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“It remains an open
question, however, whether
the Wampanoag were actually
invited, or if they crashed
the party.”
The Pilgrims were most
likely nervous—the Wampanoag
outnumbered the Pilgrims two
to one, but it certainly
wasn’t the happy picture put
forth in many history books
The Arizona Corporation
Commission (ACC) is
considering a major overhaul
of its energy-efficiency
standards for utilities,
which many large companies
doing business in the state
endorse. However, utility
Arizona Public Service
Company (APS) is opposing
any changes to the current
rules.
Commission rules, first
established in 2010,
currently require
investor-owned utilities to
achieve a 22 percent
cumulative reduction in
electricity sales by 2020.
The commission is now
looking at setting specific
energy-efficiency goals for
each utility, with similar
changes for natural gas
companies.
As I was recently dulling
blades while chopping
switchgrass for some
experiments, I started
thinking whether the “high
yield perennial grasses on
marginal land” paradigm
makes any sense for
biofuels. There are many
positives about using
perennial grasses. They are
low maintenance, high yield,
require low additional
nutrients, and have broad
growing ranges.
Len Rand, CEO of xF
Technologies, says his
company has come up with a
material that can
dramatically reduce the
particulate matter in diesel
emissions.
China will take a "zero
tolerance" approach to a
wide range of environmental
violations and has promised
stronger action against
regional governments that
protect polluters or hinder
inspections, according to a
Cabinet document.
Authorities across China
have been ordered to take
part in a comprehensive
inspection program to be
completed by the end of 2015
Conservation groups sued the
government Tuesday to force
officials to undertake their
first broad review of the
federal coal-leasing program
in decades and consider how
burning the fuel contributes
to climate change.
Flushing the human waste
produced on space missions
out an airlock isn't an
option for astronauts.
Currently its stored in
containers before being
loaded into cargo vehicles
that burn up as they pass
through Earth's atmosphere,
but researchers at the
University of Florida (UF)
have found a better use for
the material, by developing
a process to turn it into
rocket fuel.
Federal regulators are
taking their fight with
Texas over pollution from
coal-fired power plants to
an unlikely new front: Big
Bend National Park.
The Environmental
Protection Agency on Monday
proposed costly new
scrubbers and other
pollution controls at eight
coal plants in an attempt to
restore natural visibility
on federal lands, including
Big Bend, whose majestic
vistas have been steadily
obscured by a hazy smear of
smog and soot.
In
Washington, the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) announced it is
delaying finalization of the
long-awaited 2014 Renewable
Fuel Standard (RFS)
Renewable Volume Obligations
until 2015.
The proposed 2014
rule ran into a
steamroller of
opposition from
renewable fuel groups,
who said the proposed
rule substantially
cutting biofuels targets
“pulled the rug” from
underneath billions of
dollars investment made
in reliance upon
targets.
A resolution calls on
Europe's competition
regulators to consider
"unbundling" Google's other
commercial services from its
search business. The vote
sends a signal -- but it's
only symbolic.
The study of 2,095 children
born between 1991 and 2001
in villages around Tumbes in
northern Peru found that
those born during or just
after the El Nino weather
system, which caused floods,
damaged crops and triggered
illnesses such as malaria
and diarrhoea, grew less
than normal.
France will eliminate
export credits for energy
projects in developing
countries which involve
coal, the most polluting
fossil fuel, President
Francois Hollande said on
Thursday.
The European Union is
phasing out subsidies for
domestic coal plants by 2018
in line with its efforts to
take a global lead in the
fight against climate
change.
Hong Kong authorities
cleared more street
barricades from a
pro-democracy protest camp
in a volatile district
Wednesday, part of a two-day
operation in which police
arrested more than 100
people, including key
student leaders.
Fracking fluid is largely
comprised of water and sand,
but oil and gas companies
also add a variety of other
chemicals, including
anti-bacterial agents,
corrosion inhibitors and
surfactants. Surfactants
reduce the surface tension
between water and oil,
allowing for more oil to be
extracted from porous rock
underground.
Using a new imaging
technique, National
Institutes of Health
researchers have found that
the biological machinery
that builds DNA can insert
molecules into the DNA
strand that are damaged as a
result of environmental
exposures.
These damaged molecules
trigger cell death that
produces some human
diseases, according to the
researchers. The work
provides a possible
explanation for how one type
of DNA damage may lead to
cancer, diabetes,
hypertension, cardiovascular
and lung disease, and
Alzheimer’s disease.
On Nov. 11, China and the
United States, the world's
biggest emitters of carbon,
acknowledged the urgent need
to curb emissions. The
agreement is seen as a
victory and landmark for
climate change. This is the
first time that either
nation has formed a mutual
pact purposed toward
combating climate change.
In the latest battle within
the food industry over what
to call and what not to call
“all natural,”
mega-corporation General
Mills was forced to remove
the label “100% Natural”
from more than 20 of its
products, including its
Nature Valley snack bars and
crispy squares. This is yet
more evidence that the food
movement is having a
much-needed impact, even on
mega-corps such as General
Mills
The American mining
industry is asking a federal
appeals court to overturn a
ban on new uranium mining
claims near the Grand Canyon
in a legal battle with
environmentalists over
impacts on the premier U.S.
park.
In 2012, the Obama
administration set aside for
20 years new mining claims
and limited development on
existing claims on roughly 1
million acres (404,686
hectares) of public lands in
northern Arizona adjacent to
the Grand Canyon.
A new analysis by the
federal Environmental
Protection Agency may be
good news for Maine firms
that make electricity by
burning wood, but some
environmental groups are
crying foul.
The new EPA analysis,
issued last week, suggests
how the federal government
will count greenhouse gas
emissions from wood-fired
biomass facilities, and an
accompanying memo from a
top-ranking EPA official
suggests biomass producers
will likely get a pass when
it comes to strict, new
carbon dioxide regulations.
C8 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a chance for
M-class flares on days one,
two, and three (28 Nov, 29
Nov, 30 Nov). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet
levels on days one, two, and
three (28 Nov, 29 Nov, 30
Nov).
Parliament is said to be
putting pressure on the EC
to go the break-up route,
and it’s seen largely as a
political move. The U.S.,
which essentially cleared
Google of any antitrust
violations, is warning
against the break-up
proposal.
It may sound like the first
chapter of a Quatermass
thriller, but scientists
from the University of
Zurich (UZH) have discovered
that DNA can survive not
only a flight through space,
but also re-entry into the
Earth's atmosphere and still
remain active.
The EPA establishes the
maximum allowed levels of
pesticides, or EPA
tolerances, which may
be present on foods.
Although most
EPA -registered pesticides
are prohibited in organic
production, there can be
inadvertent or indirect
contact from neighboring
conventional farms or shared
handling facilities. As long
as the operator hasn’t
directly applied prohibited
pesticides and has
documented efforts to
minimize exposure to them,
the USDA organic regulations
allow for residues of
prohibited pesticides at or
below 5 percent of the EPA
tolerance.
The deliberate, large-scale
intervention in the Earth’s
climate system is not a
“quick fix” for global
warming, according to the
findings of the UK’s first
publicly funded studies on
geoengineering.
It’s been nine months since
Ivanpah celebrated its grand
opening in February, 2014.
Since that time, the world’s
largest concentrating solar
power plant has continued to
receive accolades from
around the globe, including
being named Plant of the
Year by Power Magazine, the
first time a renewable
energy project has ever
received that honor in in
more than 40 years.
Two teenage girls wearing
suicide belts blew
themselves up in a market in
northern Nigeria on Tuesday,
killing more than 40 people,
authorities said. It was the
latest in a string of
horrific attacks in Nigeria
for which Islamist militants
are blamed.
Scotland's Albatern is
putting a new, modular spin
on renewable energy
generation. WaveNET is a
scalable array of floating
"Squid" generator units that
harvest wave energy as their
buoyant arms rise and fall
with the motion of the
waves. Each Squid can link
up to as many as three
others, effectively creating
a large, floating grid
that's flexible in every
direction. The bigger this
grid gets, the more
efficient it becomes at
harvesting energy, and the
more different wave
movements it can extract
energy from. Albatern's
10-year target is to have
1.25 kilometer-long floating
energy farms pumping out as
much as 100 megawatts by
2024.
Yeah, it was made up.
It was Abraham Lincoln who
used the theme of Pilgrims
and Indians eating happily
together. He was trying to
calm things down during the
Civil War when people were
divided. It was like a nice
unity story.
According to the latest
"Energy Infrastructure
Update" report from the
Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission's (FERC) Office
of Energy Projects, wind
power provided over
two-thirds (68.41 percent)
of new U.S. electrical
generating capacity in
October 2014. Specifically,
five wind farms in Colorado,
Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska,
and Texas came on line last
month, accounting for 574 MW
of new capacity.
The news reports and
speculation over what
Congress will do with
federal wind energy tax
credits when Republicans
control both the House and
Senate come January are
numerous. The biggest
backers of the wind industry
tax credit program are not
expected to have as much
pull as they did, which
could mean a questionable
future for the industry.
Most industry professionals
have agreed for some time
that the cost of wind and
solar power will be lower
than coal and gas prices.
The question stirring up the
most argument is when. Many
observers say that day is
years away, but utilities
have been increasingly
willing to sign long-term
power purchase agreements
for renewable energy now.
We don’t need really
need to justify a piece of
chocolate, but it is always
gratifying to hear how our
favorite treat has awesome
health benefits as well.
Here are 7 (more)
reasons you should indulge
in Chocolate.
Tamir E. Rice, 12, was shot
by Cleveland police outside
Cudell Recreation Center
Saturday evening after
police said he brandished
what would turn out to be a
BB gun when officers told
him to keep his hands in the
air, police said.
Cleveland's official
government website was down
Monday morning after
officials said it was
attacked overnight. The
online group Anonymous
claims it sabotage the
website as a response to the
killing of 12-year-old Tamir
Rice by a Cleveland police
officer.
A US drone destroyed a house
in Mada Khel village of
North Waziristan today,
killing six people and
wounding three others. None
of the slain were
identified, but all were
labeled “suspects.”
If that story sounds awfully
familiar, it’s because it
is. Today’s attack marks the
500th confirmed US drone
strike outside of actual
warzones, with just about 10
years worth of strikes.
APEC member economies,
the worlds largest producers
and consumers of energy, are
advancing new measures to
double the share of
renewable energy in the
region within 15 years to
keep pace with rising demand
and ease the environmental
impact of economic
development across the
Asia-Pacific.
Actions ranging from
technical cooperation to
facilitate solar
photovoltaic rooftop
installation to support for
low carbon heating system
development and renewable
energy grid integration...
A new study by researchers
from the University of
California, Berkeley, and
the Pontifical Catholic
University of Chile "has
linked the chemical element
with a 50 percent drop in
breast cancer deaths," the
Daily Mail
reported.
AT&T Inc (T.N) will pay $52
million in civil penalties
and environmental compliance
as part of a settlement with
California over illegal
dumping of hazardous waste
but won't be required to
clean up the resulting
contamination, state
officials said on Thursday.
A bad marriage increases an
older adult's risk of heart
trouble, and that's
particularly true for women,
a new study contends. ..
They also found that a bad
marriage's harmful impact on
heart health increased with
age.
Bone broth has a long
history of medicinal
use. Traditionally, it
has been associated with
gut healing, and many
modern diseases appear
to be rooted in gut
dysfunction
Digestive problems and
joint problems in
particular can be
successfully addressed
using bone broth, but
it’s really a
foundational component
of a healing diet
regardless of what ails
you
Bone broth is also a
staple remedy for acute
illnesses such as cold
and flu. Processed,
canned soups will not
work as well as the
homemade version
Bone broth contains a
variety of valuable
nutrients in a form your
body can easily absorb
and use
The more gelatinous the
broth, the more
nourishing it will tend
to be. To make it as
gelatinous as possible,
add chicken feet, pig’s
feet, and/or joint bones
According to new U.S. Census
Bureau statistics, revenues
for electric power
generation industries that
use renewable energy
resources rose 49.0 percent
from $6.6 billion in 2007 to
$9.8 billion in 2012, and
include hydroelectric, wind,
geothermal, biomass, solar
and tidal energy.
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA)
proposed Clean Power Plan is
the latest in a series of
regulations that, in
conjunction with rising
natural gas prices, will
increase the cost of
electricity and natural gas
by nearly $300 billion in
2020 compared with 2012,
according to a study by
Energy Ventures Analysis for
Peabody Energy, which
demonstrates the heavy
financial burden the EPA's
regulations will put on
American families,
businesses and manufacturers
through spiking energy
costs.
With Duke Energy planning
to transfer up to 8 million
tons of coal ash to Sanford
, many Lee County residents
wondered aloud at a recent
board of commissioners
meeting about the ways the
material could be reused.
