By Mike Robbins
Hydrogen -- Star Gas, Everywhere, Yet Unseen. Sunlight is its Child.
(Haiku by Stephen Wetlesen)
August 28, 2015
It seems crazy that electric
companies would have
anything against customers
that spend their own money
to reduce their energy use
with clean, local solar
power. But any number of
utilities are slapping
excessive fees and charges
on customers with solar to
slow or stop them. Here's 5
reasons why...
Regional water utilities
in California had to call on
backup water supply plans
after a major water pipeline
burst in San Bruno late last
month, spilling millions of
gallons of water.
“The pipeline, known as
San Andreas Pipeline No. 2,
is part of the Hetch Hetchy
Water System and serves
three Peninsula water
agencies,”..
Nitrogen and phosphate
nutrients are among the
biggest costs in cultivating
algae for biofuels. Sandia
molecular biologists Todd
Lane and Ryan Davis have
shown they can recycle about
two-thirds of those critical
nutrients, and aim to raise
the recycling rate to close
to 100 percent.
Recycling nitrogen and
phosphate has benefits that
go far beyond cost. While
nitrogen can be produced
through a costly artificial
nitrogen fixation process
using natural gas and
atmospheric nitrogen,
phosphate is a limited
natural resource that can be
toxic at high concentration.
Is it really linked to
Alzheimer’s and autism? And
why is eating it so
different from getting it in
a vaccine shot?
Aluminum is common in our
environment, comprising
about 8% of the
Earth’s crust. It
is therefore found in small
amounts in our food, air,
and water, but we don’t seem
to absorb much from these
sources, and we have a
capacity to excrete small
amounts.
The main source
of dietary exposure to
aluminum is in food
additives—most commonly
found in processed foods.
Chronic use of antacids and
buffered aspirins also
increase our
exposure to aluminum.
President Obama's been busy
over the past couple days.
In addition to giving the
keynote at the National
Clean Energy Summit in Las
Vegas -- where he announced
a robust set of executive
actions and private sector
commitments to advance the
country's transition to
cleaner sources of energy
and cut energy waste -- he
has blessed more than a
billion dollars in
initiatives to advance
innovative clean energy
technologies.
Cities in California cut
water use by 31.3% in July,
exceeding a state-wide
mandate of 25% to combat a
record four-year drought
there, officials say. It
shows Californians are
starting to understand "that
we are in the drought of our
lives," state water
regulator official Felicia
Marcus said. It is the
second month in a row the
state has exceeded emergency
conservation regulation.
California has been dealing
with record low water levels
for four years.
Since April 1, there have
been 11 cases of human
plague in the United States,
the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention said
Thursday. Three of those
patients have died. This is
according to a new report
from the CDC putting doctors
on alert that the number of
cases this year seems to be
higher than usual.
The average number of cases
between 2001 and 2012 was
seven, with less than one
death each year.
Yao Yudong, head of the
bank's Research Institute of
Finance and Banking, said
the U.S. central bank should
delay any rate hike to give
fragile emerging market
economies time to prepare.
He said Beijing's
decision to let the yuan
fall in value against the
dollar should not make it a
scapegoat for the sell-off.
"China's exchange rate
reform had nothing to do
with the global stock market
volatility, it was mainly
due to the upcoming U.S.
Federal Reserve monetary
policy move," Yao said.
"We were wronged."
For decades we've been
promised that hydrogen fuel
cells will revolutionize our
lives, but it always seems
to be around the next
corner. But that hasn't
stopped one UK company from
pursuing a near future in
which iPhones and other
devices are completely
disconnected from the
electrical grid and instead
use embedded fuel cells to
power themselves for a full
week between recharges.
The Dow Jones industrial
average soared more than 600
points Wednesday, snapping a
six-day losing streak and
notching its third-largest
daily point gain.
The Dow, the Standard &
Poor’s 500-stock index and
the Nasdaq all climbed close
to 4 percent. For the Dow
and the S&P 500, it was the
strongest percentage gain
since November 2011.
A U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency team
working to address seepage
at an abandoned Colorado
gold mine underestimated
water pressure at the site
before triggering a blowout
that sent toxic waste into
rivers, according to an
internal report released by
the agency on Wednesday.
The Aug. 5 blowout at the
Gold King Mine located on a
creek outside Silverton in
southwest Colorado sent more
than 3 million gallons
(11,360 cubic meters) of
acid mine sludge into the
nearby Animas River, with
the plume later flowing from
the Animas into the San Juan
River in New Mexico.
An explosion believed to
have been caused by a
sabotage attack has halted
flow on the pipeline that
brings gas from Azerbaijan
to Turkey for the second
time this month.
A
Turkish energy ministry
official confirmed that flow
on the line, also known as
the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas
pipeline or the South
Caucasus gas pipeline, had
been halted last night
following an explosion
believed to be the result of
a sabotage attack by the
Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK). The PKK admitted
responsibility for a
previous attack on the line
in early August
Worldwide, more than 5
billion pounds of pesticides
are sprayed onto crops each
year,1
and more than 75 percent of
the US population has
detectable levels of
organophosphates (OPs),
which are among the most
commonly used insecticides
on American farms.
Your diet is one of the
most likely routes of
exposure – unless you're a
farmer or live near an
agricultural area. For farm
workers, their children, and
those who live in farming
communities, pesticide
exposure is a fact of life,
but one that puts their
health in serious jeopardy
"They have the launch
systems. They have the
guidance-control system.
They have the detonation
system. They have the
warhead. And guess what?
Russia and North Korea's
tested everything for them.
"All they have to do is
put it together like a
tinker toy — and that's why
they have the nuclear
capability now," Vallely
said. "The only reason Iran
wants to do it is to get
released some $150 billion
in sanctions money they can
use to further their
programs."
YOU MAY HAVE HEARD OF solar
leasing, a relatively new,
effective way of introducing
solar PV into the
mainstream. Now the
thermotechnology industry is
using the same type of
approach, something called
thermal service providers,
to sell thousands of new
homeowners on geothermal
heating and cooling.
A recent article published
in the Journal of the
American Medical Association
(JAMA) reported on new
guidelines which encourage
doctors to give adults 65
years and older two vaccines
— PCV13 and PPSV23 — to
prevent pneumonia. “After
reading the article, you
would assume that the two
vaccines have been shown to
be effective at preventing
pneumococcal-associated
illnesses and death from
pneumonia,” Brownstein tells
Newsmax Health. “But you
would be wrong: These
vaccines fail over 99
percent of the people who
take them!”
"It's easy for people in the
cities. They don't have to
think about it. They turn on
the tap and they have water
to wash and water to drink.
Here, access to water is a
much more complicated
issue." Agricultural expert
Daniel Rojas might have been
talking about any place on
Earth where water is hard to
come by, but his words have
a particular salience in
Peña Blanca, Chile. The
remote, drought-stricken
community lies on the
fringes of an expanding
Atacama Desert, the driest
(non-polar) desert on Earth.
Parts of this parched,
desolate land have never
seen a single drop of rain.
First, everyone seems to be
super worried about the
changing business model.
Sometimes, that thought is
paired with discussions on
the death spiral, what's
going on with coal and the
exhausting connections of
renewables at the
distribution end of the
system. These days, it's
more common to hear
executives talk about this
new model as a disruption
and an opportunity rather
than a fear. But that fear
is still part of the
subtext. It's darn difficult
to take a highly regulated,
highly cost-heavy industry
and pivot it to something
"flexible." It's a bit like
asking my grandfather to do
yoga. As he would say (were
he still alive): The spirit
may be willing, but the
flesh is weak. We may want
to change, but we're held
back by public utility
commissions, hardware and
reliability expectations.
That's a lot of weak flesh.
The global blockbuster
herbicide Roundup
(glyphosate) destroys the
ability of honeybees to
navigate back to their
hives, and it might be
playing a role in the
ongoing collapse of
pollinator populations
worldwide. This is according
to a study conducted by
researchers from the
University of Buenos Aires
in Argentina and the Free
University Berlin that was
published in the Journal of
Experimental Biology on July
10.
Not content with using
hybrid artificial
photosynthesis to turn CO2
emissions into plastics and
biofuel, researchers at the
Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
now claim to have produced
an enhanced system that uses
water and solar energy to
generate hydrogen, which is
in turn used to produce
methane, the main element of
natural gas, from carbon
dioxide. Generating such
gases from a renewable
resource may one day help
bolster, or even replace,
fossil fuel resources
extracted from dwindling
sub-surface deposits.
Older adults destined to
develop dementia may start
to lose awareness of their
memory problems two to three
years before the disease is
full blown, a new study
finds...
The findings also offer some
useful information for the
average person, according to
Wilson.
"If you're
aware enough to be worried
about your memory, you
probably don't have
dementia," he said. Nor is
it clear that you ever will,
since memory issues do not
mean a person is doomed to
develop Alzheimer's or other
forms of dementia.
Each spring, powerful dust
storms in the deserts of
Mongolia and northern China
send thick clouds of
particles into the
atmosphere. Eastward winds
sweep these particles as far
as the Pacific, where dust
ultimately settles in the
open ocean. This desert dust
contains, among other
minerals, iron — an
essential nutrient for
hundreds of species of
phytoplankton that make up
the ocean’s food base.
Ever wonder why you feel so
all alone during this
crucial time in history? Why
there is a sense of
isolation yet at the same
time, you feel so connected
to the information field and
those waking up? And all
while you still appear to be
living all alone?
Quite the conundrum. Yet the
reality of it gets louder by
the day.
If the prediction of the
announcement video turns out
to be correct, the service
might be available all over
the U.S. rather soon. Maybe
even worldwide, but that
probably depends on the
realisation and the success
of the new project. The link
to Project Sunroof
unfortunately does not work
from Germany (where Sun &
Wind Energy is based) but if
you are somewhere else, feel
free to check it out:
Keep Dancing
“I always tell my kids if
you lay down, people will
step over you. But if you
keep scrambling, if you keep
going, someone will always,
always give you a hand.
Always. But you gotta keep
dancing, you gotta keep your
feet moving.” ― Morgan
Freeman
Until recently, we believed
that the Earth was the only
body in the solar system
that had water in liquid
form. While it is true that
the Earth is the only place
where liquid water is stable
at the surface, there’s ice
almost everywhere. Many
scientists also infer that
liquid water may exist
beneath the surfaces on
several bodies.
Global sea levels have risen
nearly 3 inches in less than
25 years, with some
locations around the world
rising more than 9 inches,
according to NASA’s latest
satellite data.
An
intensive research effort
now underway, aided by NASA
observations and analysis,
points to an unavoidable
rise of several feet in the
future.
With their zero electrical
resistance and remarkable
magnetic and thermal
conductive properties,
superconductors have the
potential to revolutionize
numerous technologies. The
trouble is, they work best
at cryogenic temperatures in
the neighborhood of absolute
zero (-273° C, -459° F). As
part of the quest to come up
with a room temperature
superconductor, researchers
from the Max Planck
Institute for Chemistry and
the Johannes Gutenberg
University Mainz have
developed a new
record-high-temperature
superconductor – and it
smells like rotten eggs.
Wildfires have been
ravaging large parcels of
land in the western United
States and there seems to be
no end in sight for
fire-weary Westerners.
Inciweb, an aggregating
website for U.S. wildfires,
reports 40 active fires in
California alone. The
largest to date is the Happy
Camp Complex Fire which
scorched over 134,000 acres
and is currently listed as
being 100% contained, but
there are scores of other
fires in California that are
burning 30, 40, and 50
thousand acres at the same
time. A good portion of the
state is currently on fire.
The Ocean Cleanup
project's "Mega
Expedition" is said
to have been the
largest ocean
research expedition
in history
In May, the Ocean
Cleanup project
announced that its first
deployment would be
delivered in the Korea
Strait next year. That
will pave the way for
its ultimate goal of
cleaning up the Great
Pacific Garbage Patch.
With that in mind, a
research expedition at
the Garbage Patch has
just been completed.
It's no surprise,
therefore, that the car
battery is largely the big,
heavy, electrochemical block
that it was generations ago.
It does its job pretty well,
and you don't really have to
think about it much.
Silicon Valley startup
Ohm Laboratories believes
there's some room for
improvement and new
thinking, though. More than
just a battery, its Ohm
battery is an energy storage
and management system in a
battery-sized case...
...new research led by
Princeton University
researchers and published in
The ISME Journal in
August suggests that, thanks
to methane-hungry bacteria,
the majority of Arctic soil
might actually be able to
absorb methane from the
atmosphere rather than
release it. Furthermore,
that ability seems to become
greater as temperatures
rise.
With controversy swirling
over Hillary Clinton's use
of a personal email server
while serving as Secretary
of State — and amid a strong
challenge from independent
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders
on the campaign trail — the
Clinton campaign is closely
tracking Biden’s activities,
Politico reports.
M2 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be moderate with a slight
chance for an X-class flare
on days one and two (28 Aug,
29 Aug) and expected to be
low with a chance for
M-class flares on day three
(30 Aug). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at unsettled
to minor storm levels on day
one (28 Aug), quiet to
active levels on day two (29
Aug) and quiet to unsettled
levels on day three (30
Aug). Protons greater than
10 MeV have a slight chance
of crossing threshold on
days one and two (28 Aug, 29
Aug).
The end of September 2015,
or more precisely the period
from around September 15th
to September 28th 2015, has
become the subject of much
attention, apprehension and
prediction. As usual, this
involves a certain amount of
fear-mongering,
sensationalism,
biblical prophecies and
other dire warnings, which
are best to take with a
grain of salt. However,
despite all of that, one has
to wonder whether the world
events converging in
September 2015 are connected
– and whether they are a
response by the New World
Order elite to the
rapidly rising consciousness
of humanity.
