By Mike Robbins
Hydrogen -- Star Gas, Everywhere, Yet Unseen. Sunlight is its Child.
(Haiku by Stephen Wetlesen)
December 29, 2015
As the world broke 2014's
heat record, an infographic
on how the weather went to
the extremes with heat,
snow, wildfires and
flooding.
The mysterious doctor
deaths are getting even more
concerning. Now a Canadian
alternative health doctor
has been found. Canadian
doctor, Linnea Veinotte, was
found dead just a few days
before Christmas. Even the
police report says that the
place Veinotte and her
family resided ‘was a safe
place.’
Doctor Bradstreet’s death
led this rash of strange
‘suicides,’ but the number
of strange death
circumstances – most
of alternative doctors –
seems to be growing.
An independent computer
security researcher
uncovered a database of
information on 191 million
voters that is exposed on
the open Internet due to an
incorrectly configured
database, he said on Monday.
The database includes
names, addresses, birth
dates, party affiliations,
phone numbers and emails of
voters in all 50 U.S. states
and Washington, researcher
Chris Vickery said in a
phone interview
Members of an American
Petroleum Institute task
force on CO2 included
scientists from nearly every
major oil company, including
Exxon, Texaco and Shell.
The El Dorado Hydroelectric
Project is owned and
operated under the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission
License 184. The El Dorado
Irrigation District acquired
Project 184 in 1999. It
consists of four alpine
reservoirs located in three
different counties, a
diversion dam on the South
Fork American River near
Kyburz and 22 miles of
canals, flumes and tunnels
ending in the El Dorado
Forebay.
Fighters from the Islamic
State group and a militia
controlled by a prominent
lawmaker have beheaded a
total of eight men in
tit-for-tat revenge killings
in the eastern border
province of Nangarhar, an
Afghan official said on
Sunday.
Four men from each side
had been decapitated after
being caught by the opposing
side during battles on
Saturday, Ghalib Mujahid,
the governor of the Achin
district, said.
2015 is swiftly exiting and
it’s time to take a look
back and see if anyone
learned anything that might
help avoid something dire in
2016.
A German journalist who
spent 10 days with the
Islamic State group and came
out unharmed told a British
Jewish news site that the
jihadist fighters told him
that the only country they
fear is Israel.
M1 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a chance for
M-class flares and a slight
chance for an X-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(29 Dec, 30 Dec, 31 Dec).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on day one
(29 Dec), quiet to major
storm levels on day two (30
Dec) and unsettled to minor
storm levels on day three
(31 Dec). Protons have a
slight chance of crossing
threshold on days one, two,
and three (29 Dec, 30 Dec,
31 Dec).
Bizarre chemicals in deep
space could help explain the
origins of life
Sunlight: we all feel better
when we're exposed to it,
but do you know why? Dr.
Michael F. Holick, a
foremost expert on vitamin D
with an impressive list of
credentials, is just the
right person to explain the
healing power of sunlight.
Talent
“Talent is God given. Be
humble. Fame is man-given.
Be grateful. Conceit is
self-given. Be careful.” ―
John Wooden
After
year-long research and
experiments, Maryam Al
Hashmi, an 18-year-old
Emirati student, has
invented an affordable
method to produce solar
energy.
Her invention titled
'Epilogue of Plasticus'
could eventually replace
silicone filaments in solar
cells with plastic
photocells.
Bankruptcy within months is
a possibility for the parent
company of a U.S. subsidiary
that received U.S.
Department of Energy funding
to build two groundbreaking
concentrated solar power
(CSP) projects.
December 24, 2015
...inside this recently
built Catholic evangelism
center lies an amazing
discovery that has sent
shockwaves through the world
of Biblical archaeology: the
remains of a first-century
stone house reliably dated
to the early Roman period in
Palestine.
Science is great for
distinguishing fact from
pure fiction. However,
certain scientists
indoctrinated into the
various hierarchical trees
of academia or research and
development have the habit
of turning a number of
scientific principles,
theories and tenets into ‘indisputable
facts’ — in spite of
evidence to the contrary.
Some of these ‘indisputable
facts’ have had some
serious challenges from
outstanding scientists with
their outside-the-box
thinking. Bringing us new
ways of looking into things
they have had a tough time
having been met with
ridicule or invalidation
from the scientific
establishment and its
conventional science.
A new study led by
researchers from NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
and San Diego State
University (SDSU) has
examined the amount of
methane gas escaping from
the Arctic – a key component
of global warming. The
results go against
conventional theory, finding
that a much larger amount of
the gas escapes during the
Arctic winter than
previously thought.
One of you (and you know who
you are), donated us actual,
significant money! And sent
us wonderful words! Wow!
My heart is crying with
tears of gratitude. How
totally wonderful. What
thanks I give. What
wonderful feedback. Words
do not communicate how
greatful we are! Thank you.
In a big step forward for
wild bison and all
Montanans, today Governor
Steve Bullock agreed to
expand year-round habitat
for wild bison in Montana
outside Yellowstone National
Park. Historically,
thousands of wild bison have
been hazed or slaughtered as
they migrated from
Yellowstone into Montana in
the spring. This decision
represents a significant
change in bison management.
"Let me be clear," Cook
said. "China put an enormous
focus on manufacturing, in
what you and I would call
vocational kind of skills,”
he said. “The U.S., over
time, began to stop having
as many vocational kind of
skills,” Cook explained.
Low prices and weak export
markets continue to make
Colorado coal a tough road
for producers, while Utah
markets remain tight, an
industry source said this
week.
Colorado
remains oversupplied as
domestic utility customers
have cheaper options through
natural gas or renewables.
Still, some producers are
moving supply east as weak
netbacks are preferable to
the export markets, the
source said.
"They
are either shoving it east
or through the Gulf, which
has a terrible netback,
below cash cost probably,"
the source said.
With hugs, kisses and
applause, ministers and
official delegates from 195
countries tonight celebrated
their approval of the Paris
Climate Agreement, an
historic document that
commits the whole world to
cut greenhouse gas emissions
and deal with the impacts of
climate change.
“Farshid Fathi has been
released today after five
years in prison for his
faith.”
The
Department of Energy has
officially started searching
for states and communities
interested in housing the
nation's nuclear spent fuel.
Execution of this
approach would officially
reverse the controversial
Yucca Mountain project,
which was expected to house
defense and commercial
materials and remove waste
from sites around the
nation, including the
Savannah River Site and four
nuclear power plants in
South Carolina.
2015 has marked the
International Year of Soils,
an event that many members
of the public missed — but
they shouldn’t have, because
soil is vitally important
for human survival.
Ominously, a study from the
Grantham Centre for
Sustainable Futures
indicates that in the last
40 years, humans have chewed
through 33 percent of the
Earth’s topsoil, thanks to
development and harmful
farming practices. The grim
findings are a bad sign for
the future, as we rely on
soil not just for
sustenance, but also as a
carbon trap, key component
of nearly every ecosystem on
Earth, and breeding ground
for organisms with
tremendous commercial and
humanitarian applications,
such as bacteria that could
contribute to the
development of cutting edge
pharmaceuticals. We
should be worshiping the
ground we walk on, and this
study indicates that we’ve
been doing just the
opposite.
The
future of the solar energy
industry looks a lot
brighter with Congress
extending a key tax credit
that has fueled its growth
over the last decade.
The five-year extension
of the federal tax credit
that currently saves
consumers and companies that
install new solar energy
systems the equivalent of 30
percent of their investment
was hailed by local solar
energy installers as a
watershed development. They
said that it will lead to
more solar energy systems
being installed in the
coming years, averting a big
drop-off in activity that
had been expected if the
incentives had expired as
scheduled at the end of next
year.
Oil speculators are
buying options contracts
that will only pay out if
crude drops to as low as $15
a barrel next year, the
latest sign some investors
expect an even deeper slump
in energy prices.
The bearish wagers come
as OPEC’s effective
scrapping of output limits,
Iran’s anticipated return to
the market and the
resilience of production
from countries such as
Russia raise the prospect of
a prolonged global oil glut.
Bees pollinate a significant
majority of the world's
food, but they are
disappearing at an alarming
rate. The mysterious mass
death of honeybee
populations is called Colony
Collapse Disorder (CCD).
Neonicotinoid pesticides
weaken the bee's immune
system and cause
disorientation, damaging the
bee's ability to find its
way back to the hive. Other
toxic pesticides, such as
glyphosate, the main
ingredient in Roundup, also
contribute to CCD. You can
help protect bees by
choosing organic food, grown
without these toxic
insecticides, and planting
bee friendly gardens.
For decades, the biotech
industry has worked to
conquer the food industry
with its genetically
modified (GM) products.
Monsanto and other
multinational corporations
infiltrated the highest
levels of federal agencies
so their patented
Franken-foods could be
rubber-stamped for market.
They have been exposed
repeatedly for using bogus
science, while preventing
independent research until
the GM crop is approved for
sale. They spend millions on
advertising to persuade the
public that their food is
safe for human health and
the environment.
Fortunately two cops —
one off-duty and the other a
retired detective — were
already inside the Roosevelt
Field Mall in Garden City
when the shots rang out
around 1 p.m.
And both of them ran
toward the gunfire.
All over the planet, every
day, oceans send plumes of
sea spray into the
atmosphere. Beyond the
poetry of crashing ocean
waves, this salt- and
carbon-rich spray also has a
dramatic effect on cloud
formation and duration...
underappreciated source
of what are called ice
nucleating particles. These
microscopic bits make their
way into clouds and initiate
the formation of ice,
affecting the clouds'
composition.
"The presence of these
particles is critically
important for precipitation
and the lifetime of clouds,
and consequently, for their
radiative properties,"
DeMott said.
I am Responsible
“I am responsible. Although
I may not be able to prevent
the worst from happening, I
am responsible for my
attitude toward the
inevitable misfortunes that
darken life.” ― Walter
Anderson
A couple of weeks ago,
on November 24, the United
States of America awarded a
bushy haired Native man,
Billy Frank, Jr., the
Presidential Medal of
Freedom. That’s a big
deal—that’s an honor that
very few people of any
color achieve. The
amount of Natives who have
won this honor?..
He was arrested over
50 times. He must have been
a bad dude, right?
A UN-brokered deal between
Libya's two rival
governments last week has
increased optimism for
greater political stability
next year, which could see
the return of more Libyan
sweet crude oil to the
Mediterranean market.
After more than a year
of political deadlock,
Libya's two opposing
governments -- the
internationally recognized
House of Representatives in
Tobruk and the Islamist-led
General National Congress
based in Tripoli -- reached
a preliminary agreement
December 4, aimed at solving
the country's long-standing
political paralysis.
When a middle school
student came to Dalene
Bowden and said she was
hungry but didn’t have the
$1.70 to pay for her meal,
the food service worker
didn’t think twice.
She gave her the meal for
free.
Bowden’s supervisor at
Irving Middle School saw the
cafeteria worker’s deed...
The amount of methane gas
escaping from the ground
during the long cold period
in the Arctic each year and
entering Earth's atmosphere
is likely much higher than
estimated by current carbon
cycle models, concludes a
major new study led by San
Diego State University and
including scientists from
NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena,
California.
The San Manuel Band of
Mission Indians and Morongo
Band of Mission Indians of
Southern California made the
donation to the San
Bernardino United Relief
Fund launched by the health
and human services nonprofit
Arrowhead United Way.
The Nevada Public Utilities
Commission voted unanimously
to move forward with a new
rate structure for customers
with rooftop solar panels,
in spite of loud and
persistent protests from
installation companies that
say the switch will usher in
a doomsday for their
industry.
What is the difference
between a New Ager and a
Pan-Indian? This issue may
become increasingly
important for the future of
Indian affairs in the U.S.,
and perhaps other places.
Pan-Indian communities
are very active cultural
centers. Many people who
participate in
multi-cultural Indian
communities in
off-reservation settings
often have strong
traditions, solid
identities, and strong ties
to a tribal community. ..
Indian wannabes or New
Agers? New Agers believe
they can shop around for any
variety of the world’s
religious elements or belief
systems. Their point of view
is often described as a
super marker pattern, they
find whatever they want or
need from the religions of
the world, and craft them
into a personal spiritual
belief system and way of
life.
Police say an Oregon man
angry with his tax situation
left a flock of seven
chickens inside the state
revenue office.
M1 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a chance for
M-class flares and a slight
chance for an X-class flare
on days one and two (25 Dec,
26 Dec) and expected to be
low with a chance for
M-class flares on day three
(27 Dec). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on day one (25
Dec) and quiet to unsettled
levels on days two and three
(26 Dec, 27 Dec).
“We were blown away, these
potentially extinct snakes
were there in plain sight,
living on one of Australia’s
natural icons, Ningaloo
Reef,” said Blanche
D’Anastasi of James Cook
University...
The Joint Chiefs of Staff
has indirectly supported
Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad in a bid to help
him defeat jihadist groups,
a bombshell report by
investigative journalist
Seymour Hersh claims.
Hersh writes in the
London Review of
Books that the
group of senior military
leaders who advise Secretary
of Defense Ash Carter sent
intelligence through Israel,
Germany, and even Russia.
