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Activists on Thursday
delivered 6,000 cards and
letters to the state Public
Regulation Commission in
Santa Fe asking regulators
to require more renewable
energy in a plan to replace
coal-fired power from the
San Juan Generating Station.
The commission is
considering a proposal from
Public Service Company of
New Mexico to close two
coal-fired generating units
at San Juan. The company is
seeking to replace the power
with a combination of
nuclear, natural gas, solar
and increased capacity in
the remaining two coal-fired
units.
Aid agencies scrambled to
avert famine in South Sudan
by launching the world's
largest humanitarian
operation after fighting
erupted in the world's
youngest country in
December.
Some 10,000 people have
died and 1.7 million, one
seventh of the population,
have been displaced since
conflict broke out between
President Salva Kiir's
government forces and rebels
allied to his former deputy
Riek Machar.
Researcher Marla Spivak has
discovered that propolis,
made from tree resin
collected by bees, has
antimicrobial powers that
create a whole immune system
for the hive. Does it
protect bees from viruses?
A Buddhist cleric accused of
inciting violence against
Muslims in Myanmar says he
is joining forces with a
group in Sri Lanka to fight
what he says is the “serious
threat from jihadist
groups”.
A draft version of China’s
Renewable Portfolio Standard
(RPS) has been submitted to
the State Council for review
and could be approved before
the end of this year,
according to Ren Dongming,
director of the Center for
Renewable Energy Development
under the National
Development and Reform
Commission.
A new model developed by
researchers at the
University of Cambridge has
shown that despite its
apparent stability, the
massive ice sheet covering
most of Greenland is more
sensitive to climate change
than earlier estimates have
suggested, which would
accelerate the rising sea
levels that threaten coastal
communities worldwide.
It was supposed to be a
better year for U.S. coal
producers.
But railroad congestion,
a mild summer and
indications that coal prices
have yet to hit bottom have
all conspired against the
fuel, while cheap and
plentiful natural gas
continues to put pressure on
the industry in the U.S
Hunting from a distance of
27,000 light years,
astronomers have discovered
an unusual carbon-based
molecule — one with a
branched structure —
contained within a giant gas
cloud in interstellar space.
Like finding a molecular
needle in a cosmic haystack,
astronomers have detected
radio waves emitted by
isopropyl cyanide. The
discovery suggests that the
complex molecules needed for
life may have their origins
in interstellar space.
A House Republican claims
the EPA secretly drew
detailed maps to support its
alleged quest for greater
control over U.S.
waterways. The EPA says the
claim doesn't hold water.
Astronomers using the
Atacama Large
Millimeter/submillimeter
Array group of radio
telescopes have discovered a
carbon-based molecule with a
branched structure – a
common feature in molecules
that are required for life
to form. Contained within a
giant gas cloud in the
star-forming region of
Sagittarius B2, the molecule
of isopropyl cyanide is the
first hint that other
complex molecules may form
in space before finding
their way to the surface of
planets.
Ohio regulators froze
operations at two injection
wells for fracking sites
after an earthquake hit the
state this month.
The Ohio Department of
Natural Resources cited
"possible evidence that the
operation caused a
2.1-magnitude earthquake,"
the Associated Press
paraphrased. An agency
spokeswoman said that the
department issued the order
to American Water Management
Services, according to the
AP.
Today, the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) released its
fourth year of Greenhouse
Gas Reporting Program data,
detailing greenhouse gas
pollution trends and
emissions broken down by
industrial sector,
geographic region and
individual facilities. In
2013, reported emissions
from large industrial
facilities were 20 million
metric tons higher than the
prior year, or 0.6 percent,
driven largely by an
increase in coal use for
power generation.
The FDA issued warning
letters this week to the two
largest distributors of
essentials oils in the
United Sates, Young Living
and dōTERRA. The FDA is
claiming that their products
are being marketed as
unapproved drugs. The
companies have to remove all
health claims and take
corrective actions, or face
very serious legal action,
which can include armed
federal marshals coming to
their warehouses and seizing
all of their inventory.
New research shows your
risk of cavities
increases the more sugar
you eat – and this was
found to be true despite
the use of fluoride
The new study found
that, in order to
minimize your risk of
cavities, sugar should
make up no more than 3
percent of your total
energy intake
Adults aged 65 and older
living in areas with
fluoridated water and in
areas where most people
use fluoridated
toothpaste accounted for
nearly half of all tooth
surfaces affected by
cavities
Yet, the prevalence of
cavities was markedly
reduced in adults whose
diets were made up of 3
percent sugar or less
Drones, also known as
unmanned aerial vehicles,
have existed for decades,
although mainly associated
with military organizations
as weapons of war or spying.
But over the past two
years, the technologies now
commonly found in
smartphones —
accelerometers, sensors and
high-definition cameras —
have accelerated development
of a new breed of commercial
drones used in real estate,
agriculture and movies.
“The implications for
these technologies are
extremely far reaching,”
Government, industry,
and scientists appear to
be in collusion to hide
the fact that everything
from human health and
intellectual capacity to
various addictions are
indeed caused by the
environment in which we
find ourselves
A strong case can be
made for the theory that
our health science is in
the grip of hidden
political forces that
stand to gain by
promoting the idea that
poor health and other
life
Achievements are driven
by genetic factors The
science of epigenetics
challenges the
conventional view of
genetics, proving that
the environment
determines which traits
a gene will express, and
that your fate is in no
way written in stone
even if you have genetic
predispositions
Your environment and
lifestyle, particularly
your diet, has a direct
influence on your
genetic expression. For
example, research using
identical twins have
shown that diet trumps
genes in terms of the
level of health you
achieve
Gold fell to the lowest
level since January, set for
the biggest monthly decline
in 15, on the outlook for
higher U.S. interest rates
that strengthened the
dollar. Silver dropped to
the lowest in four years.
Gold retreated 6.3
percent in September, the
most since June 2013.
Pro-democracy protesters
demanded that Hong Kong's
top leader meet with them,
threatening wider actions if
he did not, after he said
Tuesday that China would not
budge in its decision to
limit voting reforms in the
Asian financial hub.
The man who jumped the White
House fence and entered the
building earlier this month
was able to make his way
farther inside than
previously reported,
according to new reports
Monday.
Searchers headed for the
summit of Mount Ontake,
turned into an eerie
moonscape by a thick layer
of gray ash, where most of
the victims of Japan's first
fatal volcanic eruption
since 1991 are believed to
have fallen near craters
spewing steam and ash.
"There's been absolutely
no contact at all," one man
waiting for news of a family
member told NHK national
television. "We're utterly
exhausted."
A U.S. District judge in
Florida has denied Kashi’s
(owned by Kellogg’s) bid to
dismiss a lawsuit brought
against the corporation for
advertising Kashi as ‘all
natural.’ This is a huge
step forward for companies
who think they can continue
to hoodwink the public with
false and misleading claims
on their products
“The Tehachapi Energy
Storage Project is a
significant milestone for
SCE and for energy storage
in California,” said Doug
Kim, director of Advanced
Technology at Southern
California Edison.
“Grid-scale energy storage
is an integral part of our
company’s Storage Portfolio
Development Framework that
will contribute to
optimizing grid performance
and integrating more
renewable energy resources.
This demonstration project
will give us a significant
amount of insight into the
operational capabilities of
large-scale lithium-ion
battery storage.”
Merck, the pharmaceutical
giant, is facing a slew of
controversies over its
Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR)
vaccine following numerous
allegations of wrongdoing
from different parties in
the medical field, including
two former Merck
scientists-turned-whistleblowers.
A third whistleblower, this
one a scientist at the
Centers for Disease Control,
also promises to bring Merck
grief following his
confession of misconduct
involving the same MMR
vaccine.
In the remote reaches of the
Pacific Ocean, President
Barack Obama Thursday
created the world’s most
extensive marine reserve by
expanding a National
Monument established in the
waning days of the Bush
Administration. These
pristine waters in the
south-central Pacific are
now protected from
commercial resource
extraction and fishing.
The U.S.-led fight
against Islamic State will
take years and will need
ground forces to succeed,
retired General David
Petraeus said.
“We’re talking about
years, many years in the
case of Syria,” Petraeus
said today in a presentation
to business executives at a
Tokyo hotel. “What we’re
doing right now is
disrupting. We are gradually
chipping away at the
strength” of Islamic State,
he said, adding that gains
could not be sustained
without ground forces.
“I do believe the Iraqis
can be the ground forces
that can deal with this over
time, but again it will be
months and years, not days
or weeks,” he added.
A proposal to export
twice as much Wyoming wind
power to Los Angeles as the
amount of electricity
generated by the Hoover Dam
includes an engineering feat
even more massive than that
famous structure: Four
chambers, each approaching
the size of the Empire State
Building, would be carved
from an underground salt
deposit to hold huge volumes
of compressed air.
The caverns in central
Utah would serve as a kind
of massive battery on a
scale never before seen,
helping to overcome the fact
that — even in Wyoming —
wind doesn't blow all the
time.
C5 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be moderate with a slight
chance for an X-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(30 Sep, 01 Oct, 02 Oct).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels with a
chance for isolated active
periods on days one, two,
and three (30 Sep, 01 Oct,
02 Oct). Protons have a
slight chance of crossing
threshold on days one, two,
and three (30 Sep, 01 Oct,
02 Oct).
The United States and
Russia see Islamic State as
a common enemy but are
failing to overcome deep
mutual distrust and agree on
how to tackle the threat
together, making any role
for Moscow in the U.S.-led
campaign unlikely, say U.S.
officials.
Differences between the
former Cold War foes are
stark, say the officials.
Moscow suspects Washington's
ulterior motive is removal
of its ally, Syria's
President Bashar al-Assad.
Washington refuses to
consider working together as
long as Moscow insists that
U.S. strikes need Syrian and
U.N. approval.
Good news for aquatic life:
the oceans just got a little
bit safer. Okay, so most of
the ocean remains vulnerable
to human devastation, but on
Thursday, President Barack
Obama used his authority to
create the most massive
ocean reserve in the world.
In a single day, the amount
of the world’s ocean
protected from commercial
interests has effectively
doubled.
A group of Brigham Young
University students is
protesting the Mormon
church-owned school's ban on
something its namesake once
sported: a beard.
About 50 students, some
donning paper beards, biked,
skateboarded or rollerbladed
their way from the Provo
City Library to campus
during the "Bike for Beards"
protest on Friday night.
"The government wanted
people to be afraid to
generate their own energy,
but they haven't dared to
actually pass the law,"
Alonso said as he tightened
screws on the panel on a
sunny summer day this month.
He had removed solar panels
from the roof last year.
Since Dr. James Hansen, a
leading climatologist,
warned in 2008 that we need
to reduce the amount of CO2
in the Earth's atmosphere to
350 parts-per-million (ppm)
in order to preserve life on
Earth, little has been done
to get us there.
It's getting late. If we're
going to preserve a livable
Earth, we the global
grassroots, must do more
than mitigate global
warming.
When you stay around long
enough you see cycles. First
it was going to be the rise
of nuclear power - too cheap
to meter. Then it was
cogeneration. And now
investments have shifted
away from a number of these
projects. There was merchant
generation - then some of
the merchants went bankrupt.
The industry will change.
But the basic core has got
to be there for our
industry. In the past, in a
fairly healthy growth
environment, you could do a
lot of things. But if you're
only growing 1 percent to
1.5 percent a year, that is
a challenge. ..
If you took undergraduate
quantum mechanics, at some
point you were introduced to
the concept of "spin." If
you're like me, you left
that class feeling you were
shown a magic trick but not
how it worked. Don’t worry;
you are not alone. The
reason you weren't told more
is not that a better
explanation was left for
graduate quantum mechanics.
You weren't told more
because there isn't a lot
more to know.
California's ambitious
zero-emission vehicle goal
is for 1.5 million hydrogen,
all electric, and plug-in
electric vehicles to be
cruising the roads by 2025.
Toward that goal, the
state is spending $200
million to build 100
hydrogen refueling stations,
most of them clustered in
Los Angeles and around the
Bay Area .
There's just one problem:
Where are the hydrogen fuel
cell cars?
Turkey deployed 35
armored vehicles, including
at least a dozen tanks, to
the border with Syria on
Monday as Islamist
extremists closed in on the
Syrian Kurdish border town
of Kobane, raining shells
from two directions.
At least two mortar
rounds landed on the Turkish
side of the border, but it
was unclear whether Turkey
would intervene to prevent
the capture of the city,
which was under heavy
bombardment Monday night. At
least 160,000 Syrian
refugees, with more waiting
to cross, have entered
Turkey in the past week as
the Islamic State, also
known as ISIS, pushed toward
the city.
“The link between emotions
and eating is no myth,” says
Sherry L. Pagoto, PhD,
associate professor of
preventive and behavioral
medicine at University of
Massachusetts Medical School
in Worcester. “People do eat
to feel better, so the link
is there.”
Concrete is the world's
most-used construction
material, and a leading
contributor to global
warming, producing as much
as one-tenth of
industry-generated
greenhouse-gas emissions.
Now a new study suggests a
way in which those emissions
could be reduced by more
than half - and the result
would be a stronger, more
durable material.
An Algerian splinter group
from al-Qaida has beheaded a
French hostage over France's
airstrikes on the Islamic
State group, in a sign of
the possible widening of the
crisis in Iraq and Syria to
the rest of the region.
Native groups from the
United States and Canada
Monday signed a treaty to
establish intertribal
alliances to restore the
American buffalo on Tribal
and First Nations Reserves
or co-managed lands in both
countries.
Officials in a Southern
California suburb beset by a
surge in coyote attacks on
pets, including a small dog
snatched from its owner's
living room, have approved a
plan to trap and kill some
of the wild canines roaming
the town.
In 1997, when Dan Foley
was managing Commonwealth
Edison's electrical grid,
mornings meant firing up two
coal-fired generating plants
to keep pace with the sudden
spike in electricity as
nearly 3 million Chicagoans
switched on their lights,
hair dryers and televisions.
"Mornings used to scare
the hell out of us," he
said.
Seventeen years later,
Foley thinks he has the
answer to scary mornings:
batteries.
Last year, the people of
China emitted more carbon
per person than those in the
EU, according this year's
Global Carbon Budget. The
report, updated annually,
also found that global
emissions jumped 2.5 percent
last year and are set to hit
a record high of 40 billion
tonnes this year. The
findings highlight how
little global society has
done to stem emissions,
despite numerous pledges and
past global agreements.
Magnets attached to fuel
lines have been claimed to
improve fuel economy. This
email from Rey I received
today tells an interesting
story about this. ..
Years ago, a guy (that was
manufacturing these magnets
for them) went to see the
Detroit manufacturers to
explain this
technology-these magnets
were put on the car fuel
line just before it went
into the carburator/fuel
injector;then next year the
auto industry all had
changed their engines
designs where there were no
open lines to put on these
magnets.
According to the Denver
Post, students and
teachers are protesting the
removal of all mentions of
civil disobedience from
texts and classroom
materials intended for the
teaching of AP U.S.
history...
The right-leaning
board-members said they
believe history teachers
should teach nationalism,
respect for authority and
reverence for free markets.
They should avoid teaching
any historical events or
acts that promote “civil
disorder, social strife or
disregard of the law.”
Teachers objected to the
proposed politicization of
history in the classroom and
staged a system-wide
sick-out last week. Now,
students are following their
instructors’ lead.
Small communities often have
difficulty financing the
construction and maintenance
of traditional long-pipe
drinking water systems as
the cost per resident can be
prohibitively expensive. New
legislation has been
introduced in Congress to
provide small communities
nationwide with critical
information on the use of
water wells and water well
systems for high-quality
drinking water has been
introduced that is aimed at
reducing the costs to
federal, state, and local
governments in providing
quality drinking water to
millions living in rural and
isolated communities by
promoting cost-effective
community well water
systems.
At least 43 people have died
and many are missing in
floods and landslides caused
by heavy rains that lashed
India's remote northeast,
officials said on Wednesday,
in the second flood tragedy
to strike the subcontinent
this month.
Researchers have been
working for years to develop
an effective treatment. But
one "miracle" drug after
another has failed to live
up to its promises, and it's
becoming more and more
apparent that
pharmaceuticals are not the
solution. Unfortunately, the
medical establishment is so
narrowly focused on finding
an elusive "cure" that
scientifically proven
prevention strategies are
often ignored.
Policies to end
deforestation are essential
for curbing climate change
and can also support
economic development, top
government and business
officials said...
"Without action, the world
will get hungrier, poorer
and more dangerous in the
years to come. There is no
point building a health
clinic for poor people in
Bangladesh if it will get
washed away by the next
floods," she said.
Researchers recently studied
samples consisting of over
20,000 animals from 24
populations (equally divided
between males and females)
representing eight species
living with or around humans
in industrialized societies.
They found that in all
animal populations, there
was a trend for increasing
body weight over time.
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
today proposed standards
under the Clean Water Act to
help cut discharges of
dental amalgam to the
environment. Amalgam is a
mixture of mercury and other
metals that dentists use to
fill cavities. Mercury is
discharged when dentists
remove old fillings or
remove excess amalgam when
placing a new filling.
FBI Director James Comey
sharply criticized Apple and
Google on Thursday for
developing smartphone
encryption so secure that
police can’t easily access
information stored on the
devices — even when they
have search warrants.
Soil:The FDA initially said
farmers had to wait nine
months to harvest whenever
they apply biological soil
enhancements (e.g., manure,
agricultural tea, and yard
refuse rather than synthetic
chemicals). This runs
contrary to organic
regulations, and puts many
organic fields out of
production for an entire
growing season. We reported
about this last February
when Jim Crawford, a
celebrated organic farmer in
Maryland, was warned of the
huge fines that awaited him
if he continued applying
manure as he had for decades
(and as organic regulations
require)
U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
Administrator Gina McCarthy
today released a new Great
Lakes Restoration Initiative
(GLRI) Action Plan that lays
out steps that federal
agencies will take during
the next five years to
protect water quality,
control invasive species and
restore habitat in the
largest surface fresh water
system in the world.
McCarthy, who chairs the
federal Great Lakes
Interagency Task Force,
released the plan at a
meeting of Great Lakes
Mayors in Chicago.
Drugs that seep into
source waters are usually
seen as an environmental
threat, but could they
actually be helping the
fish?
A study published by
researchers at Umeå
University "showed that
remnants of oxazepam, a drug
used for anxiety, resulted
in braver and more curious
activity among normally
timid fish. Individuals
exposed to the drug examined
their surroundings more
freely than normally,..
