Find out what's going on in our area and around the World from an
"energy" perspective!
Do give a charitable, tax deductible donation please
go to:
Donation Page
YOU CAN HAVE THE
ENERGY
NEWS DELIVERED TO
YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS!! EXPECT DELIVERY AT LEAST ONCE WEEKLY - MORE OFTEN
AS NEWS CONTENT DEMANDS.
If you'd like an email on your inbox every week on matters of ENERGY,
email us at:
subscribe@arizonaenergy.org making sure your email address is the
one you'd want your delivery to. Of course, there is NO CHARGE for
this service. AND WE NEVER USE PERSONAL INFORMATION FOR ANY THING OTHER
THAN TO DELIVER YOU YOUR NEWS!!
April
-
Please scroll to bottom for previous
months or years.
Footnote: We always attempt
to get the news to you AND obey copyright laws. We apologize
if, in our haste to get the news out, we miss a notice that it
was copyright protected. We are a non-profit foundation
therefore we do not reprint for profit. Our sole motivation is
to keep our public informed. If you have an article reprinted
here and desire us to eliminate it, just let us know and we will
immediately delete it, without question, with apologies.
arizonaenergy on copyright lawFAIR USE NOTICE
ALSO, SEE BELOW FOR SPECIFIC QUOTE FROM COPYRIGHT LAW.
Several Facebook pages
supporting Bernie
Sanders were quickly shut
down late Monday night after
self-proclaimed Hillary
Clinton supporters flooded
some of the pages with
pornographic images.
You already know that water
can have three states of
matter: solid, liquid and
gas. But scientists at the
Oak Ridge National Lab
(ORNL) have discovered that
when it's put under extreme
pressure in small spaces,
the life-giving liquid can
exhibit a strange fourth
state known as tunneling.
...in spite of the
confessions of fraud at the
CDC by Dr. Thompson, he
retained his position at the
CDC, and no committee chair
in Congress dared to take on
the pharmaceutical cartel
and hold hearings on the
matter. Dr. Thompson was
never subpoenaed to be
questioned about the alleged
fraud at the CDC.
Congressman Bill Posey was
the lone voice in Congress
calling for hearings, and he
allegedly received documents
from Dr. Thompson as well as
an affidavit. Dr. Thompson
appeared willing to testify,
but only under oath before
Congress.
The major central banks are
no longer just the Banks of
Last Resort. They are
turning into Investors of
First Resort. In the long
run, it’s hard to imagine
that having the central
monetary planners buy
corporate bonds and stocks
with the money they print
can end well.
In
effect, the central banks
are turning into the world’s
biggest hedge funds,
financed by their own
internal primary
(money-printing) dealers and
backstopped by the
government — which can
always borrow more from the
central bank or force
taxpayers to make good on
this Ponzi scheme.
Cassandra Callender, of
Windsor Locks, Conn., was
diagnosed with stage 3 or 4
Hodgkin’s lymphoma when she
was 17 years old. Shortly
after the diagnosis in
September 2014, she refused
chemotherapy, and decided to
look into alternative
treatments to protect her
body from long-term effects
such as organ damage and
infertility.
However, the state of
Connecticut forced her into
getting treatment against
her own and her mother’s
will.
Coal originally began to
form during the
Carboniferous period, which
took place between 360 and
290 million years ago. Put
simply, plant matter
accumulated in swamps and
peat bogs, and after being
buried and exposed to high
heat and pressure — largely
due to the shifting of
tectonic plates — it was
transformed into coal.
“Do you have any idea, sir,
how pathetic it must be to
be you? These people wanted
to hear a few jokes, some
thoughtful discussion, but
your head pops off the
pillow in the morning with,
‘How can I be a professional
victim today?’ Let me go in
and screw with their act
just because, oh my god,
your parents didn’t tell you
that your opinion wasn’t
worth that much,” Crowder
sai
“My client thinks it’s
outrageous and I tend to
agree,” said Brian Pierce
told WXIN-TV. “You don’t
ordinarily expect someone to
burglarize you and turn
around and sue you for
damages.”
Contrary to what we’re being
told, that we’re a curse on
this planet, we’re
supposed to be here.
This is our current and very
real realm of existence,
here on this planet. Our
home. This is an important
point to remember.
Many feel helpless,
especially in times of
confusion and spiritual
distress, but they needn’t
be. This is rightfully our
world to peacefully dwell
in, no matter what physical,
spiritual or dimensional
energies assail us. This is
something to take great
comfort in, but it does
require awareness and
vigilance.
Coal dropped to 29.6% of US
utility-scale power
generation in February as
natural gas and renewables
each captured greater market
share, the US Energy
Information Administration
said Thursday.
The
agency's Electric Power
Monthly showed that coal
generation totaled 92.9 GWh
in February, down 18.3% from
January and 26.9% from the
same month a year ago.
A former high-ranking
McDonald’s warns that a $15
minimum wage erases all of
the profit at
independently-owned by
franchisees.
“I
worked for the company for
three decades, and served as
its USA President for 13
years. I can assure you that
a $15 minimum wage won’t
spell the end of the brand,”
said Ed Rensi, the former
president and chief
executive officer of
McDonald’s USA. “However it
will mean wiping out
thousands of entry-level
opportunities for people
without many other options,”
Since 2010, more than
150 communities and
countries — including
Israel, Portland,
Oregon, and Calgary in
Alberta, Canada — have
rejected water
fluoridation
Hull, England is
considering adding
fluoride back into the
water supply despite
intense opposition from
residents
The presence of fluoride
in drinking water may
increase the rate at
which lead leaches into
the water from pipes
“Europe exports deflation
— it exports crisis,”
Varoufakis told the news
outlet in a new video. “We
are going to have to become
what China was 10 years ago
only times 20 because we are
a much bigger economy than
China was 10 years ago.”
“So in other words, we
have to sell, sell, sell to
the rest of the world and
not buy from the rest of the
world,” Varoufakis
continued. “This is
exporting crisis, exporting
deflation, to the rest of
the world.”
The kinetic
energy recovery
system (KERS) is
axle-mounted and
stores power in a
bank of
ultracapacitors.
At the Commercial
Vehicle Show in
Birmingham, UK, French
transportation
technology developer
Adgero will unveil a
curtainsider
semi-trailer fitted with
a regenerative braking
system that utilizes
ultracapacitors to
provide a boost of
acceleration. The
kinetic energy recovery
system (KERS) is
designed to provide a 25
percent cut in fuel
usage and carbon
emissions.
Rising levels of atmospheric
carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere has meant that
large parts of the Earth
have shown significant
greening over the last 35
years
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
told hundreds of workers
that a global deal, signed
between Iran and world
powers, had lifted financial
sanctions, but U.S.
obstruction was stopping
Iran getting the full
economic fruits of the
agreement.
"On paper the United
States allows foreign banks
to deal with Iran, but in
practice they create
Iranophobia so no one does
business with Iran," he said
in quotes from the speech
posted on his website.
The “Attention Ladies” sign
says Target lets men use
women’s restrooms, and vice
versa, no questions asked.
It also encourages people to
report peeping individuals
and hidden cameras and to
use caution when sending
teens and children alone
into bathrooms.
...Without political rule,
people point to anarchy as
the certainty of more chaos,
disturbance and increased
criminality. It’s not
because that outcome is
certain, rather that
it relieves one’s abject
fear of having to rule
themselves, fend for
themselves, become
independent. They want to be
saved from sloth and apathy;
have something or someone
provide for them, never
considering at whose
expense, even their own.
Deeper and more fundamental,
an emotional reason exists,
one concerning wellbeing and
security.
Longer-lasting batteries
continue to get the
attention from researchers
who point out that they
could allow electric
vehicles to travel longer
distances before needing a
charge. Lithium-sulfur
batteries appear to have the
potential if they can just
overcome a few technical
hurdles. Now, a novel design
for a critical part of the
battery has been shown to
significantly extend the
technology's lifespan,
bringing it closer to
commercial use.
Maple syrup may be a lot
more than just a delicious
topping for pancakes and
waffles — it may also
protect against Alzheimer's
disease. Researchers from
the University of Toronto
discovered that an extract
found in pure maple syrup
prevents the misfolding and
clumping of two types of
proteins prominent in
Alzheimer's and other
neurodegenerative diseases.
"In preliminary
laboratory-based Alzheimer's
disease studies,
phenolic-enriched extracts
of maple syrup from Canada
showed neuroprotective
effects, similar to
resveratrol, a compound
found in red wine," said Dr.
Navindra Seeram.
Certain types of meditation
and other “mindfulness”
mind-body practices work as
well as – or better than –
antidepressant drugs in
treating depression,
according to a major new
study.
Such practices
involves training the brain
to deal with negative
emotions and include such
techniques such as
meditation, relaxation
training, breathing
exercises, and yoga.
The new study – the
largest-ever analysis of
research on the subject –
found mindfulness-based
cognitive therapy (MBCT)
helped people with
depression as well as those
prescribed antidepressant
drugs...
The cost of U.S. regulations
is larger than Germany’s
economy, amounting to a $4
trillion loss to the
American economy, the Free
Beacon reported.
The
study by the Mercatus Center
at George Mason University
found that regulations over
the past several decades
amount to a loss of $13,000
for each American worker...
Dr. Peter L Ward, a long
time government
geophysicist, has spent ten
years carefully reexamining
the physics of global
warming, and discovered that
greenhouse gases simply do
not absorb enough heat to
cause warming. The dirty
secret in climate science is
that greenhouse gases have
never been shown
experimentally to warm air
as predicted by climate
models, says Ward
During a speech in Germany
Monday, President Barack
Obama said "We are fortunate
to be living in the most
peaceful, most prosperous,
most progressive era in
human history" before he
announced that he was
sending 250 more American
special forces troops to
Syria,...
"We are focused on U.S.
production, which was down
again," said Cavan Yie,
senior equity analyst at
Manulife Asset Management
Ltd. in Toronto. "Production
is down about 650,000
barrels from the peak, and
it’s going to keep dropping
because nobody is spending
any money to drill new
wells."...
[Editor: It is our opinion
that the reduction of US Oil
Production is what the price
reduction this past year is
all about. ]
When it was first announced
at the end of last year, the
hovering ArcaBoard was
viewed with skepticism by
many people. Since then,
however, the device has been
publicly demonstrated – and
it has now reportedly
entered production.
"A far faster transition is
needed to achieve the 'well
below' 2 degree goal. We
must focus not only on
decarbonizing power, but
also on taking the carbon
out of other energy supply
and dramatically increasing
global energy productivity
improvement," he added.
C1 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low with a chance
for a C-class flares on days
one, two, and three (29 Apr,
30 Apr, 01 May). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on day one (29
Apr), unsettled to minor
storm levels on day two (30
Apr) and unsettled to active
levels on day three (01
May).
While that break-even
remains above current market
prices, the trend shows
Saudi Arabia is adjusting to
the slump in crude triggered
by its November 2014
decision to push the
Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries to
change strategy and fight
for market share. The IMF
figures suggest the world’s
biggest oil exporter can
hold firm, after its
insistence that Iran join an
output freeze derailed talks
between 16 producer nations
in Doha on April 17.
The turbine, whose tower
will be 265 feet tall, will
have the capacity to
generate about 5,000
megawatt-hours of
electricity annually. The
power then will be sold to
National Grid, yielding
$400,000 in credits that can
be used to reduce the
nation's annual $1 million
electric bill.
Raw milk is different from
most milk sold in grocery
stores because it has not
been pasteurized.
Pasteurization kills
bacteria that may be
present, but critics say it
also removes nutritionally
beneficial substances.
In an attempt to improve
buying decisions for its
customers, Grocery chain
Aldi announced earlier this
year that it will be
replacing the candy in
checkout aisles with more
healthful alternatives, such
as trail mix, granola bars,
and dried fruit. The change
will go into effect by the
end of 2016 in each of the
company’s 1,500 stores.
Due to widespread misuse
and overuse of
antibiotics,
particularly in
agriculture, we may soon
be facing a
post-antibiotic era
No benchmarks have been
set to reduce antibiotic
use in agriculture, and
there is no system in
place to collect data on
how agricultural
antibiotics are being
used
The FDA is taking steps
to rescind their
approval of the pig drug
carbadox because it may
leave cancer-causing
residues in pork
The Tunisian start-up Saphon
Energy has created a
bladeless wind turbine that
is more efficient than
traditional ones. Inventors
say that it produces twice
as much energy at a much
lower cost, is safer for
birds and is ideal for
developing countries. About
fifty will provide enough
energy for a village with a
population of about 1,000
and are ''extremely quiet''.
Since its creation in 2009,
US Cyber Command has focused
its efforts mostly on
sophisticated cyber-actors
on the world stage, states
like Iran, Russia, and North
Korea. It acts mostly in the
new realm of cyber-conflict,
in which states can take
digital shots at one another
without getting too worried
about starting a real
shooting war. But now, the
American war on ISIS is
blurring the lines between
digital and kinetic
conflict, opening a new
cyber-front in the physical
world: For the first time in
its short history, the US
military’s Cyber Command
will now run its own
aggressive operations as
part of the War on Terror,
and even augment regular,
lethal military strikes with
cyber capabilities.
A water utility employee
in Jackson, MS, was fired in
March after talking to
reporters about lead
concerns.
Jonathan Yaeger
discovered “lead components
in a city water main and
then told the public,”
The Clarion-Ledger
reported. Yaeger was working
as an engineer in training
“when he found a corroded
band of lead connecting two
pipes while helping replace
a water main,” the report
said.
Democratic presidential
hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders
(Vt.) enjoys an overwhelming
amount of support from the
millennial generation, most
of whom just “want as much
free stuff as they can get
from the government,”
according to Fox News host
Bill O’Reilly.
The last few decades,
however, have seen a
considerable shift in this
area – the growing number of
us who can feel the energies
know that they are
escalating and are affecting
everything they touch. What
was once operating as a
subtle current in the
background is rapidly
becoming an electrifying
torrent of transformation.
Immigration and Customs
Enforcement released rather
than deported 19,723
criminal illegal immigrants
in 2015.
This included 208
convicted of murder and more
than 900 convicted of sex
crimes. The bulk of
offenders, more than 12,000,
were convicted on drunk
driving charges, according
to data from the Center for
Immigration Studies
discussed at a congressional
hearing Thursday.
