WASHINGTON - Water and new life are returning to an ancient Iraqi marsh considered by many as the cradle of Western civilization....

For more than 5,000 years, the Marsh Arab culture thrived in the 8,000 square miles of wetlands fed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The marshes boasted hundreds of species of birds and fish, and periodic flooding created fertile farm lands.

Some scholars believe the flooded, flat plain was an important part of the development of an agriculture-based culture that helped raise civilization to new heights. The vast marsh was identified by some biblical scholars as the site of the fabled Garden of Eden.

Despite the problems, Richardson said he is optimistic about the marsh’s future.

“I think the main outcome of this early research is to show that the marshes have much more resiliency than we thought and that the potential for them to be restored is much higher,” he said.

Richardson said the quality of water flowing into the marsh is higher than expected and the response of wildlife has been swift and positive. Plant life is returning to many areas and some people are resuming a way of life that has endured for thousands of years, he said.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6998715/



Hmmmmm....I've never been to Iraq, but I've got a few close friends that are from that region of the world. They've told me that Iraq is actually quite a beautiful country, in fact, they've gone as far as to say that Iraq is the most scenically beautiful country in the Middle East.

It's the cradle of civilization. Saddam polluted the marshes and turned the rivers into sewers.

Absolutely, Mr. B...it is indeed the cradle of civilization. The article states that, at one point, he had every single piece of earth~moving equipment that Iraq owned in that valley, diverting the water, and adding drainage channels....all to obliterate the half a million people living there. What an evil bastard.....

GRRRRRRRRR............

More good news.

That's fantastic...I used to live on the Puget Sound, and I'd walk down to Alki Beach to watch the Orcas....incredible. The most awesome, though, was watching the Right Whales mothers, with their calves off the coast of South Africa. The calves would literally shadow their mother, right off her right, back side, and do everything the mother did...exactly! For instance, mom would rocket up out of the water, doing a 360 rotation....and a minute later, here comes junior!!! And all happening barely 60 feet from the shore!It was awesome!




Quick Facts About Gray Whales
* One hundred pounds of hitchhiking barnacles may live firmly attached to a whale's head and body.

* Because gray whales are usually found within sight of land, they are often killed by oil spills or harmed by polluted waters.

* Covering nearly 100 miles in a day, gray whales can travel from Unimark Pass in Alaska to Baja California in an average of 55 days. They spend most of their time close to shore as they travel, just below the water's surface.

* A mother supports her calf at the surface for its first few breaths of air, buoying it up with her own back and flukes. Within three hours a calf can keep itself afloat and swim on a steady course. A cow and her calf have a close, even tender relationship . . . by human terms. * A massive industrial saltworks may be built at San Igancio lagoon, threatening the last undisturbed birthing grounds of the gray whale.

* A small number of gray whales are still legally hunted, but years of protection from commercial whaling have increased gray whale numbers. The gray whale was removed from the endangered species list in 1994.

* A gray whale's eyes are each about the size of a baseball.

*Gray whales migrate from the cold waters of Alaska to the warm waters of Mexico each winter because ice in the Chukchi and Bering Seas makes living there dangerous for a whale. Also, calves lose less energy when they are in warm water. This is important for the nursing mother whales because they fast for such a long period.

Looks like lights out in 2029....So can't we all just get along until then?

(not really lights out.....but not since Pink Floyd will there be such a spectacular light show!)



Will Earth break up 2004 MN4?
An asteroid buzzing past Earth in 2029 will come closer than expected — and may not survive intact.

Bill Cooke
February 10, 2005
For a few days at the end of December, an asteroid named 2004 MN4 looked like it might be Earth's biggest impact threat. Based on available information about its orbit, astronomers gave odds of 1 in 37 that 2004 MN4 would strike Earth April 13, 2029. But astronomers found images of the asteroid taken before its discovery, giving them a longer arc of its orbit, and the collision threat evaporated. It appeared the rock would miss Earth by 40,000 miles (64,400 kilometers).

Now, radar measurements suggest MN4 will miss us by half that distance — and come so close Earth's gravity could rip it apart.

Between January 27 and 30, a team led by Lance Benner of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, tracked the asteroid using the enormous Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. By bouncing radio waves off the asteroid, the astronomers received precise information about its position and speed that enabled them to plot the object's course over the next 24 years with great accuracy.