After convincing Congress
to extend a tax credit to
the solar industry last
week, advocates are shifting
their attention to Nevada,
where state regulators
convened Tuesday to consider
the future of credits for
solar customers who provide
excess power to the grid
under net metering.
A panel of three utility
regulators weighed a lengthy
draft order that would
effectively lower the credit
rate for future solar
customers and eventually for
existing customers. At stake
is the future of an industry
that has brought thousands
of jobs to the state.
Already, one solar company
has said it would cease
direct sales and
installation if the PUC
adopts the order as is.
The last century, especially
the last several decades,
has seen a steep rise in
levels of allergies, asthma
and auto-immune disorders.
What is interesting is that
statistical analysis shows
that typically these
conditions are more
prevalent in developed
nations than in developing
countries, and when families
migrate from a developing
country with a low incidence
rate to a developed one
with a high incidence rate,
it only takes one generation
for the conditions to
present.
A recent study from the
University of Eastern
Finland suggests that
exposure to farm animals
in early childhood may play
an important role in the
development of a healthy
immune system, specifically
in regards to the role of
dendritic cells and cytokine
production. ..
Solar panels are great—if
you own a home. For those
still tied to the rental
racket, though, the dream of
going solar seems like just
that: a distant dream. It’s
virtually impossible to
imagine most modern
landlords springing for
expensive setups when they
won’t even fix a leak in a
bathtub!
In an effort to avert an
outer space energy crisis,
the US Department of
Energy's Oak Ridge National
Laboratory (ORNL) has
restarted production of
plutonium-238 (PU-238) after
almost 30 years. The
civilian stockpile of the
plutonium isotope used to
power the radiothermal
generators (RTG) that make
electricity for US deep
space probes has dwindled to
only 35 kg (77 lb), so the
first 50 g (1.7 oz) of
plutonium oxide produced by
the laboratory marks a major
turnaround in American space
capabilities.
It’s amazing how the big
questions in life are pushed
to the end of the line. Sure
everyone wonders about the
“big stuff” on and off, but
their lives are too
preoccupied with other
issues that they’ve been
told are more pressing and
important – when it’s
nothing of the sort.
This applies directly to the
ongoing awakening and how to
put our best foot forward in
times like these. How best
can we effect change? What
is the most productive and
effective course of action
in our personal lives?
December 22, 2015
Brent oil cratered to its
lowest price in more than 11
years on Monday, as demand
for heating oil slumped on
warmer-than-normal
temperatures and traders
tested for a bottom.
U.S. crude
remained above its 2009 low
and settled up a penny a
barrel as traders squared
positions ahead of the
January contract's
expiration. The February
contract declined and
analysts expect stockpiles
to build again this week,
signaling further oversupply
in already glutted market.
The Chinese government
Tuesday refrained from
adjusting retail oil product
prices in line with global
crude oil fluctuations for
the first time in nearly
three years, sending a
strong signal to the market
that it believes prices may
have fallen too far too
fast.
While the
decision is widely expected
to help state-run refiners
to boost their margins, it
is also expected to curb any
rise in oil consumption at a
time when Beijing is
stepping up efforts to curb
pollution by promoting the
use of alternative fuels.
Climate change is rapidly
warming lakes around the
world, threatening
freshwater supplies and
ecosystems, according to a
new NASA and National
Science Foundation-funded
study of more than half of
the world's freshwater
supply.
Using more than 25 years
of satellite temperature
data and ground measurements
of 235 lakes on six
continents, this study --
the largest of its kind --
found lakes are warming an
average of 0.61 degrees
Fahrenheit (0.34 degrees
Celsius) each decade. The
scientists say this is
greater than the warming
rate of either the ocean or
the atmosphere, and it can
have profound effects.
Accelerating rates of
sea-level rise linked to
climate change pose a major
threat to coastal marshes
and the vital carbon
capturing they perform. But
a new Duke University study
finds marshes may be more
resilient than previously
believed.
The research, published
this month in the
Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, shows
that the significant boost
in marsh plant productivity
associated with elevated
levels of atmospheric carbon
dioxide will allow marshes
to trap more sediment and
create more organic soil.
The installation of a 2-MW
battery-based energy storage
system at a retired coal
plant in New Richmond, Ohio,
is being billed as a sign of
the growing potential of
repurposing shuttered sites
for grid-scale energy
storage.
Could the world order
survive without growing?
It’s hard to imagine now,
but humanity made do with
little or no economic growth
for thousands of years. In
Byzantium and Egypt, income
per capita at the end of the
first millennium was lower
than at the dawn of the
Christian Era. Much of
Europe experienced no growth
at all in the 500 years that
preceded the Industrial
Revolution. In India, real
incomes per person shrank
continuously from the early
17th through the late 19th
century.
Iranian hackers breached
the control system of a dam
near New York City in 2013,
an infiltration that raised
concerns about the security
of the country's
infrastructure, The Wall
Street Journal reported
on Monday, citing former and
current U.S. officials.
Two people familiar with
the breach told the
newspaper it occurred at the
Bowman Avenue Dam in Rye,
New York. The small
structure about 20 miles
from New York City is used
for flood control.
Security
at France's 58 nuclear power
plants was purportedly
raised to its highest level
last month as a result of
the terrorist attacks in
Paris, stoking concern over
the safety of Japan's
nuclear facilities.
After the triple meltdown
in Fukushima in 2011, Japan
shut down all 48 of its
viable commercial reactors
in light of the crisis. But
attempts are now being made
to bring many back online.
And despite opposition
from anti-nuclear activists
and groups, two reactors in
Sendai, Kagoshima
Prefecture, were restarted
this fall and summer, with
applications for 26 more
pending Nuclear Regulation
Authority approval.
M2 event observed .
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a chance for
M-class flares on days one,
two, and three (22 Dec, 23
Dec, 24 Dec). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on day one (22
Dec) and quiet levels on
days two and three (23 Dec,
24 Dec).
The Saudi-led coalition
fighting rebels in Yemen
said Saudi air defense units
intercepted multiple
missiles fired from inside
Yemen toward the kingdom's
southwest border city of
Jizan on Monday.
A statement by the
coalition said the rockets
did not cause injuries or
material damage and that the
Saudi Air Force reacted
immediately and destroyed
the launching pad inside
Yemen.
EnergySage has captured some
key observations in terms of
residential solar markets
and released them in its
annual solar survey.
In its survey of more than
100 solar installers across
the United States,
EnergySage found that the
main challenge in the
industry is the sheer number
of competitors -- with most
respondents stating they
face between 15 and 20
competitors in their
territories alone.
The U.S. House and Senate
passed a $1.1 trillion
spending bill that included
tax credits for wind and
solar power projects, and
the President is expected to
sign it into law.
The House voted 316-113
to approve the 2016 spending
package, and the Senate
followed with a 65-33 vote.
The package included a
retroactive five-year
extension on the wind
Production Tax Credit (PTC)
and the solar Investment Tax
Credit (ITC). The PTC gives
wind developers a credit of
$0.023 per kilowatt-hour for
electricity generated to the
grid. After that, the credit
will maintain its level
through 2016 and phase down
at 80 percent of its present
value in 2017, 60 percent in
2018, and 40 percent in
2019. Projects must begin
construction before the end
of year in order to qualify.
SpaceX made history
Monday night.
The aerospace
manufacturer successfully
landed its Falcon 9 booster
rocket back on Earth at Cape
Canaveral, Florida, after
using it to ship 11 ORBCOMM
satellites into space.
This marks the first time
that such a rocket has ever
landed vertically back on
Earth after flying so deep
into space.
A 100-foot crane slowly
maneuvered a white,
3,475-pound box around a
palm tree and parking lot
lamppost before gingerly
setting the heavy case
alongside four others behind
a 15-story office tower in
Irvine.
President Obama repeatedly
has called for banning
“weapons of war” from
civilian use in the United
States. In his address to
the nation Sunday about an
attack that killed 14 people
last week at a holiday party
in California, he said, “We
also need to make it harder
for people to buy powerful
assault weapons like the
ones that were used in San
Bernardino.”
As nations across the
globe negotiate how to
reduce their contributions
to climate change,
researchers at Penn are
investigating just how the
coming changes will impact
the planet. What's clear is
that the effect extends
beyond simple warming.
Indeed, the very physics and
chemistry of the oceans are
also shifting, and are
forecast to change even more
in the coming decades.
These changes have
implications for, among
other things, the
single-celled organisms that
comprise the base of the
ocean's food web and are
responsible for half of the
world's photosynthetic
activity: phytoplankton.
The True Bond
“The bond that links your
true family is not one of
blood, but of respect and
joy in each other's life.” ―
Richard Bach
The US Senate on Friday
passed a tax and spending
package that includes a
retroactive extension
through next year of a
$1/gal blenders tax credit
for biodiesel and a
$1.01/gal production tax
credit for cellulosic
biofuels.
The credits
had expired at the end of
2014.
The legislation
now goes to President Barack
Obama, who is expected to
sign it into law shortly.
The U.S. wind industry
installed 70 GW of
generating capacity,
according to the American
Wind Energy Association
(AWEA).
The
milestone was achieved in
November. Wind power reached
the 50 GW and 60 GW
thresholds in 2012, as
developers rushed to
complete projects before the
expiration of the Production
Tax Credit (PTC). After the
credit expired, wind
installations declined by 92
percent in 2013. Congress
recently approved a
five-year extension of the
PTC and the Investment Tax
Credit (ITC) as part of the
government’s spending bill.
Sure, the numbers are small,
but the potential for growth
is huge.
I'm talking about zero net
energy homes (ZNEH) -- a
market that is just
beginning to emerge.
December 18, 2015
Either the EPA or the groups
opposing its Clean Power
Plan will enjoy a victory
early in 2016, but the CPP's
ultimate fate likely won't
be decided for two more
years. The year also will
see natural gas and coal
continue their ascension and
decline, respectively, in
the pantheon of U.S.
generation fuels.
Dozens of US Republican
senators called on President
Barack Obama on Wednesday
not to lift sanctions on
Iran, saying Tehran’s recent
ballistic missile testing
showed “blatant disregard
for its international
obligations.”
Thirty-six of the 54
Republican senators,
including Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, signed a
letter urging Obama not to
lift sanctions on Iran as
planned under an
international nuclear
agreement announced in July.
Rooftop solar panel owners
could face new fees under a
proposal issued Tuesday, but
state regulators rejected
several recommendations by
utility companies that
threatened the expansion of
residential and commercial
solar efforts.
California’s almond industry
used to provide a plethora
of shells to co-fire in
biomass power generating
plants in the state’s
Central and San Joaquin
valleys. After burning the
shells to generate
electricity in such 25 MW to
50 MW plants, these
independent producers sold
their power to utility
giants, such as Pacific Gas
and Electric (PG&E) and
Southern California Edison
(SCE).
For the United States
government, on the other
hand, a 5% increase in
interest rates on the
national debt would raise
the annual deficit by about
$900 billion per year.
Because the government
borrows the money to make
interest payments, this
could set off a chain
reaction of paying interest
on money borrowed to pay
interest, leading to a
national debt increase of
$67 trillion in 20
years (absent major tax
increases).
The multinational Code for
Unplanned Encounters at Sea
(CUES), which was once
praised as a major step in
U.S.-China military
relations last year, now
doesn't seem to hold much
weight as a Chinese
submarine conducted a
simulated cruise missile
attack on the aircraft
carrier USS Reagan during a
close encounter several
weeks ago, The
Washington Free Beacon
reports.
Our nearest cosmic neighbors
may be closer than we think.
A team of astronomers at the
University of New South
Wales (UNSW) have announced
the discovery of what could
be the closest habitable
planet beyond the Solar
System. Orbiting the red
dwarf star Wolf 1061 in the
constellation of Ophiuchus,
the planet is only 14 light
years from Earth, which is
closer than the exoplanet
Gliese 667Cc's 22 light
years.
Aromatherapy – or the use of
essential oils – has been
embraced since early times
to promote wellness and
vitality. With exciting new
research exposing its many
potential benefits for
emotional and spiritual
well-being, its time has
arrived.
Crude futures settled
Thursday at multi-year lows
on a stronger US dollar and
persistent concerns about
oversupply.
NYMEX
January crude settled down
57 cents at $34.95/b, lowest
front-month settle since
February 2009. ICE February
Brent settled 33 cents lower
at $37.06/b, a low for
prompt delivery not seen
since December 2008.
...if we consider the
length of the day in
another light – the
longest days of the
year come each year in
December for the entire
globe.
When we say the
longest days of the
year come each year around
the December solstice
for the entire globe,
we’re talking about day
not as a period of daylight
– but as the interval from
one solar noon – or
midday – to the
next.
In December, a day – one
rotation of Earth relative
to the noonday sun – is
about one-half minute longer
than the average 24 hours.
The Paris agreement has been
hailed as a great success,
putting the world on track
to change the way it
produces energy. It is
indeed a good start, but
there is much more to be
done to really see the
changes that we need to
deliver a true energy
transition. In this respect,
good starts and good
intentions do not always
lead to great results and so
we surely still have a long
way to go to see the real
change in action. Personally
I would have preferred to
sign one sentence: We begin
to stop burning coal
immediately, and as
byproducts we avoid the
worst elements of climate
change and help sustainable
energy sources, such as
solar, to play the vital
role it should as soon as
possible.
