By Mike Robbins
Hydrogen -- Star Gas, Everywhere, Yet Unseen. Sunlight is its Child.
(Haiku by Stephen Wetlesen)
May 30, 2014
It's a whole new game
when it comes to fuel
efficiency.
In August 2012, the Obama
administration announced
that it will increase
fuel-economy standards to
54.5 mpg for cars and
light-duty trucks by
model-year 2025.
Because of high gas
prices and a renewed drive
toward fuel efficiency,
drivers are looking to
squeeze the most gas mileage
out of their vehicles. But
there are several long-held
beliefs about fuel economy
that can hinder their
progress.
Commercial buildings could
cut their heating and
cooling electricity use by
an average of 57 percent
with advanced energy
efficiency controls,
according to a year-long
study of the controls at
malls, grocery stores and
other buildings across the
country, which demonstrated
higher energy savings than
what was predicted in
earlier computer simulations
by the same researchers.
Portland lags most other
major U.S. cities in
generating electricity with
solar panels, according to a
study released Tuesday by
Environment Maine.
The city could take
lessons from San Jose,
California, Wilmington,
Delaware, and other leading
cities by expanding solar
power in public buildings,
adopting financial
incentives and reducing red
tape, among other steps.
Advocates also called for
more state support of solar
energy investments.
Anadarko Petroleum Corp's
agreement to pay $5.15
billion to clean up nuclear
fuel and other pollution
moved one step closer to
reality on Wednesday,
receiving a bankruptcy
judge's rubber stamp.
The agreement reached in
April, touted by the U.S.
Department of Justice as the
largest-ever environmental
cleanup recovery, resolved a
lawsuit against Anadarko and
its Kerr-McGee unit from
creditors of Tronox Inc, the
paint materials maker that
was once a subsidiary of
Kerr-McGee.
Soils that formed on
Earth's surface thousands of
years ago and that are now
deeply buried features of
vanished landscapes have
been found to be rich in
carbon, adding a new
dimension to our planet's
carbon cycle.
The finding, reported in
the journal Nature
Geoscience, is significant
as it suggests that deep
soils can contain
long-buried stocks of
organic carbon which could,
through erosion,
agriculture, deforestation,
mining and other human
activities, contribute to
global climate change.
A group of mothers,
scientists and
environmentalists met with
U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency regulators
on Tuesday over concerns
that residues of Roundup,
the world's most popular
herbicide, had been found in
breast milk.
The meeting near
Washington D.C., followed a
five-day phone call blitz of
EPA offices by a group
called "Moms Across America"
demanding that the EPA pay
attention to their demands
for a recall of Roundup.
Globally, this April was a
scorcher, tying with 2010
for the warmest April on
record, according to new
data released by the
National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) last week. This makes
2014, to date, the sixth
warmest year on record going
back to 1880 when comparing
the first four months.
However, if an El Nino event
strikes this summer or
fall—as seems increasingly
likely—global temperatures
could rise even more.
Kitty litter may be to
blame for a radiation leak
at the Waste Isolation Pilot
Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico,
but workers continue their
investigation.
Investigators with the
U.S. Department of Energy
said the use of a new kind
of cat litter may have
reacted with the nitrate
salts and caused damage to
several drums in an
underground storage area
that led to the Feb. 14
radiological release. The
litter is used to absorb
moisture and neutralize the
environment around the
barrels.
China will boost funding
to regions that do well in
reining in air pollution and
punish laggards, the cabinet
has decided, as Beijing
pushes local governments to
step up the war on smog.
The fight on crippling
pollution that prematurely
ends hundreds of thousands
of lives annually has risen
to near the top of the
national agenda, but is
still ignored by some local
governments that remain
focused only on growing
their economies.
For the first time,
monthly concentrations of
carbon dioxide (CO2) in the
atmosphere topped 400 parts
per million in April
throughout the Northern
Hemisphere, the World
Meteorological Organization
reports.
This threshold is
reinforces evidence that the
burning of fossil fuels and
other human activities are
responsible for the
continuing increase in
heat-trapping greenhouse
gases warming the planet
said the WMO.
“Time is running out,”
warned WMO Secretary-General
Michel Jarraud.
“We found that FDA focused
on perfecting their legal
reasons for inaction,” a
Senate committee wrote,
“instead of protecting
families.”
The most effective
management and restoration
approach focused not on
eradicating the invasive
grass as quickly as possible
but on making changes slowly
enough that the birds could
adapt. This approach may
prove useful in other
situations in which active
restoration conflicts with
other conservation goals.
It could be the most
important portable power
plant you've never heard of.
It's called the "Power
Pallet" and it is
essentially a combined
biomass refinery and
generator that fits on a
single pallet and can kick
out up to 20 kilowatts of
electricity.
After a week-long legal
battle with the Drug
Enforcement Agency, Kentucky
farmers and researchers will
be able to sow the first
imported hemp seeds....
Hemp and marijuana come from
the same plant; the hemp
comprises the stalks, stems
and sterilized seeds and
marijuana is made up or the
leaves. While marijuana is
smoked by humans, industrial
hemp can be used in
textiles, fuels, foods,
papers, body care products,
detergents, plastics and
building materials.
An Indiana farm has
become the first to confirm
publicly it suffered a
second outbreak of a deadly
pig virus, fueling concerns
that a disease that has
wiped out 10 percent of the
U.S. hog population will be
harder to contain than
producers and veterinarians
expected.
The farm, through its
veterinarian, publicly
acknowledged on Tuesday a
repeat incident of Porcine
Epidemic Diarrhea virus
(PEDv), which has killed up
to 7 million pigs and pushed
pork prices to record highs
since it was first
identified in the United
States a year ago.
An international team of
geologists and climate
scientists has documented
the link between ice melt
and sea level rise for the
first time using evidence of
a massive and abrupt calving
of an iceberg that occurred
in Antarctica thousands of
years ago, at a time when
the continent’s melting
glaciers launched enough
icebergs into the ocean to
increase sea levels by
nearly 13 feet in only 100
years.
The new study about
Antarctica's melting
glaciers, dating back 19,000
years to 9,000 years, is
based on an analysis of new
deep-sea sediment cores
extracted from a region
between the Falkland Islands
in the South Atlantic Ocean
on the Patagonian Shelf and
the Antarctic Peninsula.
Just months after the
news that the
vulture-killing drug
diclofenac had been licensed
for veterinary use in
Europe, two groundbreaking
scientific studies have
revealed that a greater
diversity of birds of prey,
including the golden eagle,
are also susceptible to its
effects.
These findings strengthen
the case for banning
veterinary diclofenac across
Europe and for strengthening
bans and enforcement of bans
in South Asia to stop the
illegal misuse of human
diclofenac to treat
livestock.
In the fall of 2013, Jeanne
Eagle Bull Oxendine and her
husband James Oxendine
conducted a series of media
interviews, including with
Indian Country Today Media
Network, about their stand
against the culturally
insensitive Thanksgiving
curriculum at their
children’s school, a stand
they believed led to their
daughter to unfairly lose
her scholarship.
Corporate executives of
major fossil fuel companies,
including oil, gas, and
coal, could face personal
liability for opposing
policies to fight climate
change, and are being put on
notice via letter sent
jointly by Greenpeace
International, World
Wildlife Federation (WWF)
and the Center for
International Environmental
Law.
The letters, aimed at
both fossil fuel companies
and their insurance
providers, pose the
question: "Who will pay the
bill if such a lawsuit is
brought against their
directors or officers?"
France's highest
administrative court on
Wednesday annulled the
decree setting wind power
feed-in tariffs, marking the
end of a complex legal
procedure that has stifled
investment in the French
onshore wind sector.
The French government has
already prepared a new
decree, which was cleared by
the European Commission in
March and will replace the
one that has now been
annulled.
The French government will
implement in coming days a
new tariff for onshore wind
power, approved by the
European Commission, which
should remove a major
deterrent to investment,
energy minister Segolene
Royal said late Wednesday.
The move follows the
cancellation Wednesday by
France's Council of State of
the previous tariff decree
set in 2008 -- widely
expected after an initial
verdict by the public
magistrate earlier this
month.
Advanced leak detection
technology is three times
more sensitive than current
methods, and will enable
this new culture for leak
survey. This technology can
be a game changer for
utilities who can leverage
it to reduce the gap and
promote safety. Utilities
could find leaks at almost
the same rate at which leaks
form, and the gap between
found leaks and actual leaks
could decrease by up to 90
percent, according to PwC.
Subglacial lakes in
Antarctica might have
nutrient-rich groundwater
flowing into them, say
scientists investigating the
origin of the water in ice
streams.
Ice streams
are huge, fast-flowing
glaciers that meander across
Antarctica. They are
responsible for nearly all
of the Antarctic's
contribution to sea-level
rise, yet scientists have
little understanding of
where the water flowing
through them comes from.
This means that the contents
of the subglacial lakes
which lie underneath these
streams is also a mystery.
The new research,
published in Geophysical
Research Letters shows for
the first time where the
water going in and out of
these ice streams — their
hydrologic budget — comes
from.
The toxicity of coal ash
and whether it will seep
into groundwater weren't up
for debate in the latest
confrontation between
environmental groups and
Ameren Missouri. The
question before a Franklin
County board was whether the
utility's proposed coal ash
landfill is 2 feet above the
natural water table.
That's what Franklin
County zoning regulations
require, and that's what
opponents of Ameren
Missouri's plan for a
utility waste landfill say
was violated when the county
in 2012 approved a zoning
amendment allowing the
landfill's construction.
Next week, the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) is expected to
propose the first-ever
national Carbon Pollution
Standards for new and
existing power plants, under
Section 111(d) of the Clean
Air Act. Once finalized,
these emission guidelines
will establish quantitative
environmental performance
benchmarks for states to
meet in implementing
performance standards to
reduce carbon pollution from
existing power plants.
A cheap synthetic diamond
material may soon be the
solar industry's next best
friend.
Scientists from the
University of New Mexico and
the University of Arizona
have created a process that
applies chemical vapor
deposition (CVD) diamonds to
reduce heat from the sun in
solar cells. That, in turn,
allows the photovoltaic
chips to convert sunlight to
electricity more
efficiently.
Hackers apparently based
in Iran have mounted a
three-year campaign of
cyber-espionage against
high-ranking U.S. and
international officials,
including a four-star
admiral, to gather
intelligence on economic
sanctions, antinuclear
proliferation efforts and
other issues, according to
cybersecurity investigators.
Using an elaborate ruse
involving more than a dozen
personas working for a fake
U.S. news organization, the
hackers developed
connections to their targets
through websites like
Facebook and LinkedIn to
trick them into giving up
personal data and logon
information, the
investigators say.
Molten
salts do not burn and the
risk associated to them is
that in case of contact,
severe skin burns can
happen," says Giuseppe
Casubolo, sales and
marketing director for solar
salts at SQM Europe, a
thermo-solar salt provider
based in Chile.
Molten salt is hardly
the sort of thing you
would want to take a
bath in, but from a
health and safety point
of view it is far from
the worst thing you
could find in power
generation.
The only fighting reported
in Anbar was in and around
Falluja. The hospital was
struck by artillery fire
just a day after the Iraqi
government denied it was
intentionally shelling the
hospital there. Across the
country at least, 92
Iraqis were killed and 23
more were wounded.
According to GlobalData,
North America is the global
leader in renewable power
generation. Support from
federal and state
governments has driven the
momentum of the United
States and Canada, and
states and provinces with
strong policy frameworks
have led installed capacity,
the research concludes.
-
Both e-cigarettes and
synthetic cannabis are
far more hazardous to
your health than real
tobacco or cannabis due
to the chemicals they
contain
-
The highly toxic liquid
in e-cigarettes is
responsible for a surge
of child poisonings;
just one teaspoon may be
enough to kill your
child
-
E-cigarettes are
unregulated and may
contain toxic agents
manufacturers are
reluctant to disclose,
such as lead, benzene,
toluene, and
formaldehyde
-
Synthetic cannabis, also
unregulated and full of
toxic chemicals, is
causing severe reactions
that include seizures,
kidney and brain damage,
strokes, and cardiac
arrest
-
Although not completely
without risk, real
cannabis has a wide
range of proven
therapeutic benefits,
including retarding
cancer growth and
protecting your brain,
and is free of virtually
any fatal risks
C1 event observed.
There are currently 4
numbered sunspot regions on
the disk. Solar activity is
expected to be very low with
a chance for a C-class
flares on days one, two, and
three (30 May, 31 May, 01
Jun). The geomagnetic
field is expected to be at
quiet levels on days one and
two (30 May, 31 May) and
quiet to unsettled levels on
day three (01 Jun).
A Yale report says
American feel more
personally threatened by
"global warming" than by
"climate change."
And no wonder.
"Global warming" makes
Americans think of melting
glaciers, coastal flooding,
a hole in the ozone layer
and worldwide catastrophe,
says the report, released
Tuesday.
But "global warming,"
more than "climate change,"
also inspires a greater
willingness in people to
take action and get their
political leaders to do
something about it, the
report said.
Richard Branson's
dream of commercial
space flights took a
step nearer reality
after Virgin Galactic
signed a deal with US
aviation authorities to
let it blast paying
customers into space,
the company said
Thursday.
The agreement with
the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA)
sets out how routine
space missions from the
Spaceport America base
in the US state of New
Mexico will be
coordinated with the
normal air traffic
control system.
Commercial flights
are to begin by the end
of this year and more
than 600 people have
already signed up at
$250,000 each to take a
trip on SpaceShipTwo.
-
Stress is highly
contagious. Simply
observing someone else
in a stressful situation
typically elicits an
empathic stress response
in the observer
-
Empathic stress can be
felt whether you’re
observing a stranger or
an intimate partner, and
via direct observation
or television
-
Happiness is contagious
too. People who are
surrounded by many happy
people are more likely
to become happy in the
future
-
While stress may damage
your health, positive
thoughts are able to
prompt changes in your
body that strengthen
your immune system,
boost positive emotions,
decrease pain and
chronic disease, and
provide stress relief
-
While you can create
happiness artificially
by taking drugs or
drinking alcohol, for
instance, the same
endorphin and dopamine
high can be achieved via
healthful habits like
exercise, laughter,
hugging and kissing,
sex, or bonding with
your child
1. Securities purchases end
later this year but the Fed
maintains its balance sheet
at constant level.
2. The
rate hike takes place (some
time in 2015)
3. The Fed
begins to allow securities
to mature (or amortize for
MBS) without replacing the
declining notional.
The Bureau of Reclamation
(Reclamation) has published
a Notice of Intent (NOI) in
the Federal Register to
prepare an Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) to
study the human and
environmental effects of
extending operations of the
Navajo Generating Station
(NGS), located near Page,
and the associated
production of coal at the
Kayenta Mine, located near
Kayenta, from 2020 through
2044.
California and seven
other states have unveiled a
plan to put 3.3 million
electric and fuel cell
vehicles on the road by 2025
-- a goal that seems out of
reach, based on current
market trends.
The states have set a
target that 15% of their
new-car sales will be
zero-emission vehicles a
decade from now. Such
vehicles include
electricity-only cars and
hydrogen-powered fuel cell
vehicles.
Partial-zero-emission
vehicles such as plug-in
hybrids, which run both on
gasoline and electricity,
also can count toward part
of the goal. But
zero-emission sales make up
only a tiny fraction of the
15 million to 16 million
vehicles sold annually in
the U.S.
Samuel Williams could
soon become a poster child
for concealed carry. Or
rather a poster senior
citizen.
Williams is being hailed
as a hero this week after he
sprung into action on Friday
to thwart an armed robbery
at an internet cafe...
Local sources said that at
least five Taliban militants
including the group’s shadow
governor for Kunduz province
was killed following a
military operation by Afghan
army.
An
anti-coup activist in
Thailand called Friday for a
weekend rally to defy the
military government's ban on
demonstrations, urging those
opposed to the takeover to
wear masks and be ready for
cat-and-mouse chases with
soldiers in the capital.
The
call to rally on Sunday
raised concerns of a
showdown, as the military
reiterated its ban on
political gatherings and
warned it will not tolerate
protests against the coup it
staged May 22.
There are many pathways by
which pharmaceuticals can
get into waterways. When you
take an aspirin, it all
doesn’t stay in your body, a
portion of drug is excreted
in the urine or feces.
Research has also shown that
environmental discharge of
pharmaceuticals can occur
during the manufacturing
process, and waters
receiving treated wastes
from manufacturing plants
can contain high levels of
the chemicals. Another
known pathway is the
disposal of unused
medications, which presents
water utilities with an
excellent opportunity to
engage the public in
communicating the impact of
responsible waste practices
and the impact of these
actions on our watersheds.
Thousands of years ago,
Romans lined their plumbing
with lead. Bad idea, right?
Lead is a neurotoxin. Some
historians believe this
might have been one of the
reasons the empire fell.
But here's the
headscratcher: The Romans
weren't in the dark. They
actually knew that lead
exposure could make people
loco. But they went ahead
and put it in their plumbing
anyway.
Avoiding environmental
toxins may be the key to
preserving your youth,
according to new research.
Just as exposure to
carcinogens increases a
person’s risk for cancer,
experts now believe a class
of environmental toxins –
known as gerontogens – may
put people at an increased
risk for accelerated aging.
Toxins present in cigarette
smoke, UV rays and
chemotherapy are all
suspected gerontogens -
capable of accelerating the
rate at which a person
ages.
Japan’s Nuclear
Regulation Authority (NRA)
approved the construction of
an underground ice wall at
the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear power plant.
The NRA said in
GlobalPost that the ice wall
would not have a
“significant negative
impact” on the stability of
the subsoil nor the
subterranean watercourses.
However, there are still
some parts of the project
that must be defined, such
as the exact measurement of
the level of radioactive
water that has accumulated.
It is believed that about
300 tons a day of the water
flows into the Pacific
Ocean.
NuScale joins Babcock &
Wilcox in receiving money as
part of a six-year program
DOE initiated in 2012 to
distribute $452 million to
support licensing and
development of small modular
reactors. DOE defines SMRs
as reactors of less than 300
MW that can be built in a
factory and shipped to
utility sites as demand
arises.
Freddie Mac today
released the results of its
Primary Mortgage
Market Survey®
(PMMS®), showing average
fixed mortgage rates falling
for the fifth consecutive
week and hitting new 2014
lows. The average for the
30-year fixed-rate mortgage
is at its lowest point since
the week of October 31,
2013.
The rate of earthquakes in
Oklahoma has increased by
about 50 percent since
October 2013, significantly
increasing the chance for a
damaging quake in central
Oklahoma. ..
The joint statement
indicates that a likely
contributing factor to the
increase in earthquakes is
wastewater disposal by
injection into deep geologic
formations. The water
injection can increase
underground pressures,
lubricate faults and cause
earthquakes – a process
known as injection-induced
seismicity. Much of this
wastewater is a byproduct of
oil and gas production and
is routinely disposed of by
injection into wells
specifically designed and
approved for this purpose.
The recent earthquake rate
changes are not due to
typical, random fluctuations
in natural seismicity rates.
