By Mike Robbins
Hydrogen -- Star Gas, Everywhere, Yet Unseen. Sunlight is its Child.
(Haiku by Stephen Wetlesen)
February 26, 2016
Ammon Bundy and another 15
defendants pleaded not
guilty Wednesday to federal
conspiracy charges related
to the 41-day occupation of
an Oregon wildlife refuge.
Several of the accused,
however, expressed doubt
that they enjoy the
presumption of innocence.
Flint is the latest
outbreak in the country’s
longest-running child-health
epidemic.
Roughly 9,000 children
under the age of six were
exposed to high levels of
lead in their drinking water
in Flint, Michigan, between
April 2014 and October 2015.
Thanks to a series of
government failures, some of
their lives will be forever
changed by diminished IQ,
damaged hearing, learning
disabilities, and possibly
increased criminality—the
hallmarks of lead poisoning.
It’s time for oil investors
to start taking electric
cars seriously.
"In order to comply with the
Gov't demands, Apple would
need to create a new
'GovtOS'", the motion reads.
Apple lays out the
engineering resources that
would be required.
Apple engineers have begun
developing new security
measures that would make it
impossible for the
government to break into a
locked iPhone using methods
similar to those now at the
center of a court fight in
California, according to
people close to the company
and security experts.
The Arctic is thawing
even faster than lawmakers
can formulate new rules to
prevent the environmental
threat of heavy fuel oil
pollution from ships plying
an increasingly popular
trade route.
Average Arctic
temperatures are rising
twice as fast as elsewhere
in the world and the polar
ice cap's permanent cover is
shrinking at a rate of
around 10 percent per
decade. By the end of this
century, summers in the
Arctic could be free of ice.
The quest for a way to
create a rechargeable
battery from sodium rather
than lithium took a somewhat
unexpected turn last month
when scientists from the
University of Maryland and
the National Center for
Nanoscience and Technology
from Beijing discovered that
a baked oak leaf pumped full
of sodium made a successful
negative terminal for a
proof-of-concept battery.
The months-long natural gas
leak that forced thousands
of Los Angeles residents
from their homes ranks as
the largest known accidental
methane release in U.S.
history, equal to the annual
greenhouse gas emissions of
nearly 600,000 cars,
scientists reported on
Thursday.
Those following the coal
space will no doubt be
familiar with the idea of
carbon capture and
sequestration (CCS). Given
growing concerns about
climate change and robust
demand for coal in
developing nations, plenty
of market watchers believe
that carbon sequestration
will be key to the future of
energy use.
Researchers at the Karlsruhe
Institute of Technology
(KIT) have repurposed
discarded apples to build
cheap and high-performance
sodium-ion batteries, making
a green technology even
greener. The advance could
find use in grid storage
and, after further
development, compete with
lithium-ion cells to power
portable electronics and
low-end electric cars.
In a move likely to further
increase already volatile
tensions in the region,
China has deployed fighter
jets to a contested island
in the South China Sea, the
same island where China
deployed surface-to-air
missiles last week, two U.S.
officials tell Fox News.
The dramatic escalation came
as Secretary of State John
Kerry hosted his Chinese
counterpart, Foreign
Minister Wang Yi, at the
State Department.
Johnson & Johnson faces
several hundred lawsuits
claiming that it, in an
effort to boost sales,
failed for decades to warn
consumers that its
talc-based products could
cause cancer.
Despite concerted efforts to
reduce deforestation, this
season's poor rainfall -
influenced by the El Niño
weather phenomenon - is
causing food and power
shortages that could force
more Zambian villagers to
turn to the forests for fuel
and income.
A federal judge's order that
Hillary Clinton's staffers
and aides must testify under
oath in the federal probe of
her use of a private email
server as secretary of state
is a "major turning point"
in the case, veteran
journalist Ed Klein tells
Newsmax TV
This year’s intense El Niño
– added to our warming
climate – is prolonging
what’s already the longest
global coral die-off on
record, according to
scientists.
One of Monsanto’s
favorite (false) claims is
that the proliferation of
GMO crops leads to reduced
pesticide use. The latest
study to refute that claim,
published this week in
Environmental Sciences
Europe, says that glyphosate
use has risen almost 15-fold
since Monsanto’s "Roundup
Ready" genetically
engineered crops were
introduced in 1996.
(Glyphosate is the active
ingredient in Roundup).
Monsanto also loves to
falsely claim that
glyphosate is harmless,
despite study after study
suggesting otherwise.(Not to
mention that last year the
World Health Organization
classified glyphosate as a
probable human carcinogen).
Hoping to avoid layoffs
in the growing solar energy
sector, lawmakers have
decided to double the size
of a program designed to
encourage solar power
installations.
The program, known as net
metering, rewards owners of
solar panels by allowing
them to sell surplus
electricity back into the
grid and get credit on their
electric bills, which
offsets the cost of the
panels.
Fiber is already known for
its benefits in preventing
heart attacks, diabetes, and
some cancers. But now
there’s more good news in
new research that shows
fiber may also help ward off
lung disease even for people
who can't quit smoking, a
top expert says.
Available carbon budget is
half as big as thought if
global warming is to be kept
within 2C limit agreed
internationally as being the
point of no return,
researchers say. Climate
News Network reports
Climate scientists have bad
news for governments, energy
companies, motorists,
passengers and citizens
everywhere in the world: to
contain global warming to
the limits agreed by 195
nations in Paris last
December, they will have to
cut fossil fuel combustion
at an even faster rate than
anybody had predicted.
Does the Ku Klux Klan
have a constitutional right
to "adopt a highway"?
That question was at the
center of a high-profile
battle Monday before the
Georgia Supreme Court, where
the Klan is challenging the
state's refusal to let it
participate in the popular
Adopt-A-Highway program.
Astronomers theorize that
the black holes at the
center of the recent
gravitational wave event
were created in a single
star
A California owner of a
Mercedes BlueTEC diesel
automobile today filed a
second class-action lawsuit
against Mercedes stating the
automaker knowingly
programmed its Clean Diesel
vehicles to emit illegal,
dangerous levels of nitrogen
oxide (NOx) at levels up to
65 times higher than those
permitted by the EPA when
operating in temperatures
below 50 degrees Fahrenheit,
according to consumer-rights
law firmHagens Berman.
Every living body is
thinking continuously. The
division we experience and
are trying to describe is
real enough – but it is not
a mind/body split; it is a
mind/mind split. We
have split the abstract
thinking in our heads from
the deeply connected
thinking of our beings.
We are all aware that the
fruits and vegetables are
less healthy nowadays,
because of the high amounts
of chemical agents and
chemicals used in their
growing process. almost
every fruit is sprayed with
these harmful pesticides and
chemicals, in order to grow
big and to have longer
“shelf life”. The medical
experts say that we should
be very careful what type of
fruit we buy, especially
citrus fruits. This is
because lemons and oranges
are the one of the most
chemically treated fruits.
And this is why you should
be extra careful when you
buy citrus fruits, and you
should be also careful not
to use their peels in
certain homemade recipes.
Solar capacity has increased
in Rhode Island, but with
only 15 megawatts, the Ocean
State lags the rest of New
England, according to
figures compiled by the
association. In comparison,
Massachusetts has 1,037
megawatts and Connecticut
has 221.
First,
they injure us with their
GMOs and toxic pesticides.
Then they insult our
intelligence.
Conservative activist David
Barton believes a revolution
is coming in the United
States and, after studying
the exit polls from the
South Carolina Republican
primary, his theory hangs on
one word: “betrayal.”
There's a solar-powered
charging panel behind this
phone's touchscreen, and the
technology is almost ready
for launch
The letter argues that the
FBI's motion to compel Apple
to help unlock one of the
San Bernardino terrorists'
phones will "open the
floodgates" to the same
demands down the line.
First we’re told chocolate
is good for you, especially
dark chocolate and now tests
done on hundreds of
chocolate bars found some
had higher than normal
levels of two heavy metals,
lead and cadmium.
As scientists look for ways
to help remove excess carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere,
a number of experiments have
focused on employing this
gas to create usable fuels.
Both hydrogen and methanol
have resulted from such
experiments, but the
processes often involve a
range of intricate steps and
a variety of methods. Now
researchers have
demonstrated a one-step
conversion of carbon dioxide
and water directly into a
simple and inexpensive
liquid hydrocarbon fuel
using a combination of
high-intensity light,
concentrated heat, and high
pressure.
A new study has
found that moving in with
your partner isn’t just
life-changing, but
body-changing.
Most of your body’s internal
systems are similar to those
of other people. But not
your immune system.
Environmental factors—your
diet, your lifestyle, and,
of course, all the
infections you’ve ever
had—alter the types and
numbers of immune cells
residing in your body,
making your immune system a
unique record of the life
you’ve lived.
One of the biggest
components in Marion's
vision of turning garbage
into fuel is undergoing
another change...The shift
will keep the project from
relying too much on any one
fuel -- a concern after
ethanol prices saw a steep
decline.
NASA researchers are working
on new laser technology that
could allow a craft to reach
Mars in as little as three
days. Known as photonic
propulsion, the
system would
works by using lasers to
propel a giant sail. Rather
than photons from the Sun’s
rays, the system would get a
boost from Earth-based
lasers, according to ScienceAlert.
After remaining in the
shadows for decades, new
audio between two Apollo 10
astronauts has been brought
to the light, and it reveals
“weird music” coming from
the far side of the moon.
The conversation at
SolarCity’s hollowed-out
warehouse in Las Vegas felt
like it came after a
funeral, and in a sense it
did, with workers cycling
between sadness, disbelief
and anger at the untimely
death of the rooftop solar
industry.
The cause, as seen by
workers drifting in to clean
out their belongings, was
state-assisted suicide,
after the Nevada regulator
imposed costly new rules for
residential solar customers.
The lead contamination
problem in New Jersey may be
just as serious as in Flint,
MI.
“Eleven cities in New
Jersey, and two counties,
have a higher proportion of
young children with
dangerous lead levels than
Flint, Mich., does,” NJ
Advance Media reported,
citing New Jersey and
Michigan statistics detailed
by a community advocacy
group.
The New Mexico House and
Senate have passed a bill
that, if signed by Gov.
Susana Martinez, will
encourage additional
geothermal development in
the state.
The research “uncovered a
significant number of
preproduction pellets of
plastic, also known as
nurdles, indicating there is
an ongoing influx into
Harbor waters. Additionally,
the presence of polystyrene
foam and blue spherical
beads suspected to derive
from personal care products,
were abundant,” the study
said.
Net metering and
interconnection are rights
afforded distributed
generation (DG) residential
and commercial solar system
owners through the U.S.
Energy Policy Act of 2005.
The act required publically
owned utilities to offer net
metering and left the
various policies up to the
states to enact.
The Natural Resources
Defense Council sued the
Environmental Protection
Agency in federal court in
New York recently to force
it to set limits on
perchlorate.
Perchlorate is a toxic
chemical that has been
detected in the drinking
water systems that serve up
to 16.6 million Americans.
Even at low levels, it can
present serious health risks
to children and pregnant
women.
Fish market vendor Satoshi
Nakano knows which fish
caught in the radiation
tainted sea off the
Fukushima coast should be
kept away from dinner
tables.
Yet five years after the
worst nuclear accident since
Chernobyl there is still no
consensus on the true extent
of the damage --
exacerbating consumer fears
about what is safe to eat.
The 2006 discovery that
mature skin cells can be
converted into stem cells
opened up exciting
possibilities in
regenerative medicine. Now
almost a decade later, the
Nobel-Prize winning research
of Shinya Yamanaka is still
opening doors for scientists
across different arms of
medical research. In what it
labels as a first, a team
from the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill
(UNC) has built on this
technology to transform
adult skin cells into
cancer-killing stem cells
that seek and destroy brain
tumors.
Hydraulic fracturing, or
fracking, played a major
part in the recovery of the
American economy after the
2008 crash. In just a few
years, fracking made it
possible for the price of
oil to go down from $100 per
barrel to $63 by the end of
2014. Since then, the number
has continued to drop, to
limits we were accustomed to
in the early 2000s. The
financial potential offered
by hydraulic fracturing is
undeniable, but this
increased supply of oil and
gas comes at a cost we might
not be able to bear.
Ground-breaking data on a
negative effect on oysters
from microplastics, which
enter our oceans via
cosmetics, clothing, and
industrial processes.
When waste plastics – like
polystyrene – find their way
into bodies of water, they
degrade into microscopic
particles known as
microplastics.
Solar activity has been at
very low levels.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low with a slight
chance for a C-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(26 Feb, 27 Feb, 28 Feb).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet
levels on days one, two, and
three (26 Feb, 27 Feb, 28
Feb).
As renewable energy
sources goes, solar rays
have historically hogged the
limelight.
But two Virginia Tech
researchers have stolen the
spotlight from the sun by
discovering a way to
maximize the amount of
electricity that can be
generated from the
wastewater we flush down the
toilet.
“This isn’t a model,”
one of the studies’
directors tells Warren
Cornwall at Science.
“This is data.” Each study
emphasizes the effects human
activities have on sea
levels, and together they
paint a sobering vision of a
future with even higher
seas. Here’s what you need
to know about the new
research:
Greenwell, who has had to
consider the impact of solar
arrays as a member of the
Board of Zoning Appeals,
said he would like more
guidance from the county.
"I would be thrilled to
death if we could be more
prescriptive and I have to
do less interpretation as to
what the county wants to
do," he said.
The survey is the first time
that the entire Galactic
Plane, as visible from the
southern hemisphere, has
been mapped at submillimetre
wavelengths
Survival Value
“Friendship is unnecessary,
like philosophy, like art...
It has no survival value;
rather it is one of those
things that give value to
survival.” ― C. S. Lewis
This means that the FDA
inspectors caught, seized
and destroyed thousands of
pounds of illegal rat meat
and they warn that there
might be another 300,000
lbs. of counterfeit rat meat
still in “motion”. The FDA
inspectors warn that this
illegal rat meat could
finish in American plates
during the Super Bowl this
Sunday.
The Spiritual Aspect
“Let's be cautious about
relying so much on material
things that we have no
energy left for the
spiritual aspects of our
lives.” ― James A. Forbes
In the concrete jungle at
the core of a city, carbon
dioxide (CO2) emissions are
dominated by the fossil
fuels burned by the dense
concentrations of cars and
buildings. Boston University
researchers now have shown,
however, that in
metropolitan areas
surrounding the city core,
plant roots and decomposing
organic material in soil
give off enough CO2 , in a
process termed "soil
respiration", to make an
unexpectedly great
contribution to total
emissions.
In fact, analyzing CO2
released from soil
respiration at 15 sites
across greater Boston, the
BU scientists found that
during the growing season,
releases of the greenhouse
gas from soil may approach
those of fossil fuels in
dense residential areas.
The U.S. oil and natural
gas industry emits more
methane than previously
thought, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency
Administrator Gina McCarthy
said on Wednesday as she
defended efforts to curb its
output.
The regulator last year
said it would try to reduce
emissions of methane, which
is far more damaging to the
environment than carbon
dioxide, by requiring new
oil and gas processing and
transmission facilities to
find and repair methane
leaks and for producers to
capture or limit methane
from shale wells.
There are at least three
ongoing investigations into
Democratic presidential
candidate Hillary Clinton's
time as Secretary of State.
Here's an explanation of who
is investigating, and why.
Federal marshals have
secretly used powerful
cellphone surveillance tools
to hunt nearly 6,000
suspects throughout the
United States, according to
newly-disclosed records in
which the agency
inadvertently identified
itself as the nation’s most
prolific known user of
phone-tracking devices.