The <UK> government wants
to slash by 87% subsidies
for householders who install
solar panels on their
rooftops, in a move that
renewable energy experts
warn could kill off a
promising industry.
The potential reductions
in the level of feed-in
tariff (FIT), contained in a
long-awaited consultation
document released by the
Department of Energy &
Climate Change (Decc), and
are far larger than
expected.
Physicist Stephen Hawking
made a splash this week when
he announced that he had
solved a vexing conundrum
that had puzzled generations
of leading physicists --
including the 73-year-old
scientific superstar himself
-- for the better part of a
half-century.
During an eight-minute
speech at a scientific
meeting in Sweden, Hawking
said that he had landed upon
a solution for the so-called
information paradox, a
problem posed by black holes
that rattles the very
foundations of physics.
A=440Hz: Not Quite Music to
My Ears
Humankind is the largely
unwitting victim of a
frequency war on our
consciousness that has been
waged for decades, if not
millennia. The goal has
clearly been to keep us as
gullible and subservient as
possible, through
multifarious means.
In modern history in
particular, there has been
what Dr. Len Horowitz has
referred to as the strategic
“militarization” of music.
This happened in 1939 when
the tuning of the note ‘A
above Middle C’ to 440 Hz
was adopted in the world of
music. In 1910 an earlier
push to effect the same
change was met with limited
success. Three decades
later, the British Standards
Institute (BSI) adopted the
A=440Hz standard following
staunch promotion by the
Rockefeller-Nazi
consortium—“at the precise
time WWII preparations were
being finalized by the
petrochemical-pharmaceutical
war financiers.”[i] This was
the year that A=440 became
the international standard.
A new study reveals that,
over its 10-year lifespan,
the Renewable Fuel
Standard's (RFS) requirement
to substitute biofuels for
fossil fuels has displaced
nearly 1.9 billion barrels
of foreign oil and reduced
U.S. transportation-related
carbon emissions by 589.33
million metric tons. That is
according to a newly
released analysis by the
Biotechnology Industry
Organization (BIO).
The U.K. proposed to end
an assistance program for
small-scale renewable energy
projects as part of a drive
to cut the costs to
consumers of subsidizing
clean technologies.
Ministers plan to cap the
budget for the assistance
and end it for new entrants
after March 2019, according
to the proposals outlined
Thursday on the Department
of Energy and Climate Change
website. If it isn’t
possible to rein in
spending, the program of
guaranteed electricity
prices, known as feed-in
tariffs, may close in
January, it said
Men and persons age 65 and
older who have access to
natural surroundings,
whether it’s the green space
of a nearby park or a sandy
beach and an ocean view,
report sleeping better,
according to a new
University of Illinois study
published in Preventive
Medicine.
US power generation from
coal stayed ahead of natural
gas in June, though the gap
between the fossil fuels
remains historically tight,
the Energy Information
Administration said
Wednesday.
Coal
accounted for 34.9% of
generation in June, or 126.3
TWh, while natural gas
accounted for 33.3%, or
120.5 TWh, EIA said in its
Electric Power Monthly
report.
Researchers are already
developing methods of making
biofuel from cellulosic
waste, such as corn stover
and wood fibers, offering
reduced environmental impact
and no competition with food
crops. Now, new research is
investigating the
possibility of turning waste
from the winemaking industry
into biofuel, not requiring
the planting of any new
crops.
Wonder
“We live in a wonderful
world that is full of
beauty, charm and adventure.
There is no end to the
adventures that we can have
if only we seek them with
our eyes open.” ― Jawaharlal
Nehru
August 25, 2015
Each year, American
households throw away $640
worth of food apiece,
typically because they buy
too much or fail to eat the
leftovers. Many Americans
succumb to grocery store
marketing tactics that
encourage impulse buys and
larger purchases, yet when
they bring such perishables
home find they end up
spoiling before being eaten.
After 40-plus-hours of
talks, North and South Korea
on Tuesday pulled back from
the brink with an accord
that allows both sides to
save face and, for the
moment, avert the bloodshed
they've been threatening
each other with for weeks.
In a carefully crafted,
though vague, piece of
diplomacy, Pyongyang
expressed "regret" that two
South Korean soldiers were
maimed in a recent land mine
blast Seoul blamed on the
North. While not an
acknowledgement of
responsibility, let alone
the "definite apology" South
Korea's president had
demanded, it allows Seoul to
claim some measure of
victory in holding the North
to account.
Alaska is getting a lot of
attention in the energy
industry, partially because
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski,
from Alaska, is now the
Chairman of the U.S. Senate
Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources. But the
remote communities of the
state offer an opportunity
to look into providing power
in all types of locations.
European markets bounced
back and U.S. stock futures
rocketed higher Tuesday as
China cut interest rates for
the fifth time since
November in an effort to
boost its slowing economy.
Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500
stock index futures were all
up over 3%. European stocks
rose sharply.
France's
CAC 40 index added
3.5% and Germany's DAX index
was up 3.1%.
The
People's Bank of China
said the rate for a one-year
loan will be cut 0.25
percentage point to 4.6% and
the one-year rate for
deposits will fall to 1.75%.
Historically, the U.S.
economy suffers a recession
every five to eight years,
so given that our recovery
is more than six years old,
we may face a downturn soon.
And with monetary policy
already in heavy-easing mode
and fiscal policy hamstrung
by the government's massive
debt burden, the
government's tools to combat
any downturn are limited.
New findings show Asia
produces twice as much
mercury emissions as
previously thought.
Once mercury is emitted into
the atmosphere from the
smokestacks of power plants,
the pollutant has a
complicated trajectory; even
after it settles onto land
and sinks into oceans,
mercury can be re-emitted
back into the atmosphere
repeatedly. This so-called
“grasshopper effect” keeps
the highly toxic substance
circulating as “legacy
emissions” that, combined
with new smokestack
emissions, can extend the
environmental effects of
mercury for decades.
The race to find cleaner
energy sources has led to a
boon in hydraulic fracturing
(“fracking”) in search of
natural gas. Highly
pressurized chemicals and
water are pumped deep
underground to break shale
and release natural gas for
harvesting. Residents and
environmentalists have long
been opposed to the process,
which has seen an increase
of health issues due to
contaminated water. In
drought stricken California,
there is also concern about
the amount of water being
used in fracking operations,
as well as what is done with
the wastewater.
Residents of
drought-ravaged California
can expect to pay more for
water next year as utilities
pass on the cost of
mandatory conservation
measures to customers, a
survey released by rating
agency Fitch on Tuesday
said.
Seventy-eight percent of
the 46 retail water
utilities polled said rate
increases would either begin
next year or have already
begun.
Chinese authorities
warned that cyanide levels
in the waters around the
Tianjin Port explosion site
had risen to as much as 277
times acceptable levels
although they declared that
the city's drinking water
was safe.
The local government,
under pressure from China's
leaders in Beijing to
improve industrial safety,
also said it would relocate
chemical plants away from
the area, where thousands of
residents were forced to
evacuate last week after the
release of toxic chemicals
by explosions that killed
114 people.
-
Your body is by nature
designed to move toward
health and away from
disease, and will do so
provided you feed it
properly
-
One of the simplest
health directives you
could ever come across
is to just EAT REAL
FOOD, as this
automatically eliminates
a number of
health-harming
ingredients from your
diet
-
Exercise is another
critical component of
health; studies have
shown exercise to be as
effective a treatment as
many drugs, including
antidepressants and
medications for
prediabetes and heart
disease
A great many things in our
society today are fake. From
news and marketing to
science and politics, our
world is filled with an
extraordinary amount of
lies, deception,
disinformation,
misinformation, fakery,
fraud, facades,
mirages and propaganda.
Waking up to the cynical
truth about the corrupt,
backscratching, revolving
door relationships between
the FDA (and other agencies)
and the Big Pharma and Big
Agra industries has been
difficult to face, as the
problem is so pervasive as
to affect the lives of
nearly everyone in this
country, and beyond
throughout the world.
Protesters stand guard
over the proposed Site C dam
portion of the Peace River
in British Columbia. Eagles'
nests and 12,000 years of
history are at stake.
Hardship
“Hardship often prepares an
ordinary person for an
extraordinary destiny.” ― C.
S. Lewis
The US House of
Representatives has passed
the industry-backed
voluntary GMO labeling bill
– The Safe and Accurate Food
Labeling Act 2015 – by 275
votes to 150,
and rejected all four
amendments it was asked to
consider...
Under the proposed federal
legislation, which was
introduced by Mike Pompeo
(R-KS), firms would also be
allowed to make ‘natural’
claims on foods made with
ingredients from genetically
engineered (GE) crops –
which supporters hope will
stop civil litigation over
this issue from clogging up
the court system.
For nearly three decades,
water has flowed down from
the mountains' artificial
lakes to spin an electricity
generator at the John S.
Eastwood Power Station, the
crown jewel of Southern
California Edison's Big
Creek hydroelectric system.
The underground
powerhouse -- sheltered in a
cavern blasted from granite
bedrock -- has produced
cheap and reliable
electricity. And when
windmills, solar panels and
other sources generated more
power than Californians
needed, the excess
electricity would spin the
generator in reverse to pump
the water back up the
mountain to a reservoir to
hold for later; called "pump
storage," it's a way of
stockpiling electricity.
The email painted a vivid
picture of a
fast-deteriorating situation
in Libya’s bloody civil war,
complete with snipers
shooting people, armed
forces on the move and
diplomatic personnel
preparing to evacuate.
Greenhouse gasses (GHG)
emission savings due to
final renewable energy
consumption in electricity,
cooling/heating and
transport sectors rose at a
compound annual growth rate
of 8.8% from 2009 to 2012,
confirming the renewables'
great potential in climate
change mitigation, according
to a new JRC report. Nearly
two thirds of the total
savings came thanks to
renewable energy development
in Germany , Sweden , France
, Italy and Spain .
World stock markets
plunged on Monday after
China’s main index sank 8.5
percent – its biggest drop
since the early days of the
global financial crisis –
amid deepening fears over
the health of the world’s
second-largest economy.
Oil prices, commodities
and the currencies of many
developing countries also
tumbled on concerns that a
sharp slowdown in China
might hurt economic growth
around the globe. Wall
Street was expected to
suffer heavy losses on the
open.
July was the warmest
month ever on record
worldwide and 2015 has been
so far the hottest year, the
U.S. National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
said on Thursday, just over
three months to go before
world leaders seek to reach
a climate agreement in
Paris.
In its monthly global
climate report released
online on Thursday, NOAA
said many countries and the
world's oceans experienced
heatwaves, with the Earth's
oceans temperature also
hitting record highs last
month.
More Americans than
ever before are supporting
their local food markets,
and new research has found
it's not just because they
believe the food is fresher
and tastes better.
According to a new
University of Iowa study,
people are shopping farmers
markets and joining food
coops at record numbers
because they enjoy knowing
who grows their food. These
so-called "locavores" are
also driven to eat locally
grown produce and meat
because their commitment to
do so makes them feel a part
of something greater than
themselves - a community
that shares their passion
for a healthy lifestyle and
a sustainable environment.
As Californians continue
pumping groundwater in
response to the historic
drought, the California
Department of Water
Resources today released a
new NASA report showing land
in the San Joaquin Valley is
sinking faster than ever
before, nearly 2 inches (5
centimeters) per month in
some locations.
Navajo President Russell
Begaye has ordered police to
confiscate large tanks full
of water delivered to the
reservation for farmers and
ranchers to use for crops
and livestock.
The water, which arrived
in 16,000-gallon tanks, was
intended to fill the gap
caused on August 5 when
Environmental Protection
Agency crews working at
Colorado’s Gold King Mine
accidentally released three
million gallons of toxic
wastewater into the Animas
and San Juan river
...
A new world-record 22
percent conversion
efficiency for solar-powered
hydrogen production has been
claimed by researchers from
Australia's Monash
University
A new study commissioned by
the U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE) contends that
it would be cheaper and far
less risky to dispose of 34
metric tons of U.S. surplus
plutonium at a federal
nuclear waste repository in
New Mexico than convert it
into mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel
for commercial nuclear power
plants at the MOX Fuel
Fabrication Facility in
South Carolina.
Annapolis is joining many
other cities in adding
renewables to their energy
mix, but they are doing it
in an innovative way...it is
being developed on 80 acres
of a closed landfill,
located in Anne Arundel
County, in the vicinity of
Interstate 97, Maryland
Route 450, and Crownsville
Road.
California's first gray wolf
pack since wild wolves
disappeared from the state
nearly a century ago was
spotted in the woods in the
northern part of the state,
wildlife officials said on
Thursday.
The metal sphere lets one
magnetic field pass through
another undetected, which
could lead to improvements
in medical imaging
M5 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be moderate with a slight
chance for an X-class flare
on days one and two (25 Aug,
26 Aug) and likely to be
moderate on day three (27
Aug). The geomagnetic field
is expected to be at quiet
to unsettled levels on days
one and two (25 Aug, 26 Aug)
and quiet to active levels
on day three (27 Aug).
Protons greater than 10 Mev
have a slight chance of
crossing threshold on days
one and two (25 Aug, 26
Aug).
-
The federal government
and US state land
managers use glyphosate
preferentially to
“battle” non-native
plant species
-
While creating a war
against invasive plants
(many of which are
beneficial to the
environment),
genetically modified
crops were touted as a
sustainable solution
-
DuPont hid the toxic
health and environmental
effects of its non-stick
chemical PFOA for
decades, even though
they had evidence
showing it caused
cancer, birth defects,
ulcerative colitis,
thyroid disease, and
more
With solar investment
growing all over the state
of New York, NY Sen. Charles
Schumer announced a change
in solar credits, which
could change the industry
forever.
