.
Cowan and Dorian Abbot, a
University of Chicago
geophysicist, report the
odds of these planets having
an Earth-like climate are
much greater than previously
thought.
Syria’s government said
Wednesday that insurgents
had assaulted two storage
sites for some of the deadly
chemical weapons components
it has pledged to eliminate.
It was the first time the
Syrian authorities had
reported such attacks in the
three months since an
international effort began
to sequester and purge the
country of the banned
munitions.
Tepco has confirmed that
steam is rising from
Fukushima's melted-down
Reactor 3, but insists there
is 'no abnormality'.
The steam emanating from
the top of Unit 3 Reactor
Building indicates "no
abnormality", according to
plant owner Tokyo Electric
Power Co. (TEPCO).
As the Obama White House
continues with the slow and
glitchy rollout of the
Affordable Care Act,
Americans are starting to
notice sharp increases in
the cost of their health
insurance coverage.
In fact, for some, the cost
of enrolling in Obamacare
has hit them much harder
than they expected.
Some 80,000 tank cars that
don't meet current industry
safety standards need to be
replaced or retrofitted
after several crashes of
trains carrying crude oil,
the head of railcar maker
The Greenbriar Companies
said on Wednesday.
The Food and Drug
Administration's recent
ruling that trans fats are
unsafe in food — paving the
way for a ban — was hailed
by nutritionists and
health-food advocates
nationwide. But what was
lost amid all the hype and
hoopla over the FDA move was
the fact that many foods
still contain dangerous
levels of the fake fats.
Who’s afraid of the polar
vortex?
The North Pole’s dark
gift of swirling, frigid ice
and gloom may be scary, but
it’s nothing like these
ancient Native winter
legends.
Prevailing winds at the end
of 2013 indicated that the
US is blowing towards a
clean energy economy. In
October, 99.3% of new
capacity additions to the US
electric grid were from
renewables, such as wind and
solar. By the end of the
year, about 66GW of wind had
been installed, with as much
as 13Gw being solar.
The record cold U.S.
temperatures may have a
silver lining - killing off
some tree-eating forest
pests that have spread
dangerously as the general
climate warms up, scientists
said.
The deep freeze that
shattered decades-old
records this week - causing
fatalities and snarling air,
road and rail traffic -
could adversely affect pests
such as the emerald ash
bore, which is responsible
for killing more than 10
million trees, said Robert
Venette, a research
biologist with the U.S.
Forest Service in St. Paul,
Minnesota.
Humans create all kinds of
noise in the ocean—from
sonars, blasts of bubbles
used to map the sea floor
with sound, thumping pile
drivers, and underwater
explosions triggered by the
military and construction
projects. Now, new guidance
from the National Marine
Fisheries Service will
require more sophisticated
analyses than are now
required of how these sounds
might injure marine mammals,
including whales, dolphins,
and seals. Environmentalists
hope the guidance, which
caps a 10-year effort to
synthesize the best science
on how sound affects the
animals, will lead to
greater protection, but
others aren't so sure.
Utilities around the
Tennessee Valley managed to
escape the deep freeze
relatively unscathed heading
into anticipated record lows
Monday night.
January 7, 2014
The 88-year-old business
owner also says he has never
in his entire life been in
trouble with the police.
But a cracked brick wall
outside his office building
in downtown Horton, Kan.,
that officials have deemed a
public hazard landed the
World War II veteran in jail
last month.
At least 45 people were
killed and 78 more were
wounded in today
attacks. Few casualties were
reported in Anbar province,
but this is likely due to
the difficulties in counting
them in a battle zone. Other
attacks occurred throughout
the country.
Authenticity is a
puzzling feature of
contemporary Indian life.
Growing up on an Indian
reservation, I rarely
encountered challenges to
one’s identity as an Indian
person. People within the
reservation community knew
most of the families. If
they didn’t know the family
connections of a specific
person they could learn with
a few inquiries to elders or
their own family members.
The first five days of
days of legalized sales of
marijuana have been big
business for dispensary
owners — so much so that
some shops even closed early
last Wednesday, the first
day on which such sales were
legal.
Supply simply can’t keep
up with demand.
The rush on traditional
light bulbs started a few
days after Christmas. It was
a quiet grab of the
soon-to-be-gone 40- and
60-watt incandescent bulbs.
A handful bought here and
there.
