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Rep. Brian Babin
(R-Texas) responded to a
Supreme Court decision
upholding a key Obamacare
provision Thursday by
introducing a bill in the
House that would require
each of the justices to
enroll in the controversial
health care program.
“As the Supreme Court
continues to ignore the
letter of the law, it’s
important that these six
individuals understand the
full impact of their
decisions on the American
people,”..
As Kurdish rebels in
northern Syria rack up wins
against the Islamic State
group, Turkish media is
abuzz with talk of a
long-debated military
intervention to push the
Islamic militants back from
the Turkish border — a move
that will also outflank any
Kurdish attempts to create a
state along Turkey's
southern frontier.
150 of America's top
energy experts today
refreshed America's Power
Plan, a comprehensive policy
toolkit designed to help
federal and state
policymakers, regulators,
power market operators, as
well as utility executives
make smart decisions to
steer the United States'
power sector transformation
toward a clean, affordable,
and reliable system.
America's Power Plan
provides policy
recommendations on four key
topics: Ratemaking and
utility business models,
regional planning for
transmission and
distribution infrastructure,
market design, and system
optimization.
A divided Supreme Court on
Monday ruled against federal
regulators' attempts to
limit power plant emissions
of mercury and other
hazardous air pollutants.
It's a blow to U.S. efforts
to inspire other countries
to control their emissions
as they approach Paris talks
on a new global climate
treaty later this year.
Gasoline and diesel fuel
extracted and refined from
Canadian oil sands will
release about 20 percent
more carbon into the
atmosphere over the oil’s
lifetime than fuel from
conventional crude sources
in the Unied States,
according to a study by the
U.S. Department of Energy’s
Argonne National Laboratory;
the University of
California, Davis; and
Stanford University.
Global power generation will
experience five dominant
trends over the next 25
years, putting unprecedented
pressure on energy
companies, utilities and
policy-makers, according to
the New Energy Outlook 2015,
published today.
India and China have access
to the ores that contain
thorium hence their growing
interest in future thorium
based nuclear power
generation. Growing concern
about storage of spent
uranium-based nuclear fuel
rods has prompted the Gates
Foundation to fund research
into making future
productive use of the
remaining energy. While
electrical power consumption
may remain constant
throughout the year in some
nations, other nations and
power markets experience
seasonal peak power demands.
Germany's oldest remaining
nuclear reactor has been
shut down, part of a move
initiated four years ago to
switch off all its nuclear
plants by the end of 2022.
Humans and animals on the
west coast should take care
when near the water. One of
the largest algae blooms of
all time is producing
dangerous toxins which now
stretch from California to
Alaska. The neurotoxin being
released by the bloom is
called domoic acid, and it
can cause a series of
problems for any mammal that
comes into contact with it.
In a letter sent to the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
on June 23 Washington
Governor Jay Inslee
requested that the remains
of The Ancient One, or
Kennewick Man, be turned
over to Native American
tribes.
“Now that DNA analysis
has demonstrated a genetic
link to modern Native
Americans, including those
in the State of Washington,
I am requesting that the
Ancient One be repatriated
to the appropriate tribes as
expeditiously as possible,”
Inslee said in the letter.
Switching a small
business or farm to
renewable energy can be a
daunting task, but there are
resources available to guide
you and federal funding on
hand to defray costs.
A program offered by the
U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) offers
grants through the Renewable
Energy for America Program
(REAP). Jesse Gandee , USDA
rural business specialist,
said the grants reimburse up
to 25 percent of the costs.
Oglala Lakota
president John Yellow Bird
Steele told a group of New
Age spiritualists who plan
to gather in the Black Hills
that as long as they respect
the sacred site, including
Lakota traditions, he does
not have a problem with
their scheduled event next
month, a spokesman for the
Oglala Lakota said.
Israel has a message for
California: You can beat
this drought thing.
California is still
counting up the damage from
the 2014 drought, which
resulted in more than $200
million in losses in the
dairy and livestock industry
and a staggering $810
million in crop production.
And analysts are predicting
this year to be even worse.
But many will admit that
if there is any country on
earth that knows how to
trump a three-year (and
counting) drought cycle and
convert a wasteland to
oasis, it’s Israel.
Leaders...
“ Great leaders are almost
always great simplifiers,
who can cut through
argument, debate and doubt,
to offer a solution
everybody can understand. ”
― Colin Powell
The owners of a coal-fired
power plant on the Navajo
Nation reached a settlement
Wednesday with federal
agencies over complaints
they flouted rules for
permits and violated the
Clean Air Act, leading to
expanded pollution control
upgrades that will cost
millions of dollars.
The utility said it needed
until Aug. 1 to get final
approvals for the San Juan
contracts, considered
critical for the PRC to
fully evaluate the costs and
benefits of PNM's plan to
close half of the coal-fired
power station near
Farmington
Republican pollster Ed Goeas
warns that 72 percent of
Americans fear an economic
crash in on the horizon and
that concern of such a
catastrophe is the highest
he can ever recall.
"Concern over the economy is
the highest I've ever
seen,"..
“When I read that
unresolved grieving is
mourning that has not been
completed, with the ensuing
depressions being absorbed
by children from birth
onward, I felt like I had
been punched in the gut.
Years ago I had come across
the term ‘adult child of an
alcoholic,’ and was shocked
to realize that it defined
me. Once again, upon hearing
the terms and seeing the
definitions of generational
trauma and unresolved
grieving, I thought, “My god
that is me; it is my family,
my brother, my sister,
aunts, uncles,
grandparents,” she wrote in
the essay “A Healing
Journey,” published in the
Wicazo Sa Review.
C2 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a slight
chance for an M-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(30 Jun, 01 Jul, 02 Jul).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet
levels on days one and three
(30 Jun, 02 Jul) and quiet
to unsettled levels on day
two (01 Jul).
In a major win for the
energy industry, the Supreme
Court ruled Monday against
the Environmental Protection
Agency's effort to limit
certain power plant
emissions -- saying the
agency "unreasonably" failed
to consider the cost of the
regulations.
The ruling allows a
nonpartisan commission to
draw Arizona's election maps
– a model to curb political
gerrymandering also
operating in six other
states.
Taiwan Power Company, the
state-owned utility that
operates Taiwan’s three
nuclear power plants,
proposed a pilot project
late last year to send 1,200
spent fuel bundles overseas
for reprocessing. Now the
project is stalled awaiting
legislative re-evaluation.
Turtles, beavers and eel
were once beloved staples of
the continental diet. What
happened?
There have always been
food trends, says Libby
O’Connell, author of The
American Plate: A Culinary
History in 100 Bites.
Before hamburgers and sushi,
there were centuries of
epicurean staples, including
eel pie, pear cider and
syllabub, foods that have
since dipped in popularity
and might seem a little,
well, unconventional, in
today’s diet.
Anxious pensioners
swarmed closed bank branches
Monday and long lines snaked
outside ATMs as Greeks
endured the first day of
serious controls on their
daily economic lives ahead
of a referendum that could
determine whether the
country has to ditch the
euro currency and return to
the drachma.
Greek Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras was defiant,
urging voters to reject
creditors' demands,
insisting a "No" vote in
next Sunday's referendum
would strengthen Athens'
negotiating hand.
Virginia agreed Thursday to
a $2.5 million settlement
with Duke Energy for a
February 2014 spill of coal
ash in North Carolina that
floated down the Dan River,
depositing tons of the toxic
stew into the city of
Danville's waterfront and
beyond.
Environmental
and water protection groups
seeking $50 million called
the settlement meager, while
state environmental
officials who brokered the
deal said they were limited
by law in terms of what they
could recover.
As utilities operators look
to a future with greater
power generation coming from
renewable resources, they
face a challenge described
in what's known as the "duck
curve," a graph showing how
electricity supply and
demand change sharply
throughout a one-day
period...
Greater reliance on
renewable resources for
power generation, like solar
and wind, which cannot be
switched on and off or
ramped up dynamically,
accentuate the rapid
changes, creating challenges
for utilities as they try to
follow the ramping up and
down of demand to avoid
either a dearth or a glut of
electricity.
The Inka Road
stretches over 24,000 miles
through six modern-day
countries: Colombia,
Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia,
Argentina, and Chile. It
stands among the great feats
of engineering in world
history, serving as a
network that linked Cusco
(in modern-day Peru) with
the far reaches of the Inka
empire. The Inka road ranges
over mountains, tropical
lowlands, rivers and deserts
and is still crucial in
uniting contemporary Andean
communities.
Arsenic is found naturally
in soil and water. Most food
crops don’t readily absorb
much of it. But rice is an
exception. It has a natural
tendency to take in and
concentrate environmental
arsenic.
Arsenic is a
lethal poison, and even a
miniscule amount can have
dire consequences...
Plug-in electric vehicles
(PEVs) have the potential to
dramatically drive down
consumption of carbon-based
fuels and reduce greenhouse
gas emissions, but the
relatively high price of
these vehicles — due in
large part to the cost of
batteries — has presented a
major impediment to
widespread market
penetration. Researchers at
the Energy Department's
National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL) are
playing a crucial role in
identifying battery second
use (B2U) strategies capable
of offsetting vehicle
expenses while improving
utility grid stability.
It will cost China over $6.6
trillion (41 trillion yuan)
to meet the greenhouse gas
reduction goals it will lay
out later this month in its
strategy for United Nations
climate negotiations, the
country's lead negotiator
for the talks said Tuesday
I bet you don’t know that
there is a home improvement
investment that you can make
that will increase the value
of your house more than the
investment cost. It’s not
remodeling your bathroom (2
percent return). It’s not
landscaping with a designer
(break even). It’s not
remodeling your kitchen (2
percent loss). It’s rooftop
solar (43 percent return).
Surprise!
The attempt to
undercut the BIA is the
latest attack in what some
tribal leaders say is
Congress’s new war on Indian
country. In less than two
months the House
Subcommittee on Indian,
Insular and Alaska Native
Affairs held heated
oversight hearings where the
termination of federal
recognition was discussed
and the Interior
Department’s authority to
take land into trust was
challenged by committee
members who didn’t seem to
know Congress gave Interior
that authority.
The $70-million project is
part of an agreement with
the Grand River Dam
Authority , the city's
wholesale power supplier.
Having the ability to
generate its own electricity
makes the city eligible for
capacity payments from GRDA
that utilities authority
Director Dan Blankenship has
said will cover payments on
the construction financing.
Saturday was the
first day
people could alert county
officials about violations
of the ban on growing
genetically altered crops.
But officials in the
southwest Oregon county were
not patrolling or making
farmers destroy their plants
— and it’s unclear if they
ever will. More than a year
after two-thirds of voters
decided to oust GMOs,
supporters and opponents
alike are asking the same
question:
Negotiations to avert a
Greek debt default stumbled
on Wednesday and euro
zone finance
ministers accused Athens of
refusing to compromise
despite a deadline next week
that could put it on a path
out of the euro zone.
With European
Union leaders due in
Brussels for a summit on
Thursday, leftist Greek
Prime Minister Alexis
Tsipras negotiated into the
early hours with heads of
creditor institutions to try
to thrash out a
cash-for-reform deal before
the euro zone ministers
reconvene at 1 p.m. (1100
GMT).
Now that International
Monetary Fund head Christine
Lagarde has told the Fed to
wait to raise interest
rates, the IMF staff has
followed up with suggestions
that the U.S. central bank
remake its communications
policy and, in a phrase,
ditch the dots.
The dot plot of
interest rate projections
issued by Fed officials
every three months is
confusing, an IMF staff
paper has concluded, and
should be replaced with a
staff forecast of the
interest rates needed to
achieve the Fed's goals of
full employment and stable
inflation.
Iran’s top leader has
hardened his stance in
nuclear negotiations with
world powers as a deadline
for a final deal rapidly
approaches, saying he
rejects a long-term freeze
on nuclear research and
wants to ban international
inspectors from accessing
military sites.
"I think many of us are
witnessing now the complete
corruption of Washington,
D.C., meaning the objective
has been to corrupt the
government and success
appears to be, at this
moment in time, in hand,"
Limbaugh said. "The left has
the government that they've
always wanted."
President Barack Obama is an
"authoritarian megalomaniac
ruling like a monarch," he
said, and according to the
Supreme Court, "words, laws,
really have no meaning. It's
whatever the popular
interpretation of the powers
that be of the day want the
words to mean
An innovative approach to
manufacturing lithium-ion
batteries promises to halve
the cost of the most widely
used type of rechargeable
batteries while boosting
their performance and making
them easier to recycle.
Yucel was accused of
creating and managing the
sale of Blackshades, a
remote access tool that was
widely used by the criminal
underground.
Blackshades was used to
steal files, logins and
passwords for online
accounts and sometimes to
encrypt the files on a
computer in order to demand
a ransom.
The worst heat wave to hit
Pakistan's southern city of
Karachi for nearly 35 years
has killed more than 1,000
people, a charity said on
Thursday, as morgues ran out
of space and public
hospitals struggled to cope.
Rejecting charges of
engaging in a Cold War-style
arms race with Russia, the
U.S. and its NATO allies
approved military upgrades
Wednesday that should help
them come to the aid of a
threatened alliance member
faster, with better
equipment and more
firepower.
A Thousand Voices
gets it a thousand percent
correct. Departing from the
usual Hollywood,
romanticized notion of
Native life, the film lets
Native voices tell their own
narrative.
It's hard to find an article
about graphene that doesn't
include the words "wonder
material" somewhere within
it. Less wondrous,
unfortunately, is the
expensive and time consuming
chemical vapor deposition
(CVD) process used to
produce it industrially. Now
researchers from the
University of Exeter claim
to have discovered a new
low-cost technique to
produce high quality
graphene that could see the
wonder material start to
realize its potential.
Despite the fervor of
negativity and fear since
the Fukushima Daiichi
disaster at Japan's
Fukushima Nuclear Power
Plant -- a meltdown of three
of the plant's six nuclear
reactors -- in 2011,
perceptions surrounding
nuclear are changing. And
could even be described as
downright positive.
Oil futures declined across
the board Wednesday after
the US Energy Information
Administration reported
gasoline and distillate
stocks rose a combined 2.5
million barrels last week,
while crude production
continued rising.
NYMEX August crude settled
74 cents lower at $60.27/b,
while ICE August Brent
settled down 96 cents at
$63.49/b.
Optimism...
“ Truth is, I'll never know
all there is to know about
you just as you will never
know all there is to know
about me. Humans are by
nature too complicated to be
understood fully. So, we can
choose either to approach
our fellow human beings with
suspicion or to approach
them with an open mind, a
dash of optimism and a great
deal of candour. ” ― Tom
Hanks
“The climate is a common
good, belonging to all and
meant for all,” declares
Pope Francis in his first
major teaching on the
environment, an encyclical
letter released today.