Traditionally used by some
Native American peoples,
sweetgrass contains
chemicals known to repel
pesky bugs
A thick bloom of algae known
as cyanobacteria appeared in
Lake Atitlan on August 3,
the first such occurrence
since 2009. But help appears
to be on the way in the form
of funds to upgrade the
waste water treatment system
and water supply in the
Atitlán basin.
The wind industry is gaining
momentum, adding 23,000 new
jobs in 2014 -- underscoring
the importance of worker
health and safety.
Not too long ago, many U.S.
utilities viewed solar power
rather warily - as a
disruptive threat to revenue
and a challenge to grid
stability. But a growing
number of utilities of late
have been making big
investments in solar.
Helium is the second most
abundant element in the
Universe, but it's
relatively rare on Earth –
so much so that some have
called for a ban on party
balloons to ward off a
worldwide shortage. However,
a team of scientists led by
Diveena Danabalan of Durham
University conducted a new
study that indicates that
there may be vast new
sources of the gas in the
western mountain regions of
North America.
The Colville and Warm
Springs Indian reservations,
as well as the Yakama
Nation, are all battling
vicious wildfires sweeping
across hundreds of square
miles of the Northwest.
Nobel laureate Robert
Shiller of Yale University
warned that this week’s
market bloodbath may get
even nastier.
"It
could be followed by even
bigger and bigger moves," he
told CNBC. "I have a general
bias towards down because
the market is overpriced,
but these things unfold over
years."
August 21, 2015
There can be no question
that the epic story of our
time is our struggle to
endure against the
threatening demons of our
own creation. In that story,
China must be the sleeping
giant. As the story opens,
the giant awakens, searching
for a way to improve the
livelihood of his people,
inadvertently trampling on a
number of the Earth’s
delicate structures in doing
so. Realizing this, a second
awakening occurs. But can
the giant change direction
quickly enough, before too
much harm is done?
On Wednesday, Saint Paul,
Minnesota took a big step
forward and joined a growing
list of metropolitan areas
that have renamed Columbus
Day to “Indigenous Peoples
Day.”
The Saint Paul City
Council passed a unanimous
resolution to “declare the
second day in October as
Indigenous Peoples Day in
the City of Saint Paul;
encouraging other
institutions to recognize
the Day; and reaffirming the
City’s commitment to promote
the well-being and growth of
Saint Paul’s American Indian
and Indigenous community.”
High performance
renewable diesel fuel was
introduced to Southern
California drivers this week
by Propel Fuels, based in
Sacramento.
Called Diesel HPR (High
Performance Renewable), the
fuel is a low-carbon,
renewable fuel that meets
petroleum diesel
specifications and can be
used in any diesel engine.
“They’ve launched all-out
economic warfare,” Buttrill
said. “China devalued their
currency, kicking off the
biggest fall in over two
decades. Why would a country
do that to themselves?
Sounds like a mistake,
right? But China makes most
of their money off exports,
so they need a lower
currency value in order to
keep pumping out those
cheap, plastic, ‘Made in
China’ toys our kids have.”
GlobalData says that China's
installed wind capacity will
treble from 115.6 Gigawatts
(GW) in 2014 to an estimated
347.2 GW by 2025, global
growth will begin to level
off towards the end of the
forecast period, with annual
installations peaking at
56.8 GW in 2022, says
research and consulting firm
GlobalData.
The death toll has risen
to 114 after a warehouse
storing hundreds of tons of
toxic chemicals exploded
last Wednesday in the
Chinese port city of
Tianjin, about 90 miles
southeast of Beijing.
Another 700 people are
still hospitalized, 57 of
them in critical condition.
Wang Jiancun, director of
Tianjin Health and Family
Planning Commission, said 77
people have left the
hospital after recovering.
The vibrant,
mega-million-dollar farm to
table movement is under
increasing scrutiny these
days. In San Diego, where
produce is an $1.8 billion
industry and year-round
farmers markets can be found
in almost every neighborhood
(one of the few financial
spinoffs of climate change,
perhaps), the farm-to-table
concept is getting a bad
rep.
Farmers and ranchers say
that the system doesn’t
deliver. Or, more precisely,
the restaurants that have
for years cashed-in on the
concept aren’t paying for
what they get.
An economic impact study
published by POET, one of
the largest producers of
ethanol in the world, is
driving home the point about
the crucial role the biofuel
industry plays in the health
of the economy, the
environment, and the ability
of the U.S. to free itself
of its dependence on foreign
oil.
New research has just been
released indicating Earth is
being pounded with super
charged particles, which
have no problem penetrating
Earth's weakening magnetic
field, and having little
resistance finding their way
to Earth's core.
Exactly one week after the
FBI took possession of
Hillary Clinton's personal
email server, Al Jazeera
America has been told that
the FBI is now treating the
Clinton case as a potential
criminal investigation. Our
sources add that dozens of
federal investigators have
now been assigned to this
investigation.
Ending new fossil fuel
leasing on lands and
offshore areas controlled by
the U.S. government would
keep up to 450 billion tons
of greenhouse gases from
polluting the atmosphere.
That is according to an
analysis by EcoShift on
behalf of the Center for
Biological Diversity and
Friends of the Earth.
More than a quarter million
sockeye salmon returning
from the ocean to spawn are
either dead or dying in the
Columbia… wiping out at
least half of this year’s
returning population…
[NOAA’s Ritchie Graves] says
up to 80 percent of
the population could
ultimately perish.
Oftentimes, when the
federal government unveils a
massive plan to regulate an
industry, the industry
responds with one voice. The
Environmental Protection
Agency's issuance of the
Clean Power Plan wasn't one
of those times.
The electric-power
industry is just starting to
come to grips with the
1,560-page plan. But the
initial views expressed by
companies and groups within
the industry are disparate
and not always what they'd
appear to be at first
glance.
German lawmakers
overwhelmingly approved
another bailout for
debt-ridden Greece on
Wednesday, removing the last
major obstacle for Athens to
receive an emergency
infusion of funds to avoid
an imminent default.
The Greek government is
now expected to receive an
installment of loans just in
time to repay a debt owed to
the European Central Bank on
Thursday. Missing that
deadline would almost
certainly result in Greece
stumbling into a default and
then a disastrous exit from
the Eurozone, the group of
19 nations that share the
euro currency.
The Justice Department probe
into Hillary Clinton's
private email server has so
far been limited to
investigating whether
classified information was
leaked during her tenure as
secretary of state, but the
inquiry will likely widen as
authorities take a look at
how other former government
officials may have been
affected.
According to NPR,
agents will begin
questioning close associates
of Clinton at the State
Department and beyond.
Greece's Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras has announced
he is resigning and has
called an early election.
Mr Tsipras, who was only
elected in January, said he
had a moral duty to go to
the polls now a third
bailout had been secured
with European creditors.
The election date is yet
to be set but earlier
reports suggested 20
September.
Greece was receiving the
first 13 billion-euro ($14.5
billion) payment of its new
bailout Thursday, with 12
billion euros earmarked for
repaying debts and the
remainder for settling
arrears to public sector
suppliers.
Athens was using the
funds to repay a 3.2
billion euro ($3.5
billion) debt
installment due Thursday
to the European Central
Bank — an amount it
could not have afforded
to repay without the
bailout from 18 other
European nations that
share the euro currency
with Greece.
Nearly 2 million people
throughout the Great Plains
and California live above
aquifer sites contaminated
with natural uranium that is
mobilized by
human-contributed nitrate,
according to a study from
the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln....
The study reports that 78
percent of the
uranium-contaminated sites
were linked to the presence
of nitrate, a common
groundwater contaminant that
originates mainly from
chemical fertilizers and
animal waste. Nitrate
mobilizes naturally
occurring uranium through a
series of bacterial and
chemical reactions that
oxidize the radioactive
mineral, making it soluble
in groundwater.
Hillary Clinton violated
federal policy by storing
her work emails on a private
server during her tenure as
secretary of state, a
federal judge said Thursday.
U.S. District Judge
Emmet Sullivan said
Clinton's use of a private
server had made it more
difficult for the State
Department to comply with a
Freedom of Information Act
request filed by the
conservative watchdog group
Judicial Watch,
Politico reported.
Egypt's sweeping new
counterterrorism law erodes
basic rights and defines
terrorism so broadly that it
could encompass civil
disobedience and be used to
stifle dissent, Human Rights
Watch said Wednesday in a
scathing report.
The New York-based group
says the law, passed by
President Abdel-Fattah
el-Sissi last weekend, gives
prosecutors greater power to
detain suspects without
judicial review and order
wide-ranging and potentially
indefinite surveillance of
terror suspects without a
court order.
In the past five years,
rooftop solar has revealed
the limitations of the
archaic electric utility
business model, as customers
have found generating their
own power more cost
effective than taking 100%
of their energy from the
incumbent monopoly. For
years, utilities have fought
back by trying to make
competition less cost
effective, at a substantial
cost to their image (and
ratepayer’s own money).
Now they want a piece of
the action.
nternational sanctions
banning the arms shipments
to Iran notwithstanding,
Russia has said it will go
ahead with its plan to sell
advanced S-300
surface-to-air missiles to
the Islamic republic because
the embargo is Moscow's "no
concern".
The Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) is looking at
the future of methane in the
oil and gas sector, and has
announced plans to regulate
the industry -- but industry
leaders are crying foul.
The EPA's plans are a part
of the Obama
Administration's Climate
Action Plan to cut methane
emissions from the oil and
gas sector by 40 to 45
percent from 2012 levels by
2025. Their new plans is
meant to reduce emissions of
greenhouse gases (GHG) and
volatile organic compounds
(VOC) from the oil and
natural gas industry.
Data from this year’s survey
indicate that the dead zone
in the Gulf of Mexico is
above average in size,
likely because of heavy
rains in June.
The long shot
Republican-backed House
lawsuit that alleged
President Barack Obama has
abused his executive power
is actually causing some
problems for the president,
a new report claims.
According to the Los
Angeles Times, a federal
judge is expected to soon
decide whether or not to
dismiss the suit, but due to
an amended complaint and a
recent Supreme Court ruling,
the ball might be in the
Republicans’ court. The
report said the lawsuit is
“turning into a real
problem” for the president.
Millions of plastic balls
have been unleashed into the
Los Angeles Reservoir. It
sounds like an epic
pollution disaster, but it’s
on purpose, and the city
itself is responsible for
putting them there.
Los Angeles is the first
city to use 4-inch
polyethylene balls as a
water quality tool. The
balls “help prevent
carcinogen contamination and
help control the area’s
concerning drought – not to
mention that they look
super-entertaining when
unleashed into the waters,”
Inhabitat reported
A study in the February
issue of the journal
Obesity found that
regular cannabis users had a
lower body mass index, lower
fat percentages, and lower
fasting insulin — adding to
the growing body of research
debunking the ‘fat,
munchie-chomping stoner’
stereotype.
Although the Grand Canyon
segment of the Colorado
River features one of the
most remote ecosystems in
the United States, it is not
immune to exposure from
toxic chemicals such as
mercury according to newly
published research in Environmental
Toxicology and Chemistry.
The inhibition in activity
of an enzyme called PDE4B,
which is also found in
humans, has been found to
boost intelligence in mice.
This is the second
"critical" out-of-band patch
issued in as many months...
The zero-day flaw
(classified as
CVE-2015-2502) works by
exploiting a flaw in how
Internet Explorer handles
objects in memory. If
successfully exploited, an
attacker could "gain the
same user rights as the
current user," the advisory
said. Those running
administrator accounts are
particularly at risk, it
said.
As school kids prepare
for those first school bells
next week, researchers are
warning parents about a pest
that may await them: super
lice.
Scientists who study lice
populations across the
country have reported that
the bugs found in at least
25 states — including
Illinois — have developed
into creatures quite
resistant to common
over-the-counter treatments.
The researchers reported
those findings to the
American Chemical Society
this week.
Begaye and a team of
Navajo officials, including
experts from the tribe’s
environmental protection
agency, were visiting Gold
King Mine, one of at least
500,000 abandoned mines
nationwide. The mine, near
Silverton, had been inactive
since about 1920. There, on
August 5, an EPA crew was
attempting to pump
contaminated liquid out of
the abandoned mine by
inserting a pipe into debris
that blocked the entrance...
By Saturday afternoon
that plume had reached the
Navajo Nation, a sprawling,
27,000-square-mile
reservation that spans
portions of three states.
Roughly 215 miles of the San
Juan River flows across
Navajo land, Begaye said,
and thousands of residents
will feel the impact of the
spill.
More than 1.4 million
households and businesses
now have rooftop solar, a
large-scale Renewable Energy
Target is firmly legislated
and declining energy storage
costs are set to see storage
play an increased role in
the short to medium term.
Despite rumors, no asteroid
threatens Earth. All known
Potentially Hazardous
Asteroids have less than a
0.01% chance of hitting
Earth in the next 100 years,
says NASA.
North Korean leader Kim Jong
Un has ordered front-line
military units to enter "a
wartime state" after an
exchange of fire with South
Korea, his country's
state-run Korean Central
News Agency reported Friday.
The announcement, employing
bellicose language typical
of North Korea, adds to the
edgy situation in the
region. The two sides traded
artillery fire over their
heavily fortified border on
Thursday afternoon,
according to the South
Korean Defense Ministry. Two
shells came from the North
Korean side, the ministry
said, and South Korea fired
dozens of shells in
response. No casualties were
reported from the exchange
of fire.
Japanese power utility
Kyushu Electric's crude and
fuel oil demand for thermal
power generation is expected
to drop by 30% from an
earlier estimate to around
350,000 kiloliters, or
24,000 b/d, over
July-September, following
the recent restart of its
890 MW No. 1 Sendai nuclear
reactor, a source familiar
with the matter said
Thursday.