According to Duke Energy
, the company recycled or
reused about 67 percent of
coal ash produced in 2013,
mostly in engineered
structural fills and
concrete projects.
A local dried fruit company
has found a high-octane
purpose for all its left
over fruit waste. For
nearly two decades, Summit
Foods in Cornelius has been
making dried fruits. But the
process to dry those fruits
creates hundreds of gallons
of waste juice every day.
The problem is, the landfill
won't take it and it's too
expensive to put down the
drain.
Meriden, Connecticut has
taken an interesting
approach to shaving its
electric bills by generating
power from water that
normally would spill over a
dam. A project is underway
to take advantage of
technology commonly
attributed to Archimedes.
Referred to as screw
generator technology, it
involves sinking a large
screw underground adjacent
to the dam. Water that would
normally spill over the top
of the dam is channeled to
the screw which propels it
to turn and generate
electricity.
The Providence -based
company's plan to build the
first offshore wind farm in
the United States cleared
its final regulatory hurdles
with the awarding of two
more state and federal
approvals.
The U.S. Energy Information
Administration (EIA) has
released a new tool for
tracking U.S. crude oil
imports, allowing
policymakers, analysts, and
the public to more easily
track trends in this area.
The tool sheds light on the
adjustments to imports being
made in response to growing
production of crude oil
within the United States and
is just one part of EIA's
ongoing effort to assess the
effects of a possible
relaxation of current
limitations on U.S. crude
oil exports, which is
another avenue to
accommodate domestic
production growth.
The facility's
state-of-the-art dry
anaerobic digesters use
bacteria to break down food
waste in an oxygen-free
environment, converting it
into methane biogas to
generate electricity. The
facility can digest and
compost 90,000 tons of food
waste and produce 1.6
megawatts per year.
A lot of coverage was
given this week to the
University of California at
San Diego study that found
regular consumption of
partially hydrogenated oil
(PHO), the major source of
trans fat in the American
diet, may impair your memory
—perhaps even faster than it
clogs your arteries.
But there was an
important question that the
media failed to raise in
reporting on this latest
research, which was
presented Tuesday at the
American Heart Association’s
annual meeting in Chicago.
The question is this:
whatever became of that
“preliminary determination”
made a year ago this month
by the Food and Drug
Administration that PHO
should be removed from the
Generally Recognized as Safe
(GRAS) list and phased out
of processed foods?
Now there has been yet
another shift, according to
a report in the Santa Fe
New Mexican, which
published the results of a
six-month investigation into
WIPP and LANL on November
16. The story shows that
LANL not only made a series
of mistakes early on, but
also that when LANL
officials found out, they
were not forthcoming to the
DOE, the state of New
Mexico, the WIPP workers or
the residents of Carlsbad.
“We are guinea pigs in
the middle of this fracking
experiment. Texas homes are
built to withstand wind, not
earthquakes,” Sharon Wilson,
an organizer for Earthworks,
an advocacy group, said on
Sunday. “Who will pay for
the damage to private
property?”
Fracking involve the
injection a mix of
pressurized water, sand and
chemicals to unlock
hydrocarbons from rock can
trigger earthquakes. Many
environmental groups say the
technique is wasteful,
polluting and noisy, but the
industry says it is safe.
Former New York Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani says that
the media focusing on the
Ferguson, Missouri grand
jury should spend more
attention on why white
police officers are in black
neighborhoods to start with.
"Backdoor Regin" bears a
resemblance to Stuxnet, was
developed by a wealthy
nation.
Researchers have unearthed
highly advanced malware they
believe was developed by a
wealthy nation-state to spy
on a wide range of
international targets in
diverse industries,
including hospitality,
energy, airline, and
research.
Hong Kong authorities on
Tuesday began clearing away
some barricades from part of
a pro-democracy protest site
in Mong Kok district, scene
of previous violent
confrontations with police
and angry mobs.
Police were on hand to
assist bailiffs working
under a court order to
remove obstructions from the
site, which activists have
occupied for nearly two
months. It said police are
authorized to arrest anyone
obstructing the bailiffs.
This is partly due to
“decade-long financial
support from Mexican and
international
philanthropists and
businesses to create local
alternative income
generation and employment”,
it says. Schemes such as
community tree nurseries,
the growing ecotourism
sector and community
surveillance of illegal
logging have generated new
sources of income for local
people.
The documentary “Poison
on the Platter” examines
how multinational
corporations and the
Indian government have
conspired to spread GE
foods across India
Despite laws banning the
import of GE foods, they
line supermarket shelves
across India
Dozens of GE crop trials
are underway on Indian
farmland, including
okra, potatoes, and BT
brinjal (eggplant),
which makes its own
insecticide
Five months after the
Internal Revenue Service
deemed that emails sent by
former official Lois Lerner
had been lost forever, the
Treasury Department's
inspector general told
Congress on Friday that as
many as 30,000 might have
been found — and
conservatives were outraged.
"Nothing they do
surprises me," Washington
attorney Cleta Mitchell told
Newsmax of the latest
development in the agency's
targeting scandal of tea
party groups. "Nothing they
fail to do surprises me.
Japan stepped up its role
in large-scale war games
with the United States this
week, with one of its
admirals commanding air and
sea maneuvers that the U.S.
military described as the
most complex ever overseen
by the Japanese navy.
The Keen Sword exercises
involving more than 30,000
Japanese troops and 11,000
U.S. personnel come as Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe seeks a
higher profile for Japan in
the security alliance.
"I'm saying the House
Intelligence Committee is
doing a lousy job policing
their own," Graham told CNN
correspondent Gloria Borger
on the "State of the Union"
program.
"I'm saying
that anybody who has
followed Benghazi at all
knows that the [former] CIA
deputy director [Mike
Morell] did not come forward
to tell Congress what role
he played in changing the
talking points and the only
way we knew he was involved
is when he told a
representative at the White
House, I'm going to do a
hard review of this, a hard
rewrite," said Graham.
Here's a little known
fact about climate change:
According to NOAA, if we
could magically cut all
current CO2 emissions
worldwide to zero today
(a feat even Merlin
couldn't achieve) it would
do nothing to stop climate
change from continuing to
get worse for centuries.
Unless we actually draw some
of the carbon already
emitted back down to earth
we are simply telling a
400-pound patient to gain
weight a little more slowly.
Debunking a series of
persistent allegations
hinting at dark
conspiracies, the
investigation of the
politically charged incident
determined that there was no
intelligence failure, no
delay in sending a CIA
rescue team, no missed
opportunity for a military
rescue, and no evidence the
CIA was covertly shipping
arms from Libya to Syria.
The U.S. power grid and
other crucial
infrastructures have been
penetrated by the Chinese
and other governments,
posing a serious threat to
shut down the systems and
create chaos through
cyberattacks.
In its 13 pages, a branch
of New York Mayor Bill de
Blasio's office weighed in
against a request from R.E.
Ginna Nuclear Power Plant in
Wayne County to force an
electric utility, Rochester
Gas & Electric , to
negotiate a payment plan to
keep the plant running and
the Rochester-area power
grid reliable. The filing
also points to Cayuga Power
Plant in Lansing , Tompkins
County , and another in
Chautauqua County , citing
similar circumstances.
Essentially, the city
asks: If Ginna gets approval
for a survival package that
likely would be paid for by
RG&E ratepayers, what keeps
other power plants from
holding other utilities and
their customers hostage?
The Dayton Daily News
reported Sunday that the
Riverside Local School board
in central Ohio's Logan
County has held recent
discussions on placing guns
in schools and plans to
revisit the issue Dec. 16.
Superintendent Scott Mann
said the goal is to protect
children from potential
threats involving weapons.
One key article presented
by the New Yorker not
only misrepresents how GMO
crops are created, but also
fails to mention any of the
risks of genetically
engineered crops. Even the
FDA has admitted there are
“unexpected” changes that
can occur as a result of
utilizing the techniques
which biotech likes to rely
upon. Propagandized media
promotes the same biotech
bias as usual – that
traditional cross-breeding
of crops is the same as
biotech augmentation – when
it is not similar by any
stretch of the imagination.
A police force in the
Philippines has started to
use HHO on their vehicles,
which saves them 30% on fuel
and reduces emissions by
90%. (Free Energy Blog;
November 18, 2014).
The marketplace for
more-or-less normal-looking
LED light bulbs became just
a little more crowded
yesterday, when Philips
announced the dimmable
75-watt equivalent version
of its SlimStyle bulb. With
an output of 1,100 lumens,
it's a significant step up
from the 60-watt equivalent
800-lumen model that
previously sat at the top of
the SlimStyle line.
Solar power is growing so
fast in Minnesota that goals
once considered ambitious
are now seen as readily
achievable, according to a
new report...by Environment
Minnesota Research & Policy
Center .
"We can get to 10% solar
in Minnesota by 2030 if we
just keep our foot on the
accelerator," said Bret
Fanshaw with Environment
Minnesota. "That's a small
fraction of what's possible,
but it will make a big
difference in the quality of
our lives and the future of
our planet."
C1 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a chance for
M-class flares and a slight
chance for an X-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(25 Nov, 26 Nov, 27 Nov).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet
levels on days one, two, and
three (25 Nov, 26 Nov, 27
Nov). Protons greater than
10 Mev have a slight chance
of crossing threshold on
days one and two (25 Nov, 26
Nov).
Secretary of State John
Kerry is reportedly being
forced to negotiate with a
screamer in nuclear talks
with Iran, the Washington
Free Beacon reports.
While diplomacy is typically
a delicate dance with
decorum and protocol high on
the list for statesmen and
women, Iranian Foreign
Minister Javad Zarif has
reportedly screamed so loud
in negotiations that
bodyguards standing watch
outside the room have been
alerted and rushed inside,
the Free Beacon noted as
Kerry continued talks in
Vienna on Monday.
It's a situation most
people would rather not
think about: a radiological
disaster.
But with Peach Bottom
Atomic Power Plant in
southern York County and
Three Mile Island nearby in
Dauphin County , some York
countians came out Thursday
to get pills that would help
protect them in case of a
nuclear emergency.
The Pennsylvania
Department of Health
distributed the pills
Thursday at designated
locations in Delta , East
Drumore Township , Fairview
Township , Hummelstown and
Lower Swatara Township .
In the wake of the 9/11
terrorist attacks, nuclear
plants across the country
beefed up security amid
fears that plants could
become targets of attacks.
In York County , the
Peach Bottom Atomic Power
Station in 2004 erected
security watchtowers as part
of those enhanced measures.
Now, one of those towers
is at the center of a
possible workplace
investigation by federal
authorities. The central
figure in the story is a
security guard who says his
life has been transformed as
a result of injuries
sustained in one of the
towers.
Sen. Charles Schumer is
calling for federal
regulations on drones
following recent sightings
of the small, remote
controlled aircrafts at John
F. Kennedy International
Airport.
On Sunday, Schumer said
there were three near-misses
reported at JFK between
drones and aircraft just
last week.
Industrial-scale farming
has wide-ranging
problems, from
deteriorating food
quality and increasing
safety hazards, to
environmental
destruction that places
future growth of food at
risk
One techniques used to
perpetuate factory
farming is secrecy
If you don’t know
there’s a problem, you
won’t root for change,
and that is exactly why
the food industry is
fighting to prevent
labeling of genetically
modified organisms
(GMOs) in the US
If President Barack Obama
can exercise “prosecutorial
discretion” — basically
deciding not to enforce the
law in certain cases — when
it comes to immigration,
could later presidents
decide not to enforce other
laws?
Could, say, a Republican
president decide not to
enforce tax laws?
Salt River Project plans
to buy power from a new
solar project being
constructed near Florence
for a price that rivals
power costs from traditional
natural-gas plants.
The 21-year power
purchase deal with the
Sandstone Solar Power Plant
will average 5.3 cents per
kilowatt-hour, totaling
about $65 million .
Four miles
from the great temple
of Angkor Wat, deep in the
Cambodian jungle, I opened
the door of a makeshift shed
with a corrugated tin roof
and walked into a dusty room
painted in pale gray.
Thousands of chunks and
slabs of stone covered the
dirt floor: smashed heads of
statues of Khmer kings and
Hindu gods, broken lintels
and door frames from
abandoned temples, the
remains of steles with
ancient writing. After years
of searching, I’d finally
arrived here, hoping to find
a single dot chiseled into a
reddish stone, a humble mark
of incredible importance, a
symbol that would become the
very foundation of our
number system—our first
zero.
The U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA today
announced that nearly 2,500
applicants will receive
disaster assistance through
the Emergency Assistance for
Livestock, Honeybees, and
Farm-Raised Fish Program
(ELAP) for losses suffered
from Oct. 1, 2011, through
Sept. 30, 2013.