They can blame the ISIS
terrorist members for the
appearing of this deadly
disease. Besides the war
and the political conflict
which stroke Syria for the
last few years, Syrian
people are dealing now with
another dangerous threat.
The collapse of medical
services in
terrorist-controlled parts
of Syria has caused the
spread of a flesh-eating
virus transmitted by
parasites munching on
corpses dumped in the
streets. Some as a result of
abominable acts by ISIS that
included the killing of
innocent people and dumping
their corpses in streets,
this is the leading factor
behind the rapid spread of
Leishmaniasis disease.
An international team of
astronomers has used
multiple telescopes to study
two large patches of sky,
searching for the X-ray
emissions from distant
galaxy clusters. It's hoped
that the work will provide
insights into the nature of
dark matter and dark energy.
The Federal Reserve is
raising interest rates from
record lows set at the
depths of the 2008 financial
crisis, a shift that heralds
modestly higher rates on
some loans.
The Fed coupled its first
rate hike in nine years with
a signal that further
increases will likely be
made slowly as the economy
strengthens further and
inflation rises from
undesirably low levels.
The United States has
revoked 122,000 visas –
9,500 over terrorism
concerns – since 2001, but
doesn't know where all those
former visa-holders are,
according to congressional
testimony on Thursday.
Michele Thoren Bond,
assistant secretary for the
Bureau of Consular Affairs,
was grilled before the House
Oversight and Government
Reform Committee, where
Republican Chairman Jason
Chaffetz charged, "You don't
have a clue, do you?"
When asked where those
people currently are, Bond
admitted, "I don't know."
The P5+1 nuclear deal
agreed with Iran was deeply
controversial in the United
States.
The major objection was
that Iran represents a
unique threat to the U.S.
and the rest of the Western
world. The Iranian
leadership are driven by an
extreme religious belief
that celebrates a global
apocalypse.
People the world over are
feeling, or soon will feel,
the effects of the strongest
El Niño event since 1997-98.
New satellite observations
are beginning to show
scientists the impact of
this year’s El Niño on the
distribution of rain,
tropospheric ozone, and
wildfires around the globe.
NASA reports that the 2015
El Niño, currently unfolding
in the eastern equatorial
Pacific Ocean, is the
strongest since 1997-98.
Gold maintained gains after
the Federal Reserve boosted
U.S. interest rates for the
first time since 2006 while
signaling that the pace of
subsequent increases will be
“gradual.” Silver and copper
also held on to earlier
increases.
The
Federal Open Market
Committee unanimously voted
to set the new target range
for the federal funds rate
at 0.25 percent to 0.5
percent, up from zero to
0.25 percent.
Congress has proposed an
agreement to extend the
Investment Tax Credit (ITC)
for wind and solar in the
U.S.
As part of a larger budget
deal, Congress voted on
legislation for a five-year
extension of the ITC that
gives a 30 percent federal
tax credit for commercial
installations of solar PV
systems and an extension
with a progressive phase
down of the tax credit for
small wind systems.
Do not underestimate the
babbling brook. When it
comes to greenhouse gases,
these bucolic water bodies
have the potential to create
a lot of hot air.
According to a new
analysis in the journal
Ecological Monographs, by
researchers at the
University of
Wisconsin–Madison and
colleagues, the world’s
rivers and streams pump
about 10 times more methane
into our atmosphere than
scientists estimated in
previous studies. The new
study also found that human
activity seems to drive
which streams are the
biggest contributors.
Can renewables ever harm the
environment? It seems a
surprising idea; renewables
are, after all,
unequivocally better for the
planet than fossil fuels.
Yet it is increasingly clear
that building renewable
plants can also have an
impact on local ecosystems
and communities, on the
habitats of endangered
species, for instance, or
the catch available for
local fishermen.
Intelligence officials are
secretly mapping Islamic
State media centers where
the jihadists' toxic
propaganda is churned out —
but with most operating in
civilian neighborhoods,
they're off-limits to
U.S.-led airstrikes, the
Washington Times
reports.
The FBI has been warning
Americans that ISIS is going
to target the power grid
next. With Jihad now in this
country and in the news
almost every day many
Americans are now taking
action against the terrorist
threat to our power grid.
One way is to... Generate
Your Own Supply Of Free
Electrical Power!
The San Diego City Council
has voted unanimously 8-0 to
approve a progressive
Climate Action Plan, which
creates legally binding
mandates for reducing levels
of greenhouse gases.
Two
<NM>state legislators -- a
Senate Democrat and a House
Republican -- are teaming up
again to push a solar energy
bill that last year passed
the Legislature with strong
bipartisan support only to
be pocket-vetoed by Gov.
Susana Martinez.
Sen. Mimi Stewart,
D-Albuquerque, and Rep.
Sarah Maestas Barnes,
R-Albuquerque, both have
pre-filed bills that would
extend the current state
solar tax credits. The 10
percent credit for a solar
installation is set to
expire at the end of 2016.
These bills would extend the
credit through 2024.
...he’s so confident in his
experiment’s result that he
ended the clip by telling
conspiracy theorists, “Your
argument is invalid, get
over it. Find a job.”
Below is a TEDx talk given
by Mark Mattson, the current
Chief of the Laboratory of
Neuroscience at the National
Institute on Aging. He is
also a professor of
Neuroscience at The Johns
Hopkins University, and one
of the foremost researchers
in the area of cellular and
molecular mechanisms
underlying multiple
neurodegenerative disorders,
like Parkinson’s and
Alzheimer’s disease.
It's important to give
careful consideration to the
direction that rooftop solar
panels are facing in order
to pull maximum energy from
the sun, but a new type of
material might mean their
orientation is less of a
concern. Researchers have
developed a special glass
coating they claim could
enable panels to soak up
sunlight from multiple
angles, significantly
boosting the cell efficiency
and energy yields in the
process.
Most of the locations were
based in heavily residential
areas of Syria, Iraq and
Libya since such areas are
less likely to be targeted
by U.S. airstrikes,
according to the information
obtained through the a
secret military project. The
Washington Times report
cited anonymous sources, but
the White House, CIA and
Defense Department each
declined to comment to the
newspaper.
An upstate New York man was
sentenced to more than eight
years in prison for his role
in a plot to build a
radiation-emitting "death
ray" intended to harm
Muslims targets and
President Barack Obama,
federal authorities said on
Wednesday.
U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry on Tuesday
accepted Russia's
long-standing demand that
President Bashar Assad's
future be determined by his
own people, as Washington
and Moscow edged toward
putting aside years of
disagreement over how to end
Syria's civil war.
"The United States and
our partners are not seeking
so-called regime change,"
Kerry told reporters in the
Russian capital after
meeting President Vladimir
Putin. A major international
conference on Syria would
take place later this week
in New York, Kerry
announced.
Today, the House will vote
on -- and is expected to
pass -- a massive year-end
omnibus spending bill, which
includes provisions
regarding cyber security and
cyber threat information
sharing.
The omnibus spending bill
includes the Cybersecurity
Act of 2015 and the FY16
Intelligence Authorization
Act.
Drivers are seeing more
hydrogen fuel cell electric
vehicles (FCEVs) on the
road, but refueling stations
for those vehicles are still
few and far between. This is
about to change, and one
reason is a new testing
device being validated at
California refueling
stations that will greatly
accelerate station
commissioning.
The 2015 Energy & Water
Development Appropriations
bill, included as part of
the Omnibus Appropriations
bill, prioritizes energy,
infrastructure, and research
projects that could help
solve a variety of critical
issues facing the nation
today.
Renewables are beating
fossil fuels on cost in
island nations from the
Pacific to the Caribbean,
where governments are
seeking to limit their
exposure to volatile market
prices.
“We’re so far-flung from
the sources of fossil fuels
that by the time they reach
us, with all the shipping,
you pay a substantial
cost...
Instead of worrying about
what they’re going to do
about Trump, or about what
they consider an only
slightly less nightmarish
scenario, Cruz or Carson,
the Republican establishment
needs to start worrying what
they’re going to do about
themselves.
Sixty-five percent of
Republican voters--their
voters--are trying to tell
them they’re no good.
"Projecting its ambition for
regional leadership, Saudi
Arabia said Tuesday it has
lined up most of the Arab
world, NATO member Turkey
and several African and
Asian countries behind a
vaguely defined 'Islamic
military alliance' against
terrorists. The move allows
the kingdom, which follows a
deeply conservative
interpretation of Islam, to
cast itself as a leader in
the fight against
extremism."
Could scientists have
found a particle heavier
than the famous Higgs boson?
That appears to be the
case. Using the CMS and
ATLAS detectors at the Large
Hadron Collider (LHC)
outside Geneva, Switzerland,
scientists discovered an
excess of photon pairs
carrying around 750
gigaelectronvolts of energy,
according to Nature. This
could indicate a particle
new to nature that would be
about four times more
massive than the heaviest
particle ever discovered –
the top quark – and six
times heavier than the
Higgs.
Several major companies
from across both the
technology and financial
industries—including IBM,
Intel, and Cisco as well as
the London Stock Exchange
Group and big-name banks JP
Morgan, Wells Fargo, and
State Street—have joined
forces to create an
alternative to the
blockchain, the global
online ledger that underpins
the bitcoin digital
currency.
A divided Congress
recently reached an
agreement on a $1.1 trillion
spending bill to fund the
government for the 2016
budget year and extend $680
billion in tax cuts for
businesses and individuals.
President Barack Obama is
expected to sign the
legislation once Congress
passes it.
However, not all
lawmakers are happy about
it.
There’s no question about
it. We’re there. And I’m not
just talking about the
globalist takeover bid
they’re hastily and clumsily
trying to execute. The
awakening is erupting.
Many feel lost and afraid
right now all across the
spectrum of humanity. This
deliberate creation of chaos
is designed to do just that.
However, parallel and
simultaneous to their
psychotic designs is a
massive arousal of the human
spirit, spurred on by an
arising of conscious
awareness and a deep sense
of growing personal
realization and empowerment.
The mandatory registration
applies only to hobbyist
drones.
Two months ago, the US
Department of Transportation
(USDot) assembled a
taskforce consisting of 25
to 30 representatives from
government and the drone and
aviation industries. The
objective was to offer
recommendations on how a
drone registration system
could best be rolled out.
Intermittent fasting can
provide many important
health
benefits, including improving
your insulin/leptin
sensitivity, helping your
body more effectively burn
fat for fuel, increasing
mental clarity and overall
energy levels, and more.
Words
“Words are singularly the
most powerful force
available to humanity. We
can choose to use this force
constructively with words of
encouragement, or
destructively using words of
despair. Words have energy
and power with the ability
to help, to heal, to hinder,
to hurt, to harm, to
humiliate and to humble.” ―
Yehuda Berg
The world has warmly
received the breakthrough
Paris Climate Agreement
reached Saturday in Paris
that for the first time,
unites wealthy nations and
poorer ones to take common
climate action.
Politicians and civil
society leaders from around
the world expressed optimism
and hope that humanity has
acted in time to curb
runaway climate change.
Chinese President Xi
Jinping called for
governments to co-operate in
regulating Internet use,
stepping up efforts to
promote controls that
activists complain stifle
free expression.
Xi's government operates
extensive Internet
monitoring and censorship
and has tightened controls
since he came to power in
2013.
December 15, 2015
Buddhists are one of the
least understood religions
out there, not because of a
disinterest in understanding
it, but because of so much
disinformation. Buddhist
jokes actually help us
understand Buddhism the way
it should be. These are a
few of my favorites.
An Afghanistan War veteran
and Christian is suing the
iconic Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York City,
saying several of its
paintings which depict the
baby Jesus as a
blonde-haired, blue-eyed
“Aryan” are racist and
represent a clear cut case
of “white supremacy” in the
public sphere.
A new study could upset
some of the conventional
wisdom around algae growth
and nutrient management in
freshwater systems.
Phosphorus limitation
“has been regarded as the
rule” in freshwater systems
when it comes to managing
algae, according to the
study published in the
scholarly journal
Hydrobiologia.
But maybe that’s not the
best approach.
Scam artists show up in the
wake of every disaster. Like
vultures circling above road
kill, they swoop in on any
opportunity to take
advantage of the
disadvantaged, capitalizing
on your compassion and
manipulating your emotion.
Charities and nonprofits are
the perfect vehicles in
which these scammers can
hide in plain sight.
“Charitable organizations”
run the gamut from upright
and successful, to well
meaning but incompetent, to
corrupt, greedy and
devious—and everything in
between.
Scientists from the
United States, Japan, and
China are racing to perfect
satellite technology that
could one day measure
greenhouse gas emissions
from space, potentially
transforming the winner into
the world's first climate
cop.
Monitoring a single
country's net emissions from
above could not only become
an important tool to
establish whether it had met
its promises to slow global
warming, a point of
contention at climate talks
in Paris, but also help
emitters to pinpoint the
sources of greenhouse gases
more quickly and cheaply.
Organic foods can be found
in almost every supermarket
now a days. Organic dairy,
poultry and beef are
becoming readily available
as consumers are more aware
of the importance or “real”
food. This is a step in the
right direction, but I think
it’s important to consider
grass-fed animals. The
nutritional value of
grass-fed animal products
far exceeds that of even
organic animal products.