The fact that the
U.S. Marshals Service
uses cellphone trackers,
commonly known as stingrays,
has long been among law
enforcement’s worst-kept
secrets...
The U.S., awash in shale
oil, has gained while
powerful exporters like
Russia and Saudi Arabia, for
whom oil represents not just
profits but also power, find
themselves on the downswing.
The U.S. remains a
net importer, but its
demand for foreign oil
has fallen by 32 percent
since its peak in 2005.
Developing protections and
responses to cyber threats
is a priority for utilities,
but industry and regulatory
efforts make it unlikely
that the kind of widespread
power outage contemplated in
a book by renowned
journalist Ted Koppel could
happen to the U.S. power
grid, key officials said
during a recent webinar.
In the 1960s, psychologist
Stanley Milgram horrified
the world by instructing
volunteers to inflict
increasingly powerful
electric shocks on people
who had failed memory tests.
The experiment was an
illusion – the shocks were
not real and the “victims”
were actually actors.
Nevertheless, most of the
study’s participants appear
not to have suspected this.
They genuinely thought they
were administering shocks
that eventually became so
powerful they might have
killed the victim. Yet only
a third refused orders, and
even those went disturbingly
far.
A 29-year-old writer in New
York published a scathing
open-letter directed at a
25-year-old woman who
complained last week about
her salary in an online post
to Yelp’s chief executive.
You are not here merely to
make a living
“You are not here merely to
make a living. You are here
in order to enable the world
to live more amply, with
greater vision, with a finer
spirit of hope and
achievement. You are here to
enrich the world, and you
impoverish yourself if you
forget the errand.” ―
Woodrow Wilson
Shoddy water and sewer
infrastructure is abetting
the spread of the Zika
virus, which has exploded
throughout Latin America in
the past year and is now
documented in 20 nations.
The virus is largely
spread by mosquitos. Related
to dengue, yellow fever, and
West Nile, it has a foothold
in urban areas where
decrepit water and sewer
systems provide a
comfortable breeding ground
for mosquitoes.
February 23, 2016
We need leap years to help
synchronize our calendar
with Earth’s orbit around
the sun and the actual
passing of the seasons.
A Good Teacher
“A good teacher can inspire
hope, ignite the
imagination, and instill a
love of learning.” ― Brad
Henry
Should Apple be forced to
help the FBI unlock a phone
belonging to a terrorist?
The arguments are simple
enough, but the
ramifications and precedent
that they set could
undermine trust at the
foundations of Silicon
Valley, one of the largest
industries in the world.
Homeowners, who may soon
store energy from solar
cells instead of selling
back to the grid, should
select storage components
wisely.
The renewable energy storage
market is on a tear, driven
by lower-cost batteries,
incentivized solar
installations, a desire for
energy independence, and the
need for smart-grid
stability and lower overall
utility costs.
Under normal conditions,
Lake Poopó was almost 1,000
square miles in size. Now
there are only a few marshes
left in the salty desert of
the high plateau, where some
dead animals and abandoned
boats can be found.
...remember: Meditation can
be powerful with or without
any
consciousness-altering substance.
Creativity can flow with or
without it too. The key is
to remember that
spirituality and creativity
live in us, and we
can call on them regardless
of whether cannabis (or any
other psychedelic) is there
to enhance them.
Carry out Randum acts of
Kindness
“Carry out a random act of
kindness, with no
expectation of reward, safe
in the knowledge that one
day someone might do the
same for you.” ― Diana,
Princess of Wales
You say you want the truth.
You say you want someone who
speaks boldly and brashly
and bluntly and “tells it
like it is” and so on.
According to exit polls in
South Carolina, voters who
want a president who “tells
it like it is” are an
essential demographic for
Trump, just as they’re an
essential demographic for
Judge Judy and Dr. Phil. You
say you want abrupt and
matter-of-fact
honesty, and you want it so
much, you’ll make a man
president for it regardless
of whether he defies every
principle and value you
claim to hold.
Not long after Nevada
utility regulators voted to
increase bills for residents
and small-business operators
using solar energy, Robert
Lamore started getting calls
from customers of his
business. The callers were
frustrated and concerned.
Water levels at the main
reservoir in Brazil's
largest city of Sao Paulo
have more than doubled since
the El Niño climate
phenomenon ended a two-year
drought, although
industrialists and activists
warn fresh shortages may be
just a matter of time.
Effective Action
“Follow effective action
with quiet reflection. From
the quiet reflection will
come even more effective
action.” ― Peter Drucker
U.S. authorities have asked
the German carmaker
Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) to
produce electric vehicles in
the United States as a way
of making up for its rigging
of emission tests, the
German newspaper Welt am
Sonntag reported.
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency today
released DWMAPS – the
Drinking Water Mapping
Application to Protect
Source Waters. This robust,
online mapping tool provides
the public, water system
operators, state programs,
and federal agencies with
critical information to help
them safeguard the sources
of America’s drinking water.
We like to think of the
physical universe as being
governed by immutable laws,
but maybe they're not quite
as concrete as we imagine. A
team of physicists at the
University of Cambridge have
run computer simulations
that show that a
five-dimensional,
ring-shaped black hole could
violate Einstein's general
theory of relativity by
creating a naked
singularity, which would
result in the equations
behind the theory breaking
down.
The Japanese were kept in
the dark from the start of
the Fukushima disaster about
high radiation levels and
their dangers to health,
writes Linda Pentz Gunter.
In order to proclaim the
Fukushima area 'safe', the
Government increased
exposure limits to twenty
times the international
norm. Soon, many Fukushima
refugees will be forced to
return home to endure
damaging levels of
radiation.
The targets announced today
will minimize the extent of
low oxygen “dead zones” in
the central basin of Lake
Erie; maintain algae growth
at a level consistent with
healthy aquatic ecosystems;
and maintain algae biomass
at levels that do not
produce toxins that pose a
threat to human or ecosystem
health.
Greater Kindness
“Success should always call
for showing greater
kindness, generosity and
justice; only people lost in
the darkness treat it as an
occasion for greater greed.”
― Cyrus the Great
Last week, the Navajo
Nation reiterated the
tribe’s opposition to the
Washington football team
with the filing of an
amicus brief in support
of Amanda Blackhorse and her
fellow defendants in
Pro-Football, Inc. v.
Blackhorse.
The brief was filed as a
direct response to the NFL’s
suggestion that the Nation
and its members do not find
the term ‘redskins’
offensive.
A drying landscape and
changing water regime are
already affecting tribal
lands
Around the world,
indigenous peoples are among
the most vulnerable to the
effects of climate change.
That is true, too, in the
United States. Coastal
native villages in Alaska
have already been inundated
with water due to melting
permafrost and erosion, and
the
Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw
Indians of Louisiana
recently announced plans to
resettle on higher ground
after losing 98 percent of
their lands since 1950 to
rising sea levels.
Oil markets will begin to
rebalance in 2017 thanks to
falling U.S. production but
that decline will prove
short-lived as efficiency
gains will push U.S. output
to new records by the
beginning of the next
decade, the International
Energy Agency said on
Monday.
"Only in 2017 will we
finally see oil supply and
demand aligned but the
enormous stocks being
accumulated will act as a
dampener on the pace of
recovery in oil prices when
the market, having balanced,
then starts to draw down
those stocks," the IEA said
in its medium-term outlook.
Most pre-election polls
showed Trump, the real
estate billionaire, leading
among Republican voters in
the Palmetto State.
There is more exciting
scientific news this week
that corroborates Sitchin
writings. Last week we heard
new evidence of the
existance in our solar
system of another large
planet, which might be
Nibiru. This week Mathieu
Ossendrijver published an
article in Science magazine
about a cuneiform tablet
detailing the position of
Jupiter based on geometrical
calculations by the
Babylonians in 350-50 BCE.
Europeans were able to do
this in the 1400's.
-
Thousands of chemical
reactions take place in
your body at any given
second, and many of
these cannot occur
without the presence of
certain vitamins
-
While there are
instances where large
doses of vitamins are
helpful, as a general
rule I recommend getting
the bulk of your
nutrition from eating
REAL food
-
Some of the vitamins and
nutrients reviewed
within their healing
context in this film
included vitamins C, and
D, niacin (B3), iodine,
and omega-3 fat
An underground natural gas
pipeline rupture that caused
the largest-ever methane
leak in California has been
permanently capped, paving
the way for thousands of
displaced Los Angeles
residents to return home,
state regulators said on
Thursday...
State officials said the
uncontrolled release of
80,000 tons of methane, the
main component of natural
gas and a far more potent
greenhouse agent than carbon
dioxide, ranked as the
largest such discharge on
record in California.
A new analysis reveals
that global water scarcity
is a far greater problem
than previously thought,
affecting 4 billion
people—two-thirds of the
world’s population—and will
be “one of the most
difficult and important
challenges of this century.”
Previous analyses looked
at water scarcity at an
annual scale and had found
that water scarcity affected
between 1.7 and 3.1 billion
people. The new study,
published Friday in the
journal Science Advances,
assessed water scarcity on a
monthly basis, more fully
capturing the specific times
of year when it could be an
issue.
NASA is moving forward with
plans for its next big eye
in the sky: the Wide Field
InfraRed Survey Telescope
(WFIRST).
Scheduled to fly in the
mid-2020s – after the 2018
launch of the James Webb
Space Telescope – the new
orbital instrument will have
a field of view 100 times
bigger than that of the
Hubble Space Telescope, but
with the same power.
Myopia is becoming so
prevalent, nearly 50% of the
world will have it by 2050,
according to new research
published in the journal
Ophthalmology. That’s a huge
jump from 22%, the global
prevalence of
nearsightedness in 2000.
State regulators dealt
another blow to the solar
industry today after they
unanimously approved a
ruling that would not allow
about 17,000 Nevadans with
rooftop solar, some of whom
had adopted the technology
as early as 1997, to be
shielded from a recent
commission decision to
increase bills
Solar activity has been at
very low levels. Solar
activity is expected to be
very low with a chance for a
C-class flares on days one,
two, and three (23 Feb, 24
Feb, 25 Feb). The
geomagnetic field is
expected
to be at quiet
levels on day one (23 Feb)
and quiet to unsettled
levels
on days two and
three (24 Feb, 25 Feb).
A prominent scientist,
author and journalist is
speaking out in an effort to
convince the masses that,
contrary to popular
opinion, ”science and the
Bible are very much in
agreement” rather than in
eternal conflict.
Tesla’s 52-MWh Powerpack
lithium-ion battery storage
system will join SolarCity’s
13-MW solar photovoltaic
project, helping to meet
peak demand on the Kaua’i
grid, which occurs between 5
and 10 p.m. after sunset.
South African President
Jacob Zuma said on Thursday
that 2.7 million households
would be affected by a
drought disaster which has
hammered agricultural
output, pushed up food
prices and increased
unemployment.
Zuma told parliament that
450 million rand ($29
million) has been allocated
by government for drought
relief.
It might be time to hit
the brakes on energy
storage.
Meaning, in this case,
that public transit systems
now have the technology to
fully harness the power that
goes into bringing a train
to a full stop. In most
urban transit systems, that
massive amount of energy is
expended and dissipates as
heat, just like the energy
created when you bring your
bicycle to a skidding halt.
As far as the train or the
bike is concerned, that
energy is gone.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz,
the first-term Republican
from Texas, leads all
candidates in the scramble
for oil industry campaign
cash, surpassing Jeb Bush,
whose father and brother
were West Texas oilmen
before they became
presidents.
Cruz leads all
presidential candidates in
contributions from employees
of oil and natural gas
companies through the end of
2015...
...ever since Lundgren went
public with some of his
findings about
neonicotinoids, the class of
pesticides linked to Colony
Collapse Disorder, Lundgren
says he has been the target
of harassment and
retaliation.
Even Elon Musk's SolarCity,
the biggest supplier in the
U.S., isn't ready to
install Tesla's home battery
for daily users
The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration confirmed on
Thursday that it would
begin
testing for residues of the
controversial herbicide
glyphosate on foods sold in
the U.S. for the first time
this year.
The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
says last month was the
warmest January on record.
That sets off alarm bells
for climate scientists, but
for the average person
living in a northern
climate, it might not sound
so bad.
That's what many people
are saying these days in
Russia, where the expected
icy winter has failed to
materialize this year – to
widespread joy. Of course,
any climate scientist will
tell you that an unusually
warm month — or even a whole
warm winter — doesn't mean
much. It's the long-term
trend that counts.
Lithuania has long been
subject to political and
economic blackmail from
Russia and the state-owned
conglomerate Gasprom because
it was 100% dependent on
energy supplies from the
former Soviet Union. But
now, with its new Baltic Sea
terminal, Lithuania can not
only meet its entire
national demand with LNG
from Norway, it has the
capability of supplying
Estonia and Latvia - its
Baltic neighbors - with 80%
of their needs, as well.
Thanks to powerful
(suggestive) marketing
techniques, vegetarian and
vegan shoppers are led to
believe that the brand’s
“Veg of Allegiance” must
mean that their products are
safe to eat. But, reality
reveals a very different
story. (it’s not what you
think)
According to tribal
officials and advocacy
groups, approximately 750
Indian children a year are
swept into foster care,
sometimes for months on end,
with virtually no compliance
with state and federal law.
Wall Street’s biggest
banks boosted their Treasury
holdings to the highest
level in more than two
years, and one of them says
that’s a warning sign for
the market.
The 22 primary dealers
including Goldman Sachs
Group Inc. and Citigroup
Inc. that underwrite the
U.S. debt and make a market
in the securities held
$113.5 billion of Treasurys
in the week ended Feb. 10,
based on the most recent
central bank data. The
amount is the most since
October 2013.
By 2050 climate change
will increase the
groundwater deficit even
more for four economically
important aquifers in the
western U.S., reports a
University of Arizona-led
team of scientists.
The new report is the
first to integrate
scientists' knowledge about
groundwater in the U.S. West
with scientific models that
show how climate change will
affect the region.
-
Your health and that of
your children is
directly related to the
quality of the food you
eat; the quality of the
food, in turn, is
dependent on the health
of the soil in which it
is grown
-
Vermont has introduced a
bill for a state-level
certification program
that would allow farmers
to have their land and
farming methods
certified as
regenerative
-
The use of cover crops
and other forms of
soil-restorative,
regenerative farming are
catching on in the U.S.
With little research into
the chemicals involved,
scientists can't pinpoint
the cause of nosebleeds in
households near Aliso
Canyon.
February 19, 2016
A bipartisan group of 17
governors today signed the
Governors’ Accord for a New
Energy Future – a joint
commitment to pursuing
modern electric grids, as
well as cleaner energy and
transportation solutions.
“With this agreement,
governors from both parties
have joined together and
committed themselves to a
clean energy future,” said
Governor Brown. “Our goal is
to clean up the air and
protect our natural
resources.”
As installation costs
continue to decline and
retail electricity rates
climb, residential solar
economics have become
increasingly more attractive
across the United States.
In fact, according to GTM
Research, 20 U.S. states are
currently at grid parity,
and 42 states are expected
to reach that milestone by
2020 under business-as-usual
conditions.
“Incarceration is a
tool to silence political
movements. We don't have
heroes, they've been
demonized,” Nick Estes,
co-founder of The Red Nation
explained while
disseminating pamphlets at
his group's information
table. “Our history is
erased. But the children
here will remember that
Leonard Peltier is one of
our heroes, that he was
fighting for treaty rights.
We need our leaders like
Leonard Peltier repatriated
back to our communities.
The New Year starts with
more positive news. Aldi
Süd, a German supermarket
chain with stores in the
U.S., has become the first
major European retailer to
ban pesticides toxic to
bees, including the
neonicotinoidsimidacloprid,
clothianidin, and
thiamethoxam, from all
produce sold in their
stores.