“All journeys have secret
destinations of which the
traveller is unaware”
— Martin Buber...
As human beings we are
constantly changing our
wants and beliefs. Half of
us can’t even decide what to
have for dinner most nights,
let alone the course of our
entire lives. In not having
it all figured out, you are
presented with the wonderful
opportunity of discovering
what it is you truly want
out of life, rather than
what you simply think you
want.
A groundbreaking new study
published in the Journal of
Internal Medicine has
revealed something
absolutely amazing about the
role of the Sun in human
health: a deficiency of
sunlight could be as harmful
to human health as smoking
cigarettes.
Terry McAuliffe, the
Governor of Virginia, has
now passed a bill that will
allow 200,000 convicted
felons to vote in this
upcoming November ballot.
It seems like the Democratic
governor has some tricks up
his sleeves, what is the
real intention of letting
convicted felons vote.
"Certainly you worry about
rhetoric on the campaign
trail," he said. "I think
the history has been that
once a president is
inaugurated and is in office
and realizes the burden and
the responsibilities of the
position, I think that has a
tempering effect on anyone.
I think it will here
regardless of who’s
elected."
Some Pinellas County
politicians spent Earth Day
checking out recently
installed solar panels on
the roof of a local
manufacturing facility and
lamenting state laws they
say give business leaders no
incentive to do the right
thing.
"Energy storage is an
important resource for
optimizing the grid of the
future," said Ben Kaun,
manager of ESIC at EPRI.
"This tool will provide
accurate and transparent
costs associated with
utility-scale storage on the
front end of the process so
that there's no buyer's
remorse on the back end."
“This innovative zero waste
partnership is a result of
student, university, tribal
and city leaders working
together to expand
composting,” said Jared
Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional
Administrator for the
Pacific Southwest. “We’re
pleased to see the
University of Arizona taking
a national leadership role
in reducing food waste.”
First, the creation of the
Eurozone, establishing a
common currency, was in
retrospect a step too far. A
Euro that is strong enough
for Germany crushes the
Greek economy. Second,
Europe has accepted a large
number of migrants from
foreign cultures without any
methods or systems for
assimilating them.
Third, the relatively slow
growth rate of the European
economies further heightens
tensions created by the Euro
and unassimilated immigrants
It's not just Wall Street
banks. Most companies and
groups that paid Democratic
presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton to speak
between 2013 and 2015 have
lobbied federal agencies in
recent years, and more than
one-third are government
contractors, an Associated
Press review has found.
Their interests are
sprawling and would follow
Clinton to the White House
should she win election this
fall.
You might remember Marilyn
Tavenner, the former head of
the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services who
also oversaw the disastrous
Obamacare rollout...I think
the overall trend is going
to be higher than we saw
previous years. That’s my
big prediction.”
An increase in installed
renewables capacity saw
output from wind and solar
farms increase in March this
year by 32% compared with
the same period last year,
according to the latest
figures from French grid
operator RTE.
Solar
output was up 23% on year at
661 GWh, after installed
capacity increased by 16%
since March 2015 to 6.31 GW.
Meanwhile, wind output
was up by 35% at 2.42 GWh,
with wind capacity having
also increased on year by
11.5% to 10.405 GW.
A range of diseases—from
diabetes to cardiovascular
disease, and from
Alzheimer’s disease to
attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder—are
linked to changes to genes
in the brain. A new study by
UCLA life scientists has
found that hundreds of those
genes can be damaged by
fructose, a sugar that’s
common in the Western diet,
in a way that could lead to
those diseases.
A gigantic star, 7,100
light years away from Earth,
is blowing a big blue
bubble.
The Bubble Nebula, or NGC
7635, is being produced by
a proto-typical Wolf-Rayet
star, or BD +60º2522, and
images of it were revealed
Thursday by NASA.
The star is “45 times
more massive than our sun”
and the bubble-like
phenomenon is created
because the gas on the star
gets so hot “it escapes away
into space as a ‘stellar
wind’ moving at over four
million miles per hour.”
World stocks, the dollar
and oil all fell modestly on
Monday as investors locked
in recent gains before
central bank meetings in the
United States and Japan this
week.
European and Asian
equities both sank as 3.2
and 1.2 percent falls for
miners .SXPP and oil firms
.SXEP pushed the
FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 down
for a third straight day and
Tokyo .N225 gave back a
fifth of the 4 percent it
made last week.
In a semiarid region in the
northeast Argentine province
of Chaco, small farmers have
adopted a simple technique
to ensure a steady water
supply during times of
drought: they harvest the
rain and store it in tanks,
as part of a climate change
adaptation project.
With modern security
standards in place, the
thought of flying with your
firearms can be
overwhelming. Making a
mistake regarding security
regulations can cause more
than mere aggravation, as
doing so can carry serious
legal consequences. Contrary
to popular belief, the rules
aren’t extremely
complicated. A firm grasp on
these rules will allow for
confident and peaceful air
travel with your firearms.
Marc Faber, author of the
Gloom, Boom & Doom Report,
believes the worst of the
oil price plunge is over.
“There is a real tension
between Iran and Saudi
Arabia. However, supply will
have to go back up once the
oil price has hit
$30-per-barrel because
production at this point is
no longer sustainable,” he
told Citywire Deutschland.
The bill includes provisions
for renewable energy
production for wind, solar,
hydro, and geothermal
energy, but also a host of
provisions to ease Alaska's
oil and mineral development
processes and access to
federal lands in Alaska. The
bill marks the first energy
policy overhaul since 2007.
Back in 2012, The National
Cancer Institute convened an
expert panel to evaluate the
problem of cancer’s
misclassification and
subsequent overdiagnosis and
overtreatment, determining
that millions may have been
wrongly diagnosed with
“cancer” of the breast,
prostate, thyroid, and lung,
when in fact their
conditions were likely
harmless, and should have
been termed “indolent or
benign growths of epithelial
origin.” No apology was
issued. No major media
coverage occurred. And more
importantly, no radical
change occurred in the
conventional practice of
cancer diagnosis,
prevention, or treatment.
Phillipines_The rate hike
was supposed to be enforced
in the May billing of
consumers, after the ERC
announced in March that the
case had been deliberated
and the order is
forthcoming.
THREE former utility firm
bosses have been charged
with negligence over the
Fukushima nuclear disaster -
the first ones from the
company to face a criminal
trial.
North Korean Foreign
Minister Ri Su Yong,
interviewed Saturday by the
AP, also defended his
country's right to maintain
a nuclear deterrent and
warned that Pyongyang won't
be cowed by international
sanctions. And for those
waiting for the North's
regime to collapse, he had
this to say: Don't hold your
breath.
"Stop the nuclear war
exercises in the Korean
Peninsula, then we should
also cease our nuclear
tests," he said in his first
interview Saturday with a
Western news organization.
Britain could have to
wait a decade for a free
trade deal with the United
States if it votes to leave
the European Union, U.S.
President Barack Obama said
on Sunday in his final salvo
of a disputed foray into
British domestic politics.
Obama has spent the last
three days in London urging
Britons to stay in the EU...
One picture of a little girl
holding up a sign
proclaiming “love > hate”
during a Saturday
“pro-white” rally at one of
Georgia’s largest
Confederate monuments
offered the Internet a
different perspective amidst
the tension surrounding the
controversial rally and the
counter-protests.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low with a slight
chance for a C-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(26 Apr, 27 Apr, 28 Apr).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on day one
(26 Apr) and quiet levels on
days two and three (27 Apr,
28 Apr).
A total of up to 4,000
people could eventually die
of radiation exposure from
the Chernobyl nuclear power
plant accident nearly 20
years ago, an international
team of more than 100
scientists has concluded.
But as of mid-2005, fewer
than 50 deaths had been
directly attributed to
radiation from the disaster.
Nearly all of the 50
people who died were highly
exposed rescue workers, many
who died within months of
the accident but others who
died as late as 2004.
A Russian ambassador to
NATO said that Russia would
deploy “all necessary
measures” against American
aggression, citing the
sailing of a US destroyer in
the Baltic Sea as an act of
intimidation.
On April 11, Russian
aircrafts had made a close
encounter with an American
Navy destroyer in
international waters, with
both sides accusing the
other of aggression.
A 40-year old previously
unpublished trial—the
largest, most rigorous
study of its kind—shows
that while replacing
saturated fat with
vegetable oil lowered
total cholesterol by 14
percent, overall
mortality increased
For every 30 point drop
in total cholesterol
there was a 22 percent
increased chance of
death
Many other trials have
also found that
replacing saturated fats
with vegetable oils
increase mortality risk
from all causes,
including coronary heart
disease and
cardiovascular disease
The bill contains billions
of dollars in funding for
research into emerging
energy technology, including
marine hydrokinetic sources,
geothermal and hydroelectric
as well as energy storage
and improvements to the
electricity grid. It would
also invest in wind, solar
and biomass energies as well
as technology that makes
burning coal cleaner. While
shifting away from
traditional fossil fuels,
coal in particular, would go
farther in reducing carbon
emissions and countering
climate change,..
According to Solar Impulse,
Solar Impulse 2 set several
records during the Pacific
flight, including distance,
speed, duration, altitude,
and altitude gain for an
electric airplane. These
records are still pending US
FAA confirmation.
After a several month-long
layover in Hawaii, Solar
Impulse 2 is back in the air
and on the way to California
for the latest leg in its
around-the-world journey.
Following delays due to wind
gusts, the solar-powered
plane took off with Bertrand
Piccard in the cockpit just
around sunrise from the
island of O'ahu.
While SunEdison filing for
bankruptcy protection has
shocked the industry, it is
not expected to affect solar
fundamentally, according to
consensus across the
industry.
Brought by the
government, the case will be
a crucial test for tribal
courts across the country in
regards to their ability to
address the high rates of
domestic violence on Indian
lands, in what some are
calling a “life and death”
issue for Native
communities.
Tomorrow's cars will be
all-electric, self-driving,
connected to high-speed
communications networks ...
and free.
And probably Chinese.
That, at least, is the
vision of Jia Yueting, a
billionaire entrepreneur and
one of a new breed of
Chinese who see their
technology expertise
re-engineering the
automobile industry, and
usurping Tesla Motors
(TSLA.O), a U.S. pioneer in
premium electric vehicle
(EV) making.
A document trove tells how
Abu Sayyaf ran the terror
group’s operations;
approving expenses for
slaves, dodging U.S.
airstrikes Islamic State
oil man Abu Sayyaf was
riding high a year ago.
With little industry
experience, he had built a
network of traders and
wholesalers of Syrian oil
that at one point helped
triple energy revenues for
his terrorist bosses.
We live in a sea of subtle
energies. When we become
conscious of them, we can
learn to use them.
This universal sea of
energy, called Qi in China
and Prana in India,
circulates through our
bodies, interacts with the
electromagnetic spectrum and
includes other subtler
energies not yet understood
by western science....
Facing pressure from the
federal government and
environmental groups, New
Jersey regulators appear to
be cracking down on the
disposal of raw sewage into
rivers and streams.
About 23 billion gallons
of raw sewage flow into New
Jersey rivers each year,..
Maglev trains are fast-
really fast. However, a
newly rigged Maglev train
assembled by the U.S.A Air
Force shattered the Maglev
speed record traveling an
astonishing 633 Mph, 120 Mph
faster than their previous
records set only two
days before. Maglev
trains work by using
super-cooled magnets that
repel all magnetic fields...
Suicide rates in the
United States are climbing,
despite efforts by health
experts to shift the trend.
The latest findings from
the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention's
National Vital Statistics
Report show that from 1999
to 2014, the suicide rate in
the U.S. increased 24
percent.
The daily power cut is just
the latest in a long list of
energy-saving measures
announced in recent weeks.
President Nicolas Maduro has
also given public workers
Fridays off, declared new
national holidays, and said
he will shift the country's
time zone to help to ease
the crisis. He's also
suggested that women stop
blow drying their hair and
that everyone leave off
ironing their clothes.
Where pharmaceuticals are
failing, exotic plant-based
psychedelics seem to be
succeeding, sometimes in as
little as a single dose.
Over-stressed Westerners are
flocking to retreats all
over the world to rediscover
these alternative
treatments. The treatment
ceremonies are typically
conducted in comfortable,
controlled settings by
shaman trained in dosing
levels.
The focus: a new piece of
technology designed to help
solar energy users regain
the upper hand after the
commission increased their
electricity bills last
year...
Here's how the company
pitches those perks in its
materials: "With a
residential Adara
installation, homeowners
consume all of the energy
generated with their solar
energy system, sell nothing
back to the utility at
reduced rates, and purchase
less power at the higher
retail rate."
When pressed about the
scandal, she said that
Clinton used private emails
“in the same way that
previous secretaries of
state have.”
“Whoa, you know that’s
not true,” Wallace stopped
her. “Nobody says that’s
true.”
“Other than the private
server,” Wasserman Schultz
said.
“Well, ‘other than the
private server’ is a big
deal,” Wallace pointed out.
“Nobody had 30,000 work
emails on their private
server, or private email,
period. The comparisons to
Colin Powell … that’s just
not true.”
Thirty years after the
world's worst nuclear
accident, the Chernobyl
power plant is surrounded by
both desolation and
clangorous activity, the
sense of a ruined past and a
difficult future.
Did you know that your
mind/bodyis the
world’s most sophisticated
quantum computer – capable
of amazing rejuvenation and
great healing? Every organ,
cell and body part functions
harmoniously because they
are programmed to do so, and
if there is a problem, your
mind/body knows how heal.
Australian scientists
said on Wednesday that just
seven percent of the Great
Barrier Reef remains
untouched by mass bleaching
that is likely to destroy
half the coral.
Environmentalists blame
the deterioration on
industrial activity in the
area.
It is imperative that we
change course. But if the
conviction that change is
undesirable, frightening, or
impossible continues to
stand like a fortress at the
heart of our belief system,
we will continue down this
road as prisoners of its
confining construct.
Thirty years have passed
since the deadly Chernobyl
nuclear accident of April
1986, and life has not yet
returned to normal in the
disaster-affected area,
according to a report by an
epa journalist on the scene.