Asteroid 2003 SD220 will
pass safely, at more than 28
times the moon’s distance.
Will it cause earthquakes?
Gosh, no.
Ben Carson is threatening to
leave the Republican Party
and launch an independent
White House bid if reports
that party leaders preparing
for a brokered convention
next year in Cleveland are
true, saying that the party
will be destroyed if its
leaders "subvert the will of
the voters."
“Today we noticed that the
Pullmantur Zenith (a
division of Royal Caribbean
Cruise lines) was anchored
oddly close to the reef so
we decided to go out and
have a look…As you will see
in the video, a massive
portion of the reef out
front from Don Fosters and
Eden Rock was completely
destroyed today,” Scott
Prodahl, the person
identified as having
uploaded the video, wrote
online.
Dame Jane Goodall travels
the globe 300+ days each
year – with a cow – a small
black and white stuffed toy.
The British scientist and UN
Messenger of Peace is also
an animal activist.
Goodall describes Cow’s
life with a twinkle in her
eye. “Cow works hard. She is
a spokesperson for abused
farm animals.”
Cow also helps Goodall
explain to the world the
relationship between methane
gas (CH4) and global
warming.
New research suggests it’s
possible for the sun to
release flares 1,000 times
greater than previously
recorded. But it’s not
likely, says physicist.
A new diagnostic imaging
technique developed by the
University of Maryland (UMD)
promises to boost
efficiencies of solar cells
by making it possible to
find and correct previously
undetected ways that solar
cells fall far short of
theoretical efficiencies.
Tribal governments that
disenroll members do it for
the money. Or at least it
appears that way in many
cases. Tribal councils who
engage in disenrollment turn
their members into
non-Indians in exchange for
a bigger slice of tribal
gaming profits. Ironically,
while some tribal members
may benefit from larger per
capita payments, at least
temporarily, political
strife caused by
disenrollment controversies
can eviscerate tribal
economies, shrinking the pie
itself.
Regulators responded by
introducing a plethora of
ever-more-complex
regulations governing the
financial community. Now,
more than ever, banks and
FIs simply cannot risk doing
business with any
organization or individual
with connections to
financial crime or funding
of terrorist organizations;
or where they cannot
quantify the risk:
understanding the risk of
doing business with an
entity or individual has
become more crucial than
ever.
-
The vast majority of
chronic disease and
premature deaths can be
prevented through simple
changes in diet and
lifestyle. A healthy
diet is based on real
food, as processed foods
are part of the problem
-
There are many simple
cost-effective ways to
make any meal healthier,
from adding dark green
leafy vegetables, to
adding your tea leaves
to a smoothie rather
than tossing them after
making a cup of tea
-
About 70 percent of
emerging or reemerging
infectious diseases
originate in the animal
kingdom. Selecting pigs
and chickens for mass
production may be a
major mistake, as these
are influenza-bearing
animals
Late dawn. Early sunset.
Short day. Long night. For
us in the Northern
Hemisphere, the December
solstice marks the longest
night and shortest day of
the year. Meanwhile, on the
day of the December
solstice, the Southern
Hemisphere has its longest
day and shortest night. This
special day is coming up on
Tuesday, December 22 at 4:48
UTC (December 21 at 10:48
p.m. CST). No matter where
you live on Earth’s globe, a
solstice is your signal to
celebrate. Follow the links
below to learn more about
the 2015 December solstice.
Failure
“Failure should be our
teacher, not our undertaker.
Failure is delay, not
defeat. It is a temporary
detour, not a dead end.
Failure is something we can
avoid only by saying
nothing, doing nothing, and
being nothing.” ― Denis
Waitley
The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration has cleared
the use of the XSTAT 30—an
innovative sponge-filled
gunshot wound dressing
device—for use in the
general population. Approved
last year for battlefield
use, the device can plug a
gunshot wound in just 15
seconds.
The designers of the
Wendelstein 7-x are of the
view that the device will
offer the required stability
for continuous nuclear
fusion power generation. It
uses a cage of 50
superconducting coils to
suspend super-hot plasma in
the center of a twisting
magnetic field for more than
30 minutes at a time.
Readers of these FLASH
TRAFFIC emails know that I
have been trying to draw the
attention of leaders in
Washington and Jerusalem,
U.S. presidential
candidates, journalists,
Evangelical leaders, and the
American people more broadly
to the emerging threat of
what I call “Apocalyptic
Islam” of both the Shia and
Sunni varieties.
A new declassified
report from the US Nuclear
Regulatory Commission,
written on March 18, 2011
just days after the
disaster, sheds light on
just how bad it was.
We now know that
“100% of the total spent
fuel was released to the
atmosphere from unit 4.”
A new study questions the
popular notion that
10th-century Vikings were
able to colonize Greenland
because of unusually warm
weather.
What is the main goal of
the deal?
The stated goal among
global climate negotiators
has long been to reduce
emissions enough so that
global temperatures rise no
more than 2 degrees Celsius,
or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit,
by 2100. That is the level
at which scientists say the
most catastrophic effects of
climate change can be
avoided.
That goal was not met in
Paris, but few people
expected it to be.
The monumentally popular
YouVersion Bible app has
officially topped 200
million installs across the
globe, with developers
announcing that the most
popular verse in the app’s
history is Romans 12:2.
That scripture, which is
both the most read and
shared, reads as follows:
“Do not conform to the
pattern of this world, but
be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Then
you will be able to test and
approve what God’s will is —
his good, pleasing and
perfect will.”
Over a decade ago, the
founder of an Internet
company received a letter
from the federal government,
ordering him to not only
provide information about
one of his clients but also
banning him from telling
anyone about it.
Mini-versions of
current-generation nuclear
reactors could be the
solution for the industry's
problems in finding
financing for new atomic
power stations, U.S. Energy
Secretary Ernest Moniz said
on Wednesday.
The construction of new
reactors in developed
countries has virtually
ground to a halt in recent
years due to safety fears
following the 2011 Fukushima
disaster and because nuclear
projects struggle to find
financing as they compete
with cheaper natural gas and
renewable energy.
Power plants are now
grappling with early-stage
compliance for new U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) rules affecting
air, water and coal ash, and
vigilance is vital, speakers
said during a Wednesday
COAL-GEN session in Las
Vegas.
“I look at the end game.
At some point, environmental
groups are going to come
after you,” said Block
Andrews of Burns &
McDonnell.
The Islamic State says that
it plans to strike in
America, and national
security experts are taking
their warning seriously.
The nuclear industry said
this week at the UN climate
negotiations in Paris
(COP21) it is committed to
addressing climate change,
but what are they doing
about spent nuclear waste?
That is the question being
asked by many, including the
National Association of
Regulatory Utility
Commissioners (NARUC).
Just another reason for big
pharma, to fill us up with
prescription pills. In an
attempt to curb the mass
rush for food change and
reform, psychiatry has green
lighted a public relations
push to spread awareness
about their new buzzword
“orthorexia
nervosa,” defined as “a
pathological obsession for
biologically pure and
healthy nutrition.” In other
words, experts are moving
toward saying that our
demand for nutrient-dense,
healthful food is a mental
disorder that must be
treated.
On worries that the glut
will get worse. Oil prices
tumbled 4% on Monday, coming
close to their 11-year low,
on growing fears that the
global oil glut would worsen
in the months to come in a
pricing war between leading
OPEC and non-OPEC producers.
Regulators in California
are looking for a way to
crack down on wastewater
ponds formed during oil
production.
“In an inventory
completed this November,
staff at the Central Valley
Regional Water Control Board
found 1,074 wastewater
ponds. Of those, 716 are
still active, though 182
were designated as
unregulated. The board has
been issuing enforcement
actions since April to
operators that are out of
compliance,” KBAK reported.
Americans believe that more
than half of all federal
spending is waste, according
to Gallup--51 cents out of
every dollar to be specific.
This is one of those points
on which so-called experts
can marshal all kinds of
figures to show that
ordinary Americans are
wildly off-base--and the
experts will be stupider for
it.
It was very much the
clear signal investors were
hoping for as they weighed
whether they should put
their dollars in clean
energy.
But that in no way leaves
utilities on the sidelines.
In fact, what it should do
is give utility CEOs the
courage to push their
regulators to approve plans
to integrate solar, wind,
battery and whatever's next
into the grid.
Render Service
“Whoever renders service to
many puts himself in line
for greatness - great
wealth, great return, great
satisfaction, great
reputation, and great joy.”
― Jim Rohn
C1 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be low with a slight chance
for an M-class flare on days
one, two, and three (15 Dec,
16 Dec, 17 Dec). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at unsettled
to minor storm levels on day
one (15 Dec), unsettled to
active levels on day two (16
Dec) and quiet to active
levels on day three (17
Dec).
Generally, when you choose
steel you're trading off
between strength and
ductility. The hardest
steels are the martensitic
types, but their crystalline
structure makes them brittle
and prone to cracking when
you press or bend them, so
they need to be hot pressed.
Flash Bainite breaks this
rule by delivering a
specific strength some 7
percent higher than
martensitic steel but
staying remarkably bendable
to the point where it can be
cold pressed into shapes.
Recipes combining salt
and tap water treated by
chlorination or
chloramination may create
toxic food.
“When iodized table salt
is added to tap water
containing chloramines or
chlorine during cooking, it
reacts and creates
hypoiodous acid. When this
acid reacts to other organic
matters in the tap water and
food, it creates iodinated
disinfection byproducts
(I-DBPs). Some of these
molecules have not been
discovered yet and are
completely new to engineers,
toxicologists and
environmental chemists,”
Tech Times recently
reported.
The Department of Homeland
Security as recently as 2014
upheld a secret Obama
administration policy that
barred officials from
reviewing the social media
accounts of those seeking
visas, something that may
have stopped San Bernardino
shooter Tashfeen Malik from
entering the country.
Scientists are studying past
changes in sea level in
order to make accurate
future predictions of this
consequence of climate
change, and they're looking
down to Earth's core to do
so. "In order to fully
understand the sea-level
change that has occurred in
the past century, we need to
understand the dynamics of
the flow in Earth's core"
says Mathieu Dumberry, a
professor in physics at the
University of Alberta.
-
High-sugar diets are the
primary culprit in
skyrocketing obesity and
type 2 diabetes rates,
and other chronic health
problems associated with
insulin resistance
-
Cutting out added sugars
can improve biomarkers
associated with health
in as little as 10 days
— even when overall
calorie count and
percentage of
carbohydrates remains
the same
-
Added sugars are
pernicious in virtually
all processed foods. A
package of sweet and
sour chicken with rice
contains over 12
teaspoons, more than a
can of soda, and twice
the daily recommended
amount of sugar
The Geminid meteors travel
slowly and burn up in the
atmosphere with a
distinctive bright yellowish
hue, which makes them easy
to spot with the naked eye
World leaders convened in
Paris last week to agree on
a successor to the Kyoto
Protocol. The goal is to
keep global temperature rise
to 2 degrees Celsius, at
maximum, with many
stakeholders calling for an
even stronger goal of 1.5
degrees. One way to achieve
that goal is through the
mass deployment of renewable
energy.
Scientists have captured
amazing new radar images of
a paleoriver network
underneath the desert sands
of the Sahara.
Landscapes can change over
time—sometimes
drastically—even so, it is
difficult to imagine that
someplace as dry as the
Sahara once contained
verdant river basins with
flowing water, but that
indeed appears to be the
case.
Several local officials in
China's Northeast region
admitted they had faked
economic data in the past
few years to show high
growth when the real numbers
were much lower, the China
Daily website reported,
citing the state-owned
Xinhua News Agency.
"If the past data had not
been inflated, the current
growth figures would not
show such a precipitous
fall," one official was
quoted as saying.
December 11, 2015
As a preventive measure
against developing
melanoma—the deadliest form
of skin cancer—you should
pay close attention to
your skin. In particular, if
you have a mole—or something
on your skin that may
resemble a mole—you should
make note of the following
characteristics. If you
notice any changes, be sure
to report them to your
doctor .
North Dakota producers are
selling off their Bakken
acreage and assets in
response to declining prices
as more than 5% of the
state's producing wells
await transfer approval,
according to the state's
Department of Mineral
Resources.
"Probably
the biggest thing that we
see happening right now at
[the] oil and gas division
is mergers and
acquisitions," Lynn Helms,
director of North Dakota's
Department of Mineral
Resources, said during a
Wednesday briefing.
Could 2015 be the United
States solar market's best
year in history? A new
report shows that is shaping
up to be -- with
record-breaking fourth
quarter projections.
It would have been
unthinkable just a few
months ago, but a new global
deal to combat climate
change appears poised to set
the world a much more
ambitious target than
expected, even if achieving
that goal is far out of
reach for now.
With the unexpected
support of the United States
and Europe, the agreement,
due to be completed within
days, seems set to go beyond
the current goal of limiting
the rise in global
temperatures to 2 degrees
Celsius (3.6F) above
pre-industrial levels.
A team of astronomers has
successfully detected
magnetic fields present
around the event horizon of
the supermassive black hole
at the centre of our galaxy.