The researchers focused on
BMAA, a toxin produced by
cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria
are also known as blue-green
algae. The researchers found
that “chronic exposure to
the environmental toxin BMAA
can trigger
neurodegeneration in
vulnerable individuals,” the
study said.
USGS scientists have
detected toxins known as
microcystins produced by
various forms of algae in 39
percent of the small streams
assessed throughout the
southeastern United States.
Their recent study looked at
75 streams in portions of
Alabama, Georgia, North
Carolina, South Carolina and
Virginia.
Would you
disable a security feature
in your product so
authorities could access
data from a known terrorist?
It’s a hard question, but
one to which Apple chief
executive Tim Cook is saying
a resounding no. The FBI
asked Apple to disable a
security feature in an
iPhone that belonged to one
of the shooters in the
recent attack in San
Bernardino..
The winter of discontent in
the northern latitudes
continues.
Persistent warmth has
baked the region, making
snow a no show in parts of
Alaska and, perhaps more
importantly, slowing the
growth of Arctic sea ice.
Though it’s still likely a
month before the Arctic sea
ice reaches its maximum, the
current trajectory is not a
good one.
Aston Martin set up a
venture with Chinese
consumer electronics group
LeEco to jointly develop the
British luxury car brand's
first electric vehicle, an
example of the deepening
ties between the technology
and automotive industries.
A battery inspired water
distillation process could
be more efficient and hold
several advantages compared
to traditional reverse
osmosis (RO) desalination,
researchers have claimed.
Researchers were inspired
by sodium ion batteries,
which contain salt water.
Batteries have two chambers,
a positive electrode and a
negative electrode, with a
separator in between that
the ions can flow across.
When the battery
discharges, the sodium and
chloride ions - the two
elements of salt - are drawn
to one chamber, leaving
desalinated water in the
other.
The Brazilian government
expects to reach an
agreement by Friday with
Samarco Mineração SA to
settle a 20 billion-real
($4.9 billion) lawsuit for
damages in a deadly dam
disaster, Brazil's attorney
general Luís Inácio Adams
said on Wednesday.
We've heard plenty on the
wonderful properties of
graphene, but the
supermaterial par
excellence still hasn't
found its way to commercial
products because it is too
delicate for real-world
conditions. Now, in a lucky
and perhaps game-changing
discovery, scientists at the
Brookhaven National
Laboratory (BNL) have found
that placing graphene on top
of common industrial-grade
glass is a cheap and
effective way of making it
resilient and tunable,
paving the way for the
production of graphene-based
electronics on a large
scale.
It’s been 3 years since the
dazzling fireball over
Chelyabinsk, Russia, and its
aftereffects in 6 Russian
cities. Yet scientists still
don’t know its origin.
Researchers have long
been on the hunt for ways to
break down non-biodegradable
plastic—and they’ve come up
with some pretty creative
concepts, like
letting hordes of
mealworms chow down on it.
But what if you could take
broken-down plastic and turn
it into food?
He wants to expand
utility infrastructure to
rural areas. “The future of
Arizona is dependent on a
partnership with rural
areas.”
The bill would enable
counties to decide for
themselves if creating a
power district is a good
idea.
Europe launched a satellite
on Tuesday that will help
predict weather phenomena
such as El Nino and track
the progress of global
warming as part of the
multibillion-euro Copernicus
Earth observation project.
The former U.S. Treasury
official who led the 2008
bailout program for the
nation’s biggest banks says
in his new role at the
Federal Reserve that
Congress and regulators
should consider breaking
them up to protect the
financial system from
another crisis.
Federal Reserve Bank of
Minneapolis President Neel
Kashkari, speaking Tuesday
in Washington, said his
regional Fed bank will study
ways to toughen U.S. banking
laws to prevent another
financial crisis.
Scientists have for the
first time analyzed the
atmospheric composition of a
distant planet roughly the
size of our own, revealing a
mix of hydrogen, helium and
carbon-based molecules
Driven by market forces and
evolving customer demands,
Hawaii has, in a relatively
short time, integrated a
significant amount of
distributed renewables...
"The team found that the
system can take a lot more
than you think," said
Vlahoplus. "If you don't get
on board, you will be
playing catch up for a long
time."
...profitable sustainability
is coming of age, at least
as far as renewable energy
is concerned. With the value
of fossil fuel holdings
plummeting and the
profitability of renewables
growing, investors and
companies are increasingly
looking to sustainable
investments for good long
term bets.
Absorbing sunlight and
chemically storing the
energy is something that
plants do all the time, but
up till now there has been
no human technology capable
of doing it effectively.
Photovoltaics converts light
into electricity, which can
then be used to produce
hydrogen, but the process is
significantly weaker than
plant photosynthesis: First
of all, the efficiency of
conventional solar cells
decreases at high
temperatures. Secondly, the
efficiency of the steps from
energy absorption to
hydrogen generation is
limited.
Mars is one of a handful of
companies that have turned
to La Crosse County in the
past few years to achieve
their sustainability goals.
MillerCoors,
Phillips-Medisize, Nestle,
Harley-Davidson -- all have
sent trash to the
waste-to-energy plant in
efforts to reduce their
footprint and green up their
images.
Iran appeared Wednesday to
back a plan laid out by four
influential oil producers to
cap their crude output if
others do the same, though
it offered no indication
that it has any plans to
follow suit itself.
Iraq is searching for
"highly dangerous"
radioactive material
stolen last year, according
to an environment ministry
document and seven security,
environmental and provincial
officials who fear it could
be used as a weapon if
acquired by Islamic State.
A source for the global
chemicals arms watchdog, the
Organisation for the
Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons (OPCW), confirmed
that laboratory tests had
come back positive for the
sulphur mustard, after about
35 Kurdish troops fell ill
on the battlefield in
August.
On Tuesday, U.S.
Attorney Billy Williams
released a report in
district court which
provides the first
description of the condition
of the Malheur Wildlife
Refuge, a site sacred to the
Burns Paiute Tribe after a
41-day armed standoff with
militants led by Ammon Bundy
The ruling by Sheri Pym on
Tuesday requires Apple to
supply highly specialized
software the FBI can load
onto the phone to cripple a
security encryption feature
that erases data after too
many unsuccessful unlocking
attempts.
It is difficult to learn to
trust when we live in a
world that does not support
trust? Society supports
suspicion and distrust; laws
are based in this. The
insurance industry is based
in distrust. We do not live
in a society of people who
have lost their trust – we
live in a society who have
never yet learned what trust
truly is.
“For us to get the
approval for us to
administer it while she in
the NICU while she’s a
patient…it’s kind of like a
miracle,” Nicole said.
“Because they were
completely against it
saying, ‘No you can’t do it,
you have to wait until she’s
an out-patient.”
Even though the doctors
gave the approval to treat
Amylea with the oil, they
won’t administer it to her,
so the family has done it
themselves.
California Gov. Jerry Brown
may have found a way to get
some of his Republican
counterparts to sign on to
the clean energy revolution
-- drop all mention of
climate change.
Brown and a bipartisan
group of 16 other governors
announced an agreement
Tuesday to increase
renewable power, integrate
electricity grids across
state lines and boost the
number of cars running on
alternatives fuels.
The newly released video
shows dark filaments
suspended in the corona by
twisted magnetic fields,
occasionally erupting in
titanic coronal mass
ejection
North Dakota oil production
fell to just over 1.15
million b/d in December,
down 75,203 b/d from a year
earlier when state
production hit an all-time
high, state Department of
Mineral Resources data
showed Wednesday.
December production fell by
29,507 b/d from November, as
prices for North Dakota
sweet crude and the number
of drilling permits
continued to freefall.
Oklahoma's oil and gas
regulator released a
wide-ranging plan on Tuesday
to scale back use of
wastewater injection wells
in western Oklahoma, just
days after a 5.1 magnitude
quake rocked the state.
Seven counties are
affected by the plan, which
is the largest push yet in
western Oklahoma to curb
seismic activity linked to
wells to dispose of
saltwater, a natural
byproduct of oil and gas
work.
-
The tendency to always
expect the worst has
been linked to a 25
percent higher risk of
dying before the age of
65
-
People who display a
more optimistic can-do
attitude in life
experience significantly
better cardiovascular
health over the long
term
-
You can also “die from a
broken heart.” Losing a
significant person in
your life raises your
risk of having a heart
attack the next day by
21 times, and in the
following week by six
times
A new scientific study
supports her instincts,
documenting that organic
food can substantially lower
pesticide exposure in
children from low-income
families in both urban and
rural areas.
But traces of pesticides
were higher than in previous
studies involving
middle-income, suburban
children, suggesting that
kids from cities and farming
communities may be getting
exposed via their
environments as well as
their diets.
Few things have unified
the people of Liberty like
the prospect of seeing coal
ash brought to their
community by an out-of-state
waste company.
The company wants to haul
potentially tons of ash to a
new landfill in the hilly
area of northwest South
Carolina ...
Even though many climate
models hint that the coming
El Niño may rival or even
surpass the El Niño of
1997-98, the forecasted
rainfall may still be
unpredictable. However, what
remains true is that the
past decade of catastrophic
wildfires and drought have
left a parched landscape ill
prepared for torrential
rainfall, which can quickly
create significant problems
for solar and wind projects
across the globe. This means
site assessments and
maintenance practices are a
crucial aspect of El Niño
preparation.
-
Zika virus is being
blamed for increasing
rates of microcephaly in
Brazil, a condition in
which babies are born
with unusually small
heads
-
Of the more than 4780
reported cases, only 404
infants have been
confirmed as having
microcephaly, and only
17 tested positive for
Zika virus
-
Far more likely culprits
contributing to
microcephaly increases
among infants born in
Brazil are lack of
sanitation, widespread
vitamin A and zinc
deficiency,
environmental pollution,
toxic pesticide
exposures, and Tdap
vaccination now mandated
for all pregnant women
According to ISU Professor
and Information Assurance
Center Director Doug
Jacobson, the university has
been holding Cyber Defense
Competitions for 10 years.
Previous competitions simply
dealt with protecting
computer networks from
hackers, but this year,
Jacobson said, the stakes
are higher, and students
must also protect water
systems and the physical
infrastructure of the grid.
As U.S. Energy Secretary
Ernest Moniz arrived in
Southern California to tour
the Aliso Canyon natural gas
storage facility where a
leak has caused the
evacuation of thousands of
people, two Bay Area
residents scaled the
entrance to the headquarters
of the California Public
Utilities Commission (CPUC)
-- occupying a ledge to
protest the PUC's failure to
protect the state from the
climate and health impacts
of methane from underground
natural gas storage
facilities, and to raise
awareness of Senate Bill
380.
C7 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low with a chance
for a C-class flares on days
one, two, and three (19 Feb,
20 Feb, 21 Feb). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at unsettled
to minor storm levels on day
one (19 Feb), quiet to
active levels on day two (20
Feb) and quiet to unsettled
levels on day three (21
Feb).
A new hydrogen fuel-cell
electric vehicle prototype
has been launched with a
claimed fuel economy
equivalent to 250 mpg (0.9
L/100km). Dubbed "Rasa," the
new car has a lightweight
carbon-fiber monocoque
shell, in-wheel electric
motors, a bank of
supercapacitors charged by
braking-regeneration, and a
host of other features that
enable it to travel up to a
claimed 300 miles (483 km)
on just a 3.3 lb (1.5 kg)
tank of hydrogen.
The U.K.’s Ministry of
Defense said it scrambled
RAF Typhoon jets as two
nuclear-capable Russian
Tu-160 Blackjacks were
noticed heading toward U.K.
airspace.
Saudi Arabia and Russia
agreed to freeze oil output
at near-record levels, the
first coordinated move by
the world’s two largest
producers to counter a slump
that has pummeled economies,
markets and companies.
While the deal is
preliminary and doesn’t
include Iran, it’s the first
significant cooperation
between OPEC and non-OPEC
producers in 15 years and
Saudi Arabia said it’s open
to further action...
Without Scalia, the
conservative members of the
court no longer have a
majority, at least in the
short term. The sudden shift
has given a boost to the
supporters of the emissions
rule.
"Around 50,000 people, we
estimate, have been pushed
below the national poverty
line of 501 rand ($31.68) a
month because of the
drought," Catriona Purfield,
program leader for South
Africa told a parliamentary
committee.
The Southwest Power Pool
Wednesday set a new wind
peak record as well as a
wind-penetration-level
record, according to the
grid operator.
As households turn to
storage to avoid ever
increasing electricity
tariffs, the Australian
energy storage market is on
the rise, going from less
than 500 installations at
the end of 2015 to more than
5,000 systems in 2016.
May you live in interesting
times. Though widely
purported to be Chinese,
this phrase is of unknown
origin. It is an ironic
expression — intended as a
curse rather than a
blessing. Uninteresting
times mean peace and
tranquility. In today’s
world of water — like it or
not — we live in interesting
times.
-
In May 2014, Vermont
passed a law requiring
GMO ingredients to be
labeled when sold in the
state. The law goes into
effect in July this year
-
Congratulations! As a
result of your efforts
to reach out to your
Senators, the DARK Act
was not taken up in the
Senate last year, and
the rider didn’t make it
into the Appropriations
Bill either
-
Campbell’s Soup broke
ranks a few weeks ago
when the company
announced it will comply
with the Vermont law.
Campbell’s also
confirmed that food
prices will NOT go up as
a result
The giant patch of warm
water in the northern
Pacific – nicknamed The Blob
– has finally broken up.
Compare images from this
year and last...
At times, this patch of warm
water seeped into the Bering
Sea, the Gulf of Alaska, and
the coastal waters off
Washington, Oregon, and
California. In fact, many
parts of the northeastern
Pacific experienced the
greatest sea surface
temperature anomalies in the
historical record.
A new study has shown
that both organic milk and
meat contain around 50% more
beneficial omega-3 fatty
acids than conventionally
produced products.
Analysing data from
around the world, the team
led by Newcastle University,
reviewed 196 papers on milk
and 67 papers on meat and
found clear differences
between organic and
conventional milk and meat,
especially in terms of fatty
acid composition, and the
concentrations of certain
essential minerals and
antioxidants.
The Real Voyage of Discovery
“The real voyage of
discovery consists not in
seeking new landscapes, but
in having new eyes.” ―
Marcel Proust
-
Connections between your
nervous system and
immune system allow for
crosstalk between them.
The science that studies
this is
psychoneuroimmunology
-
Pessimism promotes ill
health and can shave
years off your life; the
tendency to always
expect the worst has
been linked to a 25
percent higher risk of
dying before the age of
65
-
Sociable, outgoing
people tend to have
stronger immune
function, and happiness,
optimism, life
satisfaction, and other
positive psychological
attributes are
associated with a lower
risk of heart disease
As renewables are moving
from niche to mainstream,
the industry is facing a
paradigm shift in cost,
quality, complexity, and
scale — creating
opportunities to develop new
and different technologies
and operating models.
Achieving the next phase of
the industry potential will
require a further
revolution, not only in the
laboratory but also in
strategy, technology, and
operations.
Development of a
futuristic weapon depicted
in video games and science
fiction is going well enough
that a Navy admiral wants to
skip an at-sea prototype in
favor of installing an
operational unit aboard a
destroyer planned to go into
service in 2018.
The Navy has been testing
an electromagnetic railgun
and could have an
operational unit ready to go
on one of the new
Zumwalt-class destroyers
under construction at Bath
Iron Works.
Wind energy accounted for
more electric generating
capacity in 2015 than any
other energy source in
America.