The international
watchdog agency charged with
monitoring nuclear activity
is pushing back against a
report that it would let
Iran use its own inspectors
to report on one particular
site.
"I am disturbed by
statements suggesting that
the IAEA has given
responsibility for nuclear
inspections to Iran," Yukiya
Amano, director general of
the U.N.'s International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),
said in a statement. "Such
statements misrepresent the
way in which we will
undertake this important
verification work."
New standards to reduce
emissions of the greenhouse
gas methane, volatile
organic compounds and air
toxics from the oil and gas
industry were issued by the
U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency on
Tuesday.
The proposal is a part of
the administration’s
strategy under President
Barack Obama’s Climate
Action Plan to cut methane
emissions from the oil and
gas sector by 40 to 45
percent from 2012 levels by
2025.
According to Google, it
already has access to all
the information needed to
create detailed maps of your
rooftop's candidacy for
solar harvesting. It
combines Google Maps'
extensive database of aerial
images with 3D modeling of
the roof, taking into
account shade offered by
nearby objects likes trees,
possible sun positions and
cloud and temperature
patterns in the area.
Solar activity has been at
low levels for the past 24
hours. Solar activity
is expected to be low with a
slight chance for an M-class
flare on days one, two, and
three (21 Aug, 22 Aug, 23
Aug). The geomagnetic
field is expected to be at
quiet to active levels on
days one and two (21 Aug, 22
Aug) and unsettled to minor
storm levels on day three
(23 Aug).
The Susquehanna River Basin
Commission (SRBC) conducted
a study on the effects of
shale and other effects from
the Marcellus shale region
on the water quality in the
area -- and the results are
surprising...
SRBC's report tests 58
different watersheds, and
found that from 2010 to
2013, data collected did not
find any changes in water
quality, and the water
chemistry at the monitoring
stations indicates good
water quality. The tests
also looked at aquatic
insect monitoring, and found
they were not affected by
the density of upstream
natural gas wells or pads.
The use of solar energy in
the U.S. is growing, but
panels on rooftops are still
a rare sight. They cost
thousands of dollars, and
homeowners don’t recoup
costs for years even in the
sunniest or best-subsidized
locales for at least a few
years. But scientists may
have a solution. They report
today the development of a
unique, “green” antenna that
could potentially double the
efficiencies of certain
kinds of solar cells and
make them more affordable.
Carbon nanofibers hold
tremendous potential. They
may one day be put to use in
tougher bulletproof vests,
artificial muscles or
rebuilding damaged hearts,
just to name a few
possibilities. But could the
greatest gift these little
wonders offer humanity be
not what they bring into the
world but what they take out
of it? Scientists have
developed a technique that
could pull the mounting
carbon dioxide in our
atmosphere and transform it
into carbon nanofibers,
resulting in raw materials
for use in anything from
sports gear to commercial
airliners.
Surprise
“One of the greatest
discoveries a man makes, one
of his great surprises, is
to find he can do what he
was afraid he couldn't do.”
― Henry Ford
Every page of the book is
made up of two filters, each
one of which in turn being
capable of cleaning up to 26
US gallons (100 liters) of
water – one book should
reportedly be able to handle
one person’s water needs for
four years.
Official data from
Fukushima show that nearly
2,000 people died from the
effects of evacuations
necessary to avoid high
radiation exposures from the
disaster.
The uprooting to
unfamiliar areas, cutting of
family ties, loss of social
support networks,
disruption, exhaustion, poor
physical conditions and
disorientation can and do
result in many people, in
particular older people,
dying.
Tucson Electric Power Co.
must wait for its next full
rate case to request changes
that would cut savings for
customers with rooftop solar
arrays...
TEP's proposal to cut the
excess-energy credits it
gives rooftop solar
customers was formally
withdrawn by TEP with the
commission's approval, after
the agency's staff and solar
advocates opposed the move.
The net-metering issue
will now be heard in a full
rate case TEP plans to file
by year's end.
Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan appeared a
shadow of his former self
after his party suffered
major losses in the June
election - embattled and no
longer in control of his
political fate. His
once-dominant movement was
forced into the humiliating
position of seeking a
coalition with opposition
parties intent on reining
him in.
Two
months later, the shrewd
politician seems to be back
in the saddle. The
coalition-building he
reportedly opposed has
collapsed, and Turkey is now
edging closer toward the new
election he has been angling
for.
A University of Arizona
professor has invented a
theoretically infinite pipe
that promises to bring down
the costs of laying
pipelines while reducing
environmental damage.
Developed by Mo Ehsani,
Professor Emeritus of Civil
Engineering at the
University of Arizona, the
new pipe, called
InfinitiPipe, is of a
lightweight plastic
aerospace honeycomb under
layers of resin-saturated
carbon fiber fabric put
together by a new
fabricating process that
allows pipes to be built in
indefinite lengths on site.
U.S. crude
oil slumped over 4 percent
on Wednesday to hit a
6-1/2-year low and almost
break below $40 per barrel,
as a huge unexpected
stockpile build in the
United States reinforced
concerns about a growing
global oil glut.
U.S. crude
inventories rose 2.6 million
barrels last week to 456.21
million barrels, the
government's Energy
Information Administration
said.
Scientists have finally
figured out how the key gene
tied to obesity makes people
fat, a major discovery that
could open the door to an
entirely new approach to the
problem beyond diet and
exercise....
Now experiments reveal that
a faulty version of the gene
causes energy from food to
be stored as fat rather than
burned. Genetic tinkering in
mice and on human cells in
the lab suggests this can be
reversed, giving hope that a
drug or other treatment
might be developed to do the
same in people.
Despite her repeated
insistence that she never
sent or received any email
marked “classified” on her
private server, Hillary
Clinton would have signed a
nondisclosure agreement as
secretary of state
specifying that she
understood what information
is classified, regardless of
whether it is “marked or
unmarked,” national security
experts told TheBlaze.
Australian and Chinese
scientists have made
significant progress in
determining what causes soil
acidification – a discovery
that could assist in turning
back the clock on degraded
croplands.
As hackers continue to
rampage through
closely-guarded information
systems and databases with
monotonous regularity, there
is a tempting new target for
cyber-attacks: the world's
nuclear facilities.
A warning has already
been sounded by the
International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), which has
urged the world community to
intensify efforts to protect
nuclear facilities from
possible attacks.
We need to drain the
swamp and stop developing
technologies that are
vulnerable to catastrophic
attacks. - Randy Rydell
August 18, 2015
We live in a world of
duality, as it is intended
to be. This means that there
is good and bad as well as
right and wrong. This
yin-yang theory exists
within and without. The
reason why the earth plane
is a great school for a
soul’s expansion is this
very reason. If there was no
duality, there would be no
pain, no joy, no variety and
no growth.
Koko the gorilla is best
known for a lifelong study
to teach her a silent form
of communication, American
Sign Language. But some of
the simple sounds she has
learned may change the
perception that humans are
the only primates with the
capacity for speech.
The general consensus among
those monitoring the
situation is that though
there’s no way to predict
whether the spill eventually
will have dire consequences
for the greater Colorado
River basin ecosystem (which
includes the Grand Canyon),
the effects have been
minimal so far.
Former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton's decision
to use a private email
server, let alone deleting
at least half of the
communications on it, was
"extraordinary," Washington
Post associate editor Bob
Woodward said Monday, and
the omissions remind him of
the decisions made by
President Richard Nixon back
in the 1970s.
If you are still a resident
of the increasingly
authoritarian police state
of California, here is a
news flash for you: Your
Democratic masters don’t
much care for your civil
liberties, freedoms and
rights, and in the coming
months and years they are
going to try to eliminate as
many of them from you as
possible.
Since 2005, China’s
currency, the renminbi, has
had a de facto soft peg to
the U.S. dollar (USD). While
its central bank, the
People’s Bank of China,
never explicitly stated how
it determines the official
daily exchange rate, also
known as “fixing,” it was
clear that it was largely
based on the USD. The
intra-day band around which
the RMB was allowed to float
against this fixing had
widened from +/- 0.5% to +/-
2% in March of this year. On
August 11, the central bank
announced that the fixing,
going forward, would be
based on the close on the
prior day. With one stroke
of the pen, the driver of
the renminbi fundamentally
changed. Its compass changed
from that of the U.S. dollar
to a more market-driven
equilibrium rate.
The recent rout in the
Chinese stock market – and
the Chinese authorities’
increasingly panicky
responses to it that
temporarily halted the
decline – may not seem all
that important to some
observers. Indeed, there are
analysts who have said that
this is just the typical
behaviour of a still
immature stock market that
is still “froth” in the
wider scheme of things, and
not so significant for real
economic processes in China.
After all, the Chinese
economy is still much more
state-controlled than most,
the main banks are still
state-owned and stock market
capitalization relative to
GDP is still small compared
to most western countries,
with less than 15 per cent
of household savings
invested in stocks. Most of
all, there is the perception
that a state sitting on
around nearly $4 trillion in
foreign exchange reserves
should be rich enough to
handle any such exigency
without feeling the pain or
letting others feel it.
Code talkers in the
United States have been
storied, honored and lauded
for their military
contributions. But much less
known, and barely recognized
for their service by the
Canadian government, were
Cree code talkers from
Canada who assisted the
Allies in World War II.
Political analyst Dick
Morris is convinced Hillary
Clinton's email scandal will
lead to her being indicted
and forced out of the race
for president.
China currency devaluation
signals endgame leaving
equity markets free to
collapse under the weight of
impossible expectations
When the banking crisis
crippled global markets
seven years ago, central
bankers stepped in as
lenders of last resort.
Profligate private-sector
loans were moved on to the
public-sector balance sheet
and vast money-printing gave
the global economy room to
heal.
A U.S. government weather
forecaster on Thursday
raised the likelihood that
El Nino conditions would
last into the Northern
Hemisphere's early spring to
85 percent, boosting the
probability that
drought-stricken California
could see increased rains.
The contamination has
spread over 100 miles
downriver, hitting New
Mexico. The agency “now
estimates 3 million gallons
of mine waste has leaked,
three times the amount
previously disclosed,”
The Washington Post
reported.
“Testing by the EPA — an
agency typically in the
position of responding to
toxic disasters, not causing
them — found that the
wastewater spill caused
levels of arsenic, lead and
other metals to spike in the
Animas River,” The
New York Times
-
Industrial agriculture
threatens the very
foundation of future
food production by
damaging the soil and
destroying biodiversity
-
Instead of solving world
hunger, the current
system is destroying
farms, bankrupting
farmers, and posing
grave risks for
pollinators
-
Pesticide exposure has
been linked to serious
health effects,
including birth defects,
Alzheimer’s disease, and
cancer
Scientists have created a
new digital map of Earth’s
seafloor geology.
The event though was met by
a protest regarding the
federal government’s
response to a toxic spill
into rivers considered a
lifeline for reservation and
halted use of water for
residential and agricultural
use.
Beck said he understands
that Trump “is reflective of
what people are feeling”
when it comes to issues like
securing the border and
negotiating with China.
“I understand and like
the fact that he just says
what he is thinking. No
politically correct bs; no
focus groups and he does it
with out apologizing,” he
wrote.
-
Your coffee pot should
be washed daily with
soap and water, and run
through regularly with
vinegar to remove mold
and mineral build-up
-
Your mattress should be
vacuumed once every four
months to remove crumbs,
dirt, and dust
-
You should clean out the
inside of your
dishwasher using vinegar
and baking soda once
every six months
Chinese stock markets are
in complete collapse right
now, with the main Shanghai
Composite index losing 30%
of its value in just the
past three weeks. The
turmoil is now starting to
spread to other Asian
markets and global
commodities markets.
The reason behind the
crash is this: Millions of
ordinary Chinese citizens
poured borrowed cash into
shares, which inflated
prices to unsustainable
levels.
When prices began to dip,
these investors were forcing
to sell shares to pay back
the borrowed money and cover
losses. That vicious circle
of selling is creating
"panic" and pushing down
price
The two emails from Hillary
Clinton’s private system
identified as containing
“top secret” information by
the inspector general of the
intelligence community hold
information about drones.
The Associated Press
reported that one message
contains a conversation
about an article regarding a
CIA drone operation
targeting terrorists in
Pakistan and other locations
while another could
improperly refer to highly
classified material.
-
Essential oils carry
biologically active
volatile compounds in a
highly concentrated form
that can provide
therapeutic benefits in
very small amounts
-
Black pepper, fennel,
and grapefruit oil
stimulate sympathetic
nervous system activity
whereas rose and
patchouli oil calm it
-
An oral lavender oil
preparation was found to
be as effective as the
drug Lorazepam for the
treatment of generalized
anxiety disorder.
Jasmine oil can also
uplift mood and help
ameliorate depression
Human Meat Found In
McDonald’s Meat Factory.
McDonald’s history is not a
good one, and fast food
restaurants already are
known to have a lot of
mystery ingredients, but
this tops the list.
Previously we brought you a
report that
detailed disturbing audio
admissions by a man that
claimed McDonald’s uses
human meat as a filler in
their 100% beef hamburgers
and the fact that McDonald’s
has been accused of using
worm meat fillers.
If former Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton had
top secret information on
her private email server,
there is no shortage of
precedent under the current
administration indicating
what could happen.
The most common frame of
reference — the case of
former CIA Director David
Petraeus — is far from the
only example of the Obama
administration prosecuting
government officials —
typically lower and midlevel
government officials — for
mishandling classified
information under provisions
of the Espionage Act, which
can carry sentences of up to
10 years imprisonment for
the most serious offenses,
though generally involve
fines.