The percent of US
electricity generated by
coal in 2020 would likely
drop to 22%, with a decline
in coal prices to follow as
a result, according to a
study of the cumulative
impact of the US
Environmental Protection
Agency's Clean Power Plan
and its other environmental
programs.
As the ambassador for the
states and the water
agencies within them, ACWA
has been communicating with
EPA throughout the (now
closed) comment period,
citing the need for WOTUS
clarification, if not
reconsideration.
For decades, it has been the
standard advice from
nutritionists: Eat a diet
loaded with fresh fruits and
vegetables to boost your
health. But the surprising
truth is that canned foods
can be just as nutritious as
their fresh, raw
counterparts — and some even
become more healthful
through the canning process.
A canine spotted in and
around the north rim of the
Grand Canyon has been
confirmed to be the first
western gray wolf at the
national park in Arizona
since the last one was
killed there in the 1940s,
U.S. wildlife managers said
on Friday.
Ohio's fledgling wind
energy industry is balking
at a largely ignored
provision of a massive
environmental bill
overwhelmingly approved in
the House this week, arguing
it is designed to throw one
more wrench into its
turbines.
The language would allow
the state Department of
Natural Resources to impose
additional fees on wind
farms based on the killing
and injury, or "take," of
wild animals, a broad
restriction the wind
industry maintains would not
be imposed on its
competitors.
As the planet continues to
warm, heat-waves and other
extreme weather events that
today occur once in hundreds
of years, if ever, will
become the “new climate
normal,” creating a world of
increased risks and
instability, a new World
Bank study warns.
The consequences for
development would be severe
as crop yields decline,
water resources shift,
sea-levels rise, and the
livelihoods of millions of
people are put at risk,
according to a new
scientific report released
today by the World Bank
Group.
McKiernan was the only
journalist bunking inside
the compound after the
federal government declared
a media blackout.
“I didn’t know then that
I’d disappear from my family
for two months, that I’d be
shot at by federal agents,
assaulted by vigilantes, or
that I’d come out of this
place in handcuffs,” he
said. “Maybe somebody had to
get the inside story, but my
heart was in my mouth.”
The top security threats
of 2014 include equal parts
old mistakes, new
adversaries, innocent human
nature and the evil that men
-- and women, and others --
do.
In 2013, Snowden changed
a conversation (and created
careers for believers across
a spectrum of dark and
light). Some, but not all,
survived security nightmares
credited to Blackhole, the
SEA, and Cryptolocker. We
said goodbye to Silk Road,
and popular consciousness
said hello to the mega
retail breach with Target.
Colloidal silver has been
used for centuries to
promote good health and
studies continue to also
show that colloidal silver
outperforms many mainstream
methods used against harmful
organisms. [1] With so many
cases of antibiotic
resistance, it’s no wonder
why colloidal silver has
become extremely popular in
recent years. Consumers
should know, however, that
not all silver products are
created equal. Here are 6
things you must know about
colloidal silver to protect
yourself and ensure the best
results:
One of the most abrupt rises
in the carbon dioxide
concentration in the
atmosphere at the end of the
last ice age took place
about 14,600 years ago. Ice
core data show that the CO2
concentration at that time
increased by more than
10 ppm (parts per million,
unit of measure for the
composition of gases) within
200 years. This CO2
increase, i.e. approx.
0.05 ppm per year, was
significantly less than the
current rise in atmospheric
CO2 of 2-3 ppm in the last
decade caused by fossil
fuels.
The Algae Biomass
Organization, the trade
association for the algae
industry, applauded Senators
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
and Brian Schatz (D-HI) for
including provisions to
encourage carbon utilization
technology in climate change
legislation they proposed
today. The bill calls for
greenhouse gas regulations
that would promote the use
of carbon dioxide as a
feedstock for plastics,
biofuels, chemicals and
other products.
The Central Japan Railway
Company has whisked
passengers along a section
of track at up to 500 km/h
(311 mph) during testing of
the Shinkansen maglev train.
The BBC reports that one
hundred wide-eyed train
enthusiasts were onboard the
train's first manned voyage,
with trials to continue over
eight days.
Championed as a tool to cut
greenhouse-gases in nations
as diverse as Spain and
China, windfarms have become
contentious in Australia, a
country with 9 percent of
the world’s black coal
reserves
Levels of a type of
pesticide commonly used in
backyard gardens and on
farms have increased in
urban and rural watersheds
in California, the state
said in a report released
Wednesday.
Pyrethroid pesticides,
which are similar to
chemicals produced naturally
in chrysanthemum flowers,
have replaced older, more
toxic chemicals used to kill
insects and fungi, and are
found in about 3,500
products, the United States
Environmental Protection
Agency said.
At least 91 people
were killed today,
mostly militants, and
another 24 people were
wounded.
State TV broadcast
footage of Iraqi troops
entering the Baiji
Refinery. The nearby town of
Albu Jewari was also
recaptured. With the siege
of Baiji now apparently
over, the government says it
will regroup and plan out a
strategy to retake Tikrit,
which lies to the south and
is the second largest city
occupied by the militants. A
separate operation was
launched in Saidiya.
The Clean Energy States
Alliance (CESA) has
announced the winners of its
2014 State Leadership in
Clean Energy Awards,
recognizing eight state
programs and projects that
have accelerated the
adoption of clean energy
technologies and
strengthened clean energy
markets.
The climate 150 million
years ago of a large swath
of the western United States
was more complex than
previously known, according
to new research from
Southern Methodist
University, Dallas.
It’s been held that the
climate during the Jurassic
was fairly dry in New
Mexico, then gradually
transitioned to a wetter
climate northward to
Montana.
But based on new
evidence, the theory of a
gradual transition from a
dry climate to a wetter one
during the Jurassic doesn’t
tell the whole story...
U.S. coal exports have
plummeted from their 2012
peaks, making it more
difficult to make the case
for building new export
terminals in Washington and
Oregon , according to a
report released Wednesday by
the Institute for Energy
Economics and Financial
Analysis .
"There is simply too much
port capacity in the United
States , and not enough
demand," said Tom Sanzillo ,
the author of the report.
In the
not too distant future,
consumers will be able to
run on-the-spot tests for
environmental toxins, GMOs,
pesticides, food safety and
more with their smartphones
and other hand-held
devices.
Every
human being on every
developed nation on Earth,
whether living in a rural or
isolated area, in the middle
of a large city, or near an
industrialized area, now
contains at least 700
contaminants in their body
including pesticides,
pthalates, benzenes,
parabens, xylenes and many
other carcinogenic and
endrocrine disrupting
chemicals.
It appears Frasure Creek
stopped submitting false
reports for a while after
citizen groups first
notified state regulators of
the problem in 2010, but the
company returned to filing
improper reports last year,
the notice filed Monday
alleged.
The Environmental
Protection Agency's recently
released plan to reduce
carbon dioxide emissions
from existing power plants
could provide a boost to
nuclear power.
EPA's Clean Power Plan,
which aims to reduce CO2
emissions 30% by 2030, sets
individual CO2 reduction
targets for each state and
gives states latitude in how
they propose to meet those
goals.
Chairman Hochberg is
visiting India this week to
promote made-in-America
exports in support of U.S.
jobs. The availability of
Ex-Im Bank financing could
translate into support for
skilled jobs in the U.S.
renewable energy sector
while contributing to the
Indian government's
recently-announced goal of
providing 24-hour
electricity to India's 1.3
billion citizens by 2019,
much of it set to come from
renewable sources. In fact,
Ex-Im Bank has authorized
$353.4 million for U.S.
renewable energy exports to
India since 2009, and Ex-Im
Bank was one of the top
financiers of projects under
the National Solar Mission
Phase 1.
Italian design office
Studiomobile has teamed up
with the University of
Florence's Professor Stefano
Mancuso, who is the director
of the International
Laboratory of Plant
Neurobiology, to produce a
prototype floating
greenhouse in a bid to
improve food security in
areas with little arable
land. The Jellyfish Barge
operates off-grid and
produces its own clean water
via an onboard system of
solar distillation.
Focused Sun of Las Cruces,
New Mexico, USA (
www.focused-sun.com ) is
planning to shake up the
solar industry with an
inexpensive module that
captures four times more
energy than a conventional
solar panel of the same
size. The module, called
FourFold, produces both
electricity and hot water.
It can pay for itself in as
little as two years,
bringing local jobs plus
cheap, clean energy. For
every dollar spent, you
capture four fold more solar
energy.
While France has set
ambitious goals to increase
the share of renewables in
its energy portfolio,
Australia has taken a
completely opposite approach
-- repealing its 2011 Clean
Energy Act, which
established a carbon pricing
mechanism, according to an
analyst with research and
consulting firm GlobalData.
Georgia , blessed with
abundant sunshine, has
nevertheless been slow to
embrace solar energy. But
that's changing, a new
report from the Pew
Charitable Trusts points
out.
"State and federal
policies have helped to make
the Peach State the
fastest-growing solar market
in the country," Pew
reports.
A chemical found in most
antibacterial soaps may be
fighting off germs at the
cost of causing liver
damage. There have been
question marks around
triclosan for some time—the
FDA warned last year that
antibacterial soap could be
harmful, and Minnesota
banned the ingredient this
year—but new research finds
it could be a lot more
dangerous than thought, the
Atlantic reports.
Tension spiked at democracy
protests that have gripped
Hong Kong for nearly two
months as police arrested
four men early Wednesday
after a small group of
activists tried to force
their way into the city's
legislature in overnight
clashes.
The arrests came after
authorities cleared some
barricades a day earlier
from a small section of a
site occupied by
pro-democracy activists for
more than 50 days.
The House of Representatives
today approved the Secret
Science Reform Act of 2014
(H.R. 4012). The legislation
requires the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to
base its regulations on data
that is public.
HyperSolar, Inc., the
developer of a breakthrough
technology to produce
renewable hydrogen using
sunlight and water, today
commented on a recent report
highlighted by trends and
projections for hydrogen
fuel production. The
forecast for increased
hydrogen demand, coupled
with announcements from
major auto manufacturers,
has created a heightened
level of excitement
throughout the renewable
energy industry.
Iran's oil exports will
double within two months if
sanctions are lifted as a
result of crucial nuclear
talks between Tehran and six
world powers reaching a
comprehensive agreement, oil
minister Bijan Zanganeh said
Wednesday.
Tens of thousands marched in
the capital Thursday
demanding that authorities
find 43 missing college
students, seeking to
pressure the government on a
day normally reserved for
the celebration of Mexico's
1910-17 Revolution.
Quickly becoming the
"chant" heard around the
world, Greg Grey Cloud,
along with other protesters,
was arrested on Tuesday for
starting a Native American
song in the gallery
following the Senate’s 59-41
vote that fell short on
approving the Keystone XL
Pipeline.
Did you notice? Secretary
of Defense Chuck Hagel just
announced plans to massively
"upgrade" the US nuclear
arsenal. It might have been
swallowed by other breaking
and ongoing news: ISIS and
another beheading, Ebola,
Ferguson, or the historic
comet landing of Philae - at
least one positive story. In
addition to local news,
stories in my own community
of Hood River, Oregon
include the transport of
coal and construction of
coal terminals, blast zone
determination for oil
trains, or the legacy of the
Hanford nuclear production
complex, which was part of
the Manhattan Project.
Those unique or ongoing
events certainly have their
place in the news cycle and
matter to us at different
levels. Does that mean that
we should numbly accept new
plans by our government to
revitalize systems which
without doubt are the
greatest threat to human
survival?
There has been a 150 percent
increase in the number of
respondents who think the
U.S. is or will be
self-sufficient in oil
within the next five years
(20 percent), compared to
the results of Deloitte's
2012 survey
Pacificorp is asking for an
injunction because the Obama
Administration has said it
will provide the information
to the Associated Press. The
news agency asked the
Interior for the information
last year through a Freedom
of Information Act request.
While Pacificorp regards the
information as confidential,
the Administration
determined that Pacificorp's
arguments were
"insufficiently convincing,"
according to AP.
C7 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
(21 Nov, 22 Nov, 23 Nov).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on days one
and three (21 Nov, 23 Nov)
and quiet to unsettled
levels on day two (22 Nov).
Protons have a slight chance
of crossing threshold on
days one, two, and three (21
Nov, 22 Nov, 23 Nov).
Seattle -based Heart of
America Northwest and
Washington Physicians for
Social Responsibility called
Wednesday for the nuclear
power plant near Richland to
be shut down based on a
study they commissioned.
The Columbia Generating
Station's storage pool that
cools used nuclear fuel is
vulnerable in the event of a
catastrophic accident, said
the report by Robert Alvarez
, a frequent critic of
nuclear power and a senior
scholar at the Institute for
Policy Studies .
Although flu shots
are promoted as safe,
that's not true, says
holistic family
physician Dr.
David Brownstein. Flu
shots contain several
suspect ingredients,
including the carcinogen
formaldehyde, and many
contain mercury in the
form of thimerosal.