It is thought that these
magnetic fields are the
driving factor behind a
mechanism that sends intense
pulses of galaxy sculpting
radiation blasting thousands
of light-years into space
from the event horizon of a
spinning black hole.
-
Mechanical low-back
pain, typically
triggered by injury or
strain, is best managed
by controlling
inflammation and
engaging in a variety of
exercises to restore
range of motion, and
improve strength
-
Movement appears to be
the most effective
strategy to address most
forms of back pain.
Simply standing up as
much as possible each
day may improve back
pain
-
A wide variety of
pain-relieving tools are
reviewed, including
helpful exercises and
stretches,
pain-relieving herbs and
supplements, physical
therapies, and various
mind-body techniques
As consumers demand safer
and more natural foods, the
market is starting to
comply. So why doesn’t Big
Medicine do the same?..
Consumers, according to
the New York Times,
have been leaving Big Food
in droves, and are
increasingly buying organic
(not to mention free-range,
cage-free, grass-fed, and/or
locally sourced) foods.
After years of denial, some
in the food industry have
finally decided to actually
listen to consumers:
The United States just
experienced its largest
quarter for energy storage
deployments since the fourth
quarter of 2012.
According to GTM Research
and the Energy Storage
Association (ESA), the U.S.
deployed 60.3 megawatts of
energy storage capacity in
the third quarter of the
year. This represents 53.1
megawatt-hours.
There was a time in
America — and not so long
ago — when there was no
“grid,” at least for those
who lived outside of urban
centers. To live
self-sufficiently in rural
areas was the rule, rather
than the exception.
People knew how to
survive without electricity,
running water, sewage
systems or any other
services provided by
municipalities or power
companies. They used wood
for heat and kerosene for
light; they dug wells, built
outhouses, raised cows and
chickens, grew their own
food...
The idea of off-grid
living, however, seems a
threat to some people. Power
companies and others who
have a vested interest in
keeping folks dependent and
plugged in are doing their
best to make it difficult,
if not impossible, to return
to a self-reliant way of
life.
with a transition
to ENSO-neutral anticipated
during late spring or early
summer 2016.
Two Dutch filmmakers
recently took to the streets
to conduct a social
experiment in an effort to
measure public reaction to —
and shed light on — what
they deem to be “shocking
verses” in the
Judeo-Christian scriptures.
The transdermal patch can
dispense ibuprofen through
the skin for up to 12 hours
Investigators were treating
the blast as an act of
hooliganism, police said.
The plan by Florida Power
and Light to invest in a
natural gas fracking project
in Oklahoma was approved by
the Public Service
Commission last December.
But consumer advocates say
that approval wasn't within
the PSC's authority.
The Organic Consumers
Association (OCA), IFOAM
International Organics,
Navdanya, Regeneration
International (RI), and
Millions Against Monsanto,
joined by dozens of global
food, farming and
environmental justice groups
announced today that they
will put Monsanto MON
(NYSE), a US-based
transnational corporation,
on trial for crimes against
nature and humanity, and
ecocide, in The Hague,
Netherlands, next year on
World Food Day, October 16,
2016.
But only for very specific
optimization problems.
Two years ago Google and
NASA went halfsies on a
D-Wave quantum computer,
mostly to find out whether
there are actually any
performance gains to be had
when using quantum annealing
instead of a conventional
computer. Recently, Google
and NASA received the latest
D-Wave 2X quantum computer,
which the company says has
"over 1000 qubits."
Greece's Parliament has
approved the 2016 budget
that includes deep spending
cuts and tax hikes amid
economic recession.
Greenland's glaciers are
retreating quickly, and a
new study shows in
historical terms just how
quickly: over the past
century, at least twice as
fast as any other time in
the past 9,500 years. The
study also provides new
evidence for just how
sensitive glaciers are to
temperature, showing that
they responded to past
abrupt cooling and warming
periods, some of which might
have lasted only decades.
Your gut microbiota plays a
crucial role in your health,
and the 100 trillion or so
microbes living in your gut
feed on the foods you eat.
In this way, your diet
influences your health not
just by the micronutrients
it contains, but also by how
it affects the bacterial
colonies residing in your
intestinal tract.
“The System”, as some of us
call it, is ramping up
efforts to control and
curtail, and ultimately
eliminate any and all forms
of unapproved, uncontrolled,
non-monitored, untaxable
activity anyone may even be
thinking of
engaging in — and watch out,
because just thinking about
off-the-books babysitting
will be a thought crime
before you know it! You’ve
been warned, all you cunning
black market terrorist
nannies!
The presence of Turkish
troops near the Islamic
State-held city of Mosul in
northern Iraq is a
"violation" of international
law, Iraq's president said
Saturday.
President Fuad Masum called
the move a "violation of
international norms, laws
and Iraq's national
sovereignty," and said it
was contributing to
increased tensions in the
region.
A new study at Newcastle
University in the UK has
improved our understanding
of Type 2 diabetes,
providing a new insight into
the positive effects that
weight loss can have on
sufferers. According to the
researchers, reversing the
condition can be as simple
as losing a single gram of
fat in the right place.
In June this year Bill SB277
was controversially signed
into Californian State
law, which legislates that
all school-age children in
California are subjected to
mandatory vaccinations
according to the State’s
vaccine schedule.
Its passing into law was
seen as a major loss in the
fight for freedom of choice
and parental rights by both
human rights groups and
the anti-vaccination lobby.
Lawrence Livermore
researchers and
collaborators have found
that most climate models
overestimate the increase in
global precipitation due to
climate change.
Specifically, the team
looked at 25 models and
found they underestimate the
increase in absorption of
sunlight by water vapor as
the atmosphere becomes
moister, and therefore
overestimate increases in
global precipitation.
North Korea had become "a
powerful nuclear weapons
state ready to detonate [a]
self-reliant A-bomb and
H-bomb to reliably defend
its sovereignty and the
dignity of the nation," Kim
said, according to the KCNA
report.
The claim is "inextricably
linked" to the Security
Council meeting, said Jasper
Kim, director of the Center
for Conflict Management at
Seoul's Ewha University.
"North Korea wants to
achieve a stronger
bargaining position."
The U.S. nuclear energy
industry may have something
to cheer about.
Skeptics aren't hard to
find and just how things
might turn out is anyone's
guess, but the Obama
administration appears to be
making a renewed push for
nuclear power as a
clean-energy solution.
After nearly two weeks of
intense negotiations, the
United Nations summit on
climate change has produced
little in the way of
surprises as the Friday
deadline for a deal
approaches.
At a time when the
American public remains
divided over whether the
threat of climate change is
real, there's no
conversation about the
scientific issues here.
Instead, the debates revolve
around the contentious
questions of who will pick
up the tab for damage caused
by global warming and who
will be looking over
countries' shoulders as they
reduce their emissions in
the coming years.
The nation's working middle
class, commonly seen as the
economic backbone of the
nation, is now less than
half of the U.S. population
and continues to financially
struggle under President
Barack Obama, a new report
warns.
The middle
class “is declining and no
longer constitutes a
majority under President
Barack Obama,”..
In a move that defies logic
by authorities in the field,
an area in Northern
California, United States,
has received federal funding
to implement an “
environmentally catastrophic
plan to eradicate
Eucalyptus, Monterey Pine,
and Acacia forests on the
public lands and parks of
the East Bay.” Beginning in
August 2015, up to 400,000
trees will be clear-cut in
the park district and the
remaining stumps sprayed
with toxic herbicides by Dow
and Monsanto. The ultimate
goal is to eliminate forests
and transform the spaces
into “grassland with islands
of shrubs” in an attempt to
reduce fire hazard.
However, those who have
experience with wildfire
mitigation have come forward
denouncing the plan, stating
that fire risk
will dramatically
increase if
officials continue
down this destructive path.
The Weston A. Price
Foundation (WAPF) has filed
comments urging the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) not to place
unnecessary burdens on
producers of raw milk
cheeses.
Raw milk cheeses, made
from milk that has not been
pasteurized, have been
consumed for millennia and
are prized worldwide for
their rich, unique flavors.
For example, under European
law, the famous Parmigiano
Reggiano can only bear that
name if it is produced from
raw milk
Taking a deep breath
might be a bit harder for
children exposed early in
life to a widely used class
of pesticides in
agriculture, according to a
new paper by UC Berkeley
researchers.
The greater the pesticide
exposure, the smaller the
lungs, a new study finds.
Dec 9 Russia's Rosatom has
stopped construction work at
Turkey's first planned
nuclear power plant, Turkish
energy officials told
Reuters on Wednesday, as
relations between Moscow and
Ankara have soured after the
downing of a Russian jet.
Russia has unleashed another
barrage of airstrikes
against targets in Syria,
including the first combat
launch of a new cruise
missile from a Russian
submarine in the
Mediterranean Sea, the
country's defense minister
said Tuesday.
The municipal
councils are the only
government body in which
Saudi citizens can elect
representatives, so the vote
is widely seen as a small
but significant opening for
women to play a more equal
role in Saudi society.
Still, women
face challenges on the
campaign trail: Because of
Saudi Arabia's strict policy
of segregation of the sexes,
they cannot address male
voters directly and have to
speak from behind a
partition — or have male
relatives speak for them.
The US Food and Drug
Administration has issued
three more final rules (with
two more to come next year)
for the implementation of
the Food Safety
Modernization Act (FSMA).
And it’s pretty good news.
The police chief of a small
East Texas town urges all
citizens to arm themselves,
saying the federal
government lacks any
effective plan for fighting
terrorism.
“I refuse to accept the view
that mankind is so
tragically bound to the
starless midnight of racism
and war that the bright
daybreak of peace and
brotherhood can never become
a reality... I believe that
unarmed truth and
unconditional love will have
the final word.” ― Martin
Luther King, Jr.
The United States
announced plans on Wednesday
to double grant funding it
provides to help developing
countries adapt to climate
change to around $860
million a year, a pledge
that may help clinch a
global climate pact this
week.
U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry announced the new
financing pledge during a
speech at the U.N. climate
conference in Paris, where
negotiators from 195
countries are working to
reach an agreement by this
weekend on curbing
greenhouse gas emissions
beyond 2020.
A U.S. government weather
forecaster on Thursday said
the El Nino weather
phenomenon that is underway
is expected to remain strong
through the Northern
Hemisphere winter 2015-16,
before tapering off during
the late spring or early
summer.
The Zumwalt is
notable not only for its
size, but also for its
distinct tumblehome hull
composite superstructure,
which is part of a suite of
advanced stealth features
that reduce the ship's radar
profile by a factor of 50
over current destroyer
designs.
The US nuclear power
industry has launched a
wide-ranging initiative with
the goal of cutting its
electricity production costs
by 30% by 2018, an industry
official said Tuesday.
France, Australia, New
Zealand, Japan, the U.K.,
Germany and Mexico are among
the more than two dozen
countries that have so far
signed on to what one day
will likely be recognized as
the most significant climate
initiative in history.
Boulder, Colorado's
high-profile push to form
its own utility has been
under way for years, but is
now among a small yet
growing number of similar
breakaway efforts to have
cropped up around the
country.
Is Paris the beginning of
the end for coal? Coal
burning is declining fast in
both of the world's two
largest carbon dioxide
emitters, China and the the
United States, with
resulting declines in the
emissions of both countries.
The fuel looks incompatible
with a world that warms by
no more than two degrees
Celsius, bringing calls for
its rapid phaseout as the
world is "decarbonized."
But, with or without a
deal here in Paris later
this week, will the calls be
heeded? Has the demise of
King Coal been greatly
exaggerated?
There are more than 450
active and dormant volcanoes
located within the Ring of
Fire. Plus it’s prone to
powerful earthquakes. Here’s
why.
December 8, 2015
Thousands of South American
water consumers filed a
class action lawsuit against
government agencies in
November after a study
revealed that they had been
drinking water contaminated
by human feces for over two
decades.
Ohio utility regulators have
rejected a complaint from a
Powell man who says American
Electric Power was negligent
in maintaining its system
and should repay him for
food that was lost during a
2012 power failure...
"We find that AEP Ohio
reasonably maintained its
distribution lines and that
the outage was, in fact,
caused by the derecho," the
panel said.
Eat misshapen veg, wash
clothes in cold water, drive
more slowly and recycle? It
is perhaps no surprise that
companies say persuading
consumers to go green is a
big challenge.
Appeaser
“An appeaser is one who
feeds a crocodile, hoping it
will eat him last.” ―
Winston Churchill
Northwestern University
neuroscientists now can read
the mind of a fly. They have
developed a clever new tool
that lights up active
conversations between
neurons during a behavior or
sensory experience, such as
smelling a banana. Mapping
the pattern of individual
neural connections could
provide insights into the
computational processes that
underlie the workings of the
human brain.
Most of us have an idea of
the changes we want to see
in the world, and our
achievements would be
unprecedented if we could
get to a place in society
where we could publicly
strive for a better way of
life. Not everyone’s
interested in getting to
this place or being
recognized by society, but
those who are interested
have two goals in mind:
waking people up and
creating change. People in
the conscious community
don’t care about fame or
fortune, and their mission
to awaken the world is the
main thing on their minds.