By Thursday morning, only
half a shelf of the bulbs
remained at the Home Depot
on Virginia Beach Boulevard
in Virginia Beach.
Newly identified
compounds produced by
chemical reactions in
vehicle exhaust or by
grilling meat are hundreds
of times more mutagenic than
their cancer-causing parent
compounds, according to
scientists at Oregon State
and three other
universities.
These compounds were not
previously known to exist,
and they raise concerns
about the health impacts of
heavily-polluted urban air
and dietary exposure, the
researchers said. It is not
yet clear in what amounts
the compounds might be
present, and no health
standards now exist for
them.
A new report from UBS finds
that renewable energy and
energy storage are together
presenting a “perfect storm”
for big utilities. The
declining cost of solar,
energy efficiency, and
electric vehicle
technologies threaten to
upend centralized
electricity generation,
putting the utility business
model in jeopardy. Grid
parity has already been
achieved in certain parts of
the world where conventional
electricity rates are high
and renewable resources are
plentiful.
Research, by a team
led by the
University of NSW,
says a 4-degree rise
in temperature would
be potentially
catastrophic for
agriculture in warm
regions of the
world, including
Australia. Video
supplied by UNSWTV.
Temperatures are on
course to rise at least 4
degrees by the end of the
century, according to
research that finds earlier
climate models projecting
smaller increases are likely
to be wrong.
Debate on Tunisia's new
constitution was suspended
for several hours Sunday
after a deputy claimed he
had received death threats
because a colleague accused
him of being an "enemy of
Islam".
Australia had its warmest
year on record, with annual
temperatures 1.2 degrees
Celsius (2.16 degrees
Fahrenheit) above the
1961-1990 average, according
to a new analysis from
Australia's Bureau of
Meteorology (BOM). This is
0.5 degrees Celsius higher
than the previous warmest
year on record—2005—for
Australia. Global warming
due to burning fossil fuels
is increasing temperatures
worldwide.
FDA tells Burzynski to seek
approval. When he agrees,
they use this as an excuse
to let his patients die
Firelands Electric
Cooperative's power
supplier, Buckeye Power, is
forecasting high power loads
tonight and tomorrow
Tuesday. Loads across the
PJM region and Ohio are
expected to the very high.
Several other major
pipelines intended to
transport diluted bitumen
from Canada's tar sands
could be affected by the
Pegasus outcome.
Industry analysts and others
who have wondered whether
ExxonMobil will restart the
broken Pegasus pipeline that
leaked Canadian oil across
an Arkansas suburb should
get their answer in 2014.
Public attitudes toward
clean and renewable energy
concepts play an important
role in determining the
growth of these
technologies. Over the last
few years, consumer
attitudes toward these
concepts have tended to
fluctuate and, in several
cases, decline
A few weeks ago, the FDA
announced a bold new
position on antibacterial
soap: Manufacturers have to
show that it’s both safe and
more effective than simply
washing with conventional
soap and water, or they have
to take it off the shelves
in the next few years.
U.S. car company Ford Motors
announced it will soon
unveil what it's calling the
"first-of-its-kind
sun-powered vehicle."
There are three things
teenagers and tumors have in
common -- they're
temperamental, aggressive
and they eat EVERYTHING they
come across.
And
just like that teen who's
always raiding your fridge,
cancerous tumors aren't
finicky at all about what
they eat. They'll make a
meal of tissue, muscles,
organs, bones, you name it.
Massive radioactive leaks
continue from the badly
damaged structures as the
dangerous operation of
moving spent fuel rods
begins, and still greater
challenges of
decommissioning the meltdown
reactors yet to come;
international help is
urgently needed to stem the
ongoing release of deadly
radioactive isotopes and
remediate the badly
contaminated environment Dr
Mae Wan Ho
Jordans cereal bars and
Warburtons bread have been
found to contain traces of
glyphosate - a controversial
herbicide that campaigners
say poses a risk to human
health. Andrew Wasley
reports ...
Constitutional rights aren’t
all that effective if you
don’t know what they are. A
new infographic released by
Online-Paralegal-Programs.com
seeks to help Americans
understand what rights they
do and don’t have when
interacting with an officer
of the law.
The average amount of
electricity consumed in U.S.
homes has fallen to 2001
levels, The Associated Press
reports.