"Mercury is one of the
most poisonous
substances known to
mankind," Dr. Brownstein
tells Newsmax Health.
"It is a potent
neurotoxin and is
associated with a host
of neurological and
immune system problems.
Mercury should never be
injected into any living
human being."
Among the swarm of consumer
drones to emerge this year,
a number have been aimed
squarely at action sports
devotees. What defines these
vehicles is a tracking
feature that enables the
drone to autonomously follow
athletes from above, but
these generally require the
user to carry a smartphone
to communicate their GPS
position. Streaming from a
built-in camera to a
smartphone app, the Mind4
drone instead allows users
to select any object to
follow onscreen, a feature
that could lead to new
possibilities in aerial
drone photography.
In a picnic grove nestled
in wheat and cotton fields
just south of Diyarbakir,
municipal officials have set
up a refugee camp for more
than 4,000 Yazidis who fled
the threat of genocide when
Islamic State extremists
captured their cities in
early August.
In
January, freelance video
journalist Jason Parkinson
returned home from vacation
to find a brown paper
envelope in his mailbox. He
opened it to find nine years
of his life laid out in
shocking detail.
Twelve pages of police
intelligence logs noted
which protests he covered,
who he spoke to and what he
wore ? all the way down to
the color of his boots. It
was, he said, proof of
something he'd long
suspected: The police were
watching him.
This production estimate,
based on railcar loadings,
is 0.1% lower than the
previous week's estimate and
0.9% higher than output in
the comparable week in 2013,
the agency said.
U.S. farmers are about to
reap a bumper harvest not
just in corn and soybeans
but also in new subsidies
that could soar to $10
billion, blowing a hole in
the government's promise
that its new five-year farm
bill would save taxpayers
money.
If payments for 2014, the
first year the farm bill
takes effect, do come in at
that level - as some private
economists have calculated -
they would be more than 10
times the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's working
estimate and more than
double the forecast by the
Congressional Budget Office.
Total US petroleum
deliveries, a measure of
demand, fell 0.2% in October
year on year to average 19.3
million b/d, the American
Petroleum Institute said
Thursday.
"While
total demand saw a small
drop-off from last year,
transportation fuels like
gasoline and jet fuel hit
recent highs for the month,"
API Chief Economist John
Felmy said in a statement.
The biggest product of the
U.S. petroleum industry is
not oil, gas or condensate
but water -- billions and
billions of gallons
containing dissolved salts,
grease and even naturally
occurring radioactive
materials.
We petition President Obama
to stimulate the emerging
rainwater-harvesting
industry through legislation
or executive order, creating
new jobs in design,
installation, education,
R&D, sales, plumbing,
landscaping, roofing,
monitoring and maintenance,
which could propel the U.S.
to international leadership,
with compounding fiscal
benefits.
Not only does gravity keep
us safely on the ground and
hold the planets in
alignment, but now it may
soon get the credit for
saving the whole universe.
Physicists at the Imperial
College London and the
Universities of Copenhagen
and Helsinki believe that
the interaction between
Higgs boson particles and
gravity had a stabilizing
effect on the very early
universe, thereby preventing
the Big Crunch – a
catastrophic collapse into
nothing – from occurring
shortly after the Big Bang.
As well as being a
contentious environmental
issue, the big question for
Americans is how the
pipeline would affect
gasoline prices...
Curt Launer, a managing
director with Deutsche Bank,
may have phrased the
opinions of many analysts
best when he told CNBC a
year ago: "The question is,
what impact would this have
on consumer prices? The
answer is none."
Despite outspending
citizens 87 to 1, the
chemical technology
industry, led by
Monsanto, was defeated
in Maui
Maui’s GMO moratorium
calls for a complete
suspension of the
cultivation of
genetically engineered
crops until studies
conclusively prove they
are safe
Monsanto has announced
it will file a lawsuit
to challenge the
moratorium
Ballot initiatives to
label GMOs narrowly
failed to pass in Oregon
and failed miserably in
Colorado on November 4
Nearly all genetically
modified (GM) crops approved
by governments worldwide
received that approval in
spite of a complete lack of
published, peer-reviewed
research supporting their
safety, according to a new
study published in the
risk-assessment journal
Environment International.
Today, 22,413 species are
threatened with extinction,
according to the most recent
update of the IUCN Red List.
This is a rise of 310
species from the last update
in the summer. The update
includes the Pacific bluefin
tuna (moved from Least
Concern to Vulnerable), the
Chinese pufferfish (newly
listed as Critically
Endangered), and Chapman's
pygmy chameleon (also newly
listed as Critically
Endangered).
In 2012, the FDA
conducted a
controversial survey to
detect illegal drugs in
the US milk supply
The study results have
yet to be released more
than two years later
The Center for Science
in the Public Interest
(CSPI) has filed a
Freedom of Information
Act request for the
survey data, wondering
what the FDA is hiding
Arizona has one the toughest
sets of standards for
utility energy-efficiency
programs in the country. But
the Arizona Corporation
Commission (ACC) has
proposed eliminating at
least a portion of the
requirements, specifically
the mandate that utilities
realize 22 percent in energy
savings for their customers
by 2020.
Sanjeev Mukerjee , who
heads Northeastern
University's Center for
Renewable Energy Technology
, will be among the
panelists Friday at the
Charlotte Chamber's annual
Energy Summit.
Known as "the battery
guru," Mukerjee says
renewable energy, with its
on-and-off cycles, won't
reach its potential until
there's a way to store
energy. He spoke with the
Observer this week on the
topic; comments are edited
for brevity.
The pool is nearly full
at Beaver Valley Power
Station's older nuclear
reactor.
After 38 years of
operation -- and decades of
promises from the federal
government that it would
find a final resting place
for spent fuel -- Unit 1 at
the Shippingport plant has
run out of underwater
storage space for its
reactor waste. Owner
FirstEnergy Corp. is
installing a dry storage
area outside the reactor
buildings capable of holding
spent fuel rods for decades.
The annual fall migration
of Chinook salmon has been
delayed by warmer water
temperatures and
slow-flowing streams in
parts of California as the
state's three-year drought
drags on, hatchery officials
said Monday.
Cool November
temperatures usually bring
thousands of adult salmon
from the Pacific Ocean into
streams and rivers to spawn.
But this year, fish have
been slow to migrate up the
American River to the
state's hatchery near
Sacramento...
Duke Energy announced plans
to the North Carolina
Department of Environment
and Natural Resources (NC
DENR) to remove coal ash
stored at the Asheville
Steam Electric Plant, Dan
River Steam Station,
Riverbend Steam Station and
L.V. Sutton Steam Electric
Plant facilities.
Over the last 100 years
there have been a number of
attempts from electric
vehicle enthusiasts to push
them into the mass market.
Unfortunately the vast
majority of these attempts
have failed for a variety of
reasons, often out of the
control of the market
itself, but today we stand
in a very different place
and electric vehicles will
eventually go mass-market.
We hereby list five reasons
why electric vehicles are
here to stay in the longer
term:
California farmers would
pay more to irrigate their
crops under a proposal to
build tunnels under the San
Joaquin-Sacramento River
Delta to funnel water to the
state's agricultural
breadbasket, officials said
on Friday.
The analysis released by
state Treasurer Bill Lockyer
said regional water
suppliers and the farmers
who purchase water from them
would be able to handle the
increased costs, even though
the price of water could
more than double once the
price of paying for the
project is included.
The U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service says it is
confident that land area
within three miles of the
Lake Huron and Saginaw Bay
shorelines needs to be
protected from wind energy
development.
So confident, in fact,
that the federal conservancy
agency recommends Huron
County include in its wind
energy ordinance a
"three-mile buffer inland
from the shoreline that
precludes development of
wind power projects,"
according to an Oct. 20
letter sent to the county.
But the "wishy-washy"
stance has blurred the lines
for county commissioners.
Wind power production
forecast inaccuracies have
dogged the industry and
improvements to more recent
forecasts remain to be seen,
Fitch Ratings says. We
believe these issues have
taken on more importance in
light of a deal to limit
greenhouse gases announced
Wednesday by Chinese leader
Xi Jinping and President
Obama, which would
accelerate the U.S.'s shift
to alternative energy,
including wind power.
Germany said on Monday it
has no plans to lift a ban
on fracking, following a
report in news magazine Der
Spiegel that it was
considering lowering the
hurdles for shale gas
extraction to allow test
drilling.
At present, Germany only
plans to allow fracking
below a depth of 3,000 metes
(yards), to ensure that
there is no danger to ground
water supplies. Der Spiegel
had reported that this depth
boundary would be scrapped.
The company is providing
engineering services,
mapping software and
servers, and financial
support to help two
conservation groups detect
in real time the fishing
that's decimating fish
populations.
Fallin said the new
proposal, which places more
water and land under the
jurisdiction and regulation
of the federal government,
amounts to a power grab that
will hurt state economies
and destroy jobs.
The EPA and Corps
proposal will expand federal
jurisdiction of navigable
waters nationwide and will
require additional
permitting for development
in areas near water bodies.
Prime Minister Dmitry
Medvedev recently announced
that Russia will no longer
import GMO products, stating
that the nation has enough
space, and enough resources
to produce organic food.
If the Americans
like to eat GMO
products, let them eat
it then. We don’t need
to do that; we have
enough space and
opportunities to produce
organic food.” –
Medvedev
Military officials are
appalled at the "willful
incompetence" of President
Barack Obama's
administration and its
interference in the campaign
against the Islamic State
(ISIS), said Lt. Col. Ralph
Peters.
"We've a
president so arrogant, an
administration so arrogant,
they think they know how to
run military tactical
affairs; not just strategic,
but tactical affairs, better
than military professionals.
Today, Earthjustice released
an interactive map
displaying where states
currently stand on renewable
energy in light of the Obama
Administration's proposed
Clean Power Plan. The map,
Coming Clean: The State of
U.S. Renewable Energy (
http://earthjustice.org/features/map-coming-clean-state-of-u-s-energy
), shows that states around
the country can readily
comply with the Clean Power
Plan and even achieve
greater, faster emissions
reductions by tapping their
true renewable energy
potential. The map also
shows that finalizing the
Clean Power Plan will be
essential to making any
progress in states that have
been unwilling to invest in
clean energy.
Nevada Power has asked the
state Public Utilities
Commission to reconsider its
October decision to reject
construction of a
200-megawatt solar project
on the Moapa River Paiute
Indian Reservation as part
of its overall plan to
retire its coal-fired
electricity generation
within the next five years.
One of the largest
obstacles to the viability
of renewable energy, like
wind and solar power, is the
process of storing and
transporting the power once
the energy's been converted
to electricity. That
obstacle has shrunk in
recent years, as technology
has improved.
Now, a bigger, cleaner
and more powerful battery is
hitting the market. But
scientists say it's
important quality is its
price. The battery -- which
uses the sodium ions of
saltwater as its
electricity-carrying
electrolyte -- is cheap,
really cheap.
While political
commercials will no longer
be filling the airwaves (for
a while, anyway), there is a
“people’s choice” spot that
you may well be seeing more
of in the coming days.
It’s a commercial for
Honey Nut Cheerios – one
that uses a cute little
animated “stage show” to
make the point that the
product contains “No High
Fructose Corn Syrup.”
New federal regulations
requiring school meals to
contain more whole grains,
less saturated fat and more
fruits and vegetables, while
perhaps improving some
aspects of the food being
served at schools across the
United States, may also be
perpetuating eating habits
linked to obesity, diabetes
and other diet-related
diseases, an analysis by
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health
researchers has found.
Right on the heels of his
historic climate agreement
with China, President Barack
Obama announced a pledge of
$3 billion to the United
Nations’ thus far
underfunded Green Climate
Fund. The fund was formally
established in 2010 at the
U.N. Climate Change
conference in Cancun. The
purpose of the fund was to
redistribute resources
between the developed world
and the developing world in
order to assist
developing countries in
their effort to adapt to and
mitigate the impacts of
climate change.
Did you know that some
Americans are being hit with
health insurance rate
increases of more than 500
percent? Taking advantage
of “the stupidity of the
American voter”, the
Democrats succeeded in
ramming through one of the
worst pieces of legislation
that has ever come before
Congress. The full
implementation of Obamacare
has been repeatedly delayed,
but now we are finally
starting to see the true
horror of this terrible
law. Thanks to Obamacare,
millions of American
families are losing health
plans that they were very
happy with, health insurance
rates are skyrocketing,
millions of workers are
having their full-time hours
cut back to part-time hours,
rural hospitals all over the
country are dying, and
thousands of doctors are
being driven out of the
industry thus
intensifying the greatest
doctor shortage in U.S.
history.
Oklahoma's business tax
subsidies have grown from
$356 million to $760 million
in 2014, a little over 10
percent of the state's $7.2
billion budget.