The 8.6 gigawatts (GW) of
wind power capacity
installed surpassed the 7.3
GW of new solar photovoltaic
capacity and 6 GW installed
by natural gas...
February 16, 2016
While the chakras themselves
are energetic/etheric in
nature, they each have
corresponding physical
organs, glands and systems
in the body that can, and
do, have an effect on their
functioning. When the
associated
organ/gland/system is weak
or out of balance, the
relevant chakra will be
under active; and when the
associated organ/system is
balanced and healthy, the
chakra will generally be in
harmony.
I carry a burden
of guilt with me. I will
carry this guilt until the
day I die. I was stupid,
arrogant, and naïve, and my
decision may have caused
permanent damage to the
children I love with all of
my heart.
I thought vaccines were more
dangerous than most people
realized, but I still
thought, overall, they were
worth the risk. I was too
lazy to do the research. ...
Prominent bond managers have
a message for central
bankers: negative interest
rates won’t work...Negative
rates make conditions worse
by pushing people to
essentially put money into
their mattresses,
At the heart of galaxy NGC
4889 lurks one of the most
massive black holes ever
discovered. Astronomers
think this giant has stopped
feeding and is now resting.
A crash in crude oil prices
has led oil companies to
abandon more wells,
particularly in the western
Canadian provinces of
Alberta and Saskatchewan.
When carbon dioxide is
stored underground in a
process known as geological
sequestration, it can find
multiple escape pathways due
to chemical reactions
between carbon dioxide,
water, rocks and cement from
abandoned wells, according
to Penn State researchers.
Circumstance or Disposition
“I am determined to be
cheerful and happy in
whatever situation I may
find myself. For I have
learned that the greater
part of our misery or
unhappiness is determined
not by our circumstance but
by our disposition.” ―
Martha Washington
-
The food system has
changed dramatically in
recent decades, and this
has created many
problems for food safety
and human health; 1 in 6
Americans gets sick from
eating contaminated food
each year
-
Children can easily
consume 100 mg of
artificial food dye per
day, and studies have
found food colors can
have a significant
effect of on behavior
and cognition
-
Seafood harvested in the
U.S. is shipped to Asia
for processing before
then being shipped back
again, allowing multiple
opportunities for
contamination and
spoilage along the way
"It's been a very
unremarkable, gradual
improvement over several
months," said Mark Svoboda,
the report's author and
climate-based monitoring
program area leader at the
National Drought Mitigation
Center.
India is experiencing many
of the same issues as the
United States when it comes
to energy -- specifically,
the lack of a skilled
workforce.
Sam Girod is a Kentucky
farmer who runs a small
business selling natural
skin salves made from herbs
such as chickweed, which
seem to help relieve a host
of skin conditions,
including allergic rashes,
psoriasis, poison oak and
even skin cancers.
The central bank says its
policies are “data driven.”
But the recent FOMC
statement suggests the Fed
is looking at everything. It
has a hundred indicators —
domestic, international,
jobs, and inflation. In
truth, it doesn’t know what
its next move is going to be
because it can’t read the
economy. Fed policy is
opaque, confusing, and
rudderless.
A Coronal Mass Ejection,
which is triggered by solar
storms, creates massive
blasts that “rearrange” the
magnetic field. The result
of such an event could
trigger an EMP-type release
around the world. In turn,
that could result in the
largest global loss of human
life ever.
The discovery could help
restore function to
Parkinson’s patient
Scientists have long been on
a quest to find a way to
implant electrodes that
interface with neurons into
the human brain. If
successful, the idea could
have huge implications for
the treatment of Parkinson's
disease and other
neurological disorders.
Cell phone radiation
exposures have been
associated with many
different types of cancer,
the best known being brain
tumors. The relationship is
simple, the longer the hours
of cell phone use, and years
of use, the greater the risk
of cancer.
...astronomers using NASA's
Hubble Space Telescope are
getting closer, with new
images that reveal some of
the farthest galaxies ever
seen, from when the universe
was just 400 million years
old.
Japanese stocks rocketed
Monday, leading most Asian
markets higher after dismal
growth data raised hopes for
more stimulus for Asia's
second biggest economy,
weakening the yen. Chinese
shares dropped on their
first day of trading after a
weeklong holiday that
coincided with a sharp
sell-off in global markets.
A new study by scientists at
NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL) in
Pasadena, California, and
the University of
California, Irvine, shows
that while ice sheets and
glaciers continue to melt,
changes in weather and
climate over the past decade
have caused Earth's
continents to soak up and
store an extra 3.2 trillion
tons of water in soils,
lakes and underground
aquifers, temporarily
slowing the rate of sea
level rise by about 20
percent.
A General Motors employee
says he was fired for
pulling out his gun after
witnessing a woman being
stabbed at the company’s
Warren, Michigan, plant
Wednesday.
Scientists at Harvard and
Raytheon BBN Technology have
made a breakthrough in our
understanding of graphene’s
basic properties, observing
for the first time electrons
in a metal behaving like a
fluid
Researchers at Harvard
University and Raytheon BBN
Technology have discovered
that the charged particles
inside high-purity graphene
behave as a fluid with
relativistic properties.
Minnesota will push ahead
with plans to develop
cleaner power sources
despite a U.S. Supreme Court
order that has temporarily
delayed a national clean
power plan.
Still in question is how
much guidance state
officials can expect from
the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
after the justices stepped
in Tuesday to stop
implementation of the Obama
administration's attempt to
address climate change with
new limits on carbon
emissions.
Scientists here are working
on harnessing energy from
the Gulf Stream off Cape
Hatteras, where the ocean
flows with more power than
all of the world's rivers
combined.
Gulf Stream currents may
have more potential than
offshore wind. Ocean
currents move more slowly
than wind but are about 800
times more dense, according
to the Bureau of Ocean
Energy Management. Water
flowing at 12 miles per hour
exerts the same force as a
110 mph wind.
The new rates will be phased
in over 12 years for all
customers
with solar panels on their
rooftops. The solar industry
had lobbied to have existing
solar customers
"grandfathered" under the
current rates for at least
20 years.
North Korean leader Kim Jong
Un has praised scientists
involved in the country's
recent rocket launch that he
said struck a "telling blow"
to enemies and ordered them
to press ahead with more
launches, state media
reported Monday.
When immigration officers
encounter an illegal alien,
they're supposed to
detain that alien.
It's the law.
But President Obama
has ordered them not to,
as Congress was told by
Brandon Judd, the president
of the National Border
Patrol Council.
Barack Obama called on
Congress to double funding
for clean energy research on
Saturday, using his final
budget request – and one of
the last high-profile
moments of his presidency –
to push for action against
climate change.
The president said his
final budget on Tuesday
would propose doubling clean
energy research spending
from $6.4bn to $12.8bn by
2020.
Fortunately for the
outnumbered cop, a resident
who lives on the block
emerged from his house
holding a gun and telling
the teens to stop.
Oklahoma was struck by a
magnitude 5.1 earthquake on
Saturday morning, the
third-strongest quake ever
recorded in the state, which
has experienced a surge in
seismic activity in recent
years, the U.S. Geological
Survey reported.
The four holdouts in the
armed occupation of a
federal wildlife refuge in
Oregon surrendered on
Thursday, with the last
protester repeatedly
threatening suicide in a
dramatic final phone call
with mediators before he
gave up, ending the 41-day
standoff.
M1 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a chance for
M-class flares on days one,
two, and three (16 Feb, 17
Feb, 18 Feb). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on day one (16
Feb), quiet to minor storm
levels on day two (17 Feb)
and unsettled to active
levels on day three (18
Feb). Protons have a slight
chance of crossing threshold
on days one, two, and three
(16 Feb, 17 Feb, 18 Feb).
Scientists have found a new
way to tease out signals
about Earth's climatic past
from soil deposits on gravel
and pebbles, adding an
unprecedented level of
detail to the existing
paleoclimate record and
revealing a time in North
America's past when summers
were wetter than normal
The process might one day be
used in the treatment of
spinal cord injuries.
Whether it's as a research
tool or a step in repairing
severed nerves, the ability
to join neurons together has
some serious applications.
If left to occur naturally,
the process takes several
hours, limiting its
practicality. Now, however,
scientists at the University
of Alberta's Faculty of
Engineering have developed a
method of doing so within 15
milliseconds.
-
As many as 2.5 billion
people live where
sanitation isn’t
available; around 2
million tons of waste
enters waterways daily,
causing cholera and
other diseases
-
Clean drinking water, as
well as water for
cleaning, laundry and
sanitation is lacking in
many developing
countries and even in
the U.S., but money to
fix it is a global
problem
-
Drought, clogged sewers,
water main breaks,
pharmaceutical and farm
run-off, plastic water
bottles, and the risk of
BPA poisoning are all
results of water
shortage or
contamination
-
The “Reinvent the Toilet
Challenge” has created a
toilet with its own
built in treatment
plant; the Omni
Processor, another
innovation, converts
feces into safe drinking
water
-
Children who drank raw
milk had a 30 percent
lower risk of
respiratory infections
and fever
-
School-aged children who
drank raw milk were 41
percent less likely to
develop asthma and about
50 percent less likely
to develop hay fever
-
Bill AB697, which would
allow consumers to
purchase raw milk
directly from a farm,
has been introduced in
Wisconsin
A recent study conducted by
researchers at the
University of Wisconsin at
Madison and Dartmouth
published by the journal of
Pediatrics looked at the
effect of parental debt on
children’s socioemotional
wellbeing, concluding that
children from families with
higher levels of secure
debt exhibited greater
socioemotional health than
children from families with
high levels of unsecure
debt.
The surprise decision
threatens the credibility of
the Paris climate change
treaty that was reached by
the world's nations in
December.
The sudden and shocking
death of Supreme Court
Justice Antonin Scalia
opened a new and incendiary
front in the already red-hot
2016 presidential race, one
that promises to divide
Democrats and Republicans
and, perhaps, Republicans
from themselves.
The US economy is
in deep trouble. Actually
alot deeper trouble than you
may care to think.
The founders of this
country understood that the
job of the federal
government was to make sure
that our economy was based
on the bedrock foundation of
a sound currency, reasonable
but limited regulation and
the rule of law. Our present
government has failed
miserably on all three
fronts and these failures
are set to send our entire
country into a tailspin from
which we may never recover.
The gas leak hemorrhaging
methane all over the LA
suburbs has been temporarily
plugged, Southern California
Gas Company announced today.
It’s an important milestone,
but residents aren’t
celebrating just yet. If all
continues to go well, the
leak could be permanently
sealed within a few more
days.
So often we hear about how
the benefits of vaccines
“outweigh the risks” of
disease, but for parents
dealing with a child who has
been severely vaccine
injured, this statement can
be seen as a menace to their
unimaginable pain.
The
Trans-Pacific Partnership
(TPP) has just been signed
by all twelve participating
countries. But the massive
and highly controversial
trade agreement still has a
long and rocky road ahead
before it can go into
effect.
The deal must be ratified
by Congress, whose
leadership is increasingly
opposed to letting the TPP
become law.
During Saturday's GOP
presidential debate,
front-runner Donald Trump
added a new wrinkle to the
war against him for trying
to use eminent domain for
private gain.
Diplomats from a group of
countries that have
interests in Syria’s
five-year civil war,
including the U.S., Russia,
Turkey, Saudi Arabia and
Iran, agreed on Friday to
seek a temporary “cessation
of hostilities” within a
week. But the fighting on
the ground, which has sent
tens of thousands of people
fleeing toward the Turkish
border where they continue
to sleep in the open air,
has accelerated
Seeking to raise its bliss
bar, the United Arab
Emirates prime minister has
appointed the country's
first minister of happiness
to the Cabinet.
A study released this week
found that using the
electric water heaters in
more than 50 million U.S.
homes as thermal batteries
could save consumers money,
reduce carbon dioxide
emissions, increase grid
operators' ability to accept
power from intermittent
renewable sources, and help
grid operators regulate
voltage and frequency.
...with only eight justices,
a majority decision would be
5-3 rather than 5-4, and if
and when there’s a 4-4
split, the lower court’s
decision is upheld. But
there’s an important caveat
to that latter point: that
decision isn’t automatically
considered legal precedent.
Most of us are aware of the
fact that light travels
quicker than electricity. In
fact, in everyday electrical
and electronic devices, the
signals or energy travel as
electromagnetic waves on
the order of 50% – 99% of
the speed of light, while
the electrons
themselves move even more
slowly.
... attorneys general from
26 states, plus utilities
and coal companies,
immediately challenged the
federal rules last year,
arguing that the EPA
overstepped its legal
authority in regulating air
pollution. The Republican
Attorneys General
Association, whose
membership has been leading
the fight against the rules,
celebrated the Supreme
Court's decision as "a
watershed moment in [their]
fight against the
overreaching Obama
administration."
February 12, 2016
The chance for 99-cent fuel
is possible during the next
few weeks before the summer
driving season begins,
Michael Green, a spokesman
in Washington for AAA, said
in a phone interview. “We
may have some stations
offering gas below $1 per
gallon for marketing
purposes, but the chances of
a station offering under $1
are going to decrease pretty
soon.”
-
The 2015 to 2020 dietary
guidelines for Americans
is shifting away from
focusing on specific
nutrients toward a
general focus on eating
real food, moderating
protein consumption and,
for the first time,
limiting added sugars
-
The limit on dietary
cholesterol has been
removed entirely. This
is good news, since
dietary cholesterol is
actually one of the most
important molecules in
your body
-
They refuse to review
recent studies and
continue to vilify
saturated fat, stating
it raises LDL while
ignoring that it only
increases safe large
fluffy LDL particles and
actually increases HDL
Two merging black holes sent
out a signal 1.3 billion
years ago that now confirms
a key prediction of
Einstein's relativity
As two black holes
spiraled toward each other
and merged, they created
ripples in the fabric of the
cosmos in exactly the form
physicists have predicted
for a century: gravitational
waves. Unveiled today during
a suite of international
press conferences, the
signal paves the way for a
whole new understanding of
the universe
Authorities arrested an
alleged Islamic State
sympathizer over the weekend
in Seattle.
The Joint Terrorism Task
Force raided the Montesano
home of Daniel Seth Franey
on Saturday and arrested him
for unlawful possession of
guns, including machine
gun...
Fast-food companies pay
advertising agencies big
bucks to make us want to
chow down on menu items that
we know aren’t all that
healthy. Finding out what
goes into those processed
munchies usually requires
digging around in the nether
regions of a corporate
website—or, if you’re Taco
Bell, you make a video in
which you come clean about
injecting potassium chloride
and torula yeast into ground
beef. But what if instead of
helping the food look as
delicious as possible,
television advertisements
had to spell out the
ingredients?
Most models indicate that El
Niño will weaken, with a
transition to ENSO-neutral
during the late spring or
early summer 2016
Baffled
“It may be that when we no
longer know which way to go
that we have come to our
real journey. The mind that
is not baffled is not
employed. The impeded stream
is the one that sings.” ―
Wendell Berry
Gravitational waves are
created in some of the most
violent events in our
universe, such as the merger
of two black holes...
Gravitational waves are
created in the particularly
violent events of our
universe such as supernovae,
collisions of neutron stars
and mergers of black holes.
They are vibrations in the
fabric of the universe –
ripples in spacetime – which
move at the speed of light.
By the time the waves reach
Earth, the ripples are on
the order of a billionth
the diameter of an atom, and
thus scientists have had to
be exceedingly clever to
find ways to detect these
elusive ripples.
An Ohio man and Black Lives
Matter activist fatally shot
himself Monday evening on
the steps of the Ohio
Statehouse, Columbus
Dispatch reported.
The suppression of medical
science is a history
backdating over decades.