The results shocked some astronomers. The new orbit indicates the asteroid will miss Earth by 22,000 miles (35,400 km), passing just inside the belt of geostationary satellites.

A miss is still a miss, so what's the big deal? At first glance, the change in the miss distance doesn't seem surprising. Astronomers are constantly updating comet and asteroid orbits, and changes are expected.

But for 2004 MN4, the change in the miss distance was greater than the error computed in the December analyses. Put another way, 2004 MN4 is now outside the uncertainty box — the region astronomers thought would contain the object's most likely locations on April 13, 2029.

The asteroid, whose chance of striking Earth was once computed to be improbably high, has presented us with the improbable once again. Scientists place great store in their error estimates — sometimes too much. One of the most prominent asteroid researchers, Clark Chapman of the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI) in Boulder, Colorado, notes that who deal with low-probability, high-consequence events, like airplane crashes, place very little faith in error estimates. Perhaps, he suggests, this is a lesson the asteroid community needs to learn.

But there's another reason for concern. According to Dan Durda, another SWRI astronomer, 2004 MN4 is likely to be a "rubble-pile" asteroid, consisting of material only loosely held together by gravity. Because the asteroid will pass us at just 2.5 times Earth's diameter, tidal forces could tear it apart. The result would be a trail of rocks drifting slowly apart with the passage of time. One or more of these might hit Earth in the more distant future, creating a spectacular fireball as it burns up in the atmosphere.

Although a miss in 2029 is virtually certain, if MN4 survives its Earth flyby, astronomers cannot rule out potential collisions in the 2030's. Therefore, 2004 MN4 still holds at 1 on the Torino impact hazard scale, a classification designed to quantify the impact risk of near-Earth asteroids (similar to the Ritcher scale for earthquakes).

Clark Chapman says the past few weeks have been "educational for the asteroid impact community," and he refers to 2004 MN4 as the "most significant event, by far, in decades."

So, take note: On Friday, April 13, 2029, from dark-sky sites throughout Europe, 2004 MN4 will look like a 3rd-magnitude star. It will be moving a quarter of the way across the sky in just an hour, its motion among the stars clearly evident.

And maybe, just maybe, you'll see an asteroid die.

Tiny Early 'Hobbit' Human Was Smart, Skull Shows

Mar 4, 9:01 AM (ET)
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tiny pre-humans who lived on an Indonesian island until about 12,000 years ago had brains so surprisingly sophisticated that the creatures may represent a previously unrecognized species of early humans, or hominids, scientists reported on Thursday.

CAT scans of the inside of a skull -- among the bones of eight individuals found in a cave on the Indonesian island of Flores -- suggest brains that would have allowed advanced behavior such as toolmaking, the international team of researchers said.

They said further study of the skull of the creature, nicknamed "the Hobbit" after a literary character, showed it clearly was a normal adult of its species, not a mutant or diseased specimen, as some critics have alleged.

"I am bowled over," said Dean Falk of Florida State University, who studied CAT scans to make a virtual cast of the inside of the creature's skull.

"I thought we were going to see a little chimpanzee-like brain and I was wrong. Nothing like this has been seen before," she told a telephone briefing.

Falk saw features that would have allowed the "Hobbit" to have made the tools found in the Indonesian cave, to use fire and to hunt as a group.

"I never thought I would see it in a brain this small," she said.

Homo floresiensis stood only about 3 feet (one meter) tall and had a brain about a third the size of modern adult humans. It had long arms and would have walked upright.

"We know from the record that these little humans, these little meter-high humans, were hunting things like pygmy elephants, were making fire and were making stone tools," said Mike Morwood of the University of New England in Australia, who led the initial mission that uncovered the bones.

NOT A DWARF

The discovery, announced last October, was met with surprise and some skepticism. Critics said the bones in fact represented some sort of dwarf or perhaps something suffering from a condition called microcephaly and not a unique species of early human.

But, writing in the journal Science, the team of U.S., Australian and Indonesian researchers said their unusual study of the inside of the "Hobbit's" brain case showed it was related to Homo erectus, which lived from 2 million years ago to about 25,000 years ago.

"However, it was not like a little miniature Homo erectus brain. It was different," Falk said.

The particular skull discovered on Flores had clear impressions left by the creature's brain that allowed Falk and experts at Washington University in St. Louis to trace important structures.