My question regarding this
announcement is what
"operational" means. What
was the full purpose of this
huge array? Is it achieving
that full output? Is it just
for show/entertainment, or
does it have a practical
purpose?
Herbivores, not herbicides,
may be the most effective
way to combat the spread of
one of the most invasive
plants now threatening East
Coast salt marshes, a new
Duke University-led study
finds.
US Attorney General Eric
Holder announced that the
federal prison population
dropped after decades of
increases. Both
conservatives and liberals
are 'coming together on
these issues.'
California's three-year
drought might have triggered
Mount Shasta's worst
mudslide in two decades
which damaged hiking trails
and forced two roads to
close over the weekend, a
National Forest spokeswoman
said on Monday.
Hungarian gas pipeline
operator FGSZ has suspended
gas shipments to Ukraine as
of Thursday, citing a need
to serve domestic consumers'
demand and fill up storage
ahead of winter, according
to late Thursday statements
by FGSZ and the National
Development Ministry.
Ukraine's national
energy company Naftogaz
Ukrayiny, however, said the
move was "unexpected" and
"incomprehensible."
The decision by Japan's
fifth-biggest utility by
sales is another blow to the
government's plans to
increase renewable energy
supply as much as possible
following the Fukushima
disaster in March 2011,
which has shaken public
faith in atomic power and
left all the country's
reactors idle.
Did you realize that all
conventional methods of
killing cancer have only a
3% overall ‘cure’ rate?
Chemotherapy and radiation
not only have low cure
rates, but they also kill
healthy cells and often make
cancer worse, when this is
completely unnecessary
because most cells can be
reverted into healthy,
non-damaging cells with the
right treatment.
Outgoing Afghanistan
President Hamid Karzai took
one final swipe at the U.S.
Tuesday, telling a gathering
of Afghan government
employees that the 13-year
American-led military action
had failed to bring peace to
his country.
"We don't have peace
because the Americans didn't
want peace," said Karzai,
who will officially give way
to President-elect Ashraf
Ghani Ahmadzai when the
latter is sworn in Monday.
Poor sleeping habits
cause both brain damage
and brain shrinkage, and
may even accelerate
onset of Alzheimer’s
disease. Lack of sleep
has also been linked to
obesity and hormone
alterations
One animal study found
that chronic exposure to
light at night prevented
reproductive organ
development in male
blackbirds
Recent research shows
that your body clock
plays an important role
in chronic inflammation
and the accumulation of
body fat
Misuse of sleeping pills
is on the rise.
Emergency room visits
involving the sleep aid
zolpidem (Ambien) nearly
doubled between 2005 and
2010, reaching 42,274
visits in the year
2009-2010
Maintaining a natural
rhythm of exposure to
sunlight during the day
and darkness at night is
one crucial foundational
component of sleeping
well
Testosterone prescriptions
for men have soared in the
past few years, rising from
1.3 million men receiving
prescriptions in 2010 to 2.3
million in 2013. But if
you're suffering from
age-related low testosterone
— Low T — and have been
taking testosterone drugs,
your doctor may soon be
reluctant to prescribe your
usual medications.
American intelligence
agencies believe they have
identified the Islamic State
militant who appeared on two
videotapes in which American
journalists were beheaded,
the F.B.I. director, James
B. Comey, said Thursday, but
he declined to name the man
while agents from the United
States and Britain were
searching for him.
Minnesota drivers soon
could be speeding past lines
of solar panels along state
highways if a plan by the
Minnesota Department of
Transportation works out.
The department on
Wednesday announced it has
asked companies to submit
proposals to rent highway
rights of way to build
groups of solar panels,
called arrays, churning out
pollution-free electricity.
Why has Nestlé, who owns a
baby-formula producing
company called Gerber,
removed GMOs (genetically
modified organisms) from
baby foods and formulas in
South Africa and not in the
United States? Perhaps
because South African
parents are more vocal than
Americans. Or it might also
be because corporations
conducting business in the
U.S. are protected by
government agencies who
don’t seem to give a hoot
about public health – not
even of our most fragile
citizens. Maybe it’s time we
speak out for the sake of
children’s health.
Excess nutrients, blue-green
algae (cyanobacteria), and
cyanotoxins have long been a
problem for wastewater
treatment plants (WWTPs) —
many states regulate
nutrient levels in
discharged water — but now
drinking water plants are
being eyed for regulation as
well.
Scientists at the German
Centre for Solar Energy and
Hydrogen Research
Baden-Württemberg (ZSW)
achieved an efficiency of
21.7 % with a thin-film
solar cell made of copper
indium gallium diselenide
(CIGS). The last record was
set by Swedish researchers,
who produced solar cells
with an efficiency of 21%.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin
(D-W.Va.) expressed concern
after the Government
Accountability Office (GAO)
released an updated report
on the projected number of
retiring coal -- fired
plants in response to the
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) standards for
carbon dioxide emissions.
According to the report,
approximately 13 percent of
coal-fueled generating
capacity has either been
retired since 2012 or is
planned for retirement by
2025, which surpasses the
previous estimates in 2012.
The Northwest European
gasoline market
backwardation steepened to
its highest this month as
the front-month/second-month
gasoline swap spread on the
back of prompt physical
tightness in the market,
following the refinery
turnaround season in the
region.
Solar energy, particularly
distributed photovoltaic
(PV) generation, drives more
full-time utility employment
than any other renewable
generating resource,
according to research
conducted by the Solar
Electric Power Association
(SEPA) and ScottMadden Inc.,
which looked at how
renewable energy is
reshaping utilities'
organizational structures
across 14 utilities.
C4 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
(26 Sep, 27 Sep, 28 Sep).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on days one,
two, and three (26 Sep, 27
Sep, 28 Sep).
By the end of 2014, Japan is
predicted to have added
another 8 GW of solar
photovoltaic (PV)
installations to its current
capacity; just more than 5.1
GW is expected to come
online in the second half of
the year, according to
research and consulting firm
GlobalData.
With three new districts
under quarantine, about
one-third of Sierra Leone's
6 million people are now
living in areas where their
movements are heavily
restricted. In parts of
Sierra Leone and in
neighboring Liberia where
these cordons have been used
in this outbreak, food
prices have soared, some
markets have shut and the
delivery of goods has
slowed.
Suicide is a HUGE
problem within our Native
communities, yet it’s
something that we barely
speak about. I put myself
in this category as
well—even though we’ve had
several people within my
family commit suicide, my
family has never gotten
together specifically to
talk about either 1) why
these suicides keep
happening, or 2) how we can
prevent further suicides
from happening in the
future. While sexy
political topics dominate
headlines, this life and
death issue that affects the
heart of Indian Country—our
homelands—hardly ever gets
any press. We haven’t yet
collectively tackled this
crucial question, “Why do we
do this to ourselves?”
For years Texas was
producing more wind power
than it could effectively
put to use. Between 2006
and 2009 over 7,000
megawatts of wind capacity
was built in the state.
These turbines were almost
entirely located in the
windy plains of West Texas.
But most of the state's
population is located
further east in the Dallas,
Austin and Houston metro
areas. This proved to be a
problem. Wind capacity in
the west was being built out
faster than the grid
capacity to transmit the
power to where it was
needed.
The frenzy of investors
divesting from fossil fuels
in favor of clean energy has
reached a fever pitch at $50
billion in divestitures,
according to MarkGlobal
Divest/Invest Coalition.
More than 800 investors
worldwide are divesting
their holdings in fossil
fuels. The signatories,
including foundations,
individuals, faith groups,
health care organizations,
cities and universities
around the world will make
their divestiture commitment
public today at the United
Nations Climate Summit.
Signers pledge to divest
from fossil fuels over five
years, taking a variety of
approaches.
Regions of the U.S. are
undergoing a record drought
that has created stress for
various industries,
restrictions on personal
water use, a new hashtag,
and the threat of massive
fines.
Is the crisis also
creating investment
opportunities?
Northwest anglers
venturing out into the
Pacific Ocean in pursuit of
salmon and other fish this
fall may scoop up something
unusual into their nets —
instruments released from
Japan called "transponders."
These floating
instruments are about the
size of a 2-liter soda
bottle and were set in the
ocean from different ports
off Japan in 2011-12 after
the massive Tohoku
earthquake and tsunami.
The U.S. Treasury
Department on Monday
announced what it called its
"first, targeted steps" to
make it harder for U.S.
companies to reduce their
tax bills by merging with
foreign firms and moving
abroad.
The process, known as
inversion, has been all the
rage in the corporate world
this year.
The economic benefits
from unconventional U.S. oil
and gas development being
felt by a diverse group of
industries that support oil
and gas producers, supply
chain industries like steel
pipe manufacturers,
construction, railcars, sand
and gravel producers, and
professional and technical
labor, according to a new
study by IHS.
Employment related to
unconventional oil and gas
production in these supply
chain industries totaled
524,000 jobs in 2012 and is
forecast by IHS to grow 45
percent to 757,000 jobs in
2025 -- equivalent to 41
percent of total direct and
indirect employment
supported by unconventional
oil and gas value chain
activity.
Much of the water on Earth —
an estimated 30 to 50
percent — came from space
and is actually older than
the sun, says a team of
scientists from the
University of Michigan at
Ann Arbor.
New Scientist
reported Friday that the
discovery sheds light not
only on how our planet and
sun were formed, but also
gives scientists clues about
what makes up planets and
stars outside our solar
system. The team’s results
suggest that wet — and
therefore life-sustaining —
planets may be more common
than previously thought.
"Increasingly, we've moved
not only from a security
focus to a resiliency
focus," said Caitlin
Durkovich, assistant
secretary for infrastructure
protection at Homeland
Security, an agency better
known for its fight to curb
terrorist threats.
Durkovich spoke Thursday on
a panel at the Rising Seas
Summit, a three-day
conference organized by the
U.S.-based Association of
Climate Change Officers to
discuss tools and ideas on
building resiliency,
particularly against rising
sea levels.
With all the controversy
surrounding hydraulic
fracturing (fracking), the
public can now learn about
the safest and best
practices available by
touring the oil and gas
exploration research and
demonstration group
Environmentally Friendly
Drilling Systems Program's
(EFD) new Virtual Hydraulic
Fracturing website. Managed
by the Houston Advanced
Research Center (HARC), the
new site was developed in
response to requests by
operators, service
companies, suppliers and
environmental organizations
interested in mitigating the
environmental costs
sometimes associated with
fracturing.
The WCIP Outcome
Document is part of a
growing body of
international protocols that
collectively can be seen as
a gradual accumulation of
political power for
Indigenous Peoples in the UN
system. What Indigenous
Peoples got out of the World
Conference, however
imperfectly, is greater
recognition of their rights
in the international system.
On the heels of Google's
chairman announcing that the
organization no longer
supports the American
Legislative Exchange Council
(ALEC), more technology
companies are following
suit. Yahoo, Facebook and
Yelp are the latest to
report that they are leaving
the council. Microsoft left
the group in late August
this year, citing concerns
with the Council's position
on renewable energy.
Peabody Energy recently
ranked the top 5 cleanest
burning coal-fired power
plants in the U.S. under
three categories: SO2
emissions, NOx emissions and
best heat rate.
As the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
hands down stricter emission
regulations on the nation’s
coal-fired power plants,
many utilities are adding
flue-gas desulfurization
devices
(scrubbers),electrostatic
precipitators and other
emission-control equipment
to meet new standards.
Water could “go bad” if
you store it improperly,
reuse dirty bottles, or
fail to regularly clean
your water filtration
system
If you use a water
filtration system, such
as reverse osmosis, you
must remember to
regularly clean out the
holding tank to avoid
microbial overgrowth
that may contaminate
your water
Ambient temperature and
exposure to sunlight
and/or your lips can
introduce microorganisms
into your water glass or
bottle, which can then
begin to thrive and
contaminate your water
Commercial water bottles
tend to wear down from
repeated use, which can
lead to bacterial growth
in surface cracks inside
the bottle. This risk is
compounded if you fail
to adequately wash the
bottle between each use
Toxic chemicals can also
leach out of plastic
bottles into the water,
and is a good reason to
avoid plastic bottles in
the first place
"We show direct
evidence that there is a
field in the universe that
one can tap into which will
supply, basically, free
energy. We've shown [seven
different experiments] the
existence of this field,
some of its properties; that
it has quantum states."
Environmental groups led by
anti-nuclear activists HEAL
Utah are challenging a
judicial ruling that upheld
Utah's decision to allow
Green River water to be used
in a proposed nuclear power
plant...
Jones approved the transfer
of 50,300 acre-feet of water
from the Kane and San Juan
County conservancy districts
- water that will be
ultimately diverted from the
Green River in a withdrawal
the groups say is not
sustainable.
The King Fire has blackened
more than 80,000 acres
(32,374 hectares) and become
the most menacing of seven
major blazes in
drought-parched California.
The fire has burned parts of
the El Dorado and Taho
national forests.
There is a real possibility
that Ebola could mutate into
a virus that is as
spreadable as the flu, one
of the nation’s top Ebola
researchers tells Newsmax
Health.
“I don’t want to be an
alarmist, but the
possibility of Ebola
becoming an airborne
virus clearly has to be
taken into account,”
said David Sanders,
associate professor of
biological sciences at
Purdue University.
Pennsylvania power
plants, including one in New
Florence, once again made an
environmental group's
"dirty" list.
This time,
PennEnvironment is hopeful a
new EPA guideline could help
clean up carbon emissions at
the state's coal-fired
plants -- and those across
the nation -- by requiring
pollution to be cut 30
percent from 2005 levels by
the year 2030.
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency will hold
its second annual
SepticSmart Week September
22-26. SepticSmart Week
outreach activities
encourage homeowners and
communities to care for and
maintain their septic
systems. Nearly one-quarter
of all American households
depend on septic systems to
treat their wastewater.
Organizers of the growing
movement to persuade
investors to divest from
fossil fuels will announce a
major milestone Monday, when
more than 50 foundations,
institutions and wealthy
individuals who control at
least $50 billion in assets
will pledge to begin pulling
their investments from
fossil fuels, particularly
coal and oil.
The
airstrikes represent a
dramatic reversal of
President Obama’s policy of
refusing to get involved
militarily in Iraq or Syria
over the past several years
despite the clear and
growing threat of Islamic
jihadists to U.S., Israeli
and Arab national security.
Speaker of the House John
Boehner gave an important
speech at the American
Enterprise Institute
yesterday.
He offered the American
people in simple language
the five things we need to
do to reset our country’s
economic foundation. It was
exactly the kind of
realistic, positive vision
for governing in the 21st
century that Americans have
been waiting to hear from
either party.
As the Washington Post
noted, this week France
nixed “Islamic State” in an
official government release
and replaced it with the
term ”Daesh.”..
Pro-Islam groups have
encouraged media outlets to
stop using the “Islamic
State,” insisting the group
is not Islamic. President
Barack Obama echoed that
earlier this month in a
primetime address to the
nation.
By 2100, over 13 billion
people could be walking the
planet. That's the
conclusion of a new study
published today in Science,
which employed UN data to
explore the probability of
various population
scenarios. The new study
further demolishes the
long-held theory that human
population growth will quit.
The movie, "PUMP," blames
oil companies, and what is
described as their
obstructive tactics, as well
as political inertia for
preventing the widespread
adoption of cheaper and
cleaner fuels based on
natural gas and alcohol in
the United States, world's
largest economy.
Scientists have vehemently
argued the theory that free
will is simply an illusion,
and that our brain's
activity predicts our
behavior before it even
happens, sounding eerily
similar to Tom Cruise’s
movie Minority Report. But
the researchers from Georgia
State University have a new
compelling study that sheds
light on the inaccuracies of
such a claim. They published
their free-thinking findings
in the journal Cognition.
While many of us rely on
grass-fed beef as a source
of healthful, properly
raised meat, that option of
healthy eating may just move
down a peg? Why? Not
because cattle may have to
switch to GM grain, but
rather because cattle may be
forced to indulge in
genetically modified grass.
Energiewende has
become one of the most
talked about topics in the
utilities industry and
perhaps one of the most
notorious. It has also
become the example of how
not to do energy policy. And
while this may be true in
many respects, the strategy
has been successful in
certain areas, least of
which is providing learnings
for other countries.
A spotless solar
manufacturing plant on the
South Side is the latest
step in CPS Energy's plan to
obtain 20 percent of its
electricity from renewable
sources by 2020.
The $130 million factory
owned by Mission Solar
Energy is up and running at
Brooks City Base. Last
month, it shipped the first
solar panels to CPS' newest
solar farm, Alamo 3, in
Northeast San Antonio near
Loop 1604 and Interstate 10
.
"This solar panel, for
example, will still work and
provide electricity if there
is a blackout. That's why
solar itself is so
important. We want to spark
environmental initiative."
Citizens groups from both
sides of the Cape Cod Canal
have sent a petition to
federal officials saying
security at the Pilgrim
Nuclear Power Station should
be tightened or the plant
should be shut down.
Lower carbon emissions and
strong economic growth are
both possible due to
structural and technological
changes in the world
economy, finds a new report
by a commission of global
leaders chaired by former
President of Mexico
economist Felipe Calderón.
A revolution is quietly
under way in Albany to turn
electric utilities on their
head.
In an effort to stem
rising and unpredictable
utility bills and lower the
cost of power for
businesses, state regulators
are telling utilities that
the old way of doing
business isn't going to work
anymore.
The Senate Finance
Committee last week held a
hearing looking at energy
provisions in the tax code,
specifically titled,
"Reforming America's
Outdated Energy Tax Code."
Many in the industry are
applauding the efforts of
the Committee and calling
this hearing a step in the
right direction.
"Energy tax expenditures
play an important role in
the development and
deployment of advanced
energy technologies. Today,
we often think that the goal
of energy tax incentives is
mainly to help support the
deployment of renewable
energies,"...
The Wolf Creek nuclear
power plant cost $3 billion
to build, and it could cost
as much $1 billion to get
rid of it.
Shutting down the mammoth
power plant near Burlington
will mean having to dispose
of about 20 million pounds
of radioactive waste and
radiation-tainted equipment,
according to a new report
from the Wolf Creek Nuclear
Operating Corp. to the
Kansas Corporation
Commission .
olar activity has been at
very low levels for the past
24 hours. Solar
activity is expected to be
low with a chance for
M-class flares on days one,
two, and three (23 Sep, 24
Sep, 25 Sep). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on days
one, two, and three (23 Sep,
24 Sep, 25 Sep).
More than four years
after Seabrook's NextEra
Energy Seabrook nuclear
power plant filed for a
20-year extension to its
license, the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission has
again revised its schedule
for the application, with
the decision date now pushed
back to March 2016 .