Recently, several new
markets have opened up for
solar photovoltaic (PV)
consumer products, including
lighting, mobile phone
charging, and power for
small direct current (DC)
appliances. These products
-- known as pico solar,
solar home systems, or solar
PV generators -- are gaining
traction in many segments,
including outdoor
recreation, emergency
equipment, and lighting for
off-grid homes and
communities, which presents
a range of opportunities
across the industry. In
fact, Navigant Research
forecasts that the global
annual market for solar PV
consumer products will grow
from $550.5 million in 2014
to $2.4 billion in 2024.
Talk show host and military
veteran Montel Williams went
after President Barack Obama
on Wednesday for not using
his West Point speech as an
opportunity to apologize to
members of the U.S. military
for having “dropped the ball
on the veterans’ health.”
The water at 95 percent of
Europe’s beaches, rivers and
lakes was clean enough to
protect the health of people
using them for bathing in
2013, but bathing water
ratings do not consider
litter, pollution and other
dangers to the natural
environment. While most
bathing sites met minimum
requirements to protect
human health, many of the
ecosystems in Europe’s water
bodies are in what officials
called “a worrying state.”
A water scarcity "perfect
storm" is approaching, and
that makes it a good time to
invest in water reuse
technologies, analysts at
Bank of America Merrill
Lynch Global Research said
in a new report.
"For investors, increased
demand for water could
generate potent investment
opportunities. Water-related
industries already represent
a roughly $500 billion
market," the report said,
citing Sarbjit Nahal, an
equity strategist at BofA
Merrill Lynch Global
Research.
“We think it will double
to $1 trillion by 2020,” he
said.
During the 3-1/2 years of
World War 2 that started
with the Japanese bombing of
Pearl Harbor in December
1941 and ended with the
Surrender of Germany and
Japan in 1945, the U.S.
produced
May 27, 2014
Through research funded,
in part, by the U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE),
scientists at MIT and
Stanford University have
found a new alternative for
low-temperature waste-heat
conversion into electricity
in cases where temperature
differences are less than
100 degrees Celsius.
Researchers have spent
decades trying to harness
the vast amounts of excess,
wasted heat generated by
industrial processes and
electric power plants. Up to
this point, most efforts
have focused on
thermoelectric devices,
solid-state materials that
can produce electricity from
a temperature gradient, but
the efficiency has been
limited.
We all love to be
comfortable in our homes and
businesses. We use
air-conditioning to provide
comfortable temperatures
indoors. Air conditioners
work basically by moving
hotter air from inside to
outside. Does this have an
impact on climate? Global
warming?
A team of researchers
from Arizona State
University has found that
releasing excess heat from
air conditioners running
during the night resulted in
higher outside temperatures,
worsening the urban heat
island effect and increasing
cooling demands.
Electricity prices are
probably on their way up
across much of the U.S. as
coal-fired plants, the
dominant source of cheap
power, shut down in response
to environmental regulations
and economic forces.
New and tighter pollution
rules and tough competition
from cleaner sources such as
natural gas, wind and solar
will lead to the closings of
dozens of coal-burning
plants across 20 states over
the next three years. And
many of those that stay open
will need expensive
retrofits.
A fresh analysis of data
collected by NASA's WISE
telescope has cast doubt on
the widely accepted unified
model for the composition of
black holes. The study
examined 170,000
supermassive black holes,
and will require scientists
to present new theories on
the structure of these
stellar giants.
At least 43 people were
killed and 76 more were
wounded in today’s
attacks. Mosul suffered from
several attacks.
The court established in
the southern province of
Fujian has appointed 12
specialist consultants who
will assist litigators on
technical issues, Xinhua
news agency reported.
Environmental scandals
have plagued China in recent
years as the country pursued
a strategy of high growth
and rapid industrialization.
Faced with growing anger
over pollution, Beijing has
adopted a more
environmentally-friendly
strategy.
China plans to take more
than five million ageing
vehicles off the roads this
year in a bid to improve air
quality, with 330,000 cars
set to be decommissioned in
Beijing alone, the
government said in a policy
document published on
Monday.
Pollution has emerged as
an urgent priority for
China's leaders as they try
to reverse the damage done
by decades of breakneck
growth and head off public
anger about the sorry state
of the nation's air, water
and soil.
Electricity prices are
probably on their way up
across much of the U.S. as
coal-fired plants, the
dominant source of cheap
power, shut down in response
to environmental regulations
and economic forces.
New and tighter pollution
rules and tough competition
from cleaner sources such as
natural gas, wind and solar
will lead to the closings of
dozens of coal-burning
plants across 20 states over
the next three years. And
many of those that stay open
will need expensive
retrofits.
Vermont Governor Peter
Shumlin has signed a
first-in-the-nation law
requiring the labeling of
food produced by genetic
engineering. “I am proud
that we’re leading the way
in the United States to
require labeling of
genetically engineered
food,” said the governor.
“More than 60 countries have
already restricted or
labeled these foods, and now
one state, Vermont, will
also ensure that we know
what’s in the food we buy
and serve our families.”
About 900 firefighters took
to the fire lines amid
higher moisture and
favorable winds as they
continued efforts to hold
off a 7,500-acre blaze that
threatens 300 homes and
businesses in Oak Creek
Canyon, a popular recreation
spot about 120 miles (190
km) north of Phoenix.
As a result of the February
2, 2014, coal ash spill at
Duke Energy's Dan River
Steam Station, the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) has signed an
enforceable agreement with
Duke Energy Carolinas to
perform a comprehensive
assessment, determine the
location of coal ash
deposits, and remove
deposits along the Dan
River. The assessment will
be performed by the EPA in
consultation with the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service.
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
finalized the 316(b)
standards under the Clean
Water Act on Monday to
protect aquatic life drawn
each year into cooling water
systems at large power
plants.
More than 2 billion fish,
crabs, and shrimp are killed
annually by impingement or
entrainment.
“Most people only
think they’re healthy eaters,
they believe that the
reduced fat Oreos are a vast
step in the right direction,
even if they contain the
exact same amount of sugar
as regular Oreos. They think
that diet sodas are utterly
benign. They genuinely
believe that they can walk
enough steps in the day to
burn off the calories in a
Taco Bell combo meal. For
those people, “Fed Up” could
be an eye-opener.”
Daniel Fienberg, HITFIX
Ukrainian forces fought
with separatists in the city
of Donetsk for a second day
on Tuesday after inflicting
heavy losses on the rebels
and the government vowed to
press on with a military
offensive "until not a
single terrorist" was left.
Pro-Russian rebels said
more than 50 of their
fighters had been killed.
The mayor of Donetsk, an
industrial hub of one
million in eastern Ukraine,
said the death toll in the
clashes which erupted on
Monday stood at 48,
including two civilians.
Despite orders to keep
working in a last effort to
avoid a meltdown, many
workers fled the Fukushima
Daiichi power plant during
the 2011 earthquake in 2011,
according to the New York
Times.
Russian gas giant Gazprom
has reached a preliminary
agreement with China on a
$25 billion prepayment for
Russian natural gas
delivered under the 30-year
supply deal signed this
week, deputy CEO Alexander
Medvedev said Friday...
Russian officials mentioned
the possibility of a $25
billion prepayment linked to
the deal on Wednesday, but
Gazprom had not confirmed
it.
Global demand for imported
thermal coal is expected to
continue to grow but at a
slower rate of 2% per year
until 2018, as China faces
an oversupply of domestic
coal and shifts to a more
diverse mix of renewable
energy sources to address
air pollution concerns,
analysts at global
investment bank Goldman
Sachs said in a report
Friday.
The study
estimated demand growth
globally at 15 million
mt/year from 2013 to 2018
compared to 60 million
mt/year on average from
2008-12
-
If you eat processed
foods, you’re being
exposed to toxic
herbicides, which
mounting evidence shows
are instrumental in
promoting chronic
disease
-
The continual depletion
of minerals in food
matches the progressive
implementation of
agricultural practices
like mechanization,
nitrogen-heavy
fertilizers, and
pesticide use—all of
which damage soils
-
In order to receive the
same amount of iron you
used to get from one
apple in 1950, by 1998
you had to eat 26 apples
-
Ionic mineral
extractions from ocean
water can be used in
sustainable agriculture
to remineralize damaged
soils, and increase the
nutrition of foods grown
in it
Amanda reached category 3
strength after becoming the
first named hurricane of the
Pacific season earlier on
Saturday.
It was located 665 miles
(1,075 km) southwest of the
Mexican port of Manzanillo,
with maximum sustained winds
of 115 mph (185 km/h), the
U.S. National Hurricane
Center said.
The order, almost certain to
anger India's trading
partners, sets duties of
between 11 and 81 U.S. cents
per watt and comes after a
investigation which started
in 2011. The ruling by a
quasi-judicial body has to
be published by the Finance
Ministry before it takes
effect.
The United States has
brought first-of-its kind
cyber-espionage charges
against five Chinese
military officials accused
of hacking into U.S.
companies to gain trade
secrets.
According to the
indictment, hackers targeted
the U.S. nuclear power,
metals and solar products
industries and are accused
of stealing trade secrets
and economic espionage...
Inuit leaders were fuming
on May 22 as the World Trade
Organization (WTO) upheld
the European Union’s ban on
seal products, saying the
move was an imposition of
European values on a
traditional indigenous
sustenance practice.
“I am morally outraged at
the self-righteousness and
sanctimoniousness of the
EU’s claim to protect the
morals of its citizens,”
said Terry Audla, president
of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami
(ITK), in a statement from
the national Inuit
organization
The latest May liftings
indicate Iran is almost
returning to export levels
seen before the July 2012
sanctions, with cargoes seen
bound for Southeast Asia and
South Korea, along with
China, which has dominated
purchases since February
this year, they said.
Lots of
double talk
here &
dodging
answering
the
questions by
Mr.
Blackburn.
He talks
alot, but
answers very
little. It's
the
unanswered
questions &
his way of
NOT giving
us straight
answers that
concern me.
Sounds like
this man has
bought a
load of
hooey from a
snake oil
salesman:
Bureaucratic
nonsense to
disallow
granting our
People their
rights &
standing due
to the fact
it's going
to cost the
various
states taxes
they so
greedily
crave &
don't want
to miss out
on one red
cent!
.........................................................................................................................
We don't owe
these greedy
SOB's
anything!
THEY owe US!
They so
hastily
wanted those
treaties
signed, but
they sure as
hell haven't
honored most
of the terms
of those
hundreds of
treaties!
The more
time goes on
the more
things stay
the same
many times
for our
people where
ever they
may be. With
the
exception
that these
government
entities are
always
trying to
screw us
over in new
ways.
Researchers at MIT and
Stanford have found a new
way to transform waste heat
into electricity,
particularly in situations
where the temperature
gradient is small, below
100º C (180° F). The
technology uses widely
available materials, and
could be used to recycle the
large amounts of wasted heat
generated in industrial
processes and electric power
plants.
Saying this year's fund
for solar rebates was
depleted after only four
months, the Modesto
Irrigation District has
pulled the plug on that
incentive, apparently
leaving dozens of applicants
and several solar
contractors in the lurch.
The abrupt shutdown means
homeowners on the verge of
applying can forget about
being paid thousands of
dollars for investing in
sun-powered technology on
their rooftops. Without that
incentive, many could cancel
installation contracts,
hurting solar companies as
well.
This Date in Native History:
On May 26, 1637, a Puritan
force fortified by Native
allies massacred a Pequot
fort in Connecticut, killing
as many as 500 men, women
and children and burning the
village to the ground.
The coal mining crowd of
250 shoehorned into a small
ballroom at the Meadow Lands
DoubleTree Hotel in
Washington County Thursday
morning was asked if they
knew anyone who had black
lung disease.
Fewer than 100, but still
a good number, raised
hands...
"It shows that miners are
still getting the disease
and miners are still dying
from it," Mr. Main said.
"And that is the inescapable
truth."
The outlook for the U.S. oil
and gas industry is positive
in the midst of a steadily
improving economy, stable
prices and the ongoing
profitability of shale
formations across the
country, according to BDO's
Oil and Gas "RiskFactor"
Report. The report analyzes
the risk factors listed in
the most recent 10-K filings
of the 100 largest public
E&P companies.
Researchers at the
University of British
Columbia have identified a
small molecule that prevents
bacteria from forming into
biofilms, a frequent cause
of infections. The
anti-biofilm peptide works
on a range of bacteria
including many that cannot
be treated by antibiotics.
A California-based energy
company hopes to build the
first transmission line
directly connecting Texas to
the Southeast as part of a
plan to export the state's
wind power to other parts of
the country.
Pattern Energy Group LP
recently won approval from
the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission for
the proposed 400-mile line,
which the company estimates
could cost $1.5 billion to
$2 billion to build.
C3 event observed.
There are currently 6
numbered sunspot regions on
the disk. Solar activity is
likely to be low with a
slight chance for an M-class
flare on days one, two, and
three (27 May, 28 May, 29
May). The geomagnetic
field is expected to be at
quiet levels on days one and
two (27 May, 28 May) and
quiet to unsettled levels on
day three (29 May).
Scientists at Southwest
Jiaotong University in China
have reportedly built a
maglev train that could
reach 1,800 mph (2,900
km/h). According to The
Daily Mail, a vacuum is
used to minimize air
resistance. Project lead Dr
Deng Zigang claims it could
be used for military or
space launch systems.
Workers found the leak from
a pipe joint that penetrates
the containment vessel using
a camera survey, according
to The Japan Times.
Workers said the leak is
probably happening because
the level of the water in
the containment vessel is
higher than the area where
the pipe joint is. The
containment vessel still has
water in it because it is
needed to cool the reactor,
the article said. Workers
initially found a stream of
water running through the
unit’s building before going
down a drain.
Tokyo Electric Power
Co.said it halted a
radioactive water treatment
system at the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant
May 20.
TEPCO said the Advanced
Liquid Processing System was
stopped after workers found
higher than normal levels of
calcium in water in one of
the three lines, according
to The Hindu. The
other two lines had already
been stopped for not
sufficiently removing
radioactive material from
the water.
Texas added nearly 800
clean energy jobs during the
first three months of the
year, putting the Lone Star
State second only to Idaho
and above California,
according to an analysis
released Thursday.
But the 5,600 new clean
energy and clean
transportation jobs
announced nationwide during
the first quarter of the
year were fewer than half
the number announced in the
first quarter of 2013,
according to Environmental
Entrepreneurs, or E2, the
non-partisan business group
that compiled the figures.
Bolstered by an endorsement
from Thailand's king, the
nation's new military ruler
issued a stark warning
Monday to anyone opposed to
last week's coup: don't
cause trouble, don't
criticize, don't protest —
or else the nation could
revert to the "old days" of
turmoil and street violence.
We think distributed power
is a very interesting
opportunity. We've actually
built a business around
distributed power. It's part
of our overall power and
water business, which is the
single biggest business GE
has put forward. We want to
create solutions that are
small in scale, so people
can use them locally, and
still very efficient. So a
core piece of this would be
reciprocating natural gas
engines that are very good
for distributed energy.
-
Aggressive armed raids
by federal agents
against Amish raw milk
farmers are not uncommon
-
While Congress has never
banned raw milk
outright, it is the only
food banned in
interstate commerce
-
Two food freedom bills
have been introduced
that would prohibit the
federal government from
interfering with the
interstate traffic of
raw milk products
-
The raw milk bills are
intended to improve
consumer food choices
while protecting local
farmers from federal
interference
-
The fight for food
freedom isn’t just for
those who love raw milk
– it’s for everyone who
wants to be able to
obtain the food of their
choice from the source
of their choice
A report from the Centers
for Disease Control and
Prevention last week
confirmed what many have
suspected: more than 10,000
2- and 3-year-olds in the
U.S. are being dosed with
drugs like Ritalin and
Adderall for "attention
deficit hyperactivity
disorder." You read that
right.
There is no medical basis to
the dosing. American Academy
of Pediatrics' guidelines
for ADHD "do not even
address the diagnosis in
children 3 and younger—let
alone the use of such
stimulant medications,"
reported the New York Times,
especially because
"hyperactivity and
impulsivity are
developmentally appropriate
for toddlers."
The Jurassic shales of
southern England's Weald
basin could hold between 2.2
billion and 8.5 billion
barrels of oil resource but
no gas, the UK government
said Friday in a new report.
The Department of Energy
and Climate Change also
launched a consultation on
plans to simplify
underground access for shale
and deep geothermal
projects.
Measuring mean sea level
is not only an invaluable
tool for pilotage,
navigation, aeronautics,
cartography, sea charting,
and geology, it’s also a
fundamentally important
metric for measuring
possible evidence of climate
change, and for measuring
the direction, extent and
rate of such change. Johan
Löfgren and Rüdiger Haas of
Chalmers University in
Sweden have developed a new
way of measuring sea level
that uses satnav signals for
constant, real-time
monitoring that promises new
insights into many fields,
including climate change.
Although mean sea level
seems simple to define, it
is actually very complex to
accurately measure...
Biofuel groups expect the
Environmental Protection
Agency to send the final
proposed targets to the
White House as soon as
Friday.
The EPA shocked biofuel
supporters in November with
a draft rule that slashed
federal requirements for
biofuel use in gasoline and
diesel. The agency argued
that U.S. energy markets
could not absorb the levels
of renewable fuels that
would be required by a 2007
law.
A new statewide Virginia
survey has found that a
majority of residents see
energy as a very important
source of household savings
and, more than ever before,
they are taking steps to
reduce their daily energy
use and are willing to
invest more to achieve
greater savings.
Scientists have discovered
that the rapid spread of
hybridization between a
native species and an
invasive species of trout in
the wild is strongly linked
to changes in climate.
In the study, stream
temperature warming over the
past several decades and
decreases in spring flow
over the same time period
contributed to the spread of
hybridization between native
westslope cutthroat trout
and introduced rainbow trout
— the world's most widely
introduced invasive fish
species —across the Flathead
River system in Montana and
British Columbia, Canada.
-
On May 8, Vermont passed
the first
no-strings-attached GMO
labeling law. The
following day, the
Grocery Manufacturers
Association (GMA)
confirmed it will sue
the state to get the law
overturned
-
This is the second time
in mere months that the
Grocery Manufacturers
Association (GMA) is
suing a state for the
right to keep consumers
in the dark
-
So far, between 2012 and
2014, the GMA have
successfully blocked GMO
labeling legislation in
over 30 states, at a
price tag of more than
$100 million, paid for
by its members
-
It’s time to unite and
fight back. We encourage
you to boycott every
single product owned by
members of the GMA,
including natural and
organic brands
-
To defeat the GMA
lawsuit against Vermont,
money must be raised for
legal assistance to the
state. We must also
intensify any and all
efforts to educate
others and put pressure
on the marketplace
The White House
accidentally revealed the
name of the CIA's top
intelligence official in
Afghanistan to some 6,000
journalists.
The person was included on a
list of people attending a
military briefing for
President Barack Obama
during his surprise visit to
Bagram Airfield in
Afghanistan on Sunday.
May 23, 2014
The 80 militant personnel
deployed to Chad to help
find nearly 300 kidnapped
Nigerian schoolgirls are
from the Air Force and have
already begun their mission,
a U.S. military spokesman
said Thursday.