For instance, there are two expanded areas in the frontal lobe, Falk said. "I have not seen anything like this before," said Falk, who compared "Hobbit's" skull to images of 10 human skulls, 18 chimpanzee skulls and five Homo erectus skulls.

"In humans this is a relatively large area," she said. "It is known to be involved in planning ahead."

Hobbit had "fat" temporal lobes, she said. "People don't have fat ones but big ones," she said.

"In humans the left temporal lobe has things that are important for understanding speech. The temporal lobe also some memory function. It processes emotions. It is important for identifying objects and people and putting names to people and objects."

Especially interesting was a fissure near the back of the Hobbit's brain that Falk's team identified as a lunate sulcus, a structure seen in humans that is pushed forward because of an expanded association cortex.

It shows the little pre-humans were tiny but not stupid. "I almost fell over seeing this feature in something so small," Falk said

Lovely.

What an idylic life...so peaceful, sooooo calm.


Old Walking Song

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And wither then? I cannot say.

The Road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
Let others follow it who can!
Let them a journey new begin,
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.

Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate;
And though I oft have passed them by,
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.

Hobbits are little people. They are actually smaller than Dwarves, variable between two and four feet. Since they are much smaller than the big folk, their name to the humans, they are shy from them. The Hobbits seldom wore shoes, since they had leathery soles under their feet that also had brown curling hair. Their faces were broad, bright-eyed, red-cheeked and good-natured. The big folk called them Haflings, and the Elves Periannath. The origin of the name Hobbit are probably holbytla that means hole-builder. The name is pretty describing to a Hobbit, as they are building holes to live in. The holes are cozy and surprisingly homely and clean. Hobbits normally don't do a lot of traveling, and that's why there is almost no adventurers among the Hobbits. Hobbits are very fond of food, and of that reason are they eating a lot. They are kind off slow in normal movement, don't hurry, and usually eats (six meals when they could get it) and sleeps very much of their life. However, they have quick hearing and good sight. The Hobbits are able to disappear swift without any kind of magic. This often looks like magic to humans that don't know how they are able to do this. The real secret is that the Hobbits are living close to the nature, and use the possibilities of hiding in it.

http://tolkien.cro.net/


http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/hobbits.html

Mexico's Volcano of Fire Spews Hot Lava

Mar 10, 9:14 PM (ET)


MEXICO CITY (AP) - Western Mexico's Volcano of Fire spewed hot lava and rock Thursday, the latest in a series of spectacular but non-threatening eruptions in the past few weeks.

The volcano near the city of Colima, 430 miles northwest of Mexico City, unleashed a column of smoke and ash along with a flow of burning orange lava on Sept. 29. Since then, scientists have reported nearly daily eruptions from its 12,533-foot peak.

The eruptions have been caused by seismic activity, and scientists can't predict how long they will last.

The activity has sometimes left a light coating of ask on nearby communities, but officials say there is no immediate danger.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hmmmm......I've been kinda keeping an eye on the seismic activity around the Pacific rim of fire since the tsunami...it seems there has been an increase in that sort of activity since 12/26/04.

Buckle up, boys & girls...& AV, keep an eye on the canines, they'll give you a heads up. We're inland quite a bit, I know, but stranger things have happened.

By Robert Roy Britt

Updated: 4:55 p.m. ET March 8, 2005

The eruption of a super volcano "sooner or later" will chill the planet and threaten human civilization, British scientists warned Tuesday.

MAR 9, 2005

And now the bad news: There's not much anyone can do about it.

Several volcanoes around the world are capable of gigantic eruptions unlike anything witnessed in recorded history, based on geologic evidence of past events, the scientists said. Such eruptions would dwarf those of Mount St. Helens, Krakatoa, Pinatubo and anything else going back dozens of millennia.

"Super eruptions are up to hundreds of times larger than these," said Stephen Self of Britain's Open University.

"An area the size of North America can be devastated, and pronounced deterioration of global climate would be expected for a few years following the eruption," Self said. "They could result in the devastation of world agriculture, severe disruption of food supplies, and mass starvation. These effects could be sufficiently severe to threaten the fabric of civilization."

Self and his colleagues at the Geological Society of London presented their report to the British government's Natural Hazard Working Group.