Smithsonian scientists
have discovered a
connection between
decreases in large
wildlife populations and
increases in zoonoses
(diseases that can be
transmitted from animals
to humans).
Their study is one of
the first to offer clear
experimental evidence
that declining large
animal populations
correlate to significant
increases in rodents
that carry human
disease-causing
bacteria.
The study took place
over a three-year period
during which researchers
evaluated rodents both
inside and outside a
24-acre savanna in Kenya
that had been free of
large wildlife for over
a decade.
The researchers found
that rodent populations
doubled inside the
24-acre fenced area. The
increase was directly
attributable to the lack
of competition by large
animals for food. The
scientists also found
that just as rodent
numbers doubled, so did
the number of rodents
infected with
Bartonella.
Bartonellosis is an
infectious zoonotic
disease. The same team
of scientists plans to
conduct future studies
to include a broader
range of infectious
diseases.
These study results
point to the possibility
that wildlife
conservation efforts
provide benefits not
only to endangered
species and their
ecosystems, but also in
less obvious ways to the
humans living alongside
them.
The deadly fungus known
as white-nose syndrome
is now responsible for
the deaths of nearly 6
million bats in the U.S.
and Canada. The disease,
which was first detected
in New York 8 years ago,
has now spread to 25
U.S. states and 5
Canadian provinces.
White-nose syndrome is
spread among bats as
they hibernate in caves
and mines. The fungus
invades the skin,
interrupting the bats’
hydration and
hibernation cycles.
Sick, undernourished,
dehydrated bats emerge
from hibernation in late
winter rather than in
spring, and most
ultimately die.
The only method
currently available to
stem the spread of the
disease is to restrict
access to caves and
mines in order to
prevent transmission of
the infection by humans.
In August, the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service
awarded $1.3 million in
grants to 30 states to
support research,
monitor bat populations,
and detect and respond
to white-nose syndrome.
Bats are critically
important to natural
ecosystems and humanity
across the globe. They
provide tremendous pest
control, pollination,
and seed disbursement
services, and bat guano
(poop) is a rich
fertilizer and major
natural resource
worldwide.
You can help bat
conservation efforts by
educating family and
friends about the
importance of bats and
the threat of white-nose
syndrome, encouraging
lawmakers to approve
funding to fight the
disease, reporting bat
deaths or unusual
behavior to your state
wildlife agency,
steering clear of closed
caves and mines, and
following appropriate
decontamination
protocols if you enter a
cave or mine.
Turkish President Recep
Tayyib Erdogan indicated for
the first time Monday that
his country may have traded
Islamic State group
prisoners it held captive in
exchange for 49 Turkish
hostages held by the
militants.
The review of coverage by
leading television news
shows in Australia, Brazil,
Britain, China, Germany and
India found that they most
often framed reports about
the science of global
warming in terms of
crisis...
Some scientists say the
media focus on disaster may
warp public understanding of
climate change and
complicate decision-making
on effective solutions.
Last October, residents
in Cedar Valley, Oregon
were doused with
pesticides by a
helicopter aiming for
privately-owned
timberlands. At least
one appears to have
suffered complications
that led to death
The “Farm and Forest
Practices Act” prevents
the residents from suing
for damages. But 17 of
those affected by the
pesticide dousing are
now challenging the
constitutionality of
that law
A federal judge has
ruled that Idaho’s Bill
1337--dubbed the “ag-gag
law,” as it criminalizes
the secret filming of
agricultural
practices—may in fact be
unconstitutional
The Grocery
Manufacturers
Association of America
(GMA) is suing Vermont
in an effort to overturn
the first
no-strings-attached GMO
labeling in the US
GMA is also pushing a
Congressional bill, the
“Safe and Accurate Food
Labeling Act of 2014,
dubbed the “DARK”
(Denying Americans the
Right to Know) Act,
which would bar states
from passing GMO
labeling laws
The extremely compelling
footage in this 3 minute
video should be yet another
powerful tool to be used in
the battle to awaken the
sleeping masses to what is
occurring over their heads
day in and day out. The
sprayed disbursements that
are clearly occurring behind
this jet tanker can not be
rationally denied.
US residential and
commercial natural gas
customers can anticipate
more normal temperatures
this winter, but the price
they pay for gas will be
"slightly higher" than last
winter because of the
growing competition from
industrial and electric
generation users, the
American Gas Association
said Monday.
Freddie Mac yesterday
released the results of its
Primary Mortgage
Market Survey®
(PMMS®), showing average
fixed mortgage rates making
their biggest one-week gain
so far this year and
bringing them to their
highest level since the week
ending May 1.
The U.S. and five Arab
countries launched
airstrikes Monday night on
Islamic State group targets
in Syria, expanding a
military campaign into a
country whose three-year
civil war has given the
brutal militant group a safe
haven
It sounds a little
strange, but piles of
pictures, experimental data
and models compiled over
decades can back up this
description. And as new
information gets added to
the picture, cosmologists
are considering even wilder
ways to describe the
universe—including some
outlandish proposals that
are nevertheless rooted in
solid science:
As you're reading this, oil
and gas companies in 35
states are injecting
millions of gallons of
chemicals deep into the
ground during hydraulic
fracturing operations
("fracking").
Of the fracking chemicals
that scientists have been
allowed to study, one in ten
are hazardous to humans. Why
can't we study all the
chemicals used in fracking?
Because the oil and gas
industry classifies them as
"trade secrets."
XPRIZE board member Barry
Thompson explains that today
there is an ‘inquisition of
scientific mindsets’ that is
holding back breakthroughs
in science. He mentions that
scientists consider that
energy sources like cold
fusion, zero-point energy
are possible, but that in
reality no one can
investigate it in academia
because of blacklisting and
a code of silence
surrounding these unpopular
topics.
This year XPRIZE is offering
$20 million to the first
team that can produce
‘substantive energy
generation’ from an
‘entirely new method’ twice
in two weeks.
Over half a billion
pounds of pesticides are
used annually in the U.S. to
increase crop production and
reduce insect-borne disease,
but some of these pesticides
are occurring at
concentrations that pose a
concern for aquatic life.
The proportion of streams
with one or more pesticides
that exceeded an
aquatic-life benchmark was
similar between the two
decades for streams and
rivers draining agricultural
and mixed-land use areas,
but much greater during the
2002-2011 for streams
draining urban areas.
Today, the U.S. House of
Representatives approved
a plan to arm Syrian
rebels to fight against
Islamic State. The rebels
could draw some of the
militants back into Syria
from Iraq. Meanwhile, at
least 178 were killed across
Iraq, and another 95 were
wounded.
In the midst of the rapid
growth in its solar
photovoltaic (PV) market,
Japan is looking into its
local resources — forests —
to provide racking for PV
systems. Several firms in
Japan are turning domestic
cypress or cedar trees into
PV racks, which are
traditionally made of metal
such as aluminum and steel.
A 150-kW PV system owner in
Mie prefecture stated that
it came naturally to choose
wood as racking for
environmentally friendly
solar energy. The company
used cedar wood, which was
harvested locally.
Few countries are in a
better position than Turkey
to help the United States
fight Islamic State. The
moderate Islamic country
shares a 750 mile border
with Syria, is a NATO member
and a long-time ally of
America. But don’t hold your
breath for Turkey’s support.
Police on Thursday said they
thwarted a plot to carry out
beheadings in Australia by
supporters of the radical
Islamic State group. They
raided more than a dozen
properties across Sydney and
were holding six people and
have identified the
suspected ringleader,
officials said.
Around the world there are
guidelines and regulations
regarding the quality of
drinking water distributed
by water treatment plants.
These guidelines/regulations
are sometimes national, such
as U.S. regulations and
Canadian guidelines. Others
have adopted the same
regulations covering many
countries, such as European
regulations. There are also
the World Health
Organization’s guidelines
that all countries should
try to follow.
At the Morgan Stanley
Global Healthcare Conference
on September 9, Merck CEO
Ken Frazier told investors
he wouldn’t join the giant
wave of companies pursuing
overseas acquisitions so
they can move abroad and
escape high U.S. corporate
taxes. Such deals, known as
“tax inversions,” go against
Merck’s policy of only
making purchases that give
the company “quality
commercial access and
quality scientific access,”
Frazier said. “We don’t see
that the advantages that we
would get from a tax
inversion deal would … be
durable long-term because I
think the U.S. government
will do something positive
or negative in response to
the flight of capital,” he
added.
For 14 years, an
electric-power plant in
Massachusetts used a
chemical solvent process to
capture carbon dioxide
released from the combustion
of natural gas.
As the U.S. enters a new
era of power generation
shaped by abundant supplies
of natural gas, this
carbon-capture technology
holds the potential for
dramatically lowering
emissions from natural gas
and helping achieve
President Obama's midcentury
target of a more than 80
percent reduction of U.S.
carbon-dioxide emissions.
The Business Roundtable
third quarter 2014 CEO
Economic Outlook Index which
provides a picture of the
future direction of the U.S.
economy based upon CEOs’
plans for sales, capital
spending and hiring ?
declined moderately from the
second quarter. Results show
plans for capital
expenditures, hiring and
sales all decreased relative
to the previous quarter,
with hiring plans declining
the most.
“The U.S. economy continues
to perform below its
potential”
China in May signed an deal
with Russia to import 38
billion cubic meters/year of
gas through a pipeline for
30 years.
"We are
negotiating another deal
with Russia, which we are
hoping to sign late this
year or early 2015," Dong
said, noting the agreements
are part of China's efforts
to diversify its energy
sources.
While he
did not mention a specific
price range, Dong said
Canadian producers will have
to consider disconnecting
LNG prices from the price of
crude if they wish to be
competitive.
Continental Resources
unveiled results of the
Springer Shale on Thursday,
a new Oklahoma oil play that
could help boost the state's
already growing production
to levels not seen in
decades.
The company declined at the
time to say exactly what it
planned to do with the site,
but ads on Careerbuilder.com
say the company specializes
"in battery technology and
manufacturing for long life
commercial applications and
electric vehicle
transportation."
The Environmental Protection
Agency on Tuesday gave the
public 45 more days to weigh
in on a plan that would for
the first time curb the
pollution blamed for global
warming from the nation's
coal-fired power plants. The
agency said it was still
aiming to finalize the rules
by next summer.
The fall foliage season that
prompts millions of
Americans to undertake
jaunts into the countryside
each year could come much
later and possibly last a
little longer within a
century, according to new
research.
The federal Government
Accountability Office (GAO)
recently called out the EPA
for not doing enough to
protect drinking water from
risks posed by oil and gas
companies.
"Congress’ watchdog
agency faulted the [EPA] for
its oversight of hydraulic
fracturing wastewater
injected into the ground,
saying the agency doesn’t
adequately work to mitigate
emerging risks to drinking
water," The Hill
reported.
The Federal Open
Market Committee (FOMC) met
expectations and cut a
further $10 billion from the
pace of monthly asset
purchases. Beginning in
October, the Fed will
purchase $5 billion of
agency mortgage-backed
securities (MBS) and $10
billion of longer-term
Treasuries per month, down
from $10 billion and $15
billion, respectively. The
statement included an
explicit statement that if
the data show the economy is
progressing in line with the
Fed's mandate with respect
to the labour market and
inflation, the asset
purchase program will end at
the October meeting.
The Republican-controlled
House voted grudgingly
Wednesday to give the
administration authority to
train and arm Syrian rebels
as President Barack Obama
emphasized anew that
American forces "do not and
will not have a combat
mission" in the struggle
against Islamic State
militants in either Iraq or
Syria.
An investigator looking into
the claims that “fake cell
towers” are popping up all
over the country says he
discovered several active
sites just in the last 48
hours within feet of the
White House, around the
Russian Embassy and covering
the Senate buildings where
key Islamic State hearings
took place this week.
The 2000s-era wonder crop
went quiet as “plant
anything, anywhere” gave way
to the “develop genetics,
boost yield” movement, led
by SGB. Today, SGB moves
forward again with $11
million in new financing.
August 11 was an auspicious
day for Mexico. Some
seventy-six years after the
government nationalized the
country’s oil industry,
President Enrique Peña Nieto
signed into law an energy
reform package that many are
saying will have a
transformative impact on the
economy of Mexico. The
landmark legislation, which
will open Mexico’s oil and
natural gas markets to
foreign investment, also
directs certain changes to
the electricity sector that
will require grid operator
CENACE to procure generation
from renewable resources.
Researchers working at the
University of Missouri (MU)
claim to have produced a
prototype of a
nuclear-powered, water-based
battery that is said to be
both longer-lasting and more
efficient than current
battery technologies and may
eventually be used as a
dependable power supply in
vehicles, spacecraft, and
other applications where
longevity, reliability, and
efficiency are paramount.
Mexico is pursuing legal
action against a copper
mining company that was
allegedly responsible for a
massive toxic wastewater
spill in August that left
thousands of people without
clean water.
The acid spill at a Grupo
Mexico unit contaminated two
rivers. Water in the Sonora
River "contains arsenic,
cadmium, copper, chrome and
mercury," Bloomberg reported.
It didn’t take a rocket
scientist to predict that
NASA’s plan to pay Russia to
launch American astronauts
into orbit wasn’t going to
turn out well...
Now Russian President
Vladimir Putin is
reconstituting the Russian
empire, and senior Russian
officials have reacted to
our economic sanctions by
suggesting that Americans
“bring their astronauts to
the International Space
Station using a trampoline.”
NASA's Dawn spacecraft has
recovered from an unexpected
phenomenon that resulted in
the robotic explorer going
into safe mode on September
11, mirroring a similar
event that affected the
spacecraft three years ago
as it approached the
protoplanet Vesta. Dawn was
launched in September 2007
atop a Delta II-Heavy rocket
with a mission to explore
Vesta and the dwarf planet
Ceres.
Novatec uses Fresnel
collectors for quite some
time now. Now for the first
time molten salt will be
used as heat transfer
medium. ..
The plant uses inorganic
molten salt as heat transfer
fluid. Most solar thermal
power plants currently use
heat transfer oils, which
have a limited qualification
temperature near 400 °C.
Using inorganic salts as
heat transfer fluid allows
temperatures above 500 °C,
resulting in a significant
increase in power yield.
Like other U.S. cities,
New York relies on aging
water infrastructure. "The
average age of New York
City’s 6,400 miles of sewage
mains is approximately 84
years, for example. Its
6,800 miles of water mains
are approximately 69 years
old," The Atlantic
reported.
Problems with the
all-important Delaware
Aqueduct have plagued the
city for years. The aqueduct
carries about half of the
city's drinking water from
the Catskills, according to
the New York Times.
Atikokan Generation Station
in northwestern Ontario is
now North America's largest
100-percent biomass-fueled
power plant generating
renewable, peak capacity
power. Ontario Power
Generation (OPG) announced
that the conversion has been
successfully been completed.
The station stopped using
coal in September 2012 and
underwent a US$ 170 million
conversion.
The U.S. Nuclear Waste
Technical Review Board will
meet in Augusta to discuss
issues related to waste
storage at L-Basin,
alternatives for dry
storage, processing of spent
fuel and the aging
facilities involved in these
operations, according to a
news release.
The board also will
discuss vitrification of
highly radioactive waste,
storage of vitrified waste,
production rates for storage
canisters and plans for a
new vitrified waste storage
facility.
The United Nations
announced today that it
would need nearly $1 billion
for an exceptional,
international response to
Ebola outbreak in West
Africa. Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon declared, “Every
day we delay, the cost and
the suffering will grow
exponentially.”
“This is not just a
health crisis; it has grave
humanitarian, economic and
social consequences that
could spread far beyond the
affected countries,” the
secretary-general said at a
press conference at UN
Headquarters to outline the
priorities of the new
session of General Assembly.
Public health officials
in Oregon warned
recreational boaters and
swimmers who on warm days
flock to a river that
bisects Portland to stay out
of the water on Wednesday
after detecting what they
suspect is a potentially
dangerous toxic algae.
Oregon Health Authority
officials said they believe
the unusual film found at
the Willamette River is the
result of toxic blue-green
algae, which is dangerous to
touch, drink or inhale.
Filtering the water won't
make it safe, and fish from
the river could be dangerous
to eat.
Bird strikes are a familiar
issue for many industries
and now that large
concentrative solar power
plants are coming online,
the solar industry is
beginning to take
preventative action.
Part 1 of this
article lays out the problem
of bird deaths at some CSP
power plants and begins to
offer some solutions. Part 2
gives more solutions and
explains how some of the
companies involved plan to
solve the problem.
Selecting modules requires
an understanding of module
attributes and
specifications. Once you are
familiar with those, the job
becomes ranking modules
based on your criteria. You
will find that the most
important module
characteristics depend on
the site and your system
goals.
M1 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be low with a slight chance
for an M-class flare on days
one, two, and three (19 Sep,
20 Sep, 21 Sep). The
geomagnetic field is expecte
to be at quiet levels on
days one, two, and three (19
Sep, 20 Sep, 21 Sep).
While lava continues to pour
out onto the Holuhraun lava
field in Iceland,
researchers have started to
notice some strange activity
taking place at the adjacent
Bardarbunga volcano.
Bardarbunga’s caldera has
sunk by an estimated 65 feet
since last week, raising
fears of a potential serious
eruption.
A new online mapping
system lets Boston
residential and commercial
property owners see the
solar potential of their
roofs and cost estimates to
install photovoltaic
systems.
"This will give folks the
ability to get a first-blush
analysis of their roofs both
from a solar potential
perspective in terms of how
many kilowatt hours you can
generate...
Idaho Power's solar-powered
lighting system has gone
"net zero" less than one
year after installation.
Manufactured and installed
by Boise -based Inovus, the
photovoltaic panels produced
as much energy as the lights
consumed over the past year.
The project, installed in
one of Idaho Power's
downtown parking lots, let
both companies test the
system in a real-world
environment.
Scientists have been
observing the wave-particle
duality of light for
centuries, but never has
light been seen to behave
like matter. Until now, that
is. Researchers at Princeton
University have devised a
method for giving light the
properties of liquids and
solids, with huge potential
ramifications in the study
of quantum mechanics and
other areas of physics.
They are not, we should
be clear, actually
transforming light into a
crystal, or any other form
of matter – though turning
light into matter and
binding its photons together
to form simple molecules are
both being explored
elsewhere.
A federal proposal to
raise the dam by 18.5 feet
to increase state water
storage by 1.5 percent would
submerge or damage nearly 40
sacred sites, villages and
burial grounds vital to the
Winnemem culture and
religion.