Levels of radiation
remain high in the
surroundings of the
now-defunct plant which was
the scene of the biggest
accident in the history of
nuclear power generation,
with very few people
choosing to live in the
virtually-abandoned villages
near the nuclear site.
However the flora and
fauna in the area seem to be
slowly recovering, with much
of the land being gradually
turned into farmers' fields,
while a farm is operating
just 37 kilometers away from
the reactor site
China is increasingly
active in the polar region,
becoming one of the biggest
mining investors in
Greenland and agreeing to a
free trade deal with
Iceland.
Shorter shipping routes
across the Arctic Ocean
would save Chinese companies
time and money. For example,
the journey from Shanghai to
Hamburg via the Arctic route
is 2,800 nautical miles
shorter than going by the
Suez Canal.
Despite official assurances
of no abnormalities at
nuclear power plants in
Kyushu and nearby areas
after a series of
earthquakes rocked the
region, calls in and outside
of Japan are growing to shut
down the nations' only two
operating reactors at the
Sendai plant in Kagoshima
Prefecture.
Both apple cider vinegar and
honey are popular used in
lots of natural cures for
many ailments. Here is a
simple recipe you can make
at home which you’ll be
interested, as it’s called
“anti-aging elixir”, that is
widely used for fighting
aging.
The reality is, energy is no
longer the exclusive ground
of the coal, gas, and oil
industries. Utility
companies that recognize
this are going to serve
their customers much better
in the long run. Sun and
wind energy is accessible to
any citizen able to harness
it. We still need the "grid"
to ensure continuous access
to energy; this is the
service that utilities will
be needed for in the future,
and for which they should
structure themselves, and
for which we should pay
them. But the energy is no
longer theirs, and the
sooner they recognize this,
the better off we will be.
To really solidify my
chances at a raise, I
refrained from stealing,
insulting customers (to
their faces), or smoking
weed behind the dumpster out
back. I stayed heroically
committed to this strategy
for a while, and for my
efforts I was elevated above
minimum wage, never to
return.
The Energy Mandates Study
Committee concluded that
uncertainty about the
proposed federal Clean Power
Plan to curb carbon
emissions warranted the
continued freeze. The Obama
White House does face a
court fight. At the same
time, the momentum for
renewable energy sources
builds.
NASA's Solar Dynamics
Observatory (SDO) has
captured images of a
mid-level solar flare that
looks a bit like a heart in
pictures. The new images
reveal a bit more about this
flare and allow scientists
to track how this event may
impact Earth.
In this case, the flare
peaked at 8:29 p.m. on
Sunday, April 17. Solar
flares themselves are
powerful bursts of
radiation. While the harmful
radiation can't pass through
Earth's atmosphere, though,
flares that are intense
enough can disturb the
atmosphere in the layer
where GPS and communications
signals travel.
This latest flare did just
that. In fact, researchers
reported moderate radio
blackouts during the peak of
the flare. These radio
blackouts are usually only
ongoing during the course of
the flare and, as a result,
have since subsided.
A unanimous Supreme Court
ruled Tuesday that Maryland
officials overstepped their
authority when they offered
financial subsidies to
encourage construction of a
new power plant in the
state...
The case involves a 2012
decision by state regulators
to order construction of
natural gas power plant.
Officials offered the
winning bidder a financial
incentive by requiring
utilities to buy electricity
from the plant for 20 years
at a fixed price.
For the first time, new
USGS maps identify potential
ground-shaking hazards from
both human-induced and
natural earthquakes. In the
past, USGS maps only
identified natural
earthquake hazards.
This is also the first
one-year outlook for the
nation’s earthquake hazards,
and is a supplement to
existing USGS assessments
that provide a 50-year
forecast
One of the aims of the
pre-treatment plant is to
produce sludge with the
highest possible potential
to generate energy in the
nearby biogas plant.
Phosphorous will be
recovered mainly through
biological treatment to be
reused as fertiliser.
More than 100 people are
feared dead in India in an
early-summer heat wave which
forced schools to close and
halted outdoor work like
construction, government
officials said on Thursday.
There’s the official
explanation for why NASA is
spraying lithium, a
pharmaceutical drug most
often used to treat people
with manic depression or
bi-polar disorder,
into our ionosphere, and
then there is the probable
reason(s). It would be
easier to accept NASA’s
official explanation if they
were not so secretive about
everything they study and do
in space – but one thing is
for certain – NASA’s own
personnel have admitted that
lithium, along with other
chemicals, are intentionally
being placed into our
environment regularly. It is
possible that many of NASA’s
own employees aren’t even
aware of the true
motivations for carrying out
such a project, ironically
displaying the very
behaviors that these
chemicals/pharmaceuticals
are meant to instill.
NATO's first formal meeting
with Russia's envoy to the
alliance in almost two years
underscored the deep
East-West divide over the
Ukraine crisis and the
future of Europe's security,
NATO Secretary-General Jens
Stoltenberg said.
Americans that earned six
figures or more paid 79.5
percent of the nation's
share in individual income
taxes in 2014, according to
preliminary IRS information,
reports The Washington Free
Beacon.
In 2014,
Americans paid a total of
$1,358,093,169,000 to the
IRS in individual income
taxes. Americans earning
$100,000 or more paid
$1,079,392,180,000 or 79.5
percent of the total.
Fear is running rampant on
our world and it is blinding
many to the inner guiding
voice of their soul. It
keeps us from creating a
better world. We can all
transcend our fears by
embracing a few higher
truths and increasing our
awareness of a few important
points.
Used nuclear fuel has to go
somewhere, but with no
permanent disposal
facilities available,
nuclear power plants have to
hold onto it for the
foreseeable future.
To that end, Talen
Generation LLC, owner of the
Susquehanna Steam nuclear
power plant, applied for a
permit to build a
22,000-square-foot addition
to the spent fuel storage
installation already at the
facility.
The billions of
single-celled marine
organisms known as
phytoplankton can drift from
one region of the world's
oceans to almost any other
place on the globe in less
than a decade, Princeton
University researchers have
found.
Unfortunately, the same
principle can apply to
plastic debris, radioactive
particles and virtually any
other man-made flotsam and
jetsam that litter our seas,
the researchers found.
Pollution can thus become a
problem far from where it
originated within just a few
years.
Last month, an aerial survey
of the northern section of
Australia's Great Barrier
Reef returned some pretty
grim results, revealing that
the World Heritage Site had
been hit with the worst
coral bleaching event in its
history. The researchers
have now continued their
work along this magnificent
stretch of coastline and the
news isn't getting any
better. The results of their
end-to-end study now reveal
that 93 percent of the reef
has been affected by
bleaching as a result of
warmer sea temperatures in
the area.
In the recent years,
multiple court cases have
occurred over
cross-pollination between a
GM crop field and an organic
or non-GM crop field.
Few realize it, but
farmers growing crops the
way that nature intended are
forced to pay thousands of
dollars simply to prevent
cross contamination, or else
they leave themselves open
to lawsuits from Monsanto
and others over “patent
infringement” when GM seeds
blow onto their fields.
Organic farmers have lost
billions in export market
dollars as well.
Coal stockpiles at power
plants totaled 197 million
tons at the end of December,
the highest level since June
2012 and the highest
year-end inventory in at
least 25 years, according to
the Energy Information
Administration.
The EIA said more than 40
million tons of coal had
been added to stockpiles
from September through
December, the largest
buildup during that time
span in at least 15 years.
The EIA attributed the
buildup to two things: low
overall electricity
generation in response to
warm weather, and coal's
losing market share to
natural gas in power
generation.
Just in time for Earth Day,
Con Edison is showcasing how
its customers now generate
more than 100 megawatts of
clean, renewable power with
solar panels on roofs in New
York City and Westchester
County.
Today’s pink elephant is a
story out of a federal
appeals court in Virginia,
which found that a high
school in the state
“discriminated” against a
“transgender” student when
it forced the teen girl to
use the girl’s bathroom. The
court ruled
that ”transgender” kids
should be covered under
Title IX protections against
“sex discrimination.” The
judges have now cleared the
way for the girl to sue her
school, and in the process
the robed fools have, as
Ryan Anderson points out,
essentially declared that
public schools don’t have
the right to provide
separate bathrooms based on
sex.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low with a slight
chance for a C-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(22 Apr, 23 Apr, 24 Apr).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet
levels on day one (22 Apr),
quiet to minor storm levels
on day two (23 Apr) and
quiet to active levels on
day three (24 Apr).
The current placement of
wind energy towers in the
central and southern Great
Plains may have relatively
few negative effects
on sandhill cranes wintering
in the region, according to
a U.S. Geological Survey
study published today.
Hawking’s own speech
ended with a similar note of
optimism. “The message of
this lecture is that black
holes ain't as black as they
are painted,” he said. “If
you feel you are in a black
hole, don’t give up. There
is a way out.”
that perceived benefit of
global warming — mostly
milder winters — will soon
be outweighed by more
oppressive summer heat,
according to a study in the
journal Nature that's
dividing the scientific
community. "Americans are
getting the wrong signal
from year-round weather
about whether they should be
concerned about climate
change," said study lead
author Patrick Egan, a
public policy professor at
New York University.
"They're getting the good
parts and haven't had to pay
the price of the bad part."
At least, not yet.
The Supreme Court on
Wednesday upheld actions
taken by Congress and
President Obama that held
Iran financially responsible
for acts of terrorism dating
back to the 1983 bombing of
a Marine Corps barracks in
Beirut.
The 6-2 ruling by Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
was a victory for more than
1,000 victims and their
surviving family members,
who had sought access to
about $1.75 billion in
assets controlled by Iran in
a U.S. bank.
Despite complaints of
foul-smelling, discolored
water, outbreaks of
Legionnaires disease, and
doubled rates of lead
poisoning, officials refused
to acknowledge issues with
the water supply until last
fall.
An investigation into the
roots of the crisis by
Schuette’s office uncovered
documents that allegedly
indicate that Glasgow
tampered with water quality
reports.
The United States will send
approximately 200 additional
troops to Iraq and allow
U.S. advisers to move closer
to the front lines, the
Pentagon said Monday, as the
Obama administration
embraces new measures to
intensify its campaign
against the Islamic State.
According to the study
led by the U.S. Geological
Survey, two traits were
identified that indicate how
chemicals can build up and
reach toxic levels: how
easily a chemical is broken
down or metabolized by an
organism and the chemical’s
ability to dissolve in
water.
These traits account for
how most chemicals
concentrate, or biomagnify,
in ever-higher levels as one
goes up the food chain from
its base to its top
predators, such as fish,
people, or polar bears.
Chemicals that have the
ability to biomagnify, such
as DDT, can have adverse
effects on human and
wildlife health and the
environment.
The U.S. Department of
Veterans Affairs has been
systematically shredding
documents related to
veterans' claims -- possibly
affecting benefits for
veterans, according to an
investigation by the
inspector general.
Investigators with the
Department of Veterans
Affairs audited 10 vererans
benefits offices around the
country and found that staff
were destroying mail related
to claims, according to a
report by Military.com,
citing an OIG report
released on Thursday.
New research shows that
China’s water supply may be
even more polluted than
previously thought.
“More than 80 percent of
the water from underground
wells used by farms,
factories and households
across the heavily populated
plains of China is unfit for
drinking or bathing because
of contamination from
industry and farming,
according to new statistics
[that raise] alarm about
pollution in the world’s
most populous country,”..
With world leaders
converging in New York to
sign a landmark climate
deal, activists along with
actor Alec Baldwin called on
Thursday for a halt to
deforestation, a contributor
to global warming, by giving
indigenous people rights to
their land.
Keeping indigenous tribes
from being pushed off their
land would help protect
forests that absorb
planet-warming greenhouse
gasses, they told reporters
in New York City.
Fluctuations inside a
huge tank of radioactive
waste raised concerns on the
Hanford Nuclear Reservation
in Washington state over the
weekend, and workers
prepared Monday to pump out
the area of the leak.
A federal contractor said
the amount of nuclear waste
that has been leaking
between the two walls of the
underground tank for several
years grew dramatically this
weekend.
Former Federal Reserve
Chairman Alan Greenspan said
current monetary policy has
done everything it can
without another round of
quantitative easing...
“They're not helping that
much in the sense that
ultimately determines
whether or not you're
getting an effect from the
QEs" beyond increasing
price-to-earnings ratios in
the stock market, he told
CNBC.
"There's no
real evidence that we're
getting an impact on lending
and on the economy picking
up," he said.
Lots of non-humans –
octopuses, crows, monkeys,
machines – are intelligent.
Could some also be
conscious?...
Do octopuses feel pain? They
certainly seem to, although
the sceptic might claim that
all they do is react to
stimuli as if they were in
pain. Are they self-aware?
We do not know.
The anaerobic digestion
plant on land adjacent to
poultry units at Lower Heath
Farm, near Whitchurch, would
use chicken waste to create
renewable heat and
electricity.
The electricity would be
used on site when needed
with any extra energy being
fed into the national grid
Cear-cutting loosens up
carbon stored in forest
soils, increasing the
chances it will return to
the atmosphere as carbon
dioxide and contribute to
climate change, a Dartmouth
College study shows.
The Oklahoma Corporation
Commission has unanimously
voted against a plan by
Oklahoma Gas and Electric
Co. to change the way it
calculates the bills for
rooftop solar users,
ordering the utility to
thoroughly explore the issue
in its pending rate case.
The order came almost two
weeks after the commission
indicated the utility's use
of 2010 cost data to make
its case for a new
generation tariff was
problematic, The Oklahoman
reported.
Duke Energy says it is
making significant and
continued progress toward
cleaning up its coal ash
basins in North Carolina,
but the Southern
Environmental Law Center
(SELC) is singing a
different tune.
Enel Energy South Africa
will start selling solar
power kits in Cape Town
tomorrow, with plans to
extend sales across SA.
Enel Green Power (EGP)
will begin selling its
renewable energy kit, which
includes a Tesla battery, in
SA tomorrow - as a solution
to power outages and rising
electricity prices.
Many people agree that the
current economic system is
failing us: The majority are
struggling to make ends
meet, while corporations and
banks are getting richer and
richer. We are looking for
something more, a
system that reflects the
importance of the protecting
the Earth, helping one
another, and living in
balance.
But how does this
translate to practice and
real- life changes?