Pope Francis urges all
human beings to change their
behavior to protect the good
resources we all hold in
common – the climate, the
oceans, biodiversity – “the
planet, our common home.”
Renewable energy will
draw almost two-thirds of
the spending on new power
plants over the next 25
years, dwarfing spending on
fossil fuels, as plunging
costs make solar the first
choice for consumers and the
poorest nations.
Solar power will draw
$3.7 trillion in investment
through 2040, with a total
of $8 trillion going toward
clean energy. That’s almost
double the $4.1 trillion
that will be spent on coal,
natural gas and nuclear
plants, according to a
forecast from Bloomberg New
Energy Finance.
M7 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be moderate with a slight
chance for an X-class flare
on days one and two (26 Jun,
27 Jun) and expected to be
low with a chance for
M-class flares and a slight
chance for an X-class flare
on day three (28 Jun).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on day one
(26 Jun), unsettled to major
storm levels on day two (27
Jun) and active to major
storm levels on day three
(28 Jun). Protons are
expected to cross threshold
on day one (26 Jun) and are
expected to cross threshold
on days two and three (27
Jun, 28 Jun).
Master Limited Partnerships
Parity Act would offer
renewables investors the
same tax breaks as fossil
fuel investors...
Coons cited “tremendous
progress in the last several
decades” by renewable energy
technologies and added “they
deserve the same shot at
success in the market as
traditional energy
projects.” He said an update
to the tax code to allow
renewable and non-renewable
energy sources the
opportunity to perform
alongside one another on a
level playing field would
support a necessary
all-of-the-above energy
strategy.
USA Today1
recently ran an editorial
under the headline, “Vaccine
opt-outs put public health
at risk” ... The editorial
goes on to claim that
outbreaks of infectious
diseases such as measles are
due to the “selfish
decisions” of a few, who
take vaccine exemptions and
place everyone else in the
“herd” at risk. I call
it curious, because nowhere
in the editorial did they
actually address the issue
of health risks associated
with vaccines, which is one
of the primary reasons for
having personal choice
in the first place.
The controversial Carlsbad
desalination project’s
latest projected cost is now
$1 billion. It will suck in
100 million gallons of San
Diego’s seawater a day and
force it through a series of
filters to produce 50
million gallons of water a
day using high-pressure
reverse osmosis.
The new TLC-1000
collectors are extremely
compact. A single collector
takes up just one square
metre of surface area.
Temperatures of up to 200 °C
can be achieved.
Like other parabolic
trough collectors, the
TLC-1000 needs to track the
sun. However, an external
power supply is not
necessary for this. The
collectors are equipped with
a small solar cell that
provides enough power for
the tracking motor
The 2016 Democratic
front-runner did not hand
over 15 exchanges with
longtime Clinton ally Sidney
Blumenthal on the security
situation in the Middle
Eastern nation. The
existence of the new
correspondence only came to
light days ago after
Republicans subpoenaed the
former Clinton White House
adviser’s records and he
turned them over.
The U.S. Supreme Court sided
today with the Obama
administration over its
major healthcare overhaul,
upholding federal subsidies
across the country.
In
a 6-3 ruling, the nation’s
highest court ruled that
critics’ reading of
Obamacare might make sense
in isolation, but not when
viewed in a larger context
and in light of the
intention of the law.
A U.S. appeals court
ruled on Tuesday a
decades-old pollution case
over nuclear weapons
production in Colorado
should be sent back to the
district court which in 2006
ordered companies that ran
the facility to pay damages
of $353 million.
"This long lingering
litigation deserves to find
resolution soon," wrote one
of the judges, Neil Gorsuch,
about a case dating back to
the 1980s, when Dow Chemical
Co and a unit of Rockwell
Automation Inc were involved
in operating the Rocky Flats
plant.
The US Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission's
recent approval of PJM's
plan to reward
high-performing generating
units in its capacity
auctions would be helpful to
nuclear generators if
replicated in other
competitive markets, but
still falls short of changes
in market designs needed to
assure units continue
operations, two utility
executives said Wednesday.
Farmers are reaping
higher yields and ranchers'
feed costs have fallen
sharply since flooding swept
across the southern U.S.
Plains in May, with the
record rains providing
tangible benefits to
agriculture despite causing
damage that will likely cost
billions of dollars to
repair.
The storms inundated
fields across Texas and
Oklahoma but they broke a
years-long drought that
wreaked havoc on the
profitability of growers and
cattlemen.
Today, the
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) and the U.S.
Department of Justice
announced a federal Clean
Air Act settlement with
several Arizona and New
Mexico-based utility
companies to install
pollution control technology
to reduce harmful air
pollution from the Four
Corners Power Plant located
on the Navajo Nation near
Shiprock, New Mexico.
The Obama administration
on Wednesday said it’s
abandoning its controversial
practice of detaining
immigrant mothers and
children who’ve established
their fear of persecution if
returned to their home
countries.
Homeland Security
Secretary Jeh Johnson said
he’d concluded that locking
up mothers and children,
which can cost $342 per
family a day, was not an
effective use of his
agency’s resources. But he
said the controversial
family detention centers,
which currently hold more
than 2,500 parents and
children, will remain open.
Weekly coal carloads volumes
originated on US railroads
rose for the third straight
week but totals remained
historically low, according
to data that the Association
of American Railroads
released Wednesday.
For the week that ended
Saturday, the AAR reported
95,095 coal carloads, up 6%,
or 5,401 carloads, from the
previous week, breaking a
streak of three straight
weeks where volumes were
below 90,000 carloads.
Officials said Nevada's
Lake Mead, the 79-year-old
reservoir created by the
massive Hoover Dam,
registered 1,074.98 feet
(327.7 meters) above sea
level late on Tuesday, but
was able to rise above a
critical mark by early on
Wednesday morning.
A water level of below
1,075 feet projected for
January would translate to
water cutbacks in 2016 for
two U.S. western states,
Arizona and Nevada. An
announcement would be made
this August.
“Your feet reveal many
health conditions,” says
Oliver Zong, M.D., a New
York-based podiatrist. From
thyroid issues to heart
problems, your feet can
reflect the inner workings
of your body.
The report
estimates that the average
American family of four ends
up throwing away an
equivalent of up to $2,275
annually in food. Even
worse, there is evidence
that there has been a 50
percent jump in U.S. food
waste since the 1970s.
It’s
especially troubling that at
the same time, one in seven
Americans, more than 46
million people, including 12
million children, don’t know
where their next meal is
coming from, according to a
study by Feeding America.
The solstice marks the
height of the sun, but the
hottest weather comes a
month or two later. That’s
because the land and oceans
have to warm up, too, before
the truly hot summer heat
can begin. This phenomenon
is called the lag of the
seasons.
Thanks to a landmark ruling
in Colorado’s Supreme Court,
there is new clarification
to the state’s medical
marijuana law—though
employees may not like the
news. If a workplace has a
policy prohibiting drug use,
workers who test positive
for marijuana are not
protected from
termination—even if they are
registered for medical use.
In other words, you can
be fired in Colorado for
using marijuana during your
time off.
Fraud is generally defined
in the law as an intentional
misrepresentation of
material existing fact made
by one person to another
with knowledge of its
falsity and for the purpose
of inducing the other person
to act, and upon which the
other person relies with
resulting injury or damage.
Fraud may also be made by an
omission or purposeful
failure to state material
facts, which nondisclosure
makes other statements
misleading.
Renewable energy and energy
efficiency are competitive
resources in today's
marketplace that will not
only be cost-effective
mechanisms for compliance
with EPA's Clean Power Plan
(CPP) but should also be
expected to grow strictly on
the basis of cost. That is
according to a report
published today by the
Advanced Energy Economy
Institute (AEEI), which
disputes "official
projections" it says do not
capture market realities and
discount the growth
potential of these resources
and the role they can play
in state CPP compliance
plans.
Age...
“ There is a fountain of
youth: it is your mind, your
talents, the creativity you
bring to your life and the
lives of people you love.
When you learn to tap this
source, you will truly have
defeated age. ” ― Sophia
Loren
California bill SB277
eliminates the personal
belief exemption to
vaccination for school
entry, including for
religious and
conscientious beliefs,
effectively forcing a
99.99 percent compliance
with the federally
recommended vaccine
schedule among children
If passed, this new law
will require children to
get more than 40 doses
of 10 federally
recommended vaccines or
be denied entry to
daycare or public or
private schools,
including college, and
the only option for
parents will be to
homeschool
The bill’s sponsor has
made public comments
suggesting he intends to
lobby to extend
vaccination requirements
to the workplace
The American Medical
Association (AMA)
recently voted to
support the elimination
of personal and
religious belief vaccine
exemptions
Arizona Green Power LLC, a
subsidiary of Solar Wind
Energy Tower, Inc. the
inventor of large Solar Wind
Downdraft Tower structures
capable of producing
abundant, inexpensive
electricity, today is
pleased to announce the
official launch of its new
website
www.arizonagreenpower.com
solely focused on marketing
its economical, long-term
"Green" Power Purchase
Agreements (PPAs) to
California-based utilities,
and large commercial and
industrial customers looking
to increase their
green-energy initiatives and
reduce their carbon
footprint.
The purpose of the pow
wow is based on the mission
of the non-profit group,
GATHON, Inc – to promote,
support and share indigenous
cultural and living
traditions with all peoples.
But it’s also about honoring
Mother Earth.
Dubai to
outfit waterfront
destinations with futuristic
technology
Per recent reports in “Gulf
News”, Dubai will soon
install 103 Smart Palms on a
select number of its
beaches, with the goal being
to eventually install this
technology on all public
beaches too.
Phone threats made to a
member of the state Public
Regulation Commission in
recent days have led to an
investigation and a
heightened police
presence...
The utility company's
extension request is one
component of PNM's
controversial plan to retire
part of the coal-fired San
Juan plant and replace the
power with other sources,
including nuclear, wind and
solar.
China Power Investment
Corporation, one of China's
five largest state-owned
electricity producers, is
being urged to invest in
establishing solar cell
factories in Thailand.
The threat to human
health from climate change
is so great that it could
undermine the last 50 years
of gains in development and
global health, experts
warned on Tuesday.
Extreme weather events
such as floods and heat
waves bring rising risks of
infectious diseases, poor
nutrition and stress, the
specialists said, while
polluted cities where people
work long hours and have no
time or space to walk, cycle
or relax are bad for the
heart as well as respiratory
and mental health.
The number of animals and
plants at risk of extinction
rose in 2015 despite
government pledges to
improve protection, with
species under threat ranging
from lions in West Africa to
orchids in Asia, a study
showed on Tuesday.
The Red List of
Endangered Species, backed
by governments, scientists
and conservationists, grew
to 22,784 species in 2015,
almost a third of all
animals and plants sampled,
from 22,413 a year ago, it
said.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis
Tsipras headed to Brussels
late Sunday for a crucial
emergency eurozone summit
aimed at reaching a deal
between Athens and its
international creditors that
would allow the debt-ravaged
country to avoid a default
and a potentially disastrous
exit from the euro.
EU member states have
agreed to extend damaging
economic sanctions against
Russia over the Ukraine
crisis by another six months
to the end of January 2016.
The agreement by
ambassadors from the 28
European Union nations
meeting in Brussels will be
formalised by foreign
ministers from the bloc when
they meet next week,
officials said on Wednesday.
The reactors are less than
300 megawatts in capacity
and usually manufactured
away from the place they're
operated. A handful of
companies are working to
design such reactors, though
none is ready for operation
yet. Proponents say the
reactors, less than a third
the size of a reactor at a
standard power plant, could
bring the greenhouse gas and
other benefits of nuclear
power with a lower cost.
Slowly proving to be a new
foundation in
machine-brain-interfacing
Science-fiction has long
predicted that cybernetic
augmentation will become the
next phase in human
evolution, blending man and
machine to advance our
physical and mental
capabilities. Research
undergone by Harvard
nanotechnologist Charles
Lieber has taken a huge step
forward in blending the line
between electronic circuits
and neural circuits thanks a
revolutionary
syringe-injectable brain
mesh, that merges with brain
tissue to form a seamless
machine-to-brain interface.
So far, the technology has
been successfully tested on
live mice.
Fraud in the inducement is
the use of deceit or trick
to cause someone to act to
his/her disadvantage, such
as signing an agreement. The
heart of this type of fraud
is misleading the other
party as to the facts upon
which he/she will base
his/her decision to act.
Ancient DNA sequenced from
the skeleton adds to the
controversy over the
individual's ancestry...
Contrary to previous results
based on the size and shape
of the skeleton, the DNA
analysis, published today in
Nature, suggests
that Kennewick Man is more
closely related to modern
Native Americans than any
other population of modern
humans.
Storms on the sun send giant
plasma clouds across space,
which interact with Earth’s
magnetic field. See photos
of auroras in U.S. and
similar latitudes Monday
night!
With some lawmakers chanting
"Death to the America,"
Iran's parliament voted to
ban access to military
sites, documents and
scientists as part of a
future deal with world
powers over its contested
nuclear program.
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline,
a natural gas pipeline that
is proposed to run from the
Marcellus shale gas fields
in West Virginia to North
Carolina, is under fire by a
coalition of 35 conservation
and environmental groups in
Virginia and West Virginia.
The pipeline will run from
Harrison County, West
Virginia southeast through
Virginia with an extension
to Chesapeake, Virginia,
then south through central
North Carolina to Robeson
County
"Our history shows us that
water supply has aspects of
all three, which makes for a
muddled policy setting. What
do we do when basic water
services exceed a customer’s
ability to pay? As water
rates rise to address the
costs of system
rehabilitation, enhanced
drinking-water treatment,
and source-water protection,
we need to make sense of
this mess," he continued.
Not to be so doom and gloom,
but there is clearly a
definite
orchestrated push to ensure
that vaccinations will be
mandatory for everyone in
America in our near future.
Not just healthcare workers.
Not just schoolchildren.
Everyone will be
expected to get their shots,
like it or not.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,
announced June 18 that he
secured language in the
Senate Interior
Appropriations bill that
would protect states from
any consequences from the
U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency should
they forego submitting a
state plan for complying
with the agency’s Clean
Power Plan.
This
prohibition of the use of
funds was included in the
Senate version of the bill
that was approved by the
Appropriations Committee
earlier on June 18.
Nuclear power, a
low-carbon but expensive
source of electricity, isn't
likely to grow much in the
United States , even as
President Obama pushes to
slash greenhouse gas
emissions from electric
power plants.
But the U.S. Department
of Energy is betting that
$60 million in new research
and development could
eventually breathe some new
life into nuclear power in
the U.S., helping to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions
under the Obama
administration's Clean Power
Plan.
Want to lose belly fat, get
smarter and also live
longer? A set of new studies
finds that a periodic diet
that mimics fasting works in
animal studies could help
humans as well.