The prevalence of
"progressive massive
fibrosis," a debilitating
and lethal form of black
lung, is at its highest rate
since the early 1970s for
West Virginia, Kentucky and
Virginia, according to new
research. Experts with the
National Institute for
Occupational Safety and
Health, a department under
the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention,
summarized their study in a
letter published today in a
scientific journal.
New research presented at
this year's annual meeting
of the European Association
for the Study of Diabetes
(EASD) in Vienna, Austria,
shows that people with the
highest consumption of
high-fat dairy products (8
or more portions per day)
have a 23% lower risk of
developing type 2 diabetes
than those with the lowest
consumption (1 or less per
day). The research is by Dr
Ulrika Ericson, Lund
University Diabetes Center,
Malmö, Sweden, and
colleagues.
A man was fired from his job
at TVA's Bull Run Fossil
Plant after only three weeks
because he has a workers'
compensation claim pending
due to "exposure"
experienced while working at
the federal agency's ash
spill cleanup site in
Kingston, a legal action
avers.
The United States is in one
of the worst droughts since
the Dust Bowl of the 1930s
and the Southwest drought of
the 1950s. The current
drought affects over half
the country, with an
estimated 73 million people
– 20 percent of all
Americans – living in
moderate to exceptional
drought conditions.
Particularly hard hit is the
state of California, where
there is talk of a “mega
drought.” A mega drought is
defined more by its duration
than severity, where extreme
dry spells can last a decade
or longer.
Bird populations can
increase or decrease by as
much as three or four
percent each year due to
factors like land use,
unnatural predators and
climate change, so it's
important for researchers to
check in annually. “We need
to make sure we have our
finger on the pulse to be
able to identify and record
a significant change when
it’s happening,” says Pete
Marra, director of
the Migratory Bird Center
and an author of the report.
Underwater Compressed Air
Energy Storage (UW-CAES) — a
step beyond underground
energy storage in caverns —
may soon offer conventional
utilities a means of
long-duration load shifting
for their large-scale
electrical grids, and niche
microgrid operators a means
of reducing their
fossil-fuel dependence, say
its advocates.
Two U.S. lawmakers are
calling for action to rein
in antibiotic use in
livestock in response to a
Reuters investigation
showing how top U.S. poultry
firms have been
administering drugs to their
flocks...
“Industry has kept data
showing the rampant,
dangerous use of antibiotics
hidden from the public for
one reason: to protect
corporate profits at the
expense of public health,”
Slaughter said.
The Vermont Yankee
nuclear power plant has
begun a gradual reduction of
the electricity that it
generates that will end with
the plant shutting down in
December.
The so-called coast-down
period typically occurs at
the end of the plant's
operating cycle as the
nuclear fuel in the reactor
is depleted.
The state's only nuclear
power plant has been
generating electricity
continually since the spring
of 2013, a stretch of 500
days.
The White House
refused to include weapons
in an aid package announced
Thursday for embattled
Ukraine despite an
impassioned plea by
Ukrainian President Petro
Poroshenko for more military
assistance.
The Obama administration
is providing $46 million in
non-lethal security
assistance and $7 million
for relief organizations
providing humanitarian
assistance to Ukrainians
affected by the conflict
between government forces
and Russian-backed
separatists in the eastern
region.
Now more than ever, it makes
sense to own a solar power
system instead of leasing
one. The savings are
significant, since
purchasing a system
presently pencils out to
about 50 percent less than
leasing over the long term
and the payback period is
now as low as three years.
As prices continue to drop,
more builders and developers
are offering solar as
standard in their new
communities and we expect
the trend to continue.
Findings by University of
Montana Professor Dr. Lilian
Calderón-Garcidueñas, MA,
MD, Ph.D., and her team of
researchers reveal that
children living in
megacities are at increased
risk for brain inflammation
and neurodegenerative
changes, including
Alzheimer's or Parkinson's
disease.
Three years ago today, an
earthquake-induced tsunami
devastated Japan’s Fukushima
nuclear power complex. The
flooding knocked out power
required to cool reactors
and their spent fuel pools,
causing dangerous – and
continuing – radioactive
contamination.
Unfortunately, unless we act
quickly, such a catastrophe
is in the cards for America,
too.
If the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
approves a compromise
proposal, Arizona Public
Service (APS) will close
Unit 2 of its coal-fired
Cholla Power Plant in Joseph
City, Arizona, by April 2016
and stop burning coal at
Units 1 and 3 by the
mid-2020s.
The Obama administration
said Sunday that “several”
Arab nations had offered to
join in airstrikes against
the Islamic State, but any
sustained military campaign
does not appear imminent,
and likely will require an
even more significant
commitment from other
nations and fighting forces
in the region.
Recently, I read several
statistics that made me
pause and examine whether
the threat is real.
The U.S. fertility
rate fell to another
record low in 2012, with
63.0 births per 1,000
women ages 15 to 44
years old, according to
the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
That’s down slightly
from the previous low of
63.2 in 2011. It marked
the fifth year in a row
the U.S. birth rate has
declined, and the lowest
rate on record since the
government started
tracking the fertility
rate in 1909. [1]
For five years now,
America’s teen birth
rate has plummeted at an
unprecedented rate,
falling faster and
faster. Between 2007 and
2013, the number of
babies born to teens
annually fell by 38.4
percent, according to
research firm
Demographic
Intelligence. This drop
occurred in tandem with
steep declines in the
abortion rate. [2]
A few years ago,
statistics from the US
Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention
put the number of women
having difficulty
conceiving at
approximately 10
percent—roughly 1 in 10.
Now, using results from
this newest survey
[reported in 2013], that
number appears to be
closer to 16 percent—1
in every 6 couples. [3]
We've been experiencing some
pretty significant
volatility in our power
supply. We started out in
the early part of the year
looking a lot like
California with a dire water
forecast. Then we had a
miracle February and a
miracle March with an
incredible snow pack
building up in the Cascades
and in the Rockies. So now
we are in pretty good shape
from a power-side
perspective. The biggest
existential challenge that
we are facing at Bonneville
is our aging asset fleet, a
big fleet of hydroelectric
dams and transmission lines
built in the 1930s, 1940s
and 1950s that are aging. We
are spending several hundred
million dollars a year on
refurbishing the power and
transmission system.
The Louisiana Department
of Health and Hospitals
announced that deadly
brain-eating amoeba
Naegleria fowleri was found
in the water system of St.
John the Baptist Parish. The
water system where the
amoeba was found serves
12,577 people in three
Louisiana towns.
The disease is almost
always fatal, and according
to the CDC, just three out
of at least 132 people have
managed to survive the
infection in the U.S.
between 1963 and 2013. The
pathogen was responsible for
at least three deaths in
Louisiana parishes since
2011, including a 4-year-old
boy last summer, who died
after contracting the
infection from using a
slip-in-slide.
British Muslim leaders have
called on Prime Minister
David Cameron and other
politicians to stop
referring to the militant
jihadist group as the
“Islamic State” and have
instead suggested the media
and politicians begin using
the name the “Un-Islamic
State.” They even offered a
new acronym, UIS.
While the unique shape of
Buddhist singing bowls is
vital to the creation of
their signature sound, a
researcher from Australia
National University (ANU)
has used their design as the
inspiration for a new breed
of solar cells. In
completing his PhD at the
University of Cambridge, Dr
Niraj Lal found that just as
the bowls cause sound to
resonate, miniaturized
versions can be made to
interact with light in much
the same way, inspiring
solar cells better able to
capture sunlight.
The three-judge panel ruled
that the federal government
has exclusive control over
interstate rates for
capacity payments to
electric power generators.
The New Jersey law, which
enabled selected generators
to receive preferential
capacity prices, intruded
into an area of regulation
reserved for the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission
under the Federal Power Act.
The city of Cupertino is
going solar in one part of
town.
The Cupertino City
Council on Sept. 2
unanimously and quickly
agreed to go in on a
Regional Renewable Energy
Procurement Project. It will
bring the installation of
solar power generation
facilities to the Cupertino
Service Center.
After over two years on
Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover
has reached its primary
objective, Mount Sharp.
Located in the center of
Gale Crater, where the
unmanned explorer has been
studying geology of the Red
Planet, Mount Sharp will be
the centerpiece of a new
program of study to locate
areas where could or once
could have supported
microbial life.
Dr. Oz advised his audience
that pregnant women and
parents of children should
request thimerosal-free flu
shots so they can avoid
injecting mercury into their
bodies.
A vaccine for this, a
vaccine for that – vaccines
all around! If it isn’t a
pharmaceutical drug, Western
medicine seems to find a
vaccine for
everything.A possible ‘cure’
for Alzheimer’s disease is
being offered in as little
as five years if all
14,000,000-plus of the
people who currently suffer
from the disease (and oh,
yes, their family members
too) just subject themselves
to a vaccine.
A major undersea
telecommunications cable
that connects Australia and
New Zealand to North America
has been tapped to allow the
United States National
Security Agency and its
espionage partners to
comprehensively harvest
Australian and New Zealand
internet data.
...America has one such
portentous vulnerability:
Its electric grid’s lack of
resiliency in the face of
electromagnetic pulse (EMP)
events. Widespread EMP can
be most efficiently
precipitated by detonating a
nuclear weapon many miles
above the United States,
unleashing gamma rays that
interact with the atmosphere
to expose every unshielded
electrical and
computer-based device within
line of sight to immensely
powerful pulses of energy.
The suggestion that
ISIS-related militants could
team up with Mexican drug
cartels to disable the US
power grid for an extended
period of time seems a bit
alarmist, but worth noting,
particularly in light of 2
recent substation attacks in
California. US power grid
vulnerability, be it from
cyber attack or direct
assault, has been widely
reported and it appears
steps are being taken to
strengthen security, though
threats certainly remain.
“Inadequate grid
security, a porous
U.S.-Mexico border, and
fragile transmission systems
make the electric grid a
target for ISIS,” said Peter
Pry, one of the nation’s
leading experts on the grid,
according to the Washington
Examiner.
DuPont will pay a $1,853,000
penalty to resolve
allegations that the company
failed to submit reports to
EPA about potential adverse
effects of an herbicide
product called Imprelis, and
sold it with labeling that
did not ensure its safe use.
When customers applied the
misbranded Imprelis product,
it led to widespread death
and damage to trees.
A former State Department
official says he witnessed
departmental employees
separating out damaging
documents on the Benghazi
investigation before handing
them over to the
Accountability Review Board,
The Daily Signal reports
Despite Prime Minister
Haider al-Abadi‘s
promise yesterday, that
civilian locations would no
longer suffer airstrikes,
Falluja hospital has been
bombed again. Still, he won
an endorsement today from
former P.M. Ayad
al-Allawi. At least
42 people were killed and
another 29 were wounded
today.
Wildlife officials are
preparing to set a
10,000-acre fire on Tuesday
to combat an invasive fern
in Florida's Everglades
National Park, hoping to
burn away a vine that is
blocking sunlight to native
plants...
The exotic intruder is
native to Australia, Africa
and tropical Asia. It was
introduced to Florida in the
1960s as a landscape plant.
Fracking for oil and natural
gas—or having enough water
to drink.
That's the possible dilemma
facing a number of countries
including the United States,
according to a new report
released by the World
Resources Institute last
week—though experts disagree
on the real implications of
the report and what should
be done about it.
Take the average amount of
water flowing over Niagara
Falls in a minute. Now
triple it. That’s almost how
much water power plants in
the United States take in
for cooling each minute, on
average.
The deep injection of
wastewater underground by
energy companies during
methane gas extraction has
caused a dramatic rise in
the number of earthquakes in
Colorado and New Mexico
since 2001, U.S. government
scientists said in a study
released on Monday.
Agriculture experts
raised a number of concerns
with genetically modified
crops, including safety and
spreading weed resistance,
at the first public meeting
of a U.S. government
sponsored study of
genetically engineered crops
held Monday.
The study, led by the
National Research Council
(NRC) and sponsored in part
by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, comes at a time
of growing consumer
suspicion of genetically
modified crops, which are
used in a variety of
packaged food products. Many
U.S. states are seeking
mandatory labeling of foods
with GMO ingredients, and a
growing number of food
companies are offering
non-GMO products.
The study also comes as
some important U.S. trading
partners, notably China, are
showing reluctance to allow
imports of some GMO grain.
This simple Healthy
Sautéed Mushroom recipe
takes just minutes to
make and will add
valuable nutrients and
flavor to your meal
Famous for their rich
smoky flavor, shiitake
mushrooms are said to
have more than 10 times
the flavor as white
button mushroom
Shiitake mushrooms are
known as a symbol of
longevity in Asia
because of their many
health-promoting
properties
Shiitake mushrooms may
help boost immune system
function and have
anti-tumor, anti-fungal,
antibacterial, and
anti-viral properties
Shiitake mushrooms are
widely available at
grocery stores, Asian
markets, and some
farmer’s markets; look
for mushrooms that are
firm, plump, and clean,
and avoid those that are
wet or slimy
“The eastern sky appeared of
a blood red color,” wrote a
resident of South Carolina’s
Sullivan Island. “The sea
reflected the phenomenon,
and no one could look at it
without thinking of the
passage in the Bible which
says, ‘the sea was turned to
blood.’ The shells on the
beach, reflecting light,
resembled coals of fire.”
“We are all increasingly
aware of the importance of
stormwater management to
address water quality and
quantity challenges. In
fact, since the passage of
the Clean Water Act, the
largest contributing force
to water quality impairment
has flipped from point
sources to nonpoint
sources,” explained O’Neill.
“Predictions for the market
for stormwater technologies
indicate expanding need not
just here in the U.S., but
globally.
As Japan seeks to end
reliance on nuclear power,
one of the answers is
floating 'solar islands',
writes Jon Major. A 70MW
solar island opened last
year, and two additional
plants have just been
announced.
The type of threats to
the power grid just
increased by one.
Now, in addition to being
concerned about an EMP
attack, an Earth-directed
solar flare, or a cyber
attack, Americans must also
worry about ISIS militants
attacking the nation’s most
vulnerable piece of
infrastructure.
Former government
officials are fearful that
ISIS militants are poised to
attack the power grid, and
even could get help from
Mexican drug gangs,
Investor Business Times
reported.
The late Masao Yoshida,
who led the emergency
response at Tokyo Electric
Power Co's Fukushima Daiichi
plant after the March 2011
nuclear disaster, told
investigators five months
later that facilities with
six or seven reactors were
difficult to operate and had
inherent safety risks,
according to transcripts
released by the government.
His comments have
implications for the debate
over the world's biggest
power station, Kashiwazaki
Kariwa, Tepco's only hope of
reviving idled reactors as
it faces a decades-long
cleanup of Fukushima.
The WHO has released a
new study ranking countries
with the worst air
pollution. When we consider
air pollution most of us
will automatically think of
China. However, it was
nowhere to be found in the
top 10 offenders. This, by
the way, is not because
they’ve suddenly cleaned up
their act, but rather
because this study ranked
countries as a whole, rather
than cities.
So here are the top 5
countries with the worst air
pollution, and what they are
trying to do to combat it.
The Northern Lights, or
Aurora Borealis, are a
natural light display that
is usually seen at high
latitude regions. The
vibrant lights are caused by
the collision of solar wind
and magnetospheric charged
particles with the high
altitude atmosphere.
A category G3 (Strong)
geomagnetic storm also
occurred at 2302 UTC on 12
September due to the same
coronal mass ejection (CME)
that was associated with an
X1/2b xray flare that
originated from Region 2158
(N16, L=87, class/area
Dkc/440 on 11 September) on
10 September.
Pope Francis said on
Saturday the spate of
conflicts around the globe
today were effectively a
"piecemeal" Third World War,
condemning the arms trade
and "plotters of terrorism"
sowing death and
destruction.
"Humanity needs to weep
and this is the time to
weep," Francis said in the
homily of a Mass during a
visit to Italy's largest war
memorial, a large,
Fascist-era monument where
more than 100,000 soldiers
who died in World War One
are buried.
Between 2012 and
mid-2014, Monsanto and
the Grocery
Manufacturers
Association (GMA)
successfully blocked GMO
labeling legislation in
over 30 states, at a
price tag of more than
$100 million
According to the most
recent analysis,
opponents of GMO
labeling spent more than
$27 million on lobbying
in the first six months
of this year alone. This
is about three times
more than they spent
during all of 2013
Vermont successfully
signed into law a
mandatory labeling bill
in May. More than 20
other states are
presently considering
GMO labeling laws
The chemical technology
industry has begun a
massive coordinated
attack against Vandana
Shiva, who is perhaps
one of the most vocal
and most well-respected
environmentalists and
anti-GMO activists in
the world
As the penetration of
variable renewable energy
resources increases
worldwide, more attention is
being paid to the effects of
renewable energy on power
system reliability and
operations. CSP with thermal
energy storage is a
potential solution that
meets clean energy and
climate change policy goals,
reduces the variability of
the aggregate renewable
energy portfolios and
provides a wide range of
operational and reliability
benefits.
M1 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 and two (15 Sep,
16 Sep) and expected to be
low with a slight chance for
an M-class flare on day
three (17 Sep). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet
levels on day one (15 Sep),
quiet to active levels on
day two (16 Sep) and quiet
to unsettled levels on day
three (17 Sep). Protons
greater than 10 Mev have a
slight chance of crossing
threshold on days one and
two (15 Sep, 16 Sep).
Researchers have
pinpointed a catalytic
trigger for the onset of
Alzheimer's disease - when
the fundamental structure of
a protein molecule changes
to cause a chain reaction
that leads to the death of
neurons in the brain.
For the first time,
scientists at Cambridge's
Department of Chemistry have
been able to map in detail
the pathway that generates
"aberrant" forms of proteins
which are at the root of
neurodegenerative conditions
such as Alzheimer's.
The 22nd annual Salmon
Homecoming Celebration being
held September 18 to 20 at
Waterfront Park in Seattle,
Washington is dedicated to
the life and memory of the
late Billy Frank Jr.,
Nisqually, longtime defender
of treaty rights and
chairman of the Northwest
Indian Fisheries Commission.
"What we've done here, after
a decade of frustration in
the field of psychiatric
genetics, is identify the
way genes interact with each
other, how the 'orchestra'
is either harmonious and
leads to health, or
disorganized in ways that
lead to distinct classes of
schizophrenia," Cloninger
said.
The United States power
grid has more blackouts than
any other country in the
developed world, according
to new data that spotlights
the country’s aging and
unreliable electric system.