Energy-efficient housing,
appliances and the like have
power usage set to decline
in 2013 for the third year
in a row — to 10,819
kilowatt hours per
household, according to data
from the Energy Information
Administration.
The 'tidal wave of interest'
in building
climate-resilient cities is
expected to snowball next
year as various initiatives
pick up speed.
When Alamo Heights
resident Anne Burnson opened
her CPS Energy bill this
past February, she was
stunned by how much the
city-owned utility wanted
her to pay: $439.
After all, Burnson, who
considers herself a pretty
frugal energy user, said she
had barely used her heater
that month.
"Chicago's ordinance goes
too far in outright banning
legal buyers and legal
dealers from engaging in
lawful acquisitions and
lawful sales of firearms,"
he continued.
His goal is to become the
lead broker of a global
climate treaty in 2015 that
will commit the United
States and other nations to
historic reductions in
fossil fuel pollution.
Energy infrastructure is the
target of more than half of
the cyberattacks that have
hit the United States, warns
U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest
Moniz. He said that more
must be done to secure
America’s grid from both
severe weather disruptions
and cyberassaults.
The impact of any potential
changes on the U.S.
photovoltaics (PV) industry
from net energy metering
(NEM) is expected to be
negligible in 2014, despite
efforts from some states to
re-evaluate their NEM
policies, according to IHS
Inc.
Researchers from the U.S.
Department of Energy’s (DOE)
SLAC National Accelerator
Laboratory and Stanford
University have designed a
low-cost, long-life “flow”
battery that could enable
solar and wind energy to
become major suppliers to
the electrical grid.
The North Dakota Industrial
Commission has approved the
first significant pilot test
of recycling water for
hydraulic fracturing in the
Bakken, which could lead to
conserving millions of
gallons of freshwater and
reducing truck traffic.
Imagine if you were given
one wish to do anything you
could about climate change,
what would you do? Resetting
the atmospheric carbon
concentration back to
pre-industrial levels would
certainly be a big help. But
at the rate we are currently
generating CO2, adding 2.1
ppm per year and rising, if
we didn’t do something else
to slow down our emissions,
we would be right back where
we are today in a
surprisingly short amount of
time.
After failing to strengthen
background checks on gun
buyers through Congress, the
Obama administration on
Friday announced pending
executive action on the
matter focused mainly on
mental health issues that
would allow the government
to get around certain
privacy laws on the books in
order to obtain more
information.
A blast of Arctic air
gripped the vast middle of
the United States on Monday,
bringing the coldest
temperatures felt in two
decades, causing at least
four deaths, forcing
businesses and schools to
close and canceling
thousands of flights.
A very impressive
collections of charts on PDF
file.
C7 event observed.
There are currently 9
numbered sunspot regions on
the disk. a chance for
X-class flares on days one,
two, and three (07 Jan, 08
Jan, 09 Jan). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
minor storm levels on day
one (07 Jan). Protons
are expected to cross
threshold on day one (07
Jan), are likely to cross
threshold on day two (08
Jan) and have a chance of
crossing threshold on day
three (09 Jan).
An irate Congressman Peter
King (R-N.Y.) during an
interview Sunday morning
said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)
“doesn’t deserve to be in
the United States Senate.”
The New York congressman’s
comments were in reference
to the Sen. Paul’s recent
threat to sue the Obama
White House over the
National Security Agency’s
wide-ranging surveillance
policies.
In all likelihood the
US debt ceiling will need to
be raised no later than this
coming March. The question
now is whether we are going
to see a repeat of last
October's game of chicken.
According to Deutsche Bank,
the US sovereign CDS spread
has stabilized, with market
participants not
anticipating a major
disruption (note that US CDS
is fairly illiquid with
"lumpy" trading activity).
The slowdown in labor
productivity growth in the
US seems to be a puzzle,
with a variety of
explanations, none of which
seem to be entirely
satisfactory.
In an interview with the
Washington Post just before
Christmas, Edward Snowden
declared his mission
accomplished. At first sight
it seemed a grandiose, even
hubristic, statement. In
fact, it betrayed a kind of
modesty about the intentions
of the former NSA analyst.
"I didn't want to change
society," he explained. "I
wanted to give society a
chance to determine if it
should change itself."
Connecticut, New York and
Massachusetts now outrank
California, Arizona and New
Mexico in the amount of
money each ray of sunlight
can generate for homeowners,
according to the Geostellar
Solar Index, a new
scientific and economic
analysis of Americans’
savings through rooftop
solar.