Coupled with the oddity of
several medical researchers
who were on the cusp of
medical breakthroughs,
meeting with unexpected and
sometimes violent deaths,
one’s curiosity is piqued,
to say the least.
Wendelstein 7-X made
headlines last week after
generating a
quarter-of-a-second pulse of
hydrogen plasma, and now
scientists at China's
Institute of Physical
Science have reportedly
flexed their fusion muscle
to sustain the gas for an
impressive 102 seconds.
Colorado’s Department of
Revenue stated Tuesday that
licensed pot shops in the
Rocky Mountain State sold
$996,184,788 worth of pot
last year. That’s a cool
billion dollars diverted
away from black market
gangs, cartels, and drug
dealers, and into the hands
of tax-paying, licensed
American citizens.
That economic activity
generated $135 million in
taxes and fees in 2015, of
which more than $35 million
is earmarked for Colorado’s
underfunded school system.
It’s a health emergency, but
calling 911 won’t help.
That’s because the crisis is
a critical shortage of drugs
— including some life-saving
medications — in emergency
rooms across the nation.
The agency said the
attackers had used personal
data stolen from elsewhere
to compromise its systems.
The information had then
been processed by a software
bot - meaning an automated
program - to make one
application after another
for a Pin.
The harmful PAMP molecules
were found to be common in
processed foods, but
undetectable in fresh
produce
At first glance, hydrogen
fuel cells sound like a
great power source for
fixed-wing drones making
long flights – they have
much longer run times than
batteries, and they emit no
emissions other than water
vapor. Unfortunately, the
hydrogen typically has to be
stored in large heavy
pressurized tanks. Last
month, however, a Raptor E1
electric drone made a
successful test flight
running on a unique new
system that's actually
lighter than the
lithium-ion battery it
replaced.
Despite the number of
regulations in place, the
only deterrence preventing
rogue drone operators from
breaking the law is the fear
of getting caught. For this
reason, law enforcement
agencies from around the
world have taken the liberty
to develop their own modes
of apprehension, using
everything from their own
net-firing drones to radio
jamming signals. These
approaches may successfully
disable the drone, but they
exhibit one major design
flaw—namely—that a
free-falling drone creates
an equally precarious
situation.
It was a relatively light
month for critical security
patches, but one major
vulnerability affects
every supported
version of Windows.
The mayor of Flint,
Michigan, which is
struggling to cope with
dangerous levels of lead in
its drinking water, said on
Tuesday the city would
replace all residents’ pipes
and was counting on state
and federal help to foot the
estimated $55 million bill.
This shocking discovery was
made using advanced mass
spectrometry technology with
incredible accuracy, filling
the gap left by the nation’s
regulatory agencies that
have failed to conduct this
type of safety testing
themselves. Millions of
people are injected with flu
vaccines annually, and most
of them are completely
unaware that one of the most
toxic metals known to man is
being implanted directly
into their muscle tissue
unabated.
The new collaborative study
was conducted by scientists
at esteemed institutions in
both the U.S. and China and
found that so-called “flow
back” fracking wastewater
induced malignant changes in
human bronchial epithelial
cells consistent with the
cancerous phenotype.
Hillary Clinton, who is
currently in a race with
anti-GMO Senator Bernie
Sanders to become the
Democratic Party’s
Presidential candidate, is
coming under increasing
pressure following a series
of revelations regarding her
ties to Monsanto and the
Biotech Industry.
At least 98.6 million people
were harmed by natural
disasters in 2015, the
hottest year on record; and
climate, intensified by a
strong El Niño pattern, was
the driver in 92 percent of
those events, finds a new
analysis by the UN Office
for Disaster Risk Reduction,
UNISDR.
The U.S. House of
Representatives on Wednesday
easily passed a bill
requiring federal
environmental regulators to
act faster when lead
contamination is found in
drinking water.
One of the most commonly
repeated criticisms of wind
power is that it kills
birds. The giant spinning
turbines are basically bird
death traps—and often they
cut through prime flying
space, making the carnage
even worse. At least that's
the story. But how many
birds really do die?..
According to the current
literature somewhere between
140,000 and 328,000 birds
die each year from
collisions with wind
turbines.
A new telescope view has
revealed hundreds of
galaxies that were
previously obscured by the
Milky Way's bulk.
I Like Living
“I like living. I have
sometimes been wildly,
despairingly, acutely
miserable, racked with
sorrow, but through it all I
still know quite certainly
that just to be alive is a
grand thing.” ― Agatha
Christie
Sonya Dixon, OMU's
spokeswoman, said the
Daviess County Landfill was
the only disposal option
awarded.
The utility also sought
bids from vendors that would
recycle the coal ash for
beneficial uses, such as the
making of wallboard and
concrete. The beneficial
bids were awarded to United
States Gypsum Co.,
Headwaters, Inc., Peabody
COALSALES, LLC. and US
Minerals.
The return of La Nina,
Spanish for "the girl" and
characterized by unusually
cold ocean temperatures, is
possible later this year,
the U.S. government
forecaster said Thursday. It
joined other forecasters in
projecting La Nina could
follow on the heels of one
of the strongest El Ninos on
record.
New Yorkers may soon be able
to shop without the
confusing sift through GM
food packaging marked, “all
natural” or “100%
wholesome.”
The last four armed
occupiers of a national
wildlife refuge in eastern
Oregon said they would turn
themselves in Thursday
morning after law officers
surrounded them in a tense
standoff.
The development came as
Cliven Bundy — who led a
Nevada standoff with federal
officers in 2014 and who is
also the father of the
jailed leader of the Oregon
standoff — was arrested in
Portland.
Everyone needs clean air to
survive, yet somehow it is
not an internationally
recognized human right. That
probably has something to do
with the fact that over half
of the world’s population
live in areas where they
breathe in toxic air.
Altogether, that means there
are more than 3.5 billion
people inhaling dangerous
air into their lungs on a
daily basis.
In this day and age as the
energies intensify, many of
us are called to get out of
our comfort zone, question
consensus reality and the
world we live in. We look
for answers to deeper life
questions, our individual
purpose and role as we
embark on the process of
seeking truth within and
without. Once you take the
“red pill” it can become a
lonely road at times and it
is harder to relate to
people we used to be around
who don’t question what
we’ve been told and taught
via official culture.
The Pentagon is seeking
$200 million in the 2017
budget for counterterrorism
operations in Libya and
other portions of North and
West Africa, but Defense
Secretary Ash Carter said
Wednesday that Libyans must
take the lead in eliminating
the Islamic State threat in
their country.
The new funding provides
the first concrete
indication of what the U.S.
military may do to battle
the threat, including
expanded drone and
surveillance flights,
strikes and other
operations. And it is the
first time that the Pentagon
has included a separate
increase for operations
against the Islamic State in
Africa.
In light of his account
being suspended multiple
times by YouTube, popular
gun video creator “Hickok45″
has found a new, more
accepting home for his
content.
C2 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a slight
chance for an M-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(12 Feb, 13 Feb, 14 Feb).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on day one (12
Feb), quiet to unsettled
levels on day two (13 Feb)
and quiet levels on day
three (14 Feb). Protons have
a slight chance of crossing
threshold on day one (12
Feb) and have a slight
chance of crossing threshold
on days two and three (13
Feb, 14 Feb).
Boeing has delivered a new
type of fuel cell to the US
Navy for testing that can
both store energy and
generate electricity. Called
a "reversible solid oxide
fuel cell," it's designed to
absorb energy from renewable
sources, such as wind and
solar, then release it as
required to provide
commercial and military
users with a cleaner, more
sustainable source of power.
A mobile phone belonging
to Farook was recovered but
FBI Director James Comey
said encryption technology
meant they had not been able
to access it.
Such technology was
"overwhelmingly" affecting
law enforcement, he warned.
The Greenland and Antarctic
ice sheets will make a
dominant contribution to
21st century sea-level rise
if current climate trends
continue. However,
predicting the expected loss
of ice sheet mass is
difficult due to the
complexity of modeling ice
sheet behavior.
Rapid advances in
technology, coupled with
falling prices and recently
extended tax incentives,
have made solar electric
generation an attractive
option for businesses,
individuals and communities
looking to offset their
energy use -- or even turn a
profit.
Nuclear energy requires
lots of heat and might get
even hotter.
Increased heat is part of
what makes a new type of
reactor so promising. But
it's not only the way the
heat is used, but also the
way it is safely contained
that leads some to believe
that Molten Salt Reactors,
or MSRs, will play a major
role in reducing or even
freeing the U.S. from its
dependence on fossil fuels
for electricity.
The Supreme Court dealt a
surprising setback to
President Obama on Tuesday
by putting his climate
change policy on hold while
a coalition of coal
producers and Republican-led
states challenges its
legality.
Tucson
Electric Power Co. is amping
up its energy-efficiency
programs for 2016, including
a new pilot program to pay
for energy-saving measures
at local schools.
TEP's 2016
energy-efficiency plan was
approved last week by the
Arizona Corporation
Commission, to help the
company meet a state
energy-savings mandate.
Talent
“Talent wins games, but
teamwork and intelligence
wins championships.” ―
Michael Jordan
A sigh may do more for your
health than provide
emotional relief.
Researchers in California
claim to have identified the
source of the sigh in the
brain, which they say is a
life-sustaining reflex for
healthy lung functioning.
Humans sigh around 12 times
per hour to reinflate the
half-billion or so tiny,
balloon-like sacs in the
lungs called alveoli, which
are vital in regulating the
flow of oxygen and carbon
dioxide. A sigh is mostly an
involuntary deep breath, or
a regular breath with
another added on top before
an exhale.
U.S. stocks opened
sharply lower following
steep market declines all
around the world as concerns
about global economic
weakness intensified.
Bank stocks were hit hard
Thursday as investors
worried that interest rates
in the U.S. and elsewhere
would remain low. Citigroup
and Bank of America both
dropped 5 percent. Oil
prices fell below $27 for
the second time this year
and dragged down shares of
energy companies.
During the debate, Rubio
argued several times that
“anyone who believes that
Barack Obama isn’t doing
what he is doing on purpose
doesn’t understand what we
are dealing with here” and
that the president’s
policies are the result of a
deliberate effort to chip
away at America’s standing
as a global superpower
rather than the result of
incompetence.
February 9, 2016
A proposed nuclear waste
repository less than a mile
off the shoreline of Lake
Huron could soon receive
final approval from the
Canadian government - but
not if local advocacy groups
have their way.
“Alarming’’ levels of
radioactivity have been
discovered in three
monitoring wells at the
Indian Point nuclear power
plant, Gov. Cuomo said
Saturday.
He told the state
Departments of Health and
Environmental Conservation
to investigate how
“radioactive
tritium-contaminated water’’
leaked into the groundwater
at the plant, in the Hudson
River town of Buchanan in
northern Westchester County.
The amount of
Arctic sea ice set
a record low for the month
of January, the
National Snow and Ice Data
Center announced
Thursday.
January
2016 was a remarkably warm
month there, the data center
said. Air temperatures were
13 degrees above average
across most of the
Arctic Ocean.
The expression
“colonization” has gained a
great amount of use in
recent decades. At earlier
times, peopled debated about
assimilation and
integration. It is important
to understand what
colonization, assimilation,
and integration are. In the
context of Indigenous
Peoples, colonization has
come to mean any kind of
external control, and it is
used as an expression for
the subordination of Indian
peoples and their rights
since early contact with
Europeans.
Average long-term U.S.
mortgage rates fell for the
fifth straight week amid
volatility in world
financial markets.
Mortgage buyer
Freddie Mac
says the average rate on a
30-year fixed-rate mortgage
slid to 3.72% this week,
down from 3.79% last week
and the lowest since it
averaged 3.68% in April
2015.
As our dependence on mobile
devices grows and we
continue the shift to
electric vehicles, there is
a need to not only develop
better performing batteries
but find more accessible and
sustainable materials with
which to build them. To this
end, researchers have now
developed an anode for
lithium-ion batteries using
something those with
allergies certainly wouldn't
miss: pollen from bees and
cattails.
Bernie Sanders defined Wall
Street’s business model as a
“fraud” ripe for revolution.
Hillary Clinton said the way
to untangle a rigged economy
is to work within the
system.
Converting CO2 from the air
to methanol would not only
help reduce the atmospheric
concentration of this
greenhouse gas, but also
provide clean burning fuel
in the process
The danger posed by rising
levels of atmospheric carbon
dioxide has seen many
schemes proposed to remove a
proportion it from the air.
Rather than simply capture
this greenhouse gas and bury
it in the ground, though,
many experiments have
managed to transform CO2
into useful things like
carbon nanofibers or even
fuels,...
Markets are currently in
a well-oiled "death spiral,"
according to Citigroup Inc.
analysts led by Jonathan
Stubbs.
"It appears that four
inter-linked phenomena are
driving a negative feedback
loop in the global economy
and across financial
markets," the analysts
write, citing the resilient
U.S. dollar,
lower commodities prices,
weaker trade and capital
flows, and declining
emerging market growth.
A veteran official with the
Department of Homeland
Security claims he and other
staff were ordered to
destroy records on a federal
database that showed links
between possible jihadists
and Islamic terrorist
groups.
"After
leaving my 15-year career at
DHS, I can no longer be
silent about the dangerous
state of America’s
counter-terror strategy, our
leaders’ willingness to
compromise the security of
citizens for the ideological
rigidity of political
correctness—and,
consequently, our
vulnerability to
devastating, mass-casualty
attack," ..
Bananas are at the sharp
end of industrial
agriculture's chemical war
on pests and pathogens,
writes Angelina Sanderson
Bellamy. But even 60
pesticide sprays a year
isn't enough to keep the
diseases at bay. It's time
to seek new solutions with
little or no use of
chemicals, working with
nature, growing diverse
crops on the same land - and
breaking the dominance of
the banana multinationals.
Herbicides that control
weeds are applied up to
eight times a year, while
bananas may be sprayed with
fungicides from a plane more
than 50 times per year in
order to control Black
Sigatoka, an airborne
fungus.
-
Short, hard-hitting
documentary exposes the
truth about genetically
engineered (GE) trees
and the devastating
impacts they may have on
our global ecosystem
-
The spread of GE tree
seed and pollen is
uncontrollable and
irreversible, able to
travel hundreds to
thousands of miles to
contaminate native
forests
-
When we lose native
forests, we may also
lose potential cures for
diseases such as cancer,
because the lost flora
and fauna would take
their secrets with them
Turkey's president lashed
out at the United States a
week after President Barack
Obama's envoy visited a
northern Syrian town that is
under the control of Syrian
Kurdish forces, which Ankara
considers terrorists.
In
comments published Sunday,
President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said Washington
should choose between Turkey
and the Kurdish Democratic
Union Party, or PYD, as its
partner.
An expansion of Europe's
forests towards dark green
conifers has stoked global
warming, according to a
study on Thursday at odds
with a widespread view that
planting more trees helps
human efforts to slow rising
temperatures.
Forest changes have
nudged Europe's summer
temperatures up by 0.12
degree Celsius (0.2
Fahrenheit) since 1750,
largely because many nations
have planted conifers such
as pines and spruce whose
dark colour traps the sun's
heat, the scientists said.
As part of their core
values, the Shoshone believe
life is a prayer and offer
small ceremonies for
everything taken of mother
earth. The sisters were told
by their grandmother that
there are nature spirits
everywhere. And each time
you eat a grain of rice, a
grain of wheat, you are
eating this thing we call
life — don’t waste it.