The
University of Southern
California team reports the
diet works in yeast and
mice, and that a small pilot
study showed it also
decreased in people risk
factors that include aging,
as well as diabetes,
cardiovascular disease, and
cancer.
Saudi Arabia's oil minister
Ali Naimi is confident that
oil prices will rise
in the coming months given
the increase in global
demand and the low level of
commercial stocks.
Owls are exceptional
predators. In addition to
their impressive vision and
hearing capabilities, they
are also able to fly almost
silently. This stealthy
flight is thanks to the
structure of their wings,
which researchers have
analyzed and mimicked to
develop a prototype coating
that they claim could
significantly reduce the
noise generated by wind
turbines, computer fans and
airplanes.
The company said the
accident was caused by an
oil and gas leak and three
workers performing routine
inspections had been
evacuated. It said there
were no reports of any
injuries on the platform,
which was uninhabited and
operated remotely.
Military exercises between
the United States and the
Philippines opened Monday,
at the same time that the
Japanese and Philippine
navies started joint
training. Both operations
are being held on the island
province of Palawan, located
near the hotly contested
South China Sea.
Two weeks after Turkey's
parliamentary elections,
experts agree on one thing:
No one really knows what's
going to happen next.
Turkey's June 7 election
left Turkey's long-ruling
Justice and Development
Party, known by Turkish
acronym AKP, short of the
majority it needs to govern
alone, meaning it will have
to turn to at least one of
the three opposition parties
to secure its hold on
government.
Radioactive material was
detected in a monitoring
well in April at an
Exelon-owned nuclear power
plant in Pennsylvania about
40 miles from Baltimore,
according to nuclear
regulators.
Supreme Court said Monday
that a program that lets the
government take raisins away
from farmers to help reduce
supply and boost market
prices is unconstitutional.
The ruling is a victory for
Horne, who claimed his
family was losing money
under a 1940s-era program
they call outdated and
ineffective.
A new Congressional Budget
Office (CBO) analysis found
that repealing the
Affordable Care Act, also
known as Obamacare or the
ACA, would likely leave 19
million Americans uninsured
by 2016 and add some $353
billion to the federal
deficit over ten years.
A report published Wednesday
by a collective of health
and environmental
conservation organizations
asserts that the
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) has
underestimated the monetary
health benefits of
controlling metal pollutants
like arsenic, hexavalent
chromium, lead, and mercury
in the nation’s water
sources.
M6 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be moderate with a
slight chance for an X-class
flare on days one, two, and
three (23 Jun, 24 Jun, 25
Jun). The geomagnetic field
is expected to be at
unsettled to severe storm
levels on day one (23 Jun)
and quiet to minor storm
levels on days two and three
(24 Jun, 25 Jun). Protons
are expected to cross
threshold on days one, two,
and three (23 Jun, 24 Jun,
25 Jun).
The 20th Century model of
large baseload electricity
generation, including
nuclear reactors, is in an
irreversible decline in the
face of the emerging 21st
Century decentralized power
model relying on renewables,
energy efficiency, and
technology-based demand
management, says Mark
Cooper, senior fellow for
economic analysis, Institute
for Energy and the
Environment, Vermont Law
School, in a new report.
While there is still much
conjecture about the causes
of some mass extinctions, it
is generally believed that
they can occur when a
biosphere under long-term
stress is subjected to a
short-term shock. In 1982,
Jack Sepkoski and David M.
Raup published a paper
identifying five mass
extinction events throughout
Earth's history. Now a team
of researchers claims that
we are entering a sixth mass
extinction event, which
threatens our very
existence.
In today's digital world,
energy consumers are nearly
twice as likely to trust
their energy providers to
safeguard their personal
data. However, when it comes
to connected devices and how
they consumer energy, they
don't want their utility's
advice. That is according to
new research by Accenture.
What do Spanish, Hindi
and English all have in
common? They all descended
from the same mother tongue:
Anatolian, or more commonly
Proto-Indo-European.
In fact, there's about a
50 percent chance that any
given person speaks a
language from the
Indo-European family, ..
When driving behind big
semi-trailers, people
regularly take risks
overtaking them because they
often have to first move out
from behind the truck to see
if the road ahead is clear
before passing. This is
particularly dangerous on
single-lane highways because
such a maneuver can mean
driving into the path of
oncoming traffic. Now
Samsung Electronics has come
up with a way to help reduce
this problem by mounting
cameras on the front of a
truck and large screens on
the rear to display to
following drivers a clear
view of the road ahead.
Saudi Arabia's domestic
crude consumption is
expected to pick up strongly
going into the summer
season, but with the kingdom
intent on meeting global oil
demand by keeping production
high, it is likely to draw
on its stocks at home and
abroad, analysts at Barclays
Capital said in a research
note Monday.
Many companies and
individuals use antivirus
and security software to
protect their networks from
criminal hackers and
government snooping.
But according to experts,
the vast majority of the
security products are far
behind the security measures
built into top browsers,
such as Google Chrome, or
document readers, such as
Microsoft Word or Acrobat
Reader. This makes antivirus
software an ideal target for
hackers.
Otters eat fish and
crustaceans, food
sources that are often
contaminated with drugs
and other chemicals from
the water they inhabit
The presence of two
types of non-steroidal
anti-inflammatory drugs
(NSAIDs) – diclofenac
and ibuprofen – was
detected in otter fur
Otters, which were only
recently brought back
from the brink of
extinction, could be
facing unknown health
threats from
pharmaceutical pollution
in the environment
Getting approved for a
mortgage is more simple than
it was three years ago.
Along with lower mortgage
rates, which makes it easier
to qualify for a loan,
lender requirements are
looser, minimum credit score
standards are lower, and
loan approval times are
quicker.
"As the first
grid-connected wave energy
device in the United States
that will be tested and
validated by an independent
party, this deployment marks
a major milestone for our
team and the marine
renewable energy industry,"
Kopf said.
The pilot device will be
tested over 12 months while
connected to the grid.
Cyber thieves take personal
and financial data. Cyber
pirates steal industrial and
commercial intellectual
property. But the cyber
attacks that threaten to
destroy or disarm critical
infrastructure systems like
the electric grid are true
declarations of war.
Pernicious cyber warriors
seek to undermine society's
sense of security and its
standard of living.
The South Dakota
Public Utilities Commission
(PUC) has ruled against
allowing tribal input at a
hearing at the end of July
that will determine whether
TransCanada needs to
resubmit its application to
run the Keystone XL pipeline
through that state.
Later this year, Tucson
Electric Power (TEP) will
file a request for new 2017
rates. The proposal will
include fair-market pricing
for the excess energy
produced by rooftop solar
arrays, incorporating the
revised net metering plan it
proposed earlier this year
for new users of rooftop
solar power systems.
It comes in three versions –
diesel, spark-ignited gas
and duel fuel – and the
diesel version takes
advantage of advanced fuel
and air injection systems,
as well as variable valve
timing, to deliver a world
record efficiency of just
0.271 pounds per horsepower
hour.
Can You Put a Price On Bees?
Scientists Have, and it’s
Staggering
What they found was that the
bulk of pollination was
actually done by just two
percent of bee species in
the study, and that they
contributed up to around 80
percent of the overall
pollinating activity.
Yes, Microsoft is giving
Windows away for free to
people who don't technically
qualify for the upgrade.
That's a good deal, but it's
not that big a deal. Here's
why.
To seek a high credit score
or a life without debt, that
is the question. When
seeking a high credit score,
you must make sure to have a
perfect-payment history,
stability on your job, an
expanding credit history,
and available credit you
carefully use and repay. To
get started, financial
planners will recommend that
you obtain a low-limit (like
$500) secured credit card,
use it, and pay it all back.
The goal is to gain a high
score to have easy access to
credit for a car or
mortgage. That said,
financial planners are
unlikely to ever tell you
how to live credit-free and
avoid the misery of mounting
debt.
The days of banks being
trusted institutions to help
protect your savings &
retirement are over. First,
it was the banks gambling on
derivatives that blew up the
global economy in 2008 and
cost citizens trillions in
savings & retirement. Then,
it was the banks turning
over customer accounts to
the IRS & police for total
seizure without due process
of law. Next came reports
that banks are abolishing
our ability to use & store
cash. And now comes a
frightening report that
banks have agreed to pay $81
BILLION in restitution &
penalties for criminal &
civil abuses against the
public and their own
customers.
Arizona Public Service,
or APS, and McCarthy
Building Companies, Inc.
have announced the
completion of construction
of the Desert star solar
plant.
The event marked the
inauguration of the ninth
solar project to be
constructed under APS's AZ
Sun program. When complete
this year, AZ Sun will
generate enough solar energy
to power more than 42,000
homes. Full commercial
operations are expected to
begin at the plant in July.
About one third of
Earth's largest groundwater
basins are being rapidly
depleted by human
consumption, despite having
little accurate data about
how much water remains in
them, according to two new
studies led by the
University of California,
Irvine (UCI), using data
from NASA's Gravity Recovery
and Climate Experiment
(GRACE) satellites.
This means that
significant segments of
Earth's population are
consuming groundwater
quickly without knowing when
it might run out, the
researchers conclude. The
findings are published today
in Water Resources Research.
California has reached a
major milestone in solar --
by achieving 10,000
megawatts (MW) of installed
solar capacity, according to
the U.S. Solar Market
Insight Report produced by
GTM Research and the Solar
Energy Industries
Association (SEIA).
The monthly production
numbers of Coal India Ltd..
The thrust on improving coal
production is important
given the fact that despite
being one of the largest
coal producers in the world,
India continues to import
the fuel to meet demand.
Starting at sunset on
June 17, Muslims around the
world will be looking for
the new crescent moon, or
young crescent to return to
the evening sky. Its
sighting ushers in the Holy
Month of Ramadan, ninth
month of the Islamic year.
Will this date mark the
beginning of Ramadan? The
answer is likely no, because
this month’s new moon was
June 16 at 14:05 UTC. On
June 17, the moon will be
close to the horizon and
will set soon after sunset.
Thus the young moon’s
sighting – which marks the
start of Ramadan – is by no
means assured.
If it isn’t seen on the
evening of June 17, the
start of Ramadan will wait
until the evening of June
18.
Over White House objections,
the Senate on Thursday
passed a $612 billion
defense policy bill that
calls for arming Ukraine
forces, prevents another
round of base closures, and
makes it harder for
President Obama to close the
prison for terror suspects
at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Senate voted 71-25 to
approve the bill, which
Obama has threatened to
veto.
Scientists found what appear
to be red blood cells in
this claw from an
unidentified theropod
dinosaur.
As any Jurassic World
fan could tell you, the soft
tissues of ancient animals
are supposed to be some of
the first things to vanish
in the fossilization
process. While bones and
teeth can be preserved for
hundreds of millions of
years, protein molecules
decay in a mere 4 million
years, leaving behind only
traces of those building
blocks of life.
Models of past eras show
that oxygen can influence
global temperature and
humidity as its
concentration changes
Earth has a surprising new
player in the climate game:
oxygen. Even though oxygen
is not a
heat-trapping greenhouse
gas, its concentration in
our atmosphere can affect
how much sunlight reaches
the ground, and new models
suggest that effect has
altered climate in the past.
The eurozone's 19 leaders
have been summoned to an
emergency summit next week
after talks about Greece's
bailout ended in acrimony on
Thursday, intensifying fears
that the country was heading
for bankruptcy and an exit
from the euro.
A Secret Service agent who
took part in the
investigation of the
drug-dealing website Silk
Road has agreed to plead
guilty to charges that he
used his insider’s role to
pilfer hundreds of thousands
of dollars’ worth of digital
currency.
The International Renewable
Energy Agency (IRENA) just
released a new smartphone
app called the Global Atlas
Pocket that can turn your
smartphone or tablet into
your very own personal
renewable energy prospector
— answering questions like
“Is this city ideal for wind
power investment?” or “Is
there a nearby location
suitable to build a solar PV
farm?”
It's well known, these days,
that Iron Eyes Cody—the
"crying Indian" from those
1970s commercials—was a
fake. And most wrestling
fans knew that Chief Jay
Strongbow was really Joe
Scarpa, an Italian-American
from Philadelphia. But that
was showbiz—those were
actors playing roles. With
the scandal surrounding
Rachel Dolezal, a former
NAACP leader who turned out
to be not one bit African
American, it's worth
recalling the rise and
unfortunate persistence of
Indian country's biggest
intellectual fraud, Jamake
Highwater. Alex Jacobs takes
us back:
In a promising solution, the
country is now turning to
floating offshore solar
power stations, this month
going live with its largest
such systems to date in two
reservoirs in Kato City in
the nation's Hyogo
prefecture, Quartz reports.
The systems consist of
almost 9,000 solar panels on
a bed of polyethylene and
are fully waterproofed.
Hong Kong lawmakers
defeated the government's
Beijing-backed election plan
Thursday, vindicating
pro-democracy activists who
flooded the streets last
year in protest but leaving
the city's long-term
political future up in the
air.
Lawmakers spent two days
debating the proposal, which
would have allowed Hong Kong
citizens to vote for the top
leader for the first time in
2017, but require all
candidates to be approved by
Beijing.
"This is definitely a
warm-water indicator," Sala
said. "Whether it's directly
related to El Nino or other
oceanographic conditions is
not certain."..
Scientists have noted the
presence of a toxic algae
bloom in the Pacific Ocean
stretching from California
north to Washington state
that might be the largest
ever detected off the U.S.
West Coast. Sala could not
say if the crab strandings
might be related to the
algae bloom.
After more than twenty
years of following this
trend, it is clear that much
can be learned from nations
that respect their
ancestors, themselves, and
those to come. Such nations
exemplify the true meaning
of the Seven Generations by
maintaining their integrity
as peoples...
Deloria’s articulation
of the Seven Generations
makes so much more sense on
a human scale and does away
with the destructive myth of
mystical, all seeing
Natives. In truth, our
peoples were visionary but
not in a passive, new-age
way. We actively tended our
families and our clan-ties
by holding the lives,
memories, and hopes of all
Seven Generations close.
Each generation was
responsible to teach, learn,
and protect the three
generations that had come
before it, its own, and the
next three. In this way, we
maintained our communities
for millennia.
Mexico now deports more
Central American migrants
than the United States, a
dramatic shift since the
U.S. asked Mexico for help a
year ago with a spike in
illegal migration,
especially among
unaccompanied minors.
Between October and
April, Mexico apprehended
92,889 Central Americans. In
the same time period, the
United States detained
70,226 "other than Mexican"
migrants, the vast majority
from Guatemala, Honduras and
El Salvador.
As previously mentioned, The
Morning Star Institute will
hold a respectful observance
to honor sacred places,
sacred beings, and all who
care for them, and protect
them from harm, on June
19...