We increasingly prefer to
spend our resources on
products that uphold
sustainable, organic, and/or
conscious models of
business. We are tired of
greed, corruption, and
individuals taking as much
as they can without regard
for others. We want to share
our gifts freely with the
world, and hold space for
others to do the same.
The state has fined the
owner of the Brunner Island
power plant in York County
$25,898 for a January
incident that claimed more
than 1,100 fish in the
Susquehanna River...
The water temperature in the
channel dropped
approximately 13 degrees in
one hour, causing a "shock"
that killed the fish.
The world’s largest food
corporations have spent
hundreds of millions of
dollars (some of it
illegally) to avoid being
required to label the
genetically engineered
ingredients in their
products.
But with
the July 1 deadline for
complying with Vermont’s GMO
labeling law on the horizon,
a handful of the largest
multinational food
corporations have announced
they will now label GMOs—not
solely because they will be
forced to, but because as
General Mills claims, they
believe “you should know
what’s in your food and how
we make ours.”
Despite initial optimism
that a deal had been
reached, with a draft
agreement even leaked to the
media early Sunday, as the
day progressed it became
clear that Iran's refusal to
participate would prove too
much of an obstacle.
Several countries insisted
Iran be a party to any deal
to freeze output to help
balance the market,
scuttling negotiations and
illustrating the difficulty
in aligning the diverse
interests -- geopolitical,
economic and budgetary -- of
the oil producing world.
A security flaw in the cell
exchange system can let
hackers listen in on your
phone calls. But while
federal agencies have done
little to fix the flaw,
intelligence agencies are
said to be still exploiting
it.
All of these industries make
products that are routinely
laced with dangerous, often
deadly chemicals called
hormone (or endocrine)
disruptors. These chemicals
can make you (and your
children) fat, diabetic,
susceptible to cancer and
infertility. They can cause
damaging mental and
behavioral changes. Pregnant
women who ingest even tiny
amounts of these chemicals
can give birth to boys with
genital deformities, and
girls who will reach puberty
at an alarming young age.
The 12-page Chaffetz memo
summarizes the review of a
court-ordered release of
some 20,500 Justice
Department documents to the
House committee probing the
failed program that allowed
about 2,000 U.S. guns to
flow to Mexican
drug-trafficking
organizations.
“Humans live on
one-quarter of what they
eat; on the other
three-quarters lives their
doctor.” ~ Egyptian pyramid
inscription, 3800 B.C.
Mark Mattson is an expert on
food deprivation. A
scientist at the National
Institute on Aging and a
professor of neuroscience at
Johns Hopkins School of
Medicine,..
Iran, seeking to regain its
market share lost over the
past few years to now-lifted
sanctions, has raised its
oil production to above 3.5
million b/d, the National
Iranian Oil Company said
Saturday...
Iran has made clear that it
will not participate in any
freeze plan, insisting that
it be allowed to ramp its
production up to some 4
million b/d, the level it
had reached before the US
and EU imposed sanctions on
its oil sector over its
nuclear program in 2012.
Those sanctions were lifted
in January.
Tracking food poisoning
cases is laborious detective
work, and sometimes the
culprit is never revealed.
Now the task of identifying
sources of contamination
could be even harder—and,
paradoxically, it’s because
of a test designed to
diagnosis food poisoning
faster and easier than ever
before.
Seibu
Railway is building a new
line of quick commuter
trains that blend into the
landscape
If there’s anyone
dreaming about the hi-tech
transportation of the
future, it’s Japan. The
country has already mastered
the levitating bullet train,
and now Japanese
train-travel company, Seibu
Railway, is planning a major
design leap just in time for
its 100th
anniversary. What does it
have in mind? A new line of
speedy commuter trains that
blend into the landscape.
A federal hearing officer
has ruled that two energy
companies defrauded the
state of California out of
$1.1 billion on a series of
long-term electricity
contracts that state
officials signed at the
height of the energy crisis.
Overshadowed by the United
States' extension of the
Investment Tax Credit (ITC)
and the Production Tax
Credit (PTC) last year,
Mexico's cornerstone Energy
Transition Law is quickly
yielding results, lifting
the lid on a renewable
market primed for take off.
Some of the richest people
in the world reportedly are
buying up spots in luxurious
bomb-proof shelters across
the globe due to fears of
civil unrest and other
possible apocalyptic
scenarios.
High refinery runs across
Asia and a huge amount of
arbitrage cargoes for March
and April arrival have
created severe gasoline
oversupplies that have
defied the product's
seasonal price patterns.
"Marijuana is medicine
and it's coming to
Pennsylvania," said
Democratic Sen. Daylin
Leach, the bill's
co-sponsor.
The bill's drafters say
it could take two years to
write regulations and get
retailers opened, but a
provision allows parents to
legally administer medical
marijuana to their children
before the bill takes effect
in a month.
A new study has emerged
that may give hope to those
who may see themselves as
the proverbial “90-pound
weakling.” Surprisingly, the
remedy can be found in the
garden.
The study, recently
conducted at the Washington
School of Medicine in St.
Louis, is one of several
university trials revealing
that a small amount of beet
juice is all it takes to
beef up your exercise
performance and endurance.
State regulators voted
unanimously Wednesday to
require Public Service
Company of New Mexico to
respond to a complaint by a
clean-energy advocacy group
over its loan to another
company for the purchase of
the San Juan Coal Mine.
M6 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a slight
chance for an M-class flare
on day one (19 Apr) and
expected to be very low with
a chance for a C-class
flares and a slight chance
for an M-class flare on day
two (20 Apr) and expected to
be very low with a slight
chance for a C-class flare
on day three (21 Apr).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on day one (19
Apr), quiet to unsettled
levels on day two (20 Apr)
and quiet levels on day
three (21 Apr). Protons
greater than 10 Mev have a
slight chance of crossing
threshold on day one (19
Apr).
As Democratic presidential
front-runner Hillary Clinton
made her way to a Los
Angeles fundraiser hosted by
actor George Clooney
Saturday evening, supporters
of rival Bernie Sanders
threw cash at the former
secretary of state’s
motorcade.
Saudi Arabia has reportedly
told the Obama
administration and
congressional leaders that
it will sell billions of
dollars in U.S. financial
assets if Congress passes a
bill to make the Saudi
government legally
responsible for any role in
the 9/11 attacks.
Collective motion can be
observed in biological
systems over a wide range of
length scales, from large
animals to fish to bacteria,
because collective systems
always work better for
adaptation than those which
are singular.
Individual bacterial cells
have short memories. But
groups of bacteria can
develop a collective memory
that can increase their
tolerance to stress. This
has been demonstrated
experimentally for the first
time in a study by Eawag and
ETH Zurich scientists
published in PNAS.
Disastrous floods in the
Balkans two years ago are
likely linked to the
temporary slowdown of giant
airstreams, scientists
found. These wind patterns,
circling the globe in the
form of huge waves between
the Equator and the North
Pole, normally move
eastwards, but practically
stopped for several days
then -- at the same time, a
weather system got stuck
over Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Serbia and Croatia that
poured out record amounts of
rain. The study adds
evidence that so-called
planetary wave resonance is
a key mechanism for causing
extreme weather events in
summer. Further, the
scientists showed that
extreme rainfall events are
strongly increasing in the
Balkans, even more than the
globally observed rise.
What caught my
attention was the following:
“On one side of the
world were people whose
relationship with the living
world was shaped by
Skywoman, who created a
garden for the well-being of
all. On the other side was
another woman with a garden
and a tree. But for tasting
its fruit, she was banished
from the garden and the
gates clanged shut behind
her.
A University of South
Alabama student who was
carrying an empty holster on
campus was cited Wednesday
for “causing alarm” — and
the exchange he had with
police was captured on
video.
The Senate
Appropriations
Subcommittee on Energy
and Water Development,
and Related Agencies
today approved the
FY2016 Energy and Water
Development
Appropriations Bill,
clearing the path for
full committee
consideration of the
$35.4 billion measure on
Thursday.
The legislation will
fund the U.S. Department
of Energy (DOE)
programs, including
national nuclear
security and energy
research and
development, as well as
critical infrastructure
projects administered by
the Army Corps of
Engineers and Bureau of
Reclamation. In all,
the funding provided is
$1.2 billion over the
FY2015 enacted level and
$668 million below the
President’s request.
First of all,
like a Ponzi scheme, it
began with a lie concocted
solely to suck in its
intended victims
— the promise to regulate
the US economy such that
economic booms and busts
would be eliminated. In
truth the opposite has been
the case since the passage
of the Federal Reserve Act
in 1913. In fact, the Fed
actually played a role in
bringing about the
Depression of 1929 and the
deep recession which
presently grips the nation.
A University of California,
Berkeley student who came to
the U.S. as an Iraqi refugee
says he was unfairly removed
from a flight at Los Angeles
International Airport
earlier this month because a
fellow passenger was alarmed
by an innocent conversation
he was having in Arabic.
Officials with coal
producers, power utilities
and railroads who attended a
recent federal advisory
committee meeting all
lamented the state of the US
coal industry, with one
member calling the situation
an "energy depression."
Since the US Surface
Transportation Board's Rail
Energy Transportation
Advisory Committee last
convened December 1, both
Arch Coal and Peabody Energy
filed for Chapter 11
bankruptcy, and coal train
loadings and carload counts
have dropped to lows never
previously recorded.
Wilted or spoiled
produce, moldy bread, or
leftovers that sit too long
in the fridge are common
contributors to such food
waste, but so are
potentially good
foods that get thrown away
solely based on their “sell
by” dates.
Labels like “use by” and
“sell by” on foods aren’t
actually an indicator of
food safety, as many believe
them to be.
Common
question about household
electrical power supply
It’s a common question
tied to a couple of common
misconceptions. First is the
idea that the United States
is the only country in the
world to use the 120V 60Hz
standard. The fact of the
matter is that there are
many other countries that
primarily use 120V. To this
end, there is no “everyone
else in the world”. Some
countries use 240V, some
230V, others 220V, and so
on. Just take a look at the
map below to get a clearer
understanding of the global
disparity:
A letter penned by
Consumer Watchdog to
legislative leaders wants
answers under oath from
California Public Utilities
Commission (CPUC) President
Michael Picker and other
energy regulators about why
state reports misrepresented
Southern California natural
gas reserves and capacity.
ess than a year ago,
SunEdison was a solar
industry titan, billing
itself as the world's
largest renewable
development company.
Today, it has lost $9.2
billion in equity and seen
its stock price plummet from
$33.40 last July to 39 cents
a share Monday.
Two weeks ago, SunEdison
revealed it is facing
scrutiny from the Department
of Justice and the
Securities and Exchange
Commission on questions
surrounding its financing
practices and how much cash
it had on hand when its
stock meltdown occurred.
On a cold, cloudy Monday
morning about 50 people
showed up outside the PERA
Building -- which houses the
state Public Regulation
Commission -- to demonstrate
against a 15.8 percent
electrical rate hike
requested by the New
Mexico's largest utility and
continued heavy reliance on
coal to generate power.
Public Service Company of
New Mexico proposed new
rates for residential
customers would generate
about $123.5 million in new
revenue for the company.
Arizona Public Service (APS)
has become the first utility
in the nation to deploy and
control advanced solar
technology remotely.
APS is installing advanced
technology along with
customers' solar panels to
collect data that will help
the utility better
understand and manage the
energy flowing into
neighborhoods across the
state. The utility can
operate the solar
installations as they would
a power plant, ramping up or
curtailing power based on
customers' real-time energy
needs using advanced
inverters.
Sea surface temperature
(SST) anomalies were between
1.0° and 1.5°C across most
of the central and eastern
equatorial Pacific Ocean
during early April having
weakened appreciably over
the last month.
Many of the earliest texts
of the Bible may have been
written by at least 600 BC
in the ancient Kingdom of
Judah, according to a latest
study that throws new light
on the dating of old
testament texts.
Confirming the worst fears
of many pregnant women in
the United States and Latin
America, U.S. health
officials said Wednesday
there is no longer any doubt
the Zika virus causes babies
to be born with abnormally
small heads and other severe
brain defects.
As the plaintiff,
Dollar General is asking the
Supreme Court to overturn
three lower court opinions
that held that the discount
retail chain had agreed to
tribal jurisdiction, in the
form of a heavily negotiated
contract, when it became a
lessee on Choctaw nation
land.
Flushable wipes and related
products have been a blight
for wastewater collection
systems and utilities in
recent years. This problem
is widespread throughout
small and large systems in
the U.S. and around the
world. Wipe manufacturers
have continued to label
products as flushable that
do not disperse like toilet
paper in the collection
system.
Sun-watchers have had their
eye on giant sunspot AR2529.
Check out these photos from
the EarthSky community.
Aurora alert for April 13!
The sun is now moving toward
a minimum in the 11-year
solar cycle, and spots on
the sun’s surface have been
few and far between. But, in
recent days, a giant spot
has come into view on the
sun. Dubbed Active Region
2529, it is many times the
size of Earth. EarthSky
community members have
captured images of AR2529,
and it has now turned in
Earth’s direction.
The study focused on
year-round water systems
that service fewer than
3,300 people. There are
about 42,200 such systems in
the country, the report
said. They make up more than
82 percent of the community
water systems in the U.S.
Study finds higher rate of
illness and death in
newborns and juvenile
bottlenose dolphins after
Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Bottlenose dolphins have
been dying in record numbers
in their mothers’ womb or
shortly after birth in areas
affected by the 2010
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
in the Gulf of Mexico.
How often do you use water
from your tap? Do you trust
it? Residents of Flint,
Michigan, don’t, and they
have a good reason. How did
lead levels in the water get
so high in this city, and
how did chemistry play a
part in identifying the
problem — despite government
denials? In this episode
of Speaking of Chemistry,
Matt Davenport examines how
science helped bring the
Flint water crisis to light,
and why researchers are
calling on regulators to
prevent future disasters.
Global oil markets will move
"close to balance" in the
second half of this year as
the fall in US tight oil
production gathers pace and
India helps drive global
demand, the International
Energy Agency said Thursday.
The agency's latest
monthly oil market report
estimated that global oil
supply had dropped by
300,000 b/d month-on-month
in March, two thirds of the
drop being outside OPEC, but
also noted several bearish
factors for prices.