-
Snow appears to act as a
sponge, soaking up
multiple toxins from the
air
-
Researchers found common
air pollutants,
including benzene and
toluene, in snow
-
One hour after exposure
to exhaust fumes, levels
of contaminants in the
snow rose significantly
Every year, Greenland’s ice
sheet releases as much of
this key marine nutrient as
the mighty Mississippi
releases into the Gulf of
Mexico, says a new
study...In addition to
adding huge amounts of water
to the oceans, Greenland’s
melting ice sheet could also
be unleashing 400,000 metric
tons of phosphorus every
year – as much as the mighty
Mississippi River releases
into the Gulf of Mexico
Kindness
“Kindness is the language
which the deaf can hear and
the blind can see.” ― Mark
Twain
...according to the
Department of Homeland
Security, the energy sector
faces more cyber attacks
than any other industry, and
attacks on industrial
control system networks are
on the rise. If successful,
these cyber attacks could
have a dramatic physical
impact. Take, for instance,
the December 2015
BlackEnergy malware attack
against a power plant in the
Ukraine that left more than
700,000 customers without
electricity.
* Under 4% of oil
supply currently cash
negative
* Most US shale
profitable 'well below'
$30/b
Fears
of a deepening non-OPEC
supply crunch in response to
the latest oil price slump
may be overdone as many
producers are absorbing
short-term losses in the
hope of a price rebound,
according a new study by
research group Wood
Mackenzie.
The study, reported in
the journal Scientific
Reports published by Nature,
found that exposure to
sounds that resemble
shipping traffic and
offshore construction
activities results in
behavioural responses in
certain invertebrate species
that live in the marine
sediment.
These species make a
crucial contribution to the
seabed ecosystem as their
burrowing and bioirrigation
activities (how much the
organism moves water in and
out of the sediment by its
actions) are crucial in
nutrient recycling and
carbon storage.
The $3.9-billion project in
the southern town of
Ouarzazate, also known as
Noor I, is the first phase
of a project expected to
provide 1.2 million
Moroccans with power. Row
after row of solar panels
glisten in the sunlight,
surrounding a power station
in the center.
Almost nine-out-of-ten
vulnerabilities targeting
Windows last year could have
been prevented by removing
accounts with administrative
rights.
A global effort is under
way to find effective
treatments for deadly
hospital-acquired
infections, with many such
dangerous bacteria proving
worryingly resistant to
antibiotics. Now, help may
have been found in the most
unlikely of places, with
researchers finding positive
results when studying an old
folk remedy – natural
Canadian clay.
Known as Kisameet clay,
the resource has been used
by centuries by the
indigenous people on the
central coast of British
Columbia, treating various
medical problems from skin
ailments to internal
infections...
The
news out of Flint, Michigan
brought the issue of
contaminated drinking water
into sharp focus, as it was
revealed that officials at
every level—local, state and
federal—knew about
lead-poisoned water for
months but did nothing to
address the problem.
Under state-run systems
like utilities and roads,
poorer communities are the
last to receive attention
from government plagued by
inefficiencies and corrupt
politicians. Perhaps no
group knows this better than
Native Americans, who have
been victimized by
government for centuries.
-
Research has radically
improved the CRISPR gene
editing technology,
which is likely the most
significant health
technology ever
introduced, with many
unknown dangers
-
A number of companies
are now developing new
drugs to cure
genetic-driven disorders
with CRISPR technology
-
CRISPR makes three
categories of DNA
alterations possible:
embryonic modification
to eliminate genetic
disease; alterations to
protect against future
disease; and genetic
enhancement of human
form and function
The legislation is
ambitious, and advocates
argue, could be a historic
step that signals the state
is finally serious about
taking on climate change.
Yet the prospect of passing
such a far-reaching policy
in 35 days, with limited
analysis and information,
has opponents and state
regulators alike pulling out
their hair.
North Korea launched a
long-range rocket carrying
what it called a satellite,
drawing renewed
international condemnation
just weeks after it carried
out a nuclear bomb test.
Critics of the
rocket program say it is
being used to test
technology for a long-range
missile.
The study, which was
published Tuesday in the
journal Nature
Communications, isolated 15
areas in the human genome
that are associated with the
tendency toward or against
“morningness.”
President Barack Obama will
propose a $10 per barrel tax
on oil in the last annual
budget he submits to
Congress.
Obama reportedly hopes the
tax will reduce carbon
emissions and plans to use
the revenue for spending on
public transportation.
Scientists suspect the
undetected blood parasite
has been present in the
animals ever since they
arrived across the Bering
Land Bridge
Two new species of
malaria have been discovered
in Washington, D.C. by
scientists at the
Smithsonian's National Zoo.
Previously, no type of
endemic malaria was known to
occur in American mammals.
The newly discovered strains
appear to be selectively
adapted to white-tail deer
and may be present in 25
percent of white-tails
throughout the United
States. They are unlikely to
affect human health.
One-third of coal mines
operating in Australia's
Queensland state are
operating at a loss,
industry group Queensland
Resources Council said in a
report Monday.
About
60 mines are operational in
the state, indicating around
20 mines are unable to cover
their cash costs from
incoming revenue, the report
said.
As part of a continued push
to encourage energy
innovation and
commercialization, the U.S.
Department of Energy's
Office of Technology
Transitions (OTT) has issued
its first solicitation for
proposals that help bring
cutting-edge energy
technologies to market.
Among other achievements,
energy efficiency continued
to rise, renewable power
generation set new records,
and natural gas consumption
and production surged as CO2
emissions fell to levels not
seen since the 1990s, while
power prices remained flat.
-
Heart failure patients
following a low-sodium
diet were 85 percent
more likely to die or
require hospitalization
for heart disease
compared to those who
didn’t restrict their
salt intake.
-
Among those restricting
their sodium intake, 42
percent died or were
hospitalized for heart
problems during the
study, compared to 26
percent of those with no
salt restrictions
-
Restricting salt may
backfire by causing a
reduction in fluid that
triggers hormones to try
to retain body fluids,
accelerating heart
failure
The media debate about
Western countries accepting
“refugees” has been full of
more assertions than facts.
Here, then, are a few facts.
Sweden is planning to
deport between 60,000 and
80,000 refugees. That would
be about 45 percent of the
refugees who came to Sweden
last year.
This is not a completely
new phenomenon. In 2014,
Sweden received 81,000
refugees and rejected 56
percent, about 46,000 of
them.
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 (09 Feb,
10 Feb, 11 Feb). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on days one
and three (09 Feb, 11 Feb)
and quiet to unsettled
levels on day two (10 Feb).
The BPA-free trend started
after studies found a link
between bisphenol A (BPA)
and health issues such as
early puberty and prostate
cancers. After that,
products with bisphenol S
(BPS) started cropping up as
a safer alternative. But now
a UCLA-led study suggests
that BPS can be just as
harmful as BPA, causing
faster embryonic development
and disruption of the
reproductive system in
animals.
Olfactory receptors are not
limited to your nose. You
have them all over your
body, including your blood.
Now, synthetic sandalwood
has been shown to promote
cell death in cancer cells
for patients with a certain
kind of leukemia. This could
open the door for a whole
new kind of treatment.
Skipping stones across water
may seem like an innocent
children's pastime, but the
science behind it has helped
to win more than one war.
Now, researchers at Utah
State University's (USU)
College of Engineering are
uncovering new insights into
the physics of these kinds
of water impacts that could
have wide applications in
the fields of naval,
maritime, and ocean
engineering.
Much scientific effort goes
into shoring up both our
energy and water supplies
for the future, but what if
both problems could be
addressed by the same
technology? Researchers at
the University of Illinois
have come up with a new
battery design that not only
relies on salt water to
store and release
electricity, but removes the
salt ions from the water in
the process.
More than a dozen states
have strengthened laws over
the past two years to keep
firearms out of the hands of
domestic abusers, a rare
area of consensus in the
nation's highly polarized
debate over guns.
Scientists have used stem
cells for everything from
regrowing corneas to
inducing the heart to repair
itself, and it might even be
possible to use them to heal
damaged lungs. Now,
researchers from the
University of Rochester
Medical Center have, for the
first time, successfully
identified a population of
stem cells capable of
inducing the repair of bones
in the skull and face.
CEO Brian Cornell, who was
hired in August 2014 to
boost sales, developed a
strategy that promotes and
focuses on a health-food
approach as opposed to your
standard pre-packaged,
mass-produced food. As a
result, big brands and
colorful logos will be
taking a back seat to
natural and organic foods.
Cacao's health benefits are
related to natural compounds
in the bean, including
epicatechin, which has
antioxidant and
anti-inflammatory
properties, and resveratrol,
known for its
neuroprotective effects
When selecting chocolate,
look for higher cacao and
lower sugar content. Your
best bet is raw cacao nibs,
which can be eaten whole or
ground into powder for use
in recipes
Many studies have confirmed
that cacao can benefit your
heart, blood vessels, brain,
nervous system, and helps
combat diabetes and other
conditions rooted in
inflammation
A hazardous drug that
eliminates free will and can
wipe the memory of its
victims is currently being
dealt on the streets of
Colombia. The drug is called
scopolamine, but is
colloquially known as ‘The
Devil’s Breath,’ and is
derived from a particular
type of tree common to South
America. Stories surrounding
the drug are the stuff of
urban legends, with some
telling horror stories of
how people were raped,
forced to empty their bank
accounts, and even coerced
into giving up an organ.
Progress at the OPEC 168th
annual meeting screeched to
a halt amid escalating chaos
as member countries –
Venezuela, Libya, Iran, and
Nigeria – openly battle with
Saudi Arabia over the
cartel's future...
The Trans-Pacific
Partnership trade agreement
was signed Thursday in
Auckland, New Zealand by
officials from 12 nations
from around the Pacific Rim
that together account for
nearly 40 percent of the
global economy.
“Contrariwise, if it was
so, it might be; and if it
were so, it would be; but as
it isn't, it ain't. That's
logic.” – Lewis Carroll
Yesterday (February 3,
2016), the Senate Ag
Committee met, again, to
discuss what to do about a
federal standard for GMO
labeling.
An Electromagnetic Pulse
attack could result in the
greatest loss of life in
human history, but most
people have never heard of
an EMP...
“What happens when, when the
grid comes down, is there
are surges of electricity
that blow the big
transformers,” Roscoe
Bartlett, a former member of
the House of Representatives
who spearheaded the creation
of a Congressional EMP
Commission, said. “The
estimate is that we could
lose somewhere between 100
and 200 of those; that means
that the grid would be down
for a year or more.”
University of Alaska
Fairbanks mathematicians and
glaciologists have taken a
first step toward
understanding how glacier
ice flowing off Greenland
affects sea levels...
The comparisons showed that
the computer models
accurately depicted current
flow conditions in
topographically complex
Greenland.
U.S. employers added 151,000
jobs in January, a
deceleration from recent
months as companies shed
education, transportation
and temporary workers but
hired others in
manufacturing, retail and
food services.
The
unemployment rate dipped to
4.9 percent, its lowest
level since early 2008.
Oil production will fall by
92,000 b/d from February to
March in key US onshore
plays, the US Energy
Information Administration
said Monday...
The biggest forecast drop
will be in the Eagle Ford,
where EIA sees supply
falling 50,000 b/d to 1.222
million b/d in March from
1.272 million b/d in
February. The Bakken, where
EIA expects production to
fall to 1.1 million in March
from 1.125 million b/d in
February, and the Niobrara,
where production is forecast
to fall to 389,000 b/d in
March from 404,000 b/d in
February, are also expected
to see substantial drops.
“What seems to have happened
is that aluminium was not
bioavailable in the world’s
biota until early in the
industrial revolution, and
so, it just had no place in
any biochemical reaction
that was normal…Where it
does occur now…we live in
what’s called the age of
aluminium, it shows up in so
many products. Again, it’s
great stuff to make
airplanes and computers out
of, but it shows up in our
food…our water…air…in our
medicines…our antacids…So we
increasingly have this
compound that is not part of
any normal biochemical
process, on Earth…that now
can only go in and do havoc,
which is exactly what it
does. It causes all kinds of
unusual biochemical
reactions in the body,
including the brain.”
The largest ever study of
howling in the 'canid'
family of species -- which
includes wolves, jackals and
domestic dogs -- has shown
that the various species and
subspecies have
distinguishing repertoires
of howling, or "vocal
fingerprints": different
types of howls are used with
varying regularity depending
on the canid species.
The establishment mainstream
media continue to parrot the
same hysteria regarding the
Zika virus – that it’s
causing birth defects – but
there is so much information
intentionally being left
out. The mainstream media’s
false narrative is causing
the public to fear a benign,
asymptomatic viral
infection, as the true
origins of birth defects and
brain damage go unstudied.
Also, the mainstream media
fails to tell the whole
story of why Zika has become
such a big problem in Brazil
in recent years and how the
outbreak is connected to the
release of genetically
modified mosquitoes in 2012.
-
Twenty-six students at a
Florida preschool
contracted whooping
cough even though the
majority of the students
were fully vaccinated
against it, according to
the CDC’s recommended
schedule
-
In one particular
classroom in which all
students had received
the pertussis vaccine,
50 percent still
developed whopping cough
-
Health officials in the
area expressed concern
that the vaccine is not
protecting children as
it should be and
suggested its protection
lasts only two to three
years
While many states are just
beginning to lay out their
plans to meet the ambitious
goals of the Clean Power
Plan, Colorado is already
most of the way there,
thanks in part to Xcel
Energy's move away from
coal-fired plants.
A new study suggests the
storms that bring water to
the Southwest are coming
less frequently, prompting
concerns that California's
drought regime will be the
new normal for the
Southwest.
A new study validates a
controversial cancer theory,
namely, that yeast in our
body can contribute to not
just feeding but actually causing cancer. Can the
ancient healing spice
turmeric come to the rescue?
A recent study published in
Critical Reviews in
Microbiology lends
support to the concept that
opportunistic Candida
albicans (yeast) infection
may not just be a
consequence of cancer, but
is an actively contributing
cause as well.
The World Health
Organization has declared
the Zika virus an
international public health
emergency. It has already
affected 24 countries in
Africa, Asia, and Latin
America. WHO predicts the
mosquito-borne virus will
likely end up in every
country in the Americas.
So how worried should you
be? With no vaccine and
treatments unreliable,
health experts say we should
all take precautions to
lower risks — particularly
women of child-bearing age
and those who travel to
regions of the world where
the virus poses a grave
threat.
February 5, 2016
When El Nino gives way to
its little sister, La Nina,
this year, as meteorologists
are forecasting, the
disruptive weather patterns
may still be unable to
disperse the bearish clouds
that have hung over U.S.
grains markets for years.
Corn and soybean futures
have gone haywire in past
transition years, with
prices soaring as yields
withered.
But plentiful supplies,
both overseas and
domestically, should provide
a buffer against any
disruptions this year and
dampen any market rallies.
California's attorney
general sued Southern
California Gas Co on Tuesday
over a huge methane leak
near Los Angeles, escalating
legal action sparked by an
underground pipeline rupture
that has forced thousands of
residents from their homes
since October.
The latest civil
complaint accuses the
utility, a division of San
Diego-based Sempra Energy of
violating state health and
safety laws by failing to
promptly control the
escaping gas and report the
leak to authorities.
This is according to a
bizarre new Coca-Cola-funded
study. Here we go again.
We’ve reported frequently
on the subversion of science
at the hands of industry,
but this one takes the cake.
The bill when signed by the
President will provide a
framework for public-private
partnership between the
United States and
Sub-Saharan African
countries through which
about 600 million people on
the continent will have
access to affordable and
reliable electricity.
Environmentalists sued a
branch of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture on
Wednesday in a bid to block
federal agents from carrying
out targeted killings of
gray wolves in Oregon, as
debates simmers over
protections afforded the
animals in the wild.