There are events being
held around the country for
Turtle Island’s sacred
places.
The New Zealand government
on Tuesday welcomed an
international report that
says a peak in global
energy-related emissions
could be reached as early as
2020 - - although critics
said the government had no
plan to achieve a cut in
emissions.
The North's KCNA news agency
said paddies around the
country including the main
rice farming regions of
Hwanghae and Phyongan
provinces were drying up due
to lack of rainfall. Paddies
require enough water to keep
rice plants partially
submerged to grow.
Warmer waters and other
factors will cause nearly
all areas of low oxygen to
grow by the end of the
century...
Nearly all ocean dead zones
will increase by the end of
the century because of
climate change, according to
a new Smithsonian-led study.
But the work also recommends
how to limit risks to
coastal communities of fish,
crabs and other species no
matter how much the water
warms.
Pennsylvania Coal Alliance
CEO, John Pippy addressed
legislators on the effects
of the Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA)
"Clean Power Plan" on
Pennsylvania's jobs,
electric rates and economy
at a House and Senate Coal
Caucus hearing this morning.
The EPA's proposed rule,
said to be published this
summer, circumvents state's
rights by mandating energy
policy disguised as
environmental regulation.
Up to 40 tonnes of petrol
spilled into a lake near the
Bulgarian Black Sea port of
Burgas after a product
pipeline of LUKOIL's
Neftochim Burgas refinery
ruptured late on Wednesday,
the environment minister
said.
Improving the lives of slum
dwellers and climate change
is, for Pope Francis, one
and the same thing. Both
require tackling the
structural, root causes of
inequality, injustice,
poverty and environmental
degradation.
Ms Robinson
said the Pope Francis is
looking for the
solidarity the world had
70 years ago.
The former
president was responding
to Pope Francis' calls
for swift action to save
the planet from
environmental
destruction, saying “our
home” the earth is
“beginning to look more
and more like an immense
pile of filth”.
State regulators are
scheduled to decide
Wednesday whether to grant
the state's largest electric
utility more time to
finalize ownership and
coal-supply agreements for
its San Juan Generating
Station before the Public
Regulation Commission votes
on the company's
controversial plan for how
it will meet power supply
demands in coming years.
M3 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be moderate with a slight
chance for an X-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(19 Jun, 20 Jun, 21 Jun).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet
levels on days one, two, and
three (19 Jun, 20 Jun, 21
Jun). Protons are expected
to cross threshold on days
one and two (19 Jun, 20 Jun)
and are likely to cross
threshold on day three (21
Jun).
A toxic algae bloom in
the Pacific Ocean stretching
from California north to
Washington state might be
the largest ever detected
off the U.S. West Coast,
scientists said on Tuesday.
The bloom, which first
appeared in May, involves
microscopic algae that
produce a neurotoxin
potentially fatal to humans
called domoic acid,
according to researchers at
the University of California
at Santa Cruz
Consumer Reports is sounding
the alarm about mercury in
tuna, following a new study
showing levels of the toxic
heavy metal in tuna have
increased dramatically over
the last 15 years....
Using the current safety
limits set by the
Environmental Protection
Agency, a new analysis by
the magazine's health
experts indicates that a
48-pound child who eats more
than 1.4 ounces of tuna per
week — about one-third of a
can, or the amount in a
single sandwich — could be
at risk for brain-damaging
mercury exposure.
A woman weighing about
140 pounds would exceed it
by eating more than 4.5
ounces weekly.
Truth...
“ I love you, and because I
love you, I would sooner
have you hate me for telling
you the truth than adore me
for telling you lies. ” ―
Pietro Aretino
The birthplace of flight,
NASCAR and Michael Jordan is
making history once again,
this time as one of the
leading solar markets in the
country. Second, to be
exact, in terms of total
installed solar capacity.
Yes, you read that
correctly, North Carolina
ranks just behind California
on the Top 10 Solar States
(2014), and it is now home
to more solar capacity
(396.6 MW) than all of the
southeast states combined...
Ending years of wait, the
government agreed Thursday
to provide disability
benefits to as many as 2,100
Air Force reservists and
active-duty forces exposed
to Agent Orange residue on
airplanes used in the
Vietnam War.
The
new federal rule, approved
by the White House Office of
Management and Budget, takes
effect Friday. It adds to an
Agent Orange-related
caseload that already makes
up 1 out of 6 disability
checks issued by the
Department of Veterans
Affairs.
Richard Stover, PhD, and the
Center for Biological
Diversity counted nearly
8,000 significant incidents,
between 1986 and 2014, in
records of the pipeline
safety administration. By
“significant” they mean
causing injury, death,
damages exceeding $50,000 in
value, a loss of 5 barrels
of highly volatile
substances, 50 barrels of
other liquids or there was
an explosion. There have
been more than 500 human
deaths and 2,300 injuries
through-out that period. The
number of plant and animal
casualties is much higher.
The state’s four operating
nuclear units – two each at
North Anna and Surry power
stations – between them
provide some 3500 MWe of
generating capacity and
produce nearly 36% of
Virginia’s electricity.
Citing a 2011 report, the
authors note that by 2021
the state will require a
further 4000 MWe of
generating capacity “just to
meet demand”.
By using organic material
that would otherwise be
landfilled or left to decay
to generate electricity,
biomass is an
environmentally sound and
cost-effective renewable
energy source. Additionally,
biomass producers are
creating jobs for rural
communities across the
country, and these efforts
should be supported.
In West Virginia, where
workers have harvested coal
seams for centuries, Pope
Francis’ new warning about
the risks of fossil fuels
will find skepticism even
among the faithful...
“There are already people
who say climate change isn’t
happening,” he said. “There
are people saying, maybe it
is happening, but humans
have nothing to do with it.”
President Obama and the
White House have made a big
announcement about
investments in clean energy
-- with more than $4 billion
raised from foundations,
institutional investors, and
other long-term investors.
The administration issued a
call to action early in the
year asking them to make
commitments on clean energy
innovation, and "we've seen
a really overwhelming
response," White House
senior adviser Brian Deese
told reporters late Monday,
previewing the announcement.
The White House waited
roughly four weeks before
telling the public that
hackers had stolen the
personal information of
millions of people
associated with the federal
government, two people
directly involved with the
investigation tell The
Associated Press...
Roughly six weeks later, the
U.S. still doesn't know
exactly what information was
exposed or how many people
were affected, and it has
not provided detailed
warnings to employees whose
information was compromised.
The old tales may be true:
There is brimstone
in the underworld, and lots
of it. Brimstone, the
biblical name for sulfur, is
often found near hot springs
and volcanic fissures on
Earth’s surface (above). But
scientists studying the
formation of Earth’s core
have shown that the
lightweight nonmetal might
also be present there in
vast quantities, answering a
question that has long
troubled earth scientists:
How could Earth’s
core—predominantly made of
the heavy elements iron and
nickel—appear as light as it
does when analyzed using
seismic waves?
The $306 million power
plant We Energies opened
near Wausau to burn wood
waste and saw mill scraps
didn't run for six straight
months from December to late
May, as some key plant
components were being
repaired.
The power plant, on the
Wisconsin River in
Rothschild , is under
warranty, and early this
year was the best time to
address issues for the long
term, the utility says.
June 16, 2015
Affection...
“ Never regret anything
you have done with a sincere
affection; nothing is lost
that is born of the heart. ”
― Basil Rathbone
Renewable energy is at the
forefront of the changes
sweeping Africa , and a
"triple win" is within the
region's grasp to increase
agricultural productivity,
improve resilience to
climate change, and
contribute to long-term
reductions in dangerous
carbon emissions.
"The only thing I
really believe is the pipe
religion."..
In his vision he saw
“the Thunder Beings and
taken to the Grandfathers,
who represented the six
sacred directions of west,
east, north, south, above,
and below. They took Black
Elk to theater of the earth,
the central mountain of the
world, the axis of the six
sacred directions, the point
where stillness and movement
are together.”
The Canadian Wind Energy
Association (CanWEA) said
that, with the commissioning
of the K2 Wind Power Project
in Ontario earlier this
month, the country is now
the 7th country in the world
to surpass 10,000-MW of
installed capacity.
“In January … we predicted
that one of two things would
happen. Either Putin would
continue his military
aggression and he would
start annexing more regions
throughout Europe like he
did in Ukraine, or he would
be pushed back and that
would anger the more
dangerous radical fascists,”
Beck said on his television
program.
A delay in deciding whether
to approve plans to bury
hazardous nuclear waste near
Lake Huron until after the
federal election is a sign
of just how politically
fraught the project is,
opponents say.
Hidden within H.R. Bill
#2847, is a little-known
provision known as “FATCA.”
The first part of this
law went into effect last
year. The rest of it will
roll out, piece by piece,
through the end of 2018.
Few Americans have any
clue about what this is–but
FATCA actually stands for
the “Foreign Account Tax
Compliance Act.”...
For one, this law means
any institution that deals
with U.S. dollars has to now
comply with the IRS… which
means many institutions
could essentially stop
dealing with U.S. dollars.
For another, this law
makes it increasingly
difficult, if not
impossible, for the average
American to get some of his
money out of U.S. dollars,
and into more stable
currencies via foreign
banks.
An Egyptian court sentenced
ousted Islamist president
Mohamed Morsi to life in
prison on Tuesday on charges
of spying for Palestinian
Islamist group Hamas,
Lebanese militant group
Hezbollah, and Iran.
The court also confirmed
death sentences against 16
other defendants on charges
of delivering secret
documents abroad between
2005 and 2013.
Global energy emissions
could peak as soon as 2020
if the world bans the
construction of new
coal-fired power stations,
phases out subsidies for
fossil fuels, and increases
the use of power fueled by
nuclear, natural gas and
renewable resources,
according to a report by the
International Energy Agency
(IEA).
European equities fell
sharply on Monday after
talks between Greece and its
creditors collapsed at the
weekend, raising the
prospect that Greece could
default on its debt
obligations.
The pan-European
FTSEurofirst 300 slipped
more than 1.5 percent during
afternoon trade, with German
stocks tumbling around 1.9
percent, as peripheral bond
yields spiked.
Feelings...
“ The best and most
beautiful things in the
world cannot be seen or even
touched - they must be felt
with the heart. ” ― Helen
Keller
The Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission last
month proposed to approve a
new reliability standard
addressing the vulnerability
of electric transmission
systems to geomagnetic
disturbances (GMD) to
support continued reliable
operation of the nation’s
Bulk-Power System.
GMDs caused by solar events
distort, with varying
intensities, Earth’s
magnetic field. These events
are considered to be “high
impact, low frequency”
events, but can have
potentially severe,
widespread effects on
reliable grid operation,
including blackouts and
damage to critical or
vulnerable equipment.
The whistling tree frog is
beating the deadly fungus,
and so is the alpine tree
frog. But the critically
endangered yellow-and-black
striped corroboree frog is
disappearing, according to
studies by the ARC Centre of
Excellence for Environmental
Decisions, CEED, an
Australian Research Council
partnership among
universities and research
institutions.
“If there is conflict
between China and a military
ally of the United States,
like Japan, then it is not
an exaggeration to say that
we are on the threshold of a
third world war.”
Greece and
its creditors hardened their
stances on Monday after the
collapse of talks aimed at
preventing a default and
possible euro exit,
prompting Germany's EU
commissioner to say the time
had come to prepare for a
"state of emergency".
Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras ignored pleas
from European leaders to act
fast. Instead he blamed
creditors for Sunday's
breakdown of the
cash-for-reform talks, the
biggest setback in
long-running negotiations to
unlock aid. He said his
government had a
responsibility to defend
Greece's dignity and would
resist demands for further
pension cuts.
More than a dozen Syrian
opposition factions and
militant groups have accused
the country's main Kurdish
militia of committing
"ethnic cleansing" against
Sunni Muslim Arabs and
Turkomen in northern Syria.
The Kurdish People's
Protection Units, or YPG,
strongly have denied the
charges.
Kurdish fighters have
captured more than 200
villages and towns in
northeastern Syria since May
and now are on the outskirts
of Tal Abyad, an Islamic
State-held town on the
Turkish border.
Firefighting crews in Oregon
are battling 25
lightning-sparked blazes
across the state, in an
indication that the
drought-parched state's fire
season is underway more than
a month earlier than usual,
officials said on Wednesday.
A new study found that
"unconventional energy"
development will be an
important piece to the
future of the U.S. economy.
The report, "America's
Unconventional Energy
Opportunity," was conducted
by the Harvard Business
School and Boston Consulting
Group (BCG). It looked at
the overall energy system in
the United States and how
new innovation would change
the country...
BCG believes that
"unconventional gas-and-oil
resources" may be "the
single largest opportunity
to improve the trajectory of
the U.S. economy, at a time
when the prospects for the
average American are weaker
than we have experienced in
generations." The report
defines "unconventionals" as
shale gas and oil resources
as well as tight gas and oil
resources.
Two research facilities have
partnered to test new wind
energy technology. The
Department of Energy's
National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL) and
Clemson University teamed up
through a Cooperative
Research and Development
Agreement (CRADA). Their
goal is to improve the
performance of wind turbine
drivetrains and to better
understand how the turbines
can integrate more
effectively with the
electrical grid.
International Atomic
Energy Agency officials have
approved an agreement with
Kazakhstan to establish a
reserve bank of low enriched
uranium, LEU, in that
Central Asian country. LEU
is used to make the fuel
that runs most of the
world’s nuclear power
reactors.
The IAEA LEU Bank would
be a physical reserve of up
to 90 metric tonnes of low
enriched uranium suitable to
make fuel for a typical
light water reactor, the
most widely used type of
nuclear power reactor. That
amount would be enough to
power a large city for three
years.
Father Robert Spitzer,
a Catholic priest,
philosopher, author and
academic who recently mapped
out the four levels of
happiness that he says are
available to mankind, is
warning that contemporary
society is on a dangerous
trajectory that will
potentially lead to a
cultural “implosion.”
Recent polling conducted
for Consumer Energy
Alliance (CEA) continues to
examine what role the
Atlantic Coast Pipeline,
Keystone XL Pipeline,
offshore production and
other energy issues could
play in the 2016
presidential election. And
as echoed in recent poll
results from Iowa, New
Hampshire and South
Carolina, voters in
Virginia, North Carolina and
West Virginia reinforced
that energy policy will be
an important issue when they
cast their votes for
president next fall.
A rare form of
flesh-eating,
potentially
deadly bacteria
has made its way
to Florida
beaches,
according to
Florida health
officials.
Florida health officials
are warning residents and
tourists a rare form of
flesh-eating, potentially
deadly bacteria has made its
way to Florida beaches.
“Many of those that I met
who subscribe to religious
extremism and are prepared
to murder and die for their
cause are from the middle
class, and many had a
university education.”