Chuck Prichard, a
spokesman at the U.S.
military's Africa command in
Germany, said that the 80
Air Force personnel were
previously stationed in the
United States, though he did
not disclose where in the
U.S.
Serbia's agriculture
ministry appealed for
chlorine bleach, quicklime
and disinfectant on Thursday
to stem the risk of disease
after the worst floods to
hit the Balkans in living
memory.
The regional death toll
ticked up to 50, and may
rise further given a list of
missing in Serbia that runs
into the hundreds.
With temperatures now
pushing 30 degrees Celsius
(86 degrees Fahrenheit), the
smell of decay hung in the
air in the worst-affected
Serbian town of Obrenovac,
30 km (18 miles) southwest
of the capital Belgrade.
"The stench is
overpowering," said Belgrade
chemical technician
Bratislav Cirovic, who
volunteered to help with the
clean-up. "We wore masks
today - the more the waters
recede, the more appalling
it gets."
Triclosan is a chemical that
is in soaps, toothpastes,
cosmetics, deodorants, and
many other products. The
antibacterial agent is so
common that it’s difficult
to avoid. One study found
triclosan in the bodies of
75 percent of people tested.
It’s also a grave danger
to our health, according
to many experts,
altering hormones,
interfering with muscle
function, causing
allergies, and spawning
resistant germs.
Billionaire environmental
activist Tom Steyer will
give a boost to 2014
political candidates from
seven U.S. states who work
to combat climate change,
countering political support
from fossil fuel interests.
NextGen Climate, Steyer's
political group, said
Thursday it would back
candidates in Colorado,
Florida, Iowa, Michigan,
Maine, New Hampshire and
Pennsylvania who face
challenges from opponents
who either doubt that humans
cause climate change or
receive donations from the
fossil fuel industry.
Britain is still partying
like it's the '80s, and one
potential consequence is
that cocaine may be seeping
into the nation's tap water.
"In a study to assess the
dangers from pharmaceutical
compounds appearing in the
water we drink, scientists
discovered traces of [a
cocaine-related compound]
after it had gone through
intensive purification
treatments," the
Independent reported
this month.
She promised her sculptor
husband before he died in
1982 that she would continue
work on the controversial
Crazy Horse Memorial being
carved into the Black Hills.
Now, Ruth Ziolkowski has
passed on herself, on May
21, 2014 at age 87.
“Our planet, our
planet, is losing its
capacity to sustain human
life in good health,” Dr.
Margaret Chan,
director-general of the
World Health Organization
warned Monday at the opening
session of the annual World
Health Assembly in Geneva.
“Signals about what human
activities have done to the
environment are becoming
increasingly shrill,” said
Dr. Chan, citing the latest
assessment from the hundreds
of scientists on the
Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, released in
March after seven years of
study.
Ecuador's government has
issued an environmental
permit for oil drilling in
the pristine Amazon reserve
that President Rafael Correa
initially offered to exempt
from exploration if rich
countries would pay his
government.
Correa abandoned that effort
last year due to
insufficient interest and
has spurned pleas by
environmentalists to spare
the Yasuni reserve.
Earlier this month,
Ecuador's electoral council
declared invalid a petition
drive seeking to prevent
drilling in the
6,500-square-mile Amazon
reserve.
Japan’s eight automakers
have agreed to work with one
another and with two
universities to conduct
basic research that will
result in much cleaner
internal combustion engines.
By the year 2020, Honda,
Toyota, Nissan, Suzuki,
Mazda, Mitsubishi, Daihatsu,
and Subaru maker Fuji Heavy
Industries aim to
commercialize diesel engines
that can cut emissions of
the greenhouse gas carbon
dioxide by 30 percent
compared with 2010 levels.
The Environmental
Protection Agency will leave
it up to states to decide
how nuclear power plants and
other facilities that use
large amounts of water for
cooling should be required
to minimize harm to fish and
other aquatic creatures,
avoiding a specific mandate
for cooling towers that
environmental groups have
been pressing for.
In response,
environmental advocates
vowed Wednesday to continue
their push for cooling
towers at the Millstone
Power Station in Waterford
and the nation's other
nuclear power plants.
Crews battling a major
wildfire along a scenic
corridor in northern Arizona
stopped the wind-whipped
blaze's march toward homes
in the area on Thursday, but
thousands of residents still
may be forced to evacuate,
fire officials said.
Officials said crews
working overnight secured a
troublesome front of the
so-called Slide Fire that
the day before had advanced
toward 300 homes and
businesses in Oak Creek
Canyon, about 120 miles (193
km) north of Phoenix.
For the past several
years the Quechan Tribe has
been working with the City
of Yuma, landowners and
federal agencies to restore
the wetlands on both sides
of the lower Colorado River.
About 1,200 acres have been
restored thanks to a
collaborative effort. The
results of this teamwork and
collaboration are stunning
and serve as an example of
what is possible when tribal
members, wildlife officials,
landowners and business
people can accomplish
together. As the photos in
this gallery show, the
landscape has been
transformed from something
that looked like a “crater
on the moon”—as Charles
Flynn, executive director of
the rehab project, described
it—to a lushly
life-affirming habitat.
Mother Earth wins, and so
do we.
Fukushima experienced the
world’s worst nuclear
disaster since Chernobyl
when a 9.0 magnitude
earthquake hit three years
ago. Now, the region is
trying to turn the “lost
landscape” into massive
renewable energy fields. The
prefecture has declared
“zero dependency on nuclear
energy” and created a goal
to meet 100 percent of its
electricity needs with
renewable energy, such as
solar, by 2040. The
prefectures also believes
that investing in renewable
energy will spur economic
development and create jobs
to help its recovery and
rebuilding efforts.
Subglacial lakes in
Antarctica might have
nutrient-rich groundwater
flowing into them, say
scientists investigating the
origin of the water in ice
streams.
Ice streams
are huge, fast-flowing
glaciers that meander across
Antarctica. They are
responsible for nearly all
of the Antarctic's
contribution to sea-level
rise, yet scientists have
little understanding of
where the water flowing
through them comes from.
This means that the contents
of the subglacial lakes
which lie underneath these
streams is also a mystery.
EBay Inc said that
hackers raided its network
three months ago, accessing
some 145 million user
records in what is poised to
go down as one of the
biggest data breaches in
history, based on the number
of accounts compromised.
It advised customers to
change their passwords
immediately, saying they
were among the pieces of
data stolen by cyber
criminals who carried out
the attack between late
February and early March.
Fossil fuel-funded front
groups repeatedly spread
disinformation on renewable
energy standard and net
metering policies in an
effort to overturn pro-clean
energy laws in 2013 and
2014.
A new report details
the efforts of these
front groups to
eliminate clean energy
policies across the
country. The fossil fuel
lobby aggressively uses
lobbying and propaganda
to achieve their goals.
Self-identified “free
market think tanks” are
among the most effective
advocates for the fossil
fuel industry to lobby
for policy changes.
Iran is loading eight LPG
cargoes totaling 317,000 mt
in May for export to Asia,
the biggest monthly volume
since resuming shipments in
May 2013 following an
eight-month halt on concerns
over an EU ban on shipping
insurance, shipping and
trade sources said Friday.
The latest May liftings
indicate Iran is almost
returning to export levels
seen before the July 2012
sanctions, with cargoes seen
bound for Southeast Asia and
South Korea, along with
China, which has dominated
purchases since February
this year, they said.
A Japanese court on
Wednesday ruled against
restarting a nuclear power
plant in a rare victory for
anti-nuclear activists after
the Fukushima disaster, and
dealing a blow to government
efforts to end a nationwide
nuclear freeze.
The ruling against the
restart of a western power
station run by Kansai
Electric Power Co was a
scathing critique of the
Japanese nuclear industry's
risk management, but does
not block a restart under
Japanese law as it is not a
final ruling.
The operator of Japan's
destroyed Fukushima nuclear
plant began releasing
groundwater that it said is
within legal radiation
safety limits into the
Pacific Ocean on Wednesday,
in a bid to manage huge
amounts of radioactive water
built up at the site.
Tokyo Electric Power, or
Tepco, has been fighting a
daily battle against
contaminated water since the
Fukushima nuclear station
was wrecked by a massive
earthquake and tsunami in
March 2011.
Gen. Khalifa Hifter has been
waiting decades for his
moment.
A
top general under Moammar
Gadhafi, he was tainted by a
disastrous defeat in a war
against neighboring Chad.
Exiled in the United States,
he helped lead the
opposition and vowed to
return one day. Since
Gadhafi's 2011 ouster he has
struggled for a role,
distrusted by other
generals.
Now his time may have come.
He is presenting himself as
Libya's potential savior
after nearly two years of
chaos in which unruly
militias are exercising
power over elected officials
and assassinating dozens of
soldiers and police.
Triclosan is in
roughly 75 percent
of antibacterial
soaps and body
washes. |
Tucked into an
environment bill signed into
law by Gov. Mark Dayton on
Friday was a measure banning
triclosan, a controversial
antibacterial agent found in
a wide array of consumer
products.
Minnesota
is the first state to ban
triclosan, which is
currently being reviewed by
the Food and Drug
Administration.
A nuclear waste
repository in New Mexico was
ordered by the state on
Tuesday to craft a plan to
hasten the sealing off of
underground vaults where
drums of toxic,
plutonium-tainted refuse
from Los Alamos National
Laboratory may have caused a
radiation release.
The directive by state
Environment Secretary Ryan
Flynn said the drums, buried
half a mile below ground at
the Waste Isolation Pilot
Plant near the town of
Carlsbad, "may present an
imminent and substantial
endangerment to health or
the environment".
Six new research and
development projects to
advance innovative
concentrating solar power
(CSP) technologies are being
funded with $10 million from
the Energy Department. The
projects will develop
thermochemical energy
storage systems to enable
more efficient storage of
solar energy while using
less storage material,
cutting the cost for
utility-scale CSP
electricity generation, and
enhancing the ability to
provide reliable power even
when the sun isn't shining.
The U.S. National Oceanic
and Atmospheric
Administration on Thursday
predicted a "near or below
normal" 2014 Atlantic
hurricane season, with eight
to 13 tropical storms and
three to six hurricanes, one
or two of which would reach
major Category 3 status.
A typical season has 12
tropical storms, with six
hurricanes and two major
hurricanes. The six
month-long hurricane season
runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.
The U.S. nuclear energy
industry added another layer
of public protection with
the opening here today of a
regional response center
established as part of the
industry's post-Fukushima
safety strategy. The Phoenix
response center, like one
that will open later this
year in Memphis, will be
capable of delivering
complete sets of emergency
equipment to help facilities
respond safely to extreme
events no matter what causes
them.
“We discovered economical
CO2 recycling in the finding
that hydroponic biomass
growth can be increased more
than 100 times the natural
rate by continuous CO2
infusion and simultaneous
LED visible light
saturation. This improvement
is outlined in the 8,673,615
patent,” stated inventor
Bill Krebs.
At issue is Ontario Power
Generation's proposal for a
deep geologic repository
that would store underground
low- to intermediate-level
radioactive waste near
Kincardine, Ontario, about
110 miles northeast of Port
Huron near the shores of
Lake Huron. The Canadian
government is considering
whether to allow the
project.
"The Great Lakes Basin
should not be a repository
for permanent radioactive
waste -- that's where we're
starting from," Pavlov said.
"There's a huge concern."
-
Organic, grass-fed
standards do not permit
non-medical use of
antibiotics. With
antibiotic-resistant
disease being a major
public health hazard,
buying organic meats is
an important
consideration
-
Antibiotics and
hard-to-digest grains
radically alter the
bacterial balance and
composition in the
animal’s gut, thereby
promoting disease. It
also has a detrimental
effect on the
nutritional composition
of the meat
-
Grass-fed beef tends to
be leaner, and have
higher levels of
vitamins, minerals, and
cancer-fighting CLA. It
also has a healthier
ratio of omega-6 to
omega-3 fats
-
Organic farms tend to
provide far more
sanitary conditions
overall, since the
animals are not kept in
overcrowded barracks day
in and day out. As a
result, the animals are
far less likely to
harbor dangerous
pathogens
-
Raw milk from organic,
grass-fed cows, and
certified organic eggs
from free-range hens are
also healthier options
due to superior nutrient
content and reduced risk
of contamination with
drugs and pathogens
C6 event observed.
There are currently 5
numbered sunspot regions on
the disk. Solar activity is
likely to be low with a
slight chance for an M-class
flare on days one, two, and
three (23 May, 24 May, 25
May). The geomagnetic
field is expected to be at
quiet to unsettled levels on
day one (23 May) and quiet
levels on days two and three
(24 May, 25 May).
Researchers at Stanford
University have developed a
new way to safely transfer
energy to tiny medical
devices implanted deep
inside the human body. The
advance could lead to the
development of tiny
"electroceutical" devices
that can be implanted near
nerve bundles, heart or
brain tissue and stimulate
them directly when needed,
treating diseases using
electronics rather than
drugs.
A renewed push to promote
the economic and
environmental benefits of
biomass thermal energy is
being felt in the Senate as
U.S. Senator Angus King
files the Biomass Thermal
Utilization Act of 2013
(which King originally
introduced) as an amendment
to legislation pending
before the Senate that would
renew a series of tax relief
measures.
Singapore is approaching
its yearly "haze" season,
when smoke from forest
clearing in Indonesia chokes
the air, with this year
likely to be worse than
2013's record pollution
thanks to lack of action in
Jakarta and an expected El
Nino weather pattern.
The prosperous
city-state, which prides
itself on its clean air, was
shrouded in heavy smog from
slash-and-burn clearances on
the neighboring Indonesian
island of Sumatra last June
which sent its air pollution
index to a record high.
While the once leading
German market continues to
collapse, NPD Solarbuzz has
published an optimistic
forecast for global module
sales. The analysts expect
an increase of 30% this year
compared to 2013; overall
demand could reach 50 GW.
A world expert on solar
panels will today outline
how his pioneering work is
set to significantly improve
the performance of solar
panels whilst simultaneously
contributing to their cost
being reduced by half. The
technology will be
commercialized within the
next five years.
Pro-gun advocates have
criticized the restaurant’s
“gun-free zone” policy and
argue allowing citizens to
protect themselves in the
establishment is a much more
effective way to ensure
their safety. Second
Amendment supporters have
repeatedly argued that
“gun-free zones” only entice
criminals because they know
they will likely face
minimal opposition.
If you’re one of those
people who, like us, love
coconut oil and believe the
nutty stuff can do no wrong,
we’ve got some alarming news
for you. While pure coconut
oil is still a-okay to use
for skin care, cooking, and
the like, SFGate reported
recently that a chemically
modified form of coconut oil
found in personal-care
products (from shampoo to
body wash to hair color) is
a known carcinogen. Cue
ominous music, right?
On Wednesday, May 20, voters
in two counties in Oregon
passed ballot initiatives to
ban the growing of
genetically engineered
crops.
Jackson
County’s Measure 15-119
passed overwhelmingly, by 66
percent to 34 percent.
Proponents of the ban raised
only $375,000 compared with
a record nearly $1 million
raised by the opposition,
which included agribusiness
giants Monsanto, Syngenta
and DuPont Pioneer.
The Jurassic shales of
southern England's Weald
basin could hold between 2.2
billion and 8.5 billion
barrels of oil resource but
no gas, the UK government
said Friday in a new report.
The Department of Energy
and Climate Change also
launched a consultation on
plans to simplify
underground access for shale
and deep geothermal
projects.
For days, the media has been
reporting on a dispute
between the U.S. Department
of Justice and the
government in Beijing over
the alleged hacking of
American businesses by
Chinese military personnel.
It has now been revealed
that the U.S. subsidiary of
SolarWorld AG is on the list
of companies that were
supposedly the victims of
cyber espionage attacks.
Vietnam's prime minister
said Thursday that his
country was considering
legal action against China,
which deployed an oil rig
earlier this month to
disputed waters, prompting
anti-Chinese riots in
Vietnam and a tense standoff
between ships from both
countries in the area.
There are electric
satellites from Boeing and
electric planes from Airbus,
so why not electric roads,
brought to you by Volvo
Group?
Volvo, in collaboration
with the Swedish Transport
Administration, is studying
the potential for building
electric roads where city
buses—built by Volvo, of
course—can be charged from
electricity in the road
while the bus is in
operation.
Unusually warm western
Pacific waters linked to
global warming may be the
paradoxical cause of a
bone-chilling winter in
parts of the United States
this year, a scientific
study said on Thursday.
The theory contrasts with
other experts' views,
including that the freeze
was simply a freak natural
event or that it was linked
to a thawing of the Arctic
in recent years that sent a
blast of cold air south.
Water utilities can
expect a major financial hit
as the fracking industry
grows if the controversial
process contaminates the
water supply, according to
one ratings agency.
Fitch Ratings said in a
recent report that if water
is contaminated by fracking
chemicals, the agency "would
expect a serious blow to a
utility's revenues, with
losses concurrent with other
growing direct and indirect
costs. This would lead to
debt service coverage
reductions, liquidity
strains and possibly the
need for additional
leverage."
That's because the burden
for cleansing water of
fracking chemicals would
fall on water utilities,
rather than oil and gas
companies.
May 20, 2014
Nathan Han, 15, has
developed a machine learning
software tool to study
mutations of a gene linked
to breast cancer
The "near record" spill
in Stamford sent 25 million
gallons of partially treated
sewage in local harbor,
according to the
Connecticut Post
reported.
Heavy rainfall was pegged
as the cause for the spill,
which occurred at Stamford's
sewage treatment plant. The
city got more than 4 inches
of rain before the spill,
NBC 4 New York
reported, citing
the National Weather
Service.
The Antarctic ice sheet has
lost ice twice as quickly in
the past three years as when
it was last surveyed between
2005 and 2010, say
scientists.
Results
from the CryoSat-2 satellite
mission, published today in
the journal Geophysical
Research Letters, say the
largest ice sheet on Earth
is now losing 159 billion
tonnes of ice each year.
Rising greenhouse gas levels
are causing stronger winds
over the Southern Ocean.
It's good news for
Antarctica, writes Tim
Radford, as the circumpolar
winds are keeping its ice
caps cold. But Australia is
getting hotter and drier -
and its problems will only
increase.
The answer
to one of the enduring
puzzles of global warming -
the apparently sluggish
response of the Antarctic
continent to rising
greenhouse gas levels - may
have been settled by
Australian scientists.
Honey bees, crucial in
the pollination of many U.S.
crops, are still dying off
at an worrisome rate, even
though fewer were lost over
the past winter, according
to a government report
issued on Thursday.
Total losses of managed
honey bee colonies was 23.2
percent nationwide for the
2013-2014 winter, according
to the annual report issued
by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) and the
"Bee Informed Partnership,"
a group of honeybee industry
participants.
The usual Washington
dance around a failed
bureaucracy has begun.
The media reports enough
scandals and failures that
hearings have to be held.
The head of the
department, in this case
Secretary Shinseki, after
avoiding the cameras as long
as possible, appears at the
hearing to announce his
anger at the revelations.