"Although very rare, these events are inevitable, and at some point in the future humans will be faced with dealing with and surviving a super eruption," Stephen Sparks of the University of Bristol told LiveScience in advance of Tuesday's announcement.



Supporting evidence

The warning is not new. Geologists in the United States detailed a similar scenario in 2001, when they found evidence suggesting volcanic activity in Yellowstone National Park will eventually lead to a colossal eruption. Half the United States will be covered in ash up to 3 feet (1 meter) deep, according to a study published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

Explosions of this magnitude "happen about every 600,000 years at Yellowstone," says Chuck Wicks of the U.S. Geological Survey, who has studied the possibilities in separate work. "And it's been about 620,000 years since the last super explosive eruption there."

Past volcanic catastrophes at Yellowstone and elsewhere remain evident as giant collapsed basins called calderas.

A super eruption is a scaled up version of a typical volcanic outburst, Sparks explained. Each is caused by a rising and growing chamber of hot molten rock known as magma.

"In super eruptions the magma chamber is huge," Sparks said. The eruption is rapid, occurring in a matter of days. "When the magma erupts the overlying rocks collapse into the chamber, which has reduced its pressure due to the eruption. The collapse forms the huge crater."

The eruption pumps dust and chemicals into the atmosphere for years, screening the Sun and cooling the planet. Earth is plunged into a perpetual winter, some models predict, causing many plant and animal species to disappear forever.

"The whole of a continent might be covered by ash, which might take many years — possibly decades — to erode away and for vegetation to recover," Sparks said.

Yellowstone may be winding down geologically, experts say. But they believe it harbors at least one final punch. Globally, there are still plenty of possibilities for super volcano eruptions, even as Earth quiets down over the long haul of its 4.5-billion-year existence.

"The earth is of course losing energy, but at a very slow rate, and the effects are only really noticeable over billions rather than millions of years," Sparks said.



Human impact

The odds of a globally destructive volcano explosion in any given century are extremely low, and no scientist can say when the next one will occur. But the chances are five to 10 times greater than a globally destructive asteroid impact, according to the new British report.

The next super eruption, whenever it occurs, might not be the first one humans have dealt with.

About 74,000 years ago, in what is now Sumatra, a volcano called Toba blew with a force estimated at 10,000 times that of Mount St. Helens. Ash darkened the sky all around the planet. Temperatures plummeted by up to 21 degrees at higher latitudes, according to research by Michael Rampino, a biologist and geologist at New York University.

Rampino has estimated three-quarters of the plant species in the Northern Hemisphere perished.

Stanley Ambrose, an anthropologist at the University of Illinois, suggested in 1998 that Rampino's work might explain a curious bottleneck in human evolution: The blueprints of life for all humans — DNA — are remarkably similar, given that our species branched off from the rest of the primate family tree a few million years ago.

Ambrose has said early humans were perhaps pushed to the edge of extinction after the Toba eruption — around the same time folks got serious about art and tool making. Perhaps only a few thousand survived. Humans today would all be descended from these few, and in terms of the genetic code, not a whole lot would change in 74,000 years.

Sitting ducks


Based on the latest evidence, eruptions the size of the giant Yellowstone and Toba events occur at least every 100,000 years, Sparks said, "and it could be as high as every 50,000 years. There are smaller but nevertheless huge eruptions which would have continental to global consequences every 5,000 years or so."

Unlike other threats to humanity — asteroids, nuclear attacks and global warming, to name a few — there's little to be done about a super volcano.

"While it may in future be possible to deflect asteroids or somehow avoid their impact, even science fiction cannot produce a credible mechanism for averting a super eruption," the new report states. "No strategies can be envisaged for reducing the power of major volcanic eruptions."

The Geological Society of London has issued similar warnings going back to 2000. The scientists this week called for more funding to investigate further the history of super eruptions and their likely effects on the planet and on modern society.

"Sooner or later a super eruption will happen on Earth, and this issue also demands serious attention," the report concludes.

© 2005 LiveScience.com. All rights

Current Global Vulcan Activity Link: http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/current_volcs/current.html

March 4th, 2005 1:54 pm
Bush Picks Stephen Johnson to Head EPA


Acting Administrator Would Be First Career Employee to Lead the Agency

By William Branigin / Washington Post

President Bush today nominated Stephen L. Johnson, the acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, to take over the helm of the agency and promote his administration's goal of rewriting the nation's air pollution laws.