Ullah said that the
desire for meaning and order
amid chaos, the quest for
change and a feeling of
victim-hood create a “toxic
brew” that helps lead to
extremism.
C2 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a chance for
M-class flares on day one
(16 Jun) and expected to be
low with a slight chance for
an M-class flare on days two
and three (17 Jun, 18 Jun).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
minor storm levels on day
one (16 Jun), quiet to
unsettled levels on day two
(17 Jun) and quiet levels on
day three (18 Jun).
Earlier this year the
mainstream media blamed an
outbreak of mumps on
so-called "anti-vaxxers."
The mob sharpened their
pitchforks as they angrily
pointed fingers at concerned
parents and doctors who had
the gall to question the
validity of the weak,
side-effect-riddled shots.
Pope Francis is likely to
have a major impact in
spurring U.N. negotiations
on global warming with an
encyclical on the
environment next week, the
U.N.'s climate chief said on
Thursday.
"Pope Francis is
personally committed to this
issue like no other pope
before him,"..
Stabilizing crude oil prices
and falling drilling costs
could soon boost US
production by hundreds of
thousands of barrels per
day, an upstream oil and gas
economist with the US Energy
Information Administration,
said Monday.
The United States Department
of Agriculture (USDA) is
continuing their goal of
increasing energy in the
United States, this time
with a total of $6.7 million
in grants for renewable
energy and energy efficiency
projects.
U.S. factory output
slipped in May, hurt by a
decline in oil refining that
overshadowed solid gains by
automakers.
The Federal Reserve said
Monday that manufacturing
output declined 0.2 percent
last month, as productivity
has basically been flat
since January. Manufacturing
has been hurt the stronger
dollar, higher oil prices
reducing equipment orders
and activity at refiners,
and previously by cold
winter weather at the start
of the year.
"Manufacturers will
continue to struggle with
the impact of the dollar's
rise for some time yet,"
said Paul Ashworth, chief
U.S. economist at Capital
Economics.
Energy industry groups
and states that oppose new
U.S. rules for hydraulic
fracturing on public lands
are headed to court this
month to try to block the
regulations a day before
they are to take effect.
Foes of the regulations
will go before a federal
judge on June 23 to seek a
preliminary injunction. The
Interior Department rules,
slated to take effect on
June 24, would require
companies to provide data on
chemicals used in hydraulic
fracturing, or fracking, and
to take steps to prevent
leakage from oil and gas
wells on federally owned
land.
The U.S. Senate Agriculture
Committee is set to hold a
hearing next month on the
deadliest-ever outbreak of
bird flu in U.S. poultry
amid mounting criticism from
Iowa lawmakers about the
speed of the U.S.
Agriculture Department's
response.
Vermont Governor Peter
Shumlin has signed a bill
meant to help renewable
growth in the state. House
Bill (HB) 40 would establish
a requirement of 55 percent
for the power sold by
Vermont energy companies to
come from renewable sources
by 2017, and 75 percent by
2032.
The same permanent
subsidies that made fossil
fuels cheap are simply not
available to the re-newable
energy industry. Why not?
A new study by the
International Monetary Fund
puts the total cost
of fossil fuel subsidies at
approximately $10 million a
minute globally, when health
costs and environmental
degradation are included,
never mind the effects of a
destabilized climate in
future centuries.
Advanced Microgrid
Solutions, a provider of
energy-storage systems,
agreed to buy as much as 500
megawatt-hours of battery
capacity from Tesla Motors
Inc.
The first step to
be taken toward
civilization, toward
teaching the Indians the
mischief and folly of
continuing in their
barbarous practices, is to
teach them the English
language.”...
The program tapped
into Blackfeet people’s long
history of powerful orators
and focused on public
speaking with an emphasis on
storytelling. This program
touched on four values very
profound and powerful for
Blackfeet people (Amskapipikuni):
storytelling, Blackfeet
history, Blackfeet language
and public speaking.
Most Americans are aware
that food waste is a
problem, are concerned about
it, and say they work to
reduce their own waste, but
nearly three-quarters
believe that they waste less
food than the national
average, new research
suggests.
Bill Yerkes , variously
described as the father of
the modern solar industry
and the Henry Ford of
photovoltaics, has won the
SolarWorld Einstein Award
for 2015. The award
recognizes individuals who
have wielded an
extraordinary impact in
producing, applying or
spreading solar
photovoltaics for the
benefit of the human race.
Yerkes was recognized for
his achievement in
industrializing crystalline
silicon solar manufacturing.
The world's No. 1 emitter of
greenhouse gases is on track
to peak its emissions by
2025, according to a new
study – a full five years
ahead of schedule.
Woodfox, now 68, was charged
with murdering prison guard
Brent Miller in 1972 and
convicted twice, but both of
those convictions were
overturned. State
prosecutors are hoping to
try him a third time,
although the judge barred it
Monday, saying he lacks
confidence in the state's
ability to provide a fair
trial.
A delay in deciding whether
to approve plans to bury
hazardous nuclear waste near
Lake Huron until after the
federal election is a sign
of just how politically
fraught the project is,
opponents say.
It‘s not often that a
simple, doable thing comes
along that’s also incredibly
good for you, but I think
this is it: eat a half a
handful of nuts every day.
Elon Musk, chief
executive officer of Tesla
Motors Inc., told electric
utility owners they
shouldn’t fear that his
battery systems will put
them out of business --
instead, they should buy
them.
Most customers in the
U.S. will use the Powerwall
home system as a backup in
the event of a failure, not
as a primary source of
electricity replacing
utility sales, Musk said
Monday...
In its latest poll, CEA
found that a large majority
of voters in Virginia (56
percent), West Virginia (70
percent) and North Carolina
(55 percent) support the
construction of the Atlantic
Coast Pipeline- - by more
than 30 points across all
three states.
The same day European Union
(EU) nations signed
agreements to make plans for
their energy futures, energy
ministers from 28 countries
got together to talk about
the specifics of those goals
-- and how best to provide
customers with affordable,
safe, competitive, secure,
and sustainable energy.
When NASA sent
Commander John Herrington
(Chickasaw Nation) to the
International Space Station
(ISS) on board the Endeavour
in 2002, space not only got
the first enrolled Native
American, but also its first
Native American flute
payload.
Group of Seven leaders
agreed on Monday to provide
insurance against climate
hazards for up to 400
million more vulnerable
people and back development
of early warning systems,
but did not outline a clear
path for increasing climate
aid up to 2020.
Experts at June 1-11
climate talks in Bonn were
disappointed that G7 leaders
gave only vague assurances
they would work to mobilize
$100 billion per year by
2020 to help poorer nations
cope with extreme weather
and rising seas, and to
develop their economies
cleanly - as promised by
rich governments in 2009.
Gallup Chairman and CEO Jim
Clifton warns that the real
unemployment rate in the
world is above 50 percent
and that the next global war
will be fought over good
jobs.
Hawaii enacted a law this
week that requires all of
the state's electricity to
be produced from renewable
energy sources no later than
2045. The new policy, Act 97
, makes Hawaii the first
state in the nation to adopt
a 100 percent renewable
requirement, further
solidifying Hawaii's role as
a global clean energy
leader.
Today marks a full year of
consumer availability for
the first mass-produced fuel
cell vehicle, the Hyundai
Tucson Fuel Cell CUV. This
innovative hydrogen-powered
CUV has been delivered to 70
Southern California
residents, who have since
accumulated more than
475,000 miles on their local
streets and freeways, all
while emitting only
environmentally-friendly
clean water vapor.
Health insurance prices may
jump dramatically next year
as some insurers are
requesting double-digit rate
increases.
State
governments are likely to
grant increases that are
less than requested, but
those who pay for their own
insurance out of pocket
should still expect a big
bite – especially those with
the most popular "silver"
plans, CNBC reports.
Kaspersky says the attackers
became entrenched in its
networks some time last
year. For what purpose? To
siphon intelligence about
nation-state attacks the
company is investigating—a
case of the watchers
watching the watchers who
are watching them. They also
wanted to learn how
Kaspersky’s detection
software works so they could
devise ways to avoid getting
caught. Too late, however:
Kaspersky found them
recently while testing a new
product designed to uncover
exactly the kind of attack
the intruders had launched.
A new report conducted by
the Brattle Group for the
Advanced Energy Economy
Institute (AEEI) finds that
high penetration levels of
renewable generation are not
only technically feasible
but are already being
managed in these states
without sacrificing electric
reliability -- suggesting
that an increasing share of
renewable energy can be
integrated into the
nationwide electricity
system going forward.
Manners...
“ Manners are a sensitive
awareness of the feelings of
others. If you have that
awareness, you have good
manners, no matter what fork
you use. ” ― Emily Post
Even the astronomical
price markups that consumers
regularly pay for, say, wine
in restaurants pale beside
those in some U.S.
hospitals: The price for
procedures is often 10 times
the cost, according to a
study published on Monday in
the journal Health Affairs.
Of the 50 hospitals with
the highest markups, 49 are
for-profit, including 25
owned by Community Health
Systems.
Warming temps, and the rise
and fall of coasts,
complicate measurements of
sea level. How do scientists
establish sea level on a
constantly changing Earth?
NASA has released a dataset
setting out how rainfall and
temperature patterns are
likely to change in the
coming decades. The data
covers 21 climate models,
mapping how our environment
could change due to growing
concentrations of greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere.
Delegates representing
almost 200 countries trimmed
a few pages off an 89-page
draft text at the June 1-11
preparatory meeting in Bonn,
but stopped short of
confronting major underlying
issues such as whether to
set a global goal for
phasing out greenhouse gases
this century.
A new study looked at the
economic impact of Entergy's
two nuclear reactors at
Indian Point Energy Center,
and found that they provide
a combined $1.6 billion to
New York state's economy.
The report -- "Economic
Impacts of the Indian Point
Energy Center," conducted by
the Nuclear Energy Institute
(NEI) -- also found that the
nuclear facility contributes
around $2.5 billion to the
nation's economy as a whole.
British neurosurgeon
Henry Marsh describes
the fear and uncertainty
that comes with brain
surgery along with the
sense of excitement and
wonder
Marsh is honest in his
assessment of how little
is actually known about
the brain and how it
coordinates what is the
essence of being human:
breathing, movement,
memory, thoughts,
feelings, consciousness…
He admitted that even
after decades of work as
a neurosurgeon, much of
the brain is still
beyond his grasp
The annual race is sponsored
by the Energy Department,
its National Renewable
Energy Laboratory (NREL),
the Alliance for Sustainable
Energy, Jeffco Public
Schools, and Dakota Ridge
High School. NREL sponsors
the annual event as a way to
encourage students to take
an interest in science,
technology, engineering, and
math (STEM) field
Renewable power was the
fastest growing form of
energy last year, with a
record 6 percent of global
power generation, in a year
when energy consumption
slowed sharply worldwide, BP
said in an authoritative
review.
"Renewable energy used in
power generation grew by 12
percent (last year)," said
the BP Statistical Review of
World Energy, issued on
Wednesday. "Although this
increase was below its
10-year average, it meant
that renewables accounted
for a record 6 percent of
global power generation."
M1 event observed.
Solar activity is
expected to be low with a
chance for M-class flares on
days one, two, and three (12
Jun, 13 Jun, 14 Jun).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
minor storm levels on day
one (12 Jun), quiet to
active levels on day two (13
Jun) and unsettled to active
levels on day three (14
Jun).
The worldwide demand for
legumes, one of the world’s
most important agricultural
food crops, is growing; at
the same time, their
production has been
adversely affected by
drought. In an Indiana
University-Purdue University
Indianapolis research paper
published today in the
journal PLOS ONE,
researchers provide
information that could help
agricultural planning and
management to minimize
drought-induced yield
losses.
A divided federal appeals
court on Thursday rejected
an effort by a coalition of
environmental groups to
revoke federal approval of
Royal Dutch Shell Plc's oil
spill response plans related
to drilling on Alaska's
remote Arctic coast.
The CPP Base Policy Case
found that, by 2024, coal
production is expected to
fall to levels not seen in
more than 40 years. However,
after this fall, total
production will recover
gradually -- but it is not
ever expected to surpass
levels reached in the 1980s.
According to EIA, production
in the West falls most, but
production levels at all
major coal basins are
affected.
Chemicals contaminated
the drinking supply in a
town in Pennsylvania, one of
the fracking capitals of the
country, according to a
recent study.
"This is the first
documented and published
demonstration of toxic
compounds escaping from
uncased boreholes in shale
gas wells and moving long
distances [into drinking
water]," according to Susan
Brantley, an author of the
study, per the Associated
Press.
The idea was that battery
swap stations would be built
across America allowing
Tesla Model S users to book
an appointment which will
allow them to swap their
discharged batteries for
fully charged replacements.
The idea seemed good and
all Tesla Model S owners
were contacted but only a
few took up the company’s
offer to visit the one and
only battery swap station
open to the public at the
moment.
A California lawmaker is
pushing to get rid of the
Drug Enforcement
Administration's pot
eradication program, arguing
it's fiscally irresponsible
to spend millions burning up
marijuana plants at a time
when several states are
legalizing the drug.
US coal consumption for the
power sector will total an
estimated 792.9 million st
in 2015, the lowest amount
since 1991, the Energy
Information Administration
said Tuesday.
Lower
natural gas prices are the
main reason behind the
decline, the agency said in
the June edition of its
Short Term Energy Outlook.
In 2014, coal consumption in
the power sector totaled
851.4 million st.
The Obama administration on
Wednesday paid $490 million
in cash assets to Iran and
will have released a total
of $11.9 billion to the
Islamic Republic by the time
nuclear talks are scheduled
to end in June, according to
figures provided by the
State Department.
"These grants will help
farmers, ranchers and small
business owners use more
renewable energy, which cuts
carbon pollution, reduces
our dependence on foreign
oil, saves businesses money
on their energy bills and
creates American jobs,"
Vilsack said in a release.
US LNG exports will have an
increasingly large impact on
worldwide prices and Europe
will help balance the market
between gas suppliers and
demand centers, speakers at
Benposium 2015 said in
Houston Wednesday.
The U.S. House of
Representatives on Wednesday
voted to repeal meat
labeling laws after losing a
battle with Canada and
Mexico that could expose the
United States to $3 billion
in trade sanctions, but
which were widely backed by
U.S. consumer groups.
An increase this week in US
power burn via natural gas
has so far surpassed the
expectations of Platts unit
Bentek Energy, senior
analyst Jeff Moore said
Wednesday.
Utilities
have consumed an average of
30.3 Bcf/day of natural gas
this month, ahead of
Bentek's forecast of an
average of 29.5 Bcf/day. The
increase in burn is
"extremely strong," Moore
said during the seventh
annual Benposium in Houston.