“Any allegation, any adverse
incident like this makes me
mad as hell,” he said.
Some residents of
Obrenovac, 30 km (20 miles)
southwest of the capital
Belgrade, were stranded on
the roofs of their homes,
calling for help. Prime
Minister Aleksandar Vucic
said all 25,000 citizens
would have to be evacuated.
At least five people have
died in the unfolding
disaster this week.
Thousands have been
evacuated from homes in
central and western areas of
Serbia and in neighbouring
Bosnia.
BP shares were 1% lower
Tuesday after a US appeals
court late Monday rejected
the British oil major's
latest bid to stem
compensation payments from
its Gulf of Mexico spill
fund.
The fifth
appeals court of New Orleans
declined to reconsider a
previous ruling which
required BP to honor its
original spill settlement
from 2012, which allows
payouts for damage claims
with no proven connection to
the 2010 spill.
Greenland is now mostly
white. Snow and ice and
glaciers abound, but are
shrinking as the climate
warms. Turns out that some
of the glaciers are found in
canyons and the canyons are
deeper than previously
thought. There are sea-level
rise implications!
As the fastest growing major
economy in the world, China
is walking a shaky tightrope
trying to balance economic
reform and growth. Its Gross
Domestic Product (GDP)
growth is down, flirting
with the "status quo," and
barely keeping pace with
population growth. As the
country continues to shift
its economy from debt-driven
manufacturing to an economy
driven by consumption, time
continues to provide
headwinds.
A large coal-ash pond in
Mercer County is illegally
leaking arsenic and other
pollutants into groundwater
and Herrington Lake,
environmental groups charged
Thursday.
The environmental group
included the 126-acre
storage pond in a report
released to highlight
concerns about coal ash at
sites across the nation.
State regulators have
known about contamination
leaking from the pond at the
Kentucky Utilities E.W.
Brown power plant near the
lake but have not acted to
correct the problem,
according to Nachy Kanfer, a
Sierra Club representative.
-
Most people need upwards
of 32 grams of fiber a
day. Most Americans get
nowhere near this amount
-
A recent study found
that those who ate the
most fiber had a 25
percent reduced risk of
dying from any cause
within the next nine
years, compared to those
whose fiber intake was
lacking
-
Those who increased
their consumption of
fiber after suffering a
myocardial infarction
also reduced their risk
of dying from any cause,
including further
cardiovascular events
-
Research has shed new
light on the mechanics
behind the appetite
suppressant potential of
fiber. When microbes in
your gut digest fiber, a
molecule is released
that signals your brain
to stop eating
-
If your gut health is
compromised, fiber may
feed pathogenic
bacteria. Healing your
gut with probiotic-rich
fermented vegetables is
recommended before
eating a high-fiber diet
-
Non-dairy creamer can
scarcely be called
“cream” at all, as it is
more aptly described as
a synthetic combination
of chemicals, oils,
sugars, and milk
products
-
Non-dairy creamer
typically contains corn
syrup, partially
hydrogenated oil (i.e.
synthetic trans fats),
dipotassium phosphate,
and other synthetic
ingredients
-
Non-dairy creamer is
actually highly
flammable!
-
While raw whole milk is
far healthier than
non-dairy creamer,
research suggests that
adding dairy to your
coffee may interfere
with your body’s
absorption of the
beneficial antioxidants
it contains
-
If you're interested in
protecting your health,
drink your coffee black,
without sugar, non-dairy
creamer or cream, or
flavorings
As the climate change debate
rages on, the role of the
electricity markets is often
forgotten. Carbon dioxide
(CO2) emissions can be
reduced more effectively if
there are appropriate
incentives and
well-functioning markets.
This is explained in our
recent white paper, "Markets
Matter: Expect a Bumpy Ride
on the Road to Reduced CO2
Emissions."
An analysis of data from
the European Space Agency's
(ESA) CryoSat satellite
shows that ice loss in the
Antarctic is increasing at
an exponential rate. It is
estimated that the polar
region now loses 159 billion
tonnes of ice each year,
with the worst instances of
degradation located in the
Western area of the Amundsen
Sea.
-
Recent research shows
that genetically
engineered (GE) soy
contains high levels of
glyphosate along with a
poorer nutritional
profile, leading the
researchers to conclude
that GE soy is NOT
“substantially
equivalent” to non-GE
soy
-
On average, GE soy
contained 11.9 parts per
million (ppm) of
glyphosate. The highest
residue level found was
20.1 ppm. No residues of
either kind were found
in the conventional
non-GE and organic
varieties
-
Processed foods
undoubtedly expose you
to this toxic
contamination, courtesy
of the GE soy and
vegetable oil, GE high
fructose corn syrup,
and/or GE sugar beets
used
-
Compared to
conventionally-grown
non-GE and GE soy,
organic soybeans
contained higher levels
of protein and zinc, and
lower levels of omega-6
-
Argentina has become one
of the largest producers
of GE soy and corn, and
along with it, the
country has experienced
an explosion of
miscarriages, fertility
problems, and abnormal
fetal development
Remember the Solyndra
loan controversy?
U.S. Department of Energy
officials wish you wouldn't.
They were in Austin
recently, looking to make
new loans for technology
that is too innovative to be
backed totally by bankers --
and to remind folks that 98
percent of their
taxpayer-funded loans are
performing as hoped.
"Some say we're not being
risky enough," said Peter
Davidson, executive director
of the federal agency's loan
programs office.
The latest round of loan
guarantees would leverage $4
billion for renewable energy
and energy efficiency
projects.
Bosnia said on Monday
that more than a quarter of
its 4 million people had
been affected by the worst
floods to hit the Balkans in
living memory, comparing the
"terrifying" destruction to
that of the country's
1992-95 war.
The extent of the
devastation became apparent
in Serbia too, as waters
receded in some of the
worst-hit areas to reveal
homes toppled or submerged
in mud, trees felled and
villages strewn with the
rotting corpses of
livestock.
Armed men aim their weapons
from a vehicle as smoke
rises in the background near
the General National
Congress in Tripoli May 18,
2014. (Reuters)
Armed gunmen loyal to
rogue General Khalifa Haftar
attacked Libya’s parliament
on Sunday, announcing its
suspension. Forces loyal to
Haftar claim to be purging
the nation of Islamist
militias while authorities
accuse them of staging a
coup
Greenland's icy reaches
are far more vulnerable to
warm ocean waters from
climate change than had been
thought, according to new
research by UC Irvine and
NASA glaciologists. The
work, published today in
Nature Geoscience, shows
previously uncharted deep
valleys stretching for
dozens of miles under the
Greenland Ice Sheet.
The bedrock canyons sit
well below sea level,
meaning that as subtropical
Atlantic waters hit the
fronts of hundreds of
glaciers, those edges will
erode much further than had
been assumed and release far
greater amounts of water.
Arizonans have to earn
$17.52 an hour, more than
twice the minimum wage, to
afford a typical two-bedroom
home without spending more
than 30 percent of their
income on rent, a new report
says.
Newly released Map the Meal
Gap data again shows almost
1 in 5 Arizonans (17.8
percent), or 1.17 million
people, struggled with food
insecurity in 2012. More
alarmingly, more than 1 in 4
Arizona children (28.2
percent – an estimated
456,760) also suffered from
food insecurity in that same
time period. While these
figures are a decrease from
the 2011 apex, when 19.1
percent of Arizonans and
29.9 percent of Arizona
children struggled with food
insecurity, they are still
above 2009 food insecurity
levels that spiked at the
onset of the recession.
The United States has
brought first-of-its kind
cyber-espionage charges
against five Chinese
military officials accused
of hacking into U.S.
companies to gain trade
secrets.
According to the
indictment, hackers targeted
the U.S. nuclear power,
metals and solar products
industries and are accused
of stealing trade secrets
and economic espionage. The
alleged victims are Alcoa
World Alumina, Westinghouse
Electric Co., Allegheny
Technologies, U.S. Steel
Corp., United Steelworkers
Union, and SolarWorld,
Attorney General Eric Holder
said Monday.
Consumers and environmental
groups aren't the only ones
clamoring for less fossil
fuels and more renewable
energy. In the past year,
the number of U.S.
investment professionals
offering fossil fuel-free
portfolios has jumped by
more than 50 percent -- from
22 percent to 36 percent --
amidst signs of growing
retail and institutional
investor interest in such
choices, according to a
Fossil Fuels Divestment
Survey released by First
Affirmative Financial
Network.
The number of countries
cultivating genetically
modified (GM) crops is in
decline, with Poland and
Egypt the latest countries
to suspend GM crop
production, according to a
new report from Friends of
the Earth International
released today April 30..
Japanese company Power Japan
Plus has announced the
development and planned
mass-production of "Ryden,"
a disruptive carbon battery
that can be charged 20 times
faster than an ordinary
lithium-ion cell. The
battery, which is cheap to
manufacture, safe, and
environmentally friendly,
could be ideal to improve
the range and charging times
of electric cars.
To protect neighborhoods
located near oil refineries,
the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency today
proposed to update the air
pollution standards for
refineries – standards that
environmental groups proved
in court are more than a
decade overdue.
The EPA’s proposal would,
for the first time, require
monitoring of air
concentrations of benzene
around the fence line
perimeter of refineries to
ensure that emissions are
controlled. These results
would be available to the
public.
Memory often begins to fail
with age, but a new study
from the University of Miami
Miller School of Medicine
found that the herb ginkgo
biloba keeps aging memories
sharp. In a six-month study,
a group of older healthy
adults improved their
brain's speed in making
connections by 68 percent.
Norway will have only
limited scope to increase
its gas deliveries to Europe
this winter in the event of
disruption to Russian
supplies as a result of the
Ukraine crisis, a senior
Statoil executive said
Tuesday.
"I think
many producers, including
us, can adjust on the
margins, but most of the
production capacity from
Norway is typically designed
to produce at maximum in
winter and that is what
we'll do," Statoil senior
vice president Rune Bjornson
told delegates at the Flame
gas conference in Amsterdam
One of the
restored
sections of the
Lower Colorado
River. What was
until recently a
barren wasteland
of litter and
meth labs is now
a thriving
ecosystem.
The Colorado River,
once home to riverboats and
a source of liquid
sustenance to many, has been
referred to as America’s
Nile, the most important
river in the Southwest.
Until recently a section of
the lower Colorado with the
city of Yuma on one side and
the Quechan Indian tribe on
the other was a no- man’s
land. It would still be that
way if not for the
cooperative efforts of the
Yuma Crossing National
Heritage Area.
Physicists at the
Imperial College London have
thought up a way to convert
light directly into matter
in a new type of high-energy
physics experiment, using
technology already available
in the UK.
“As we are theorists, we
are now talking to others
who can use our ideas to
undertake this landmark
experiment,” said Professor
Steve Rose at the Department
of Physics, Imperial College
London.
If the Iraqi authorities are
to be believed, at least 142
militants were killed in
security operations and
clashes today. The military
is conducting extensive
operations in Anbar
province, neighboring Babil
province, and even north
towards Mosul in Nineveh
province, which also borders
Anbar province. Independent
confirmation cannot be
obtained from the battle
zones. Over 40 civilians and
security personnel were also
killed. At least 180
people were killed and 59
more were wounded in
these attacks and security
operations.
Workers found the leak from
a pipe joint that penetrates
the containment vessel using
a camera survey, according
to The Japan Times.
Workers said the leak is
probably happening because
the level of the water in
the containment vessel is
higher than the area where
the pipe joint is. The
containment vessel still has
water in it because it is
needed to cool the reactor,
the article said. Workers
initially found a stream of
water running through the
unit’s building before going
down a drain.
Nearly half of all Americans
— more than 147 million —
live in counties in the U.S.
where ozone or particle
pollutions levels make the
air unhealthy to breathe,
according to the American
Lung Association's "State of
the Air 2014" report
released today. The 15th
annual national report card
shows that while the nation
overall continued to reduce
particle pollution, a
pollutant recently found to
cause lung cancer, poor air
quality remains a
significant public health
concern and a changing
climate threatens to make it
harder to protect human
health. Especially alarming
is that levels of ozone
(smog), a powerful
respiratory irritant and the
most widespread air
pollutant, were much worse
than in the previous year's
report.
Actor-director Tommy Lee
Jones said that his new
film, The Homesman,
set during the mid-19th
century western expansion of
the United States, was about
“American imperialism”
across the continent.
Speaking to journalists at
the Cannes film festival
after the world premiere
screening, he said: “I won’t
try to hide the fact that a
consideration of American
imperialism on the west side
of the Mississippi river is
the film’s underlying
theme.”
Rising renewable energy
capacity and electricity
consumption in the Asia
Pacific region has given
rise to the demand for
microgrids and the number of
microgrid projects deployed
in Asia Pacific, both for
electrification and as
experimental test beds,
according to Navigant
Research.
Inspired by demand from
consumers and recent
economic development, remote
microgrids will show strong
growth through 2023 in
emerging countries such as
China, India, Indonesia,
Malaysia, and the
Philippines.
The US shale gas and oil
boom of recent years is
"very profound, but
sometimes taken out of
proportion," International
Energy Agency chief
economist Fatih Birol said
at the Flame conference in
Amsterdam Tuesday.
Birol said that of the
projected reduction in US
oil imports from Tuesday to
2035, while 35% was expected
to be the result of changes
in oil supply, with more oil
produced at home, and 8%
from oil switching to gas,
some 57% would be the result
of demand-side policies.
The current U.S. population
is about 318 million.
Approximately 25 percent of
these people are younger
than 18 years of age, which
leaves roughly 239 million
adults. Of these, therefore,
the 1% with the greatest
incomes number about
2,390,000 persons. How many
of these do you suppose
possess extraordinary
political clout?
Southern California
Edison (SCE) said it is
taking precautions against
wildfires that are
threatening the shut down
San Onofre Nuclear
Generating Station (SONGS).
Fires at nearby Camp
Pendleton prompted SCE to
post personnel near the
south boundary of the plant
and to evacuate 13
non-essential employees from
the area. The workers that
remain are dousing
vegetation with water as a
precaution. Other personnel
have been dispatched to Camp
Pendleton to assist with
firefighting efforts on the
base.
The deserts of Arizona and
Rajasthan may be over
8,000Km apart but they are
linked by the deployment of
CSP Fresnel technology.
The common denominator is
AREVA Solar, the technology
supplier for a 5MW CSP
booster installation on
Tucson Electric Powers’s H.
Wilson Sundt Generating
Station and to Reliance
Power’s new Indian plants.
May 16, 2014
It's another week of
falling mortgage rates.
The average conventional
30-year fixed-rate mortgage
rate eased 0.01 percentage
points this week to reach
4.20 percent -- its lowest
reported point in 27 weeks.
However, many U.S. consumers
have been reporting mortgage
rates in the 3s.
Last year, the amount of
solar power generated in the
European Union rose to 80.2
TWh. At the same time, 9.9
GWp of photovoltaic capacity
were newly installed in the
EU. Compared to the global
growth of PV, this was a
moderate growth rate because
the amount of additional PV
capacity installed globally
was 37 GWp. This is in spite
of the fact that the
production cost of solar
power in parts of Europe has
fallen to less than 100 €
per megawatt hour.
Yesterday morning, black
oil sprayed nearly 20 feet
into the air in Atwater
Village, a neighborhood in
Los Angeles, California
after a "valve malfunction"
caused the oil to leak.
The LA Fire Department
(LAFD) estimates that 10,000
gallons have spilled and
while much cleanup progress
has been made, it will will
take a few days to clean up
all contamination.
-
Abdominal fat actually
produces inflammatory
molecules, and high
inflammation levels in
your body can trigger a
wide range of systemic
diseases linked with
metabolic syndrome
-
Exercise can have a
pronounced effect on
your hormone production,
naturally raising sex
hormones and HGH, for
example, which can have
a more or less direct
bearing on weight
management
-
For weight loss, opt for
high-intensity interval
training (HIIT) rather
than conventional
cardio. Studies clearly
show that exercising in
short bursts with rest
periods in between burns
the most fat
-
Key dietary corrections
needed to optimize fat
loss include swapping
processed foods for
whole foods, and
replacing carbs with
healthful fats
In late April the
World Bank's International
Comparison Programme (ICP)
published new data that
highlighted that the shift
of economic weight from
developed to emerging
markets is even more rapid
when economic activity is
measured at purchasing power
parity (PPP) exchange rates.
Leading the way were Asia's
big three emerging economies
(China, India and
Indonesia), which in 2011
had ranked as the world's
second-, third- and
tenth-largest economies
respectively, according to
the ICP's calculations. The
new numbers suggest that
China will supplant the US
as the world's biggest
economy in 2014 on this
measure, but there are many
reasons to treat the data
cautiously.
A combination of bad
mathematics and faulty
craftsmanship caused the
65-foot crack that today
crosses part of the Wanapum
Dam spillway, Grant County
PUD officials announced
today.
Honey bees, crucial in
the pollination of many U.S.
crops, are still dying off
at an worrisome rate, even
though fewer were lost over
the past winter, according
to a government report
issued on Thursday.
Total losses of managed
honey bee colonies was 23.2
percent nationwide for the
2013-2014 winter, according
to the annual report issued
by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) and the
"Bee Informed Partnership,"
a group of honeybee industry
participants.
U.S. Sen. Edward Markey,
D-Mass., joined fellow Sens.
Barbara Boxer of California
and Bernie Sanders of
Vermont on Tuesday in filing
three bills to improve
safety and security at
decommissioned nuclear
reactors, and to ensure safe
storage of spent fuel rods
at sites across the country.
The Biotechnology Industry
Organization (BIO)
“disagrees with the
categorization of biogenic
CO2 emissions as equivalent
to those of fossil fuels,”
the trade organization wrote
today in comments to the
Environmental Protection
Agency’s Proposed Standards
of Performance for
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
from New Stationary Sources:
Electric Utility Generating
Units. BIO represents
biorefining companies that
could be impacted by the
rule.
So why is Antarctica is not
warming as much as other
continents, and why are
there more droughts in
southern Australia?
According to new Antarctic
ice core research published
in Nature Climate
Change, rising levels
of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere are intensifying
the Southern Ocean winds,
which are known to deliver
rain to southern Australia,
but instead they are pushing
them further south towards
Antarctica.
The solar value proposition
remains very attractive to
homeowners and facility
managers across the United
States. However, the
industry sells itself with
one arm tied behind its
back.
Climate skeptics like to
point out that carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere
stimulates plant
growth—suggesting that
ever-growing fossil fuel
consumption will lead to an
era of bin-busting crop
yields. But as I noted last
week, the best science
suggests that other effects
of an over-heated
planet—heat stress, drought,
and floods—will likely
overwhelm any bonus from CO2-rich
air. Overall, it seems, crop
yields will decline.
National security threats
caused by climate change
could become "catalysts for
conflict" while the world
hasn't taken enough action
to address the advancing
problem, high-ranking
retired military leaders
conclude in a study released
Tuesday.
Not so long ago, self health
monitoring was largely
limited to weighing
ourselves to see how a diet
was going and sticking a
thermometer under our tongue
to see if we were getting
sick. For everything else we
went to the family doctor.
That was in the past.