The data by the
Department of Energy (DOE)
and the North American
Electric Reliability
Corporation (NERC) shows
that Americans face more
power grid failures lasting
at least an hour than
residents of other developed
nations.
While the Morro Bay City
Council isn't opposed to the
idea of an offshore facility
that would use wave energy
to generate electricity,
it's adamantly opposed to
the two test sites
identified by Dynegy in a
federal application for
research of a potential
commercial operation.
Many of President Obama's
words were reassuring. He
was dedicated to defeating
ISIS. He would pursue anyone
who threatened America. He
was committed to a long,
difficult campaign.
Unfortunately for the
President and the country,
there were five major
strategic flaws in his
speech. These flaws are so
profound that the Congress
should hold hearings
exploring each of them.
Michigan Child Protective
Services (CPS) sent a police
SWAT team with an armored
vehicle to take a girl from
her home because the mother
refused to give the teenager
the anti-psychotic drug
Risperdal.
Putting fluoride in the
water to prevent tooth decay
has been a long-time
practice that is still not
without its controversy, but
another substance that’s
associated with
mood-altering effects could
be lurking in your the
drinking supply — and it got
there naturally.
A marching band from the
NYPD and a contingent of New
Jersey Girl Scouts in Muslim
attire kicked off the
event. The streets were
filled with flag-waving
marchers, pro-Islam floats
and a demonstration of a
hanging.
Last weekend, an airline
passenger was stopped by TSA
agents after his flight
reached its destination. The
agents ordered that he
undergo additional screening
under threat of arrest. He
refused and left the
airport.
Antarctica is a key to
sea level rise, which
threatens coastal areas
around the world.. It has
enough ice to raise seas by
57 meters (190 feet) if it
ever all melted, meaning
that even a tiny thaw at the
fringes is a concern.
Until now, the exact
cause of the collapse of the
Larsen-B ice shelf, a
floating mass of ice bigger
than Luxembourg at the end
of glaciers in the Antarctic
Peninsula, had been unknown.
Some experts suggested it
was thinned by sea water
from below.
World powers backed military
measures on Monday to help
defeat Islamic State
fighters in Iraq, boosting
Washington's efforts to set
up a coalition, but made no
mention of the tougher
diplomatic challenge next
door in Syria.
About 80% is used
for irrigation and much
of that is for golf
courses, lawns, parks,
recreation fields,
swimming pools and
commercial property
beautification. 2
billion gallons per day
is used on golf courses
alone.
Approximately 10% is
used for industry and
business.
About 7% is used for
household use including
some irrigation.
The remainder,
around 3.0% is used for
thermal power plants.
Nuclear, coal, combined
cycle gas, CSP solar and
geothermal are thermal
plants. Coal plants are
by far the largest user,
followed by nuclear
plants, and finally
combined cycle gas
plants in order of power
production.
White House Chief of Staff
Denis McDonough is denying
claims that the
administration threatened
legal action against the
families of kidnapped
Americans if they paid
ransom to their captors, the
Islamic State.
Can you name the single
largest user of water in the
United States?
If you said power plants,
you were right (see chart
below)! More water is
required to run power plants
than any other industry. In
Texas, approximately 157,000
million gallons (482,100
acre-feet) of water annually
– enough water for over 3
million people for a year,
each using 140 gallons per
person per day – are
consumed for cooling the
state’s thermoelectric power
plants while generating
approximately 400
terawatt-hours (TWh) of
electricity. Because
of this, water is an
important consideration in
power plant planning.
Even though wheat is not
a GMO crop, glyphosate
is widely used to
harvest it and it is
typically heavily
contaminated with
glyphosate
Glyphosate exposure
appears to be strongly
correlated with the rise
in celiac disease
Glyphosate has been
shown to severely damage
your gut flora and cause
chronic diseases rooted
in gut dysfunction
The use of glyphosate on
wheat crops has risen in
tandem with the rise in
celiac disease. In fact,
it correlates to a
greater degree than
glyphosate usage on corn
and soy
Arizona Public Service
(APS) said it would close a
coal-fired unit and shut
down two others by mid-2020
as part of a compromise with
the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA).
The proposal was made
with the understanding that
APS would not be required to
install emission control
equipment on the units in
order to comply with EPA’s
Regional Haze rule. APS was
notified in 2010 that it
needed to upgrade its
scrubbers and add a baghouse
to its 260-MW Unit 2 at the
Cholla Power Plant in
Arizona to meet EPA’s
Mercury and Air Toxics
Standards. In 2012, EPA
published a federal
implementation plan that
required units 2 and 3 to
install selective catalytic
reduction (SCR) technology
to reduce nitrogen oxides
(NOx).
The coal-fired Cholla Power
Plant in Joseph City, Ariz.,
will close its 260-megawatt
Unit 2 by April 2016 and
stop burning coal at the
other APS-owned units (1 and
3) by the mid-2020s if the
U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
approves a compromise
proposal offered by APS, the
plant's owner. APS also will
ask the Arizona Corporation
Commission to approve the
plan.
A
bill that requires employers
in California to provide at
least three days of paid
sick leave a year to their
workers was signed into law
Wednesday by Gov. Jerry
Brown, a decision cheered by
labor unions and workers on
modest incomes, but opposed
by business groups concerned
about rising costs.
In 2009, several schools for
tribal children in Khammam
district in Telangana — then
a part of undivided Andhra
Pradesh — became sites for
observation studies for a
cervical cancer vaccine that
was administered to
thousands of girls aged
between nine and 15. The
girls were administered the
Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)
vaccine in three rounds that
year under the supervision
of state health department
officials. The vaccine used
was Gardasil, manufactured
by Merck. It was
administered to around
16,000 girls in the
district, many of whom
stayed in state
government-run hostels meant
for tribal students.
Scientists are no longer
even sure how antibiotics
work. We have the latest
research...
According to Dr. David
Williams, antibiotics may
prevent the body from
excreting mercury, which is
found in fish and in many
vaccines. This was
documented in a study by
Boyd Haley, PhD, from the
University of Connecticut
Medical Center. Mercury is
highly toxic. In animals
studies, researchers can
mimic the exact same
physiological changes to the
brain along with the signs
and symptoms of Alzheimer’s
disease by simply adding
mercury to the system.
Williams reports that
increased mercury levels are
also a known causative
factor in cardiovascular
disease.
“As the penetration of
variable renewable energy
resources increases
worldwide, more attention is
being paid to the effects of
renewable energy on power
system reliability and
operations,” said Tex
Wilkins, executive director
of the CSP Alliance. “As we
explore in this report, CSP
with thermal energy storage
is a potential solution that
meets clean energy and
climate change policy goals,
reduces the variability of
the aggregate renewable
energy portfolios and
provides a wide range of
operational and reliability
benefits.”
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency is backing
a less costly plan floated
by Arizona's Generation &
Transmission Cooperatives
(known as AzGT) to cut
emissions from the Apache
Generating Station that
contribute to regional haze.
The EPA's proposed
approval of the co-ops' plan
comes two years after the
agency issued an
implementation plan that
would have required
installing expensive
"selective catalytic
reduction" technology on
both of the coal units at
the Apache Generating
Station in Cochise , south
of Willcox .
Consumers who’ve had
credit challenges due to
medical debt will soon be
getting some relief.
Fair Isaac Corporation,
creator of the FICO score,
the most widely-used and
influential credit scoring
system, recently announced a
new version of its credit
scoring system which will
differ substantially from
prior versions.
"Ohio’s environmental
regulators laid out a plan
to assist cities with
testing and treating their
drinking water, a first step
in the state’s response to
[the] water emergency in
Toledo that left 400,000
people without clean tap
water," the Associated Press
reported.
Ohio's EPA will spend $1
million to train water
utility operators and update
drinking water testing
equipment.
Experts said it was
largely down to global
action - a 1987 ban on
man-made gases that damage
the fragile high-altitude
screen. The agreement would
help prevent millions of
cases of skin cancer and
other conditions, they
added.
The ozone hole that
appears over Antarctica has
also stopped growing bigger
every year, though it will
be about a decade before it
starts shrinking, said the
report co-produced by the
World Meteorological
Organization and the U.N.
Environment Programme.
Utilizing a comprehensive
array of remote sensing
technology and non-invasive
geophysical survey
equipment, researchers
working on the site of
Stonehenge in Wiltshire,
England have revealed
hundreds of previously
unknown features buried deep
beneath the ground as part
of the Stonehenge Hidden
Landscapes Project. The
finds include images of
dwellings from the Bronze
and Iron Ages as well as
details of buried Roman
settlements never before
seen.
The freezers being tested in
Central Park operate free of
electricity — vendors can
even charge their own mobile
devices by plugging them
into outlets attached to the
freezer units.
...they huddled with
Bulgarian leaders, including
Prime Minister Boyko
Borissov, discussing
everything from Syria's
bloody civil war to their
joint search for loose
nukes. But the focus of the
talks was fracking. The
previous year, Bulgaria had
signed a five-year, $68
million deal, granting US
oil giant Chevron millions
of acres in shale gas
concessions. Bulgarians were
outraged. Shortly before
Clinton arrived, tens of
thousands of protesters
poured into the streets
carrying placards that read
"Stop fracking with our
water" and "Chevron go
home." Bulgaria's parliament
responded by voting
overwhelmingly for a
fracking moratorium.
Does an apple a day really
keep the doctor away? Not
anymore, according to soil
health experts—unless the
apple comes from a tree
grown in healthy, organic
soil...
Food forms the building
blocks of our bodies and
health. Soil forms the basis
for healthy food. Unhealthy
soil grows poor quality
food. And poor quality food
means poor health.
Even our mental health is
linked to healthy soil, rich
in microbes.
How is a warming climate
impacting life in the
oceans? Fish can move to
cooler areas, but coral
reefs are anchored in place.
Late-summer water
temperatures near the
Florida Keys were warmer by
nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit
in the last several decades
compared to a century
earlier, according to a new
study by the U.S. Geological
Survey.
On the Indian side of the
heavily militarized Line of
Control that divides the
Himalayan region, the city
of Srinagar lay submerged
along with more than 2,000
villages.
"The damage is shocking,"
a senior official from
India's National Disaster
Response Force said in New
Delhi. "People have been
stranded on the rooftops of
their homes for the last
three days in some parts of
Kashmir."
A comprehensive new analysis
released today says that
nearly half (49%) of all
recent tropical
deforestation is the result
of illegal clearing for
commercial agriculture. The
study also finds that the
majority of this illegal
destruction was driven by
overseas demand for
agricultural commodities
including palm oil, beef,
soy, and wood products. In
addition to devastating
impacts on forest-dependent
people and biodiversity, the
illegal conversion of
tropical forests for
commercial agriculture is
estimated to produce 1.47
gigatonnes of carbon each
year—equivalent to 25% of
the EU's annual fossil
fuel-based emissions.
Already controversial in
the water sector, fluoride
now appears to be
threatening the safety of
Maine drinking water.
"A new study out of Maine
suggests that residents
across the New England state
are regularly subjected to
drinking water containing
double the amount of
fluoride considered to be
dangerous by federal
guidelines," RT reported.
This fluoride is
occurring naturally and is
not a result of
florination.
There is no immediate or
significant earthquake
safety concern associated
with California's last
remaining nuclear power
plant, federal regulators
have decided.
A U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission file released
Wednesday contains the
response to a former federal
inspector's argument that
the Diablo Canyon nuclear
plant near San Luis Obispo
should be shut down until it
can be determined whether
the facility can stand up to
an earthquake off the
Central Coast.
Nuclear generation could
constitute up to 50% of the
UK's electricity generating
capacity in 2050, under one
of the UK government's
scenarios for meeting the
country's 2050 climate
change goals, a leading
government official told a
London nuclear industry
conference.
When she headed the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency under President Bill
Clinton, Carol Browner was
at best uneasy about nuclear
power, like nearly all
environmentalists.
But years later, as she
became more and more
convinced that time was
running short to combat
man-climate change, she
broke ranks and changed her
mind.
It was good news for
renewable energy when
President Barack Obama in
June proposed carbon dioxide
restrictions on existing
power plants. It is even
better news now that he may
use the plan to leverage an
international climate
accord.
While natural gas plants
made up more than half of
all additions, solar plants
contributed more than a
quarter and wind energy
plants around one-sixth.
Utility-scale capacity
additions in the first six
months of 2014 were 40
percent less than the
capacity additions in the
same time period last year,
EIA said. Compared to last
year, natural gas additions
were down by about half,
while solar capacity was up
70 percent. Wind additions
were more than double the
additions in the first half
of 2013.
In states where medical
marijuana is legal,
overdose deaths from
opioids like morphine,
oxycodone, and heroin
decreased by an average
of 20 percent after one
year, 25 percent after
two years and up to 33
percent by years five
and six
While prescription
painkillers were
responsible for 16,600
deaths in 2010, one
study found “little, if
any effect of marijuana
use on… mortality in men
and… women”
There is a wealth of
research linking
marijuana with pain
relief; in one study,
just three puffs of
marijuana a day for five
days helped those with
chronic nerve pain to
relieve pain and sleep
better
Marijuana is classified
as a Schedule 1
controlled substance and
labeled as a drug with a
"high potential for
abuse" and "no accepted
medical use," which
clearly is not an
accurate description
Oxycodone, fentanyl, and
meperidine (Demerol),
which are among the most
commonly abused opioids
and leading causes of
opioid overdose deaths,
are Schedule II drugs,
meaning they should
technically be less
dangerous than
marijuana, which is not
the case
In the aviation industry
alone, there have been over
117,000 bird strikes in the
20 years from 1990 and 2010,
according to the FAA. These
pose a flight risk to pilots
and passengers on planes. In
the 1980s, attempting to
prevent bird strikes at JFK
Airport, the USDA killed
28,000 gulls.
Starting in October, stage
two will see a massive 9.5
billion cubic meters of
water per year pumped
through 1,500 kms (932
miles) of canals and pipes
from the Danjiangkou
reservoir in central Hubei
province to the northern
provinces of Henan and Hebei
and to Beijing...
Critics say the diversion of
3.8 million Olympic swimming
pools of water a year will
further damage China's
threatened rivers, many of
which have run dry, and may
threaten future investment
in regional China.
X1/2b event
observed. M2
event observed. Solar
activity is expected to be
moderate with a chance for
X-class flares on days one,
two, and three (12 Sep, 13
Sep, 14 Sep). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at unsettled
to major storm levels on day
one (12 Sep), active to
severe storm levels on day
two (13 Sep) and unsettled
to minor storm levels on day
three (14 Sep). Protons are
expected to cross threshold
on days one and two (12 Sep,
13 Sep) and are expected to
cross threshold on day three
(14 Sep).
The YouGov survey for The
Times and Sun newspapers put
Scottish support for the
union at 52 percent versus
support for independence at
48 percent, excluding those
who said they did not know
how they would vote.
YouGov's last poll showed
support for independence at
51 percent.
Common sleeping
tablets and anxiety
drugs taken by millions
of patients has been
linked to a 50 per cent
increased risk of
Alzheimer’s disease,
researchers have found.
Taking the drugs
known as
benzodiazepines, which
include diazepam and
lorazepam, for three
months or more was
linked with a greater
chance of being
diagnosed with
Alzheimer’s disease five
years later.
France has revised down its
growth forecasts and says it
will miss its deficit target
for another three years,
confirmation that Europe's
second-largest economy will
emerge only slowly from its
stagnation.
Gulf coast ecosystems were
supposed to rebound after
the BP oil spill. They
haven't....
Tesvich got some good news
last week, when a federal
judge in New Orleans found
that BP's "willful
misconduct" and "gross
negligence" had been the
principle causes of the
spill, a ruling that could
eventually force BP to pay
billions for ecological
restoration in the Gulf. But
for oystermen here, whose
day-to-day income depends on
these reefs, those dollars
still seem very far away.
A respiratory illness
that has already sickened
more than a thousand
children in 10 states is
likely to become a
nationwide problem, doctors
say.
The disease hasn’t been
officially identified but
officials suspect a rare
respiratory virus called
human enterovirus 68.
According to the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control
and Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, the
virus is related to the
rhinovirus, which causes the
common cold.
Federally set mandates for
the use of fuels such as
corn ethanol and cellulosic
ethanol, made from plant
waste like grasses and wood,
must be based on the
industry's ability to
produce the fuel, not on
infrastructure restraints,
executives of several
biofuel companies wrote.
Turkey sits on the front
line of the extremist
group's battleground in Iraq
and safe haven in Syria and
already has assisted
refugees and cracked down on
suspicious cross-border
traffic from both countries.
But Turkey has resisted
publicly endorsing a new
global strategy to defeat
the Islamic State, which has
kidnapped 49 Turkish
citizens, including some
diplomats.
Native people are not
victims. Historically, we
couldn’t afford to be
victims—blame our
environment for being harsh,
blame the weather for being
cold. It didn’t work. Our
ancestors knew that blaming
the environment didn’t work,
that blaming the weather was
stupid.
Out of an almost record
lending total of $9.445
billion, over two-thirds of
the World Bank Group’s
energy financing for FY14
was concentrated in regions
facing the largest energy
deficits — Sub-Saharan
Africa and South Asia. It
was also another very strong
year for Bank Group
renewable energy financing
with a total of $3.6 billion
in investments.
Xcel Energy
"inadvertently" folded
almost half a million
dollars it spent fighting
Boulder's municipalization
efforts into its request to
raise rates for customers
across the state, according
to documents filed with the
Colorado Public Utilities
Commission and obtained by
the Daily Camera.
The error was caught
after the PUC asked the
utility company to "please
admit or deny" whether it
had included "any expenses
spent on campaigning against
municipalization of utility
service in Boulder" in its
case to raise rates
statewide.
Abdullah Abdullah, one of
two contenders for
Afghanistan's presidency,
said Monday that he will not
accept the expected outcome
of the election's second
round and that talks with
his opponent to form a
national unity government
are deadlocked.
Abdullah said he believes
he won both times that
Afghans voted this year --
in April and again in a July
runoff -- and he accused
election authorities of
giving the win to his
opponent, former Finance
Minister Ashraf Ghani
Ahmadzai.
When wind developers
prospected the rolling hills
around this small dairy
town, they found plenty of
gusty sites for turbines. In
2011, they proposed a $250
million project with up to
44 turbines that could
produce enough energy to
power thousands of homes.
Since then, nothing has
come easy for the developer
in a state that has emerged
as a stronghold of
resistance to the spread of
wind power.