If cities can cut their
energy bills and save energy
from day one, what’s
standing in the way of a PV
pave-over of every public
building in America with a
suitable roof?..
The potential for rooftop
solar PV (on any building)
to meet American electricity
demands is phenomenal, with
enough suitable, sunny
rooftops to provide nearly
20% of the power in every
state.
Approval was given for the
plans of the world's first
tidal lagoon -- expected to
generate around 500
gigawatt-hours (GWh) each
year. Plans for the lagoon
show turbines built in a
six-mile horseshoe-shaped
sea wall around the Swansea
Bay in Wales.
Almost 80 percent of
people worldwide are
perturbed about global
warming and most want tough
action to fix the problem,
according to a new study
that the United Nations
touted as a spur to an
international climate deal
later this year.
The report, based on
consultations with 10,000
people in 75 nations from
Afghanistan to Zimbabwe,
also showed that 66 percent
viewed measures to tackle
warming, such as more wind
or solar energy, as a chance
to improve their quality of
life.
The Federal Reserve is
the central banker of the
United States of America and
the group has a dual
charter. The first charter
of "the Fed" is to foster
maximum employment within
the U.S. economy. The second
charter is to seek price
stability.
"Price stability" is
measured as inflation.
Inflation is the rate at
which the cost of items
change within the U.S.
economy. Another way to
consider inflation is in
terms of the U.S. dollar and
its devaluation.
Following a winter marked
by little snow and warmer
temperatures, fire crews on
Monday were tackling two
large wildfires burning on
mostly treeless tundra in
the southwest part of the
state.
Weekend rain helped tamp
down the lightning-caused
fires that through Monday
have burned 63 square miles
in the Yukon Delta National
Wildlife Refuge, about 50
miles northeast of the
commercial hub town of
Bethel.
Stonehenge inspires awe, but
there’s an even more
mysterious ancient scene in
Laos. The Plain of Jars
consists of thousands
of prehistoric stone vessels
scattered over hundreds of
square kilometers near
Phonsavan, in the
northeastern part of the
country—a hilly area,
despite the “plain” in the
name. The huge jars form a
surreal sight—some are up to
ten feet tall and
weigh several tons. It’s an
archeological wonder that
experts still haven’t pinned
down.
A federal appeals court
is resurrecting legal action
by workers who claim a
company hired to clean up
the massive coal ash spill
in Roane County lied about
the danger of their work and
failed to protect them from
toxic fly ash.
In an opinion handed down
this week, the 6th Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals
overturned Chief U.S.
District Judge Tom Varlan's
2014 decision to toss out
three lawsuits involving 48
Jacobs Engineering Group
Inc. workers and spouses
without hearing any proof in
the case.
A recent study finds
drinking from BPA-lined
containers can immediately
raise ones blood pressure.
Did you notice the word
'immediately'? Most of us
know – or should know by now
– that bisphenol-A mimics
estrogen and can thus
interrupt our cells'
reception of hormones. This
is called hormone
disruption.
Mainstream medicine’s cancer
treatments of radiation and
chemotherapy are far from a
cure. In fact, they make
cancer more deadly. But new
research shows some common
vegetables may be more
effective in battling
cancer. Why? The answer has
to do with cancer stem cells
(CSCs) that chemo and
radiation can’t touch.
The Savannah River Site
is expected to receive a
liquid form of highly
enriched uranium from Canada
for processing next fiscal
year, but a Canadian council
is expected to release a
motion denouncing the
shipment due to safety and
health concerns.
More than 6,000 gallons
of highly-enriched uranium
are expected to leave
Ontario, Canada, and land at
SRS. The material would
travel, via railcar, across
the Peace Bridge -- an
international bridge that
connects the U.S. and Canada
-- through western New York,
and down to South Carolina.
Character...
“ The ultimate measure of a
man is not where he stands
in moments of comfort and
convenience, but where he
stands at times of challenge
and controversy. ” ― Martin
Luther King, Jr.
Genetically engineered
and patented foods
threaten not only
biodiversity and
environmental health, it
also threatens cultures,
and the cultural
identity of peoples
around the world
Our food system is
highly concentrated in
terms of being a
monoculture and in
ownership of these few
precious crops. Far from
satisfying the world’s
food needs, this
concentration ensures
food insecurity
Free trade agreements
are really forced trade
deals, and by creating
international laws that
supersede national laws,
they virtually guarantee
quality and safety of
food will be as low as
possible
After tens of thousands of
migrant families, most from
Central America, crossed the
Rio Grande into Texas last
summer, the government
poured millions of dollars
into two large detention
centers meant to hold women
and children — and keep more
from coming.
The Energy Information
Association (EIA) has
analyzed the Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA)
Clean Power Plan (CPP) and
found that the plan will
help renewables become an
important part of the future
of energy -- including when
relating to market
conditions and policy
assumptions.
The agreement's goal is to
end the energy isolation of
the Baltic Sea Region and to
integrate the region into
existing EU energy markets
-- including internal energy
markets, interconnections,
and power generation -- as
well as new areas, like
energy efficiency,
renewables, and security of
supply.
Refusing to act on climate
resolutions could become a
costly mistake, and invite
the kind of legal onslaught
that cost tobacco companies
billions of dollars. ..
For a quarter-century,
stockholders have asked
Exxon to confront the threat
of climate change in all
sorts of ways: by investing
in renewable energy, cutting
harmful emissions, providing
carbon risk assessments and
adding a board member with
climate expertise.
Fracking for shale oil
and gas has not led to
widespread pollution of
drinking water, a U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency draft report said on
Thursday, although it warned
some drilling activities
could potentially cause
health risks.
The study, requested by
Congress and five years in
the making, said fracking
could contaminate drinking
water under certain
conditions, such as when
fluids used in the process
leaked into the water table.
Russia has been excluded
from what was previously
known as the G8, since the
annexation of Crimea last
year.
The West accuses Russia
of sending military forces
into eastern Ukraine to help
the rebels - a charge echoed
by analysts. Moscow denies
this, saying any Russian
soldiers there are
volunteers.
Greece faces a week of
urgent diplomacy to free up
bailout aid and avert a
potential default as world
leaders press for a final
resolution to the standoff.
With talks between the
Greek government and
creditors due to resume in
Brussels on Monday, Prime
Minister Alexis Tsipras
faced a united front from
Group of Seven leaders
calling for movement to end
the impasse and avert the
risk of wider economic
reverberations.
Essential for meeting
growing energy demand and
for tackling climate change,
solar and wind energy are
expected to account for 4%
of the worldwide energy mix
in 2035, according to the
International Energy Agency
. But if these two energies
are to be developed on a
large scale, the challenges
associated with their
variability must be
addressed. The availability
of solar and wind energy
varies greatly depending on
the weather and the time of
day and does not always
match demand, which itself
fluctuates.
The Department of Energy
(DOE) has announced more
than $60 million in research
grants to further nuclear
energy infrastructure. The
recipients included 68
projects from all across the
country -- all of which were
selected based on potential
for scientific breakthroughs
toward energy security and
reduction of greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions.
The study, by engineers
at the University of
Sheffield, is the first to
prove conclusively that
contaminants can enter pipes
through leaks and be
transported through the pipe
network.
The pressure in mains
water pipes usually forces
water out through leaks,
preventing anything else
from getting in. But when
there is a significant
pressure drop in a damaged
section of pipe, water
surrounding the pipe can be
sucked in through the hole.
The electrolyzer of the
Prenzlau power plant was
built by a division of
Enertrag , acquired by McPhy
Energy in September 2013 .
Through its expertise in
electrolysis technology
combined with expertise
developed in integrating it
into energy infrastructures
such as electrical or
natural gas networks, McPhy
Energy subsequently modified
and adapted the existing
Prenzlau hybrid power plant
and built the interface to
the network's gas injection
system.
At least 73 people who are
employed in the airline
industry and are linked to
terrorism-related activity
codes made it past the
Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) without
notice, according to a
report released by the
inspector general's office
of the Department of
Homeland Security.
Although a decision on
whether to build it is years
away, the new owner of the
Susquehanna Steam nuclear
power plant is moving
forward with requirements to
build a third reactor.
Intuition...
“ Intuition is the key to
everything, in painting,
filmmaking, business -
everything. I think you
could have an intellectual
ability, but if you can
sharpen your intuition,
which they say is emotion
and intellect joining
together, then a knowingness
occurs. ” ― David Lynch
In a few weeks a new
round of quarterly financial
statements from energy
companies will fill the
e-mail inboxes of investors,
brokers and even reporters.
The reports, as always,
will be written in esoteric
language hoping to hide the
fact that many energy
companies are losing more
money than they are making.
Well, that's true for the
coal companies. The natural
gas companies' financials
lately are somewhat sexier,
at least to Wall Street .
And there is the crux of
the issue. In the energy
realm, natural gas companies
are struggling but have a
white-knuckled grip on
profits while the coal
industry is simply
imploding.
As the federal energy
investment tax credit (ITC)
gets set to expire at the
end of this year, there has
been a mad dash of solar
photovoltaic (PV) projects
in the United States aiming
to get online before
December 31, 2016.
The ritualistic use of plant
smoke stretches back to the
prehistorical era and is
still used, the world over,
as a way of 'cleansing' the
spirit. Now modern
scientific research reveals
that the practice may
actually have life-saving
implications by purifying
the air of harmful
bacteria.
This is a familiar,
age-old story, really. It’s
about land rights.
Boundaries. Debates over
sovereignty. Feuds between
neighbors. Boycotts.
Resistance over taxation.
And a little violence at a
football game thrown in the
mix, too.
Although the Red Cross has
been very vocal regarding
the work that they do, and
told the world that they
have provided homes to more
than 130,000 people there,
the actual number of homes
built numbers at 6. This
would mean that these 6
homes would all be worth
approximately 80 million
dollars.
The Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) failed
to vet 73 aviation workers
who were on terror watch
lists, according to a
Department of Homeland
Security inspector general’s
report released Monday.
The report is the second
major blow against the
agency in as many weeks.
Last week, the details of
another inspector’s general
report were leaked. The
report found that TSA
screeners failed to identify
explosives and weapons in 67
out of 70 test screenings
conducted at a dozen U.S.
airports.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) approved
Southern California Edison
(SCE)’s request to change
its emergency preparedness
plan for the San Onofre
Nuclear Generating Station
(SONGS) in California...
...there will not be a
10-mile emergency planning
zone in the license. The
plant will maintain an
onsite emergency plan and
response, including the
notification of state and
local governments for an
emergency declaration.
Success...
“ The only place success
comes before work is in the
dictionary. ” ― Vince
Lombardi
Success...
“ The final test of a
gentleman is his respect for
those who can be of no
possible service to him. ” ―
William Lyon Phelps
The Supreme Court refused
to weigh in again Monday on
one of its most
controversial topics: the
right to bear arms.
The justices declined to
reconsider the rights of
local governments to
constrain that right --
upheld by the high court in
two landmark decisions over
the past decade -- by
requiring that handguns be
disabled or locked up when
they are not being carried.
A second stretch
of Southern
California shoreline has
been closed after masses of
tar balls washed ashore, and
authorities said on Thursday
they were looking into
whether the sticky blobs
were linked to a recent oil
pipeline spill.
The shoreline closure in
Long Beach, south of Los
Angeles, follows a similar
problem last week on a
6-mile (10-km) stretch of
beaches just to the north in
the South Santa Monica Bay
area.
Improved data and better
analysis methods find no
slowdown in the pace of
global temperature rise,
NOAA scientists report
Did global warming take a
breather in the early 21st
century? Not at all,
according to fresh analysis
of temperature data that
incorporates more
information and better
methods for parsing
historical trends.
Rising sea temperatures
attributed to global climate
change could drive many
marine creatures away from
the equator, but their move
toward the poles promises to
put them in peril in
habitats that are smaller
and less hospitable,
scientists say.
Two studies published on
Thursday in the journal
Science illustrate dangers
researchers forecast for sea
animals as diverse as
corals, fish and
crustaceans.
Turkey's Islamic-rooted
ruling party lost its
parliamentary majority in
Sunday's legislative
elections, dealing a severe
blow to strongman President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan's
ambition to expand his
powers.
Many of the Earth’s
ecosystems are approaching
“critical tipping points,”
the United Nations warned
today, World Environment
Day. The world body
accompanied the warning with
an invitation to each of the
planet’s 7.247 billion
plus people to mark the day
by making one change towards
more responsible consumption
of resources, such as flying
with e-tickets instead of
paper tickets or riding a
bike to work.
The U.N. representative to
Libya reconvened delegations
from Libya's rival
governments on Monday to
present the latest draft
proposal for a unity
government that is
increasingly being presented
as the war-torn country's
last chance for stability.
After warning last week that
the country was running out
of money and risked ceasing
to be a functional state,
Bernardino Leon urged the
Libyans to approve the
fourth version of the draft
proposal in a ceremony
in Morocco.
The US oil and natural gas
rotary rig count slid
another seven rigs to 868 in
the week that ended Friday,
which also was down 992 from
1,860 in the comparable week
a year ago, Baker Hughes
said in its weekly report.
US gas rigs for the week
totaled 222, down three from
a week ago. The US oil rig
count fell by four to 642.
Many people in the natural
health community think that
the FDA needs to stick with
petrochemicals and
pharmaceutical regulation
and keep their meddling
hands out of homeopathy. But
the US Food and Drug
Administration is
taking a look at alternative
medicine and ‘natural
cures,’ and without your
comments, they could be
unavailable.
A new research study has
called for an overhaul of
the way mobile devices are
manufactured and contracted,
in order to stop the harmful
effects on the environment
caused by current business
models.
Vinegar has been used for
healing since Hippocrates
used it to treat wounds.
Recently, vinegar has been
touted as a cure for
everything from an upset
stomach to dandruff. Can
vinegar really be such a
"cure-all?" Modern
scientific studies are
giving the old folk remedies
new life by showing that
they can indeed be used to
treat modern medical
scourges.
Our blessed elders certainly
deserve our respect. Though
traditions and ways of life
vary from tribe to tribe,
showing respect to our
elders is a way to remember
tradition, pay homage to our
ancestry, and to carry our
beliefs forward to our
upcoming generations of new
leaders.
A Scottsdale, Ariz., company
hopes to use its proprietary
technology to produce
semi-refined diesel from
coal derived from wood waste
at a proposed facility in
Snowflake, Ariz.
Each summer, Greenland’s ice
sheet — the world’s
second-largest expanse of
ice, measuring three times
the size of Texas — begins
to melt. Pockets of melting
ice form hundreds of large,
“supraglacial” lakes on the
surface of the ice. Many of
these lakes drain through
cracks and crevasses in the
ice sheet, creating a liquid
layer over which massive
chunks of ice can slide.
This natural conveyor belt
can speed ice toward the
coast, where it eventually
falls off into the sea.