Technology has put health
and fitness monitoring
firmly in consumers’ hands.
Starting with pedometers in
the 1980s and progressing to
the myriad wearable fitness
trackers flooding the market
today. The grip has just
tightened again with Cue – a
device that allows users to
run medical diagnostics from
the comfort of their own
home.
A bumble bee once common in
the United States is
disappearing so quickly it
should be listed as an
endangered species,
environmentalists said in a
lawsuit filed against U.S.
government agencies on
Tuesday.
Something could be missing
from your next electric
bill: a fee that electric
customers have been paying
for 31 years to fund a
federal nuclear waste site
that doesn't exist.
The heaviest rains and
floods in 120 years have hit
Bosnia and Serbia, killing
five people, forcing
hundreds out of their homes
and cutting off entire
towns.
As if it hasn’t been an
uphill battle so far, trying
to defeat Big Food and the
Gene Giants in order to pass
GMO labeling laws.
Navy researchers at the U.S.
Naval Research Laboratory
(NRL), Materials Science and
Technology Division,
demonstrate proof-of-concept
of novel NRL technologies
developed for the recovery
of carbon dioxide (CO2) and
hydrogen (H2) from seawater
and conversion to a liquid
hydrocarbon fuel.
German nuclear availability
will drop below 8 GW for the
first time this year as
three reactors will be
offline for annual
maintenance from Saturday,
plant operators'
transparency data showed
Friday.
DNA recovered from
12,000-year-old skeleton
helps to dispel claims that
first Americans came from
Australia, Asia or Europe
Cave divers chanced upon the
girl's skeleton, along with
the bones of sabre-tooth
cats, giant ground sloths
and cave bears, in a vast
water-filled cavern they
discovered while exploring a
submerged network of tunnels
reached from a sinkhole in
the Yucatan jungle.
New research confirms the
health benefits associated
with outdoor play for
children. New research from
the University of Bristol
shows that while most
children spend the largest
amount of their after-school
time indoors either alone or
with their parents, hours
spent outdoors with friends
has the greatest positive
affect on a child's level of
physical activity. The
correlation works out like
this: children get an extra
17 minutes of physical
activity for every hour of
time spent outdoors.
Gov. Pat McCrory's fix for
coal ash contamination
became the first bill
introduced in the N.C.
Senate as state legislators
began their session
Wednesday.
Clouds play a critical
role in Earth's climate and
are the largest source of
uncertainty in present
climate models, stemming
from cloud formation
complexity, according to the
latest report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change.
New research from
scientists at the CLOUD
(Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor
Droplets) experiment at
CERN, including Carnegie
Mellon University's Neil
Donahue, sheds light on
new-particle formation — the
very first step of cloud
formation and a critical
component of climate models.
The findings, published in
the May 16 issue of
Science, closely match
observations in the
atmosphere and can help make
climate prediction models
more accurate.
The California
Independent System Operator
Corporation (ISO) is
reporting that it has
adequate power supplies to
meet summer peaks despite
drought conditions. The
state's hydroelectric supply
is well below average.
Southern Orange and San
Diego counties will be a
focus of summer grid
operations in the event that
heat waves, unexpected power
plant outages or wildfires
threaten transmission lines
and challenge reliability in
the area affected by the
closure of the San Onofre
Nuclear Generating Station.
Scores were reported killed
during Anbar operations that
are seen as precursors to a
full assault on militants in
Falluja. The numbers given
are reported by Iraqi
officials and cannot be
independently confirmed. If
the government figures are
accurate, at least 210
people were killed and 120
were wounded. Well over
half the dead were
militants. Bombers also
attacked a courthouse in
Baghdad, but they were
unable to penetrate the
building.
Citing threats from China
and North Korea, a
government-appointed panel
is urging Japan to
reinterpret its pacifist
constitution to allow the
use of military force to
defend other countries.
Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe formally received
the panel's report Thursday
and vowed to seek ways to
allow the military to do
more for the country's own
defense and for
international peace.
U.S. Ambassador to Japan
Caroline Kennedy pledged
U.S. support for the
clean-up at Japan's
tsunami-wrecked Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant
on Wednesday after her first
visit to the site.
Kennedy, dressed in a
white radiation protective
suit with her name taped on
the back and a mask covering
her face, went inside a
damaged reactor building
where she saw how Tokyo
Electric Power Co (Tepco) is
removing fuel rod assemblies
from a cooling pool.
Tepco has removed 814 out
of 1,533 fuel rod assemblies
from the No. 4 reactor since
November.
The Texas House leadership
recently announced which
lawmaker will fill the
high-powered role of leading
the state's new desalination
committee. ..
“Water remains a top
priority for the Texas House
because it remains critical
to the Texas economy and our
quality of life,” Straus
said in his announcement.
Kitty litter used to
absorb liquid in radioactive
debris may have triggered a
chemical reaction that
caused a radiation leak at a
below-ground U.S. nuclear
waste storage site in New
Mexico, a state
environmental official said
on Tuesday.
The waste disposal site,
where drums of
plutonium-tainted refuse
from nuclear weapons
factories and laboratories
are buried in salt caverns
2,100 feet (640 meters)
underground, has been shut
down since unsafe radiation
levels were first detected
there on Feb. 14.
Depletion of groundwater
in California's Central
Valley for agriculture and
other uses could be
contributing to an increase
in small earthquakes along
the famed San Andreas fault,
a scientific study published
on Wednesday said.
But the phenomenon is not
believed to lead to an
increased risk of large
earthquakes, said Western
Washington University
geology professor Colin
Amos, the study's lead
author.
The Maine legislature is
drafting a measure that
would provide millions of
dollars for water
infrastructure projects.
Bad idea: holding up a store
clerk who happens to be
proficient in firearms.
Worse idea: holding up a
store clerk who is not only
proficient in firearms, but
who also happens to be an
Iraq war veteran and a
former prison guard and
private investigator.
While the treasury
markets seem to be
completely ignoring this
inflection point, core PPI
came in materially above
expectations today. We know
that food prices have been
on the rise recently, but
this PPI measure excludes
food and energy. Complacency
about inflation seems to be
rampant - both among fixed
income investors as well as
at the Fed.
New Energy Technologies Inc.
developer of see-through
SolarWindow™ coatings,
capable of generating
electricity on glass and
flexible plastics, today
announced that its
technology has set a new
record for generating
electricity while remaining
see-through with over 50%
greater power than prior
attempts publicized by
others.
Anyone concerned that
electric cars produce
dangerous magnetic fields
can relax. The most
comprehensive study ever
carried out in this field
shows values far below safe
exposure levels set by the
International Commission on
Non-Ionizing Radiation
Protection.
Scientists from seven
countries participating in
the EU-funded EM Safety
research project concluded
that drivers and passengers
can feel as safe in
electric-powered cars as in
those powered by hydrogen,
gasoline or diesel.
North Korea threatened
Tuesday to “wipe out” South
Korea’s government in a
furious response a day after
a Seoul official said the
North “must disappear soon,”
in an escalation of rhetoric
between the rivals.
Finalizing the largest
environmental cash
settlement in history, the
Justice Department closed a
$5.15 billion deal
with Anadarko Petroleum this
month.
The deal addresses years
of environmental claims
against a chemical and
manufacturing business known
as Kerr-McGee, which the oil
company Anadarko partially
absorbed in 2006.
Self-styled revolutionary
patriots plan to converge on
Washington, D.C., this week
to drive President Barack
Obama and disloyal lawmakers
out of office.
New evidence from
University of Texas at
Austin researchers posit
that the great Mississippi's
natural ability to
chemically filter out
nitrates is being
overwhelmed. UT's
hydrologists demonstrate the
enormity of the filtering
process for almost every
drop of water that enters
into the 311,000-mile long
course ending in the Gulf of
Mexico.
The study found that
99.6% of the water is
filtered through bank
sediments in the watershed's
creeks, streams and rivers.
..
Comments about coal are
usually not complimentary.
Despite our dependence on it
as a source of heat for
electric power generation,
environmentalists wish it
would go away. On the other
hand, advocates like to
claim we have more than 110
years of coal left - "at
present rates of
consumption". Both sides are
overlooking crucial points.
Let's see if we can clarify
the future use of coal as a
fossil fuel resource.
The leader of Peru's main
indigenous group and 52
others went on trial
Wednesday in the killing of
a dozen police officers
after security forces fired
on protesters opposed to
plans to open the Amazon to
widespread logging and oil
drilling.
In
all, 22 police officers and
10 civilians were killed in
the 2009 bloodletting at a
stretch of highway known as
Devil's Curve near the city
of Bagua when authorities
tried to break up a road
blockade. At least 200
protesters were wounded by
gunfire in the attack, and
some of the police were
killed with spears in the
resulting clash.
The United States can
quickly transition to nearly
100 percent renewable energy
and phase out coal and
nuclear power, according to
research from Greenpeace and
the Global Wind Energy
Council.
"Growing concerns about
climate change and air
pollution, along with
quickly falling costs of
renewable energy, are
already upending the utility
industry's business model
and threatening to turn
fossil fuel reserves into
stranded assets," said Sven
Teske, a renewable energy
expert with Greenpeace
International. "The Energy
[R]evolution report
demonstrates that the rapid
changes in the energy sector
could expand dramatically,
with major implications for
many industries."
C5 event observed.
There are currently 9
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 (16
May, 17 May, 18 May).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on day one
(16 May) and quiet levels on
days two and three (17 May,
18 May).
If you see a group of
scientists playing with a
blob of Silly Putty, they
might not be goofing off,
they may be working on a
technological breakthrough.
That turned out to be the
case with researchers at the
University of California,
Riverside Bourns College of
Engineering , who have
developed a way to use an
ingredient in Silly Putty to
improve lithium-ion battery
life between charges by
three times the industry
standard.
A team of federal
investigators swept into
Phoenix last month amid
allegations of a disturbing
cover-up at the veterans
hospital.
Their goal: to unravel
the truth behind a secret
waiting list supposedly
maintained to hide lengthy
delays for sick veterans,
making it appear as if they
were seeing doctors sooner
when some may have waited
months and died in the
meantime.
A measure that would
dismantle Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac won the approval
of a Senate commitee
Thursday but most likely
won’t make it to the full
chamber this year because it
failed to attract a large
enough majority of the
committee’s lawmakers.
Obama ordered 5 nuclear
carriers into harbor for
"routine" (?) inspections.
Heads of the Navy were
flabbergasted by the
directive but had to comply
as it was a direct order
from their
Commander-in-Chief.
The carriers were all
pulled out from the MIDDLE
EAST and the Afghanistan
support role leaving our
land forces naked and
exposed! NORFOLK, VA.
(February 8, 2014). This is
the first time since WWII
that five nuclear powered
aircraft carriers were
docked together.
Six workers were injured
when hot water spilled from
a valve at Kudankulam
nuclear power plant in
India's southern state of
Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, a
plant official said, adding
there was no leak of
radiation.
The injured were carrying
out maintenance work in the
turbine building when the
incident took place. After
being given first aid on the
spot, they were taken to
hospital, said R.S. Sundar,
the plant's site director.
The resignation of UN
special envoy to Syria
Lakhdar Brahimi, who has
built his career on easing
the most difficult
conflicts, marks just how
intractable Syria's civil
war has become.
Wind energy supporters are
hoping to blow past
opponents in the Senate, as
the chamber considers broad
legislation to renew dozens
of expired tax breaks --
including one credited with
making turbines spin in
Texas.
As the massive
over-liquidity in the US
banking system reaches new
highs, the amount that banks
borrow from each other
continues to decline. In the
past some banks borrowed
from other banks in order to
meet their reserve
requirements, but these days
excess reserves are so
large, the need for
interbank financing has
dramatically diminished.
On December 1, 2012, I
received my first
communication from Edward
Snowden, although I had no
idea at the time that it was
from him.
Thousands of homes, a
university campus, a nuclear
plant, a Legoland and parts
of one of the military's
biggest and busiest bases:
All have been evacuated due
to a rare confluence of
fast-moving wildfires
scorching Southern
California.
Cal Fire Division Chief Dave
Allen said nine fires have
burned 9,095 acres.
...the use of off-grid
solar PV is not restricted
to countries in the
developing world alone.
Standalone solar systems are
as well applied in developed
countries, either as add-on
or back up-systems, or as
full self-supply solutions.
Areas of application
include, for example, barns
and sheds in the
agricultural sector or
energy supply for holiday
homes in more remote areas.
Advantages of off-grid PV
systems compared with
grid-connected installations
are greater flexibility and
mobility.
Two hundred years from now,
the planet could look very
different. This week two
landmark studies revealed
that West Antarctica's ice
sheet is in a state of
seemingly inevitable
collapse linked to climate
change. The slow-motion
collapse would by itself
eventually lead to a rise in
global levels of 3.6-4.5
meters (12-15 feet),
overrunning many of the
world's islands, low-lying
areas, and coastal cities.
The only silver lining is
that scientists
conservatively estimate that
the collapse could take
200-1,000 years.
Tucson Unified School
District (TUSD) today
announced the completion a
198 kW solar power system at
Marshall Elementary School
in Tucson, Ariz. Marshall
Elementary is the first
school of an 11-megawatt
solar generation project.
According to TUSD the
project will supply
approximately 80 percent of
the electricity needs for 42
schools in the district and
save an estimated $170,000
in energy costs in the first
year and $11 million over
the 20 year-year term of the
project.
Ukraine has asked Russia's
Gazprom to return 2 Bcm of
gas that was in underground
storage facilities in Crimea
before the region was
annexed by Russia, deputy
energy and coal industry
minister Ihor Didenko said
Thursday.
In addition to
souring relations between
Russia, Europe and the
United States, further
escalation of Russia's
engagement in Ukraine could
cost Russia more than 3
percent in GDP in real terms
or USD115 billion in current
dollar terms on average in
2015. The conflict could
also exacerbate recessionary
pressures, and lead to a
reduction in European real
GDP of about 0.15 percent
overall, according to a
scenario developed by
economists at IHS Inc.
“While Russia could end
up paying a very heavy
economic price for its
annexation of Crimea and its
ongoing conflict with
Ukraine, the negative
impacts on other parts of
the world, notably Europe,
will also be hard to avoid”
Drought is afflicting
many states this year, but
the challenge is hardest for
areas that suffer from
underlying water stress.
"A precipitous drop in
rainfall is only part of a
much broader story.
Underlying water stress is
one important piece of that
complicated puzzle. When
drought strikes where
baseline water stress is
high, it exacerbates
regions' water woes,"
GreenBiz reported.
A hot summer with
above-normal temperatures
throughout most of the US
will likely mean higher
electric and natural gas
prices this summer,
according to the US Federal
Energy Regulatory
Commission's summer energy
market and reliability
assessment.
The
assessment, presented by
FERC staff at the
commission's monthly meeting
Thursday, projects
particularly high prices for
California this summer, made
worse by drought and
wildfires.
US rail traffic for
petroleum and petroleum
products totaled 276,814
carloads so far this year,
up 6.8% from the same period
a year ago, the Association
of American Railroads said
Thursday.
The
year-to-date figure was the
largest growth in shipments
for any product except
grains, which saw
year-to-date shipments
increase 19%.
In the current nationwide
series of Veterans
Administration scandals, the
real focus has to be on
rethinking the system that
is failing to serve our
veterans and their
families...
Scapegoating one or even
a team of senior leaders
will produce only marginal
results and ultimately be
drowned out by an enormous
bureaucracy.
The real challenges in
developing a 21st century
Veterans Administration are
challenges of systemic
reform that go far beyond
any single person or even a
new senior leadership team.
Thousands of Vietnamese
set fire to foreign
factories and rampaged in
industrial zones in the
south of the country in an
angry reaction to Chinese
oil drilling in a part of
the South China Sea claimed
by Vietnam, officials said
on Wednesday.
The brunt of Tuesday's
violence, one of the worst
breakdowns in
Sino-Vietnamese relations
since the neighbors fought a
brief border war in 1979,
appears to have been borne
by Taiwanese firms in the
zones in Binh Duong and Dong
Nai provinces that were
mistaken for Chinese-owned
companies.
A water scarcity "perfect
storm" is approaching, and
that makes it a good time to
invest in water reuse
technologies, analysts at
Bank of America Merrill
Lynch Global Research said
in a new report.
"For investors, increased
demand for water could
generate potent investment
opportunities. Water-related
industries already represent
a roughly $500 billion
market," the report said...
Davi Kopenawa, a
Yanomami shaman, who has
been fighting for his
peoples rights for more than
20 years will be in
California in April to speak
about protecting the
rainforest and his spiritual
life. Kopenawa is seen here
surrounded by Yanomami
children.
A wall of flames dozens of
feet high advanced on a
hillside community near San
Diego on Thursday,
threatening to destroy
upscale houses as eight
other major blazes burned in
Southern California, keeping
thousands of people out of
their homes.
With the House out of
session this week, the
Senate will grab the
spotlight in Congress with
votes on two key agenda
items: energy and tax cuts.
Lawmakers will vote
Monday on whether to end
debate on an energy-
efficiency bill that has
been the subject of intense
partisan bickering this
month.
Things are getting really
dicey for a little ocean
creature called a pteropod.
Better known as the "sea
butterfly," this delicate
little sea snail is serving
as an unfortunate bellwether
of the deteriorating state
of our oceans. Why?
Conditions in the
Antarctic ocean and along
the West Coast of the U.S.
have become so unnaturally
acidic that the shells of
sea butterflies are
literally dissolving away.
May 13, 2014
The Islamic State in Iraq
and the Levant (ISIL or
ISIS) is now, according to
reports, killing more Syrian
rebels than is the Syrian
army. This is the group that
has taken over parts of
Anbar province and is
attempting to take over more
or Iraq. They are also known
as ad-Dawla al-Islāmiyya fi
al-’Irāq wa-sh-Shām (DAASH).
Although there were fewer
reports from Anbar today,
there were plenty from other
provinces. At least 47
people were killed and 80
more were wounded.
Georgia Power announced
today the completion of the
latest major milestone in
the construction of Plant
Vogtle units 3 and 4 near
Waynesboro, Ga. On Thursday,
the project team
successfully placed the Unit
4 containment vessel bottom
head (CVBH) into that unit's
nuclear island. The CVBH
weighs more than 1.8 million
pounds, or 900 tons, and is
nearly 38 feet tall and 130
feet wide. The component
consists of dozens of
individual steel plates and
was fabricated on site by
CB&I, the project's
contractor.
ATVs have not been
allowed through Recapture
Canyon since 2007, but that
didn’t stop a group of
protesters on Saturday, May
10 from riding the
trail—which is full of
Native American sacred
sites—anyway.
The Bureau
of Land Management closed
Recapture Canyon in
Blanding, Utah to ATVs in
2007 after enthusiasts were
caught trying to construct
another trail illegally, and
in so doing damaged
archaeological sites,
reports The Salt Lake
Tribune.
A British Columbia Supreme
Court decision undermines
government claims that
B.C.’s forestry laws are
among the strongest in the
world, environment groups
said Friday, after losing a
court battle to protect the
province’s last old-growth
Coastal Douglas-fir forests.