-
Green tea contains
numerous bioactive
compounds with medicinal
properties
-
Green tea shows benefits
for your heart health,
brain function,
metabolism, dental
health, longevity, and
more
-
The beneficial flavonoid
content may be
significantly lower in
pre-made bottled tea
compared to a pot you
freshly brew yourself
The September vote on the
Iran nuclear deal is billed
as a titanic standoff
between President Barack
Obama and Congress. Yet even
if lawmakers reject the
agreement, it's not game
over for the White House.
A congressional vote of
disapproval would not
prevent Obama from acting on
his own to start putting the
accord in place. While he
probably would take some
heavy criticism, this course
would let him add the
foreign policy breakthrough
to his second-term list of
accomplishments.
The U.S. Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) said Monday a
hacking attack into one of
its computer databases
revealed in May was much
more extensive than
previously thought, with
nearly three times as many
taxpayers hit by data theft.
The IRS said in late May
the tax return information
of about 114,000 U.S.
taxpayers had been illegally
accessed by cyber criminals
over the preceding four
months, with another 111,000
unsuccessful attempts made.
Use of glyphosate, the
active ingredient in
Roundup, has ballooned in
recent years and Moms Across
America was concerned about
a lack of data about its
presence in the human body.
From 1987 to 2012, U.S.
farms went from using less
than 11 million pounds a
year to nearly 300 million
pounds, thanks largely to
the rapid adoption of corn
and soybeans genetically
engineered to withstand the
chemical. So, said
Honeycutt, “We citizens had
to do something that
government and manufacturers
were not doing.”
Japan warned on Saturday
that a volcano 50 km (31
miles) from a just-restarted
nuclear reactor is showing
signs of increased activity,
and said nearby residents
should prepare to evacuate.
Sakurajima, a mountain on
the southern island of
Kyushu, is one of Japan's
most active volcanoes and
erupts almost constantly.
But a larger than usual
eruption could be in the
offing, an official at the
Japan Meteorological Agency
said.
It's been a long time
coming, but Pacific Gas and
Electric Company (PG&E) is
finally paying (financially,
that is) -- for the role it
played in the 2010 natural
gas pipeline explosion in
San Bruno, California.
The $300 million fine was
levied by the California
Public Utilities Commission
(CPUC) on April 9 -- a move
that PG&E chose to not to
appeal.
As hearings wound down
last week on whether the
South Dakota Public Utility
Commission (PUC) should
re-certify the application
by TransCanada to run the
Keystone XL pipeline through
the state, Yankton Sioux
Tribal attorneys
cross-examined the company’s
witness, Rick Perkins, on
how dangers posed by camps
of temporary workers near
the Yankton Sioux
Reservation would be
managed.
California lawmakers from
both parties are calling for
more stringent oversight of
a clean jobs initiative
after an Associated Press
report found that a fraction
of the promised jobs have
been created.
The report also found that
the state has no
comprehensive list to show
much work has been done or
energy saved, three years
after voters approved a
ballot measure to raise
taxes on corporations and
generate clean-energy jobs.
The Navy announced Thursday
that it will buy power from
a sprawling solar farm in
the Arizona desert to help
power 14 military
installations in California
, in the largest renewable
energy purchase by the U.S.
government to date.
Experts agree it was
sluggish domestic economic
growth that led Chinese
officials to devalue their
currency this week—the yuan
has dropped 3 percent,
hitting a four-year low.
China's government
reported that its GDP
expanded 7 percent in the
second quarter, conveniently
reaching the official
target. But most economists
believe the true figure is
much lower—perhaps 3 to 4
percent.
North
Korea has threatened to
"retaliate against the US
with tremendous muscle" if
it doesn't cancel
multinational military
exercises scheduled to begin
Monday and conclude on
August 28th.
The
United States and other
powers conducts the drills
with South Korea every year
"to enhance ... readiness,
protect the region and
maintain stability on the
Korean peninsula," according
to a statement from the
Korea-US Combined Forces
Command.
Nuclear is growing, with the
June 2015 capacity factor
the highest it has been in
six years.
In June, U.S. nuclear plants
produced electricity with an
average estimated capacity
factor of 96.4 percent --
with 90 of 99 facilities
operating at 90 percent or
better, and 62 operated at
100 percent or higher.
The Obama administration
kept secret an FDA proposal
to curtail the use of
mercury in dental fillings,
and then quietly quashed it.
In 2011, top officials in
the FDA approved a proposal
that directed dentists not
to use mercury fillings to
treat cavities in pregnant
women, nursing mothers,
children under age 6, and
anyone with mercury
allergies, kidney disease,
or neurological problems.
It is increasingly hard to
find words which accurately
describe the willful
blindness of the so-called
“scientific” community.
Our oceans are dying by the
day, especially along the
North American West
Coast. Official agencies
pretend not to understand
what is unfolding in our
seas. But this is a lie. It
is the assigned task of
agency “experts” and
mainstream media to downplay
these most dire
issues, in order to keep the
public calm or confused. I
know many agency employees
and with few exceptions,
this is the case.
The Pentagon plans to
sharply expand the number of
U.S. drone flights over the
next four years, giving
military commanders access
to more intelligence and
greater firepower to keep up
with a sprouting number of
global hot spots, a senior
defense official said.
Indianapolis Power &
Light Co. has been dealing
with a full-blown PR crisis
over a proposed rate hike
for months now, and Lisa
Randall wasn't holding back.
"A pay hike for customers
who have lost power 4 out of
the last 8 days? Hell no!
What about payback for lost
food in fridge and freezer?
Focus on cutbacks to (find)
funds to repair what needs
fixed. Establish good
service for a year or two
then ask for a rate hike.
Until then, HELL NO!!!!!"
Where profits alone
count, there can be no
thinking about the rhythms
of nature, its phases of
decay and regeneration, or
the complexity of ecosystems
which may be gravely upset
by human intervention…. It
is not enough to balance, in
the medium term, the
protection of nature with
financial gain, or the
preservation of the
environment with progress.
Halfway measures simply
delay the inevitable
disaster. - Pope
Francis
Solar activity has been at
very low levels for the past
24 hours. Solar
Activity Forecast: Solar
activity is expected to be
very low with a chance for a
C-class flares on days one,
two, and three (18 Aug,
19 Aug, 20 Aug). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at unsettled
to minor storm levels on day
one (18 Aug), unsettled to
active levels on day two (19
Aug) and quiet levels on day
three (20 Aug).
Chinese soldiers and
rescue workers in gas masks
and hazard suits searched
for toxic materials in
China's port of Tianjin on
Sunday as Premier Li Keqiang
arrived to offer
condolences, days after
explosions flattened part of
a national development zone.
The goal is to clear the
chemicals before any rain
falls, which could create
further toxic gas.
Work by a University of
Wyoming professor and a
recent UW Ph.D. graduate has
provided a more complete
picture of the role of
rivers and streams in the
global carbon cycle.
A letter to the editor of
The Silverton Standard
and The Miner by a
retired geologist predicted
the disastrous toxic spill
in Colorado at the hands of
the Environmental Protection
Agency exactly one week
prior to the accident.
Taking it one step further,
the author added that they
will do this on purpose in
order to secure more
funding.
A stretch of river fouled
by toxic waste from an
abandoned gold mine in
southwestern Colorado last
week was reopened to
kayaking and rafting on
Friday while water from
river-fed irrigation canals
was deemed safe for crops
and livestock.
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency also said
it was safe for homes and
farms to resume drawing
supplies of drinking water
from private wells along the
river farther downstream in
New Mexico.
Extreme weather such as
intense storms, droughts and
heatwaves will cause more
frequent and severe food
shortages as the global
climate and food supply
systems change, British and
American experts warned on
Friday.
The pressure on the
world's food supplies is so
great, and the increase in
extreme weather events so
rapid, they said, that food
shortages on a scale likely
to occur once a century
under past conditions, may
in future hit as often as
once every 30 years.
Oil and gas giant Shell has
been granted the final
permit it needs to begin
drilling below the ocean
floor for oil in the Arctic.
Shell began work last
month, but was allowed to
drill just the top sections
of two wells, off the coast
of Alaska.
Environmental campaigners
are against the drilling
which they say could harm
the region.
“Almost everybody these days
has a tattoo, and nobody is
talking about the side
effects of ink deposits,”
said senior author Dr.
Andreas Luch of the German
Federal Institute for Risk
Assessment in Berlin.
“There is no proof that
these ink ingredients are
safe, being injected into
the body,” Luch told Reuters
Health.
Tucson Electric Power (TEP)
is ending the use of coal at
its largest local power
plant, while others in the
region are fighting an
expensive battle to keep
coal alive.
-
Mercury-Free Dentistry
Week is an initiative to
encourage consumers to
reject amalgam, which is
50 percent mercury. We
encourage you to choose
mercury-free dentists,
thus using economic
clout to push all
dentists to abandon
amalgam.
-
Consumers for Dental
Choice leads the charge
against mercury fillings
in the United States and
around the world. This
non-profit group is
breaking barriers so all
consumers will have
access to mercury-free
dentistry
-
Amalgam continues
because dentists, aided
and abetted by the U.S.
Food & Drug
Administration (FDA),
refuse to tell them that
amalgam has mercury.
Instead, amalgam is
deceptively sold as
“silver” fillings.
-
Until August 22, 2015,
Dr. Mercola will match
all donations to
Consumers for Dental
Choice up to $100,000.
Every dollar you give
will be doubled!
The US oil rig count rose
again last week, up two to
672, and continued a trend
that began at the end of May
when the count hit a 2015
low of 628, according to
Baker Hughes.
The
trend was not expected to
last, however, as analysts
expected E&P companies to
begin tapering drilling
towards the end of the year
as their capex budgets run
out and they wring more
production from fewer rigs.
I was listening to a web
presentation recently on the
value of water and heard
this statement: "Most
Americans don't understand
the true value of water." I
was intrigued by the
simplicity of the statement
and bothered that it didn't
accurately capture the
sentiment, thinking, or
collective feelings of a
populace, or the fact that
it is hard to accurately
assess water's true worth.
Wheat and grain-based foods
are all around us. But a
growing number of people are
switching to wheat-free
diets as increasing number
of studies show that eating
wheat increases the
potential for a number of
health problems. The reason
it has become so toxic lies
with the manner in which
wheat is grown and harvested
by conventional wheat
farmers in some countries.
Common harvest protocol in
the United States is to
drench the wheat fields with
Roundup (herbicide) for an
earlier, easier and bigger
harvest.
China’s shock move to
devalue the yuan risks
opening a new front in a
currency war that stretches
from the euro zone to Japan
as nations look to energize
their economies.
“In a weak global
economy, it will take a lot
more than a devaluation to
jump-start Chinese exports,”
said Stephen Roach, a senior
fellow at Yale University
and former Morgan Stanley
non-executive chairman in
Asia.
Styrene-butadiene is the
base for both chewing gum
and race car tires. Rubber
is essentially the thickened
sap of a tropical latex
tree. Chicle is the
thickened sap from another
tropical tree and the
original source of chewing
gum. Now gum is made with
more synthetic sources, but
you’re still chewing on the
same thing.
August 14, 2015
Do you where your apple
juice comes from?
It comes from China. Two
decades ago the United
States had a healthy apple
juice industry, but due to
increases Chinese apple
production over the past two
decades, their apple juice
concentrate has flooded the
US market.
According to F&WW, more than
70 percent of the apple
juice consumed in the United
States now comes from the
People’s Republic of China,
where the government has
acknowledged a problem
enforcing a new food safety
law.
After testing dozens of
samples from three different
cities in America, Dr. Oz
discovered that some of the
nation’s best known brands
of apple juice contain
arsenic.
Toxic water has been
responsible for the death of
hundreds of turtles on the
eastern end of Long Island
this year.
“The turtles washed up
dead [in the spring], a
die-off scientists blame on
waterborne toxins that have
reached unprecedented levels
for reasons that aren't
entirely clear,” CTV News
reported. “The die-off could
signal trouble for fish,
shellfish, and the health of
local bays,” CBS News
reported.
Supporters of Al Gore are
talking among themselves –
and with the former vice
president of Bill Clinton –
about his running for
president in 2016, reports
say.
-
Mounting research
suggests Alzheimer’s
disease is intricately
connected to insulin
resistance; even mild
elevation of blood sugar
is associated with an
elevated risk for
dementia
-
Diabetics have double
the risk of developing
Alzheimer’s disease.
Heart disease also
elevates your risk, as
all three conditions are
rooted in insulin
resistance
-
Three new studies
looking at exercise and
Alzheimer’s show that
not only can exercise
reduce your risk of the
disease, it appears to
be an important part of
treatment as well
The coal ash recycling
industry went into a
tailspin after a major 2008
spill at a TVA plant in
Kingston, Tenn., prompted
the EPA to question whether
coal ash should be treated
as hazardous material. Last
December, however, the EPA
relented, to a point anyway.
As a result, recycling of
coal ash now appears to be
coming back to life.
Huge fireballs
filled the night
sky after a
series of deadly
explosions
ripped through
an industrial
area in the
Chinese port
city of Tianjin.
A warehouse in
the Chinese port city of
Tianjin erupted in a series
of thunderous explosions,
killing at least 50 people,
spewing massive fireballs
and forcing officials to
face uncomfortable questions
about industrial safety
standards and possible toxic
fallout.
Glenn Beck on Tuesday
shared the “top 10 cities”
that he believes will “melt
down when trouble comes.”
“I want to give you the
top 10 or 15 cities that I
think are going to melt
down,” he said on his radio
program. “These are the
cities that you do not want
to live anywhere around as
things get worse and worse.”
Bill Gross says a weakening
Chinese yuan will bring
slower inflation worldwide.