The four aircraft used
laser-guided bombs to attack
six targets in the Omar oil
fields in eastern Syria
controlled by the Islamist
militant group which
British officials
call Daesh, using an Arabic
acronym that the group
rejects.
"That strikes a very real
blow at the oil and the
revenue on which the Daesh
terrorists depend," Defence
Secretary Michael Fallon
told the BBC.
A key component of aspirin
has been found to block a
process in the development
of Alzheimer’s disease, as
well as Parkinson’s,
Huntington’s and other
neurodegenerative disorders.
Researchers at the Boyce
Thompson Institute and John
Hopkins University
discovered that salicylic
acid, the primary byproduct
of aspirin, binds to a
cellular enzyme called
GAPDH. That stops it from
causing cell death – a key
mechanism in the development
of Alzheimer’s and other
brain disorders.
China's capital on Monday
issued its first ever "red
alert" for pollution, as the
city government warned that
Beijing would be shrouded in
heavy smog from Tuesday
until Thursday.
China's leadership has
vowed to crack down on
environmental degradation,
including the air pollution
that blankets many major
cities, following decades of
unbridled economic growth.
China probably increased
central bank gold reserves
in November by about 21
metric tons, the most in at
least five months, as prices
had the biggest drop in more
than two years.
The
value of gold assets was
$59.52 billion at the end of
last month from $63.26
billion at end-October,
according to data on the
People’s Bank of China
website released Monday.
That works out to 56.05
million troy ounces or about
1,743 tons, based on the
London Bullion Market
Association afternoon price
auction on Nov. 30,
Bloomberg calculations show.
The stash was 55.38 million
ounces a month earlier.
The parties are clashing
over taxes and refugees, and
they are expected to vote to
give themselves more time to
avoid a shutdown. The
current government funding
bill expires on Friday, but
House Speaker Paul Ryan said
an agreement is unlikely by
then
Just when we all thought it
was safe to stop worrying
about the eurozone, another
country's banking system
blew up and stopped the
Continent in its economic
tracks.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who has
increasingly clashed with
President Barack Obama on
national security, suggested
Tuesday that the president's
decision to send American
fighter jets on the
Syrian-Turkish border "to
target Russian planes" could
lead to nuclear war with
President Vladimir Putin.
Though 2015 got off to a
rocky start for the energy
sector, chief financial
officers (CFO) seemed
cautiously optimistic that
the oil price slump would be
short-lived, according to
BDO USA's 2015 study;
however, the anticipated
recovery has yet to
materialize, and CFOs now
expect the pain to continue
well into 2016.
Soon, our president will
veto bipartisan legislation
created to protect
constituents from a spike in
electricity costs and
threats to the grid
reliability...
Over and over again, we have
witnessed this agency flex
its muscles at the expense
of American families - all
in an effort to pave a
pathway forward for the
president's liberal agenda.
Unfortunately, this agency
has hindered the revival of
a strong manufacturing base
at home and, instead, has
driven up electricity and
other costs for citizens.
As representatives from more
than 190 countries convene
in France for the second
week to address ways to slow
global warming, an MIT-led
team has published a paper
outlining a set of options
for incorporating equity
considerations in a national
Emissions Trading System
(ETS) for China that could
reduce carbon emissions
while minimizing economic
impact on poorer or
less-developed regions.
A large glacier in
northeastern Greenland,
called Zachariae Isstrom,
has been melting faster
since 2012. It’s now losing
mass at rate of 5 billion
tons per year.
Former Air Force airmen
are speaking out against
America's use of drone
warfare, calling the
military drone program
"morally outrageous" and
"one of the most devastating
driving forces for terrorism
and destabilization around
the world."
In interviews with NBC
News, three former
servicemen — who together
have 15 years of military
drone experience — decried
the civilian cost of drone
strikes and called on
President Obama to "turn
this around" before he
leaves office.
The rainfall and snowpack so
far this autumn have been
encouraging, but the
stubborn reality is
that California is still
mired in drought. While
farmers from Bakersfield to
Fresno to Redding
are screaming about water
quotas, California residents
say they are doing what they
can, from pulling out grass
lawns to capturing what
little rainwater exists. We
hear constant harping on the
fact that 70 to 80 percent
of California’s water goes
to agriculture, which
comprises only 2 percent of
the state’s economy. But the
focus on statistics
overlooks the fact that the
agriculture sector is
growing — and no one wants
to see the Sacramento
Valley, Imperial Valley or
San Joaquin Valley turn into
wasteland.
Standard & Poor’s reports
that companies have
defaulted on $95 billion
worth of debt so far this
year, with 2015 set to
finish with the highest
number of worldwide defaults
since 2009.
Strategists are warning that
corporate defaults will only
continue to skyrocket as the
Federal Reserve prepares to
hike rates and oil and
commodity prices remain
stalled...
As world leaders meet in
Paris to agree a legal
framework aimed at limiting
use of fossil fuels and the
resulting rises in global
temperatures, a UK company
says it could be as little
as five years from making
“reactor relevant” fusion, a
potential game changer in
energy production.
A British company
believes it is within five
years of achieving “reactor
relevant” fusion, a major
landmark in the six decade
long scientific search for
the veritable Holy Grail of
energy production.
Fusion is how stars
produce energy. It occurs
when the nuclei of light
atoms, such as hydrogen, are
fused together under extreme
pressure and heat.
Climate change is likely to
have far-reaching impacts on
food security throughout the
world, especially for the
poor and those living in
tropical regions, according
to a new international
report that includes three
co-authors from the National
Center for Atmospheric
Research (NCAR).
The research
wouldn't have been
possible without the
use of genetically
modified mice
A new study from
researchers at the UK's
University College
London (UCL) has
examined a rare
condition that makes
people unable to feel
pain, known as
congenital insensitivity
to pain (CIP). While
previous projects have
had little success in
fully understanding the
condition, the new
effort represents a big
breakthrough,
pinpointing the key
elements that cause it.
A Dutch architect has
developed a new technique to
generate free energy in a
sustainable way at home,
whereby energy is released
by perpetually unbalancing a
weight -- offering an
alternative to solar and
wind technology.
Habitat destruction along
routes taken by the world's
migratory birds poses an
increasing peril to these
long-distance fliers, with a
vast majority crossing
terrain that nations are
inadequately protecting,
according to scientists.
The researchers said on
Thursday they tracked the
migratory routes, stopover
locations, breeding grounds
and wintering locations of
1,451 migratory species and
assessed about 450,000
protected areas like
national parks and other
reserves.
Jerry Falwell Jr.,
president of Christian-based
Liberty University in
Lynchburg, Virginia, is
encouraging students to
carry concealed weapons on
campus for protection, a
local newspaper reported.
Falwell made his remarks
at the school's weekly
convocation on Friday night,
according to The News &
Advance in Lynchburg. The
comments came two days after
a shooting in San
Bernardino, California left
14 people dead and in the
wake of other shooting
sprees in the United States,
including some on college
campuses.
As world leaders meet in
Paris to step up the fight
against global warming,
President Barack Obama's
corporate pledge of support
for more action on climate
change is slowly gathering
momentum.
One hundred fifty-four
companies spanning a wide
range of industries have
signed the American Business
Act on Climate Pledge.
The Nevada agency that
oversees drinking water
facilities has completed its
investigation of a utility
manager who poisoned
children’s water, and it now
appears the man will no
longer oversee drinking
water for the city.
A new MIT study suggests
that there is little danger
of Earth's geomagnetic field
flipping in the near future.
Previous research in the
area had predicted an
imminent flip (in geological
terms) that would leave all
life on Earth temporarily
un-shielded from a plethora
of dangers posed by deep
space phenomenon.
The coyote is complex and
devious powerful teacher,
hence the title 'Trickster.'
Some tribes call him
Nanapush, some Inktomi, some
see the deceiver as
tarantula, others say
Pihneefich or Saygap.
According to ICTMN's Dr.
Coyote, "Think of him as a
Native Bart Simpson, you can
learn how do things the
right way from doing the
opposite of what he
does. Dr. Coyote usually
speaks out of all sides of
his mouth, with his forked
tongue, or all at once."
Bureau of Labor Statistics
(BLS) data indicates that
the total number of hours
all Americans combined are
working each year is at
exactly the same level as it
was in 2007. Not one hour
more.
Global oil supply is
continuing to increase
faster than demand in a
trend unlikely to be
reversed next year, Total
CEO Patrick Pouyanne said
Monday.
"The market
is oversupplied and
production capacity will
continue to grow because a
lot of projects were
sanctioned in 2013 and
2014," Pouyanne told
reporters on the sidelines
of the International
Petroleum Technology
Conference in Doha.
“In an inventory
completed this November,
staff at the Central Valley
Regional Water Control Board
found 1,074 wastewater
ponds. Of those, 716 are
still active, though 182
were designated as
unregulated. The board has
been issuing enforcement
actions since April to
operators that are out of
compliance,” KBAK reported.
Enforcement actions aim
to prevent harm to the
environment and the drinking
water supply. For instance,
regulators put a special
focus on a facility operated
by Valley Water Management
located near fresh
groundwater.
It's a simple concept
that has lasted a half
century: "One
person, one vote."
But in today's litigious
society, nothing is simple.
So the Supreme Court must
step in Tuesday and consider
this question: When it comes
to drawing election
districts, who counts as a
person?
OPEC failed to agree on an
overall crude output ceiling
at key talks in Vienna
Friday, ministers said.
Iranian oil minister
Bijan Zanganeh said the oil
producer group's failure to
agree on an official output
level meant that member
countries would pump as much
as they wished.
Nanoparticles as a vehicle
for delivering drugs
precisely where they are
needed promise to be a major
revolution in medical
science. Unfortunately,
retrieving those particles
from the body for detailed
study is a long and involved
process. But that may soon
change with a team of
engineers at the University
of California, San Diego
developing a technique that
uses an oscillating electric
field to separate
nanoparticles from blood
plasma in a way that may one
day make it a routine
procedure.
Missing limbs have become a
well-known symbol of recent
wars, but the genital damage
is a hidden wound — and, to
many, a far worse one —
cloaked in shame, stigma and
embarrassment
A Pentagon business advocacy
agency spent almost $150
million renting private
"villas" and security for a
"handful" of staff and
visitors in Afghanistan,
bypassing government housing
that could have saved
taxpayers tens of millions
of dollars, according to an
inspector general's report
released Thursday.
Carbon boasts the ability to
exist in different forms and
phases, and now researchers
have discovered Q-carbon, a
distinct new solid phase of
carbon with the potential to
make converting carbon into
diamonds as easy as making
toast (if you make toast
with a high powered laser
beam). It's early days yet,
but researchers are already
claiming that Q-carbon is
magnetic,
electro-conductive, glows in
the dark, is relatively
inexpensive to make and has
stolen the crown of "world's
hardest substance" from
diamond.
The International Renewable
Energy Agency (IRENA) has
released a new series of
reports offering detailed
information on how to
develop quality
infrastructure for small
wind turbines and solar
water heaters.
HR 8 and HR 22 give the
Secretary of Energy broader
authority to address grid
security emergencies while
facilitating the protection
and voluntary sharing of
critical electric
information between asset
owners and the federal
government. This will help
public power utilities avoid
disclosing such information
to potentially nefarious
individuals or groups on
account of state sunshine
law requirements.
Every day in America, we
lose nearly 6 billion
gallons of expensive,
treated water due to
crumbling infrastructure.
Leaky, aging pipes and
outdated systems are wasting
2.1 trillion gallons
annually. That’s roughly 16
percent of our nation’s
daily water use. Or, enough
to swallow several major
American cities whole:
C1 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low with a chance
for a C-class flares on day
one (08 Dec) and expected to
be very low with a chance
for a C-class flares and a
slight chance for an M-class
flare on days two and three
(09 Dec, 10 Dec). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
minor storm levels on days
one and three (08 Dec, 10
Dec) and quiet to active
levels on day two (09 Dec).
Many Americans have turned
to a vegetarian diet for
many different reasons.
Maybe you just think it will
make you generally more
healthy. Perhaps you want to
trim a few pounds. Maybe you
want to supplement your
already healthy lifestyle.
However, will you be
happier? Some research
suggests that the exact
opposite is the truth and
Women’s Health recently
looked into some of the
research and cautions people
to be well aware of how
going meatless can impact
your mental health.
The study found that
amyloid-beta plaques in the
brain reduce levels on the
protein BRCA1 (red) in
neurons (blue)
The U.S. Senate voted 52-48
Thursday against providing
funding for Planned
Parenthood, less than a week
after a deadly attack on a
Planned Parenthood
facility in Colorado
Springs, Colorado. The
amendment, part of a
legislative effort to
gut the Affordable Care Act
-- President Barack Obama’s
signature health care law --
will almost certainly be
vetoed when the bill ends up
in the Oval Office.
The Supreme Court declined
Monday to review whether
cities and states can
prohibit semiautomatic,
high-capacity assault
weapons, which have been
used in some of the nation’s
most deadly recent mass
shootings.
Syria on Monday accused the
U.S.-led coalition of
bombing an army camp in the
eastern part of the country,
killing three Syrian
soldiers and wounding 13,
but a senior U.S. military
official said the Pentagon
is "certain" the strike was
from a Russian warplane.