Tim Burrack, a northern
Iowa farmer in his 44th
growing season, has taken to
keeping a wary eye out for
unfamiliar vehicles around
his 300 acres of genetically
modified corn seeds.
Along with other farmers
in this vast agricultural
region, he has upped his
vigilance ever since Mo
Hailong and six other
Chinese nationals were
accused by U.S. authorities
in 2013 of digging up seeds
from Iowa farms and planning
to send them back to China.
Iran is stalling a request
for travel visas that would
allow three members of
Congress to visit American
prisoners and check weapons
plants for compliance with
the nuclear arms deal
hammered out last year, The
Washington Free Beacon
reports.
The IRS is struggling to
ensure that illegal
immigrants are able to
illegally use Social
Security numbers for
legitimate purposes, the
agency's head told senators
on Tuesday, without allowing
the numbers to be used for
"bad" reasons.
Uniform federal Indian
policy was almost
nonexistent when James
Buchanan took office in
1857.
The country was on the
brink of the Civil War, and
the federal government had
abandoned any pretense of
Indian policy, leaving the
“Indian system” to the mercy
of dishonest and greedy
Indian agents who largely
earned their positions as
rewards for political
service. Corruption
penetrated the federal
government, funneling
illegally obtained money to
officials at many levels.
There were staffing shakeups
at the Ohio Environmental
Protection Agency after the
lead contamination crisis in
Sebring became public. A
couple people were fired.
But were they just fall guys
for managerial incompetence
at the top?
Parts of the law governing
national security requests
have been declared
unconstitutional by previous
courts.
Microsoft is suing the
Justice Dept. to try to
prevent the government from
forcing tech companies to
turn over data without their
customers' knowledge.
Saudi Arabia has issued
new guidelines to define and
curtail powers of the
country's religious police,
instructing its members to
be "gentle and kind" in
dealing with the public.
The force, which is
tasked with ensuring people
observe the kingdom's
ultraconservative Islamic
codes, has been criticized
at times for its intrusive,
even deadly tactics.
“Duke Energy could have a
lot to gain by painting the
most rosy picture possible
to suggest its coal ash
storage sites pose no
imminent threat to human
health and safety. And state
regulators’ judgments may be
equally questionable,
because from Gov. McCrory on
down to the Secretary of
Environment, Duke Energy has
packed North Carolina’s
government with past energy
company executives and other
‘business-friendly’
regulators.”
The Flint lead poisoning
debacle flowed from
“penny-wise, pound-foolish
decisions” that have
inflicted grievous harm to
residents of that city and
seriously eroded public
confidence in every level of
government,..“As the
drinking water crisis in
Flint, Michigan has now
brought into national focus,
the safe drinking water that
we all take for granted in
the United States can no
longer be considered a
given. There are major
public health and economic
impacts flowing from our
failure to make appropriate
decisions and failure to
invest in infrastructure.
Only 34% of photovoltaics
installers in the United
States offer energy storage
solutions. This was one of
the results of a survey
among 302 PV installers in
42 states conducted by
market analyst EuPD
Research.
The main reasons for not
offering storage options
given by the participants of
the “PV InstallerSurvey USA
2015/2016
(link is external)”
are the prices of batteries
for PV systems and the
resulting low profit
margins.
Insect control giant Ortho
today said the company would
immediately begin phasing
out neonicotinoid-based
pesticides for outdoor use
because they are deadly to
valuable pollinators such as
bees.
ON energy and environmental
issues, the impact of
overreaction can outweigh
the consequences of denial.
Such is the case in Vermont,
where environmental
advocates' opposition to
nuclear power has led to an
increase in the greenhouse
gas emissions they believe
are destroying the planet.
Peabody Energy, the
nation's largest coal miner,
has filed for bankruptcy
protection as a crosscurrent
of environmental,
technological and economic
changes wreak havoc across
the industry.
Mines and offices at
Peabody, a company founded
in 1833 by 24-year-old
Francis S. Peabody, will
continue to operate as it
moves through the bankruptcy
process. However, Peabody's
planned sale of its New
Mexico and Colorado assets
were terminated after the
buyer was unable to complete
the deal.
Vaccination proponents
want to eliminate
vaccine exemptions,
while parents discover
acellular pertussis
vaccine in DTaP shots
does not prevent
infection, and vaccine
immunity lasts at best
for two to five years
In response to mass
pertussis vaccination,
the B. pertussis microbe
has evolved to evade the
pertussis vaccines,
creating new strains
producing more toxin to
suppress immune function
and cause more serious
disease
Vaccinated people can
still transmit
infection, even though
they show no symptoms,
and have received four
to six pertussis shots,
proving pertussis
vaccine acquired “herd
immunity” is an illusion
and always has been
A dump truck
full of plastic is unloaded
into the sea every minute,
and experts say the
situation is growing worse,
with plastic debris expected
to outnumber fish by 2050.
With plastic production
currently at a twentyfold
increase since 1964,
generating 311m tonnes in
2014, a new report by the
Ellen MacArthur Foundation
has revealed we are rapidly
approaching an environmental
catastrophe — especially
where the world’s oceans are
concerned. This number is
expected to double in the
next 20 years and almost
quadruple by 2050
Alzheimer's disease is
caused by a buildup of
amyloid beta in the brain,
which causes plaques that
disrupt nerve cells. Now,
research conducted by
scientists at the University
of Bergen is improving our
understanding of exactly why
this happens, identifying
both a section of a cell and
a protein that are central
to the process.
A boom in the wild boar
population is causing
problems for farmers near
the site of the 2011 nuclear
disaster
The Fukushima nuclear
meltdown in 2011 is one of
the worst disasters of the
21st century. The 9.0
magnitude earthquake and
resulting 30-foot-tall wave
killed 18,000 people in
Japan and then led to the
nuclear plant's meltdown.
The area around the plant
has since remained devoid of
human inhabitants, but at
least one species is
thriving: wild boars.
C2 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be low with a slight chance
for an M-class flare on days
one, two, and three (15 Apr,
16 Apr, 17 Apr). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on day one (15
Apr) and quiet to unsettled
levels on days two and three
(16 Apr, 17 Apr).
A former U.S. senator said
that 28 classified pages
from the 9/11 Commission
Report should be released to
the American people and that
it’s “inexplicable” why the
government hasn’t done so to
this point.
The 1998 US Army document
‘Bioeffects of Selected
Nonlethal Weapons’ says
“investigators are even
beginning to describe
similarities between
microwave irradiation and
drugs regarding their
effects on biological
systems. For example, some
suggest that power density
and specific absorption rate
(SAR) of microwave
irradiation may be thought
of as analogous to the
concentration of the
injection solution and the
dosage of a drug.” [1]
And, as the ‘volume’ or
power density is turned up
on microwave transmissions,
with increased antenna
towers, Wi-Fi, Wi-MAX,
mobiles etc., we now receive
a microwave dose often
millions of times higher
than what was studied 20
years ago.
Crane wrote a very
heartfelt and supportive
note to his colleagues on
his departure, full of
positive points and genuine
affection. But Crane
couldn't resist one nicely
worded jab-that clean energy
is the future and we must
accept that now.
That's the part of
Crane's note that stuck with
me longer than the rah-rah
employees-are-awesome
cheerfulness and the smartly
worded affirmations. And it
stuck with me not because I
disagree-honestly, I would
love for clean energy to be
the future-but I'm always
amazed at executive
statements along these lines
that never, ever reveal just
how tough that future is
going to be to reach-for
utilities, for the employees
of those utilities and, yes,
for customers of those
utilities, too.
Some of the most interesting
health benefits of kratom
leaves include their ability
to lower blood pressure,
relieve pain, boost
metabolism, increase sexual
energy, improve the immune
system, prevent diabetes,
ease anxiety, help with
addiction, eliminate stress,
and induce healthy sleep.
Five out of eight of the
country’s biggest banks do
not have credible plans for
winding down operations
during a crisis without the
help of public money,
federal regulators said on
Wednesday.
The “living wills” that
the Federal Reserve and
Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation jointly agreed
were not credible came from
Bank of America, Bank of New
York Mellon , J.P. Morgan
Chase, State Street, Wells
Fargo.
The controversy over where
to put solar power arrays on
Long Island rages on. Now
environmentalists and civic
groups are arguing -- with
each other -- about proposed
sites in Mastic and
Shoreham. The fight is over
the wisdom of clearing trees
to erect solar panels. One
side says it's a compromise
needed to keep moving
purposefully to the
alternative energy future
the region must embrace. The
other says it's a terrible
and unnecessary
environmental trade-off. All
things being equal, we'd
like to keep the trees --
and have solar, too. But
information is lacking to
properly evaluate either
argument.
Pacific sardine
populations have plunged by
90 percent since 2007,
prompting the Pacific
Fishery Management Council
to vote Sunday to extend its
prohibition on virtually all
fishing of the small oily
fish within 200 miles of the
California, Oregon and
Washington coasts.
The sardine collapse has
rippled up the food chain
and has been linked to
deaths of sea lions and
brown pelicans across the
U.S. West Coast. Sea lion
pups, emaciated and
starving, have washed up on
California beaches.
President Barack Obama's
national security adviser
says the U.S. now talks
"almost daily" with Russia
to ensure its military
operations in Syria don't
clash.
After allegedly dumping jet
fuel into an Oklahoma water
source, the oil giant
Halliburton is one step
closer to resolving legal
complaints filed by local
property owners who say they
were exposed to contaminated
water for four decades.
Several workers from
Cleveland’s water division
used the knowledge they
gained at work to cheat
their employer by lowering
their personal meter
readings.
California's advanced energy
industry is booming in terms
of jobs with more than half
a million workers --- up 18
percent from 2014 and six
times the rate of statewide
employment growth.
The number of tigers living
in the wild has increased to
3,890 animals, the first
uptick in the global wild
tiger population in 100
years, World Wildlife Fund
and the Global Tiger Forum
announced today.
... a Danish research team
based at Aarhus University
reported findings showing
that the death of a partner
is linked to heightened risk
of developing AF for up to a
year after the bereavement.
Unfortunately, it’s natural
to worry what other people
think. The subconscious is
in charge at least 90% of
the time. It’s a primitive
and emotional part of the
brain that uses the rules
from the caveman days to
protect us from being hurt.
With summer approaching,
Zika may find its way into
virus-carrying mosquitoes in
Europe or the United States,
disease experts have warned,
but any outbreaks are likely
to be small and short-lived.
Doctors and scientists
attending a major infectious
diseases conference in
Amsterdam said there was no
reason to panic, and the
idea of screening travellers
was far-fetched
In response to a question
from Fox News Sunday host
Chris Wallace about whether
Clinton will “be in any way
protected” by political
influence during the
investigation, Obama
replied, “I guarantee that
there is no political
influence in any
investigation conducted by
the Justice Department, or
the FBI, not just in this
case, but in any case.”
Growing fears about hackers
breaking into and damaging
Connecticut utility company
systems have prompted state
regulators to call for
annual voluntary
closed-door meetings
with utilities to improve
cybersecurity.
Most Texans slept were
asleep by 1 a.m. March 23
when heavy gusts of wind
provided nearly 50 percent
of the state's electricity.
It was the biggest portion
provided by wind in the
grid's history.
What's touted as good
news by environmentalists,
though, is causing endless
hours of anxiety for power
generators that rely on
natural gas, coal or nuclear
energy.
FBI Director James Comey
revealed the reason behind
why he places a piece of
tape over his laptop
computer’s webcam during a
speech Wednesday at Kenyon
College in Gambier, Ohio.
Walnut Cove and the
question of how to deal with
millions of tons of coal ash
in an unlined basin at the
Belews Creek Steam Station
became the epicenter of a
national debate on
environmental justice
Thursday.
The North Carolina
Advisory Committee for the
U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights held a day long
hearing on the impact of
coal ash on the
predominantly lower-wealth
and minority community
around the plant and its ash
impoundments.
A federal judge has granted
Maine Yankee and two sister
companies a third payment
from the U.S. government as
damages for
continued storage of spent
nuclear fuel.
Unmarried couples can now
legally live together in the
Sunshine State.
The statewide ban on
cohabitation is officially
over after Gov. Rick Scott
signed a bill into law
ending the ban on Wednesday.
The legislation was part of
a handful of other bills
given the green light to
become law in Florida this
year.
A former Government medical
officer responsible for
deciding whether medicines
are safe has accused the
Government of “utterly
inexplicable complacency”
over the MMR triple vaccine
for children. Dr Peter
Fletcher, who was Chief
Scientific Officer at the
Department of Health, said
if it is proven that the jab
causes autism, “the refusal
by governments to evaluate
the risks properly will make
this one of the greatest
scandals in medical
history”.
Over the weekend, Zapata
released the first video of
his latest invention: the
Flyboard Air. Gone is the
jet ski, gone is the hose,
and gone is the tether. This
thing appears to take the
handling and control system
of the Flyboard, but replace
the water jets with at least
one jet turbine engine and
what appears to be a
backpack fuel tank.
Weak growth and a recovery
that is “weak, uneven and in
danger of stalling yet
again” is haunting the world
economy, the latest
Brookings
Institution-Financial Times
tracking index warns.
Earthquakes happen every
day, but most of the time,
they are too deep to be felt
by humans. However, experts
are continuously mapping
fault lines and studying the
movements of the earth to
predict and warn the public
of possible disastrous
earthquakes. The United
States Geological Survey
(USGS) recently released a
study stating the most
Earthquake-vulnerable
states, which include
Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas,
Colorado, New Mexico and
Arkansas.
Former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton said that
there is “not even the
remotest chance” she will be
arrested over her use of a
private email server, and
said that it’s only a
“fantasy” for Republicans.
In 2011, Navajo Nation
Attorney General Harrison
Tsosie sent a
cease-and-desist letter to
Urban Outfitters claiming
that only the Navajo nation
has a right to label
commercial goods “Navajo.”
Urban Outfitters was
selling a variety of
products, from underwear
(“Navajo Hipster panty”) to
jackets, jewelry, and flasks
with designs suggesting
those of the desert
southwest where the Navajo
people live.
When Urban Outfitters did
not comply, the Navajo
Nation filed a lawsuit
seeking damages for the
exploitation of their name
by non-Navajos. This is a
problem faced by Navajos as
well as Cherokees,
Comanches, Seminoles, and
many others.