That growth is largely
attributed to the tax breaks
provided for the state's
oil, gas and wind energy
industries, according to an
analysis obtained by public
policy news organization
Oklahoma Watch from the
Oklahoma Tax Commission,
Oklahoma Insurance
Department and Senate
Finance Committee.
C6 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be moderate with a chance
for X-class flares on days
one, two, and three (18 Nov,
19 Nov, 20 Nov). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on day one (18
Nov), quiet to unsettled
levels on day two (19 Nov)
and unsettled levels on day
three (20 Nov). Protons have
a slight chance of crossing
threshold on days one, two,
and three (18 Nov, 19 Nov,
20 Nov).
Russian authorities
expelled several European
diplomats in recent days
amid growing tensions
between Moscow and the West
over Russia’s role in
Ukraine's instability.
Several Polish diplomats
were told to leave in
response to the recent
expulsion of Russian
diplomats from Poland,
Russian authorities said
Monday.
Bolivia, like the rest
of South America, spent
almost 300 years enriching
the coffers of the Spanish
Empire. It was said that a
bridge could be built from
the mine at Potosi to the
Spanish king’s palace made
of the silver looted from
the Bolivian people with
slave labor. Potosi, at over
150,000 souls, was once the
largest city in the
Americas.
The G20 communique will
include a significant
passage on climate change,
EU officials said on Sunday,
as the United States and
other heavyweight nations
override host Australia's
attempts to keep the issue
off the formal agenda.
Much of the meeting of
world leaders in Australia
has been overshadowed by the
crisis in Ukraine, with
Western leaders warning
Russian President Vladimir
Putin that he risked more
economic sanctions if he
failed to end Russian
backing for separatist
rebels.
Ameren Missouri and other
utilities dependent on
Western coal are fed up with
BNSF railroad's delivery
problems, and they're asking
federal rail regulators to
step in and force the
company to improve service.
A trade group known as
the Western Coal Traffic
League filed a petition with
the Surface Transportation
Board late last month asking
the regulators to force BNSF
to speed up coal deliveries
-- using fines if necessary.
Launched just two months
ago, 3D Robotics' Iris+
quadcopter has one big
feature that separates it
from the company's base Iris
drone – it features a Follow
Me function, which allows it
to automatically fly along
above a moving ground-based
GPS-enabled Android device.
Kennewick Man may
have more secrets to
spill, according to
top anthropologists.
(Smithsonian)
Eighteen years after his
near-complete skeletal
remains were found along the
bank of the Columbia River
in eastern Washington,
Kennewick Man is finally
telling his 9,000-year-old
story -- and reshaping our
knowledge of how North
America was first populated
by humans.
One of the great ironies
of this administration is
that President Obama, who
ran promising to end wars in
the Middle East and to usher
in unity domestically, is
now preparing to start a
political war in America.
In this month’s
elections, Republicans,
independents and a few
Democrats united to defeat
Democrats at every level
from state legislatures to
the U.S. Senate. Many
Democrats indicated their
disappointment with the
Obama Administration by
staying home and refusing to
vote.
Australia is falling behind
China and the United States
in tackling climate change,
with new investment in
renewable energy falling by
70 per cent, a study
released on Monday ( Nov 10
) said.
More than 400 protesters
stuck their heads in the
sand on Australia's Bondi
Beach on Thursday, mocking
the government's reluctance
to put climate change on the
agenda of a G20 summit this
weekend.
Rising global
temperatures may cause a big
jolt in the number of
lightning strikes in the
United States over the rest
of the 21st century in the
latest example of extreme
weather spawned by climate
change, scientists say.
Researchers forecast on
Thursday that lightning
strikes will increase by
about 50 percent by 2100 in
the continental United
States because thunderstorms
will become more explosive
in the coming decades thanks
to a warming planet.
Brazil will overtake the
United States as the world's
leading biopower market, as
its installed capacity rises
from 11.51 GW in 2013 to
17.10 GW by 2018. That is
the prediction from research
and consulting firm
GlobalData.
Song Yuanming, deputy
head of State Administration
of Coal Mine Safety , said
the government will help
lift the sector by stemming
the total output of
homegrown coal and
controlling faulty coal
imports.
"We will eliminate
unreasonable fees for coal
companies and impose taxes
on them, which will be
lower," Song said, adding
that reforms will be
conducted to get rid of
outdated and unsafe
capacities.
Thermal energy is an
important component of the
energy mix in both developed
and developing countries
that depend upon processing
large quantities of fossil
fuels to meet growing demand
for power. Global Industry
Analysts Inc. (GIA) predicts
that fossil fuels will
account for about 83 percent
of the global energy market
by 2030 while global
electricity demand is
expected to increase by
around 62 percent by the
same year.
Hugging the health
workers who cared for him, a
doctor who recovered from
Ebola said Tuesday he was a
living example of effective
treatment and urged support
for those combating the
virus' outbreak in West
Africa.
"Today, I am healthy," a
smiling Dr. Craig Spencer
said as he was released
after nearly three weeks in
Bellevue Hospital, where he
had been the last Ebola
patient under treatment
nationwide.
The greatest resource
of a tribal nation is their
people. Every elected tribal
council has a responsibility
to the membership that they
serve but more importantly
they have a sacred
obligation to protect the
welfare of their future
generations...
We have fought back
from genocide, and we have
lived through the violence
of boarding schools. We have
survived because we made the
choices that, at the time,
were in the best interest of
our people and our future.
Nothing has changed in our
bravery as a nation, only
our resolve faltered now and
again.
With each passing year, an
increasing number of states
are attempting to adopt GMO
labeling laws amid the
federal government’s
resistance to allow you to
know what’s in your food.
With each victory, or even
loss, we get stronger — and
closer to making GMO
labeling a reality. The sad
reality, however, is that
many experts say GMO
labeling will not suffice in
the overall fight against
biotech due to the fact that
GMO crops can easily
contaminate nearby farms.
Crop producers and
scientists hold deeply
different views on climate
change and its possible
causes, a study by Purdue
and Iowa State universities
shows....
More than 90 percent of
the scientists and
climatologists surveyed said
they believed climate change
was occurring, with more
than 50 percent attributing
climate change primarily to
human activities.
In contrast, 66 percent
of corn producers surveyed
said they believed climate
change was occurring, with 8
percent pinpointing human
activities as the main
cause.
China, Australia and the
United States all have
important policy lessons to
share when it comes to
alleviating energy poverty,
creating low-cost energy
access, and improving
emissions. That is according
to Gregory H. Boyce, Peabody
Energy's chairman and CEO,
who recently met with heads
of state and CEOs at the
2014 Asia-Pacific Economic
Coordination (APEC) Summit
in Beijing.
By reusing wastewater
onsite, operators of
hydraulic fracturing wells
(fracking) can save nearly
$2 per barrel of water used.
With the US fracking
industry estimated to
produce up to 500 million
barrels of wastewater per
year, this could lead to a
$1 billion saving nationwide
if operators switched to
reusing wastewater onsite.
"For the last 30 years,
we've been talking about the
utility model changing, but
it's always been
regulatory-driven in these
discussions," he said. "The
remodeling idea was always
pushed down from larger
governmental perspectives.
This is the first time the
change, the reshaping is
being driven by our
customers.
Will be focusing on getting
the manufacturing facility
going. Once inventory is
established, then
distributor sign-up phase
can begin, starting in North
America.
Solar PV customers
understand that they can
generate cheap electricity
with rooftop solar. That
electricity is good for
lighting, appliances, air
conditioning and other
household uses. But
homeowners often ask about
heating their homes with
solar. The answer used to be
installing a solar thermal
system with rooftop solar
panels generating hot water
(stored in a tank) or hot
air (stored in a bed of
rocks or other thermal
mass). But now there is
another option: heat pumps
combined with rooftop P
A man described as a
ghost hunter was taken to
the hospital after
reportedly stabbing himself
in the chest while staying
at an infamous Iowa home
where six children and two
adults were killed by an ax
murderer in 1912.
Robert Laursen of
Rhinelander, Wisconsin, was
staying overnight in the
Villisca Ax Murder House
when the terrifying incident
unfolded.
Republican U.S. Senate
candidate Dan Sullivan
defeated Sen. Mark Begich,
the Democratic incumbent, in
Alaska’s U.S. Senate race
Wednesday – a win that gives
the GOP eight Senate pickups
in the midterm elections.
The Republican Party also
is seeking a ninth seat in
Louisiana’s runoff in
December.
Global warming stops at
nothing – not even the
groundwater, as a new study
by researchers from ETH
Zurich and KIT reveals: the
groundwater’s temperature
profiles echo those of the
atmosphere, albeit damped
and delayed.
After a pair of toxic
spills and a train
derailment earlier this year
involving regional
waterways, an advocacy group
claims the James River is at
risk of a toxic disaster.
The James River
Association called the
Lynchburg derailment of a
train carrying volatile
Bakken crude oil along the
upper James, a chemical
spill on the Elk River in
West Virginia and a coal ash
spill on the Dan River in
North Carolina a "wake-up
call" for river communities.
While Reid supports
President Obama’s ability to
act on his own on
immigration, he told
senators today that he is
increasingly concerned some
Republicans will seize on
the move and try to block
the funding bill, which
could lead to a government
shutdown.
The Republican-led U.S.
House of Representatives
approved the Keystone XL
pipeline on Friday, but a
similar measure struggled to
get enough support in the
Senate and President Barack
Obama indicated he might use
his veto if the bill does
get through Congress.
The legislation, approved
by 252 votes to 161,
circumvents the need for
approval of TransCanada
Corp's $8 billion project by
the Obama administration,
which has been considering
it for more than six years.
House lawmakers were
confident the Senate would
follow suit and pass its
version of the bill.
Renewable energies are an
important element in the
fight against global
warming. Many countries
around the world have set up
support mechanisms for
renewables. However, this
support is temporary by
nature and governments want
renewables to ultimately
become competitive with
conventional energy sources.
Providers therefore need to
think about which products
they can offer consumers and
businesses at which prices
and how they need to
communicate their offers in
order to make them
attractive.
The International Energy
Agency on Friday said global
oil prices could continue to
fall into 2015 despite the
expectation that some
unconventional oil
production could become
uneconomic at prices under
$80/b.
Global oil
prices have fallen by more
than 30% since mid-June, and
in its latest monthly oil
market report, the IEA said
oil markets were entering a
"new chapter" in their
history, and that a return
to higher prices in the
short term seemed unlikely.
Study calls for United
States to set a more
aggressive renewable energy
goal The conclusion of a
recent study by the Union of
Concerned Scientists (USC)
found that America could
pretty much quadruple its
renewable electricity by
2030.
Scientists have produced a
single dose Ebola vaccine
shown to provide primates
with long-term protection
from the deadly disease.
What is most promising about
the development is the
delivery method, with the
vaccine administered through
the nose and lungs,
mitigating the associated
risk of spreading the
disease through infected
needles.
Natural vibrations caused by
two surfaces with different
work functions repelling and
attracting each other can be
used to generate
electricity.
Electrical energy is
normally generated through
heat, motion, nuclear
transformation, or chemical
reactions, but now
scientists at VTT Technical
Research Center of Finland
have devised a new method
that involves mechanical
vibrations. They figured out
how to "harvest" the
vibrational energy that
occurs naturally when two
surfaces with different work
functions are connected via
electrodes, and this energy
could potentially be used to
power wearables and other
low-power electronics.
“This bill was written in a
tortured way to make sure
[the Congressional Budget
Office] did not score the
mandate as taxes,” Gruber
said in one 52-second clip.
“If CBO scored the mandate
as taxes, the bill dies. OK,
so it’s written to do that.
In terms of risk-rated
subsidies, if you had a law
which said that healthy
people are going to pay in
– you made explicit healthy
people pay in and sick
people get money, it would
not have passed.”
President Barack Obama plans
to announce an overhaul of
U.S. immigration policy
through executive action
that would shield up to 5
million undocumented
immigrants from deportation,
the New York Times reported
on Thursday.
Such a move will set up a
showdown with Republicans,
who have blocked Democrats'
efforts in Congress to
reform immigration laws and
warned the president not to
take unilateral action on
immigration.
Warmer waters and other
factors will cause nearly
all areas of low oxygen to
grow by the end of the
century.
Nearly all ocean dead
zones will increase by the
end of the century because
of climate change, according
to a new Smithsonian-led
study. But the work also
recommends how to limit
risks to coastal communities
of fish, crabs and other
species no matter how much
the water warms.
Oil prices slumped more
than 3 percent to four-year
lows on Thursday, with
benchmark Brent crashing
below $80 a barrel, after a
stockpile surge at the
delivery point for U.S.
crude frayed nerves of
traders already worried
about an oil glut.