The Greatest Deception
“The greatest deception men
suffer is from their own
opinions.” ― Leonardo da
Vinci
Bailey, born October 26,
1998, received an MMR
vaccination on March 14,
2000 which led to him having
a seizure and ADEM, and
later caused Pervasive
Developmental Delay (PDD).
According to his official
medical record, Bailey had
normal childhood development
before receiving the
vaccination and had no
health issues. Sixteen days
after his vaccination he had
a seizure and was taken to
the emergency room, where he
had an MRI scan and
neurological examinations in
the next few days. According
to his radiologist Dr. Bret
Sleight, the MRI showed that
his brain was “most
consistent with a
demyelinating process of
immune etiology such as may
be seen with ADEM or perhaps
post-vaccination.”
“We should not raise prices
on consumers based on the
wishes of a handful of
activists,” said Rep. Mike
Pompeo (R-Kan.), who just
became consumer enemy number
one after he decided to
author a bill that destroys
any chance Americans have of
knowing what’s in their
food, specifically whether
or not they contain
genetically modified
ingredients, or GMOs.
End of Antibiotics Grows
Near As Drug-Resistant Gene
with Epidemic Potential Is
Found in Animals, Meats, and
Humans
-
Researchers recently
discovered a new gene,
called mcr-1, in pigs
and people in China — a
gene mutation that makes
bacteria resistant to
our last-resort class of
antibiotics
-
The drug resistance
caused by this gene has
the potential to create
a global epidemic of
infections resistant to
ALL available
antibiotics, as the rate
of transfer of
resistance between
bacteria is
exceptionally high
-
The researchers call for
urgent restrictions on
the use of polymyxins,
including colistin,
which is widely used in
livestock farming
Toyota's introduction of the
Mirai -- the automaker's
first production-level fuel
cell car -- has thrust fuel
cell vehicles (FCV) back
into the spotlight.
Yemen's warring parties have
agreed to hold peace talks
in Switzerland next week,
the U.N. special envoy said
Monday.
The US oil rig count fell by
10 to 545 in the week ending
Friday, also down 1,030 from
1,575 in the comparable week
a year ago, Baker Hughes
said in its weekly report.
Gas rigs rose three to
192, which was down 152 from
344 a year ago. The total US
oil and gas rig count for
the week was down seven to
737.
A new battery devised at the
University of Maryland uses
a high concentration of
lithium salts in water to
create high-voltage, green,
safe energy storage for the
smart grid and
safety-centric applications
The agriculture industry is
responsible for putting
nitrates in the water
supply, but water utilities
shoulder the burden of
billing customers for the
cleanup. ..
Of course, if agriculture
footed the bill, consumers
might still have to pay the
costs, but some of the
burden would be lifted from
water suppliers. Farmers
“could internalize those
costs and spread them out
over all customers so that
people in Kewaunee County or
Spring Green, areas which
suffer from nitrate
pollution, would not have to
pay so much for water,” the
report said.
-
The primary tools used
to screen for colon
cancer are
sigmoidoscopes and
colonoscopes. These
devices are not
disposable, so they must
be sterilized between
each use
-
About 80 percent of
endoscopes are cleaned
using Cidex
(glutaraldehyde), which
does NOT properly
sterilize these tools,
potentially allowing for
the transfer of
infectious material
-
Asking what solution is
used to clean the scope
is a key question that
could save your life.
Make sure it’s been
sterilized with
peracetic acid, to avoid
potential transfer of
infectious material from
previous patients
December 4, 2015
A Little More Persistence
“A little more persistence,
a little more effort, and
what seemed hopeless failure
may turn to glorious
success.” ― Elbert Hubbard
Triclosan, found
in common “antibacterial”
products, is linked to
impaired muscle function and
hormone disruption.
Federal agents have
discovered preliminary
evidence that San Bernardino
gunman Syed Rizwan Farook
was in contact by phone and
social media with people who
had been the subject of a
terrorism probe by the FBI,
according to multiple law
enforcement sources.
The statistics more than
demonstrate that the
favorable policies and
support facilities put in
place by the Chinese
government have gone a long
way in spurring the
production and sales of new
energy vehicles. The facts
speak for themselves: in the
month of September, new
energy vehicle production in
the country reached 32,800
units, an increase of 210
percent compared to the same
month last year.
The outlook for the global
economy next year is
darkening, with a U.S.
recession and China becoming
the first major emerging
market to slash interest
rates to zero both potential
scenarios, according to
Citi.
As the U.S.
economy enters its seventh
year of expansion following
the 2008-09 crisis, the
probability of recession
will reach 65 percent,
Citi's rates strategists
wrote in their 2016
outlook published
late on Tuesday.
Nearly time for 2015’s
Geminid meteor shower! Moon
will be a waxing crescent
and won’t interfere. Peak
night probably December 13,
through the following
morning.
What is the climate waiting
for Russia and Europe in
15-20 years? Will be there
weather abnormalities in the
coming decades? Will some
areas experience more severe
winter, while the others
will have hot summer? It all
depends on how much the
climate will be affected by
the dynamics of the possible
onset of minimum solar
magnetic activity. The Sun's
behaviour in future cycles
is the main theme of a
publication on the forecast
and explanation of the
minima of solar activity.
The paper was prepared with
contributions from Elena
Popova from the Skobeltsyn
Institute of Nuclear Physics
(Lomonosov Moscow State
University) and was
published in Scientific
Reports.
As world leaders meet in
Paris to tackle carbon
emissions, here in the
Amazon we are watching
forests burning unchecked,
releasing carbon into the
atmosphere, destroying
sensitive ecosystems and
making breathing difficult.
There are forests fires
in the Amazon every year,
but 2015 is exceptional.
We've been investigating the
issue in the rainforest
around Santarém, a city on
the south bank of the
Amazon, 800km from the sea.
The Senate voted Thursday
evening for the first time
ever to repeal President
Barack Obama’s signature
health care law, passing the
measure 52-47.
More than 500 institutions
representing over $3.4
trillion in assets have made
some form of divestment
commitment at COP21 in the
first few days of the event,
marking a new record for the
fossil fuel divestment
campaign, according to
350.org and Divest-Invest,
two organizations
coordinating the growing
movement.
Russia's newly developed
nuclear-armed submarine
drone threatens America's
coastal cities — and U.S.
officials are confronting
Moscow about the "troubling"
weapon system, a top State
Department official says.
The recent invention of the
‘RoboBee’, compared to other
seemingly more malign
innovations, may appear at
first as a trivial and even
harmless invention. But if
we make an effort to
remember and search the
memory banks, we will
quickly find the time when
drones were adopted by the
law enforcement agencies,
and have been ever since. At
first they were introduced
as surveillance devices to
help with rescue missions, a
noble cause, as it appears
at first. But the truth of
the matter is that this
noble cause is usually a
mask, a dirty trick to get
the bill passed or get the
funding going.
Green Mountain Power (GMP)
is the first utility in the
country to offer home
batteries to its customers.
Partnering with Tesla, GMP
will offer customers the
option to purchase outright
or lease with no upfront
cost the Tesla Powerwall
battery
Dr. Sebastian Gorka is an
adviser to the Department of
Defense and an instructor
for the FBI’s
Counterterrorism Division.
In November 2015, Gorka
released a detailed report
on the Islamic State threat
in the United States. The
report stressed the urgent
need for more rigorous law
enforcement action against
IS and its supporters
operating in the country.
Over the past 14,000 years,
penguin numbers in East
Antarctica increased
135-fold because of
disappearing glaciers and
sea ice. How long can
populations keep growing?
Iranian oil minister Bijan
Zanganeh said Thursday that
Tehran's full return to
international oil markets
after the expected lifting
of sanctions was not
negotiable and that OPEC
countries that had increased
production over the past
year were responsible for
the 60% drop in oil prices.
Assistive exoskeletons are a
bit like electric bikes –
they do indeed give users a
power boost, but part of
that boost is needed just to
move the extra weight along.
Japanese researchers at
Hiroshima University and
Daiya Industry Co., however,
have created a minimalist
exoskeleton that does away
with heavy batteries and
motors. Instead, their
Unplugged Powered Suit (UPS)
harnesses the wearer's own
weight.
Using statistically modeled
maps drawn from satellite
data and other sources, U.S.
Geological Survey scientists
have projected that the
near-surface permafrost that
presently underlies 38
percent of boreal and arctic
Alaska would be reduced by
16 to 24 percent by the end
of the 21st century under
widely accepted climate
scenarios. Permafrost
declines are more likely in
central Alaska than northern
Alaska.
Drones have continued to
capture our imagination in
remarkable ways throughout
2015. Despite the thick
layers of bureaucracy that
outlaw commercial use in
much of the world, fresh
ideas itching to put the
technology to use constantly
come to the fore. Let's cast
our eye over some of the
more promising to emerge
this year; a diverse list
that includes everything
from drones that deliver
medical supplies to drones
that can build bridges all
by themselves.
Massachusetts' utilities
have proposed the nation's
most ambitious
energy-efficiency programs,
which will produce almost $8
billion in benefits over the
next three years, according
to the nonprofit research
and advocacy organization
Acadia Center.
Mexico is not willing to cut
its crude production as part
of any coordinated action by
OPEC and non-OPEC producers,
a Mexican energy ministry
source said Thursday.
"The ministry has made
clear on several occasions
that Mexico cannot cut back
on its production," the
source told Platts.
“We need the tonic of
wildness… At the same time
that we are earnest to
explore and learn all
things, we require that all
things be mysterious and
unexplorable, that land and
sea be indefinitely wild,
unsurveyed and unfathomed by
us because unfathomable. We
can never have enough of
nature.” ~ Henry David
Thoreau
"I am announcing my decision
. . . to proceed with
opening all these remaining
occupations and positions to
women," Carter told
reporters at the Pentagon.
"There will be no
exceptions."
Could the very plant that
for decades was accused of
“frying” users’ brains be
far superior to
pharmaceuticals in treating
the “incurable”
neurodegenerative condition
known as Parkinson’s
disease?
In the last four years,
growth in the use of solar
energy has surged 183
percent among America's top
companies, according to a
new study by the Solar
Energy Industries
Association (SEIA).
The information in this
article is more focused on
the USA, because I am more
familiar with the so called
laws in the USA and the U.S.
legal system. If you do not
live in the USA, you should
still read this article for
the reason that the same
legal system that has
enslaved Americans is the
same legal system that has
enslaved most people of the
world.
low levels. Solar
activity is expected to be
very low with a slight
chance for a C-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(04 Dec, 05 Dec, 06 Dec).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on days one
and two (04 Dec, 05 Dec) and
quiet to minor storm levels
on day three (06 Dec).
A team of researchers in
France has taken a major
step towards powering our
devices with rechargeable
batteries based on an
element that is far more
abundant and cheaper than
lithium. For the first time
ever, a battery has been
developed using sodium ions
in the industry standard
"18650" format used in
laptop batteries, LED
flashlights and the Tesla
Model S, among other
products.
Wealthy nations spend 40
times as much money
subsidizing fossil fuel
production as they
contribute to the Green
Climate Fund to help poor
countries adapt to global
warming, a research group
said in a study released on
Thursday.
Eight industrialized
nations - Australia, Canada,
France, Germany, Italy,
Japan, the United Kingdom
and the United States -
spend a combined $80 billion
a year on public support for
fossil fuel production, but
have pledged only about $2
billion a year to the Green
Climate Fund, Oil Change
International said.
A Russian-flagged oil
tanker has run aground off
Nevelsk on the southwest
coast of Sakhalin Island,
spilling oil into the sea,
Russia’s Ministry of
Emergency Situations
reports.
The 124-meter-long tanker
Nadezhda loaded with 786
tons of fuel oil and diesel
fuel was caught in a severe
storm and blown onto a rocky
shore in the Tatar Strait
Saturday.
An international team of
researchers has observed a
black hole swallowing up a
star for the first time. The
rare event took place over
several months, and the
results of the study confirm
an existing black hole
theory.
Black holes are huge,
extremely dense areas of
space with gravitational
pulls so extreme that
neither matter nor light can
escape
Now an international team of
scientists has found a
protein called sLR11 that
suppresses thermogenesis. It
was found that mice lacking
the gene for the production
of sLR11 were less capable
of gaining weight, had
higher amounts of energy and
burned through calories
faster, especially after
feasting on high fat foods.
A closer look revealed that
sLR11 sticks to certain
receptors on fat cells, like
a key sliding into a
keyhole, preventing
thermogenesis being
triggered.
It’s hard not to think of a
cactus as a resilient plant.
Living in hot,
drought-stricken climates,
if it can survive there,
surely it can make it
through anything. Sadly,
this assumption is not
reality for the cactus. As
an international team of
researchers discovered,
nearly one-third of all
cactus species face a
looming threat of
extinction.
Weeks after the Paris terror
attacks that killed 130
people and wounded hundreds
more, world leaders have
converged on the French
capital to discuss what they
call the most urgent
challenge facing the planet,
a crisis that threatens to
spread death and destruction
across the globe: an
increase in global average
temperatures of two degrees
by the end of the 21st
century.