According to Mordasini and
Linder, Planet 9 is probably
a gas giant with a core of
iron, silicates, and ice
surrounded by an atmosphere
of hydrogen and helium. It's
about 10 times the mass of
the Earth and 3.7 times the
radius, which works out to a
diameter of 29,296 mi
(47,144 km), and has a
temperature of 47 K (-226º
C, -375º F). This would have
been about 10º K (minus 263º
C, minus 441º F), but as
gravity compresses Planet 9,
it produces 1,000 times more
energy than it receives from
the Sun.
Operators of the Keystone
oil pipeline resumed pumping
this weekend after shutting
down the pipeline for
repairs for nearly a week.
Officials discovered a
leak in Keystone outside of
Freeman, South Dakota, last
week, forcing TransCanada to
shut down the pipeline and
conduct repairs. Officials
say about 17,000 gallons of
oil leaked from the
pipeline, more than the
company’s initial estimates
Kuwait expects to raise its
oil output capacity to 3.165
million b/d by the end of
this year as upstream
development projects
continue to move ahead,
adding 165,000 b/d to the
current 3 million b/d, the
emirate's top upstream
official said Monday.
Composite metal foams (CMFs)
are little-known materials
that are beginning to show
some big promise. Last year
we saw researchers adapt
these lightweight materials
to stop various forms of
radiation in their tracks,
and now the same team has
ramped things up to offer
protection from something
with a bit more force: an
armour-piercing bullet,
which was turned to dust on
impact.
Across the globe, the
scientific community and
governmental bodies are
preparing for the threat
posed by the potential of a
massive geomagnetic solar
storm striking Earth. These
space weather events have
the capacity to cripple
vital technology-based
infrastructures, and of
causing a cascade that could
lead to unforeseeable
dangers.
Since the birth of modern
technology, space weather
has been responsible for
large scale blackouts,
technical faults in deep
space exploration missions,
and severe interference in
flight-control systems for
commercial aircraft.
What do you know about
the worldwide chemical
fertilizer industry? If
you’re like most people, not
much.
There’s plenty of press
coverage and consumer
awareness when it comes to
genetically engineered food
and crops, and the
environmental hazards of
pesticides and animal drugs.
But the fertilizer industry?
Not so much—even though it’s
the largest segment of
corporate agribusiness ($175
billion in annual sales),
and a major destructive
force in polluting the
environment, disrupting the
climate, and damaging public
health.
The energy sector faces more
cyber attacks than any other
industry, according to the
U.S. Department of Homeland
Security...
In a survey of more than 150
information technology
professionals in the energy,
utilities, and oil and gas
industries, conducted in
November 2015, Tripwire
found that 77 percent of
those surveyed had
experienced a rise in
successful cyber attacks in
the last 12 months. In
addition, 68 percent of the
respondents said the rate of
successful cyber attacks had
increased by more than 20
percent in just the last
month.
Total corporate funding,
including venture capital
funding, public market and
debt financing, in the solar
sector in Q1 2016 dropped
significantly -- to $2.8
billion compared to $6.9
billion in the fourth
quarter of 2015, a decline
of about 59 percent
quarter-over-quarter (QoQ),
according to Mercom Capital
Group.
The revelations about
offshore accounts that came
to light in the so-called
Panama Papers will
reinvigorate government
efforts to rein in not just
tax evasion, which is
illegal, but tax avoidance,
too.
They will also add to
popular frustration that
will challenge the authority
of some government
officials. The uproar will
bring about
enhanced enforcement
measures. yet there also
will be unintended
consequences that will
further erode the
credibility and
effectiveness of the
political establishment,
including its ability to
govern from the center,
which is already being
tested.
Regulators have given Repsol
Oil and Gas Canada the green
light to resume hydraulic
fracking at a remote well in
Alberta nearly three months
after the region was rocked
by an earthquake linked to
the fracking, the company
said on Thursday.
C1 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be low with a slight chance
for an M-class flare on days
one, two, and three (12 Apr,
13 Apr, 14 Apr). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on day one (12
Apr) and unsettled to minor
storm levels on days two and
three (13 Apr, 14 Apr).
Freshwater polluted by
harmful algal blooms costs
the United States at least
$64 million every year, by
government estimates.
Now four federal agencies
are collaborating on a $3.6
million research project to
transform satellite data
into information in formats
that managers can use to
protect human health and the
environment from harmful
algal blooms.
It's uncommon in Florida
for two groups to offer
competing constitutional
amendments covering the same
topic, as has happened with
solar energy.
Ultimately, only one
prevailed. After the Florida
Supreme Court's decision
last week, voters will have
a say -- a limited one -- in
the future of solar energy
in the Sunshine State.
Efforts to clean up coal ash
and change the way ash and
coal products are stored are
taking place across the
country, but nowhere is more
central than Tennessee and
North Carolina...
TVA plans to construct and
operate a dewatering
facility which will remove
moisture from bottom ash
before it is stored in an
onsite, dry landfill.
Fly ash and gypsum are
already stored dry onsite at
Kingston, and TVA plans to
discontinue wet storage of
coal combustion residuals
altogether, moving toward
dry storage throughout TVA's
coal fleet.
Our universe might be as
hole-riddled as Swiss
cheese, according to a study
published Wednesday in
Nature. The discovery of a
supermassive black hole in a
sparsely populated region of
space has scientists
wondering if the behemoths
might be more common than
previously thought.
This year, Tax
Freedom Day falls on
April 24, or 114 days
into the year (excluding
Leap Day).
Americans will pay
$3.3 trillion in federal
taxes and $1.6 trillion
in state and local
taxes, for a total bill
of almost $5.0 trillion,
or 31 percent of the
nation’s income.
Tax Freedom Day is
one day earlier than
last year, due to
slightly lower federal
tax collections as a
proportion of the
economy.
Americans will
collectively spend more
on taxes in 2016 than
they will on food,
clothing, and housing
combined.
If you include
annual federal
borrowing, which
represents future taxes
owed, Tax Freedom Day
would occur 16 days
later, on May 10.
Tax Freedom Day is a
significant date for
taxpayers and lawmakers
because it represents
how long Americans as a
whole have to work in
order to pay the
nation’s tax burden.
In spite of the ongoing
gloom and doom that shrouds
the coal industry these
days, participants at
Monday's coal technology
symposium at The University
of Virginia's College at
Wise touted potential ways
for better days ahead for
the much maligned commodity.
The number of oil and
natural gas leases on US and
tribal lands continued to
fall in fiscal 2015, while
the number of approved yet
unused drilling permits
reaching a record high,
Bureau of Land Management
data showed Monday.
The data, updated to include
statistics through fiscal
2015, seems to back up
frequent arguments from US
producers that the Obama
administration is doing
little to promote drilling
on federal lands amid the
ongoing shale renaissance.
As the United States faces
prolonged, unprecedented
droughts and potential water
shortages, innovation in the
water space is an ongoing
priority..."That's why the
U.S. Water Alliance created
the U.S. Water Prize -- the
first of its kind
recognition program that
celebrates outstanding
achievement in driving
towards a sustainable water
future."
In-depth scientific
research and broad-based
communications are both
needed to get control of
harmful algal blooms and
low-oxygen conditions called
hypoxia in U.S. waters,
advises a new report to
Congress.
From extended shellfish
closures on the west coast
in 2015, to a
larger-than-predicted
hypoxic zone in the Gulf of
Mexico, to blue-green algae
in Lake Erie, harmful algal
blooms and hypoxia ruin
resources across thousands
of miles of U.S. coastal and
inland waters.
ublic employees in
Venezuela will take long
weekends under the
government's latest bid
to ease a nationwide
power crisis.
President
Nicolas Maduro announced
late Wednesday that he
would sign a decree
giving state workers
Fridays off for 60 days
— and he urged his
compatriots to increase
other efforts to save
power, even recommending
that women use their
fingers rather than
hairdryers to do their
hair.
The National Renewable
Energy Laboratory recently
said that rooftop solar
panels have the potential to
generate nearly 40 percent
of electricity in the U.S.
But what about the cost of
going solar?
Many people ask when the
cost of producing power from
solar photovoltaic (PV)
panels will be equal to or
less than buying from the
grid – a point called “grid
parity” that could
accelerate solar adoption.
Millions of Americans
have cast their ballots for
the “outsiders” during the
2016 primary election
season. While Donald Trump
and Bernie Sanders might be
political opposites, many
people believe they
represent the dramatic
change America needs.
How did this happen?
Why is the nation going
broke while people in power
seem to getting richer?
Why does Congress
consistently legislate
against the will of the
people?
That’s
how a free market is
supposed to work—with
informed consumers driving
demand. But unless laws
mandate these labels,
corporations can choose not
to label, or they can tell
consumers they will label,
but then set their own
"standards" for labeling
which could include high
thresholds and loopholes in
order to avoid labeling.
"Voluntary" is not an
acceptable standard.
Former coal company
executive Don Blankenship's
expression of sorrow before
a federal judge stung for
the families who lost loved
ones in the Upper Big Branch
Mine explosion, the
deadliest U.S. mining
disaster in four decades.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac
says the average rate on a
30-year, fixed-rate mortgage
fell to 3.59 percent from
3.71 percent last week. The
benchmark rate was far below
the 3.66 percent level it
marked a year ago.
Daleiden and his group,
the Center for Medical
Progress, began releasing
videos in mid-2015
purporting to show Planned
Parenthood officials trying
to negotiate prices for
aborted fetal tissue. Under
federal law, donated human
fetal tissue may be used for
research, but profiting from
its sale is prohibited.
Planned Parenthood denied
the accusation and called
the probe politically
motivated.
..
Daleiden is under criminal
investigation in Texas,
where he was indicted in
February for tampering with
a government record and
violating a prohibition on
the purchase and sale of
human body parts.
Formaldehyde in laminate
flooring sold by Lumber
Liquidators up until May
2015 may increase the
lifetime cancer risk by
6 to 30 extra cases per
100,000 people
Researchers are now 99
percent certain that
endocrine disrupting
chemicals like BPA and
phthalates can cause
attention problems,
diabetes, reproductive
problems, and other
health issues
Endocrine-disrupting
chemicals are thought to
cost the European Union
a total of €157 billion
($178 billion) per year
in healthcare costs
Severe floods are
expected on China's Yangtze
River this year due to a
strong El Nino weather
pattern, state media said,
raising the risk of deaths
and damage to property and
crops along the country's
longest waterway.
The El Nino conditions
are the strongest since
records collection began in
1951, and resemble a 1998
weather pattern that flooded
the river and killed
thousands, the official
Xinhua news agency said on
Friday, citing vice minister
of water resources, Liu Ning
Hostile Western forces are
behind the “Panama Papers”,
a state-run Chinese
newspaper alleged Tuesday,
as media avoided reporting
revelations about Communist
leaders and it emerged that
the law firm involved has
eight offices in the
country.
An environmental
engineer by trade, Paul
Olsen has spent the last few
decades helping people
understand how rising seas
threaten the places we live
— even in a state that
hardly thinks of itself as
coastal.
“I still use Tangier
as my closer,” Olsen says of
one of Virginia’s most
notable sinking islands in
the Chesapeake Bay, which is
home to a historic community
of oystermen and helps
illustrate his point: rising
waters aren’t just a fear
for the future. “It scares
the hell out of people.”
Blame it on the mass of
water known as "the
Blob”—four-plus degrees
Fahrenheit,
warmer-than-normal,
nutrient-poor ocean waters
hugging the Pacific coast—or
on El Niño, habitat
destruction or toxic runoff.
Whatever the cause of
dwindling coho salmon runs,
the effect on western
Washington tribal fishing
nations can be summed up in
one word: disastrous.
It's so serious that
there likely will be no coho
fisheries in 2016, as
returns are expected to
plummet even further than
those of last year because
of poor ocean survival,
The researchers
say the newly
discovered sequences
could one day give a
great boost to
mammals' ability to
regrow damaged
tissue or body
parts.
Animals that regrow
body parts like
zebrafish and newts
certainly function very
differently to the way
humans do, but we might
one day be able to
borrow some of these
traits. ..
Residents and businesses
in drought-stricken
California cut back water
use by nearly 25 percent
from June 2015 through the
end of February 2016 -
enough to supply nearly 6
million people for a year,
officials said Monday.
The state's first ever
mandatory cutbacks in water
use were imposed by
Democratic Governor Jerry
Brown as the state entered
its fourth year of
devastating drought last
spring,..
Today, the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) announced $8.5
million in research funding
to 12 universities to
protect air quality from the
current and future
challenges associated with
the impacts of climate
change...
Research has shown that
climate change can affect
air quality and impact
public health. With the
funding, researchers will
expand investigations to
understand:
Wait … What? The federal
Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) really doesn’t
conduct any scientific
studies on the very drugs it
approves? No, it doesn’t,
and the facts surrounding
this reality will shock and
anger you.
Over objections of
environmentalists, the Obama
administration on Tuesday
approved a 287-megawatt
solar energy plant for a
remote part of the Mojave
Desert.
The 1,767-acre project is
located on land managed by
the U.S. Bureau of Land
Management, about six miles
southwest of Baker.
The U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC)
announced a multi-state
outbreak of listeriosis
linked to raw milk from
a small farm in
Pennsylvania
Only two cases were
reported, including one
death, back in 2014
A family member and
caregiver of the
deceased person claims
the CDC’s statement is
false; she stated the
person died of cancer,
not from drinking raw
milk
In the coming weeks or
maybe even days, the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers will
issue a decision as to
whether or not they will
allow the Dakota Access
Pipeline, also known as the
Bakken Pipeline, to be
constructed.
Until then, citizens and
allies of the Oceti Sakowin
(Seven Council Fires of the
Great Sioux Nation) will
continue to protest the
pipeline, urging
stakeholders to recognize
the devastation that would
ensue should the pipeline be
built.
On this day, a B-52 bomber
collides with KC-135 jet
tanker over Spain's
Mediterranean coast,
dropping three 70-kiloton
hydrogen bombs near the town
of Palomares and one in the
sea. It was not the first or
last accident involving
American nuclear bombs.
The conflict of
interest at the highest
levels is obvious.