There is no question
that diet plays a large
role in the development
and continuation of
arthritic symptoms. The
standard American diet,
full of refined foods,
is a pro-inflammatory
regimen.
Inflammation is what
causes the redness,
warmth, swelling, and
joint destruction
associated with
arthritis. Eating
pro-inflammatory foods
will not only create the
environment for
arthritis to begin, it
will fuel the illness
once developed.
What are these
pro-inflammatory foods?
Refined sugar, salt,
oil, and flour.
Unfortunately, these are
staples of most packaged
foods and much
restaurant fare — and
nearly all fast food.
Mac
Ehrhardt often feels like he
has one leg on either side
of a barbed-wire fence. On
one side stand the farmers
who have bought seed from
his family’s business for
three generations, and who
rely religiously on
insecticides to protect
their crops. On the other is
Ehrhardt’s growing
conviction that southern
Minnesota’s two-tone
landscape of corn and
soybeans has become a barren
and toxic place for a
crucial player in the
nation’s food system — the
honeybee.
Five security operators
responsible for guarding the
CIA station in Benghazi,
Libya insist they were told
to “stand down” the night of
the deadly 2012 attacks,
arguing the order prevented
them from likely saving the
life of Ambassador
Christopher Stevens and
others.
Incineration or burning
of any fuel leaves a series
of residual gases that
promote global warming;
however Altos Hornos de
Mexico (AHMSA) agreed with
the UN a methane gas burning
system in its coal mines
that greatly lessens the
impact on the environment.
AHMSA informs that to
operate a coal deposit,
methane gas is extracted in
advance by drilling, to keep
the safety of workers. If
this gas is discharged into
the atmosphere, will produce
a warming effect greater
than that caused by other
gases, because methane is a
greenhouse gas (GHG) which,
if allowed to escape into
the atmosphere, traps heat
in larger quantities than
other GHG gases, because it
has an index of Global
Warming Potential (GWP)
greater than CO2. The GWP is
a relative measure of how
much heat can be absorbed by
a particular GHG compared to
a reference gas, usually
carbon dioxide (CO2).
California blue whales,
the largest animals on Earth
once driven to near
extinction by whaling, have
made a remarkable comeback
to near historic,
19th-century levels,
according to a University of
Washington study released on
Friday.
The recovery makes
California blue whales -
which study authors say now
number about 2,200, or 97
percent of historical levels
- the only population of
blue whales known to have
recovered from whaling.
With billions of dollars
in federal stimulus money in
hand, the Obama
administration set out five
years ago on a grand
experiment in the California
desert.
The goal: Open public
lands to renewable-energy
development to wean the
nation from fossil fuels.
The results haven't been
pretty, a fact the
administration has tacitly
acknowledged by devising a
new plan, expected to be
released this month, to find
better places to put
industrial-scale solar farms
in the California desert.
Women who consumed less
than 150 milligrams of
caffeine a day (the
amount in about 12
ounces of coffee) were
15 percent more likely
to develop tinnitus than
those who consumed 450
mg to 599 mg
Past research has shown
caffeine has a direct
effect on the inner ear,
or may be involved
through its role in
stimulating your central
nervous system
Coffee has been
associated with a lower
risk of Parkinson’s
disease, heart problems,
type 2 diabetes, and
several types of cancer
Drinking coffee prior to
a workout may help with
muscle pain and
preservation and boost
endurance and
performance
Coffee can be part of a
healthy lifestyle if
consumed in moderation,
placing the emphasis on
making sure it’s fresh,
organic, and consumed
black (and only if
you’re not pregnant)
China's crude oil imports in
August recovered to 25.19
million mt or an average
5.96 million b/d, surging
17.5% year on year,
according to preliminary
data released Monday,
September 8, by the
country's General
Administration of Customs.
The volume was 6% higher
than the July volume of 5.62
million b/d, which had been
the first year-on-year
contraction in crude imports
since October 2013.
As an industry, we are
facing an unprecedented
volume of attacks. In 2012,
more than 40 percent of
cyber-attacks were aimed at
the energy industry. Other
threats target personally
identifiable information or
key physical assets. And
there’s been a dramatic
increase in the frequency
and complexity of these
attacks. Risk arises not
just from enemies but
potentially from business
partners as well. As an
industry, we have
third-party vendors that
support key systems, host
private data for employees
or customers, or fulfill our
supply chain orders for
hardware and software. These
organizations must be
included in protection
efforts. Social media in
particular creates another
avenue for malware attacks
to appear disguised as
messages from a friend or
colleague. This means our
cybersecurity
responsibilities are
significant: they include
safety and reliability,
privacy and data integrity,
business continuity and
reputation management. A
compromise can affect our
company’s stock price,
provide a launching point
for regulatory
investigations and fines,
and reduce revenue.
With supermarket milk
cheaper than spring water,
it's time to rethink the
modern dairy industry. It's
not just the milk that's
become a throwaway product -
the high-octane Holstein
cows that produce it are
also in the knackers yard
after just two or three
lactations, the living waste
of a loss-making,
environment-trashing
industry.
Milk, a precious resource
in many parts of the world,
has become a throwaway
commodity in wealthy
countries. For example, in
the UK, an estimated 4.2m
tonnes of foodstuffs wasted
per year are wasted, of
which milk is in the top
three.
Despite knowing that he had
symptoms of the Ebola virus,
a Nigerian diplomat boards a
plane in Liberia and flies
from that small country to
his nation’s capital city of
Lagos, a city with 21
million people. The man was
fleeing a quarantine meant
to contain the Ebola virus.
Instead, his body — now a
host for the disease — was
transporting the highly
contagious and deadly,
single-strand virus to
Nigeria’s largest city.
The Gitxsan First Nations
group is opposing
TransCanada's Prince Rupert
Gas Transmission pipeline
that will pass through a
35-km (22 mile) stretch in
its reserve area in the
Suskwa Valley in northeast
British Columbia, a band
official said Friday.
The pipeline will impact
the group's rights to its
traditional land,
particularly salmon fishing,
said Beverley Clifton
Percival, the community's
negotiator.
Four U.S. states produce
all of the domestic uranium
concentrate at seven
facilities in the nation.
According to the U.S.
Energy Information
Administration (EIA),
uranium concentrate in 2013
was produced at seven
facilities in Wyoming (59
percent), Utah (22 percent),
Nebraska (15 percent) and
Texas (4 percent).
Grassroots activists joined
mainstream environmental
organizations to help force
the state to write tougher
fracking rules; some aren't
pleased about
it...Grassroots groups
fighting hydraulic
fracturing in Illinois have
put aside their push for a
moratorium or a ban in
recent months in favor of
seeking stronger industry
regulations.
A fracking operator in
Ohio is heading to jail
because he contaminated
local water sources with
fracking waste.
"Ohio fracking company
owner Benedict Lupo had a
choice: He could dispose
properly of byproducts from
his drilling operation, or
he could have his employees
dump the wastewater in a
local creek. He chose the
latter. The employees tried
to talk him out of it; he
insisted. Then he did it
again 32 more times, killed
everything in the creek, got
caught, and will now go to
jail for 28 months,"
Slate reported.
Researchers determined
general chemical footprint
of one liter samples, but
not relative concentrations,
and call for further study.
..
This peer-reviewed study by
a pair of researchers at
Rice University in Houston
shows that while
fracking-produced water
shouldn't be allowed near
drinking water, it's less
toxic than similar waste
from coal-bed methane
mining. It also revealed how
the contents of this waste
differ dramatically across
three major shale plays:
Texas' Eagle Ford, New
Mexico's Barnett and
Pennsylvania's Marcellus.
Roads make it possible to
bring goods to market, to
get to the office, to log a
forest, to hunt its
wildlife. Without roads,
human society as we know it
could not exist. However, to
build roads, trees must be
cleared and swamps drained,
shrinking valuable wildlife
habitat and fragmenting
populations in the process.
A new study, published today
in Nature, unveils an
innovative map that defines
which areas of the world
would best be used to build
roads — and which should be
left alone.
The German government
says it is going to crack
down on volunteer patrols
known as “Shariah police”
recently seen walking
outside nightclubs and a
city train station asking
passersby not to drink
alcohol and gamble.
“Sharia law is not
tolerated on German soil,”
Interior Minister Thomas de
Maiziere told the German
newspaper Bild on Saturday.
“Nobody can take it upon
themselves to abuse the good
name of the German police.”
A unique group of 13 lactic
acid bacteria found in the
honey stomach of bees shows
promise as an alternative to
antibiotics
We've seen several promising
developments arise in recent
years in the fight against
antibiotic-resistant
bacteria, or so-called
"superbugs", from antibiotic
"smart bombs" and hydrogels
to "ninja polymers" and
natural proteins. The latest
potential weapon to join the
armory comes from a
substance used for thousands
of years to fight infections
– raw honey.
Helping those in need
gives you a greater
sense of purpose and can
even lead to a so-called
"helper's high," which
may occur because doing
good things releases
feel-good hormones like
oxytocin in your body
while lowering levels of
stress hormones like
cortisol.
A 2012 report concluded
that 40 percent of the
food in the US is
wasted. This represents
about 20 pounds of food
per person per month
Fruit and vegetables
account for 14 percent
and 19 percent of the
waste respectively.
Nearly 18.5 billion
pounds of fruit is
thrown away annually,
along with more than 25
billion pounds of
vegetables
AmpleHarvest.org
addresses the problem of
hunger by providing a
whole new supply channel
for food that would
otherwise go to waste
The organization
connects growers with
local food pantries. In
this way, food can be
more efficiently
distributed to those who
need it most, while
eliminating waste
The food chain is a
hierarchical series of
organisms that are
interrelated in their
feeding habits. The chain
starts when the smallest
being like an insect is fed
upon a larger prey species,
which in turn feeds an even
larger species. So if a
species among the lower
ranks of the chain has
accumulated toxins such as
pesticides or other organic
chemicals, there is
potential for these toxic
substances to affect the
species that prey upon them.
Consumers for Dental
Choice, led by
Washington attorney
Charlie Brown, leads the
national and worldwide
campaign against dental
amalgam, deceptively
marketed as “silver
fillings” despite it
being mainly mercury
The Minamata Convention
on Mercury, signed by
the US last November,
requires that each
nation scale down the
use of amalgam. This
road map can move us
toward dentistry without
mercury, a huge gain for
personal health, public
health, occupational
health, and our precious
environment
Today, we launch the 4th
Annual Mercury-Free
Dentistry Week. If you
donate to Consumers for
Dental Choice by
September 13, the
Natural Health Research
Foundation (which I
founded) will match,
dollar-for-dollar, what
you give
Consumers for Dental
Choice is bringing the
treaty home to challenge
the US government to
comply with the pledge
it made signing the
treaty. Consumers
commissioned a poll,
then issued a report
called Measurably
Misleading, which show
the root of the problem
is the FDA
An Iranian newspaper says
authorities have arrested a
Ukrainian national suspected
of sabotage at the country's
sole nuclear power plant.
The report in Hamshahri
daily on Sunday says the
"Ukrainian expert" was
affiliated with a Russian
contractor that works in
Iran's Bushehr nuclear power
plant, which went online in
2011 with Russian aid.
The Ministry of Health
in Israel lifted the
mandatory requirement
for water fluoridation
that was put in place in
1970; there is now a
nationwide ban on water
fluoridation in Israel
Adding fluoride to water
is a medical treatment,
and a forced one at that
because this substance
is difficult to remove
from your water
Fluoride was recently
added to a list of 11
known industrial
chemicals that harm
brain development in
human fetuses and
infants
Despite fluoride’s known
developmental risks, the
American Academy of
Pediatrics issued new
recommendations for the
use of fluoridated
toothpaste in infants
and children
The US Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
set the so-called “safe”
level of fluoride in
drinking water at the
ridiculously high level
of 4 ppm (mg/L) in 1986.
We are still living with
this standard even
though the National
Research Council
recommended it be
lowered in 2006
The EPA is expected to
complete its review of
this standard in 2016,
meanwhile it is clear
that American children
are being over-exposed
to fluoride
The chairman of the House
Oversight and Government
Reform Committee is
demanding that a senior
Obama administration
official testify later this
month on reports that the
Obamacare website was
hacked.
Chairman Darrell Issa
(R-Calif.) said he insists
that Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services
Administrator Marilyn
Tavenner testify on
September 18 about those
reports.
A new invention purifies
water using the power
generated by bike riding.
The idea is to purify
water without the need for
electricity. Peddling the
bike delivers power to a
battery, which powers an
ultraviolet bulb, WWLP
reported.
The video, posted to
YouTube Thursday by U.S.
Central Command, shows the
annihilation of an Islamic
State “technical vehicle
parked in a detached shed”
on Aug. 28, according to the
video description.
The handful of commenters
seem to like what they saw.
More choose prepaid debit
cards, according to Bankrate
survey
Debt-fearing Millennials
are saying no to credit
cards.
More than six out of ten
Millennials, or 63%, don't
have a single credit card,
according to a Bankrate
survey of 1,161 respondents.
That compares to a mere 35%
of Americans who are over
the age of 30.
Sandy Oliviera has raised
monarch butterflies in her
East Providence backyard for
25 years. In 1998, she
helped 125 monarch
caterpillars transform into
butterflies, and then
released them to the wind.
This summer, for the first
time, Oliviera hasn't found
a single monarch egg or
caterpillar, and hasn't seen
any monarch butterflies.
These days there are so many
alternative fuel sources —
hydrogen, natural gas, and
propane; alcohols such as
ethanol, methanol, and
butanol; vegetable and
waste-derived oils;
electricity; the list could
go on.
One fuel alternative we’re
probably not likely to have
come across is bacon grease.
Yes, bacon
grease.
The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission has issued
mid-cycle assessment letters
to the nation's 100
operating commercial nuclear
power plants regarding their
performance through the
first half of 2014. The
mid-cycle assessment period
concluded June 30 , with 90
plants in the two highest
performance categories.
It may be years before an
underground nuclear waste
dump in New Mexico shuttered
by a radiation leak is fully
operational, and costs for
decontamination and other
activities to restore the
facility are not yet clear,
U.S. Energy Department
officials said.
Facility in Utah doubles in
size without a proper permit
for emissions of volatile
organic compounds, including
benzene, toluene and xylene.
A commercial facility that
disposes of oil and gas
waste in Eastern Utah has
been fined $50,000 for
releasing excessive amounts
of benzene and other
volatile organic compounds
without a state air
emissions permit.
An agreement on paying
for the closure of the San
Onofre nuclear power plant
near San Clemente needs to
be more favorable to
consumers, state regulators
said Friday.
As a result, electric
utility officials and
consumer advocates were told
to make major changes in a
controversial agreement
about who should pay the
huge costs associated with
last year's closing and the
permanent shutdown of the
plant.
Water, energy and food
systems are inextricably
linked: Water and energy are
needed to produce food;
water is needed for most
power generation; energy is
required to treat and
transport water -- the
relationships and trade-offs
within this triangle of
resources are known
collectively as the
water-energy-food nexus,
according to the Renewable
Energy and Energy Efficiency
Partnership (REEEP) who has
a new report focusing on
creating sustainable
solutions within the
water-energy-food nexus.
A high rate of cancer
among inmates at a
southwestern Pennsylvania
prison is linked to a nearby
coal ash dump, and the
correctional facility should
be closed down, according to
a report made public on
Tuesday.
Eleven prisoners died of
cancer from 2010 through
2013, and six others have
been diagnosed with cancer
at the State Correctional
Institution Fayette, said
the report, released by the
Abolitionist Law Center, a
public interest law firm
based in Pittsburgh, and the
Human Rights Coalition, a
national prison reform
group.
C5 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be moderate with a chance
for X-class flares on days
one, two, and three (09 Sep,
10 Sep, 11 Sep). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on days one
and two (09 Sep, 10 Sep) and
quiet levels on day three
(11 Sep). Protons have a
chance of crossing threshold
on days one, two, and three
(09 Sep, 10 Sep, 11 Sep).
The amoeba has struck
three times in the last two
years in Louisiana. One
person passed away in DeSoto
Parish and two passed in St.
Bernard Parish. The amoeba
can be deadly if it travels
by way of contaminated water
through the nose and into
the brain.
"The microscopic pathogen
can cause a deadly form of
meningitis that or a
swelling of the brain and
surrounding tissues. The
amoeba cannot be contracted
from drinking contaminated
water," ABC News reported.
British politicians are
alarmed after a poll for the
first time showed a slight
majority of Scots planning
to vote for independence on
Sept. 18. In villages south
of the border in England,
there's no sign of panic.
A new guide for community
group solar purchasing has
been released by the New
England Solar Cost-Reduction
Partnership -- a coalition
of five New England States
managed by the Clean Energy
States Alliance (CESA).
"Planning and Implementing a
Solarize Initiative: A Guide
for State Program Managers"
features detailed cases
studies of two particularly
well-developed programs from
New England -- Solarize
Connecticut and Solarize
Mass -- and is expected to
serve as a tool for those
across the country seeking
to develop their own
programs.
Congressional authority
over Native nations has
always been held to rest on
the Commerce Clause of the
U.S. Constitution. The
Clause (Article 1, Section
8, Clause 3) claims that
Congress has the power “to
regulate Commerce with
foreign Nations, and among
several states, and with the
Indian Tribes.”
The Commerce Clause forms
the very bedrock of modern
U.S.-tribal relations. And
it has been grossly
misinterpreted for far too
long.
A new study finds that
children who sleep on animal
skins in the first months of
life are less likely to
develop asthma later in
childhood. But before you
trade in your
pretty-patterned organic
cotton crib sheets for a
sheepskin, know that some
experts warn soft sleeping
surfaces are unsafe for
babies.
The 35 GWh Li-ion cell
production facility will cut
battery cost in a lower-cost
electric vehicle by only
$2,800, and create
overcapacity...
We find the Gigafactory will
only reduce the Tesla Model
3’s cost by $2,800, not
enough to truly influence
whether this lower-cost EV
will be a success or not.
Moreover, our analysis
indicates that in the likely
case of Tesla selling
240,000 EVs in 2020, its
partner Panasonic will be
risking low margins, and the
Gigafactory will be running
at significant overcapacity,
which other carmakers and
stationary applications are
unlikely to offset.
In ranking the water
stress across 20 countries
with the largest shale
resources, WRI found that in
40 percent, future shale
production could happen in
arid conditions or under
high water stress.
"Water risk is one of the
most important, but
underappreciated challenges
when it comes to shale gas
development. With 386
million people living on
land above shale plays,
governments and business
face critical choices about
how to manage their energy
and water needs," said
Andrew Steer, president and
CEO, WRI. "Energy
development and responsible
water management must go
hand in hand."