The decline compounded
Wednesday's losses stemming
from comments by Saudi
Arabia's oil minister that
showed little will by the
kingdom to cut output when
the Organization of the
Petroleum Exporting
Countries meets on Nov. 27.
There was a problem with a
control element assembly
(CEA) at Palo Verde Unit 2
operated by Pinnacle West
unit Arizona Public Service
(APS) on Nov. 6 . The
problem resulted in a
shutdown of Unit 2 at
roughly 4:36 p.m. Mountain
Time on Nov. 6 due to the
"limiting condition for
operation" or LCO, according
to the NRC event
notification.
As
more nuclear power plants
are being planned and
proposed, at the behest of
governments looking to
ensure that there is
competitively priced carbon
free energy available, the
contractual process of
building a nuclear plant is
certain to face more
scrutiny.
Every nation who
sanctions more nuclear
plants, will have to put
into place their own set of
rules and regulations to
govern how the complexities
of building a nuclear plant
is managed, and decide what
the needs of the customers
are.
According to reports by
CNBC , WHOI found traces of
cesium-134, which is a
radioactive element that was
released by the Fukushima
power plant, 100 miles off
the coast of California .
The levels of radiation
detected is below levels
that are harmful to humans,
as well as 1,000 times below
the limits set by the EPA
for drinking water. The WHOI
does, however, say that they
expect those levels could
increase in the next two or
three years.
Global regulators fined
five major banks, including
UBS, HSBC and Citigroup,
$3.4 billion for failing to
stop their traders from
trying to manipulate the
foreign exchange market.
Royal Bank of Scotland
and JP Morgan also face
penalties in a year-long
probe that has put the
largely unregulated $5
trillion-a-day market on a
tighter leash. The banks
earned a 30 percent discount
for settling early.
C8 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be moderate with a slight
chance for an X-class flare
on day one (14 Nov) and
likely to be moderate with a
chance for X-class flares on
days two and three (15 Nov,
16 Nov). The geomagnetic
field is expected to be at
quiet to unsettled levels on
days one and two (14 Nov, 15
Nov) and quiet to active
levels on day three (16
Nov). Protons have a slight
chance of crossing threshold
on days one, two, and three
(14 Nov, 15 Nov, 16 Nov).
All eyes on Nevada Governor
Brian Sandoval as nuclear
waste pushes up on political
agenda
Resolving where the nation
sends nuclear waste may be
an issue that brings
Democrats and Republicans
together after US President
Obama and Harry Reid, the
Nevada senator and until
January majority leader,
blocked funding for the
proposed nuclear waste site
at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
Russia signed a contract
Tuesday to build two more
nuclear reactors in Iran to
be possibly followed by
another six, a move intended
to cement closer ties
between the two nations.
The deal comes less than
two weeks ahead of the Nov.
24 deadline for Tehran to
sign an agreement on its
nuclear program with six
world powers.
The sensation of an
otherworldly presence, they
found, actually derives from
garbled sensorimotor brain
signals, in which a person's
self awareness of their own
body is projected into a
seemingly disconnected
space. In such cases, the
researchers explained in a
release, the brain
mis-assigns its own life
signals as belonging to
someone or something else.
Events of the last year have
increased many of the
long-term uncertainties
facing the global energy
sector, says the
International Energy
Agency's (IEA) World Energy
Outlook 2014. It warns
against the risk that
current events distract
decision makers from
recognising and tackling the
longer-term signs of stress
that are emerging in the
energy system.
The solar power industry,
viewed more than a decade
ago as a game-changing,
jobs-producing juggernaut in
California , took its lumps
during the recession.
But now it's coming back
with a vengeance, both here
and globally.
Extensive collaborative
research is being conducted
by several southeastern
states, notably South
Carolina, to lay the
groundwork needed to develop
an offshore wind industry.
The area is well-suited for
the relatively new
technology, but detailed
research is needed.
The study by the Sao
Paulo-based Brazilian Forum
on Public Safety said police
nationwide killed 11,197
people over the past five
years, while law enforcement
agents in the United States
killed 11,090 people over
the past 30 years.
Strong statewide and federal
clean-energy policies have
positioned California as the
nation's solar energy leader
in terms of generating new,
well-paying construction and
permanent jobs while working
to curb climate change,
according to a new report by
UC Berkeley.
A recent study commissioned
by Honeywell and conducted
by Ipsos Public Affairs
Research among 5,065 adults
across 10 countries, reveals
that 75 percent of people
are fearful that cyber
attacks are being carried
out on major industries and
sectors of the economy in
their countries. The fears
are well-founded.
The Sand Creek
Massacre, tragic and
unnecessary, impacted
Federal-Indian relations and
created the circumstances
for years of warfare. With
the events of November 29,
1864 fixed in their minds,
Plains Indian nations faced
an uncertain future between
warring against and
accommodating the federal
government.
In a simulated power
grid, cyber terrorists open
software circuit breakers
that leave millions of
virtual people without
electricity in less than a
minute. As they do, four
straight lines on a display
screen silently turn into
curves, showing an unwanted
fluctuation in voltage and
frequency.
If it were real life, the
unauthorized activity would
be creating havoc.
The Obama Administration
today realized what everyone
else has known for quite
some time, that their
strategy in the new ISIS war
in simply not working.
Unfortunately, they seem to
be shifting toward even
deeper escalation of the
war, particularly in Syria.
Discussion about freedom
to choose how we want to
maintain our physical,
mental, emotional, and
spiritual health is one
of the most important
public conversations of
our time
134 references included
At stake in this debate
is: who will control the
multi-trillion dollar US
health care system?
If people have the right
to know and freedom to
choose how to heal and
stay healthy, they may
opt to spend their money
on something other than
what they’re told to
spend their money on now
All this may be
comforting—endless
possibilities—or
uninspiring: What’s the
point if these other selves
are so far away or
completely hidden? Well, a
new theory posits that other
universes may not be so
separate from our own at
all.
Older people who view
aging in a positive
light score better on
memory tests, can walk
faster, and have greater
mobility
Seniors with positive
self-perceptions of
aging live an average of
7.5 years longer than
those who entertain
negative stereotypes
about aging
Subliminal intervention
aimed at strengthening
positive age stereotypes
resulted in seniors
improving their physical
capabilities to a
greater degree than
those who actually
exercised
Do we really need
Monsanto’s GMOs to feed the
world? Looking at the
research and the studies,
the answer is quite clear.
Let’s take a look at the 8
proofs that we most
certainly do not need GMOs
to feed the world:
1. One Organic Rooftop
Farm Can Feed 9000 People...
There has never been a
better time to refinance
your home. That's because of
a little-known government
program called the Home
Affordable Refinance Plan
(HARP).
Anadarko Petroleum Corp's
agreement to pay $5.15
billion to clean up nuclear
fuel and other pollution
received approval from a
federal judge on Monday, the
final hurdle for the
settlement touted by the
U.S. Department of Justice
as the largest-ever
environmental cleanup
recovery.
Former CBS News
investigative reporter
Sharyl Attkisson says CBS
News executives kept a clip
of President Obama refusing
to call the Benghazi attacks
terrorism secret until after
the election in order to
help Obama's re-election.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
yesterday said her
government had planned to
provide solar home system to
three million more rural
families through
Infrastructure Development
Company Limited (Idcol) in
next three years.
In a struggle between a
Brazilian indigenous tribe
and the federal government
over two dams that would
flood lands claimed by the
tribe, a federal judge has
ruled that the government
must immediately publish its
report delineating the
tribe’s territory that has
been withheld for more than
a year.
Potash Corp of Saskatchewan
Inc agreed to spend more
than $52 million on plant
improvements and pay a $1.3
million civil penalty to
resolve U.S. charges that it
violated the Clean Air Act
over the emission of harmful
pollutants such as sulfur
dioxide, U.S. authorities
said.
Live attenuated viral
vaccines fool your
immune system into
believing you’ve come
into contact with a real
virus to stimulate an
antibody response
When you get a live
attenuated viral
vaccine, you shed live
vaccine strain virus in
your body fluids—just
like when you get a
viral infection and shed
virus in your body
fluids
After getting a live
virus vaccine, you can
shed and transmit
vaccine strain virus to
other people
Live attenuated viral
vaccines have the
potential to affect the
evolution of viruses,
which are constantly
recombining with each
other, because vaccine
strain live viruses are
released into the
environment where
further mutations can
occur
A healthy immune system
is the most powerful way
to resist infectious
diseases or heal after
infection and the
efficient functioning of
your immune system is
dependent on healthy gut
flora
China's crude oil imports in
October were up 18% from the
same month last year to
24.09 million mt, or an
average 5.7 million b/d,
preliminary data from the
General Administration of
Customs showed Saturday,
November 8.
An August decision by the
Nuclear Regulatory
Commission to let spent
radioactive fuel remain in
storage at the defunct San
Onofre Nuclear Generating
Station indefinitely does
not sit well with elected
leaders in San Clemente ,
the plant's closest
neighbor.
The hotel guest probably
never knew what hit him.
When he tried to get online
using his five-star hotel’s
WiFi network, he got a
pop-up alerting him to a new
Adobe software update. When
he clicked to accept the
download, he got a malicious
executable instead.
More than 100 waterfowl have
been found dead after
landing on toxic ponds of
industrial waste in northern
Alberta's oil sands,
according to reports
received by Alberta's Energy
Regulator.
Billionaire entrepreneur is
reportedly working on an
ambitious project to launch
around 700 internet
satellites into low-Earth
orbit and bring internet
connections to the
developing world
A group of environmental and
public health groups sued
the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration in federal
court on Thursday, seeking
to have the court set aside
the agency's approvals for
various ractopamine products
- feed additives used to
boost the weight of cattle
and pigs.
The residents of Belle
Harbor Manor spent four
miserable months in
emergency shelters after
Superstorm Sandy's
floodwaters surged through
their assisted-living center
on New York City's Rockaway
peninsula.
Now, the home's disabled,
elderly and mostly poor
residents have a new
headache: The Federal
Emergency Management Agency
has asked at least a dozen
of them to pay back
thousands of dollars in
disaster aid.
After a lengthy approval
process, Linc Energy has
been approved for a research
and development license to
conduct an underground coal
gasification demonstration
project. Issued by the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) and the Wyoming
Department of Environmental
Quality, it is the first
such license issued in 20
years for a procedure
largely abandoned by the
energy industry.
After the Fukushima nuclear
disaster in 2011, Germany
made the decision to
shutdown the country's
oldest nuclear plants and
phaseout remaining plants by
2022. At the same time,
renewable energy sources,
like wind, solar and biomass
would be encouraged.
Construction has begun on an
approximately 360 MW natural
gas-fired peaking plant near
Bacliff, Texas, southeast of
Houston that, when
completed, will produce
enough electricity to power
an additional 72,000 Texas
homes when needed most
during times of peak demand.
As new technologies
promise to treat fracking
wastewater to a point where
it can be reused, there's a
new question: Is it clean
enough to drink?
Probably not, researchers
say. Returning fracking
wastewater to the
environment "is just as
risky as dumping any
municipal treated wastewater
back into rivers. As runoff,
it is safe but it shouldn't
be done in volume. In the
case of fracking wastewater,
existing facilities are not
equipped to thoroughly deal
with halides so until they
are ready, it's simply
better to use fracking
wastewater for fracking,"
Science 2.0 reported.
A study at the University of
Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)
has shown that verapamil, a
drug widely used to treat
high blood pressure,
irregular heartbeat and
migraine headaches, is able
to completely reverse
diabetes in animal models.
The UAB team will now move
onto clinical trials to see
if the same results are
repeated in humans.
Hyundai's Tucson Fuel Cell,
the first mass-produced fuel
cell vehicle available for
consumer lease, was named a
finalist for Green Car
Journal's 2015 Green SUV of
the YearT. The Green SUV of
the YearT winner will be
announced at a press
conference during the
Washington Auto Show in
Washington, D.C. on Jan. 22,
2015.
France may have been a late
bloomer in adopting solar
power, but the country has
more than made up for it
with aggressive renewable
energy initiatives.
Paris-based renewable energy
developer and project
manager Neoen broke ground
this week for what will be
Europe's largest solar
plant.
Upsetting that energy
balance are rising levels of
greenhouse gases, such as
carbon dioxide (CO2), that
increasingly absorb some of
the outgoing longwave
radiation and trap it in the
atmosphere. Energy
accumulates in the climate
system, and warming occurs.
But in a paper out this week
in the Proceedings of
the National Academy of
Sciences, MIT
researchers show that this
canonical view of global
warming is only half the
story.
A recent rocket
experiment conducted by NASA
detected a previously
unknown cosmic glow of
infrared light between
galaxies. Scientists later
identified this glow as
coming from orphaned stars.
According to NASA, the
discovery is redefining how
scientists think of
galaxies.