In at least four states that
have nurtured the nation's
energy boom, hundreds of
complaints have been made
about well-water
contamination from oil or
gas drilling, and pollution
was confirmed in a number of
them, according to a review
that casts doubt on industry
suggestions that such
problems rarely happen.
Stink bugs are fierce
prehistoric looking bugs.
Some are indeed quite fierce
and others simply stink more
than they bite! In many
parts of the world including
their native range of China,
Japan, Korea and Taiwan the
brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha
halys) is considered an
agricultural pest. Yet other
genera of stink bugs,
specifically the Podisus
nigrispinus (Dallas),
are considered an important
biological control agent for
other insect pests in the
cotton, soybean, tomato,
corn, and kale fields.
Summer floods and hailstorms
will cost the German
insurance industry almost 7
billion euros ($9.7 billion)
for 2013, the biggest bill
for damages the industry has
faced in more than a decade,
an industry report showed on
Thursday.
Solar photovoltaic (PV)
demand is poised for
explosive growth in 2014,
and is set to reach 49
gigawatts (GW), up from 36
GW in 2013, according to
findings in the latest NPD
Solarbuzz Quarterly.
The report says Unit 1
survived the earthquake
intact, and that the tsunami
knocked out the backup
diesel generators, which led
to the failure of the
cooling systems that caused
the accident.
-
The antibiotic pipeline
is running dry as an
increasing number of
superbugs are
outsmarting our
antibiotics; we are on
the tip of the end of
the antibiotic age,
which will change modern
medicine as we know it
-
The CDC estimates that
at least 23,000
Americans die each year
as a direct result of
antibiotic-resistant
bacteria, with many more
dying from
complications; we
presently have no
tracking system for
these infections
-
Of particular concern
are bacteria possessing
the NDM-1 gene which
allows them to transfer
their antibiotic
immunity to your normal
bacteria, thereby
transforming ordinary
bacteria into superbugs
-
Drug companies are no
longer interested in
developing antibiotics
because they are not as
profitable as other,
more expensive drugs
that can be given to
people indefinitely,
rather than for just two
weeks
-
The most significant
driver of this problem
is the massive overuse
of antibiotics by the
agricultural industry,
which administers 24.6
million pounds of
antibiotics to livestock
every year for
non-medical purposes
They’re back. Grab your
wallets and hide your
possessions. Congress is
ready to kick off the 2014
session. Democrats are
desperately trying to change
the subject from Obamacare
by pandering with issues
such as the minimum wage and
unemployment benefits.
Unfortunately, Republicans
are already showing signs of
caving on the failed policy
of extending unemployment
benefits, so long as the
cost is offset. House
Republicans will take up
legislation dealing with
Obamacare’s implementation,
but will they keep the
proper focus on the issue?
This week will start off
slowly but in the coming
weeks there will be some
major showdowns, which as
always, will require
vigilance from the
conservative movement.
Toyota Motor Corp., which is
getting ready to sell
Camry-sized sedans powered
by fuel cells next year in
the U.S., plans to help
create a network of hydrogen
stations that may include
pumps at car dealers and
even trash dumps.
With support from the US
Department of Energy,
private industry and the
DOE’s national laboratories
have already achieved
significant advances in fuel
cell and hydrogen
technologies.
The US is
demonstrating
leadership in
clean-energy
innovation and
providing businesses
with more
affordable, cleaner
transportation and
power options.
The US produced 132 million
gallons of biodiesel in
October, a record amount
that is 75 percent more than
the same month in
2012, according to the
latest data released by the
US Energy Information
Administration.
A Chinese icebreaker that
helped rescue 52 passengers
from a Russian ship stranded
in Antarctic ice found
itself stuck in heavy ice on
Friday.
Seventy-one U.S. Navy
sailors from the aircraft
carrier USS Ronald Reagan
are filing suit against the
Japanese utility Tokyo
Electric Power Company,
TEPCO, after they were
allegedly exposed to
radiation from the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant
when they arrived in Japan
with aid.
During the first two years
of life, a child’s brain
undergoes extensive
development, especially of
pathways used in higher
functions such as thinking,
learning, attention, memory,
social control, and
language. While 80 percent
of brain growth is complete
by age 4, the frontal lobes
continue to develop until
around age 26.