For centuries, cows and
chickens were raised
outdoors on pasture,
enjoying sunshine, clean air
and their natural diet of
grass and insects. These
animals were healthy,
enjoying the outdoors.
Humans who ate their meat
benefited from a
nutrient-dense food high in
healthy fats, proteins and
vitamins.
With
industrialization and
factory farms, this has
changed. Animals are
confined in small quarters,
never seeing the light of
day and fed harmful waste
and byproducts, along with
growth hormones and
antibiotics. Meat from
conventionally raised
animals lack the many
nutrients found in grass-fed
or "pastured" meats.
It is expected to produce
enough electricity to power
about 80,000 California
homes when it is completed
in 2016.
First Solar is building
the array on almost 4 square
miles of federal land
adjacent to the 25-megawatt
Silver State North project
the company completed in
2012 on almost 1 square mile
of land near the
Nevada-California state
line.
Many of you have probably
already heard that CDC
whistleblower Dr. William
Thompson has written a
letter, and posted it on his
lawyer’s website, verifying
Brian Hooker’s complaints.
The Big Pharma “spin”
machine is operating at full
power – but their efforts to
contain the whole story are
laughable. The story is
growing, appropriately, as
it should, for there is no
denying that the CDC got
caught with their pants
down, and, consequently,
their credibility is gone.
Fini. The whistleblower, in
his letter, verified
everything Hooker said
happened.
During the 1990s Rubbia
proposed the concept of an
energy amplifier (ADS) – a
novel and safe way of
producing practically
unlimited nuclear energy
exploiting present-day
accelerator technologies
from natural thorium and
depleted uranium. Rubbia is
noted for his work in
high-energy physics using
the considerable accelerator
capacity of CERN.
If you use a
fitness-tracking
wristband device such as
Jawbone UP (or any of
the many other similar
products on the market),
you can get a more
accurate picture of how
much you’re actually
sleeping
Sleep times in the 21
largest cities in the US
averaged just over 6.8
hours of sleep a night,
according to Jawbone
data
The general consensus
seems to be that most
people need somewhere
between six and eight
hours of sleep each
night, but this varies
depending on individual
factors, like your age
and health status
Older adults who
reported poor sleep had
a 1.4 times increased
risk for suicide – an
increase that persisted
after controlling for
the effects of a
depressed mood
Severe obstructive sleep
apnea, which interferes
with quality sleep, may
contribute to poor blood
pressure control, even
when medications are
used
It is quite possible
to think that all is not
energy too, and that would
be an opinion and belief
that is untrue. It takes
energy to believe anything
and everything, because even
thoughts, even the ones that
we don’t give energy to, are
energy. They have their own
characteristics and
proclivities. However, they
have no power in this world
and reality that we live in,
that is, unless we give it
to them. Power is simply
energy amplified.
A well-designed, installed
and maintained rainwater
harvesting system can
provide significant amounts
of high-quality water. Given
an average 12 inches of
annual Southern California
precipitation, a
1,500-square-foot
residential roof could
collect over 10,000 gallons
annually and for a 100,000
ft2 commercial building, the
quantity is over 700,000
gallons
A
military transport jet has
made Australia's first
delivery of ammunition to
Kurdish forces battling
Islamic State militants in
northern Iraq before
returning without incident
to a United Arab Emirates
base, defense officials said
on Wednesday.
Honey makers seek class
action lawsuit against
pesticide companies, saying
toxins such as “neonics” are
killing their money-making
insects.
Two major beekeeping firms
are spearheading the launch
of a $450-million class
action lawsuit against two
pesticide manufacturers,
alleging their products have
caused widespread deaths in
bee colonies.
A fashion photo shoot
featuring five victims of
acid attacks is drawing wide
attention in India. While
the country keeps no
official statistics on acid
attacks, there are regular
reports in the media of
attackers targeting victims
to disfigure or blind them,
often because of spurned
sexual advances.
Given the pace of the
US economic recovery and the
Fed’s stance relating to
maintaining low interest
rates for a still-extended
period, it’s not surprising
that many commercial
enterprises with variable
rate liabilities have
remained on the hedging
sidelines. By waiting until
the interest rate rise is
more imminent, however, the
opportunity to lock in
particularly favorable
interest costs could be
lost. By hedging now, in
advance of a prospective
change in sentiment,
companies would be assured
of protection if rates spike
sooner than widely expected,
while bearing only minimal
cost if the inevitable
transition to a higher
interest rate environment is
more deferred. The
cost/benefit from hedging now
happens to be particularly
attractive.
The ONE group says money
lost because of corruption
would otherwise be spent on
school and medicine
An estimated $1tn (£600bn) a
year is being taken out of
poor countries and millions
of lives are lost because of
corruption, according to
campaigners.
A report by the
anti-poverty organisation
One says much of the
progress made over the past
two decades in tackling
extreme poverty has been put
at risk by corruption and
crime.
As California farmers
face zero water allocations
following one of the driest
periods on record in
California, one central
valley farm is partnering
with Desalitech, a supplier
of high-efficiency water
solutions, to irrigate
farmland from a brackish
aquifer in the San Joaquin
Valley, according to a press
release.
This aquifer is large and
easily accessible, but due
to increasing salinity
levels after decades of
pumping and drought, it has
been rendered unusable for
many kinds of agriculture,
noted the release.
While their contents might
be considered an
environmental hazard by
many, disposable diapers
themselves pose a more
significant problem for the
environment. According to
the EPA, the average baby
will work their way through
8,000 of them before they
end up in landfill where
they'll take centuries to
break down. In an effort to
reduce the problem,
scientists at Mexico's
Autonomous Metropolitan
University, Azcapotzalco
(UAM-A), have turned used
diapers to the task of
growing mushrooms.
A
new report written by
Nathaniel Bullard at
Bloomberg New Energy Finance
(BNEF) highlights the
difficulties large
institutional investors
would have divesting from
fossil fuels. What it does
not specifically discuss is
that these difficulties
could lead to large
financial losses for
investors who see the
difficulty of divesting as a
reason to delay.
Just as we can't
easily fill up our cars
with solar power instead
of gasoline, the report
points out that there is
no asset class that can
directly substitute for
oil and gas in large
institutional
portfolios.
After four years of
collaboration with
stakeholders, Duke Energy
has filed with the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC) an application for a
new license for the
Keowee-Toxaway Hydroelectric
Project, which would allow
Duke Energy to continue
operating Lake Jocassee,
Lake Keowee and their
associated hydro stations in
the Upstate region of South
Carolina.
Duke Engines' 3-liter, five
cylinder test mule is
already making a healthy 215
horsepower and 250 lb-ft of
torque at 4,500rpm –
slightly outperforming two
conventional 3 liter
reference engines that weigh
nearly 20 percent more and
are nearly three times as
big for shipping purposes.
With an innovative valveless
ported design, the Duke
engine appears to be on
track to deliver superior
performance, higher
compression and increased
efficiency in an extremely
compact and lightweight
package with far fewer
moving parts than
conventional engines.
The reliability of Ontario's
electricity system remains
positive, reported the IESO
in its 18-Month Outlook. The
Outlook, which covers the
period September 2014 to
February 2016, forecasts
adequate supply levels and
reliable transmission
service throughout that
timeframe.
Sales of electrified
vehicles in the United
States have slowed
dramatically in the last
year, causing concern that
the emerging technology has
lost its charge.
A study by online
automotive research company
Edmunds.com suggests a stall
in the market for
electrically powered cars,
led by a decline in hybrids.
Is electrodialysis the
next great desalination
technology?
Possibly, according to
the MIT Technology
Review. Electrodialysis
"works by allowing sodium
and chlorine ions to pass
through a membrane in the
presence of an electric
field, leaving purified
water on the other side,"
the report said.
But for this method to
become viable, certain
hurdles must be
cleared. "Electrodialysis
has the potential to
desalinate seawater quickly
and cheaply but does not
remove other contaminants
such as dirt and bacteria,"
the report said.
Grounding is the important
energetic process of
becoming solidly present in
the “here and now.” The
process of grounding brings
one fully in alignment with
their physical body. By
recognizing the limitations
and boundaries of our
physical body, our
intentions become focused
and energies flow into a
state of physical
manifestation. Grounding
involves the opening of the
lower chakras, merging with
Earth’s gravity and relaxing
into one’s body and into
Source.
POET-DSM’s 20 million gallon
cellulosic ethanol plant
opens with hoopla and
heartfelt messages about the
spirit of innovation, a time
for technology change and
policy firmness.
“Once, we all lived off the
land, sun, wind and water
and it provided everything
we needed,” said DSM CEO
Feike Sijbesma, surveying a
crowd of more than 2,000
crowding a biomass storage
facility in Emmetsburg, Iowa
— converted temporarily into
the world capital of
advanced biofuels. “Then
came our historic shift to a
dependence on, and an
addiction to, fossil fuel
resources.”
A new study has revealed
that our Milky Way is a
member of a group of local
galaxies interconnected
within a larger supercluster
made up of a myriad of other
galaxies, all intertlinked
by a tenuous web of
filaments many thousands of
light years long. Dubbed
"Laniakea" (Hawaiian for
"immense sky") by
astronomers working at the
National Science
Foundation’s (NSF's) Green
Bank Telescope (GBT) and
others around the world,
this research defines
hitherto unknown boundaries
and connections in our
corner of the universe.
The international group
Doctor Without Borders
warned Tuesday that the
world is losing the battle
against Ebola and lamented
that treatment centers in
West Africa have been
"reduced to places where
people go to die alone" as
authorities race to contain
the disease.
In Liberia, a missionary
organization announced that
another American doctor has
become infected.
The HEMT or High Electron
Mobility Transistor is a
form of field effect
transistor, FET, that is
used to provide very high
levels of performance at
microwave frequencies.
The HEMT offers a
combination of low noise
figure combined with the
ability to operate at the
very high microwave
frequencies. Accordingly the
device is used in areas of
RF design where high
performance is required at
very high RF frequencies.
The problem with nuclear
waste is that it needs to be
stored for many thousands of
years before it’s safe,
which is a tricky commitment
for even the most stable
civilization. To make this
situation a bit more
manageable, Hitachi, in
partnership with MIT, the
University of Michigan, and
the University of
California, Berkeley, is
working on new reactor
designs that use transuranic
nuclear waste for fuel;
leaving behind only
short-lived radioactive
elements.
The answer, according to
some experts, is that Nevada
was always the favorite and
Thursday's announcement at 3
p.m. today will bear that
out. But despite Nevada's
frontrunner status, Tesla
officials indicated that
sites in Texas, California,
Arizona and New Mexico were
in the running for the
10-million square-foot
facility.
The nuclear signatures that
can be expected when
contacting hydrogen with
nickel, were derived from
thermal results recently
obtained (Rossi energy
amplifier), using the type
of reaction paths proposed
as the explanation of the
energy produced. The
consequences of proton or
neutron capture have been
studied. It was shown that
these consequences are not
in line with the
experimental observations. A
novel tentative explanation
is thus described. Should
this explanation be true, it
is proposed to call
pico-chemistry the novel
field thus opened.
The global wind industry
added 36,134 MW in 2013, the
first time in eight years
that the wind power industry
has installed less in a
given year than the year
before. The size of the
annual market declined 20
percent year on year in
2013, compared to market
growth of 18.6 percent in
2012. The market decline was
not unexpected. Negative
conditions in several key
countries, particularly the
U.S. and Spain, were a drag
on market growth. The U.S.
will recover through the
2014-2015 cycle with over 12
GW expected, but Spain, once
a pillar of the global wind
market, will languish
following a collapse of its
renewables policies.
How can a manufacturer
reformulate a cleaning
product to contain fewer
harmful chemicals, and how
can a retailer stock its
shelves with more
eco-friendly merchandise? UL
(Underwriters Laboratories),
a product safety testing and
certification company,
thinks it may have a
solution: a set of data
tools that helps businesses
search and choose
ingredients and products
based on their environmental
and social responsibility
profiles.
Researchers in Japan have
engineered a membrane with
advanced features capable of
removing harmful greenhouse
gases from the atmosphere.
Their findings, published in
the British journal Nature
Communications, may one day
contribute to lower
greenhouse gas emissions and
cleaner skies.
Greenhouse gases,
originating from industrial
processes and the burning of
fossil fuels, blanket the
earth and are the culprits
behind current global
warming woes. The most
abundant among them is
carbon dioxide, which made
up 84% of the United State's
greenhouse gases in 2012,
and can linger in Earth's
atmosphere for up to
thousands of years.
When President Barack
Obama said recently that “we
don’t have a strategy yet”
to defeat the Islamic State
— also known as ISIS or ISIL
— many people were
scandalized. Columnists
attacked him for what they
said was his admission of a
deep failure. His own staff
had to run around defending
and explaining what he said.
It was seen as a terrible
blunder.
In one year, India's ozone
pollution damaged millions
of tons of the country's
major crops, causing losses
of more than a billion
dollars and destroying
enough food to feed tens of
millions of people living
below the poverty line.
Biosynthetic propane can be
produced by E. coli
bacteria, and potentially
photosynthetic bacteria,
instead of relying on
limited fossil fuels.
Propane is an appealing
fuel, easily stored and
already used worldwide, but
it’s extracted from the
finite supply of fossil
fuels – or is it?
Researchers at Imperial
College London and the
University of Turku have
engineered E. coli
bacteria that create
engine-ready propane out of
fatty acids, and in the
future, maybe even sunlight.
Leading up to the somber
anniversary of the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks,
there are fresh fears of
possible 9/11-style attacks
taking place across North
Africa as radical Islamist
groups in Libya have
reportedly seized nearly a
dozen commercial airliners
in the last month.
While counterterrorism
officials are reportedly
concerned that the missing
jetliners could be used by
terrorists to carry out
deadly attacks, the timing
of the theft is also setting
off alarms. The concern is
that radical Islamist groups
will use the planes to mark
the anniversary of the
deadly 9/11 attacks,
according to alleged
intelligence reports
disseminated within the U.S.
government.
Emerging technologies may
replace reverse osmosis and
provide a more
cost-effective approach to
desalination, according to a
survey of new
equipment published this
month in the journal
Yale Environment 360.
There are two big
problems with reverse
osmosis technology: It is
not cheap or
environmentally-friendly.
More advanced recycling
rather than disposal of
"produced" water pumped back
out of wells could calm
fears of accidental spillage
and save millions of gallons
of fresh water a year...
Saudi Arabia has detained 88
people, more than half of
them Saudis, on suspicion of
plotting “terrorist” attacks
at home and abroad, the
interior ministry said on
Tuesday.
Allied Market Research
(AMR) forecasts that the
global shale gas market will
reach $104.1 billion by
2020, driven by hydraulic
fracturing and horizontal
drilling techniques that
have nearly doubled the
efficiency of shale gas
retrieval from plays,
revolutionizing the shale
gas market.
Shale gas is a potent
alternative source of
natural gas and will shake
up the global energy market
in the coming years,
according to AMR analysts.
Shale gas has a wide range
of applications in power
generation, industry,
residential and commercial
utilities and
transportation, with the
power generation sector
having the most potential
benefit.
Utah solar advocates and
customers are hailing a
decision Friday by the Utah
Public Service Commission to
reject Rocky Mountain
Power's request of a monthly
fee for rooftop solar homes.
After adding 11.8 GW new
solar installations in 2013
and becoming the biggest
solar market worldwide,
China will also be the
leading force of the new
growth. “With solar now
fairly common in most parts
of the world, it reaps the
rewards of direct incentives
but also faces uncertainty
due to pressure on trade
activity with China,”
explained Matthew Feinstein,
Senior Analyst at Lux
Research and lead author of
the report. While the solar
market in the Asia-Pacific
region will only grow with a
combined annual growth rate
of 8.2 %, it
will account for more than
half of the global demand.
I have a friend who likes
to point out things that are
not working so well and say
“some engineer designed
that.” Now, we are not
talking about huge things
that don’t work – like, say,
the Federal government. No,
more the everyday sort of
things.
For example, I’m turning
on the football game and my
TV, inexplicably, takes
about 15 seconds to "boot
up." During that period
there is no picture on the
screen, no sound. Just the
lamp on the cable box and
the lamp on the TV light up,
and there is a beep or two.
And then, for another 10 to
15 seconds, the picture and
sound come on, but you
cannot change the channel –
so whatever channel was
there when you turned it off
shows up and you can’t
change it. My friend says,
“Some engineer did that.”
Fresnel collectors are solar
thermal collectors that
focus sunlight on a
stationary receiver using
multiple single-axis mirror
rows. The receiver consists
of a vacuum tube with a
selective coating that
collects the heat created by
the sunlight. The heat
transfer medium (water in
this case) then transfers
the heat energy to the
application. The Fresnel
collector in Johannesburg
has a peak thermal output of
272 kW and provides a
two-stage absorption
refrigerator with
pressurised water at a
temperature of 180 °C.
Remember the polar vortex,
the huge mass of Arctic air
that can plunge much of the
U.S. into the deep freeze?
You might have to get used
to it.
A new study says that as the
world gets warmer, parts of
North America, Europe and
Asia could see more frequent
and stronger visits of that
cold air. Researchers say
that's because of shrinking
ice in the seas off Russia.
A nuclear reactor producing
no long-lived nuclear waste
whilst running at
subcriticality sounds like a
dream come true. Add that
the same reactor can use the
abundant material thorium as
fuel, and you have Carlo
Rubbia's proposed Energy
Amplifier. In 1993, the
Nobel laureate held a talk
outlining how such a reactor
could be built and has since
lobbied for resources to
construct a test reactor.
In
2012, the Virginia Governor
proposed a tax for the sales
of energy efficient cars
because they use less
gasoline, which means less
money goes into the highway
trust fund to repair roads.
Hybrid and electric car
owners, like myself, went
nuts — why should those
saving gasoline and
significantly reducing
pollution be penalized? By
the end of 2013, a
bipartisan coalition
abolished the law.
Now the same movement
is underway regarding
energy efficiency,
renewable energy and the
electric grid — and it’s
as misguided as the
reasoning above.
Things are bad for those who
breathe air these days, and
things will probably get a
lot worse before a change in
behavior is forced upon
humankind. This is because
despite demonstrable
evidence of climate change,
despite the fact that
natural gas is not a clean
energy source and despite
the fact that building more
nuclear facilities takes
longer than installing solar
and costs more, governments
are once again turning to
the old polluting and
expensive standbys to power
our world.