Exposure to high levels of
small particle air pollution
is associated with an
increased risk of preterm
birth – before 37 weeks of
pregnancy, according to a
new study published online
in the journal Environmental
Health.
It was
53 years ago that a General
Electric engineer in
Syracuse, Nick Holonyak,
turned on the first
light-emitting diode.
On Monday, GE announced
that it would shift entirely
to LED lighting, ending
domestic production of
compact fluorescent bulbs by
the end of this year.
For many people,
camping/emergency lanterns
are one of those things that
may sit for months without
being used, only to have
dead batteries when they're
finally needed again. While
solar-powered lanterns are
one alternative, they do
still need to sit in the
sunlight for a few hours in
order to charge. That's
where Hydra-Light's PL-500
comes in. It's a fuel
cell-powered lantern that's
ready to shine as soon as it
receives some salt water.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus Jr.
gestures while testifying on
Capitol Hill in Washington,
Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016,
before the Senate Armed
Services Committee hearing
to examine the
implementation of the
decision to open all ground
combat units to women.
Experimentation with
Germany's newest fusion
reactor is beginning to heat
up, to temperatures of
around 80 million degrees
Celsius, to be precise.
Having fired up the
Wendelstein 7-X to produce
helium plasma late last
year, researchers have built
on their early success to
generate its first hydrogen
plasma, an event they say
begins the true scientific
operation of the world's
largest fusion stellarator.
Just days after German
officials started passing
out etiquette leaflets to
migrants following a series
of sexual assaults and other
inappropriate behavior, a
top German official warned
Afghanistan officials that
they must stop refugees from
leaving the country.
GE will cease production of
CFLs (left) in favor of LEDs
During a 2014 bio-tech
conference, Clinton publicly
endorsed GMOs by declaring,
“I stand in favor of using
seeds and products that have
a proven track record.” She
then chastised GMO critics
by saying, “there is a big
gap between what the facts
are, and what the
perceptions are
A federal grand jury
today indicted Ammon Bundy,
his brother Ryan, and 14
co-defendants arrested last
week in the armed occupation
of the Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge in eastern
Oregon.
Ammon and Ryan Bundy, the
sons of like-minded Nevada
rancher Cliven Bundy, led a
group of armed followers to
the Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge in eastern
Oregon on January 2. The
group commandeered the
headquarters building,
including computers, files
and equipment.
You might be amazed at how
accessible hacking tools
have become. Your site can
be p0wn3d and an entire
library of hacking tools
downloaded and installed in
just a few short minutes.
Read this article and be
prepared.
Though the Hillary
Clinton campaign is claiming
victory in Iowa following
Monday’s caucuses, a video
from one Democratic caucus
event is leading some
observers to question
whether she actually won the
state. And several Democrats
are now raising allegations
of voter fraud.
At Roosevelt High School
in Des Moines, supporters of
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders
asked for a recount and
didn’t get it.
The U.S. House failed to
override a veto by the White
House of a bill that would
have gutted Obamacare and
defunded Planned Parenthood
The asteroid will pass
closest to Earth on March 5.
Will it pass millions of
miles away, or as closely as
11,000 miles (17,000 km)?
In 2001, the U.S.
Government conducted a
simulated biological terror
attack to test the nation’s
preparedness. It was called
“Operation Dark Winter” —
the results were alarming.
Researchers discovered
that a weaponized smallpox
attack would immediately
overwhelm the health care
system. In the early stages
of such an attack, hundreds
of thousands of Americans
would die and the government
would be forced to implement
martial law.
-
Your mitochondria are
your cellular
powerhouses and are also
responsible for cellular
signaling and
facilitating appropriate
cell death
-
Glyphosate prevents the
uptake of manganese — a
mineral crucial for the
protection of your
mitochondria against
oxidative damage.
Diabetes and chronic
fatigue are but two
potential outcomes of
mitochondrial damage
-
Campbell Soup has
announced it will label
its GMO products, and
will NOT raise prices as
a result of the new
label — thereby
decimating the main
argument against GMO
labeling
The U.S. Internal Revenue
Service said on Wednesday it
is experiencing computer
failure across several
systems and temporarily
cannot accept many taxpayer
returns.
"Several of our
systems are not currently
operating, including our
modernized e-file system and
a number of other related
systems," the IRS said in a
statement.
Conventional nitrogen
removal for water treatment
requires a string of modest
molecular finagling:
oxidizing the water’s
ammonia into nitrite,
oxidizing that nitrite into
nitrate, and then
de-nitrifying that nitrate
into benign, atmospheric
nitrogen. The dissolved
oxygen called for by these
conversions requires lots of
energy-consuming — and
therefore costly — aeration.
The organic substrates
thrown into the mix create
excess sludge, the removal
of which adds to the bill.
There are also greenhouse
gasses created by the
process to contend with.
-
Vaccine orthodoxy
dictates that everyone
must believe vaccines
are safe and effective,
and that
government-recommended
vaccines must be used by
everyone
-
Vaccine risks are
increased for some
people because of
biological and
environmental
differences and
one-size-fits-all
vaccination policies
lacking flexible medical
and personal belief
exemptions are dangerous
and oppressive
-
There needs to be an
open, rational
discussion about
vaccination, infectious
diseases and health
Indigenous tribes, timber
firms and environmental
groups in western Canada
have welcomed a deal to
protect one of the world's
largest remaining tracts of
temperate rainforest.
The Great Bear Rainforest
on the Pacific coast of
British Columbia is home to
many animals and ancient
trees.
Los Angeles prosecutors
filed criminal charges
against the Southern
California Gas company on
Tuesday over a huge methane
leak near the city that has
forced thousands of
residents from their homes
since October.
The four
misdemeanor charges accuse
SoCalGas, a division of San
Diego-based Sempra Energy,
of failing to report the
release of hazardous
materials following the
underground pipeline rupture
and discharging air
contaminants.
Limits
“If you always put limit on
everything you do, physical
or anything else. It will
spread into your work and
into your life. There are no
limits. There are only
plateaus, and you must not
stay there, you must go
beyond them.” ― Bruce Lee
The first Britain-wide
assessment of the value of
wild flowers as food for
pollinators shows that
decreasing resources mirror
the decline of pollinating
insects.
German Chancellor Angela
Merkel had a telephone
conversation on Tuesday with
Russian President Vladimir
Putin, urging him to use his
influence over the
pro-Russian separatists
operating in eastern Ukraine
in order to proceed with
implementing the Minsk
agreements.
Hundreds of newly elected
legislators, a majority of
them from pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s
party, on Monday began a
parliament session that will
install Myanmar’s first
democratically elected
government in more than 50
years.
In a New York Times
interview with Robert
McNair, owner of the NFL’s
Houston Texans, the
self-made multi-billionaire
told Times correspondent
Mark Leibovich that he’s not
offended by the Redskins
logo of the Washington
franchise, and that the
Cherokee Indians near where
he grew up weren’t good at
‘holding their whiskey.’
Less than a month after its
purported H-bomb test, North
Korea announced Tuesday it
is planning a rocket launch
as soon as next week. Though
speculation of a launch had
been growing for about a
week, experts say that with
underground railways, giant
tarps and a movable launch
pad structure in place the
North is getting a lot
better at hiding its
preparations.
House Speaker Paul Ryan
held a meeting a with
members of the conservative
House Freedom Caucus Tuesday
in an attempt to persuade
them to vote for his 2017
budget plan, but judging
from one member’s response,
Ryan’s efforts were not very
successful.
“There’s not a snowball’s
chance in hell that I’ll
vote for that,” caucus
member Mo Brooks (R-Ala.)
said. At least two other
caucus members described the
meeting as “intense,..
In the fast-growing world
of digital connectedness,
those in the financial,
digital information and
healthcare sectors know
they need to protect against
cyber attacks. But what
about the nuclear industry?
Is there a reason to ramp up
cybersecurity around nuclear
plants?
The short answer: yes.
Only You
“No one but you knows how
hard you work, how many
hours you put in the behind
the scenes. Rely on yourself
for approval, not the
outside world.” ― Unknown
With more than 50 percent of
its customers saying they
want to go solar, the
utility has launched a new
program that extends the
option for 100 percent solar
to all customers -- whether
they are planning to install
rooftop solar or not.
Public Service Company of
New Mexico could face stiff
opposition to its request
for a 14.4 percent increase
in its annual base revenue
when hearings on the case
begin in March.
US gasoline stocks climbed
5.94 million barrels to an
all-time high 254.4 million
barrels last week, according
to Energy Information
Administration data released
Wednesday, which will likely
continue to exert downward
pressure on physical
gasoline prices ahead of the
switch to summer
specification gasoline.
Several benchmark
physical gasoline prices
already have set record lows
largely on oversupply.
Reflections
“If you go to work on your
goals, your goals will go to
work on you. If you go to
work on your plan, your plan
will go to work on you.
Whatever good things we
build end up building us.” ―
Jim Rohn
As the Obama Administration
develops new rules for
methane, such as last week's
Bureau of Land Management
regulations applied to the
release of methane from new
and existing oil and gas
production sources on
federally-managed lands, the
study - using updated
assumptions of methane
leakage - underscores the
need to further address
methane leakage in order to
meet climate targets.
C5 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a slight
chance for an M-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(05 Feb, 06 Feb, 07 Feb).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on days one
and three (05 Feb, 07 Feb)
and quiet levels on day two
(06 Feb).
The researchers also
examined the brains for
levels of mercury, which can
be found in seafood and is
known to be harmful to the
brain and nervous system.
They found that seafood
consumption was associated
with increased mercury
levels in the brains but not
the amount of beta amyloid
protein plaques and tau
protein tangles, the
hallmarks of Alzheimer’s
disease.
-
Omega-3 fat is critical
for healthy development
in utero, especially for
eye and brain
development. The ratio
of omega-6 to omega-3 is
also important for
proper development.
Ideally, it should be
less than 5:1
-
Animals fed a diet in
which the omega-6 to
omega-3 ratio matched
the standard American
diet (high in omega-6,
low in omega-3) produced
offspring whose brains
were much smaller than
those fed ideal amounts
-
In a second study,
pregnant women who ate
600 grams (21 ounces, or
about 4 servings) of
fish per week during
pregnancy had children
whose IQ scores were 2.8
points higher than those
who ate less fish
Switching the disposal of
weapons-grade plutonium to
New Mexico from an existing
South Carolina site could
cost the U.S. government
more than $20 billion and
raise safety concerns,
according to a new study
commissioned by the firms
building the current site.
The number of coastal fish
species in northern Taiwan
has dropped by 75 percent
over the past three decades,
finds a newly published
study by Taiwanese
researchers. Along with weak
and poorly enforced
fisheries regulations, the
study shows that the island
nation is at greater risk of
a complete marine ecosystem
collapse than the planet as
a whole.
While millions of people
still don’t really take the
time to stop and think about
where their food comes from,
genetically engineered crops
are a big deal in Washington
– enough so that the United
States actually threatened
other countries with
retaliation should they
refuse the crops according
to Wikileaks.
With all of the Big
Agribusiness money flowing
through Washington, D.C.
these days it should comes
as no surprise that many of
the top candidates for
president are pro-Monsanto
and pro-GMO, including Ted
Cruz, who spoke in favor of
the crops at an Iowa
Agricultural Summit this
past Saturday.
-
Positive thoughts are
able to prompt changes
in your body that
strengthen your immune
system, decrease pain
and chronic disease, and
provide stress relief
-
Burn patients
experienced more than 50
percent less pain during
their burn treatments
when playing a virtual
reality game
-
Inert placebo
painkillers exert real
biological effects,
including an increase in
endorphins, your body’s
natural pain-relieving
chemicals
A new study from GMO
researcher and molecular
biologist Gilles-Éric
Séralini, PhD, shows that
the first commercialized
genetically modified crop in
1996 may have been toxic to
farm animals—but the
evidence was swept under the
rug.
The following is a letter to
the American Physical
Society released to the
public by Professor Emeritus
of physics Hal Lewis of the
University of California at
Santa Barbara
Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan has issued a
stern warning to Moscow
claiming that it would be
forced to "endure the
consequences" if its jets
continue to violate Turkish
airspace.
UK day-ahead power prices
declined for the second
consecutive day Thursday on
forecasts of higher wind
power generation and falling
power demand ahead of the
weekend, sources said.
The US Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission gave
final approval Tuesday to
three closely related
natural gas projects that
together would add 685.5
miles of pipeline and
339,400 horsepower of
compression capable of
moving about 1.1 Bcf/d to
markets in Florida and the
Southeast.
The U.S. Interior
Department issued a safety
alert on Tuesday, warning
offshore oil and gas
drillers about recurring
problems with bolts on
equipment including blowout
preventers.
The Bureau of Safety and
Environmental Enforcement
(BSEE) said it was aware of
a "recurring problem of
connector and bolt failures"
in components used in risers
and underwater blowout
preventers used in offshore
drilling.
If a mainstay treatment of
natural medicine doctors is
shown to be safe and
effective by government
research, what do you do?
Ban it!
According to witnesses, one
man within the group put his
hand on the back of a female
passenger, a gesture that
she reportedly rejected. The
Daily Mail reported that the
man then smashed his hand
against one of the windows
in the train, leading other
passengers to react —
including one elderly man.
The star KIC 8462852
continues to display strange
behavior, baffling
astronomers and prompting
speculation – and these
musings – about advanced
aliens.
President Barack Obama would
likely veto a bill shutting
down the controversial
Operation Choke Point and
similar tactics used by
federal regulators to
financially target
disfavored industries such
as gun stores and payday
lenders...
Gun stores are one of the
types of businesses targeted
by the controversial
Operation Choke Point
The Zika virus has spread to
24 countries in the
Americas, creating “a public
health emergency of
international concern,” the
head of the World Health
Organization declared
Monday.
February 2, 2016
We live in a world with an
incredible imbalance of
power. Whether you believe
in ‘conspiracies’ or not,
there is no doubt that a
tiny fraction of the world
population has the means to
manipulate and sway public
opinion in order to maintain
a paradigm that promotes and
maintains their ability to
control and profit off the
masses. Common sense would
dictate that any group who
had the wherewithal to
successfully claw their way
into a top position would
naturally invest heavily in
ensuring their interests
were protected. As
increasing corruption is
exposed in so many areas of
society, we would be naive
to think collusion wasn’t
happening at the highest
levels as well.
Repairing a set of
115-year-old bridges may
require shutting off the
rush of water that usually
flows over the falls
A survivor hidden in a tree
says he watched Boko Haram
extremists firebomb huts and
heard the screams of
children burning to death,
among 86 people officials
say died in the latest
attack by Nigeria's
homegrown Islamic
extremists.
Does your child’s school
participate in Box Tops for
Education? It’s a program
designed to earn money for
schools. It’s billed as an
easy way to contribute to
your child’s school just by
bringing in the box tops to
products you already feed
your family. But, are the
participating products
really something we should
be encouraging our children
to eat?
After two years of
rancorous debate,
California's Public
Utilities Commission upheld
net metering by a vote of
3-to-2, allowing homeowners
with solar panels to keep
selling the excess power
they generate back to their
utility at the full retail
rate.
Homeowners with solar
panels cheer net metering as
it lowers their power bills.
But net metering has been
criticized by utilities and
some ratepayer advocates for
rewarding solar users while
leaving others to shoulder
the cost of maintaining the
electricity grid.
Shouldn’t every district be
doing this? In an effort to
feed children the best
quality food possible while
promoting environmental
health, a Bay Area school
district has become the
first in the nation to serve
100% organic meals to
students.
A police officer who’s
also a student at Darton
State College in Albany,
Georgia, was attending a
class Wednesday when the
instructor reportedly became
uncomfortable with what the
officer was carrying,
WALB-TV said.