The True Bond
“The bond that links your
true family is not one of
blood, but of respect and
joy in each other's life.” ―
Richard Bach
Europe’s Mount Etna and
Nicaragua’s Momotombo both
erupted spectacularly in
this first week of December,
2015.
China currently stands first
in terms of global
greenhouse gas emissions,
and, as a result, will play
a key role in the outcome of
COP21, which will discuss a
climate change agreement to
limit global temperature
rises by 2100.
The U.S. Geological Survey
recently completed its first
assessment of continuous
resources in the Monterey
Formation in California’s
San Joaquin Basin,
estimating mean volumes of
21 million barrels of oil,
27 billion cubic feet of
gas, and 1 million barrels
of natural gas liquids. The
volume estimated in the
Monterey Formation is small,
compared to previous USGS
estimates of conventional
resources in the San
Joaquin.
U.S. healthcare spending
grew 5.3% last year to $3
trillion, another sign that
a historic slowdown in
medical inflation may be
ending, a new federal report
shows.
The massive expansion of
insurance coverage under the
health law and rapid growth
in specialty drug spending
fueled the uptick in medical
costs, officials said.
Annual spending growth was
3.7%, on average, during the
last five years.
The country spent $9,523
per person on healthcare in
2014...
Solar supporters want
U.S. lawmakers to extend a
30 percent tax credit for
solar installations,
possibly as part of a
package of renewed temporary
tax breaks Congress is
working to pass in the next
two weeks, industry
lobbyists and executives
said.
The tax credit is
currently slated to step
down to 10 percent for
commercial solar systems,
and expire for residential
systems, at the end of 2016.
The head of Southern
California Gas Co said it
would take at least three
more months to plug a
massive underground leak of
natural gas that has been
seeping into the air since
mid-October and now accounts
for a quarter of the state's
entire methane emissions.
December 1, 2015
The race to deliver
residential solar energy
storage has yet another
entrant.
A Japanese maker of
grid-friendly, residential
solar-plus-storage systems
and a municipally owned
Canadian electric utility
have embarked on a trial
that will allow customers to
use the power the systems
generate at any time.
HomeBiogas claims its
digester can digest up to 6
liters of food waste or 15
liters of animal manure to
create around 3 hours worth
of clean cooking gas per day
US army is getting prepared
for what could be "The End
of America". Massive round
of terror attacks and there
is a very alarming chance
that they could be on US
soil already planning their
attacks. They're here in
masses and the goverment
cannot protect you. Bill
O'Reilly shows you what you
must do to protect your
family from this terrorist
threat.
Energy developers on public
lands pay rents to the the
Bureau of Land Management
(BLM). For solar, the 2015
per acre rates range from
$16.50 to $6,897.20, and
these rates go up every
year. A solar project with
energy storage can be
equally expensive,
especially when royalty-like
fees are added to the bill.
But the nationwide rent for
oil and gas leases has been
set at only $1.50 per acre
per year since 1920.
An analysis of the cosmic
microwave background
revealed bright spots,
possible imprints left when
an alternate universe bumped
ours shortly after the Big
Bang.
The Large Hadron Collider
(LHC) recently set a new
record, as CERN announced
that the world's most
powerful accelerator had
achieved the highest-energy
collisions of heavy atomic
nuclei. The Geneva-based
laboratory says that on
Wednesday at 11:15 am CET,
the 27 km (17 mi)-long
supercollider fired two
counter-circulating beams of
lead nuclei at one another
and the results were
recorded by the ALICE
heavy-ion detector.
China plans to launch
satellites to monitor its
greenhouse gas emissions as
the country, estimated to be
the world's top carbon
emitter, steps up its
efforts to cut such
emissions, official news
agency Xinhua said on
Monday.
News of the plan comes as
more than 150 world leaders
arrived in Paris for climate
change talks and Chinese
President Xi Jinping and
U.S. President Barack Obama
said they would work
together towards striking a
deal that moves towards a
low-carbon global economy.
China is planning to enter
the Europe- and US-dominated
world of experimental
physics with (wait for it …)
a bang. It has formally
announced that it will begin
the first phase of
construction of an enormous
particle accelerator around
2020, which will be twice
the size and seven times
more powerful than CERN's
Large Hadron Collider
From Melbourne to Mexico
City, tens of thousands of
people worldwide hit the
streets this weekend for a
global climate march,
pressing world leaders to
push for a bold
international agreement at
the upcoming climate summit
in Paris.
Declaring that the future of
the planet is at stake, more
than 150 world leaders
assembled outside Paris on
Monday to launch an
ambitious attempt to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and
help countries that are
struggling to cope with the
effects of climate change.
-
Documentary illustrates
how permaculture
harnesses nature’s
synergistic
relationships to create
efficient,
self-supporting
ecosystems
-
A five-zone model,
designed for maximal
output with minimal
input, shows how
permaculture can
optimize energy
efficiency and
sustainability
Bad news: Frito-Lays
SunChips have just
tested positive for weed
killer and GMO ingredients.
The chips are marketed as a
‘healthy’ alternative to
regular chips as a means to
lessen the chance of
developing heart disease,
but if your dining on Round
Up (glyphosate residues) and
GM Bt toxins found in most
genetically modified corn,
then ‘healthy’ as Frito-Lay
defines it takes on a new
meaning.
GMOs are
having a profound impact on
our health, both personal
and environmental.
However, recent studies
show that this technology is
up to 125 times more deadly
than we thought.
Have Patience
“Have patience. All things
are difficult before they
become easy.” ― Saadi
Planned Parenthood said late
Saturday that witnesses said
the gunman was motivated by
his opposition to abortion
The rise of GMOs in our food
supplies raises a variety of
issues, from environmental
degradation to nutrient
depletion, dependency on
toxic agro-chemicals
and government corruption —
many topics with lots of
well sourced information.
Often falling into the
cracks is the effect of GM
foods on intestinal health.
Why does it matter? Because
intestinal health is
directly linked to genetics,
immunity and our overall
health and well-being.
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Most people eat too
fast, which causes
stress and cuts you off
from your body’s innate
intelligence; slowing
down the pace at which
you eat is an important
part of reestablishing
this natural connection
-
Stress and fear results
in sympathetic nervous
system dominance,
increased insulin,
increased cortisol, and
increased stress
hormones — all of which
deregulates your
appetite and makes you
eat more
-
Eating a very low-fat
diet may prevent weight
loss. One of the signs
of essential fatty acid
deficiency is weight
gain or inability to
lose weight
India and the US appeared
headed for a face-off at the
Paris climate summit
starting Monday with the
world's biggest democracies
divided over who should
share the larger blame for
greenhouse gas emission and,
therefore, do more towards
mitigating it.
Compassion is
power.
People the world over are
hurting. Native people have
the power understand and
share their grief in a
profound way. This isn’t
about politics, this isn’t
about votes, and this isn’t
about money. This is about
energy. This is about
feelings. This is about
prayers. These are things
that matter more than we can
ever know.
Jupiter’s gravity slings
long-period comets out of
harm’s way, while nudging
some asteroids closer to
Earth. And, in 1770, Jupiter
took aim on Earth – but
missed.
A University of Missouri
graduate teaching assistant
is accused of grabbing a
teenage family member by the
hair and pulling her out of
school because she wasn’t
wearing a traditional
headscarf worn by some
Muslim women.
“War and the large military
establishments are the
greatest sources of violence
in the world. Whether their
purpose is defensive or
offensive, these vast
powerful organizations exist
solely to kill human beings.
We should think carefully
about the reality of war.
Most of us have been
conditioned to regard
military combat as exciting
and glamorous – an
opportunity for men to prove
their competence and
courage. Since armies are
legal, we feel that war is
acceptable; in general,
nobody feels that war is
criminal or that accepting
it is criminal attitude. In
fact, we have been
brainwashed. War is neither
glamorous nor attractive. It
is monstrous. Its very
nature is one of tragedy and
suffering.”
Industrial-scale batteries,
known as flow batteries,
could one day usher in
widespread use of renewable
energy—but only if the
devices can store large
amounts of energy cheaply
and feed it to the grid when
the sun isn’t shining and
the winds are calm. That’s
something conventional flow
batteries can’t do. Now,
researchers report that
they’ve created a novel type
of flow battery that uses
lithium ion technology—the
sort used to power
laptops—to store about 10
times as much energy as the
most common flow batteries
on the market. With a few
improvements, the new
batteries could make a major
impact on the way we store
and deliver energy.
Researchers have
produced a power
cell that taps into
the electrical
energy generated by
blue-green algae
Researchers from
Concordia University in
Montreal are looking to
tap into what may be the
most plentiful yet
overlooked source of
power in the world. The
group has invented a
power cell that
harnesses the
electricity created
during the natural
processes of
photosynthesis and
respiration in
blue-green algae.
Natural gas accounts for
over 28 percent of US energy
consumption. Its main
component, methane, is a
widely-used fossil fuel but
also a major contributor to
rising CO2
levels, and thus climate
change.
To address this
issue, researchers from the
Institute of Advanced
Sustainability Studies
(IASS) and Karlsruhe
Institute of Technology
(KIT) have developed a
process that extracts the
energy content of methane,
in the form hydrogen,
without producing carbon
dioxide.
James Hansen, the scientist
who was first to raise the
alarm about climate change,
fueling calls to shut down
coal-fired power plants,
will later this week urge
the expansion of nuclear
power.
A microscopic marine alga
is thriving in the North
Atlantic to an extent that
defies scientific
predictions, suggesting
swift environmental change
as a result of increased
carbon dioxide in the ocean,
a study led a by Johns
Hopkins University scientist
has found.
What these findings mean
remains to be seen, as does
whether the rapid growth in
the tiny plankton's
population is good or bad
news for the planet.
When Michael Schmidt
found cameras on his land
that had been spying on him
and his friends, he simply
removed them and contacted
the local police department
to find out who they might
belong to. It was at this
time that he was charged
with theft after refusing to
hand the cameras over to the
police.
Only later did Schmidt
find out that the cameras,
which had no markings or
identification...
C1 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low with a chance
for a C-class flares on days
one, two, and three (01 Dec,
02 Dec, 03 Dec). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
minor storm levels on day
one (01 Dec), quiet to
unsettled levels on day two
(02 Dec) and quiet levels on
day three (03 Dec).
A new "18650" battery uses
the transfer of sodium ions
rather than lithium ions to
store and release
electricity
“Hatred cannot coexist
with loving-kindness, and
dissipates if supplanted
with thoughts based on
loving-kindness.” ~ from the
Dhammapada (Buddhist
scripture)
Science has just confirmed
the Buddha’s teachings in a
recent study published in
the online journal
‘Motivation and Emotion’.
The study, conducted by
researchers at the
University of Sussex (UK)
was designed to measure the
effects of practicing a
Buddhist meditation called
Loving-Kindness-Meditation
(LKM) for seven minutes, on
levels of racial prejudice.
Russia will restrict imports
of Turkish fruit and
vegetables as part of a
package of new sanctions
following the downing of a
Russian warplane by Turkey
last week.
A piece of the gold foam is
light enough to float atop
milk froth
-
Strength training boosts
brain function and
improves memory; just 20
minutes of strength
training was found to
enhance long-term memory
by about 10 percent
-
A study involving sets
of twins found leg
strength was a better
predictor of brain
health than any other
lifestyle factor. The
twin with more leg
strength maintained her
mental abilities better
than the twin with
weaker legs
-
Daily walking has been
found to trigger an
anti-aging process, and
recent research suggests
it may add anywhere from
three to seven years to
your lifespan
“They made us many
promises, more than I can
remember, but they kept one;
they promised to take our
land, and they did." -
Ma'píya Lúta (aka Red Cloud)
Oglala Lakota
“If aliens ever visit
us, I think the outcome
would be much as when
Christopher Columbus first
landed in America, which
didn’t turn out very well
for the Native Americans.”
- Stephen Hawking, White Guy
There are no easy
answers.
Alzheimer’s disease is
tough to diagnose. The onset
is gradual. Brain scans are
often inconclusive. And by
the time the disease is
confirmed, it is too late to
arrest its progression.
One of the holy grails of
Alzheimer’s research has
long been detection: how to
find it early enough to make
a difference.
Perhaps it is time to
look beyond routine tests.
Perhaps at peanut
butter.
The power structure is
beginning to panic as the
public wakes up to the
criminal climate engineering
insanity. The growing police
state is completely out of
control and becoming
unimaginably blatant with
their actions. In recent
weeks Washington has placed
“gag orders” on the
employees of “The National
Weather Service” (NWS), the
“National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration”
(NOAA), and the “US
Department of
Commerce” agencies. This is
a massive red flag that
should trigger alarm bells
everywhere.
Most people in modern times
have been somewhat unanimous
that wrinkles, grief and
homosexuality are not
diseases, although if you
ask the WHO, all of the
above may soon be classified
as a disease given enough
time.
California's aggressive
push to increase renewable
energy production comes with
a catch for people with
solar panels on the roof:
You don't count.
If a home or business has
a rooftop solar system, most
of the wattage isn't
included in the ambitious
requirement to generate half
of the state's electricity
from renewable sources such
as solar and wind by 2030,
part of legislation signed
in October by Gov. Jerry
Brown.