Water use across the
country reached its lowest
recorded level in nearly 45
years. According to a
new USGS report, about 355
billion gallons of water per
day (Bgal/d) were withdrawn
for use in the entire United
States during 2010.
This represents a 13
percent reduction of water
use from 2005 when about 410
Bgal/d were withdrawn and
the lowest level since
before 1970.
New England residents aren't
going to like opening their
power bills this winter.
Why? Electric utilities
there are predicting rate
increases of from 30 to 50
percent because the natural
gas supply system isn't
adequate to deliver enough
to meet demand.
The new agent that was found
in fungi is found to kill
bacteria. The substance,
known as copsin, has the
same effect as traditional
antibiotics, but belongs to
a different class of
biochemical substances.
Copsin is a protein, whereas
traditional antibiotics are
often non-protein organic
compounds.
The new documentary
Bought dives deeply
into the inner workings of
the industries at the core
of our food and healthcare
system, exploring the truth
about how vaccines and drugs
are developed and rushed to
market and the ongoing
secrecy behind the genetic
engineering of our food
supply.
"While some are quick to
blame agriculture, it’s not
the only source of nitrates
in groundwater, said Irene
Nautch, Idaho State
Department of Environmental
Quality drinking water
protection coordinator in
Twin Falls," MagicValley.com
reported.
“We don’t get very far by
pointing fingers,” Nautch
said, per the report.
One thing isn't in
dispute: Idaho has a nitrate
problem.
The number of children
with vitamin D
deficiency has increased
by more than 200 percent
in the last five years
Only 7 percent of
physicians could
identify the months of
the year when it is
difficult to get enough
sunlight exposure to
produce adequate vitamin
D
Your body needs vitamin
D at all life stages,
including for
development in the womb
If you’re a woman who is
pregnant or planning to
become pregnant, now is
the time to optimize
your vitamin D levels
for the sake of your
child (and your own
health as well)
Obama told congressional
leaders on Friday he would
try to ease some
restrictions on undocumented
immigrants, despite warnings
from Republican leaders that
such actions would "poison
the well" or would be "a red
flag in front of a bull."
U.S. President Barack Obama
on Monday said Internet
service providers should be
regulated more like public
utilities to make sure they
grant equal access to all
content providers, touching
off intense protests from
cable and telecoms companies
and Republican lawmakers.
It will not be easy, judging
from President Obama’s and
Sen. Mitch McConnell’s
post-election press
conferences on Wednesday.
Obama and McConnell both
talked about cooperation.
But both also were very
confrontational about the
possibility of the President
issuing executive orders on
immigration (McConnell
appropriately so given the
lawless and unprecedented
nature of what the President
is contemplating).
When most people think of
organic food, they think of
small farms, health food
stores and of course the
growing Whole Foods chain as
the top suppliers.
But what if organic foods
were more readily available,
and the entire country had
access to a large selection
even at the neighborhood
grocery store?
C7 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a chance for
M-class flares and a slight
chance for an X-class flare
on day one (11 Nov) and
likely to be moderate with a
chance for X-class flares on
days two and three (12 Nov,
13 Nov). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
minor storm levels on day
one (11 Nov) and quiet to
unsettled levels on days two
and three (12 Nov, 13 Nov).
Protons have a slight chance
of crossing threshold on
days one, two, and three (11
Nov, 12 Nov, 13 Nov).
Scotland is pushing ahead
with green energy, with
First Minister Alex Salmond
claiming that renewables
could provide 100 percent of
Scotland's energy by 2025.
And last month, Salmond's
push for wind farms appears
to have borne fruit – wind
power alone generated some
126 percent of the energy
needed to power every home
in Scotland in what the
World Wildlife Foundation
(WWF) is calling a "bumper
month." Even solar fared
well despite the chilly
conditions, with domestic
solar PV panels chipping in
around a third of the
domestic energy bill.
With
organic food growers
reporting double-digit
growth in U.S. sales each
year, producers are
challenging a proposed
California pest-management
program they say enshrines a
pesticide-heavy approach for
decades to come, including
compulsory spraying of
organic crops at the state's
discretion.
On the morning of March
20, 2015, an almost total
solar eclipse will block
direct sunlight over Norway
and northern Europe for
about one hour and a half
and will also be visible in
other parts of Europe, North
Africa and Russia.
Europe's solar power
capacity has significantly
increased since the last
major eclipse in August
1999, and, depending on the
weather that day, the
eclipse could cause rapid
swings in output that will
require adjustments by the
grids.
Four years ago I wrote a
book about modern American
liberalism: Never
Enough: America’s Limitless
Welfare State. It
addressed the fact that
America’s welfare state has
been growing steadily for
almost a century, and is now
much bigger than it was at
the start of the New Deal in
1932, or at the beginning of
the Great Society in 1964.
Voters gave Republicans
control of the Senate in
Tuesday’s midterm elections
with a majority of 52 seats
to the Democrats’ 48. The
GOP also maintained control
of the House of
Representatives, making
Congress entirely
Republican.
For the environment, this
will mean fossil fuels such
as coal and oil will receive
congressional support, while
renewable energy and
environmental protections
will be left behind.
I have been to countless
holiday meals when I had no
control over the
ingredients. Of course, I
ate what was offered and was
polite but knowing what I
know now about what’s really
in food – it’s hard for me
to just shut up and take it.
The more we shut up and take
it, the more disgusting
things like what I am about
to share with you continue
to happen. That’s why I am
sharing these important
facts about how to avoid
drugged up turkeys this
holiday season.
On posters, on the
radio, on social media,
essentially everywhere, the
state of North Dakota
distributed an advertisement
reminding residents to get
out and vote. On these ads,
acceptable forms of ID are
listed: Tribal ID card is
one.
Ukraine's currency lost
nearly 5 percent of its
value on Monday after a
weekend that saw the
heaviest shelling in a month
hit the main rebel
stronghold in the east and
signs that Moscow had
dispatched troops and tanks
to reinforce separatists.
Thanks to our all knowing
protectors at the USDA,
potatoes are now the latest
addition to the growing
number of approved GMO
crops. Modifications to this
new strain of potato are
aimed to eliminate a
chemical called acrylamide
and resist bruising. Why?
Acrylamide is a “harmful”
substance that can be found
in potatoes when they’re
cooked. It’s believed by
some to cause cancer and
have toxic effects when
consumed. So according to
this theory, if you cook a
potato, you’re essentially
cooking cancer. Seems like a
pretty good reason to
genetically modify a potato,
right?
Freddie Mac (OTCQB:
FMCC) yesterday
released the results of its
Primary Mortgage
Market Survey®
(PMMS®), showing average
fixed mortgage rates moving
higher for the second
consecutive week amid better
than expected economic data.
This 30-year fixed-rate
mortgage also rose above 4
percent for the first time
in three weeks.
ICTMN asked American Indian
college professors for their
thoughts on the controversy
over the revision of the AP
U.S. History exam and
accompanying curriculum. The
rapid responses to our
interview requests and
educators’ eagerness to talk
about this issue indicate
that the teaching of U.S.
history as it relates to
Native Americans is
something they believe is of
supreme importance not only
to the past, but to the
future of this country. Here
are excerpts from four
professors’ comments.
Health officials, both
in the US and in Africa,
initially ignored the
exploding epidemics in
Liberia, Guinea, and
Sierra Leone
The US government
developed the UN
resolution calling for
no restrictions on
international travel
from Ebola-stricken
countries, which allowed
an infected passenger to
travel from Liberia to
Texas
CDC officials have
passed out incorrect
and/or incomplete
information on how Ebola
spreads, even though
they knew, or should
have known, their
statements could be
false
From both our national
workforce and regulatory
experience, these are six
trends we see heading into
2015.
Net metering, increased
Scrutiny, Energy consumers
are no longer passive.,
Better Grids, more and
different types of jobs,
assuring quality and the
value
Southern California Edison
(SCE) has signed contracts
for 2,221-MW of power from
various new resources,
representing approximately
10 percent of SCE’s current
total customer peak usage.
The new contracts
address reliability concerns
after the closure of the San
Onofre Nuclear Generating
Station and anticipated
retirement of older, natural
gas generation plants along
the Southern California
coastline that rely on ocean
water for their cooling
needs.
Although the Barsha pump
(Nepalese for "rain pump")
is a new product, it's based
on a very old design – it
has its origins in ancient
Egypt.
The pump itself is
essentially a water wheel on
a floating platform, that's
moored in a nearby flowing
river. The moving water
rotates the wheel, that in
turn utilizes a spiral
mechanism to compress air.
That air drives water
through an attached hose and
up to the fields.
Tucked away in darkness and
almost dead, algae can
emerge from a frigid and
foggy environment to live
again — and perhaps even
become the seeds for a new
beginning that can provide
biofuel for a clean energy
future.
A majority of recent
reports highlights the
negative effects of warmer
water temperatures on
corals. Because of
increasing numbers of
bleaching events, where
corals become white
resulting from a loss of
their symbiotic algae,
corals become stressed and
can starve to death if the
condition is prolonged.
However, researchers from
Northeastern University's
Marine Science Center and
the University of Chapel
Hill have found some
slightly positive effects
that moderate ocean
acidification and warming
can have on coral.
Defying its own quack advice
that the agency has been
propagandizing for months,
the CDC has now released a
document on Ebola that
admits the virus can spread
through aerosolized
droplets. The
document, quietly released
on the CDC website, also
admits Ebola can contaminate
surfaces such as doorknobs,
causing infections to be
spread through indirect
means.
It took six years, a
lawsuit and a court order,
but the federal government
is finally on the verge of
putting in place the
first-ever federal
regulations for the storage
and disposal of coal ash.
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency moved
closer toward enacting the
new coal ash regulations
last week when it sent the
proposed rules to the White
House Office of Management
and Budget for final review.
A new report compares the
equivalent total consumer
cost of converting existing
coal-fired power stations to
run on biomass to replacing
a proportion of power
generation from biomass
conversions with an
equivalent level of
generation from offshore
wind. It finds that the
biomass conversion scenario
is considerably cheaper.
The Justice Department
sent Congress 64,280 pages
of documents it had
previously withheld from the
botched Fast and Furious
gun-walking operation on
Tuesday, in a move
Republicans said was an
admission by President Obama
that he overstepped his
legal bounds.
Investigators had sought
the documents for years,
with the House even suing in
federal court to force their
release. Mr. Obama had
asserted executive
privilege, claiming the
documents were part of the
“deliberative process” of
White House decision-making
and therefore didn’t need to
be divulged, but the court
rejected those claims.
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency recently
announced that two U.S.
Areas of Concern, Deer Lake
in the Lake Superior basin
and White Lake in the Lake
Michigan basin, have been
removed from the binational
list of toxic hotspots that
were targeted for cleanup in
the U.S.-Canada Great Lakes
Water Quality Agreement.
Facebook reported Tuesday
that government requests for
its data have jumped 20
percent since late last
year.
“Since our
first report, we’ve seen an
increase in government
requests for data and for
content restrictions,”
Facebook deputy general
counsel Chris Sonderby
wrote in a blog post.
Having worked in stealth
mode for the past 10 years,
German researchers and
serial entrepreneur Jostein
Eikeland have developed a
new battery chemistry that
they claim is
non-combustible and highly
efficient. The batteries,
say Alevo, have at their
core a new inorganic
electrolyte that eliminates
“both the risk of combustion
and explosion and massively
reduces the debilitating
effects of charging cycles.”
“It is clear that the
buoyancy of the financial
sector has masked the true
picture in the real economy,
where despite growth capital
being at its most accessible
since the global economic
crisis, the lack of genuine
business opportunities has
meant that investment has
been subdued around the
world”
The defeat of twin measures
in Oregon and Colorado that
would have required labeling
of foods made with
genetically modified
ingredients sets the stage
for a battle over the issue
in the nation's capital,
both sides of the debate
said on Wednesday.
Water use across the country
reached its lowest recorded
level in nearly 45 years.
According to a new USGS
report, about 355 billion
gallons of water per day
(Bgal/d) were withdrawn for
use in the entire United
States during 2010.
Rarely has a major U.S.
industry reached a
crossroads as stark as that
facing today’s electric
utilities. EPA’s recent
proposal for regulating
carbon emissions from power
plants is just one part of a
broader trend, as the
century-old model of
centralized fossil fuel
burning electricity
generation moves towards
obsolescence.
It is urgent that
American businesses
stand together in
support of distributed
energy.
Fitness age is based on
your VO2max, which is
the maximum amount of
oxygen you can take in
while exercising -- a
measure of
cardiovascular endurance
A high VO2max is
healthier, and means you
have a lower fitness age
than chronological age
People with a low VO2max
(and high fitness age)
had an 82 percent higher
risk of dying
prematurely than those
whose fitness age was
the same as, or lower
than, their
chronological age
You can boost your
VO2max, and lower your
fitness age, by
exercising, particularly
at high-intensity
The operator of Japan's
wrecked Fukushima atomic
plant removed 400 tonnes of
spent uranium fuel from a
damaged reactor building,
the first of four sets of
used rods to be removed in a
cleanup expected to last
decades.