There’s been no hiding from
the fact that the ongoing
lack of rain and meager
snowpack has led to
widespread drought in
California. The last snow
survey this year (taken just
last week) showed that
statewide snowpack was just
18 percent of normal—that’s
an astonishing 82 percent
below what we typically have
at this time of the year.
According to the U.S.
Drought Monitor (USDM), 100
percent of California is now
experiencing moderate to
exceptional drought
conditions—the first time
that has occurred in the
fifteen-year monitoring
history of the USDM.
A northeastern Chinese
province has plans to pour
money into projects aimed at
saving water.
Heilongjiang province,
located near Russia, "is
planning to invest 20.9
billion yuan ($3.35 billion)
this year on
water-conservation projects
as the world’s most-populous
nation tries to ensure
residential and industrial
supplies," Bloomberg reported.
Chinese police are
hunting protesters who went
on the rampage at the
weekend in a campaign
against a huge waste
incinerator, turning over
and setting fire to police
cars, state media reported
on Monday.
Choking smog blankets
many Chinese cities and the
environmental degradation
resulting from the country's
breakneck economic growth is
angering its increasingly
well-educated and affluent
population.
Crude oil futures settled
higher Monday on escalating
tensions in Ukraine after
the European Union called a
separatist vote in the
eastern part of the county
illegal.
ICE June
Brent settled 52 cents
higher at $108.41/barrel;
NYMEX June crude settled 60
cents higher at $100.59/b.
In products, NYMEX June ULSD
settled 1.17 cents higher at
$2.9185/gal and June RBOB
ended 1.86 cents higher at
$2.9146/gal.
Where does the NRC stand
regarding modular nuclear
reactors?
First of all, we need an
application. We haven't
gotten one yet. But we have
been having lots of
discussions with the small
modular reactor vendors and
the industry in general
about them.
-
Water fluoridation is
ineffective at
preventing dental decay.
Rates of dental caries
in non-fluoridated
regions are often lower
than in fluoridated
areas
-
Fluoride is often said
to build stronger teeth,
but the fluorapatite
layer formed on your
teeth from fluoride is a
mere six nanometers
thick (you'd need 10,000
of these layers to get
the width of a strand of
hair)
-
Fluoride is a toxic
chemical that
accumulates in your
tissues over time,
wreaks havoc with
enzymes, and produces a
number of serious
adverse health effects,
including neurological
and endocrine
dysfunction
-
Fluoride accumulates in
your body over time, and
children are
particularly at risk for
adverse effects of
overexposure
-
For strong teeth, avoid
fluoridated water and
fluoridated toothpaste.
Make sure you consume a
diet rich in whole
foods, fermented
vegetables, and
grass-fed meats, which
will ensure you're
getting plenty of the
minerals that are so
important for strong
teeth
The chances have
increased over the past
month that the much-feared
El Nino weather phenomenon,
which can wreak havoc on
global crops, will strike
this year, the federal U.S.
forecaster said Thursday.
In its monthly report,
the Climate Prediction
Center (CPC), an agency of
the National Weather
Service, said neutral
conditions will prevail
through the spring. But the
forecaster raised the
likelihood of the weather
pattern developing over the
summer to more than 65
percent.
In a speech on
Tuesday, Jon Cunliffe
reviews the progress made by
regulators in addressing the
issue of Too Big To Fail and
sets out some remaining
issues. He describes the
two-pronged approach taken
by regulators: first, to
reduce, but not eliminate,
the probability of failure
by increasing the resilience
of financial institutions;
second, managing the impact
of failure via the
resolution framework and by
making investors bear
losses.
On July 1st
of this year, Title
V of the Obama
Administration’s HR Bill
#2847, known as FATCA, goes
into effect.
Most people
mistakenly think they’re not
affected by FATCA. If you
are a U.S. citizen… or if
you hold any of your money
in U.S. dollars, this new
law definitely
affects you.
Former Treasury Secretary
Timothy Geithner says he was
instructed by the Obama
White House to say things he
didn’t believe on the Sunday
morning news shows.
Police in China have
detained four people after
radioactive material being
used in a construction
project went missing, state
media reported on Monday.
A tiny piece of
irridium-192, used to locate
flaws in pieces of metal,
vanished on Wednesday from a
construction site in the
eastern city of Nanjing and
was not recovered until
Saturday afternoon, the
official China Daily
reported.
For years, the US government
loudly warned the world that
Chinese routers and other
internet devices pose a
"threat" because they are
built with backdoor
surveillance functionality
that gives the Chinese
government the ability to
spy on anyone using them.
Yet what the NSA's documents
show is that Americans have
been engaged in precisely
the activity that the US
accused the Chinese of
doing.
GM crops that resist
herbicides are bringing ever
higher levels of toxic
chemical residues to our
food, even mothers' milk,
writes Pat Thomas. As the
'endocrine disrupting'
effects take place at minute
concentrations, there is
only one answer - to keep
the herbicides off all food
crops.
Iran has produced a
duplicate of a U. S. drone
it captured in 2011, Press
TV reported on Monday.
A
copy of the RQ-170 stealth
drone was unveiled on Sunday
at an exhibition attended by
Iran's Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the
media outlet said. The
event, held at the Islamic
Revolution Guards Corps
(IRGC) Aerospace Forces'
Central Command, also put on
display "the achievements of
the IRGC Aerospace Forces in
the design and development
of drones, radars and
defense systems, as well as
anti-ship, ballistic and
anti-shield missile
systems," Press TV said.
The Kellogg Company, maker
of some of the country’s
most familiar breakfast
cereals, said on Thursday
that it had agreed to drop
the terms “all natural” and
“nothing artificial” from
some products in its Kashi
line as part of a settlement
agreement ending a
class-action lawsuit.
A Massachusetts woman
arrested for disorderly
conduct and an open
container violation will
also be charged with
unlawful wiretapping after
police discovered that she
had surreptitiously recorded
the entire arrest.
Energy ministers and senior
energy officials from 24
countries, including Saudi
oil minister Ali Al-Naimi
and US Energy Secretary
Ernest Moniz, are meeting in
Seoul for two days to
discuss how to reduce fossil
oil consumption and promote
renewable resources.
"The transition to a world
powered by clean energy has
the potential to not only
significantly reduce carbon
pollution and reduce the
risk of climate change, but
to also create
entrepreneurial
opportunities and jobs," ...
The dispossession of
Native peoples, the
exploitation of land for
resources and profit, and
the suppression of
indigenous spiritual
practices have always
operated in concert.
A new uprising against
the federal Bureau of Land
Management is brewing in
Utah.
On Saturday, dozens of
fed-up citizens rode
all-terain vehicles onto
federally managed land to
protest the federal agency’s
closure of a piece of land.
Coal-fired electric power
plants provided 84 percent
of Indiana's energy this
past year. In light of a
recent environmental
regulation, Indiana's
reliance on coal for power
might have to change.
California, widely
considered the
U.S.
state that most promoted the
American Dream, may turn
into a nightmare this summer
as a result of the worst
drought in at least
15 years.
Eco Marine Power (EMP) has
announced that it has taken
another major step forward
towards bringing its
pioneering wind and solar
harnessing EnergySail to the
market by forming a
strategic alliance with
Teramoto Iron Works Co. - a
manufacturer of marine
equipment located in
Hiroshima, Japan.
On the heels of the
administration's release of
the Third National Climate
Assessment report, President
Barack Obama today announced
an array of executive
actions and public and
private sector commitments
to increase solar
installations and energy
efficiency improvements,
strengthen energy efficiency
standards, and bolster the
solar industry workforce.
The actions and pledges that
Obama laid out will deploy
enough solar energy to power
nearly 130,000 homes, cut
carbon emissions by the
equivalent of taking 80
million cars off the road
and save businesses $26
billion on their energy
bills, the White House said
in a statement
A warning from U.S.
scientists that Oklahoma may
be hit by a major earthquake
has caused a run on
insurance policies for
tremors in the heartland
state, adding to the woes of
residents already in the
firing line of devastating
tornadoes.
Quakes have typically
been infrequent in Oklahoma,
yet not unheard of.
C2 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 days one, two, and three
(13 May, 14 May, 15 May).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet
levels on day one (13 May)
and quiet to active levels
on days two and three (14
May, 15 May).
After a spate of fiery
derailments, the scramble to
make North Dakota's Bakken
crude oil safer when it's
being transported on trains
has focused on better
tracks, slower speeds, and
reinforced railcars that
bypass urban areas.
But that is starting to
change. A potentially more
effective approach, which
would remove the most
volatile elements from the
crude before it is being
loaded onto rail cars, is
now beginning to get
attention, both from
regulators considering
safety enhancements and some
lawmakers, industry
executives say.
A satellite company which
has been instrumental in the
search for missing Malaysia
Airlines Flight 370
announced Monday that it
would offer a free tracking
service for 11,000 passenger
jets, encompassing almost
every commercial flight in
the world.
Share prices for
Inmarsat, a satellite
company based in the U.K.,
jumped on the news that it
would track any passenger
plane equipped with the
company’s satellite
connection, a feature that
comes standard in the vast
majority of the world’s
long-haul jetliners.
Polar scientists who
retrieved ice samples from
the Antarctic say they are
on the verge of unlocking
2,000 years of climate
records offering clues to
how global warming will
affect our future...
Using the latest technology
to probe the secrets of the
past, the scientists hope to
gain information to improve
climate models and give a
sense of normal frequency
and patterns now seen in
extreme events such as
droughts, cyclones and
floods.
Scientists have developed a
new method for revealing how
sea levels might rise around
the world throughout the
century to address the
controversial topic of
whether the rate of sea
level rise is currently
increasing.
-
Highest paid EPA
official pulled off a
million-dollar con by
posing as a top-secret
spy, so that he could
take lavish vacations on
the government’s dime
-
His scam allowed him to
take 33 airplane trips
over the course of a
decade, costing the
government $266,190
-
Thirty cents of every
dollar spent on medical
care in the US is
wasted, amounting to
$750 billion annually;
Medicare and Disability
programs are major
sources, rife with
inefficient delivery and
fraud
-
Bringing back states’
rights and reducing the
size of the federal
government are key to
resolving government
corruption
The Taliban unleashed a
wave of attacks that killed
21 people around the
country, making a show of
strength to start the spring
fighting season. The annual
surge in violence poses a
new test for Afghan security
forces, who for the first
time will face it largely on
their own as international
combat forces prepare to
withdraw.
Spring each year brings
an escalation in fighting in
Afghanistan with the end of
snowy winter weather, which
hampers movement. The
melting of the snows opens
up mountain passes allowing
militant forces to move in
from refuges in neighboring
Pakistan.
A wildfire in the Texas
panhandle that destroyed
about 100 homes and prompted
the evacuation of hundreds
of people over the weekend
has largely been brought
under control, fire
officials said on Monday.
"We are hoping that with
enough crews today, later
today, we will get it
contained," said Monte
Leggett, police chief in the
town of Fritch.
-
You may not realize it,
but Dr. Fred Kummerow,
who is alive and nearly
100 years old, was the
first scientist to
document the toxicity of
trans fats
-
Over the past 60 years,
his research has
repeatedly demonstrated
that there’s NO
correlation between high
cholesterol and plaque
formation that leads to
heart disease
-
Dr. Kummerow’s work
shows that it’s not
cholesterol that causes
heart disease; rather
it’s the trans fats and
oxidized cholesterol
that are to blame
-
95 percent of the food
that most Americans eat
is processed—and
processed food is where
all the trans fat lies
-
Trans fats prevent the
synthesis of
prostacyclin, which is
necessary to keep your
blood flowing. When your
body cannot produce
prostacyclin, blood
clots form, and you may
succumb to sudden death
-
To protect your heart
health, you also need to
address your insulin and
leptin resistance, which
is the result of eating
a diet too high in
sugars and grains
President Barack Obama
earned “four Pinocchios”
from the Washington Post
Fact Checker, the highest
ranking for a political lie,
for asserting that
Republicans filibustered 500
pieces of legislation, an
exaggeration of nearly five
times the reality.
A Vancouver beach was
crowded Saturday with more
than 1,000 demonstrators
opposed to the Enbridge’s
controversial C$6.5 billion
Northern Gateway oil
pipeline.
Held at Sunset Beach, the
protest was one of nearly
100 demonstrations against
pipelines, oil tankers tar
sands development held in
cities and towns across
Canada, as part of a
national day of action
against climate change.
A once-promising U.N.
attempt to probe suspicions
that Tehran worked on atomic
arms is faltering — and with
it, hopes that Iran and six
world powers can meet their
July target date for an
overarching nuclear deal.
The rate of earthquakes in
Oklahoma has increased by
about 50 percent since
October 2013, significantly
increasing the chance for a
damaging quake in central
Oklahoma.
We've had a sharp decline in
housing affordability due to
higher prices and higher
mortgage rates. The decline
in mortgage rates recently
should help somewhat, but
buyers remain cautious.
Banks have tightened lending
standards.
Household formations have
stalled.
Hundreds of people across
Vietnam have protested
against China's role in a
sea dispute - the largest
rallies of their kind
recently in the communist
country...
Tensions have been running
high after Vietnamese ships
clashed with Chinese vessels
guarding an oil rig in a
contested area of the South
China Sea.
Vast glaciers in West
Antarctica seem to be locked
in an irreversible thaw
linked to global warming
that may push up sea levels
for centuries, scientists
said on Monday.
Six glaciers, eaten away
from below by a warming of
sea waters around the frozen
continent, were flowing fast
into the Amundsen Sea,
according to the report
based partly on satellite
radar measurements from 1992
to 2011.
Tesla Motors founder Elon
Musk is setting up an
unusual head-to-head contest
for his company's $5 billion
battery plant and its 6,500
jobs.
Instead of naming one
winner, the California
billionaire is upping the
economic arms race by
breaking ground on at least
two sites -- weeks apart --
to guard against any
regulatory delays. Tesla
ultimately will build only
one battery plant and leave
someone finishing second in
a very public way.
The Texas water crisis is
casting a shadow over a
state that has long been
revered for its booming
economy.
Since the recession
began, people have flocked
to Texas from economically
depressed parts of the
country in search of better
opportunities. It added 1.3
million people between 2010
and 2013, the Wall
Street Journal reported, citing
the U.S. Census Bureau.
Air quality in cities
worldwide fails to meet
World Health Organization
guidelines for safe levels,
putting millions at greater
risk of respiratory disease,
lung cancer and other
serious, long-term health
problems, the health agency
said, releasing new data
this week.
May 9, 2014
The state projected in
its species management plan
that king, or Chinook,
salmon runs were expected to
range from 64,000 to
121,000, with the high end
still lower than most years
this past decade.
"It's clear from this run
size that if we are going to
ensure the sustainability of
this population over time,
we need to get all of those
fish to the spawning
grounds," Alaska Department
of Fish and Game biologist
Stephanie Schmidt said.
Flint Energies CEO Bob
Ray said he has about 86,000
customers still paying for
the power cooperative's $109
million share of upgrades at
Juliette's Plant Scherer.
This week, he was in
Washington, D.C., at a
legislative conference,
worrying with other electric
company chiefs about
regulations not yet
released.
"We're anticipating it's
going to be very, very
negative and very, very
costly," Ray said of
regulations expected next
month on existing power
plants. The company tries to
have safe, reliable and
affordable power, but "that
affordability is really
under attack," he said
Wednesday.
By concocting a second set
of “talking points” and
pushing a fake storyline
that deliberately
mischaracterized the attack,
the Obama administration was
groping for political cover.
Now, instead of cover,
they’ve got more political
problems.
In Falluja, several
mortars struck in and around
hospital property. Eight
civilians were killed and 10
more were wounded during air
strikes. Earlier 13 people
were killed and 21 were
wounded in more air strikes.
Four militants were killed
and four more were wounded
in clashes.
The climate change debate
continues. Are anthropogenic
causes of global warming
responsible for melting ice
and rising seas or are
natural cycles and climate
variations to blame?
There's no question that
Greenland's glaciers are in
fact melting. And while the
obvious culprit may be
global warming caused by
rising carbon dioxide
emissions, University of
Washington atmospheric
scientists have estimated
that up to half of the
recent warming in Greenland
and surrounding areas may be
due to climate variations.
The kicker? These climate
variations originate in the
tropical Pacific and are not
connected with the overall
warming of the planet.
Native Americans have
long had a close
relationship with their
lands and waters—sacred
places and resources that
define their lives. The
disruptions wrought by a
warming climate are forcing
abrupt cultural changes on
peoples with a long reliance
on a once stable ecosystem.
More than three months after
regulators were told that a
coal ash containment pond in
North Carolina had failed
and was dumping toxic sludge
into the nearby Dan River,
environmental experts are
taking a hard look at what's
left in the water. What they
have found may not bode well
for the long-range health of
the area's ecosystem.
Deepwater Wind today
announced plans to develop
the West Coast's first-ever
offshore wind farm - a
project poised to become the
world's first commercial
project to use cutting-edge
floating foundation
technology.
The three main components of
a battery's makeup: the
anode, cathode and the
ion-conducting electrolyte,
have been long understood to
serve separate, independent
functions. A team of
researchers at the US
Department of Energy's Oak
Ridge National Laboratory
(ORNL) is seeking to
challenge this theory,
experimenting with a dual
functioning electrolyte that
supplements the cathode to
significantly improve the
capacity and longevity of
long-life batteries.
By the year 2100, if
greenhouse gas emissions
stay on their current path,
the global temperature could
rise by more than 11 degrees
Fahrenheit and sea levels
could rise by up to four
feet, affecting all
Americans, finds the third
U.S. National Climate
Assessment released today.
From record heat and
severe drought, torrential
rains, storms and
hurricanes, to sea level
rise, states around the
country are already feeling
the effects of climate
change, according to the
assessment.
Typical approaches to
diagnosing prostate cancer
can be costly and invasive.
Furthermore, a large number
of prostate cancers are
low-grade and won't result
in symptoms or death,
meaning that without
necessarily extending it,
aggressive forms of
treatment can impact a
sufferer's quality of life.
In an attempt to establish a
less invasive method of
detecting the condition,
Finnish researchers have
developed an electronic nose
capable of sniffing the
patient's urine sample to
distinguish between prostate
cancer and benign disease.
Three months after his
defeat in the Tokyo
gubernatorial race, former
Prime Minister Morihiro
Hosokawa has teamed up once
again with fellow ex-Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi
to renew their effort to
abolish nuclear power, even
as the central government
takes steps to revive it.
The Obama
administration's ambitious
plan to curb carbon
pollution from existing
power plants would be "the
nail in the coffin" for
coal, says the head of the
industry's Pennsylvania
trade group.
"We believe you'll see a
dramatic increase in the
closing of coal-fired power
plants because they would no
longer be economically
viable," John Pippy, CEO of
the Pennsylvania Coal
Alliance, said on Wednesday.
Green Cross Russia announced
today the development of an
innovative method converting
animal waste into biogas for
half the price and running
on cleaner energy than
existing biogas facilities
in Europe. This
groundbreaking method – the
Green Cross Method - was
developed in a farm on the
outskirts of Moscow.