While evidence of Hillary
Clinton’s felonies keeps
piling up, Attorney General
Loretta Lynch still won’t
indict her. Could it be
because Lynch was first
appointed to federal office
by none other than Hillary’s
husband, former President
Bill Clinton?
The war on (illicit)
drugs, which exacts
particularly harsh
punishment for minor
marijuana offenses, has
proven itself a
miserable failure that
actually contributes to
the current drug abuse
epidemic
A report by Johns
Hopkins-Lancet
Commission on Drug
Policy and Health states
the war on drugs is
harming public health,
and urges governments
around the world to
decriminalize minor,
non-violent drug
offenses
Prescriptions for
opioids have risen by
300 percent over the
past 10 years, and have
fueled a whole new
heroin epidemic. Medical
marijuana is an
effective, non-toxic
alternative to highly
addictive and dangerous
opioids
India’s Supreme Court
ruled Thursday that the ban
on the registration of
vehicles powered by large
diesel engines in the
National Capital Region will
continue until further
notice.
Concerned about air
pollution, the Supreme Court
last year issued an order
banning registration of
diesel vehicles over 2000cc
in Delhi till March 31,
2016.
North County Congressman
Darrell Issa wants the U.S.
Department of Energy to add
a Southern California site
to its list of cities
hosting public forums on
nuclear waste storage.
"With the San Onofre
nuclear facility at the
front of Southern
Californians' minds, it
makes zero sense that the
Department of Energy
wouldn't seek to hear from
us on how to address nuclear
waste storage and disposal,"
Issa, (R-Vista) said in a
statement Tuesday
Jamie Dimon, chief
executive officer of
JPMorgan Chase & Co., said
he’s concerned demand for
Treasuries will decline and
the Federal Reserve will
raise interest rates faster
than people expect.
The market won’t be able
to rely on the biggest
buyers of U.S. debt: the
Fed, foreign nations and
commercial banks...
Mexico's government on
Tuesday unexpectedly changed
two of its top officials
responsible for U.S.
relations, citing concerns
about an increasingly
anti-Mexican climate across
the border.
Quarries are changing how
archaeologists think about
the Stone Age
Spears and pelts
aren’t exactly the stuff of
modern living, but they’re
part and parcel of the
popular concept of a
prehistoric human. That
image is fading, though, as
archaeologists learn more
about how people lived
thousands of years ago. As
Ruth Schuster reports for
Haaretz, new information
indicates that prehistoric
people didn’t just hunt and
gather—they were strip
miners, too.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo
(D) banned all non-essential
travel to Mississippi in an
executive order after the
Magnolia State passed a
religious liberty bill that
he described as “hateful
injustice against the LGBT
community.”
A former BP Plc (BP.L) rig
supervisor who pleaded
guilty to a misdemeanor
charge in the 2010 Gulf of
Mexico oil spill was
sentenced to 10 months of
probation on Wednesday,
concluding a federal
criminal case in which no
one received prison time
over the disaster.
Annual meetings to
discuss safety performance
at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power
Station with federal
regulators and the public
have historically placed
plant operators on the hot
seat, as they field
questions and criticism
related to forced shutdowns,
equipment glitches and
operator performance.
This year’s meeting, set
for April 13, promises to be
even more contentious than
usual, based on Pilgrim’s
record in the last year.
“This latest test, critics
say, raise new questions
about what they’ve long
suspected: That canals that
began running too hot and
salty the summer after FPL
overhauled two reactors to
produce more power could
also be polluting the bay,”
A new U.S. rule aimed at
protecting retirement savers
from profit-hungry brokers
turned out to be much weaker
than an initial proposal
after the Obama
administration bowed to
pressure from the financial
services industry.
The Winslow, Arizona
Police Department has
released the name and
professional background of
the officer who shot and
killed 27-year-old Loreal
Tsingine on Easter Sunday...
The deadly incident
began when Tsingine
allegedly shoplifted from
the store. When Shipley and
another officer attempted to
detain her, she physically
resisted and reportedly
threatened the officers with
a pair of scissors, the
Winslow police department
said in a statement.
With the threat of Ebola
largely in the past, the
Obama administration will
transfer the leftover funds
to help fight the Zika
virus.
The Associated Press
reported that about 75
percent of the $600 million
intended for Ebola will be
shifted to the Centers for
Disease Control and
Prevention for developing
anti-Zika vaccines to treat
the mosquito-born illness
which primarily affects
pregnant women.
C1 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be low on days one, two, and
three (08 Apr, 09 Apr, 10
Apr). The geomagnetic
field is expected to be at
quiet to minor storm levels
on day one (08 Apr), quiet
to unsettled levels on day
two (09 Apr) and quiet
levels on day three (10
Apr).
Researchers from Osaka
University and the
University of Tokyo have
announced the discovery of a
new magnet, which is capable
of controlling Dirac
fermions with zero mass.
It is expected this
discovery will lead to a
brand new field of study —
strong correlated quantum
transport of Dirac electrons
— as well as major
innovation in the area of
super high-speed
spintronics, which is the
foundation for high-speed
and energy-saving
electronics
The warm water currents
associated with El Niño
events can have a big impact
on phytoplankton
populations...
Data from NASA satellites is
being used to help
scientists analyze how El
Niño – a natural,
regularly-occurring event
that sees large volumes of
warm water move through the
Pacific Ocean – is affecting
a population of tiny ocean
plants. A decline in the
number of these plants can
cause big disruptions to
coastal fishing industries.
"So far, no scientist has
succeeded in fully
controlling the sequence of
individual components when
producing artificial
molecules on the micro
scale."
Scrapping plans for new
nuclear reactors at Hinkley
Point in Somerset and
building huge amounts of
renewable power instead
would save the UK tens of
billions of pounds,
according to an analysis
that compares likely future
costs.
Entrepreneurs in solar and
renewable energy sector have
placed a 13-point proposal
seeking cut in customs duty
(CD) and value added tax
(VAT) on different items in
the upcoming budget for the
fiscal year 2016-17.
A case study of a
small Wyoming town reveals
that practices common in the
fracking industry may have
widespread impacts on
drinking water resources.
Only one industry is
allowed to inject toxic
chemicals into underground
sources of drinking water –
hydraulic fracturing, or
"fracking." Concerns about
this practice have riled the
U.S. political landscape and
communities around the
country, perhaps nowhere
more so than in Pavillion,
Wyoming, population 231.
Susana Martinez visited this
small bedroom community near
Los Alamos on Monday to
highlight more than $32
million that will be spent
on improving aging water
infrastructure, stormwater
controls, monitoring of
runoff in and around Los
Alamos National Laboratory
and upgrades of roads used
to transport radioactive
waste.
With a seat vacant
possibly until next year,
the U.S. Supreme Court is
accepting fewer cases and
seeking compromises as it
tries to avoid being
hamstrung by 4-4 deadlocks
on such contentious issues
as abortion, birth control
and immigration.
The court has shown a
reluctance to accept new
cases as it faces the
prospect of the vacancy
created by the Feb. 13 death
of Justice Antonin Scalia
remaining unfilled for an
extended period...
The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) has
agreed with an
environmental assessment
submitted by Oxitec and
stated that GE
mosquitoes will not have
a significant impact on
the environment
The FDA’s report is
preliminary but brings
the GE mosquitoes one
step closer to being
released in Florida
Oxitec, in partnership
with the Florida Keys
Mosquito Control
District (FKMCD), plans
to release the GE
mosquitoes in Key Haven,
Florida, an island of
the Florida Keys located
about 1 mile east of Key
West
One of the worst things you
can do to your body is feed
it sugar — not necessarily
natural sugar like the kind
found in fruit, but refined
sugar. A team of scientists
from the University of
California in San Francisco
(UCSF) recently pored
through more than 8,000
scientific papers on how
sugar affects the body and
came to the conclusion that
it not only makes people fat
but also makes them sick.
The seizure, which unfolded
in the Arabian Sea on March
28, was the third of its
kind in recent weeks,
military officials
say. Iran has been
supporting Houthi rebels in
Yemen in their proxy war
against a Saudi-led
coalition backed by the
United States. Like Iran,
the Houthis are a Shia-led
group.
A new U.S. government
task force will look into
the country's biggest ever
accidental release of
methane, which occurred over
several months in Los
Angeles, California, hoping
to prevent future leaks of
the potent greenhouse gas
from storage wells, the
Obama administration said on
Friday.
The Interagency Task
Force on Natural Gas Storage
Safety to look at the leak
at the Aliso Canyon leak
will be chaired by officials
from the Department of
Energy and the Department of
Transportation's pipeline
safety office.
A new study shows the
economic and ecological
impact of invasive species
in the Great Lakes has been
dramatically underestimated.
In fact, according to
researchers at the
University of
Wisconsin—Madison, a single
non-native species in a
single inland lake has
racked up $80M to $163M in
damage.
The findings suggest a
need to recalculate the cost
of invasive species.
We’re living in two worlds
right now. The one of the
old rules, the old systems,
the soft synthetic shoulder
to park your dreams on. But
then there’s another world;
one that is forming from the
light cracking through the
old system. It’s a magical
place of infinite
possibility. It rejuvenates
your soul and breathes you
back alive.
The so-called “old order”
is collapsing, and that is
causing the (present)
masters of the universe to
lash out in anger.
One pillar of the old
order is traditional
medicine, which of course
includes Big Pharma. This is
where some of the fiercest
opposition to change is
coming from, as we have seen
with the incessant
propagandized criticism of
naturopathic and homeopathic
healers – despite the fact
that these practitioners of
more wholesome medicine
bring legitimate comfort and
healing to millions around
the world.
If science fiction and human
history have taught us
anything, it's that
sometimes it's a good idea
to keep your head down.
While the search for
extraterrestrial
civilisations has gone on
for over a century, there
are some thinkers, such as
Stephen Hawking, who believe
that advertising our own
presence isn't such a good
idea and that beaming
messages into space could
lead to our being on the
receiving end of an
Independence Day
scenario without the
Hollywood ending.
Because these whirring
flying machines are
apparently not threatening
enough on their own, some
enterprising Finnish folk
have loaded one up with a
chainsaw and unleashed it on
nearby trees, icicles and
poor unsuspecting snowmen.
With a backdrop of
shuttered, sold or bankrupt
coal mines and power plants
in southwestern
Pennsylvania, the United
Mine Workers of America
wants to grab the attention
of companies and lawmakers
to save retirees' pensions
and health care amid a sharp
industry downturn.
This is a very interesting
question, and perhaps a
provocative one. With the
information explosion
drastically influencing so
many lives there appear to
be many strata of awakening
levels arising. Once people
start connecting the dots of
now available facts and
formerly unavailable
research, whole new
paradigms through which to
perceive our changing
reality emerge.
“Studies have reported that
older adults tend to perform
complex cognitive tasks
better in the morning and
get worse through the day,”
Dr. McClung said. “We know
also that the circadian
rhythm changes with aging,
leading to awakening earlier
in the morning, fewer hours
of sleep and less robust
body temperature rhythms.”
Global crude oil prices
should increase slowly over
2016 and 2017, as supply and
demand rebalances, the CEO
of state-owned Abu Dhabi
National Oil Co., or ADNOC,
said Monday.
A Vietnamese electricity
company in Gia Lai province
of central Vietnam said it
is halting electricity
generation operations at
four out of its 14
hydroelectric plants because
of the ongoing drought, the
Viet Nam News daily reports
Friday.
We are constantly assaulted
by estrogens in our
environment—from the food we
eat to the chemicals we use
or are exposed to. Estrogen
in the form of chemicals
(xenoestrogens), or foods
and plants (phytoestrogens),
mimic the action of estrogen
produced in cells and can
alter hormonal activity.
The Environmental
Protection Agency plans to
clean up spots of dirt on
private property just
outside the radioactively
contaminated West Lake
Landfill.
Testing from the Missouri
Department of Natural
Resources identified
radioactive contamination on
property beyond the
landfill's perimeter...
PBA can be found in many
common household products,
including the lining of some
food cans
Blocked for years by the
White House Office of
Management and Budget, two
chemical safety rules have
been dropped altogether by
the EPA. Environmental
Defense Fund’s Richard
Denison tells host Steve
Curwood why this is bad news
for public health.
A new study published in
PLoS scientifically
validates what so many drum
circle participants have
already experienced first
hand: group drumming
produces significant changes
in well-being, including
improvements in depression,
anxiety and social
resilience.
When we talk about the
quality of a product we
generally refer to the
materials it was made from,
the workmanship, and the
design. What we talk less
about is the quality of the
energy of the item.
Everything has an energy
signature that relates not
just to its physical
attributes but to subtler
associated aspects. These
attributes are comprised of
qualities that can’t be seen
or touched, like the
feelings and emotions behind
the creation process.
Despite this evidence and an
Environment Agency report in
1997 that enzymes in sewage
re-activated hormones
normally excreted by humans
in an inactive form, the
government said the
following year that it had
“made no estimates of cost
of removal since the impacts
are unclear”.
Many Indians who are not
Arawaks or Caribs or even
near salt water do not
respect the slave mongering,
thieving, murdering
Christopher Columbus. The
one good thing about
“Columbus Day” is the yearly
reminder that the man was a
villain and the
“accomplishments” claimed
for him are illusory.
Columbus was not the only
person who understood the
earth to be round rather
than flat. That
knowledge was mainstream
among the minority of
educated Europeans and had
been since Aristotle.
With 400 tons of
groundwater flowing
downhill into the
reactor basements
each day and some of
that then spilling
into the sea, there
is a need for
alternative
solutions.
Among the many
problems plaguing the
cleanup at Fukushima is
the threat of
radioactive water
spilling from the site.
The Japanese government
is now ramping up its
efforts to contain this
problem, by flicking the
switch on an underground
ice wall that will
enclose the failed
nuclear facility to slow
the spread of
contaminated material.
A federal judge in New
Orleans today set his stamp
of approval on an $18.7
billion civil settlement in
the deadly 2010 Deepwater
Horizon disaster in the Gulf
of Mexico.
Russia's President Vladimir
Putin has called on his
citizens to bring all their
offshore wealth back into
the country, but he has sat
least $2 billion in wealth
squirreled away overseas,
The Guardian reports.
Putin keeps the money in the
hands of his friends...