News out of Venezuela
continues to be quite grim,
pointing to further economic
deterioration. This is truly
astonishing, given that
Venezuela has the highest
proven oil reserves in the
world - even larger than
Saudi Arabia's. Here is the
the latest:
The amount of electronic
waste produced globally is
set to grow by a third
between 2012 and 2017,
according to a forecast made
by experts at a global
partnership created to
tackle e-waste.
Since landing in India in
September of 2011, social
venture Wello has carried
out extensive research in an
effort to improve the
efficiency of water
transport and storage in
developing countries. For
many people living in these
areas the chore of walking
long distances while
carrying buckets of water is
inefficient, dangerous and
counter-productive.
There are always
things happening in Indian
country that never make it
into the mainstream news,
and we Indian people are
accustomed to it...
It was here, the day
after Christmas in 1862,
that 38 Dakota men were
executed in the largest mass
hanging in U.S. history for
rising up in an insurrection
against the Americans who
had occupied their land
without compensation.
President Lincoln signed the
orders, reducing the number
to be executed from 303 to
the 38 who were hung that
day.
January 3, 2014
Nobody wants to think
about weight loss during the
holiday season with so many
yummy taste treats at
holiday parties. It’s
afterward when most of us
get serious about dieting.
With all the talk of
rising temperatures,
acidifying oceans and
melting polar ice, it is
hard to see the healthy
trees for the forest, as it
were. Yes, the emerald ash
borer and the mountain pine
beetle are making inroads,
and yes, extreme weather is
becoming the norm. But it’s
important, too, to note the
environmental triumphs and
victories that tribes either
helped engineer or benefited
from, or both.
Native peoples
reintroduced fading species,
restored habitats and
stopped big industry in its
tracks. They drew attention
to these causes and showed
how they unify Indigenous
Peoples and European
descendants alike.
At least 42 people were
killed and 69 more were
wounded today. Although
clashes continued across
Anbar province, most of the
casualties took place
elsewhere in Iraq.
Looking back on a year
filled with scientific
accomplishment
Printing ourselves, Stem
cells, replacement tissues,
and mini-organs, Super
strong materials, Up the
slippery slope, Ghost in the
machine, Brain-computer
interfaces, Lasers beam in,
You are what you eat,
Standard Models keep on
keeping on, Weird Science
Consumers in more states are
about to find themselves
paying sales tax when they
shop online at Amazon.
Online businesses in all
states may one day be
required to collect sales
tax from everyone anyway,
but Amazon currently finds
itself on both sides of the
“to tax or not to tax”
argument as it resists tax
requirements in some states
while supporting legislation
that would make tax
collection ubiquitous
throughout the nation.
Creditors in the Fisker
Automotive bankruptcy
proposed an alternative plan
to that of Hong Kong
billionaire Richard Li, as
the fast-tracked case took
an unexpected turn this
week.
Arizona Public Service (APS)
has completed its purchase
of Southern California
Edison's (SCE) ownership in
Units 4 and 5 of the Four
Corners Power Plant near
Farmington, New Mexico. APS
has permanently closed the
plant's older, less
efficient Units 1, 2 and 3,
and will install additional
emission controls on the
remaining cleaner, more
efficient units.
Contaminated water at a
U.S. Marine Corps base in
North Carolina may be a
cause of neural tube defects
(NTDs) in some children,
according to a long-awaited
study.
The study from the
Centers for Disease Control
found "associations between
TCE and benzene in Camp
Lejeune drinking water and
NTDs," the report said.
-
Individual food choices
may make a difference in
how you feel mentally
and emotionally from day
to day
-
Mood-boosting foods
include dark chocolate,
purple berries, coffee,
bananas, omega-3 fats
and turmeric (curcumin)
-
Foods linked to poor
mood include sugar,
wheat (gluten) and
processed foods
-
A whole-food-based diet,
including fermented
foods to optimize your
gut flora, will support
positive mood and mental
health
While
the oats used to make
Cheerios have never
contained any genetically
modified organisms (GMOs),
the company did make changes
to its sourcing — and now,
for example, only uses
non-GMO pure cane sugar
instead of beet sugar, says
spokesman Mike Siemienas.
Coca-Cola has been
accused of campaigning
against tap water.
The blog Civil Eats
came down hard on the soft
drink giant for what it
described as launching a
"Cap the Tap" campaign three
years ago, geared toward
restaurants.