Researchers have scheduled
human tests on a third
possible Ebola vaccine in
response to the U.N.'s call
to fast-track treatments for
the worst known outbreak of
the deadly virus in human
history.
Children who spent five
to 10 hours a week
outside developed a
strong attachment to
nature, a value that is
important to both human
development and
well-being
Children who spent much
time outdoors also
experienced a wealth of
positive emotions,
including peacefulness,
happiness, and a sense
of belonging to the
world
Parents of children with
the strongest
connections to nature
also spent a lot of time
outdoors during
childhood, engaging in
experiences that they
believe helped to shape
their adult lives and
spirituality
Spending time outdoors
is associated with
better physical and
mental health, and
increased life
satisfaction, in both
children and adults
The Peruvian hackers have
broken into military,
police, and other sensitive
government networks in
Argentina, Colombia, Chile,
Venezuela, defacing websites
and extracting sensitive
data to strut their
programming prowess and make
political points.
Now the team calling itself
LulzSecPeru has created a
national political uproar.
Unregulated trash burning
around the globe is pumping
far more pollution into the
atmosphere than shown by
official records. A new
study led by theNational
Center for Atmospheric
Research estimates that more
than 40 percent of the
world’s garbage is burned in
such fires, emitting gases
and particles that can
substantially affect human
health and climate change.
State officials have
classified two dams at a
Duke Energy coal ash pond in
Lumberton as "high hazard"
because people could be
killed and homes damaged if
they failed.
In a separate action,
four conservation groups
filed federal lawsuits
Wednesday against Duke over
three other coal ash sites.
Two nuclear stations that
play a vital role helping to
keep Britain's already
fragile electricity system
intact could be out of
action till the end of the
year, EDF Energy said on
Thursday.
President Barack Obama
and British Prime Minister
David Cameron pressed fellow
NATO leaders Thursday to
confront the "brutal and
poisonous" Islamic State
militant group that is
wreaking havoc in Iraq and
Syria — and urged regional
partners like Jordan and
Turkey to join the effort as
well.
As leaders of the Western
alliance gathered for a
two-day summit, Obama and
Cameron worked to begin
forming a coalition of
nations that could combat
the extremists through
military power, diplomatic
pressure and economic
penalties.
A US judge Thursday said BP
acted with "gross negligence
and willful misconduct" that
led to the 2010 Macondo oil
spill in the Gulf of Mexico,
a ruling that could force
the company to pay further
penalties reaching $18
billion, almost $5 billion
more than it earned in 2013.
US District Judge Carl
Barbier of the Eastern
District of Louisiana in New
Orleans also found
Transocean, the owner of the
Deepwater Horizon platform,
as well as oil services
giant Halliburton, grossly
negligent in the spill,
which killed 11 and spewed
millions of barrels of oil
into the Gulf
U.S. regulators on
Wednesday issued rules for
banks to hold enough
easy-to-sell assets to keep
them afloat during a crunch,
after many were caught short
of cash during the 2007-09
financial crisis.
The rThe rules, adopted by the
three main bank regulators,
are a new building block in
a global effort to make big
banks such as JPMorgan Chase
and Citigroup sturdier and
head off a future meltdown
of the financial system.
Google never came right out
and said it would use
authorship as a ranking
signal to my recollection,
but it did go out of its way
to really encourage people
to take advantage, recording
multiple videos on various
ways to implement authorship
markup on your website.
The World Health
Organization (WHO)
estimates that 80
percent of the world’s
population still uses
traditional remedies,
including plants, as
their primary health
care tools
The majority of new
drugs (70 percent)
introduced in the US are
derived from natural
products, primarily
plants
Ginger may help relieve
headaches, joint pain,
motion sickness, and
nausea while lavender is
anti-fungal with calming
properties
Garlic is antibacterial
and antiviral, and may
help boost your immune
function, while
peppermint is a
decongestant that may
help clear your
respiratory tract
Abandoned landfill sites
throughout the UK routinely
leach polluting chemicals
into rivers, say scientists.
At Port Meadow alone, on
the outskirts of Oxford,
they estimate 27.5 tonnes of
ammonium a year find their
way from landfill into the
River Thames. The
researchers say it could be
happening at thousands of
sites around the UK.
In water, ammonium breaks
down into nitrogen. The
extra nitrogen can trigger
excessive plant growth and
decay, damaging water
quality and starving fish
and other aquatic organisms
of the oxygen they need to
survive.
Scientists are most
worried about so-called
blue-green algal blooms...
After the rash of school
shootings in the United
States over the past decade
and a half, some teachers
have been taking action to
think up creative and
life-saving methods for
keeping their classrooms
safe.
A new study suggests that
fracking is occurring closer
to drinking water sources
than researchers had
previously realized.
The study by Stanford
University researchers found
that oil exploration is
likely "bringing fracking
fluids into direct contact
with groundwater drinking
sources by fracking at
shallower depths than
generally believed and
most-often
reported," according to the
North Denver News.
Imaginary television
weather forecasts predicted
floods, storms and searing
heat from Arizona to Zambia
within four decades, as part
of a United Nations campaign
on Monday to draw attention
to a U.N. summit this month
on fighting global warming.
"Miami South Beach is
under water," one forecaster
says in a first edition of
"weather reports from the
future", a series set in
2050 and produced by
companies including Japan's
NHK, the U.S. Weather
Channel and ARD in Germany.
Stanford University
scientists have developed a
low-cost, emissions-free
device that uses an ordinary
AAA battery to produce
hydrogen by water
electrolysis. Unlike other
water splitters that use
precious-metal catalysts,
the electrodes in this
device are made of
inexpensive and abundant
nickel and iron.
Professor Hongjie Dai and
colleagues have developed a
cheap, emissions-free device
that uses a 1.5-volt battery
to split water into hydrogen
and oxygen at room
temperature. The hydrogen
gas could be used to power
fuel cells in zero-emissions
vehicles.
Cracks in the ground,
some deeper than a man's
height, are cropping up on
hillsides in the Bull
Mountains.
The fissures are the
direct result of mining
operations from Montana's
only underground coal mine,
owned by Signal Peak Energy.
The mine has been in
operation since 2009,
employs more than 300
workers and produced 8.7
million tons of coal last
year.
Based on my studies, the
best way to purify water
is to distill it.
Distilled water is
prepared by boiling the
water and then
condensing the steam.
This removes all
contaminants but the
volatile gases, which
need to be removed by
carbon filtration.
Minerals can be added
back to the water.
Some will say that
distilling water removes
the beneficial minerals,
but these can either be
taken as separate
supplements or can be
added to water later.
And that, in fact, is
what many manufacturers
of bottled water do.
The plans to widen
Britain's anti-terror laws,
which are likely to be
approved by parliament, are
aimed at preventing attacks
by Islamist militants
returning from terror
training in trouble spots in
the Middle East.
Like other Western
countries such as the U.S.,
France and Germany, Britain
is worried that citizens who
travel abroad to join terror
groups could threaten their
home country when they
return.
When Islamic State militants
seized a Syrian airbase
along with its fighter jets
in late August, it was
unclear if the group had any
trained pilots to fly the
equipment. A new report
suggests the group may soon
have in its ranks pilots
with at least a rudimentary
knowledge of the aircraft.
Hawaiian Electric Co.
President and CEO Dick
Rosenblum defended the
utility's proposed rate
changes Thursday, including
the $55 minimum rate for all
customers and higher monthly
charge for new solar owners.
HECO's energy transition
plan, which it filed with
the Public Utilities
Commission on Tuesday, sets
goals for 2030 of more than
65 percent of energy coming
from renewables, customer
bills decreasing by 20
percent and nearly tripling
the amount of rooftop solar
systems.
The final settlement adds
$4.3 million to the previous
$19.3 million provided by a
March court ruling. The
court ruling in March came
nearly eight years after a
court ruled that DOE was in
breach of a contract for
failing to accept spent
nuclear fuel from the
Columbia plant. The
settlement also provides for
an annual claims process
with DOE, which allows EN to
recover damages through 2016
without having to pay costs
for litigation.
A stunning new interview
with Dr. Andrew Wakefield
conducted by Gary Franchi of
the Next News Network has
just been posted. This
interview is the first video
interview with Dr. Wakefield
following the admission of
scientific fraud by a top
CDC scientist named Dr.
William Thompson...
"The autism community has
been deceived for a period
of 13 years," says Dr.
Wakefield in the interview.
Duke Energy Indiana is
filing a plan today with
Indiana state utility
regulators to modernize its
aging electric grid that
delivers power to more than
800,000 Hoosier homes,
businesses and industries.
The seven-year, $1.9
billion plan uses a
combination of advanced
technology and
infrastructure upgrades to
improve service to its
customers and provide them
with better information
about their energy use.
Duke Energy announced
Thursday that the company
will retire the remaining
coal-fired units, 5 and 6,
at its W.C. Beckjord Station
in New Richmond, Ohio,
effective Sept. 1.
Previously Duke announced
its intent to retire
Beckjord Station's
coal-fired units 1 through 6
- totaling 862-MW of
generating capacity - by
Jan. 1, 2015.
When Charlie Crist last
governed Florida, his green
energy and climate policies
made him few friends among
the state's powerful
electricity corporations...
Florida's three largest
utilities have poured money
into the re-election
campaign of Republican
incumbent Governor Rick
Scott in an expensive and
closely watched political
battle for the nation's
largest swing state.
"Iwaki is changing - and not
for the good," said
Inokoshi, 55, who echoes a
sentiment widely heard in
this town of almost 300,000
where the economic boom that
followed the worst nuclear
accident since Chernobyl has
brought its own disruption.
An independent report
on fracking has recommended
a temporary moratorium on
the controversial process
and says that communities
should give permission
before it can proceed.
The interdisciplinary
expert panel set up by the
Nova Scotia regional
government says the science
of fracking is relatively
unknown and therefore its
introduction should be
delayed in the Province
until the science and its
environmental effects are
better understood.
Iceland's largest
volcanic system, which cuts
a 190 km long and up to 25
km wide (118 miles by 15.5
miles) swathe across the
North Atlantic island, has
been hit by thousands of
earthquakes over the last
two weeks and scientists
have been on high alert.
In 2010, an ash cloud
from the Eyjafjallajokull
volcano, in a different
region of Iceland, closed
much of Europe's air space
for six days.
As protests in Islamabad
seemingly slip out of the
government’s control, Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif and
Chief of Army Staff General
Raheel Sharif’s met at the
PM House on Monday to
discuss the political
crisis.
The Massachusetts
Executive Office of Energy
and Environmental Affairs
issued the following news
release:
The Patrick
Administration today
announced another major
clean energy milestone,
surpassing 15,000 solar
installations in the
Commonwealth. There are now
15,762 systems installed
across Massachusetts , a
twenty-fold increase from
2008.
The monarch butterfly
weighs a fourth of a gram,
yet migrates thousands of
miles every September
through Iowa to
overwintering grounds in
Mexico.
The iconic
orange-and-black butterfly
marks changing seasons.
Chasing it is a rite of Iowa
early childhood and watching
its life transformations in
classrooms is a thrilling
memory, as it was for two
school groups this week.
But earlier in the week,
a leading monarch scientist
announced that the monarch
may be heading closer to its
death. ..
Bee Against Monsanto, an
event in celebration of
National Honeybee Day,
was a success, with 86
events occurring around
the globe, helping to
get word out that
corporations like
Monsanto could very well
be at the foundation of
the widespread bee
die-offs
Monsanto took to
Facebook on August 7,
just before National
Honeybee Day, to
reaffirm their
“commitment” to saving
the bees
In response to the
“bee-friendly” post,
Monsanto’s Facebook page
was flooded with angry
comments, hundreds of
them, stating sentiments
of outrage like “Protect
them?? You’re the ones
who are killing them
off!”
Systemic neonicotinoid
pesticides have been
increasingly blamed for
bee deaths, prompting
the European Union (EU)
to ban them for two
years to study their
involvement with large
bee kills
The UK’s Department for
Environment Food and
Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
has indicated corporate
funding from pesticide
makers will be allowed
in studies to determine
the fate of
neonicotinoids in the EU
While Monsanto and Bayer
invest heavily in new
bee-research centers,
the UK’s Environmental
Audit Committee (EAC)
has also called for
unbiased bee research to
protect bees, the
environment, and food
supplies
Researchers found that the
warm, damp environment in
dishwashers is ideal for the
growth of a species of fungi
that can be harmful to the
lungs and hard to treat if
infected. They also
discovered that the fungi
are particularly likely to
grow in dishwashers as they
thrive in salty conditions,
such as those created by
dishwasher powder.
The non-profit National
Vaccine Information
Center (NVIC) is
renewing its call for
oversight of vaccine
safety to be removed
from the Department of
Health and Human
Services (DHHS)
DHHS is legally
responsible for
regulating vaccines and
also partners with
pharmaceutical companies
to develop them. It
should not be legally
responsible for
assessing vaccine risks
and monitoring the
safety of vaccines
DHHS has a long history
of limiting transparency
and being less than
completely honest about
what it knows about
individual
susceptibility to
vaccine reactions
A senior scientist at
the CDC has issued a
public statement
admitting a 2004 MMR
vaccine safety study
“omitted statistically
significant information”
and that “the final
study protocol was not
followed”
NVIC has also called for
the creation of an
independent vaccine
safety monitoring agency
and independent vaccine
research into health
outcome differences
between vaccinated and
unvaccinated children
The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission today approved a
plan to store nuclear wastes
on site at nuclear plants,
ending a two-year suspension
on final licensing decisions
and clearing the way for the
Tennessee Valley Authority
to proceed with adding
another reactor at its Watts
Bar Nuclear Plant.
A group of Oklahoma State
University football fans
have sparked outrage for a
sign they created to hold
during ESPN's GameDay
football-preview show.
The Oklahoma State
Cowboys play the Florida
State Seminoles tonight in a
game in Arlington, Texas.
The fans in question
evidently felt that
referencing a historical
tragedy would be a clever
play on the Seminoles' name,
and created a banner that
said "Send 'Em Home
#trail_of_tears #gopokes".
Influential sports blog
Deadspin.com called it "one
of the dumbest GameDay
signs you'll ever see."
Environmentalists warn
that a planned regional
landfill in Randolph County
could become a burial ground
for worrisome amounts of
coal ash.
A contract the county
signed with trash-disposal
giant Waste Management
specifically allows the new
landfill to accept waste
from "electric power
generation." Those are code
words for coal ash, said
Therese Vick of the Blue
Ridge Environmental Defense
League .
Water scarcity is not a
problem just for the
developing world. In
California, legislators are
currently proposing a $7.5
billion emergency water plan
to their voters; and U.S.
federal officials last year
warned residents of Arizona
and Nevada that they could
face cuts in Colorado River
water deliveries in 2016.
C2 event observed.
Solar Activity Forecast:
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a slight
chance for an M-class flare
on days one and two (02 Sep,
03 Sep) and expected to be
low with a chance for
M-class flares on day three
(04 Sep). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on days
one, two, and three (02 Sep,
03 Sep, 04 Sep).
A team recorded thin sheets
of ice pushing rocks across
a desert lake bed, answering
a decades-old question.
Cracked mud and hundreds of
mysterious tracks etch the
remarkably flat, dry lake
bed of Racetrack Playa in
California’s Death Valley.
People have known for
decades that rocks create
the tracks, which can
stretch for 700 feet and
make sudden turns, but they
didn’t know how, exactly,
the rocks managed it. Now a
team of researchers has
captured images of the rocks
in motion.
Birds that stray into the
paths of aircraft, eat
crops, or spread disease
from foraging in large
numbers at landfills are, at
best, a nuisance and, at
worst, downright dangerous.
Over the years people have
tried everything from
scaring them away with loud
noises to trapping them –
all with varying results.
Now a designer from the
Netherlands has come up with
robotic birds of prey that
look and fly exactly like
the real thing.
Scientists at the University
of Edinburgh have grown a
fully-functional organ
inside a mouse; opening the
possibility of one day
manufacturing compatible
organs for transplant
without the need for donors.
Using mouse embryo cells,
scientists at the MRC Centre
for Regenerative Medicine
created an artificial thymus
gland with the same
structure and function as an
adult organ.
In response to Andrea Rossi
saying essentially: "Let's
Switch from calling it LENR
to QUAR"(quantum reaction),
Konstantin Balakiryan, the
primary inventor at Solar
Hydrogen Trends, Inc. points
out that their Symphony 7
reactor is fusion, fission,
and transmutation -- all
nuclear events.
An independent report on
fracking has recommended a
temporary moratorium on the
controversial process and
says that communities should
give permission before it
can proceed.
Fast-tracked human
testing of a vaccine to
prevent Ebola virus disease
will begin next week by the
National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious
Diseases, NIAID, part of the
U.S. National Institutes of
Health.
The early-stage trial
will begin human testing of
a vaccine co-developed by
NIAID and the British
company GlaxoSmithKline.
Tests will evaluate the
experimental vaccine’s
safety and ability to
generate an immune system
response in healthy adults.
The International
Indian Treaty Council turned
40 this year and its annual
conference will celebrate
the past, share experiences
and cultures of the present,
and develop plans and
strategies to meet the
ongoing struggles of
Indigenous Peoples
worldwide.
U.S. manufacturing grew
in August at the strongest
pace in more than three
years as factories cranked
out more goods and new
orders rose.
The Institute for Supply
Management's manufacturing
index rose to 59 from 57.1
in July, the ISM said
Tuesday. That was the
highest reading since March
2011. Any measure above 50
signals that manufacturing
is growing.
Water shortages are coming
to Indiana unless the state
implements policy changes,
according to a recent
prediction by the Indiana
Chamber of Commerce
Foundation. ..
Liquor stores, bars,
payday loan centers,
pawnshops, and trading posts
selling kitschy “Indian”
souvenirs dot the landscape
of Gallup, New Mexico. Once
known as “Indian Capital of
the World,” the city’s
economy thrives on Navajo
generated-business and
non-Native tourism.
Texas is struggling with
regulatory compliance at
drinking water plants, and
by some standards, it is
having more trouble than any
other state in the nation.
"More than 310 public
drinking water systems in
Texas — nearly 4.5 percent
of the state's regulated
public water systems — have
quality issues that haven’t
been adequately addressed...
Every student in physics and
electronic engineering
learns Ohm’s law, E = I x R,
or voltage equals current
times resistance. You learn
that E is electromotive
force, a long term for
voltage. R is resistance,
easy enough to remember, but
I? How does I mean current?
One person who answered this
question was quite blunt:
“You can’t expect English to
consistently be the language
of science.”