You see the officer was
in full uniform, the station
said — and he had a firearm.
Methane-to-electric
projects are a hot topic in
the wastewater sector these
days.
“The idea — using methane
from sewage waste to
generate electricity — seems
to be having its moment,
with Chicago (with the
world's largest wastewater
plant) and Los Angeles
announcing plans, and
Washington, DC, starting up
its facility in October...
Chinese shares stumbled
lower on Monday after an
official measure of activity
in the giant factory sector
fell to its lowest since
mid-2012, offering no
respite for markets from the
country's economic drift.
The Shanghai
Composite Index .SSEC eased
1.8 percent, while the
CSI300 index .CSI300 of the
largest listed companies in
Shanghai and Shenzhen lost
1.5 percent.
"Soros' challenge against
the renminbi (yuan) and Hong
Kong dollar is unlikely to
succeed, there is no doubt
about that," the People's
Daily overseas edition said
in a front-page opinion
piece on Tuesday.
China's economic
fundamentals remain sound,
despite slower growth,
volatility in its stock
market and the yuan's
depreciation against the
U.S. dollar, said the
opinion piece, written by a
researcher at the commerce
ministry.
It’s the first definitive
detection of a property
other than mass that’s been
linked to the invisible dark
matter making up 27 percent
of our universe...
A new study published
January 25, 2016 in
Physical Review Letters
suggests that a galaxy’s
cluster’s internal
structure is linked to
its dark matter environment.
It’s the first time that a
property besides the
mass of a galaxy
cluster has been linked with
surrounding dark matter
DeltaWing Technology Group
and DHX Electric Machines,
both based in Georgia in the
US, are collaborating to
build small, lightweight
electric motors for
automotive applications. The
companies claim their
electric motors are 75
percent smaller than
equivalent-output motors for
automotive applications
thanks to engineering
improvements in heat
management.
From the cancer risks from
formaldehyde found in your
floor cleaner to the health
risks from phthalates found
in your food storage
containers, under-regulated
chemicals can pose safety
hazards to you and your
family. And those are just
two of the thousands of
under-regulated chemicals
that are in our everyday
products.
Echinacea has been the Rocky
Balboa of natural cold and
flu remedies since the 1990s
— called a champion for your
health one year, only to be
knocked down by health
experts the next.
In
the late 1990s, it was the
king of the ring, racking up
impressive annual sales of
$206 million after research
suggested it can effectively
combat winter viruses. By
2010 it was practically
washed up, after some
studies showed that it had
little or no benefit — with
annual sales plummeting to a
paltry $115 million.
But the most recent research
suggests that Echinacea is
ready to reclaim its crown.
He said the global economy
is at the end of the era of
borrowing growth and profits
from the future in the form
of easy monetary policies.
"Either we validate the
financial asset prices and
growth faster, or
alternatively we will slip
into a global recession with
financial disorder," he told
CNBC, saying we’ll
know the answers within the
next three years.
"The path we're on right now
— and that we've been on for
a while— is ending," he
said.
Fatherhood
“Being a father can
'unreason' your worldview,
or at least make it very
flexible, and that can
create all sorts of fun and
insights. It's sad that
children's open-eyed wonder
and sense of play begin to
fade as they approach
adolescence. One grand
function of fathering is to
keep the fading to a
minimum.” ― Clyde Edgerton
The huge wind
turbines are
designed to fold up
to avoid taking
damage in high winds
(Credit:
Sandia/Trevor
Johnston/Popular
Science)
Sandia National
Laboratories has
revealed its plans for
the extreme-scale
Segmented Ultralight
Morphing Rotor (SUMR).
The turbines are built
to deal with the extreme
conditions of an
offshore farm, featuring
a folding build to cope
with high winds.
-
Most of what people eat
is not real food; it’s
“edible food-like
substances” that have no
counterpart in nature.
Our current confusion
about what to eat is the
result of forgetting
that a healthy diet
consists of REAL FOOD
-
Other practical dietary
advice includes: Don't
eat anything your
great-grandmother
wouldn't recognize as
food; eat only foods
that will eventually
spoil or rot; limit your
meat consumption and pay
attention to quality
-
Low-fat diet
recommendations have
fueled the very problems
it was said to prevent —
a sad testament to the
dangers of following
nutritional guidelines
based on ideas about
individual nutrients
rather than whole foods
Happiness
“Happiness does not come
from doing easy work but
from the afterglow of
satisfaction that comes
after the achievement of a
difficult task that demanded
our best.” ― Theodore Isaac
Rubin
The
House Energy Committee
approved a bill Thursday
afternoon to lift some
federal regulation from West
Virginia coal operations.
HB 2119 is called the
Intrastate Coal and Use Act.
It cites the 9th and 10th
Amendments to the U.S.
Constitution that define the
borders of federal and state
powers.
If there is one remedy that
can prevent and aid healing
of any symptoms of colds and
even flu, it is fire cider.
Also known as fire vinegar,
this folk medicine has a
long history of use in the
world of herbal healing.
While there can be some
variations to the recipe,
the most common ingredients
are: apple cider vinegar;
roots of ginger, turmeric,
and horseradish, onion and
garlic, jalapeno peppers,
lemon, and cayenne powder.
Fifteen people tried in
connection with a toxic
spill from an alumina
reservoir in western Hungary
that killed 10 people in
2010 were acquitted on
Thursday, an outcome a local
mayor said would only serve
to further traumatize and
anger residents.
The spill was one of
Hungary's worst
environmental disasters.
Toxic red mud flowing from
the reservoir destroyed
hundreds of homes across
three towns, covered the
countryside and seeped into
rivers as far downstream as
the Danube.
It took years to clean up
at a cost of about 40
billion forints ($140
million).
The issue of whether or not
to vaccinate is a
contentious topic. Parents
that fear or have direct
experience with the
crippling — sometimes deadly
— effects of vaccination,
feel objective and rigorous
research should be the
standard. Of the opposite
viewpoint are pro-vaccine
supporters who believe
vaccination is completely
safe and without risk. The
debate continues to rage,
but the fact remains that
until we have a solid,
unbiased and transparent
examination of vaccine
safety, the disagreement
will not be resolved anytime
soon.
The Bank of Japan on Friday
said it will charge lenders
that leave too much cash on
idle deposit with it,
introducing a negative
interest rate policy for the
first time as it seeks to
shore up a stumbling
economic recovery.
The surprise move rattled
stock market investors, with
the Nikkei 225 index
swinging between gains and
losses after the
announcement. It closed 2.8
percent higher. The Japanese
yen slid, with the U.S.
dollar rising to about
120.70 yen from about 118.50
earlier in the day.
As most of you know, we at
ArizonaEnergy.org keep
contact with many possible
inventions that may overturn
the Energy world.
We
have been monitoring the
Keshe Foundation and its
Magrav generator. I
promised to let you know as
events happen.
Consumers aren’t the only
ones who aren’t keen on a
high-tech “solution” to GMO
labeling.
As the
Grocery Manufacturers
Association (GMA) was
meeting behind closed doors
last week, trying to
negotiate some sort of
compromise that would
preempt Vermont’s mandatory
GMO labeling law before July
1, a number of
Senators—including
presidential candidate
Bernie Sanders—sent some
pointed questions for the
GMA about its proposed QR
code labeling scheme.
Mali's elephants, one of
just two remaining desert
herds in the world, will be
gone in three years unless
the government does more to
protect them, a conservation
group said on Thursday.
Poachers have taken
advantage of the chaos from
a growing Islamist
insurgency and other unrest
in the lawless north to step
up ivory trafficking - a
trade that the United
Nations says funds militants
New evidence shows that
members of a global vaccine
committee may have been
involved in a massive
cover-up regarding the
safety of the HPV vaccine...
One would think the
scientific community would
take heed—especially
scientists on the GACVS, who
are responsible for advising
the world on vaccine safety.
Aluminum in vaccines is a
serious issue that we’ve
addressed at length...
Scientists have
discovered that a
compound found in
natural food
additive annatto
could play a role in
tackling skin cancer
A latin American seed
once used by Mayans as
body paint and today as
an orange food coloring
in your cheddar cheese
may prove useful in the
fight against skin
cancer. Scientists have
found that a compound
found in natural food
additive annatto
prevents the formation
of cancer cells
resulting from UV
radiation in mice, and
are now exploring
whether annatto-rich
diets can prevent
similar sun damage in
humans.
This chemical
drawing of a
nano-island of
graphene into which
iron-nitrogen
complexes have been
embedded shows the
chemical makeup of
this nano-sized
material
A more cost-effective
fuel cell catalyst
material consisting of
iron-nitrogen complexes
embedded in tiny islands
of graphene could be
used in place of costly
platinum. Research by
teams at Helmholtz
Zentrum Berlin and TU
Darmstadt have produced
the catalyst material
and found that its
efficiency approaches
that of platinum.
Less than two months after
196 parties to the United
Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
adopted the Paris Agreement,
the global community is
already seeing signs of it
being a decisive turning
point, according to a senior
UN official dealing with
climate issues
When the moon is high in
the sky, it creates bulges
in the planet’s atmosphere
that creates imperceptible
changes in the amount of
rain that falls below.
New University of
Washington research to be
published in Geophysical
Research Letters shows that
the lunar forces affect the
amount of rain – though very
slightly.
Possessions
“Do not overrate what you
have received, nor envy
others. He who envies others
does not obtain peace of
mind.” ― Buddha
In Europe and North America,
the debate on renewables is
often conducted in the
context of achieving the
right energy mix – reducing
dependence on fossil fuels
and planning for energy
conservation and efficiency.
But what role can
sustainable, renewable
energy play in those areas
of the world where having
more than one energy source
would be an unimaginable
luxury, and where energy
supply means cutting down a
tree or foraging for
firewood?
The FBI is itching to indict
Democratic front-runner
Hillary Clinton and her
longtime aid Huma Abedin on
charges of conducting
classified and sensitive
work on unsecured venues,
according to former House
Oversight and Government
Reform Committee Chairman
Rep. Darrell Issa
(R-Calif.).
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 (02 Feb,
03 Feb, 04 Feb). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on days one
and three (02 Feb, 04 Feb)
and quiet to active levels
on day two (03 Feb).
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency’s regional
administrator responsible
for the City of Flint has
resigned, effective today,
over her handling of the
crisis caused by lead
contamination in the city’s
drinking water.
It is not the first time
that Russia and OPEC have
sought to join forces to
support prices by curbing
production or exports. But
Russia's past collaboration
with OPEC has been fraught
with tensions over market
share.
Pressured by
OPEC to help support oil
prices, Moscow has enacted
some cuts but the reductions
have been limited and brief.
The time is ripe for
catching all five visible
planets in the morning sky.
All five bright planets are
now appearing in the same
sky for the first time since
the year 2005. Get up 80
minutes or so before sunrise
to see five planets
stringing across the great
vault of the morning sky.
Lawsuit alleges negligence
and regulatory filings show
the company knew its storage
facility wells were
vulnerable to leaks.
Southern California Gas Co.
knew of deteriorating wells
at its underground methane
storage facilities and
warned state regulators of
the risks almost a year
before a massive,
uncontrolled leak was
discovered at its Aliso
Canyon unit on the outskirts
of Los Angeles.
Which country in the
Middle East and North Africa
(MENA) has the greatest and
most realistic solar
potential in the next five
years?
That was the question
posed to a panel of
renewable experts at the
World Future Energy Summit
in Abu Dhabi on Jan. 20 and
the answer was resounding –
Saudi Arabia.
A new global analysis of
seafood found that fish
populations throughout the
world's oceans are
contaminated with industrial
and agricultural pollutants,
collectively known as
persistent organic
pollutants (POPs). The study
from researchers at Scripps
Institution of Oceanography
at UC San Diego also
uncovered some good
news?concentrations of these
pollutants have been
consistently dropping over
the last 30 years.
Human use of land for crops
and herds has completely
altered the world's
landscapes. A new field of
research called experimental
socio-ecology looks to the
past to predict the
consequences of this type of
human activity in the
future. Researchers at
Arizona State University
have spent the last 10 years
studying the effects that
small-scale farmers have had
on land in the
Mediterranean, and now they
have released a report with
the findings of the project.
Asked at one of her town
hall meetings if she would
consider appointing Barack
Obama to the Supreme Court
after his term as president,
Hillary appeared as if she
had just heard the best idea
of her life.
The system is
powered by a
connected solar
panel.
Austrian startup
Fontus is developing a
novel water bottle that
is vaporware in just
about every sense of the
phrase. Not only does it
not yet exist in the
marketplace, but it is
claimed to literally
pull water vapor out of
the air to fill itself.
The sun and moon, the shape
of a beach and larger
coastline, the angle of a
seabed leading up to land,
and the prevailing ocean
currents and winds all
affect the height of the
tides.
The moon was formed by a
violent, head-on collision
between the early Earth and
a “planetary embryo” called
Theia approximately 100
million years after the
Earth formed, UCLA
geochemists and colleagues
report.
Scientists had already
known about this high-speed
crash, which occurred almost
4.5 billion years ago, but
many thought the Earth
collided with Theia
(pronounced THAY-eh)
at an angle of 45 degrees or
more — a powerful
side-swipe. New evidence
reported Jan. 29 in the
journal Science
substantially strengthens
the case for a head-on
assault.
Oregon's two biggest
electric utilities told
state regulators Friday that
their compromise plan to
eliminate coal-fired
electricity and meet half
their customers' demand with
renewable energy would be
affordable, technically
feasible and vastly
preferable to ballot
measures that environmental
groups are proposing for
next November.
The bacterial-human cell
ratio in the body is quite
astounding, if you didn’t
already know it. Did you
realize that the amount of
bacteria in your body vastly
outnumber everything else?
The bacterial-human cell
ratio is estimated to be
around 10:1! That means for
every human cell in your
body, there are roughly 10
bacterial cells. So who’s
living whom? Who’s in
charge? It’s certainly not
the human “you”, because you
only have one eleventh of
the numbers (although human
cells are far larger and
heavier).
-
Endorphins are your
body’s “feel-good”
chemicals, but they may
not be responsible for
the so-called “runner’s
high” after exercise
-
Endorphins increase in
your blood following the
stress of exercise, but
they don’t cross your
blood-brain barrier and
therefore may not
trigger exercise-induced
euphoria
-
Anandamide (AEA), a
neurotransmitter known
as the “bliss compound,”
increases during and
following exercise and
may be partly
responsible for why
exercise makes you happy
As methane continues to leak
in Southern California, it
has sent lots of other
issues spewing into the air
this week. Methane is, of
course, a greenhouse gas, so
the climate is definitely
cringing. The people
sickened by the leak are not
at all placated by the
assurances that the
chemicals making them
sick -- mercaptans -- won't
hurt them long-term, because
research on that is
essentially non-existent.
Oh, and it turns out SoCal
Gas knew there was a good
chance this could happen.
The World Health
Organization announced it
will convene an Emergency
Committee under
International Health
Regulations on Monday,
February 1, concerning the
Zika virus ‘explosive’
spread throughout the
Americas. The virus
reportedly has the potential
to reach pandemic
proportions — possibly
around the globe. But
understandingwhy this
outbreak happened is vital
to curbing it.
Amid concerns over the rapid
spread of the Zika virus,
Jamaica confirmed Saturday
the virus had spread to its
shores, and Colombia
reported more than 2,000
pregnant women have been
infected. The Jamaican
Ministry of Health said in a
statement a child with the
confirmed case of the virus
started showing symptoms
earlier this month when she
returned home from a trip to
Texas. Jamaican officials
are investigating the source
of the virus.