Public sentiment toward
clean renewable energy has
been all over the place in
recent years, including
down. However, favorable
attitudes toward solar,
wind, hybrid vehicles, and
electric cars have rebounded
significantly from 2012
levels, according to a new
consumer survey from
Navigant Research.
Three summers ago the
company that wants to build
the largest coal export
terminal in North America
failed to obtain the
environmental permits it
needed before bulldozing
more than four miles of
roads and clearing more than
nine acres of land,
including some wetlands.
Several
mammalian species
spontaneously align their
body axis with respect to
the Earth's magnetic field
(MF) lines in diverse
behavioural contexts,
researchers said.
Dogs align themselves with
the Earth's north-south axis
before squatting to poop, a
new study has found.
U.S. border agents should
have the authority to search
laptop computers carried by
news photographers and other
travelers at international
border crossings without
reasonable suspicion, a
federal judge in Brooklyn
ruled Friday.
The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention
actually called a press
conference to announce that
during the 2012-2013 season,
the flu vaccine prevented
6.6 million cases of flu. I
mean, who could argue with
success like that?
Well, I don't know. Let me
give it a try.
The first oil piped directly
from the northern Iraqi
region of Kurdistan has
arrived at the Turkish port
of Ceyhan, but it will not
be forwarded for sale to
international markets until
the federal Iraqi government
gives its approval, Turkey's
energy minister Taner Yildiz
said Thursday.
New analysis of 28-years
of satellite imagery has
shown that mangrove forests
have been expanding
northward along the Atlantic
coast of Florida for the
last few decades.
While one might assume
that this may be occurring
because of a general warming
trend, researchers are
claiming that this northern
expansion is likely because
cold snaps there are
becoming a thing of the
past.
Unexplained plumes of
radioactive steam have been
rising from Fukushima's
Reactor Building 3, Could a
major meltdown be on the
way?
Fukushima's Reactor
Building 3 exploded on 13th
March 2011 as a result of a
hydrogen buildup, breaching
the building's containment
and emitting a huge plume of
radiation. The reactor
itself is in meltdown.
Drillers in Ohio produced
more than 10 times as much
natural gas from horizontal
shale wells in the third
quarter of 2013 than they
did in all of 2012, figures
released by the Ohio
Department of Natural
Resources showed.
As worry grows over climate
damage caused by
carbon-based fuels like gas,
oil and coal, some
environmental engineering
experts, such as Stanford
University's Mark Z.
Jacobson, are offering new
plans for energy
independence via renewable
power sources.
The message is believed to
have been written some 3,000
years ago during King
Solomon’s reign and is
believed to be 250 years
older than any other
engraving ever found in the
area.
M9 event observed. M1
event observed. Solar
activity is expected to be
moderate with a chance for
X-class flares on days one,
two, and three (03 Jan, 04
Jan, 05 Jan).
Electrons greater than 2 MeV
at geosynchronous orbit
reached a peak level of 1780
pfu. Protons have a
slight chance of crossing
threshold on days one, two,
and three (03 Jan, 04 Jan,
05 Jan). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on days one
and two (03 Jan, 04 Jan) and
quiet levels on day three
(05 Jan).
A team of scientists has
discovered a hidden torrent
of rubbish flowing through
London after collecting
thousands of pieces of
plastic submerged along the
river bed of the upper
Thames Estuary.
The sheer amount of
plastic recovered shows
there is an unseen stream of
trash flowing through the
capital which could be a
serious threat to aquatic
wildlife.
Mr Snowden – through
journalists, in the absence
of meaningful, reliable
democratic oversight – had
given people enough
knowledge about the nature
of modern
intelligence-gathering to
allow an informed debate.
Voters might, in fact,
decide they were prepared to
put privacy above security –
but at least they could make
that choice on the basis of
information.
Just in time to ring in
2014, the sun has apparently
completed flipping its
magnetic poles.
Last summer NASA said the
sun was in the throes of
changing its magnetic
orientation, flipping
upside-down as it were.
The odd-looking power
plant, completed in
November, is a collection of
tanks and fabric bubbles
resembling mini-Metrodomes.
Inside, bacteria in giant
heated tanks are digesting
corn silage and manure to
produce methane, a flammable
gas that's fed into the
engines that generate
electricity.