Investors are
reducing bets for the
Federal Reserve to raise
interest rates at its
September meeting as China
struggles to spur growth in
the world’s second-largest
economy. And the nation’s
move to devalue its currency
is also fueling demand for
dollar-denominated assets.
In space travel, the first
step is always the most
expensive, but why blast-off
in a rocket if you can catch
a ride on a space elevator?
Canadian space firm Thoth
Technology has received a US
patent for an elevator to
take spacecraft and
astronauts at least part way
into space. If it's ever
built, the 20 km (12.4 mi)
high Thothx inflatable space
tower holds the promise of
reducing launch costs by 30
percent in terms of fuel,
and may even replace some
classes of satellites.
By combining compounds from
cannabis and vitamin A, a
team of Australian
researchers has uncovered a
promising new approach to
fat-busting medication. The
team's work may pave the way
for obesity treatments with
fewer side effects than
current medications and
negate the need for invasive
surgeries.
China's currency fell
further Wednesday following
a surprise change in its
exchange rate mechanism that
rattled global markets and
threatens to fan trade
tensions with the United
States and Europe.
The central bank said the
yuan's 1.9 percent
devaluation Tuesday against
the U.S. dollar, which was
its biggest one-day fall in
a decade, was due to changes
aimed at making the tightly
controlled currency more
market-oriented. That raised
the prospect of still more
declines, which would help
struggling Chinese exporters
at the expense of foreign
competitors and might shore
up flagging economic growth.
On Wednesday, the yuan
dropped another 1.6 percent.
China's surprise move
Tuesday to devalue its
currency has intensified
concerns about a slowdown in
the world's second-largest
economy, whose growth rate
has reached a six-year low.
It is also fanning tensions
with the United States and
Europe, whose exports could
become comparatively
costlier.
The truth is only toxic to
some. Namely those it
exposes. It sure can knock
just about anyone for a
loop, but it shouldn’t be
discouraging.
I’m seeing somewhat
desperate reactions more and
more lately via comments,
correspondence and internet
postings and it’s a concern
worth addressing. People
really do need to get a
handle on what’s going on
both externally and even
more importantly internally.
..
A life cycle analysis proves
that solar cells are cleaner
than conventional fossil
fuel power generation
It takes power to make
power—even with a solar
grand plan. From the mining
of quartz sand to the
coating with ethylene-vinyl
acetate, manufacturing a
photovoltaic (PV) solar cell
requires energy—most often
derived from the burning of
fossil fuels. But a new
analysis finds that even
accounting for all the
energy and waste involved,
PV power would cut air
pollution—including the
greenhouse gases that cause
climate change—by nearly 90
percent if it replaced
fossil fuels
It’s not just Hillary’s
email practices that are
under serious investigation.
The Inspector General for
the State Department has
confirmed that Hillary’s top
aides are also being
scrutinized for how they
used emails.
“Our review is not just
focused on Secretary
Clinton,” the Inspector
General’s office said. “We
will follow the facts
wherever they lead, to
include former aides and
associates, as appropriate.”
Wastewater plants must
invest in better treatment
technology to prevent
painkillers and cocaine from
entering the water supply,
according to a leading
researcher...
“We need to do a better job
treating our water,” Yargeau
said. “The technologies do
exist, but the issue is
investing money to build
additional treatment centres
and hire the staff to
operate them.”
Amidst near-term uncertainty
about the federal wind
Production Tax Credit (PTC)
and Investment Tax Credit
(ITC), the U.S. Department
of Energy (DOE) has released
two reports that puts the
power of wind in
perspective.
Egypt has backed
Israel in its quest to have
the P5 plus 1 deal with Iran
overturned.
The Egyptian
government, according to a
delegation of the U.S.
Congress that visited Egypt
and held talks with
government officials prior
to arriving in Tel Aviv on
Monday, opposes the deal
struck by the members of the
UN Security Council,
including the United States,
and Germany. The deal
brokered over the past 9
years has been agreed by
Iran and the P5 plus 1 and
according to U.S. President
Barack Obama has been backed
by every country except
Israel. However, according
to the Congressional
delegation Israel has now
been joined by Egypt.
A U.S. government weather
forecaster on Thursday
raised the likelihood that
El Nino conditions would
last into the Northern
Hemisphere's early spring to
85 percent, boosting the
probability that
drought-stricken California
could see increased rains.
The Climate Prediction
Center, a National Weather
Service agency, last month
forecast an 80 percent
chance that conditions would
last through early spring.
The CPC still says there is
a more than 90 percent
chance that El Nino
conditions would last
through the Northern
Hemisphere winter.
The water quality of a
southwestern Colorado river
rendered bright orange by
toxic waste spewed from an
abandoned gold mine one week
ago has returned to
pre-existing levels, the
U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency chief said
on Wednesday.
The statement from EPA
Administrator Gina McCarthy,
whose agency's inspectors
inadvertently triggered the
spill during field work,
came as Colorado health
officials cleared the way
for the city of Durango,
just downstream, to reopen
its drinking water intakes
from the river.
The head of the U.S.
Environmental Protection
agency told the Navajo
Nation president on Thursday
that her agency would work
closely with the Native
American tribe in handling a
toxic waste spill into river
waters from a defunct
Colorado gold mine.
Navajo Nation President
Russell Begaye has pledged
to take legal action against
the EPA, which has taken
responsibility for
inadvertently causing the
spill last week that sent
toxic waste flowing into
rivers in the Four Corners
region where part of the
250,000-member tribe's
reservation is located.
New reports reveal that a
controversial
water-protection rule
written by the EPA had
sparked major questions
within the government before
it was published in May.
The controversial
regulation has the stated
aim of protecting U.S.
waterways and clarifying the
EPA’s authority under the
Clean Water Act. Fiercely
opposed by agricultural
interests and House
Republicans, the update also
prompted concerns within the
government about a potential
negative impact on drinking
water sources, according to
reports.
Hillary Clinton's private
email server was turned over
to the FBI on Wednesday
after news broke that two of
the classified emails found
on the servers were "Top
Secret."
The New York
Times reported that Clinton
instructed aides to give the
FBI the server along with
the thumb drive that
contained copies of the
emails.
The current El Nino,
nicknamed Bruce Lee, is
already the second strongest
on record for this time of
year and could be one of the
most potent weather changers
of the past 65 years,
federal meteorologists say.
But California and other
drought struck areas better
not count on El Nino
rescuing them like in a
Bruce Lee action movie,
experts say.
The Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC)
has approved an effort to
help manage congestion on
the Independent System
Operator - New England
(ISO-NE) grid -- by ruling
on the renewables allowed on
the system.
ISO-NE's request said that
because renewable output is
variable, the integration of
renewable resources in
remote areas of their
transmission system has
caused increased congestion.
Strong winds blowing off
the Greenland Ice Sheet are
eroding soil and vegetation
in the surrounding tundra,
making it less productive
for caribou and other
grazing animals, carbon
storage and nutrient
cycling, a Dartmouth College
study finds.
Arctic soils are a
critical but fragile
ecological resource
threatened by wildfire,
permafrost degradation and
other climate-related
disturbances that are well
studied. But wind-driven
soil erosion has not been
well documented, especially
in western Greenland where
it poses the greatest threat
to soil stability.
How does one confirm that
the universe is slowly
dying? For starters, you use
"as many space and
ground-based telescopes as
we could get our hands on."
That according to Simon
Driver, a principal
investigator with the Galaxy
And Mass Assembly (GAMA)
project. Driver explains
that the group used those
telescopes—including
powerful ones from NASA and
the European Space Agency
and at the Paranal
Observatory in Chile—to
measure the energy generated
by more than 200,000
galaxies.
“Home is where one starts
from” is one explanation,
while another states, “Our
feet may leave home, but not
our hearts.”
Where you call home is
especially important to
Native Americans who have
left the familiarity of
where they grew up among
fellow tribal members and
moved to urban areas. How
they stay connected with
their past and what efforts
their tribes make to stay in
touch is the genesis of a
recent pilot study on young
adult tribal citizens living
off the reservation.
For the first time in a
legal battle that has
stretched over 20 years, a
federal judge on Wednesday
ordered the cancellation of
the Washington Redskins'
trademark registration,
ruling that the team name
may be disparaging to Native
Americans.
AMERICA
HAS A PROUD tradition
of empowering consumers. You
can walk into any grocery
store in the country, pick
up a product from the shelf,
and immediately learn the
calorie count, the amount of
protein per serving, and the
full list of ingredients.
So it’s alarming that
Congress could soon pass a
bill that aims to keep
consumers in the dark when
it comes to foods with
genetically modified
organisms, or GMOs.
"You have to look at the
Chinese currency in the
context of all other
currencies," Faber told
CNBC. He pointed out that
over the last several years
it has appreciated against
the dollar, which in turn
has been appreciating.
"The 2 or 3 percent
devaluation of the yuan
[against the U.S. dollar] is
completely meaningless,"
Faber said. "The Chinese
yuan has appreciated by 80
percent over the past two
years against the yen," he
said.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark
Cuban “would prefer to be a
Republican” — but he says
there’s a “much bigger
problem” than social issues
that will “crush” the party
until they fix it.
Lake pollution is
becoming a major problem in
the state that calls itself
“the land of 10,000 lakes.”
A chemical linked to
X-ray technology is among
the newest contaminants
spotted by a Minnesota state
agency. In a sweeping survey
of contamination in
Minnesota waterways,
researchers “detected two
drugs they hadn't seen
before: Iopamidol, which is
used in X-rays, was present
in 73 percent of the lakes.
About a third of the lakes
contained the diabetes drug
metformin,” Minnesota Public
Radio (MPR) reported.
North Carolina is quicky
becoming a solar leader, and
seven new projects are
adding even more renewable
energy to its grid.
The latest revelations
about top secret information
traversing Hillary Clinton's
private email server have
triggered accusations that
someone in her "inner
circle" likely stripped the
classification markings,
illegally.
The claims come after the
Clinton campaign stuck to
the argument that the
Democratic presidential
candidate, while secretary
of state, never dealt with
emails that were "marked"
classified at the time.
Olympians competing in
Rio de Janeiro next summer
may wind up splashing around
in dirty water.
They will be “swimming
and boating in waters so
contaminated with human
feces that they risk
becoming violently ill and
unable to compete in the
games,” according to an
Associated Press
investigation.
The president of the
low-lying Pacific island
nation of Kiribati called on
Thursday for a global
moratorium on new coal mines
to slow global warming and a
creeping rise in world sea
levels.
The disastrous Animas River
spill that threatens the
water supply in southwestern
Colorado, northwestern New
Mexico and northeastern
Arizona reinforces the value
of harvesting rainwater to
provide distributed sources
of safe water. Ironically,
it is illegal to collect
rainwater in Colorado unless
you have a residential well
permit and you do not have
access to municipal water.
New Mexico and Arizona have
no such restrictions.
Eating highly refined
carbohydrates after
menopause is associated with
increased risk for
depression in women,
according to a new study.
It's part of an
increasing body of evidence
pointing to a close
relationship between diet
and mental health.
Refined foods including
soda, sweets and white rice
cause blood sugar levels to
spike, triggering a hormonal
response to reduce them,
which could lead to mood
changes and fatigue, say the
researchers.
Renewable transactions hit a
significant milestone, and
drove merger and acquisition
(M&A) activity in the North
American power and utilities
industry in the second
quarter of 2015, according
to PwC US.
Specifically, nine of the 10
power and utilities'
transactions with deal
values greater than $50
million were renewable power
deals totaling $2.7 billion,
PwC reported. The remaining
one transaction greater than
$50 million outside of the
renewable space was a
transmission deal worth $281
million.
China rattled global
financial markets Tuesday by
devaluing its currency — an
effort, in part, to revive
economic growth. The yuan's
value declined 1.9 percent,
its biggest one-day drop in
a decade. The move could
help Chinese companies by
making their products less
expensive in global markets.
U.S. stocks plummeted,
partly on fears about a
worsening economic slowdown
in China.
Research shows that the food
you eat can have a profound
effect on your mental
health. So, regardless of
your mental health problems,
the importance of addressing
your diet simply cannot be
overstated.
In a very real sense, you
have two brains — one in
your head, and one in your
gut. Both are created from
the same tissue during fetal
development, and they’re
connected via your vagus
nerve, the tenth cranial
nerve that runs from your
brain stem to your abdomen.
Sex does matter: key
molecular process in brain
is different in males and
females
Male and female brains
operate differently at a
molecular level, a
Northwestern University
research team reports in a
new study of a brain region
involved in learning and
memory, responses to stress
and epilepsy.
Wind production is dropping
across the west coast, but
it's not for a lack of
trying by the industry. Wind
speeds have been slowing
down in the region, leading
to the reduced generation.
U.S. retail sales
rebounded in July as
households boosted purchases
of automobiles and a range
of other goods, suggesting
solid momentum in the
economy early in the third
quarter.
The upbeat report from
the Commerce Department
Thursday should strengthen
expectations of a Federal
Reserve interest rate hike
as early as next month.
Although another report
showed a rise in new
applications for
unemployment benefits last
week, the trend pointed
firmly to a tightening jobs
market.
Psychedelic mushrooms
already have a reputation
for helping people open
their minds and broaden
their perspective on the
world. They have shown an
ability to combat mental
disorders like depression
and anxiety. Now, research
is showing that the magic
mushrooms can actually help
physically rebuild a damaged
brain.
"Many middle-aged and older
men take testosterone
because they feel it will
improve their sex life, but
the study showed that men
who had low-normal or
slightly low levels did not
show any improvement."
Testosterone therapy has
become big business in the
United States, as baby
boomers seek ways to counter
the effects of aging, Bhasin
said.
Sales of
testosterone amounted to
around $20 million a year in
the early 1990s, but by 2012
it had grown into a $2
billion industry, he said.