The U.S. poison-making
company that disingenuously
rebranded itself as a
“sustainable agriculture
company,” is trying to
acquire a Switzerland-based
chemical company whose
misleading tagline is
“bringing plant potential to
life.”
The United States is
experiencing a significant
shift in its energy
landscape. Last year,
utility-scale wind and solar
power combined for 47% of
new U.S. generation
capacity. Based on this
expansion, 11 states now
generate more than 10% of
their electricity from
non-hydro renewable energy
sources, with three of these
states – Iowa , South Dakota
, and Kansas – exceeding
20%.
Legislation to
eliminate all non-medical
vaccine exemptions
has cleared the California
Senate and is now moving to
the state Assembly, where it
faces an even easier path to
passage. In the Senate, it
needed to be voted on by
three separate policy
committees before going
before the full body.
Nobody knows quite what
the LHC might reveal with
its new particle collisions
— mini-versions of the Big
Bang primordial blast that
brought the universe into
being 13.8 billion years ago
— but scientists hope it
will produce evidence of
what has been dubbed “new
physics.”
This concept includes
“dark matter,” thought to
make up some 96 percent of
the stuff of the universe
while being totally
invisible, and
super-symmetry, or SUSY,
under which all visible
particles have unseen
counterparts.
Della Curry, an
elementary school kitchen
manager at Dakota Valley
Elementary School in Aurora,
Colo., opted to give such
children free lunches. Her
decision was a violation of
school policy and she was
fired.
“I had a first grader in
front of me, crying, because
she doesn’t have enough
money for lunch. Yes, I gave
her lunch,” Curry said.
Bitterness...
“ I know from personal
experience how damaging it
can be to live with
bitterness and
unforgiveness. I like to say
it's like taking poison and
hoping your enemy will die.
And it really is that
harmful to us to live this
way. ” ― Joyce Meyer
... Titman sued his
California school district
on Monday, June 1, 2015,
over its refusal to let him
wear an eagle feather during
his high school graduation
ceremony, claiming his
rights to freedom of
expression and religion in
the state constitution are
being violated.
... feminists regularly
insist that the absence of a
uterus and a vagina excludes
men from having an opinion
about things like
abortion. So a man can’t
have ideas about women’s
issues because he lacks the
correct anatomy, but he can
actually be a woman
despite lacking the correct
anatomy?
Poor sleep—particularly a
deficit of deep, restorative
slumber—is a channel through
which the beta-amyloid
protein believed to trigger
Alzheimer’s disease attacks
the brain’s long-term
memory.
China-based hackers are
suspected of breaking into
the computer networks of the
U.S. government personnel
office and stealing
identifying information of
at least 4 million federal
workers, American officials
said Thursday.
Research conducted by a team
of MIT scientists suggests
that applying a layer of
graphene to power plant
condensers could
significantly improve
efficiency. Early testing
indicates that use of the
material is vastly superior
to current methods, and its
application could lead to
huge monetary savings, as
well as a positive impact on
the climate.
Vaccine risks can range
from zero to 100 percent
depending on your
genetic makeup, your
microbiome DNA, your
environment, age and
health at the time of
vaccination, and the
type and how many
vaccines you get
US Supreme Court
declared vaccines to be
“unavoidably unsafe” and
shielded the
pharmaceutical industry
from vaccine injury
lawsuits
Yet the Centers for
Disease Control and
Prevention and medical
trade organizations now
direct pediatricians and
other vaccinators to
deny the medical vaccine
exemption to 99.99
percent of Americans
DTE Energy first began
collecting the fees in 2009
-- in order to meet
Michigan's renewable energy
goals established in 2008.
DTE had been collecting $3
per residential customer
and, in 2013 reduced that to
$0.43. If MPSC approves the
new renewable energy plan,
customer bills would be
reduced by a total of $15
million each year.
Farmers in Africa and
East Asia are expected to
suffer crop losses as
extreme weather linked to
the El Nino phenomenon
alters rainfall patterns,
scientists told a conference
on climate change in Bonn on
Wednesday.
The rainy season has been
delayed in several African
nations, and it is difficult
to predict exactly how large
the crop losses will be,
said Sonja Vermeulen, a
University of Copenhagen
scientist.
The Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) is releasing a
draft assessment today on
the potential impacts of
hydraulic fracturing
activities on drinking water
resources in the United
States. The assessment, done
at the request of Congress,
shows that while hydraulic
fracturing activities in
the U.S. are carried out in
a way that have not led to
widespread, systemic impacts
on drinking water resources,
there are potential
vulnerabilities in the water
lifecycle that could impact
drinking water.
Researchers working at the
Australian National
University (ANU) have
conducted an experiment that
helps bolster the
ever-growing evidence
surrounding the weird causal
properties inherent in
quantum theory. In short,
they have shown that reality
does not actually exist
until it is measured – at
atomic scales, at least.
Inflation has vexed the
Federal Reserve, staying far
below its 2 percent target
despite the central bank's
massive easing effort.
Consumer prices slid 0.2
percent in the 12 months
through April, and the Fed's
favored inflation gauge, the
personal consumption
expenditures price index,
rose just 0.1 percent in the
12 months through April.
Fewer than 20 wells have
been shut in as a precaution
against potential floods
after recent heavy rains hit
the Bakken Shale production
areas of northwest North
Dakota, a spokeswoman for
the Oil & Gas Division of
the state's Department of
Mineral Resources said
Thursday.
Fronius is targeting large
PV projects with capacities
in the megawatt range. The
manufacturer states that the
device has an efficiency
rating of 98.3% and also
emphasises its compact
design and relatively low
weight of 35.7 kg for this
power class.
The findings, reported in
the journal Physical
Review Letters, involve
the formation of plasmoids
in the hot, charged plasma
gas that fuels fusion
reactions. These round
structures carry current
that could eliminate the
need for solenoids - large
magnetic coils that wind
down the center of today's
tokamaks - to initiate the
plasma and complete the
magnetic field that confines
the hot gas.
Yesterday, the Geothermal
Energy Association (GEA),
who recognizes companies and
individuals that have made
significant contributions
during the past year to
advancing technology,
spurring economic
development, and protecting
the environment, presented
its Annual Honors Awards for
advances supporting industry
growth.
If greenhouse gas
emissions continue to rise,
glaciers in the Mount
Everest region of the
Himalayas could melt away in
this century, a team of
researchers in Nepal, France
and the Netherlands has
found.
Glacier volume could be
reduced between 70 percent
and 99 percent by 2100, the
researchers predict.
Three stunning new images
from ESA's Herschel Space
Observatory are providing
new insights into how matter
is distributed in our
galaxy. Observations made by
the orbital telescope have
led astronomers to conclude
that our galaxy is threaded
with filamentary structures
similar to those featured in
the newly-released images,
the smallest of which
stretches across 170 light
years of space.
Most of Earth’s oxygen comes
from tiny ocean plants –
called phytoplankton – that
live near the water’s
surface and drift with the
currents. ..
Scientists believe that
phytoplankton contribute
between 50 to 85 percent of
the oxygen in Earth’s
atmosphere. They aren’t sure
because it’s a tough thing
to calculate.
Poly- and perfluoroalkyl
substances (PFAS) used
to create non-stick,
stain-resistant, and
water-repellant surfaces
are toxic and highly
persistent, both in your
body and in the
environment
When heated, non-stick
cookware releases
perfluorooctanoic acid
(PFOA), linked to
thyroid disease,
infertility, and
developmental and
reproductive problems
The Madrid Statement,
signed by more than 200
scientists from 40
countries, presents the
scientific consensus on
the harms of PFAS
chemicals, both old and
new
IKEA, the world's biggest
furniture retailer, plans to
spend 1 billion euros ($1.13
billion) on renewable energy
and steps to help poor
nations cope with climate
change, the latest example
of firms upstaging
governments in efforts to
slow warming.
The new generation of energy
storage systems has an
expanded number of full
cycles by 40 % from 5,000 to
7,000 and an increase of the
depth of discharge (DoD)
from 80 % to 90 %.
Additionally, the intrinsic
energy consumption of the
battery management system
has been reduced.
Soaring temperatures in
three Indian states over the
past week have claimed the
lives of about 2,330 people,
mostly construction workers,
the elderly or the homeless,
officials say.
The hardest hit states
are Andhra Pradesh on the
India’s southeast coast, the
neighboring inland state of
Telangana, and Odisha to the
north.
Former Congressman
Ernest Istook, says that the
“New Indian Wars are Fought
at the Casino,”..
Indian nations are the
original American
democracies. Native
Americans exercised our
rights to self-determination
thousands of years ago, when
our grand-fathers and
grandmothers created
self-governing,
self-sustaining societies.
Before the United States,
Indian tribes were
independent nations.
An IRS employee who worked
in the agency’s St. Louis,
MO., office pled guilty this
week to charges of tax
fraud. Demetria Brown netted
$326,000 in a fraud in which
she stole taxpayer
identities and created fake
tax returns to steal
refunds. Her plea was made
the same week that IRS
Commissioner John Koskinen
told Congress Russian
criminals were behind the
hacking of the agency’s
website that resulted in the
identity theft of more than
100,000 individuals.
Illegal immigrants granted
amnesty under President
Barack Obama's immigration
reform will be able to claim
back tax refunds from years
in which they never filed
taxes, the IRS said.
According to the
Washington Times,
IRS Commissioner John
Koskinen told Congress in a
letter the roughly 5 million
illegal immigrants who could
be granted amnesty under
Obama's plan will be
eligible to take advantage
of the Earned Income Tax
Credit.
More than 200,000 people
flooded the U.S. Forest
Service with comments over
the last month calling for
the
agency to reject a
plan for roads and
infrastructure that would
enable construction of a
mega-development on the
Grand Canyon’s doorstep.
A Mexican congressional
candidate was shot dead in a
town bordering the capital
Tuesday, becoming the fourth
politician to be slain ahead
of Sunday's midterm
elections.
Alzheimer’s,
Parkinson's, and Lou
Gehrig's disease appear
to be linked to the
presence of a protein,
TDP-43, which behaves
like infectious proteins
called prions,
responsible for Mad Cow
and Chronic Wasting
Disease
TDP-43 pathology is
detected in 25-50
percent of Alzheimer’s
patients; autopsies show
Alzheimer’s patients
with TDP-43 were 10
times more likely to
have been cognitively
impaired at death than
those without it
Alzheimer’s may be a
slower moving version of
Mad Cow disease,
acquired by eating
contaminated meats, and
Mad Cow is created by a
CAFO system that
“cannibalizes”
herbivores
The US military said
Wednesday a problem
involving mistaken shipments
of live anthrax is much
worse than previously
reported, with samples of
the lethal bacteria sent to
more than 50 laboratories.
A concept designed to rid
the oceans of plastic waste
is to become a reality next
year. Boyan's Slat's Ocean
Cleanup system is expected
to be deployed in the second
quarter of 2016 in the
waters between Japan and
South Korea. It will be the
longest floating structure
ever deployed in the ocean.
The oil complex settled
lower Wednesday weighed down
by US Energy Information
Administration data showing
record-high crude production
and a large decline in
implied gasoline demand.
NYMEX July crude settled
$1.62 lower at $59.64/b,
while ICE July Brent settled
down $1.69 at $63.80/b.
A team of researchers from
the University of Virginia
(UVA) School of Medicine has
made a landmark discovery of
vessels that connect the
brain with the lymphatic
system – something that
wasn't previously thought to
exist. The breakthrough has
significant implications on
the study of major
neurological diseases, from
multiple sclerosis to
Alzheimer's.
Readers reacted strongly
to a Times story this
weekend reporting that Los
Angeles entrepreneur Elon
Musk's companies -- Tesla,
SolarCity and SpaceX -- have
benefited from an estimated
$4.9 billion in government
support.
The figure comprises a
variety of government
incentives, including
grants, tax breaks, factory
construction, discounted
loans and environmental
credits that Tesla can sell.
It also includes tax credits
and rebates to buyers of
solar panels and electric
cars.
A new report is alleging
deception by governments and
institutions to further the
coal industry. The report,
"Under the Rug: How
Governments and
International Institutions
Are Hiding Billions in
Support to the Coal
Industry," was conducted by
the Natural Resources
Defense Council (NRDC), Oil
Change International, and
the World Wide Fund for
Nature.
C8 event observed .
Solar Activity Forecast:
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a slight
chance for an M-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(05 Jun, 06 Jun, 07 Jun).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet
levels on day one (05 Jun)
and quiet to unsettled
levels on days two and
three (06 Jun, 07 Jun).
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
charges the Centers for
Disease Control can't be
trusted to assure Americans
that childhood vaccines are
safe. And, he says, autism
may be triggered by the
preservative thimerosal,
which contains mercury and
is used in the serums.
...the requirements for the
building included it being
built entirely out of
biodegradable materials, its
site having to be completely
cleared of hundreds of
tonnes of non-biodegradable
material before construction
could begin, and it having
minimal impact on fauna and
flora in the area. In
addition, 70 percent of the
lodge's energy requirements
were to be met by
sustainable means, and the
complete treatment of
sewerage and removal of
waste had to be factored in.
Randy Pacheco, dean of
San Juan College's School of
Energy, believes the
program's new, $15-million
building will help it become
a leader for education in
the energy industry.
"We can be -- we will be
the Harvard of energy
training in the United
States," Pacheco said.
Currently, recipients of arm
or leg transplants need to
take immunosuppressive drugs
for the rest of their lives,
in order to keep the donated
parts from being rejected.
If we could grow our own
replacement limbs, however,
that wouldn't be necessary.
And while we do already
possess the progenitor cells
needed to grow such parts,
what's been lacking is a
method of assembling them
into the form of the desired
limb.
Some people have noticed
and even called 911 recently
regarding strange,
low-flying planes in the
skies above their cities.
The Associated Press has
learned that some of these
aircraft are being operated
by the FBI, carrying video
and, at times, cellphone
surveillance technology.
The planes’ surveillance
equipment is generally used
without a judge’s approval,
and the FBI said the flights
are used for specific,
ongoing investigations. In a
recent 30-day period, the
agency flew above more than
30 cities in 11 states
across the country, an AP
review found.
Greece's international
creditors signaled on
Wednesday they were ready to
compromise to avert a
default even as a defiant
Athens warned it might skip
an IMF loan repayment due
this week.
The USA Freedom Act, which
will restore but reform the
expired Patriot Act's spy
authorities, earned final
passage in the Senate
Tuesday and was signed by
the president.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden is
asking officials to update
Air Force radar in Fossil
because the current system
is outdated and preventing
the generation of nearly
4,000 megawatts of wind
energy across eastern Oregon
and Washington.
Traditionally, caregivers
ask children to rate their
pain on a level of 0 to 10.