Last year saw many of
changes for coal as solar
and wind generation hit
record highs and prices
declined. Installation of
renewable energy capacity
outpaced coal, oil, and
nuclear growth combined.
Nationwide, 30 percent of
existing U.S. coal plants
(158 -- or more than 20
percent of the nation's coal
power) is set to retire.
These are the articles that
captivated you most, and
they cover some of the most
cutting-edge advances in
natural health -- like how
to use intermittent fasting
to live longer and a
ketogenic diet for cancer
recovery.
There are
some classics in there, too,
including how to gain
insights into your health by
looking in the toilet and
the top foods you should
avoid eating, plus much
more.
TVA is developing a formal
program for controlling
combustible coal dust at its
fossil plants and should
reach all milestones in the
effort later this year a TVA
spokesman said this week.
The popular USDA
Streamline Refinance Program
has been expanded to include
15 additional states, giving
thousands people access to
an appraisal-less,
unlimited-LTV
refinance. Approximately
one-half million homeowners
are now eligible for the
USDA's streamlined refinance
program.
Plus, with mortgage rates
lower than for a comparable
HARP loan...
US regulators said Thursday
they will widen their study
of crude originating from
the prolific Bakken Shale
formation to try and
understand what makes the
oil more flammable than
other crudes.
The US
Pipeline and Hazardous
Materials Safety
Administration said that the
preliminary results of its
"Bakken Blitz" inspection to
ensure that the shale oil is
being properly classified
and described prior to
transport has shown that
further testing is
necessary.
-
Vitamin D influences
over 10 percent of your
genes. Vitamin D
deficiency is epidemic
across the world and
could be contributing to
hundreds of common
health problems
-
There are 33,800 medical
papers on vitamin D, and
this veritable mountain
of research shows that
vitamin D has
far-reaching benefits to
your physical and mental
health
-
Recent research found
significant interaction
between vitamin D levels
and inflammatory bowel
disease
-
Vitamin D
supplementation has also
been found to reduce
both depression and pain
in diabetic women
-
Studies show that
vitamin D has tremendous
protective effects
against a variety of
different cancers,
including pancreatic,
lung, ovarian, breast,
prostate, and skin
cancers
An unprecedented
wintertime outbreak of West
Nile virus has killed more
than two dozen bald eagles
in Utah and thousands of
water birds around the Great
Salt Lake, state wildlife
officials said on Tuesday.
At least 27 bald eagles
have died this month in the
northern and central parts
of Utah from the blood-borne
virus, and state biologists
reported that five more
ailing eagles were
responding to treatment at
rehabilitation centers.
For the first time, maps and
summaries of historical and
projected temperature and
precipitation changes for
the 21stcentury for the
continental U.S. are
accessible at a
county-by-county level on a
website developed by the
U.S. Geological Survey in
collaboration with the
College of Earth, Oceanic
and Atmospheric Sciences at
Oregon State University.
According to the report:
“Persons residing on the
west coast of North America
should IMMEDIATELY begin
preparing for another
possible onslaught of
dangerous atmospheric
radiation from the Fukushima
nuclear disaster site in
Japan.”
Waterless fracking
methods may curb the
environmental concerns being
associated with the
controversial drilling
method.
Currently, fracking
produces heavily
contaminated wastewater. "A
mixture of high-pressure
water, sand, and chemicals
(some of which are
hazardous) is pumped into
the layer of shale" to
release the valuable natural
gas,..
In the 1890s, New York
City was swamped -- not by a
storm but something
smellier, horse manure.
Horses, the primary mode
of transportation, dropped
more than a million pounds
each day, causing a
sanitation crisis. No one
found a fix, and some
estimated the streets would
eventually be buried several
feet deep.
Then, "shift happened,"
...
The wind power industry is
"booming," according to
research firm IBISWorld,
citing an average annual
growth rate in revenue of
16.9 percent -- up to $6.9
billion -- in the five years
through 2013, including
anticipated growth of 8.6
percent in 2013.
The stroke of midnight
Tuesday marked not just the
end of 2013, but also the
death of a popular tax
credit that has helped
finance wind farms and other
renewable energy pro-jects
across the U.S.
The production tax credit
expired without any
immediate prospects for
renewal. But unlike previous
years, supporters aren't
singing dirges just yet;
instead, they hope to bring
the tax incentive back to
life sometime in 2014.