The federal Clean Power Plan
(CPP), which targets the
carbon emissions of fossil
fuel-producing power plants,
will have a negative impact
on the United States' coal
industry, with the potential
loss of up to 60 gigawatts
(GW) of coal power capacity
by 2020, according to
research and consulting firm
GlobalData.
Mainstream Spirituality
teaches us to be content
with the way things are. I
agree; to be awesomely okay
with the moment brings with
it not only the wholeness of
surrender, but also a
tremendous sense of
well-being and aliveness.
But if you then somehow
curtail the natural arising
of motivational soul, you
limit the potential of all
that you can be. Such denial
can lead to subconscious
frustration and sense of
limitation.
We must
allow the soul to
breakthrough and break free
– to fully express and be
alive to the bounteous
wonders of the moment. Those
waiting for ‘it’ to
arrive tomorrow may find
that ‘it’ never
comes at all…
A record-breaking algal
bloom continues to spread
across the North Pacific
from as far north as the
Aleutian Islands to as far
south as southern
California.
At the same time, this
year’s Gulf of Mexico dead
zone – an area of low to no
oxygen that can kill fish
and marine life – is above
average in size and larger
than forecast by government
scientists in June.
A
report concludes that blooms
of toxic cyanobacteria, or
blue-green algae, are a
poorly monitored and
underappreciated risk to
recreational and drinking
water quality in the United
States, and may increasingly
pose a global health threat.
Several
factors are contributing to
the concern. Temperatures
and carbon dioxide levels
have risen, many rivers have
been dammed worldwide, and
wastewater nutrients or
agricultural fertilizers in
various situations can cause
problems in rivers, lakes
and reservoirs.
The Navajo Nation,
Colorado and New Mexico
declared disaster
emergencies on August 10 as
the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
revealed that the spill its
workers had triggered last
week was not one million
gallons of mining
wastewater, but three
million.
Environmental health
experts said the effects
could play out for years,
and one called the situation
"a real mess," CNN
reported.
Truth...
“If you would be a real
seeker after truth, it is
necessary that at least once
in your life you doubt, as
far as possible, all
things.” ― Rene Descartes
Tidal power is still very
much a mystery to many, but
the UK is betting on the
technology as an endless
source of industry -- as
long as they can get it
going.
The United Church of Canada
, the country's largest
Protestant denomination, has
voted to sell its fossil
fuel assets and commit
financially to funding an
economy based on renewable
energy...
The Church of England voted
to sell off its coal and
oilsands assets last summer,
and the World Council of
Churches has also committed
to cutting its fossil fuel
holdings.
Rural Energy for America
Program (REAP) project
funding will have nationwide
impacts that are already
being felt, according to
Agriculture Secretary Tom
Vilsack, referring to $63
million in U.S. Department
of Agriculture (USDA) loans
and grants for 264 renewable
energy and energy-efficiency
projects.
Faced with the prospect of a
Canadian power company
burying nuclear waste within
a mile of Lake Huron,
Michigan's U.S. senators
today announced legislation
which would attempt to force
the State Department to
negotiate a delay with the
Canadian government
The top official at one of
the Powder River Basin's
producers would like to see
the federal government
reallocate subsidies from
wind and solar projects to
new technologies that would
make coal mining cleaner and
reduce climate change, he
said Thursday at a federal
listening session.
The U.S. wind fleet is
second largest in the world
and meets 4.9 percent of
U.S. end-use electricity
demand in an average year.
In total, 4,854 MW of new
wind energy capacity were
installed in the United
States in 2014. DOE released
the wind report documents on
Aug. 10.
Fossil-fueled power plants
have not just taken a
temporary back seat to
renewables - we are
witnessing a long term
transition in the world’s
energy sources. The price of
wind and solar power is on
par or less than fossil fuel
electricity. Renewable
energy prices are on a
steady pace to get cheaper,
while gas and oil will
inevitably go up as supplies
are constrained and climate
change effects are
considered. Coal plants are
being decommissioned, and
new nuclear plants are
effectively doomed -- it
took 36 years from start to
finish for the last nuclear
plant to come on line.
Compare that to 45 days for
a new solar power plant on
your home’s roof, or three
years for a utility-scale
solar project.
Conflicts between the
scientific method and the
power of religion have a
long and colorful history.
John Scopes was fined by
God-fearing Tennessee for
teaching current biology in
1925 and his trial became an
epic showdown between
William Jennings Bryan
representing God and
Clarence Darrow representing
science. That clash of
oratorical giants was later
dramatized in a play and a
movie, Inherit the Wind.
The current rate of glacier
melt around the world is
unprecedented in recorded
history, new research by the
World Glacier Monitoring
Service demonstrates.
Oooh, let's talk about the
lies the food industry tells
us! They brainwash us with
commercials of food that
looks good. They repeat what
to eat over and over and
over again, until it
sinks in our brains.
But what if YOU are
consuming pesticide DAILY,
because the kind of
pesticide lurking in
genetically modified food
(GMO) can never be washed
off, and your body may not
be able to dispose of it
either
[Back from a much needed
rest and healing. Hope
your lives continue to be
blessed. Ed]
August 11, 2015
The Moringa Tree, also known
as the Drumstick tree is
nearly entirely edible. It
has many medicinal
applications, can grow with
little water, has multiple
times the amount of
nutrients as oranges,
carrots, spinach and
bananas, and grows
extremely well in regions
where of malnutrition. Could
this tree solve the world’s
food crisis?
Nobody knows exactly how
climate change will play out
in the coming decades, but
the Poles are already being
affected as ice melts away.
Man-made sites in the region
are also under threat as ice
vanishes and, because of
this, a Canadian researcher
is on a mission to visually
record one place that could
soon become just a memory.
When corn was both
genetically modified to be
immune to Monsanto’s weed
killer Roundup and to be
foul-tasting to insects,
most researchers thought
that such genetic traits
would be limited to their
own genetically-modified
corn. Boy,
were they wrong!
We usually tend to be very
health conscious
with a detox diet and try
keeping our body free of
toxins. However, we yet miss
paying attention to the
simple yet toxic substances
we used in our day-to-day
life. The average woman puts
515 different chemicals on
her body each day. From your
face wash, shampoo,
conditioner to your kajal
and eye-liner, a detailed
look at the ingredients are
sure to surprise you! You
are literally smearing
chemicals all over your skin
and hair.
A series of shocking new
reports reveal that 45,000
acres of California crops
are being irrigated with
recycled fracking water,
with some samples showing
levels of petrochemicals
higher than those found at
oil spill sites.
Even more shocking, the
practice of using recycled
oil water on crops (which
has become a lucrative side
business for oil companies),
has been taking place for 20
years but was seemingly
undisclosed until recently.
Where we stand now in 2015,
everyone is drinking or
absorbing poisoned water.
Not just the usual poisons
so many health advocates
have spoken of – such as
fluoride, chlorine and
certain heavy metals that
contaminate our drinking
water – no, I’m referring
here to a poison far more
insidious and far reaching
in its implications, and
unless the water you drink
is home filtered by reverse
osmosis, or distilled by
steam, your water is likely
poisoned (along with your
food supply) with
radioactive waste sources
outside of what is
considered “naturally
occurring” radiation, such
as radon...
“…the [CDC] co-authors
scheduled a meeting to
destroy documents related to
the [MMR vaccine] study. The
remaining four co-authors
all met and brought a big
garbage can into the meeting
room and reviewed and went
through all the hard copy
documents that we had
thought we should discard
and put them in a huge
garbage can.” (William
Thompson, CDC researcher)
The letter, sent a day
ahead of the Republican
primary debate in Cleveland,
attributed California's
raging wildfires and
years-long drought to global
warming caused by human
activity, a theory generally
rejected by the Republican
Party.
"Longer fire seasons,
extreme weather and severe
droughts aren't on the
horizon, they're all here -
and here to stay," Brown
said. "Given the challenge
and the stakes, my question
for you is simple: What are
you going to do about it?"
Drought and more drought in
California, whose
accumulated rain debt now
equals an average year’s
precipitation, according to
a new study.
There have been hints for
years that cellphones could
cause cancer, and now a new
meta-study finds that the
radiation cellphones emit
are a real danger. The new
research, which is based on
a review of 100 studies,
found that the low-intensity
radiofrequency radiation
(RFR), cellphones emit, has
an effect on living cells
and can damage DNA.
Circumstances...
“The greater part of our
happiness or misery depends
on our dispositions and not
our circumstances.” ― Martha
Washington
After a few days to digest
the plan, energy experts in
the state were hesitant to
call the plan a complete
game-changer for renewables.
They did say, however, that
the final document, even
moreso than last year's
draft, contains several
promising signs for the
development of wind and
solar power in Arizona.
Hillary Clinton's campaign
is actively cooperating with
an FBI investigation into
whether the email system she
used during her time as
Secretary of State was
secure enough to handle
classified information.
At a public hearing last
Thursday, neighbors voiced
concerns over dark clouds of
coal dust and fly ash that
overfly their neighborhoods
on windy days. They are now
asking the state DNR to
force We Energies to take a
more proactive approach to
limit blowing dust and ash
at the facility.
Democratic National
Committee Chairwoman Debbie
Wasserman Schultz still
can't explain the difference
between a Democrat and a
socialist.
The party boss struggled
earlier last week when asked
to explain the distinction
by MSNBC's Chris Matthews.
She was given a mulligan on
the question Sunday on NBC's
"Meet the Press," but once
again chose not to answer
directly.
The Earth's magnetic field
is crucial to life on the
planet. It keeps out harmful
solar winds, which would
strip away our atmosphere
and surface water and
bombard us with radiation if
left unchecked. A new
analysis of zircon minerals
suggests that the field
originated at least 4.2
billion years ago – a hop
after the planet formed in
the geological timeline, and
much earlier than previously
thought.
Belly fat isn't attractive,
but its worst quality is
that it increases your risk
for high blood pressure,
diabetes, and other deadly
diseases. In most of us,
belly fat tends to be
stubborn, but some foods can
give you an advantage in
your battle to banish the
bulge. Watermelon, for
instance, is an ideal food
to melt belly fat, according
to the American Dietetic
Association.
Ebola is one of the most
frightening viruses of
modern times and the recent
outbreak in West Africa
sparked a worldwide effort
to contain it. Though it is
far from under control in
much of the region, there is
a glimmer of hope as the
World Health Organization
(WHO) has announced that in
trials, a vaccine called
VSV-EBOV has proven to be
100 percent effective in
protecting individuals.
Former President Bill
Clinton, husband of
Democratic presidential
front-runner Hillary
Clinton, manipulated Donald
Trump into running for
president on the GOP ticket
because he believed it would
weaken the party and hand
the election to his wife, Ed
Klein writes on his website,
EdwardKlein.com.
El Niño has strengthened in
the past several months.
Will this El Niño rival the
event of 1997–98?
Ten Republican presidential
hopefuls lined up on the
stage Thursday night for the
first face-to-face debate of
the 2016 election season.
Environmental issues were
not addressed, not even
control of climate change,
which many experts and other
politicians have called the
greatest challenge of of our
lifetime.
Envy...
“A note of caution: We can
never achieve goals that
envy sets for us. Looking at
your friends and wishing you
had what they had is a waste
of precious energy. Because
we are all unique, what
makes another happy may do
the opposite for you. That's
why advice is nice but often
disappointing when needed.”
― Marcus Buckingham
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has
just released their
assessment of coal-seam gas
mining — or “Fracking” — and
its impact on water
resources. And it’s not
pretty.
Massive controversy still
surrounds the unconventional
gas mining industry. The
procedure for extracting
natural gas (methane) from
the Earth is called
hydraulic fracturing
otherwise known as Fracking.
This entails drilling deep
into the Earth,
usually below ground water
basins, and pumping a huge
cocktail of chemicals mixed
with sand to break apart
sediment formations
underground, thus releasing
the gas for capture above.
It sounds rather innocuous
when you say it like that,
but the reality is far from
it.
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency has
confirmed that its workers
caused the spill of one
million gallons of
wastewater from an abandoned
mine in the mountains of
Colorado.
The EPA workers were
using heavy machinery to
investigate pollutants at
the Gold King Mine, north of
Silverton, when they
breached a strip of raised
land, and the toxic water
flowed into the Animas
River.
-
Many new state laws
conflict with federal
drug laws when it comes
to pot, which creates
problems for the
industry and its
consumers
-
If you live in a state
where marijuana is
legal, you can still be
fired for a positive
drug test — even if you
only use it medicinally
-
Legalization has done
nothing to squelch the
success of Colorado’s
black-market marijuana,
which can be
extrapolated to other
states
Three North Carolina men
fearing a government
takeover and martial law
stockpiled weapons,
ammunition and tactical gear
while attempting to rig
home-made explosives,
according to charges
announced by the Justice
Department on Monday.
Experts on both sides of the
political divide agree that
our crumbling infrastructure
needs to be improved. But
regulation stands in the
way, write Christopher
Helman and Daniel Fisher of
Forbes magazine.
The ground was cleared of
trees and vegetation to
create the four-acre
drilling platform that was
less than 1,000 feet from
their land. Every time the
well was fracked, the
Sautners could feel the
earth beneath their home
shake.
But this was the least of
their problems.
“The findings from the
Canadian risk assessment
show that FDA has based its
assessment of this totally
unnecessary technology on
blind trust,” said Wenonah
Hauter. “It’s clear that
there are unique safety
issues that FDA has failed
to consider, which is why we
are calling on the agency to
terminate its review of GMO
salmon.”
Greatness...