This can be a problem with
patients who aren't
coherent, however, and is
particularly challenging
with younger children who
can't yet grasp the concept
of numerical ratings
systems.
Solar Wind Energy Tower,
Inc. the inventor of large
Solar Wind Downdraft Tower
structures capable of
producing abundant,
inexpensive electricity,
today issued an update on
the development of its Tower
projects in Arizona, Mexico,
and Chile.
South Korea on
Wednesday test-launched a
new ballistic missile that
can hit all of North Korea,
the president's office said,
developed under a new
agreement with the United
States that lets Seoul
extend the weapon's range to
up to 800 km (500 miles).
The United States is
experiencing a significant
shift in its energy
landscape. Last year,
utility-scale wind and solar
power combined for 47% of
new generation capacity in
the U.S. Based on this
expansion, 11 states now
generate more than 10% of
their electricity from
solar, wind, and geothermal
power, with three of these
states – Iowa, South Dakota,
and Kansas – exceeding 20%.
A new study shows how huge
influxes of fresh water into
the North Atlantic Ocean
from icebergs calving off
North America during the
last ice age had an
unexpected effect – they
increased the production of
methane in the tropical
wetlands.
Teachers...
“ I have learned silence
from the talkative,
toleration from the
intolerant, and kindness
from the unkind; yet,
strange, I am ungrateful to
those teachers. ” ― Khalil
Gibran
In August 2014, the
entire city of Toledo, Ohio,
lost access to drinking
water for three full days
due to a sudden deluge of
microcystin in the source
water. Microcystin is a
cyanotoxin found in some
cyanobacteria -- the
blue-green algae blooms that
grow on surface water in
warm weather. These toxins
can add a foul odor and
taste to water and
potentially lead to nausea,
rashes, dizziness, and even
liver and kidney damage
NASA’s Atmospheric Imaging
Assembly (AIA) instrument
aboard the Solar Dynamics
Observatory (SDO) recently
produced an image made by
superimposing images snapped
every 10 seconds of 10
wavelengths of the Sun’s
coronal loops over a sunspot
group.
Scientists were baffled last
year after meltwater lakes
atop Greenland's ice sheet
suddenly drained out at
rates rivaling Niagara
Falls...
Vertical shafts in the ice
sheet, called moulins, can
funnel melt water beneath
parts of the glacier and
lift them up. This causes
cracks beneath the so-called
supragalcial lakes that can
empty them in days,..
White House press secretary
Josh Earnest said Wednesday
there is still no plan B if
the Obama administration
loses the forthcoming
Supreme Court ruling on
Obamacare.
Using wood pellets made from
hardwood trees cut down in
eastern North Carolina and
Virginia forests will
produce two-and-a-half times
more carbon pollution than
continuing to burn coal for
40 years and more than three
times coal's carbon over 100
years. That is according to
a new analysis by carbon
lifecycle modeling experts
Spatial Informatics Group
(SGI).
A World Bank initiative to
eliminate the waste and
pollution of routine gas
flaring remains unsigned by
some of the main countries
involved, undermining
industry demands this week
for special treatment on the
grounds gas is cleaner than
coal.
Although many retailers
already display the
tenderness of meat cuts on
their packaging, Norwegian
research group SINTEF has
developed what it believes
is a better system. Instead
of relying on human
interpretations of
tenderness, it uses x-rays
to give a less subjective
and more accurate rating.
The US Environmental
Protection Agency on
Thursday proposed 2014, 2015
and 2016 Renewable Fuel
Standards that call for
biofuels blending below the
statutory levels required by
the law, but which the
agency says will spur the
adoption of ethanol blends
higher than 10%.
The
2014 RFS calls for 15.93
billion gallons of biofuels
to be blended with US
transportation fuels, 16.30
billion gallons in 2015 and
17.40 billion gallons in
2016.
Appalachian Power had
announced in 2011 that it
planned to close the plants,
along with three coal-fired
plants in Virginia, Ohio and
Indiana. The company had
said it would be
cost-prohibitive to equip
them to comply with new
federal emission standards
for mercury and other
hazardous air pollutants.
Another coal-fired plant in
Virginia is being converted
to natural gas.
The cost of solar panels has
fallen nearly 50 percent
since 2010, even as new
technologies have boosted
their electrical output. The
price of other solar
components has also fallen
sharply while achieving
similar efficiency
improvements. Perhaps the
biggest change in solar
energy systems, however, is
how people pay for them.
Relatively new financing
options let homeowners
install rooftop panels with
low-interest loans and no
money down.
California's industrial
firms spent another $1
billion in the most recent
auction of carbon emissions
credits, state officials
said Thursday.
The California Air
Resources Board said its
latest quarterly auction of
carbon credits raised around
$1.06 billion, making it one
of the largest sales in the
program's 2 1/2-year
history.
Of all the scenarios you'd
want to find yourself in a
heatwave, being barefoot on
a hot tin roof would be
toward the bottom of the
list. These exposed surfaces
soak up sunlight to slowly
but surely transform into
corrugated hotplates,
compounding the sweltering
ambient temperatures and
warming the living space
below. But a team of
Sydney-based scientists has
developed a new material
that's claimed capable of
keeping a rooftop cooler
than the air that surrounds
it, saving energy and
sweating residents in the
process
The Department of Energy
(DOE) is giving select
Alaska Native villages
assistance to implement
President Obama's Climate
Action Plan through the
Alaska Strategic Technical
Assistance Response Team
(START) Program, which
provides
federally-recognized Alaska
Native corporations'
governments with technical
assistance to accelerate
tribal clean energy projects
and initiatives.
Wind capacity in the United
States has grown
exponentially in the last
few decades, in large part
because of numerous states
adopting a Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS),
but it wasn't easy...
"If the RPSes go away,
something is going to
replace them, whether its
customer need, whether its
legislation, whether its
just the market place
telling them," he said.
Economic experts say
water crises would have the
most harmful impact on
global stability compared to
any other type of threat,
including wars, infectious
diseases, and weapons of
mass destruction.
That's according to the
World Economic Forum's (WEF)
Global Risk Assessment for
2015.
Mercury in the lake sediment
and soil can build up in the
tissue of fish and other
wildlife and pose a threat
to people who eat them.
Exposure to mercury can
damage people’s nervous
systems and harm the brain,
heart, kidneys, lungs and
immune systems. Fish
consumption advisories are
in effect, and fish
consumption warning signs
are posted around Pompton
Lake.
The event for which
physicists across the world
are waiting with bated
breath is almost here.
CERN’s Large Hadron Collider
(LHC) — the world’s most
powerful particle
accelerator credited with
the discovery of the “God
particle” Higgs boson in
2012 — will be back in
action next week, the
European research
organization said in a
statement released Friday.
During the second
run, up to one
billion proton
collisions could
occur every second
in the detectors,”..
Shareholders of the top
two U.S. oil companies on
Wednesday rejected proposals
to add directors with
climate change expertise to
their boards, but a measure
passed at one, Chevron Corp,
could give new power to
minority investors with
environmental concerns.
Proposals to add an
independent director with
expertise in climate change
received the support of
about 20 percent of
shareholders at each
company, according to
preliminary tallies provided
at Chevron's annual meeting
and that of Exxon Mobil
Corp....
Farmers and ranchers in
Oregon are locked in a
battle with lawmakers who
want to restrict their
ability to give antibiotics
to their animals -- as part
of a first-in-the-nation
push to crack down on the
alleged overuse of the
drugs.
Driving the push is the
threat posed by so-called
"superbugs," or bacteria
resistant to antibiotics.
A Florida initiative is
calling for a statewide
constitutional amendment for
solar. The ballot
initiative, organized by
Floridians for Solar Choice
(FSC), would end a ban on
residents buying electricity
from companies that put
solar panels on homes and
businesses.
From the rooftops of
Amsterdam to the expanses of
Kazakhstan, Dutch technology
is helping food producers to
meet the needs of both
gourmets and growing
populations facing uncertain
supplies.
One of the most densely
populated countries in the
world, the Netherlands has
long learnt to squeeze the
maximum out of its limited
farmland, making it the
second-largest agricultural
exporter after the United
States.
If you have fruit that’s
about to spoil, toss it
into your freezer
instead of the trash
If you want a
sorbet-like texture, all
you need to do is blend
up frozen fruit with a
bit of lemon juice
(optional) and you’ll
have homemade sorbet
If you're insulin or
leptin resistant (are
overweight, diabetic,
hypertensive, or have
high cholesterol), it
would be advisable for
you to limit your fruit
intake
"If the
storage industry is
dependent on backing up
solar, it's hopeless. You
should quit your job today,"
Shah, a co-partner in
Generate Capital, a San
Francisco-based renewables
financing firm, told them.
The plan is simple: To
destroy capitalism and
“American exceptionalism”
you overwhelm the system
with spending, entitlements,
regulations and debt. The
economy comes to halt,
full-time jobs are killed,
businesses fail in record
numbers, the middle class is
financially murdered, the
debt implodes and the
economy is overwhelmed.
Laser weapons have made
great strides in recent
years, but one of the most
sought after goals has been
to marry high power to light
weight so the system can be
installed in aircraft and
other very mobile platforms.
The result of a DARPA
program, the all-electric
HELLADS punches a 150 kW
laser, yet is only a tenth
the size and weight of
comparable systems.
Scientists at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology have
created a microscope that
they claim is able to image
the fundamental particles
that make up all matter in
the universe
Scientific curiosity around
how air interacts with the
ocean in the event of
powerful storms has inspired
a number of wind-emulating
facilities around the world,
from a high-speed wind-wave
tank at Kyoto University to
the Hydrodynamics Laboratory
at Imperial College London.
But just as hurricane season
kicks off in the US, a team
at the University of Miami
is looking to step things up
a notch. A freshly built
indoor tank designed to
study category five storms
is now open for business,
and as the only one of its
kind in the world, is hoped
to offer a new understanding
of these destructive
superstorms.
A Norway-based energy
consortium planning to
conduct seismic testing in
the waters off Baffin Island
in the Canadian Arctic has
postponed the
fiercely-contested project
for this year, one of
companies involved said on
Thursday...
The Nunavut hamlet of Clyde
River filed a federal court
appeal against the NEB
decision, arguing the
high-decibel blasts from
underwater canons used to
help map the seabed would
damage the diverse marine
species of the area, many of
which the people of Clyde
River depend on for food.
The benefits of solar
energy, like job creation
and economic development,
are fairly well-recognized,
but not quite as well known
is how cities can benefit by
installing solar on their
own buildings. Cities can
use the rooftops of
thousands of municipal
buildings to reduce
operating costs and
pollution, and boost the
local economy, according to
a new report released today
by the Institute for Local
Self-Reliance (ILSR), which
demonstrates through five
case studies how U.S. cities
have leveraged solar to
slash municipal energy bills
and pollution.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low with a chance
for a C-class flares on days
one, two, and three (02 Jun,
03 Jun, 04 Jun). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet
levels on days one, two, and
three (02 Jun, 03 Jun, 04
Jun).
A seven-year scientific
study has revealed that
microbial communities in
urban waterways has the
potential to play an
important role in cleansing
Singapore’s waterways and
also act as raw water
quality indicators.
The study found that
canals designed to channel
rainwater host microbial
communities that could
remove and neutralise
organic pollutants in raw
water. ..
In a remarkable turnaround,
Senate Republicans have
agreed to debate a House
bill that would overhaul the
National Security Agency's
handling of Americans'
calling records while
preserving other domestic
surveillance provisions.
But that move didn't
happen soon enough to
prevent expiration of legal
authority for the programs
from expiring ...
On a 8-1 vote, the court
handed a victory to the U.S.
Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC), a federal
agency that sued the company
on behalf of Samantha Elauf.
She was denied a sales job
in 2008 at an Abercrombie
Kids store in Tulsa when she
was 17.
Over 90 percent of all
chicken meat and eggs
sold in the US come from
confined animal feeding
operations (CAFOs)
One hidden health hazard
of CAFO foods is
foodborne illness, which
last year alone struck
more than 19,000 out of
a population of 48
million residents; 38
percent of illnesses
were caused by
salmonella
Drug-resistant
infections from
contaminated foods are
also on the rise. In
2013, the Environmental
Working Group found
antibiotic-resistant
bacteria in 39 percent
of raw chicken parts
Trauma is big
news these days.
Mainstream media
is full of
stories about
the dramatic
improvements
allowing science
to see more
clearly how
trauma affects
our bodies,
minds and even
our genes. Much
of the coverage
hails the
scientific
connection
between trauma
and illness as a
breakthrough for
modern medicine.
The next
breakthrough
will be how
trauma affects
our offspring.
Turkish police Sunday
tightened security around
Istanbul's Taksim square, on
the second anniversary of
the mass anti-government
protests that rocked the
square in 2013.
The U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) today
announced that incentives
will resume this summer for
farmers, ranchers and forest
landowners interested in
growing and harvesting
biomass for renewable
energy.
The U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) plans to
inject $100 million in
funding to get more ethanol
at the gas pump, according
to two industry sources, the
latest push to get beyond a
"blend wall" that has capped
demand for the biofuel.
That would mark a big
push for an overhaul of
fuel-blending pumps and
related infrastructure to
generate higher demand for
the biofuel. The USDA is
expected to announce the
funding on Friday, the
sources said
The United
States will extend its
cyber defense umbrella over Japan,
helping its Asian ally cope
with the growing threat of
online attacks against
military bases and
infrastructure such as power
grids, the two nations said
in a joint statement on
Saturday.
"We note a growing
level of sophistication
among malicious cyber
actors, including
non-state and
state-sponsored
actors,"...
Your body is designed to
eliminate feces by
squatting. Sitting on a
modern toilet actually
hinders elimination by
pinching off your anal
canal, which increases
your risk of
constipation,
hemorrhoids, and more
Squatting places your
knees closer to your
torso, and this position
changes the spatial
relationships of your
intestinal organs and
musculature, relaxing
and straightening your
rectum
A foot stool is one
simple device that can
help you assume a more
natural squat position
on your toilet
The inaccessibility of
clean drinking water, water
scarcity, drought, and food
insecurity all combine to
"make communities
vulnerable—especially to
extremist groups. By either
providing water access or
holding it hostage,
militants like Al Qaeda in
the Arab Peninsula (AQAP),
the Sunni extremist group's
arm in Yemen, and ISIS take
advantage of the shortage to
buy the population's
gratitude or exert," the
report said.
... the worst downturn since
1950. Real GDP shrank by
4.2% compared to an average
of 1.7% during the previous
nine recessions, and handily
topped the 2.6% decline in
1981-1982 and the 3.0%
decline in 1973-1975.
Gun violence is climbing in
the nation's cities, marking
a likely end to the 20-year
national decline in the
crime rates, because of
changing laws that make it
more difficult for police to
do their jobs, according to
a Wall Street
Journal opinion
piece.