-
If you eat processed
foods, you’re being
exposed to toxic
herbicides, which
mounting evidence shows
are instrumental in
promoting chronic
disease
-
The continual depletion
of minerals in food
matches the progressive
implementation of
agricultural practices
like mechanization,
nitrogen-heavy
fertilizers, and
pesticide use—all of
which damage soils
-
In order to receive the
same amount of iron you
used to get from one
apple in 1950, by 1998
you had to eat 26 apples
-
Ionic mineral
extractions from ocean
water can be used in
sustainable agriculture
to remineralize damaged
soils, and increase the
nutrition of foods grown
in it
The survey by Dutch research
agency Motivaction said in
China, where public anger
has mounted over hazardous
levels of pollution in towns
and cities,
environmentalists had a
greater sense of urgency
about action needed to
tackle the problem than
Western counterparts, where
the financial crisis has
knocked environmental policy
down the political agenda.
Access to safe drinking
water is a fundamental
requirement for good health
and is also a human right.
WHO and UNICEF’s indicator
is based upon the "use of an
improved source". The
authors of a recent study
into water contamination
postulated that this did not
account for water quality
measurements or monitor
global access to safe
drinking water. Researchers
Robert Bain and Jamie
Bartram from The Water
Institute at University of
North Carolina sought to
determine whether water from
"improved" sources is less
likely to contain fecal
contamination than
"unimproved" sources and to
assess the extent to which
contamination varies by
source type and setting.
Members of Open Carry
Tarrant County had stopped
at a Fort Worth Jack in the
Box restaurant before a
scheduled demonstration to
simply order some food last
Thursday. The fast-food
employees, however,
apparently thought they were
in danger of becoming
robbery victims and made a
rather unorthodox move.
The Polish government plans
to resuscitate the coal
industry as the backbone of
the country's energy
security, with the aid of
state support, following
events in Ukraine, Prime
Minister Donald Tusk said
Wednesday.
"Energy
security and responsibility
for the community means the
need to skillfully delineate
between chasing profits and
the rehabilitation, not only
of Polish coal, but the
rehabilitation of people who
work hard everyday, so that
we transform the slogan of
energy security into
practical action,' Tusk told
the European Economic
Congress in Katowice.
-
Men with chronic
premature ejaculation
may benefit from pelvic
exercises, commonly used
to treat incontinence.
Men achieved a more than
fourfold increase in
stamina by the end of
the three-month pelvic
exercise program
-
Erectile dysfunction can
be successfully
addressed through
lifestyle alterations
involving weight
management, proper diet,
increasing your activity
levels, avoiding
alcohol, and improving
your sleep
-
Among men with heart
disease, 75 percent also
have problems with
erections. In fact,
impotence can be an
early warning sign of
coronary artery disease.
A heart-healthy
lifestyle is therefore
imperative
-
Ensuring your
testosterone and human
growth hormone levels
are optimized—through
high-intensity exercise
and intermittent
fasting—can go a long
way toward boosting your
libido and sexual
performance
Potsdam Institute for
Climate Impact Research
(PIK) latest study shows
that if East Antarctica’s
Wilkes Basin’s rim of ice
lets go, it is likely to
trigger a persistent ice
discharge into the ocean,
resulting in unstoppable
sea-level rise for thousands
of years to come. Using the
ground profile under the
ice, the researchers used
computer ice flow
simulations under the ice
sheet.
M5 event observed.
There are currently 9
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 (09
May, 10 May, 11 May).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on days one
and three (09 May, 11 May)
and quiet to active levels
on day two (10 May).
Russia has ordered
crisis-hit Ukraine to pay
upfront for all its future
natural gas deliveries
because of billions of
dollars in outstanding
debts.
The largely-anticipated
announcement imperils
supplies to a large swathe
of the European Union
because nearly 15 per cent
of all Russian gas consumed
by the 28-nation bloc
transits through Ukraine.
Clashes and security
operations in Anbar province
left dozens dead and
wounded. Also, attacks on
journalists from militants
and the government continue.
Senators have given the
green light to the
Shaheen-Portman energy
efficiency bill with a
bipartisan vote of 79-20,
moving the bill on to the
Senate floor after a long,
painstaking three years. The
bill's original introduction
date was May 16, 2011.
Statistically, you
have a 1 in 4 chance of
dying from cancer.
If you have a family of four
or more, those odds are not
very encouraging for you and
the people you love.
The new solar array on
David Thompson's roof in
Maryland Heights isn't so
much an environmental
statement as it is a buffer
against higher electricity
prices.
The panels he had
installed last month should
shave his monthly utility
bills by half, he said, and
in about eight years, they
will have paid for
themselves.
The Resnick Sustainability
Institute at Caltech will
help scientists and
engineers advance research
aimed at meeting the
nation's need for a
sustainable energy future,
thanks to a $15 million
donation by the Institute's
namesake (Lynda and Stewart
Resnick), bringing total
funding to nearly $60
million.
The newest reactor at
TVA's oldest nuclear plant
automatically shut down
Tuesday after power supply
was temporarily interrupted
to two recirculation pumps
that supply water to the
reactor core, TVA officials
said today.
The trip of the two pumps
at the Unit 3 reactor at the
Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant
caused the unit to cease
power generation around 9:30
a.m. EDT on Tuesday...
The Obama administration is
studying whether the US
should export some of its
growing crude production, a
top White House energy
adviser said Thursday...
With US production surging
thanks to the shale boom,
many upstream operators and
integrated majors have begun
to push for an end to the
ban, as much of the oil
being produced is light,
sweet crude that most
refineries in the US are not
optimized to use.
Weekly US coal carloads for
the week ending May 3
continue to improve,
notching their eight
consecutive week of
year-over-year growth, the
Association of American
Railroads reported Thursday.
Coal carloads totaled
112,361, down 0.8% from the
prior week but up 2.6% from
the same week last year,
according to the AAR's
weekly rail traffic report.
In addition to the larger
rotor, the V110-2.0 MW (and
the V100-2.0 MW- also
launched in 2013) has a
strengthened gearbox
compared to previous 2 MW
turbines, to withstand the
increase force from the wind
on the larger rotor.
Furthermore new control
features have enabled
strengthening of the hub and
other parts of the structure
without increasing the
overall weight.
-
Mitochondria make up, on
average, about 1-2
percent of your skeletal
muscle by volume, but
this is generally enough
to provide the needed
energy for your daily
movements
-
Whereas your skeletal
muscle contains only 1-2
percent mitochondria,
your cardiac muscle may
contain up to 35 percent
-
This large volume of
mitochondria supplies a
steady source of energy
right to your heart, and
explains why your heart
rarely needs to “rest”
like your skeletal
muscles do
-
Extreme endurance
exercise significantly
increases cardiac
output, which may put
excessive strain on your
heart depending on the
duration and intensity
of your activity
-
Over-exercising, such as
marathon running, may
not make your heart feel
tired like your other
muscles, but it can
cause scarring,
inflammation, and other
heart damage
Boulder's decision to
formally create a power and
light utility ahead of
filing for condemnation of
Xcel Energy's local
distribution system was
premature and didn't follow
the city's own charter
requirements, Xcel Energy
said Wednesday.
In a statement issued in
response to the City
Council's vote Tuesday
night, company officials
said they didn't understand
why Boulder was taking this
step now.
May 6, 2014
Saying that bicycles can
change the world might sound
like an oversimplification
of things, but when you
start to break it down, it’s
easy to see that the bicycle
has an effect on a lot more
than just how we get from
point A to point B.
Work crews for BP Plc
were clearing contaminated
snow on Thursday on Alaska's
North Slope after a Prudhoe
Bay well line ruptured,
spraying a 34-acre area with
crude oil and natural gas.
Just how much liquid
escaped from the line
remains under investigation
by BP and Alaska's
Department of Environmental
Conservation.
Four years after the Macondo
oil spill, BP has 11
operated rigs running in the
US Gulf of Mexico, the most
the company has ever had
there at one time, BP
America's CEO said Monday.
BP will spend $10
billion over the next five
years in the deepwater US
Gulf, which amounts to about
10% of its worldwide
exploration and production
budget and makes the company
the largest investor in that
arena, said John Minge, who
is also BP America's
chairman and CEO.
Americans across the
country face a 70 percent
increase in unhealthy
summertime ozone levels by
2050, find scientists at the
National Center for
Atmospheric Research in
Boulder working with one of
the world’s most powerful
computers.
This is because warmer
temperatures, higher
atmospheric levels of
methane, and other
atmospheric impacts of a
changing climate, spur
chemical reactions that form
ground-level ozone.
In a passionate call for
change, Karl Falkenberg,
European Commission
Director-General for
Environment calls for a
closure of landfilling, as
we know it. "Separate
collection is very much at
the heart of this circular
economy - [but] we are
coming to realize that
separate collection is not
enough," said Falkenberg,
the at a conference in
Brussels on April 29th.
New proposed emission
standards that would affect
coal-fired power plants
standards would result in
severe economic
consequences, and the
technology required to meet
these standards has not been
proven to reduce carbon
emissions, the Pennsylvania
Coal Alliance told the
Environmental Protection
Agency in a recent filing.
The Wilkes Basin in East
Antarctica, stretching more
than 1,000 km (600 miles)
inland, has enough ice to
raise sea levels by 3 to 4
meters (10-13 feet) if it
were to melt as an effect of
global warming, the report
said.
The Wilkes is vulnerable
because it is held in place
by a small rim of ice,
resting on bedrock below sea
level by the coast of the
frozen continent. That "ice
plug" might melt away in
coming centuries if ocean
waters warm up.
Spring has finally
arrived, but electric bills
won't reflect that. National
Grid customers in the
Capital Region can expect a
$30 jump this month, sending
the average power bill more
than $100.
The increase -- the fifth
in the past six months --
comes as many customers were
starting to get some relief.
El Nino - a warming of
sea temperatures in the
Pacific - affects wind
patterns and can trigger
both floods and drought in
different parts of the
globe, curbing food supply.
The bureau said
sub-surface sea temperatures
had warmed by as much as 6
degrees in recent months.
A main theme in contemporary
liberal democratic states is
equality. The equality that
is implied in nation-states
is the equality of
individual citizens. All
individual citizens within a
country, at least in theory,
have equality before the
law, have the right to vote,
equal opportunity, and
should not face
discrimination for
differences in gender, race,
ethnicity, culture, religion
or age.
In addition to more
stringent state laws, water
and sewer utilities must
comply with federal
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) water
regulations -- for example,
requirements for the
disclosure of chemicals
injected into the ground
during the fracking process
-- and would, ultimately,
bear much of the financial
burden if hydraulic
fracturing (fracking)
operations lead to
contamination of a water
supply, according to Fitch
Ratings.
Those who are livin’
la vida loca in honor of
Cinco de Mayo may see
dancing stars, but it won’t
be from the tequila. The Eta
Aquarid meteor shower peaks
this week, with the best
viewing in the pre-dawn
hours of May 6—perfect
timing for those who are
still out partying to
commemorate Mexico’s 1862
Battle of Puebla.
-
Your diet accounts for
about 80 percent of the
benefits you’ll reap
from a healthy
lifestyle, but even if
you're eating right, you
still need to exercise
effectively to reach
your highest level of
health
-
Recent research found
that, compared to those
who exercised daily, and
often vigorously,
sedentary people had a
six times greater risk
of dying from heart
disease over the course
of 15 years
-
Intermittent movement is
equally critical.
Chronic, undisrupted
sitting—even if you
maintain a regular
fitness program—has been
found to be an
independent risk factor
for premature death
-
Physical activity also
produces biochemical
changes that strengthen
and renew your
brain—particularly areas
associated with memory
and learning
-
One recent study found
that those who had
greater
cardiorespiratory
fitness in their teens
and 20s scored better on
cognitive tests in their
mid-40s and 50s
The first computer model
that can simulate how all
living creatures interact on
a global or local scale has
been released by Microsoft
and the UN Environment
Programme to help scientists
and policy makers answer
crucial environmental
questions...have created
this simulation of life on
Earth, following a set of
basic ecological tools found
in the real world.
Long-term water quality
trends in Midwestern lakes
yield good news in the form
of little change in water
clarity in the regions 3,000
lakes. But what makes this
news unique is that the data
to make this determination
was collected by
non-scientists and local
residents from the area’s
towns and villages.
The roughly 8,300-foot
volcano erupted in an
explosion of hot ash and gas
on May 18, 1980, spewing
debris over some 230 square
miles and causing more than
a billion dollars in
property damage. Entire
forests were crushed and
river systems altered in the
blast, which began with a
5.2 magnitude earthquake.
With a well established
ability to kill off
bacteria, silver has come to
play a significant role in
the development of
antimicrobial materials.
Indeed, we've seen it used
in keyboards, built into
water filtration systems and
deployed in washing machines
as a means of fending off
germs. The latest effort to
harness the
bacteria-fighting qualities
of silver comes from
researchers at Australia's
RMIT University working with
scientists from the CSIRO,
who have developed an
antibacterial fabric capable
of killing off E. coli and
other infectious bacteria
within 10 minutes of
contact.
Solar energy is arguably our
most viable low cost energy
source. It is forever
sustainable and easily
captured and converted. But
now the technology may have
taken yet another leap
forward. To date the
foundational technology
behind photovoltaics was a
structure called perovskite,
which has been made with
lead. Using tin instead of
lead perovskite as the
harvester of light, a team
of Northwestern University
researchers has created a
new solar cell with "good
efficiency". This good
efficiency solar cell is
low-cost, environmentally
friendly and can be easily
made using "bench" chemistry
-- no fancy equipment or
hazardous materials.
Riding on his pride in the
first export of Russian
Arctic oil earlier this
month, President Vladimir
Putin has signed a law that
allows oil and gas
corporations to establish
private armed security
forces to defend their
infrastructure, upping the
ante for protestors.
-
Root canal treated teeth
tend to harbor harmful
microbes. Their toxic
metabolic waste products
can attack your immune
system and contribute to
many chronic diseases
-
If you suffer from any
chronic disease, a
“dental revision” may
help in your recovery
-
Dental revision involves
removing toxic stressors
of oral origin, such as
dead teeth, dead
jawbone, metal tooth
restorations, and
meridian-blocking
implants
-
Dental implants slow
energy flow along
meridians. As with root
canals, your associated
organs, glands, or
anatomical structures
may functionally decline
as a result
-
Pro’s and con’s of
alternative restoration
options are discussed,
including safer
materials and the
ramifications of various
bridge options
Wondering how nutritious
that food is, if that plant
needs water, or just
what that misplaced
pill is? Well, the makers of
SCiO claim that their device
is able to tell you all of
those things, plus a lot
more. To use it, you just
scan the item in question
for one or two seconds, then
check the readout on a
Bluetooth 4.0-linked
smartphone.
SCiO is actually a
miniature spectroscope. Like
the bigger, more expensive
laboratory-grade models it's
based on, it works by
shining near-infrared light
on materials, exciting their
molecules in the process. By
analyzing the light that's
reflected off those
vibrating molecules, it's
reportedly possible to
identify them by their
unique optical signature,
and thus determine the
chemical composition of the
material.
In Anbar:
In Falluja,
shelling and air strikes
left 15 dead and 11 wounded.
Two sets of scientists have
reported promising results
from a new recipe for solar
cells, which could result in
panels for solar power that
are easier and cheaper to
make.
Successfully creating
artificial intelligence
would be "the biggest event
in human history", they
write, and the possible
benefits for everyday human
life are enormous. There
could come a time, however,
when machines outpace human
achievement. If and when
that day arrives, they
wonder, will the best
interest of humans still
factor into their
calculations?
The Supreme Court on
Monday narrowly upheld the
centuries-old tradition of
offering prayers to open
government meetings, even if
the prayers are
overwhelmingly Christian and
citizens are encouraged to
participate.
The 5-4 ruling, supported
by the court's conservative
justices and opposed by its
liberals, was based in large
part on the history of
legislative prayer dating
back to the Framers of the
Constitution.
The traditional antivirus is
"dead" and "doomed to
failure," Symantec's
information security chief
declares. Quelle surprise,
considering Norton is fading
into oblivion. But what
next?
For the first time ever, the
World Health Organization on
Monday declared the spread
of polio an international
public health emergency that
could grow in the next few
months and unravel the
nearly three-decade effort
to eradicate the crippling
disease.
The U.S. federal government
is the nation's largest
consumer and disposer of
electronics. Considering the
number of federal
employees—about 2.7 million
at last count, not including
the military or courts—U.S.
government employees
contribute a massive portion
to the approximate 2.4
million tons of electronic
waste, or e-waste, that is
discarded annually. Not only
are those monitors,
printers, cell phones and
all those peripherals
leeching chemicals into soil
and water supplies,
government (as well as
companies) leave money on
the table thanks to all of
those rare earth minerals
allowing them to function in
the first place.
The United States is
prepared to give Congo $30
million in aid for stability
and democracy-building — but
wants President Joseph
Kabila to agree to step down
at the end of his current
term in office, U.S.
Secretary of State John
Kerry said Sunday.
May 2, 2014
Did you know it is still
legal to withhold food and
clothing from Indian
children who don’t attend
school? Or that Indian
children can be placed in
reform schools without
parental consent? While it
is unlikely these laws would
be enforced, these and other
boarding school laws are
still on the federal law
books. According to Native
American Rights Staff
Attorney Melody McCoy, some
of the laws are at least
outdated, and at worst
assimilationist, racist and
genocidal.
At least 18 people were
killed and 50 were injured
Friday in two suicide car
bombings in central Syria, a
media report said.
A suicide bomber blew up
a booby-trapped car in
Jidreen town, killing 17
civilians, including 11
children, the official SANA
news agency reported.
Iraqis went to the polls
today. Increased security
seemed what somewhat
effective. Security
officials, however, admitted
there were at least 50
attacks today on polling
stations. In those attacks
and others, 26 people
were killed and 45 more were
wounded.
Mortgage rates have
dropped again for U.S.
borrowers.
For the third time in
four weeks, purchasing power
has grown among buyers and
refinance opportunities are
widening among existing
homeowners -- especially
those with FHA-backed
mortgages. The FHA
Streamline Refinance remains
in demand at the low
mortgage rates today.
Antimicrobial resistance
(AMR) within a wide range of
infectious agents is a
growing public health threat
of broad concern to
countries and multiple
sectors. Increasingly,
governments around the world
are beginning to pay
attention to a problem so
serious that it threatens
the achievements of modern
medicine.
Major U.S. technology
companies have largely ended
the practice of quietly
complying with
investigators’ demands for
e-mail records and other
online data, saying that
users have a right to know
in advance when their
information is targeted for
government seizure.
This increasingly defiant
industry stand is giving
some of the tens of
thousands of Americans whose
Internet data gets swept
into criminal investigations
each year the opportunity to
fight in court to prevent
disclosures. Prosecutors,
however, warn that tech
companies may undermine
cases by tipping off
criminals, giving them time
to destroy vital electronic
evidence before it can be
gathered.
In new rankings released by
the Solar Electric Power
Association (SEPA), APS
placed among the top 5 solar
utilities in four
categories. Most notably,
APS received its highest
ranking in program history -
third in the nation for
solar installed last year,
thanks in large part to an
innovative new solar
facility that can produce
power in the dark.