“The greatness of a man is
not in how much wealth he
acquires, but in his
integrity and his ability to
affect those around him
positively.” ― Bob Marley
Video – This video from
“Immense Possibilities,” a
weekly public broadcast
program focusing on people
and groups whose social
creations are building
healthy, vibrant
communities, discusses the
need to save bees, and
offers ideas on what we can
do to save these creatures,
which are an integral and
important part of our food
chain. Jeff Golden, the host
of the program, interviews
different beekeepers – from
Mace Vaughan, Director of
Xerces Society Pollinator
Conservation Program, to
Laura Ferguson, who created
a center for sacred
beekeeping just outside
Ashland, North Carolina.
he systematic takedown of
medical freedom in the U.S.
certainly didn’t happen
overnight, but the
disastrous fallout that we
see today might appear that
way. How did our once great
republic degenerate from
every citizen possessing an
inalienable right to treat
his own body how he best
sees fit to parents now
being mocked, manipulated
and coerced at every turn
into injecting their babies
with neurotoxic chemicals
and live viruses in the name
of health promotion and
disease prevention?
The Islamic State group
reportedly is preparing to
assassinate the Queen
Elizabeth of Great
Britain next week. The Mail
on Sunday revealed ISIS
extremists are plotting to
bomb the queen Saturday at
VJ Day celebrations marking
the anniversary of Japan's
surrender in World War II.
To do so, ISIS reportedly is
building pressure cooker
bombs similar to the ones
used in the Boston Marathon
bombing.
Japan has restarted its
first nuclear reactor under
new safety rules following
the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
All Japan's nuclear
plants were gradually shut
down after a series of
meltdowns at the Fukushima
plant sparked by the tsunami
and earthquake.
A federal judge ruled Monday
that Idaho's law banning
secret filming of animal
abuse at agricultural
facilities is
unconstitutional, giving
animal rights activists
across the country hope that
the decision will pave the
way to overturn similar laws
in other states.
Knowledge...
“Those people who develop
the ability to continuously
acquire new and better forms
of knowledge that they can
apply to their work and to
their lives will be the
movers and shakers in our
society for the indefinite
future.” ― Brian Tracy
Life...
“When you arise in the
morning, think of what a
precious privilege it is to
be alive - to breathe, to
think, to enjoy, to love.” ―
Marcus Aurelius
By subtly altering certain
quantum interactions in
matter, scientists from the
University of Leeds have
shown for the very first
time how to generate
magnetism in metals that
aren’t normally magnetic.
Synthetic magnets made using
this technique may one day
reduce our reliance on rare
or toxic metals in such
things as wind turbines,
computer hard drives and
magnetic field medical
imaging devices.
Mandatory vaccinations are
afoot as California has just
achieved the horrific
distinction of becoming the
first state in the US to
introduce compulsory
vaccinations for both
children and adults (bills
SB277 and SB792
respectively). This goes to
show that the NWO (New World
Order) agenda of
collectivism and
medical fascism is fast
approaching.
The body is equipped with
natural self-repair
mechanisms that can be
flipped on or off with
thoughts, beliefs, and
feelings that originate in
the mind. This is great
news, because it means, in
essence, that you can heal
yourself. But how?
One of the many simple ways
you can flip on your body’s
self-repair mechanisms is
via meditation.
That was one of the most
incredible temperature
observations I have ever
seen — and it is one of the
most extreme readings ever
in the world," AccuWeather
meteorologist Anthony Saglia
told The Telegraph of the
165-degree heat-index
reading in the western Iran
city of Bandar Mahshahr.
Karpeles is suspected of
manipulating data on the
exchange’s computer system
in 2013 to artificially
create about $US1.0 million
in Bitcoins, while police
were also investigating his
possible involvement in a
massive loss of the virtual
currency in 2014.
The partial shutdown of
two coal-fired power plants
on the Navajo Nation would
have been enough for the
tribe to meet the federal
government's limits for
carbon dioxide emissions as
originally proposed.
But the final rule issued
by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency this week
creates uncertainty.
When blood clots form in the
aftermath of a heart attack
or stroke, medications can
be deployed to break them
apart, but delivery is
tricky. Getting the medicine
to the clot takes some
guesswork and there's no
guarantee it will arrive in
the right dosage, with
complications like
hemorrhaging a real
possibility. A team of
Australian scientists has
developed a new approach
that sees the drugs carried
safely inside a nanocapsule,
opening up the treatment to
more patients and lessening
the chance of side effects.
Micelle
sequestrant polymers
cause fat particles
to pass right
through the
digestive system
(Credit:
Shutterstock)
For people with a
serious obesity problem,
dieting and exercising
may not be enough on
their own. Taking a pill
that replicates the
effects of exercise may
be one solution, but
scientists from the
University of Kansas are
developing what could be
another – compounds that
keep the fat in foods
from being absorbed by
the body.
It's easy to think of stars
as being fixed in place,
because that's how we see
them in the sky. But like
Earth and the other planets,
they have orbits. And it
turns out those orbits can
change dramatically. In
creating a new map of the
Milky Way as part of the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey
(SDSS), scientists recently
discovered that around 30
percent of the stars in our
galaxy have done exactly
that – they've moved into a
totally new orbit.
...In at least 13 public
schools in the area, where
kids are banned from even
having soda or candy, middle
and high school-aged girls
can get a taxpayer-funded
IUD without their parents’
consent.
The FBI has begun a criminal
inquiry into Hillary
Clinton's email account and
her use of the private
server and other devices
during her four years as
secretary of state,
according to news reports.
"It’s definitely a
criminal probe," a federal
source told The New York
Post on Wednesday. "I’m not
sure why they’re not calling
it a criminal probe."
U.S. President Barack
Obama has called his
landmark plan to tackle
greenhouse gases from U.S.
coal-fired power plants "the
single most important step
America has ever taken in
the fight against global
climate change."
Announcing the first-ever
limits on U.S. power plant
emissions on August 3 ,
Obama called climate change
one of the most pressing
challenges of our time.
Performance...
“Success seems to be
connected with action.
Successful people keep
moving. They make mistakes,
but they don't quit.” ―
Conrad Hilton
Let’s take a look at our
perception of time. Much of
the way we experience the
present moment depends on
our experience of time past.
The events of the past are
distilled and repainted in
our memories until their
very reality loses its
solidity. If we let them
cook long enough, images of
past events take on a dream
like quality. Through this
process, our remembrances
frequently slide into a
fantasy disconnected from
anything tangible.
Debt-ravaged
Puerto Rico
is in default after forking
over only a fraction due in
a bond payment, raising the
prospect of further pain for
the
recession-plagued commonwealth
and potential impacts on
U.S. investors.
At this stage in history,
many of us are fed up with
“humanity.” Yet, we find
goodness in people all day
long, love one another, and
manage to act kindly. So, we
are made of light and dark.
Unfortunately, however, our
collective darkness has
shrouded much a bright
future for humanity. But
with a little help from our
friends, each of us, at any
moment and for the moment,
can act brightly and kindly
— with excellence.
Last summer, a senior
epidemiologist at the
Centers for Disease Control,
admitted that he had helped
the CDC hide data from a
study that linked the
measles, mumps, and rubella
(MMR) vaccine to autism.
Although the official study
said no link was found, Dr.
William Thompson said the
study actually found that
giving a child the vaccine
before the age of 36 months
increased the risk of autism
by 69 percent, and giving it
to an African-American child
increased the risk of autism
by 240 percent.
Solar 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 (11 Aug, 12
Aug, 13 Aug). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on day one
(11 Aug) and quiet levels on
days two and three (12 Aug,
13 Aug).
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tells
Newsmax Health that money is
the reason Congress is
delaying hearings on
accusations that the Centers
for Disease Control and
Prevention hid a link
between the mumps, measles,
and rubella (MMR) vaccine
and autism."The
pharmaceutical industry is a
trillion dollar industry,"
Kennedy said in an exclusive
interview. "There are other
trillion dollar industries,
but not one that spends as
much on Congress as it does.
Starting this fall,
seventh-graders in all
public and private schools
will be required to get a
vaccine that protects
against a sexually
transmitted virus linked to
various genital cancers,
especially cervical cancer
in women. Students who fail
to get the vaccine for HPV —
or the human papillomavirus
— will be precluded from
attending school unless
their parents seek an
exemption for medical or
religious reasons.
Finger-pointing. Frenzied
sales tactics. Consumer
complaints that have reached
the federal level. Lobbyists
helpfully writing letters
for congressmen.
In some industries these
elements may constitute
another day at the office,
but in the world of
residential rooftop solar
panel installers, they may
also be artifacts of an
industry racing toward a
cliff marked "no more
subsidies."
Russia has submitted a
petition to the United
Nations for exclusive
economic control of hundreds
of thousands of miles of the
Arctic, including the North
Pole.
The approximately 463,000
square miles is ripe for oil
drilling, as much of it has
become more accessible due
to the increased melting of
Arctic ice.
Vladimir Putin even
authorized a submarine an an
explorer to survey the area
and plant a Russian flag
under the sea at the North
Pole.
When you think of ocean
waves, most people will
imagine sitting on a beach
watching breakers roll in
from the horizon. However a
group of scientists from the
University of Miami have
been tracking waves of a
different breed – unseen
colossal, skyscraper-tall
underwater waves that are
present in every one of our
oceans.
-
Researchers from Oregon
State University are
growing a strain of
dulse seaweed that
tastes like bacon
-
About 14 prototype
recipes have already
been created using the
unique dulse, including
salad dressing, sesame
seed chips, and smoked
dulse popcorn peanut
brittle
-
Seaweed is an excellent
source of iodine,
vitamins, fiber,
protein, and minerals,
provided it comes from
clean, non-polluted
waters
...Rive predicts that the
rooftop solar systems of the
future won't just generate
electricity. They will come
with sophisticated batteries
that also will store it,
allowing consumers to tap
into the electricity their
solar panels produced even
when it's dark outside.
"Within five years,
around that time frame,
every solar system we deploy
will have a storage system
tied to it," Rive said.
Alternative energy
facilities continue to crop
up in and around the Permian
Basin. And amid the endless
horizon of bobbing pumpjacks
and towering drilling rigs,
two solar farms will soon
begin soaking up the
high-watt sun in Andrews and
Upton counties.
Most of our search will be
spent trying to find a
permanent fix through
material means, with sex at
the top of the list as the
way to solidify our “special
relationship.” But our first
clue that sex is not the
cement of any relationship
should be obvious with the
current divorce rate parked
at nearly 40 percent.
Looking For Love in All the
Wrong Places
The study, led by WSUV
assistant professor of
statistics Leslie New , uses
three basic parameters --
hazardous footprint, bird
exposure to turbines and
collision probability -- to
develop a range for the
number of fatalities
expected at a given site.
The research focused on
golden eagles, a protected
species, but could be
applied to other species,
New said.
Employees at the Four
Corners Power Plant in
Fruitland were evacuated
Monday after three
suspicious devices were
discovered in one of the
power plant's units.
The IRS notes that scammers
typically pose as IRS agents
and traditionally target
those seemingly vulnerable,
such as senior citizens,
immigrants, and those whose
first language is not
English. The tactics involve
posing as IRS agents over
the telephone, in emails, or
by letter with the goal of
tricking taxpayers to
provide financial
information or to submit
false tax payments. However,
the IRS notes that scammers
are now targeting “virtually
anyone.”
These are exhilarating times
to be alive! The controlling
system that has limited
humanity for so long is
beginning to die. The signs
are all around, while the
powers-that-be struggle to
cobble it all together. We
need to now begin to shed
the skin of the old reality
in order to emerge fully
into the New Paradigm.
But this is not about
fighting the old. There’s no
need. We simply have to live
the New Paradigm here and
now, develop new ways of
living and being, then the
old system will simply
crumble away.
What practical steps can
people take to accelerate
the shift?
President Barack Obama is
mandating even steeper
greenhouse gas cuts from
U.S. power plants than
previously expected, while
granting states more time
and broader options to
comply.
52% of the produce
department’s offerings would
be pulled from shelves if
bees went extinct.
Ever wonder what dinner
would look like if bees –
one of nature’s
most miraculous and
necessary insects – became
extinct due to mankind’s
unsustainable habits?
To inspire more people to
take seriously the concern
of colony collapse, as well
as get involved in the
co-creation of their own
future, Whole Foods asked
this question and partnered
with the Xerces Society to
produce the shocking visual
below.
Last month, a story broke
revealing that there are
several crops in California
which are being watered
using fracking wastewater in
an effort to combat the
current drought.
This wastewater is just that
– highly toxic and dangerous
for use in anything intended
for human consumption.
Research suggests that
around 8,200 years ago, the
climate of the American West
began transitioning from a
lush landscape to the desert
terrain we know today.
Wildfires are devastating
western forests, forcing
hundreds of evacuations and
keeping thousands of
firefighters working
overtime. Last week’s
blistering heatwave gave the
fires an upper hand, but
cooler weather since the
weekend in the Pacific
Northwest has given
firefighters a slight
advantage.
IRS Commissioner John
Koskinen made a pledge
before the U.S. Senate’s
Judiciary Oversight
Subcommittee on Wednesday,
saying that his agency would
not go after the tax-exempt
statuses of any religious
colleges and universities
that oppose same-sex
nuptials.
The scientists that revealed
the "world's first solar
battery" last year are now,
following some
modifications, reporting its
first significant
performance milestone. The
device essentially fits a
battery and solar cell into
the one package, and has now
been tested against
traditional lithium-iodine
batteries, over which the
researchers are claiming
energy savings of 20
percent.
Incandescent bulbs, LEDs,
and CFLs may soon have to
budge up because a new
lighting technology is in
town – white lasers. Using
nanotechnology to create a
bespoke semiconducting
material, a team of
scientists at Arizona State
University (ASU) has
developed a laser that can
produce white light that is
brighter and more efficient
than LEDs.