Not long ago, Neon Nettle
reported on the epidemic of
doctors being murdered, most
of which were in Florida,
U.S. The scientists all
shared a common trait, they
had all discovered that
nagalase enzyme protein was
being added to vaccines
which were then
administrated to humans.
Nagalese is what prevents
vitamin D from being
produced in the body, which
is the body’s main defence
to naturally kill cancer
cells. According to
Thebigriddle.com: Nagalase
is a protein that’s also
created by all cancer cells.
This protein is also found
in very high concentrations
in autistic children. And
they’re PUTTING it in our
vaccines!!
In El Niño years, huge
masses of warm water –
equivalent to about half of
the volume of the
Mediterranean Sea – slosh
east across the Pacific
Ocean towards South America.
While this warm water
changes storm systems in the
atmosphere, it also has an
impact below the ocean’s
surface. These impacts,
which researchers can
visualize with satellite
data, can ripple up the food
chain to fisheries and the
livelihoods of fishermen.
Scientists identified what
they call the Pacific
Extreme Pattern – warm
seawater next to cool
seawater – and showed its
connection to heat waves
weeks later.
Long before Europeans
brought over their Greek
monikers for the
constellations, Native
cultures already had named
their sky people. And those
faraway relatives helped
them to understand their
world and how to survive in
it.
Solar activity has been at
very low levels for the past
24 hours. Solar
activity is expected to be
very low with a slight
chance for a C-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(05 Apr, 06 Apr, 07 Apr).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on days one
and three (05 Apr, 07 Apr)
and quiet to unsettled
levels on day two (06 Apr).
A team of scientists from
the University of Tsukuba,
Japan, and the University of
Dayton, Ohio, set out to
investigate the role of two
types of cells believed to
play a key role in a newt's
muscle regeneration:
skeletal muscle fiber cells
(SMFCs) and muscle
stem/progenitor cells
(MPCs). MPCs are dormant
cells that live in the
muscle fiber and can be
recruited to multiply into
specialized muscle cells.
After nearly 50 years of
service, Scotland’s last
coal-fired power plant —
Longannet Power Station —
has finally gone offline,
putting an end to over 100
years of burning coal for
electricity.
"The snowshoe hare is
perfectly modeled for life
on snow," explains Jonathan
Pauli, a UW-Madison
professor of forest and
wildlife ecology and one of
the co-authors of the new
study. "They're adapted to
glide on top of the snow and
to blend in with the
historical colors of the
landscape."
As climate warms,
northern winters have become
shorter and milder. And the
annual blanket of snow that
many organisms have evolved
to depend on is in steady
retreat, becoming thinner
and less dependable in
regions that once
experienced snow well into
the spring months.
For centuries, people
have had anxieties about
incorrect death
pronouncement and premature
burials. In the 1800s, the
fear of being buried alive,
known as taphophobia, was so
widespread that many people
included provisions in their
wills calling for tests to
confirm death,...
Despite early reports that a
sophisticated encryption
operation was used to help
terrorists cover their
tracks leading up to the
Paris attacks last November,
new evidence suggest the
ISIS-sponsored group went
with a much more simple
approach: burner phones.
Study results were very
positive, with researchers
believing that eye-tracking
tech could be a cost
effective and accurate
method for early diagnosis
of the condition
Freeman’s six-part “The
Story of God” miniseries,
which premieres on April
3, will tackle the
afterlife, the end of days,
creation, the question of
who God is, evil and
miracles — subjects that the
actor is hoping will get the
audience pondering and
thinking about theology more
broadly.
“The hope is that
audiences will take away
from this a realization that
in all of human existence,
we all are seeking the same
answers,” he said. “We’re
all asking the same
questions, we all pretty
much have the same quest.
Shenzhen, China's high-tech
boomtown, sprung a surprise
on its 12 million-plus
residents this week.
Construction has begun on
three giant,
state-of-the-art
incinerators to handle the
heaving tide of trash that
the city tosses out daily.
One of the mega-burners --
resembling an American-style
football dome -- will be the
world's largest
waste-to-energy plant when
it opens in 2018.
Wisconsin Governor Scott
Walker signed Assembly Bill
384 repealing the moratorium
on building new nuclear
energy facilities, which had
been in place for 33 years.
Our cognitive and physical
abilities are in general
limited, but our conceptions
of the nature and extent of
those limits may need
revising. In many cases,
thinking that we are limited
is itself a limiting factor.
There is accumulating
evidence that suggests that
our thoughts are often
capable of extending our
cognitive and physical
limits.
Americans are routinely told
by traditional medical
doctors, healthcare
providers, government
agencies and elected
officials that “vaccines are
safe,” and yet that doesn’t
explain why billions of
taxpayer dollars have been
spent to compensate families
whose little loved ones have
been severely affected or
killed by vaccines.
In all, according to
official federal government
figures, taxpayers are on
the hook for more than $3.3
billion in compensation
costs, as noted by the
Health Resources and
Services Administration,
which tracks payouts made
via the National Vaccine
Injury Compensation Program.
A volcano on the Alaska
Peninsula erupted with
little advanced warning over
the weekend, spewing an ash
cloud up to 20,000 feet
(6,096 meters) high that
prompted aviation warnings
across the region,
scientists said on Monday.
Arctic sea ice appears to
have reached a record low
wintertime maximum extent
for the second year in a
row, according to NASA
scientists.
Every year, the cap of
frozen seawater floating on
top of the Arctic Ocean and
its neighbouring seas melts
during the spring and summer
and grows back in the fall
and winter months, reaching
its maximum yearly extent
between February and April,
researchers said.
A
procession of Lake Norman
and Charlotte residents
beseeched state officials
Tuesday to rate North
Carolina's largest ash pond
as such an environmental and
safety risk that it should
be emptied.
The hearing was the last
in a string of public
meetings on the risks of
Duke Energy's coal ash,
determinations that will
drive how and when 32 ash
ponds are closed.
Britain will ship 700
kilograms of nuclear waste
to the United States under a
deal to be announced by
Prime Minister David Cameron
at a nuclear security summit
in Washington on Thursday, a
British government source
said.
In return for the
shipment, the largest ever
movement of highly enriched
uranium, the United States
will send Europe a different
type of nuclear waste that
can be used to produce
medical isotopes for the
treatment of some cancers.
Thanks to the thousands
of Americans who
mobilized against Pat
Roberts’ “DARK Act”
(S.2609), the bill
failed to get the 60
votes needed to move
forward. However, we can
expect it to resurface
sometime after Easter
The court has ruled the
Grocery Manufacturers
Association (GMA)
violated Washington
campaign finance
disclosure laws by
hiding the identities of
corporate donors funding
their anti-GMO labeling
efforts
A clause inserted into
the Toxic Substances
Control Act
reauthorization bill
would grant Monsanto
permanent immunity from
liability for injuries
caused by PCBs
A big barrier to installing
a rooftop solar array is the
upfront cost, an issue that
a group of clean-energy
advocates in Delaware say
they can deal with by
working together.
Fish evolved into the first
land vertebrates 420 million
years ago. Clues to that
fins-to-limbs transformation
may lie in a walking blind
cavefish in Thailand.
The UK has sought to dismiss
the UN's ruling saying it is
not legally binding ...
The Argentine foreign
ministry said its waters had
increased by 1.7 million
square km and claimed the
decision will be key in its
dispute with Britain over
the islands.
Georgia
Power said Tuesday it plans
to a dozen coal ash ponds at
six power plants in the
state within two years, but
that it may take up to 10
years to close 16 other
storage ponds.
Another pond may not be
closed for up to 14 years.
Some 1 billion people in
Asia could be without water
by 2050, according to new
research. ..
"We find that water needs
related to socioeconomic
changes, which are currently
small, are likely to
increase considerably in the
future, often overshadowing
the effect of climate change
on levels of water stress,"
the researchers wrote in
their study.
ISO New England has raised
its expectation of how much
solar capacity will be
online in the six-state
region by the mid-2020s by
30%, but solar advocates
said Thursday much more
solar capacity could be
added over the next few
years if state laws and
policies were more
supportive.
The reform enacted by the
government of Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe is partly a
response to the changing
security environment Japan
faces, such as China’s
military assertiveness and
North Korea’s nuclear and
missile threats. But it
remains controversial among
the public who fear the laws
could erode Japan’s postwar
pacifism.
In a world dark and
decrepit, seemingly detached
from civilized society,
hundreds of Indonesians lay
chained, locked and bound to
the dirty floor and cement
slabs, suffering from mental
illnesses with no hope on
the way
Whether it's being used to
make highrises, bicycles or
foam insulation, wood is
known for being a strong,
plentiful, inexpensive and
renewable alternative to
conventional building
materials. Soon, it may even
find its way into windows
and solar cells – as a
cheaper substitute for
traditional silica-based
glass.
City officials are looking
into implementing a 15
percent tax rate on the
cultivation and sale of
medical marijuana to help
pay for a $2 billion housing
project that would provide
residents with affordable
housing and support
services.
Increasingly, utilities are
turning to new technologies
to reduce energy and water
waste, and want an
integrated system that
includes gas, solar and wind
renewables, which will drive
the transformation and
address their changing
business model.
Have you ever considered the
curious fact of human
hairlessness? Except for
facial hair in men, and
scalp, underarm, and pubic
hair in both men and women,
we are alone among primates
in having lost our
protective and
heat-conserving coat of
hair. While I’m certain some
may contend nakedness was a
default human condition,
beginning with original sin
in the Garden of Eden, the
evidence of biology is hard
to ignore (after all, we all
live in this highly
enigmatic body). Take
embryogenesis as an example…
The state has seen a
flurry of earthquake
activity this year,
averaging 2.5 temblors per
day. Before 2008, the
average was one and a half
per year.
Most geologists connect
the spike in earthquakes to
the state's oil and gas
industry -- and its disposal
of massive amounts of water
into underground caverns.
“In the tests, utilities ask
customers who sample their
home’s water for lead to
remove the faucet’s aerator
screen and to flush lines
hours before tests,
potentially flushing out
detectable lead
contamination.
Solar activity has been at
very low levels for the past
24 hours. Solar activity is
expected to be very low with
a slight chance for a
C-class flare on days one,
two, and three (01 Apr, 02
Apr, 03 Apr). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on day one (01
Apr), unsettled to minor
storm levels on day two (02
Apr) and unsettled to active
levels on day three (03
Apr).
The Greenland Ice Sheet is
already pretty much
scheduled to dump its icy
water into the sea, but that
significant contribution to
the future of human
suffering pales in
comparison to what will be
visited upon future
generations if the Antarctic
ice slips off its rocky
perch.
Sea levels could rise
nearly twice as much as
previously predicted by the
end of this
century if carbon
dioxide emissions continue
unabated, an outcome that
could devastate coastal
communities around the
globe, according
to new research published
Wednesday.
Today just five
shallow-water jackup rigs
are working in the US Gulf,
two of which belong to
Hercules Offshore, while a
third Hercules rig is
preparing to start work in
the region during the next
several weeks, John Rynd
said during a quarterly
earnings call.
Matthew
"Scott" Hausman had another
day in court Monday as he
continues to appeal a
decision ordering removal of
some of his solar panels by
the home owners association
at the Lake of 12 Oaks.
Hausman has been in court
since 2012 on this matter.
Attorney Stephen Jeffery
told the court the case had
to be based on the existing
1991 rules, which contained
no mention of solar panels.
The old rules did include
structures but Jeffery said
solar panels weren't a
structure.
A new study by the U.S.
Geological Survey says 17
regions in the U.S are more
prone to man-made
earthquakes possibly
triggered by oil and gas
production. Manuel Bojorquez
reports from Oklahoma, which
saw more earthquakes last
year than California.
From home automation to
industrial robots, our
networked world demands that
electronic systems offer
constant availability,
resulting in the need for
permanent — often
network-independent — energy
supplies. Rechargeable
batteries are practical and
reliable for these systems
until they reach the end of
their working life, when
they must be replaced or
thrown away. Classic solid
electrolyte capacitors
provide a more
environmentally friendly and
cost-neutral alternative,
but soon reach their limit
with output requirements
In a January speech,
President Barack Obama said,
“A violent felon can buy the
exact same weapon over the
Internet with no background
check, no questions asked.”
Gun rights advocates claims
that there are gun-show and
Internet loopholes are
misleading and ambiguous.
For example, all online
sales from licensed gun
dealers must pass through a
Federal Firearms License
holder, who is required to
conduct a background check
before completing the sale.
New research shows
significant buildup of
nitrogen fertilizers far
below the soil surface
at depths of 10 inches
to 3.2 feet
Excess nitrogen
accumulated deep in the
soil could continue to
leach into groundwater
for 35 years after the
fertilizer use is ceased
In the last four
decades, nitrogen
fertilizer efficiency
has decreased by
two-thirds while their
use per hectare
(approximately 2.5
acres) of land has
increased by seven times
New research shows a 43%
increase in clinical trials
funded by drug companies
during 2006-2014. Can you
say “conflict of interest?”
Concerns have been
expressed over the past few
years about the independence
of clinical trials, due to
the funding of some trials
by corporations with vested
interests. New data from
Johns Hopkins University
suggests that this is now
the norm rather than the
exception. The clinical
trials that allow a drug to
go to market are most often
funded by the pharmaceutical
industry.
About 7 million Americans
live in areas of the central
and eastern United States
that could experience a
damaging earthquake in 2016
that was caused by human
activity such as wastewater
disposal from gas
production.
For the first time, the
U.S. Geological Survey has
published an earthquake
hazard map pinpointing
potential sites of both
man-made and naturally
occurring earthquakes. The
map and an accompanying
study were released Monday.
Of the $222 million paid,
more than $156 million goes
to landowners in counties
with below average incomes,
AWEA said. About 70 percent
of wind farms in rural areas
are located in low-income
counties, meaning the median
household income falls below
the U.S. median household
income. This share
represents more than $101
billion in wind farm
investments.
Monday marks the 37th
anniversary of the accident
that caused a partial
meltdown of TMI's Unit 2
reactor. The disaster
resulted in the plant's
closure for seven years and
launched a wave of
anti-nuclear protests that
soured Wall Street on the
industry and stymied the
construction of new plants
for decades.
It now appears that the
energy market, not
protesters, is the biggest
threat to the industry.