Are you alarmed by the
safety and integrity of our
food system? Do you worry
about fluoride in your food
supply? According to an
article published in JAMA
Internal Medicine, a
publication of the American
Medical Association, you are
a head case.
As Alberta’s new Premier
Dave Hancock met with Prime
Minister Stephen Harper in
Ottawa today, the two
leaders agreed that they
cannot push the
controversial Keystone XL
oil sands pipeline any
closer to approval by the
Obama Administration at this
time.
Syndicated columnist
Charles Krauthammer on
Tuesday said the American
people have the “smoking
document” that proves the
Obama administration took
part in a cover up in the
aftermath of the deadly
Benghazi terrorist attacks.
Judicial Watch has
released newly declassified
emails that suggest
top-ranking Obama
administration officials
coordinated in 2012 to make
it appear that the deadly
attacks on the U.S.
facilities in Libya were
sparked by an “Internet
video” and not “a broader
failure or policy.”
Does cigarette smoke
contaminate tap water?..
Their theory was "that the
so-called tobacco-specific
nitrosamines (TSNAs) might
be found in water. They are
present in tobacco smoke and
are known to be
carcinogenic. They could
emerge in smokers’ urine to
contaminate water supplies,
or might also be found in
water following their
formation during the
disinfection
process," according to Spectroscopynow.
Five cracks found in a
reactor head at the only
currently operating nuclear
plant at V.C. Summer in
Jenkinsville are under
repair, but S.C. Electric &
Gas officials said Monday
the company plans to replace
the aging vessel head in
2017.
The five cracks,
uncovered in inspections
last week during a routine
plant shutdown, did not
penetrate the wall of the
reactor head, the utility
said, and posed no danger to
workers at the site or the
public.
A car bomb has exploded in
the central Syrian city of
Homs killing around 36
people, just hours after an
attack in Damascus killed
14, government officials
said.
State treasurer Janet
Cowell's office will vote
Thursday to oust one Duke
Energy director and has
urged Duke's board to name
an outside investigator of
the February coal ash spill
into the Dan River.
The European Union's
foreign policy chief said on
Tuesday Egypt's sentencing
of 683 people to death
breached international law
and urged Cairo authorities
to ensure defendants' rights
to a fair and timely trial.
An Egyptian court
sentenced the leader of the
outlawed Muslim Brotherhood
and 682 supporters to death
on Monday, intensifying a
crackdown on the movement
that could trigger protests
and political violence
before an election next
month.
Chicago-based Exelon's
nuclear power plants have
been hurt by competition
from power generated by wind
turbines and natural gas.
Exelon on Wednesday also
reported first quarter
earnings of $90 million, or
10 cents a share, in
contrast with a loss of $4
million loss, or a penny a
share, in the year-ago
period. Revenue rose to $7.2
billion, up from $6.1
billion.
A federal judge struck down
Wisconsin's voter
identification law Tuesday,
declaring that a requirement
that voters show a
state-issued photo ID at the
polls imposes an unfair
burden on poor and minority
voters.
Fewer than 27,000 HARP
2.0 loans closed in February
2014, the lowest one-month
tally in more than two
years.
Fewer HARP closings
doesn't mean that the
refinance program for
underwater homeowners is
less valuable, however. In
some states, HARP mortgages
still account for more that
one-third of all refinance
activity; and more than 3
million HARP loans have
closed nationwide.
The Federal Housing
Finance Agency (FHFA) today
released a report providing
updated information on
possible ranges of future
financial results of Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac under
specified scenarios. ..
The stress tests are
designed to determine
whether Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac could absorb
losses as a result of
adverse economic conditions.
Inaccurate forecasts of
project capacity factors
will dog the wind power
industry for the near term
and could result in
overleveraged wind power
projects, Fitch Ratings
warns. However, we believe
the sector should be able to
manage the financial
challenges in operating and
maintenance (O&M) expenses,
transmission curtailment and
equipment failures in the
same period.
-
Age-related macular
degeneration (AMD) is
the most common cause of
blindness among the
elderly, followed by
cataracts
-
The pathology of both of
these conditions has
been attributed to free
radical damage, and the
condition is in many
cases largely
preventable through an
antioxidant-rich diet
-
Whole foods that support
eye health and have been
shown to protect against
AMD include black
currant, bilberry, leafy
greens and other
colorful vegetables, and
pastured egg yolks
-
The omega-3 fatty acid
DHA is concentrated in
your eye’s retina. It
provides structural
support to cell
membranes that protect
retinal function. Eating
foods rich in omega-3
fats, such as salmon,
may slow AMD
-
Wild-caught salmon also
contains astaxanthin,
which may be among the
most important nutrients
for the prevention of
blindness
Part of Gallup's Climate
Change series, Gallup
conducted a recent poll on
Americans' attitudes towards
global warming and found
three categories of
attitudes: Concerned
Believers, Cool Skeptics and
the Mixed Middle.
Understanding attitudes
is important because there's
strength in numbers. While
the good news is that more
Americans believe in global
warming, more Americans also
don't believe in global
warming. The ones who aren't
sure are the most
vulnerable. While we stay
divided, then we'll have to
leave solving global warming
to our leaders because we
can't do it without a
unified front.
Global consumer
confidence returned to
pre-recession levels with an
index score of 96 in the
first quarter of 2014—the
highest score since Q1 2007,
according to consumer
confidence findings from
Nielsen, a leading global
provider of information and
insights into what consumers
watch and buy. The global
index—which recorded its
lowest score of 77 in Q1
2009—represents a two-point
increase from Q4 2013 and a
three-point increase from a
year ago (Q1 2013).
Senate Republicans derailed
a Democratic drive Wednesday
to raise the federal minimum
wage, blocking a cornerstone
of President Barack Obama's
economic plans and ensuring
the issue will be a major
feature of this fall's
congressional elections.
Gunmen attacked Libya’s
parliament on Tuesday just
as lawmakers were to hold a
vote on the country’s next
prime minister. The
assailants opened fire,
wounding several, according
to parliament spokesman Omar
Hmeidan.
Lawmakers fled the
building, according to
witnesses. Though the siege
ended quickly, the crucial
vote to replace Premier
Abdullah Al-Thinni was
postponed until next week.
The NSA, working with its
British counterpart, the
Government Communications
Headquarters (GCHQ),
secretly taps into the
internal networks of Yahoo
and Google, the two biggest
Internet companies by
overall data traffic. The
operation intercepts
information flowing between
the enormous data centers
that those companies
maintain around the world.
In general, Google and Yahoo
use privately owned or
leased lines to synchronize
their data centers. This
graphic shows how the NSA
and GCHQ break into those
internal networks, using
Google’s as an example. Less
is known about Yahoo’s
networks, but the NSA
operations are thought to be
similar.
-
Two million American
adults and children
become infected with
antibiotic-resistant
bacteria each year. At
least 23,000 of them die
as a direct result of
those infections
-
According to the CDC, as
many as 22 percent of
antibiotic-resistant
illness in humans is
linked to food, and
research has shown that
nearly half of all meats
sold in the US harbor
drug-resistant bacteria
-
These drug-resistant
bacteria can easily
spread during food
preparation, via cutting
boards, kitchen
counters, and plastic
gloves used during food
preparation
The International Monetary
Fund (IMF) has approved a
$17.1bn (£10.1bn) bailout
for Ukraine to help the
country's beleaguered
economy. The loan comes amid
heightened military and
political tension between
Ukraine and neighbouring
Russia. The loan is
dependent on strict economic
reforms, including raising
taxes and energy prices.
Kamakura Corporation
reported Thursday that the
Kamakura troubled company
index ended the month of
April at 4.63%, a one month
decrease of 0.21%. The index
reflects the percentage of
the Kamakura 34,000 public
firm universe that has a
default probability over
1.00%. An increase in the
index reflects declining
credit quality while a
decrease reflects improving
credit quality.
Utility and government
officials in the Portland
area are alerting customers
of a problem with their
drinking water.
"The Portland Water
Bureau is warning residents
to be aware of possible
elevated lead levels in
their water supply," KOIN
reported.
Infrastructure is the
culprit. "In Portland, the
biggest source of lead in
tap water comes from
corrosion in pipes, faucets,
and lead solder in
plumbing," the Oregonian reported.
For the first time in the
history of human
exploration, scientists have
found litter is now arriving
before man himself...
One researcher from the
international study team
commented: "Most of the deep
sea remains unexplored by
humans, and these are our
first visits to many of
these sites, but we were
shocked to find that our
rubbish has got there before
us."
With a high-profile bug so
close to XP's end of
support, there was very
little upside for Microsoft
in being strict. This sort
of thing has happened
before.
Much of the news about the
recent Internet Explorer
zero-day attacks had to do
with the prospect of Windows
XP not being patched. This
was in spite of the fact
that the actual attacks in
the wild didn't work on
Windows XP. Even so,
Microsoft decided to patch
Windows XP, even though it
passed its expiration date
several weeks ago.
Every undergraduate
student at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology next
fall will be offered $100 in
bitcoins in an experiment
that students say will turn
the prestigious university
into one of the first places
on the planet with
widespread access to digital
currency.
Bitcoin is not backed by
any government or central
bank, a digital currency
whose value can swing
dramatically based on
demand. Users can transfer
bitcoins to each other
online and store the
currency in digital
"wallets."
The creation of a single
European electricity market
has been moving in a
positive direction. With the
EU Electricity
Liberalization Directive
agreed by all Member States
forming the framework of EU
energy policy, the
overarching goal is for
consumers to benefit from an
internal market governed by
coordinated rules — for the
implementation of renewables
and development of the
electricity network.
If you’ve run out of
drinking water during a
lakeside camping trip,
there’s a simple solution:
Break off a branch from the
nearest pine tree, peel away
the bark, and slowly pour
lake water through the
stick. The improvised filter
should trap any bacteria,
producing fresh,
uncontaminated water.
In fact, an MIT team has
discovered that this
low-tech filtration system
can produce up to four
liters of drinking water a
day — enough to quench the
thirst of a typical person.
A new project led by the
Energy Department's National
Renewable Energy Laboratory
(NREL) and Sandia National
Laboratories will support
H2USA, a public-private
partnership co-launched by
industry and the Energy
Department , and will work
to ensure that hydrogen fuel
cell vehicle owners have a
positive fueling experience
as fuel cell electric
vehicles are introduced
starting in 2014-2015. By
tackling the technical
challenges related to
hydrogen fueling
infrastructure, the Hydrogen
Fueling Infrastructure
Research and Station
Technology (H2FIRST) project
is designed to pave the way
toward more widespread
deployment of hydrogen fuel
cell electric vehicles.
How the ancient Egyptians
managed to move multi-ton
stones to build the pyramids
without modern technology
has long baffled scientists,
but now researchers think
they’ve learned the secret.
In this Egyptian painting,
the researchers pointed out
that it shows a sled with
water being poured in front
of it.
Opponents to storage of
high-level radioactive waste
in West Texas framed their
arguments on Wednesday in
the run-up to a legislative
committee meeting this
summer that will explore
bringing such a disposal
site to the state.
No date has been set for
the House Committee on
Environmental Regulation to
start reviewing storage of
the waste, which are spent
nuclear fuel rods, and "make
specific recommendations" on
what it would take to make
that happen...
Combatting algae is known as
a complicated process which
requires accurate
measurements. A European
consortium would like to
present the dronic project,
which will change algae
treatment into a new
technology that can simplify
and bring it to a higher
level. This will provide an
effective treatment against
algae and cyanobacteria in
lakes and inland water
reservoirs used for drinking
water production.
Turkish police fired tear
gas, water cannon and rubber
pellets on Thursday to stop
May Day protesters, some
armed with fire bombs, from
defying Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan and reaching
Istanbul's central Taksim
square.
The Three-Stage Cause and
Effects of Rural Climate
Change. Climate change as
defined by a layperson might
simply declare global
warming the result of
man-inflamed changes in
global climate. Such a brief
definition would not be far
off base. However, the
official definition from the
UN Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC)
establishes a three-point
structure behind such shifts
in climate.
The bill essentially creates
a new customer class, as it
will allow the Oklahoma
Corporation Commission to
establish higher base
customer charge for
customers who use solar or
wind power. The higher
charge will be used to
defray infrastructure costs
to send the excess
electricity back to the
grid.
In a move that could help
address our insatiable
thirst for fuel while at the
same time help cut CO2
emissions, scientists with
the SOLAR-JET (Solar
chemical reactor
demonstration and
Optimization for Long-term
Availability of Renewable
Jet fuel) project have
recently shown that through
a multi-step process,
concentrated sunlight can be
used to convert carbon
dioxide into kerosene, which
can then be used as jet
fuel.
Solar Wind Energy Tower Inc.
won approval from an Arizona
city to develop a $1.5
billion project that would
use ambient desert heat to
create a draft to generate
electricity, in a concrete
colossus that would be the
tallest structure in North
America.
The 2,250-feet
(686-meter) project,
which resembles a
nuclear plant’s cooling
tower, would be capable
of generating at a
average rate of about
435 megawatt-hours over
the course of a year,
Ron Pickett, chief
executive officer of the
three-year-old
Annapolis,
Maryland-based company,
said in a phone
interview today. In July
and August, the
Southwest’s hottest and
driest months, the plant
could produce more than
1,200 megawatt-hours.
When comparing the
differences in response to
the NBA’s banning of racist
L.A. Clippers owner Don
Sterling to NFL Commissioner
Goodell’s support of
Washington Redsk*ns owner
Dan Snyder, we must look at
the ways in which racist
stereotyping of Native
people is seen as more
acceptable than that of
African Americans and other
ethnic groups in the United
States. We also must look at
why Black players and
sponsors do not take racism
against Native people as
seriously as racism against
other Americans. We must
ask, Why is it okay for Dan
Snyder to talk down to
Native concerns about using
a racial slur as the name of
his team and for our fellow
Americans of color to ignore
us?
The U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE) and Oak Ridge
National Laboratory
estimates more than 65 GW of
new hydropower development
potential across more than
three million U.S. rivers
and streams -- nearly
equivalent to the current
U.S. hydropower capacity --
demonstrating one of the
ways in which the United
States can diversify its
energy portfolio with
sustainable and clean
domestic power generation.
A sample of albacore tuna
caught off the shores of
Oregon and Washington state
have small levels of
radioactivity from the 2011
Fukushima nuclear disaster
in Japan, researchers said
on Tuesday.
But authors of the Oregon
State University study say
the levels are so small you
would have to consume more
than 700,000 pounds of the
fish with the highest
radioactive level to match
the amount of radiation the
average person is annually
exposed to in everyday life
through cosmic rays, the
air, the ground, X-rays and
other sources.
The US Supreme Court on
Tuesday decided in favor of
controversial EPA rules that
aim to limit power-plant
emissions in 28 upwind
states to reduce air
pollution in downwind
states. Critics object that
the rules give regulators
too much power.
Tucson-based UNS Energy
Corp. posted higher
first-quarter profits
despite lower sales at
Tucson Electric Power Co.,
thanks to a rate increase
that went into effect last
year.
A 30-year-old mother is
lucky today after the
quick-thinking of a stranger
helped save her from a
mugging.
The mother of two who was
dragged across a Texas
shopping center parking lot
this week, clinging to her
purse while two suspects in
a sedan tried to snatch it.
That’s when the stranger,
who was armed, stopped the
would-be thieves and forced
them to lie on the ground
while they waited for the
police to arrive.
Type 2 diabetes— long known
to have an adverse effect on
the brain— has now been
linked with the loss of
brain matter.
The Ukrainian army launched
its first major assault on a
rebel stronghold in the east
of the country on Friday,
provoking the heaviest
fighting since a pro-Russian
uprising began a month ago.
Two military helicopters
were shot down, and at least
three people were reported
killed.
Hundreds of pro-Moscow
separatists stormed
government buildings in one
of Ukraine's provincial
capitals on Tuesday and
opened fire on police holed
up in a regional
headquarters, a major
escalation of their revolt
despite new Western
sanctions on Russia.
"The proposal to import
highly radioactive spent
fuel from Germany to SRS is
simply nuclear dumping
dressed up as nuclear
non-proliferation," said
Clements. "Germany's
challenging dilemma with
what to do with its nuclear
waste must not become a
waste management problem for
the Savannah River Site."
- The first estimate
of US first-quarter 2014
gross domestic product
(GDP) growth was 0.1%,
which was down from the
2.6% and 4.1% increases
in the fourth and third
quarters of 2013,
respectively, and well
below market
expectations for a 1.2%
gain.
- The downward
surprise on GDP growth
was despite a stronger
than expected 3.0% jump
in consumer spending
(expectations had been
for a 1.9% increase)
that marked little
moderation from the 3.3%
increase in the fourth
quarter of 2013.
The US Senate is expected to
vote next week on a new bill
which would approve the
controversial and
long-delayed Keystone XL
crude oil pipeline without a
presidential permit, Senate
aides said Thursday.
In a decision that will
help improve New Jersey's
air quality, the U.S.
Supreme Court on Tuesday
upheld a federal rule that
forces coal-burning power
plants in 27 upwind states
to reduce emissions that
cause soot and smog.
The ruling clears the way
for power plants to upgrade
facilities to cut emissions
of sulfur dioxide and
nitrogen oxide _ pollutants
that blow from as far away
as the Mississippi River
into downwind states along
the East Coast, including
New Jersey.
Although Connecticut and
Maine have already passed
GMO labeling laws, Vermont’s
bill is unique: unlike its
New England neighbors,
Vermont decided not to
include a “trigger”
provision in its bill. So
while Connecticut’s and
Maine’s bills won’t activate
unless enough nearby states
also pass GMO labeling laws,
Vermont will immediately
move forward with the
labeling of GMO products.
President Obama's
proposed budget for next
year cuts government funding
for water projects.
The document, released
this month, includes deep
cuts to the entire EPA
budget. Obama proposed $7.89
billion in funding for the
agency, "a cut of
approximately $310 million,
or 3.8 percent, compared to
the agency's current funding
level of $8.2 billion,"
Bloomberg BNA
reported.
Although there have been
reports of a decline in
renewable energy investment
over the past few years, the
outlook for the current
solar industry has been
improving. In 2012, a total
of 31 gigawatts of solar
capacity was installed,
while 39 gigawatts of
capacity was installed in
2013 even though overall
investment in solar energies
fell by 23 percent between
the two years. According to
the annual “Who’s Winning
the Clean Energy Race?”
report released by the Pew
Charitable Trust, this is
related to the steep decline
in price of manufacturing
solar systems, in addition
to a general move toward
more investments in
large-scale solar
installations, which are
more cost-effective overall.
A wind-driven brush fire
burning out of control in a
drought-parched Southern
California wildland on
Wednesday threatened a
wealthy community in the
foothills of the San
Bernardino Mountains and
forced the evacuation of
hundreds of residents,
officials said.
The fast-moving blaze,
which sent smoke billowing
down the foothills toward
large suburban houses, comes
amid a dangerous combination
of unseasonably hot weather
and fierce Santa Ana winds
that put much of Southern
California's brushy
hillsides at risk of fire.