The year-long operation
is a rare success for Tokyo
Electric Power Co since the
meltdowns at the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear plant north
of Tokyo more than three
years ago. The overall
clean-up has been plagued
with delays and leaks of
radioactive water.
More than 40 percent of
China's arable land is
suffering from degradation,
official news agency Xinhua
said, reducing its capacity
to produce food for the
world's biggest population.
“It’s important to
remember the history of this
word," said Oneida Indian
Nation Representative Ray
Halbritter, who has
spearheaded the Change the
Mascot campaign, in
partnership with the
National Congress of
American Indians. ""This is
a word screamed at our
ancestors as they were
dragged at gunpoint off
their lands."
We all know that
greenhouse gases contribute
to global warming, but new
research identifies a new
mechanism that could turn
out to be a major
contributor to melting sea
ice, specifically in the
Arctic region.
Scientists from the US
Department of Energy’s
Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
have studied a
long-wavelength region of
the electromagnetic spectrum
called far infrared. Far
infrared is a region in the
infrared spectrum of
electromagnetic radiation.
While it is invisible to our
eyes, it accounts for about
half the energy emitted by
the Earth’s surface.
Fees that nuclear power
plant owners pay to the
state's environmental and
emergency management
agencies for public safety
protections will increase by
$175,000 a year under a bill
signed last week by Gov. Tom
Corbett .
Beginning in July, the
state's five nuclear plant
sites will each pay $650,000
a year to the Department of
Environmental Protection ,
up from $550,000 , and
$275,000 a year to the
Pennsylvania Emergency
Management Agency , up from
$200,000 .
Flashing "No" signs,
anti-nuclear citizens shout
their opposition at the
gallery as the prefectural
assembly adopted a petition
that agrees to resume the
Sendai Nuclear Power
Station, in Kagoshima,
Kagoshima Pref., southern
Japan Friday, Nov. 7,
Badri told a webcast press
conference that OPEC was
concerned by the 28% drop in
prices in recent months but
not panicking, and that
fundamentals of oil supply
and demand did not justify
the plunge.
He warned
that a continuation of
prices at the lower levels
-- Brent crude traded as low
as $81.63/barrel on
Wednesday after a relentless
slide from levels as high as
$115/b in mid-June -- would
see upstream investment
reduced and supply
constrained, resulting in a
future price spike.
New reports of waterfowl
landing on toxic ponds of
industrial waste in the oil
sands of northern Alberta
are being investigated by
the Canadian province's
energy regulator in light of
the death of 1,600 ducks on
such ponds in 2008...
Bartlett said he could not
yet identify which companies
have reported the landings
or whether any birds have
died as they have stopped in
the tar sands as they
migrate south for the
winter.
M5 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be moderate with a chance
for X-class flares on days
one, two, and three (07 Nov,
08 Nov, 09 Nov). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on days
one, two, and three (07 Nov,
08 Nov, 09 Nov). Protons
have a slight chance of
crossing threshold on days
one, two, and three (07 Nov,
08 Nov, 09 Nov).
The Republican Party now has
a once-in-a-generation
opportunity to define its
brand by passing legislation
through both houses of
Congress.
Even if President Obama
vetoes the bills — as he
will — they will answer the
nagging question among the
voters: What does the
Republican Party stand for?
The endangered Florida
panther's habitat is under
siege, the latest threat
being a potential power
plant.
First it was oil
companies eyeing fracking
potential in the Florida
Panther National Wildlife
Refuge, and now it’s the
Florida Power & Light Co.
(FPL), which is pondering a
new power plant in prime
habitat for the endangered
animal.
Data released today by
SolarReviews.com shows that
despite stable wholesale
prices of solar panels and
the imposition of
anti-dumping tariffs on some
imported solar panels the
average cost of solar energy
has continued to fall over
the last 12 months.
The steady price drop and
forward leaps in technology
for solar power panels is
motivating plenty of
consumers to want to
incorporate them as an
investment to their home.
Surprisingly, even with ten
years of constant price
drops, the market is still
filled with homeowners who
can't afford buying solar
power systems.
The U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE) showed again at
the SPI 2014 trade show in
Las Vegas last week that it
is dedicated to fomenting
many of the best innovations
in the renewable energy
industry, with an additional
$53 million in SunShot
awards. The announcement
this week is $15 million to
help integrate distributed
solar energy systems into
the grid.
Staying with the theme
of the Federal
Reserve's experimentation
with new policy tools, the
central bank is expected to
introduce a term (vs.
overnight) reverse repo
program. This offering
will be specifically
targeting the year-end (the
so-called "turn"of the
year). The amount of term
reverse repo is expected to
be $300bn - effectively
doubling the total RRP
available.
The Northern Tribes
Buffalo Treaty was signed
between eleven first
nations, crossing an
international border in the
northern plains. The second
treaty, between Canada and
China, is essentially the
Canadian version of the
Trans-Pacific Trade
Agreement. A third treaty
regarding the protection of
the Salish Sea includes nine
First Nations also
straddling the U.S.-Canada
border.
Scientists at Singapore’s
Nanyang Technology
University (NTU) have
developed ultra-fast
charging batteries that can
be recharged up to 70 per
cent in only two minutes.
The new generation batteries
also have a long lifespan of
over 20 years, more than 10
times compared to existing
lithium-ion batteries.
In September, the USDA
announced changes to its
interpretation of the
“sunset” provision in the
Organic Foods Production Act
(OFPA), an incredibly
important piece of
legislation that Congress
passed into law in 1990.
These changes override the
powers of the National
Organic Standards Board
(NOSB) and make it easier
for food producers to use
synthetics in organic food
production.
A sweeping Republican
victory in Tuesday's US
midterm elections will
likely bring some
legislative priorities of
the oil and natural gas
industry to the House and
Senate floors, such as
approving the Keystone XL
pipeline, rolling back air
quality regulations for oil
refineries and expanding
drilling in both federal
lands and waters.
By an overwhelming 72-28
margin, voters in Alabama
voted on Tuesday to ban
Sharia law and other
“foreign laws” in the
state’s courts. The state
constitutional amendment was
criticized as an attack on
Muslims by some Islamic
groups.
International markets
account for 60 percent of
Westinghouse's business, but
Roderick sees potential for
increased nuclear power in
the United States ,
especially in the West and
the Southeast, where
construction began on four
AP1000 reactors at two sites
in Georgia and South
Carolina .
At a time when climate
change and Environmental
Protection Agency proposals
to curb greenhouse gas
emissions from power plants,
among others, are taking
center stage in the United
States, the
Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) -- the
world body for assessing the
science related to climate
change -- has released a
report laying out the case
for immediate action to
protect the health of
communities, governments,
and economies around the
world.
The leader of Nigerian
Islamic extremist group Boko
Haram announced in a video
released Friday that more
than 200 kidnapped
schoolgirls had been married
off and converted to Islam,
dismissing claims by the
Nigerian government that it
had agreed to a truce.
"If you knew the state
your daughters are in today,
it might lead some of you
... to die from grief,"
Abubakar Shekau sneered,
addressing the parents of
the girls and young women
kidnapped from a remote
boarding school more than
six months ago.
Do you forget where you left
your keys or parked the car,
or have difficulty
remembering the names of
people you’ve just met? The
good news is that chocolate
– or more specifically,
naturally occurring
compounds in cocoa called
flavanols – can reverse
age-related memory decline
in healthy older adults,
according to a Columbia
University Medical Center
(CUMC) study.
It took six years, a lawsuit
and a court order, but the
federal government is
finally on the verge of
putting in place the
first-ever federal
regulations for the storage
and disposal of coal ash.
Denmark should ban coal use
by 2025 to make the Nordic
nation a leader in fighting
global warming, adding to
green measures ranging from
wind energy to bicycle
power, Denmark's climate
minister said on Saturday.
Denmark's offshore wind
power industry is expected
to continue to grow thanks
to extensive government
support and wind turbine
technology modernization,
according to research and
consulting firm
GlobalData. In fact, the
firm predicts the country's
cumulative offshore wind
power installed capacity to
grow from 1.27 GW in 2013 to
2.24 GW by 2020.
For how long will we need to
go back and forth in this
GMO battle before a sound
conclusion is finally met?
If you have been following
the GMO debate at all, you
probably realize that this
issue will likely never
rest, as numerous studies on
both sides of the spectrum
(one side showing safety and
the other showing danger)
will continue to surface.
What’s more, this research
as well as opinions will be
born out of lies or false
substantiation.
Canadian company has a
water-powered, portable
genset available for sale on
their website, in output
sizes of 5 kW, 10 kW and 15
kW, at a price of around
$1000/kW. Just 4 gallons of
tap water will run the 5 kW
system relatively quietly
for three days. It emits no
pollution, no fumes.
High-quality tea—green
tea in
particular—contain
polyphenol antioxidants
that are recognized for
their disease prevention
and anti-aging
properties
Powerful polyphenols
found in green tea has
been shown to positively
impact a number of
illnesses and
conditions, including
cardiovascular disease,
diabetes, and cancer
A recent review of 25
studies concluded that
long-term tea intake
significantly improved
blood pressure
A number of studies
suggest you need to
drink approximately
three to four cups of
tea per day to reap
optimal results
Matcha tea can contain
over 100 times the EGCG
provided by regular
brewed green tea, and
since you’re consuming
the entire ground tea
leaf, you’re getting the
most benefit from each
cup
Signs of nutrient
deficiencies include
cracks at the corners of
your mouth, a red scaly
rash on your face, hair
loss, muscle cramps,
tingling in your hands
and feet, and more
Some of the most
widespread nutrient
deficiencies in
Americans include
magnesium, choline,
vitamin D, B vitamins,
and omega-3 fats
The key factor when it comes
to solar power plant
efficiency – be they of the
photovoltaic or concentrated
solar power (CSP) variety –
is the amount of light that
can be captured by the
light-absorbing material and
converted into electricity
or heat. Researchers at the
University of California,
San Diego (UCSD) have
developed a new
nanoparticle-based material
that promises to improve the
efficiency of CSP plants
with its ability to absorb
and convert over 90 percent
of the sunlight it captures
into heat
Global groundwater is
depleting at a much faster
rate than nature’s ability
to replenish it. Major areas
affected are the U.S. High
Plains, California’s Central
Valley, China, and India, as
well as other places.
With this action, the NRC
has granted license renewals
providing a 20-year
extension to a total of 74
of the 100 operating
reactors in the U.S. Nuclear
power accounted for 20
percent of total power
sector electricity
generation in 2013,
according to the Energy
Information Administration
(EIA).
As delays to Iraq's critical
water supply facility
project continue,
international oil companies
operating in the south are
seeking to pushing ahead
with their own water
injection facilities to meet
production targets.
M2 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a chance for
M-class flares on days one,
two, and three (04 Nov, 05
Nov, 06 Nov). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on days one
and three (04 Nov, 06 Nov)
and quiet to active levels
on day two (05 Nov).
Presidents before Bush
issued signing statements,
but some critics, including
then-Sen. Barack Obama,
denounced Bush for executive
overreach and picking and
choosing which parts of a
law to enforce.
The woman with brain cancer
who revived a national
debate about
physician-assisted suicide
ended her life Saturday by
swallowing lethal drugs made
available under an Oregon
law allowing terminally ill
people to choose when to
die. She would have been 30
on Nov. 19.
The back-to-back, double
whammy announcements that
PepsiCo (PEP) is ditching
high fructose corn syrup in
Gatorade along with the
results of a scathing new
study from researchers at
Princeton make it official —
allies of the controversial
sweetener have lost the war.
Computers consume
significant amounts of
energy even when they are
not in use, and computer
users don't even realize it,
meaning lost opportunities
to save energy, according to
the results of two studies
commissioned by the
California Energy Commission
(CEC) and conducted by the
California Plug Load
Research Center.
Florida's water war
against Georgia advanced as
the U.S. Supreme Court
agreed on Monday to hear an
interstate dispute on
whether Atlanta's suburbs
are sucking dry the river
flow that feeds the oyster
beds and fisheries of the
northern Gulf Coast.
Georgia had sought to
dismiss the suit, filed last
October by Florida Governor
Rick Scott, that stems from
a decades-old fight over
Atlanta's daily demand for
360 million gallons of water
from the Chattahoochee and
Flint river basins.
Weekly coal carloads
originated by US railroads
totaled 115,551 in the week
that ended Saturday, up 4.6%
from the prior week and 3.7%
above the year-ago week, the
Association of American
Railroads said Thursday.