In a ceremony in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Bush said that if Johnson is confirmed by the Senate, he would be the first career EPA employee and first professional scientist to head the agency. Johnson, 53, a native of Washington, D.C., has worked at the EPA for 24 years and previously served as assistant administrator of the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, among other posts.

Johnson "knows the EPA from the ground up and has a passion for its mission: to protect the health of our citizens and to guarantee the quality of our air, water and land for generations to come," Bush said. He called Johnson "an innovative problem-solver with good judgment and complete integrity" and said he would use his scientific background "to set clear, rational standards for environmental equality and to place sound, scientific analysis at the heart of all decisions."

Johnson, who holds a master's degree in pathology from George Washington University in the District, would replace Mike Leavitt, who was chosen by Bush in December to serve as secretary of health and human services in his second term.

In brief remarks accepting the nomination, Johnson told Bush, "Under your leadership, we have made great strides in environmental protection." If confirmed, he said, he will continue to advance the administration's environmental agenda "while maintaining our nation's economic competitiveness."

Bush said that Johnson "shares my conviction that we can improve the Earth while maintaining a vibrant and competitive economy." He said Johnson's immediate task will be to "work with Congress to pass my Clear Skies initiative," a bill that he said would "reduce power plant pollution by 70 percent without disrupting the economy or raising electricity prices."

The proposed legislation has run into strong opposition from Democrats and public health advocates, who argue that the initiative would do nothing to curb emissions linked to global warming and would undermine existing air quality standards and enforcement tools. Critics also point out that the Clear Skies bill's reductions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury emissions by 70 percent would not occur until after 2018.

Opponents of Clear Skies fear that it would undercut the 1970 Clean Air Act, which has helped improve the nation's air quality dramatically since it was enacted. According to an EPA study in 1990, cleaner air saved the nation between $6 trillion and $50 trillion in health costs and lost productivity during the previous two decades, while costing about $523 billion to achieve.

In his speech introducing Johnson, Bush also said his nominee would help design new regulations to improve food safety and lead federal efforts to ensure the security of the nation's drinking water. Citing EPA's "important role in the war on terror," Bush said that his budget increases support for EPA homeland security programs by more than 70 percent this year.

However, his 2006 budget proposal would cut overall EPA spending by 5.6 percent. The agency currently has a budget of about $8.6 billion and employs more than 18,000 people nationwide.

Washington Post staff writer Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Clean air? Who needs it?

Hey, li'l bart! did you see this?


Residents report streak of light over southern Oregon, Washington state

By WILLIAM McCALL
ASSOCIATED PRESS


PORTLAND, Ore., March 13 — Dozens of residents in the Pacific Northwest reported seeing a bright streak of light as it flashed across the sky, startling witnesses from southern Oregon to the Seattle area, according to officials.

Scientists said the flaming object was probably a meteor, and that it likely disintegrated before any fragments fell into the Pacific Ocean.

''It was like a big ball of fire,'' said Summer Jensen, who was in her living room Saturday night when she saw the flash of light outside her Portland home.

Michael O'Connor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration's regional office in Renton, Wash., said he fielded numerous calls from people reporting they had seen a bright streak across the sky shortly before 8 p.m.

" He said police, pilots and some air traffic controllers described it as ''a green ball of fire with a long tail.''

''It appears to have come down over the ocean,'' said Dick Pugh of the Cascadia Meteorite Laboratory in Portland. He said the object flew over the Pacific Coast, streaking along from south to north.

Jim Todd, planetarium director at the Oregon Museum of Science & Industry, said that if a meteor had entered the atmosphere during the day, it may not even have been noticed.

''It creates a bright contrast against the night sky,'' Todd said.

Last year, a meteor that appeared like a fireball was sighted over western Washington state. In March 2003, residents in four Midwestern states also reported seeing a disintegrating meteorite flash across the sky.

Super cyclone moving in for third hit on Australia

1 hour, 33 minutes ago Science - AFP

SYDNEY (AFP) - A "super cyclone" packing winds of over 300 kilometers an hour (185 miles) is bearing down on Australia's remote northwest coast after already striking the country twice in the east and north.

Cyclone Ingrid was upgraded to a Category Five -- the highest level -- early Tuesday over the Timor Sea and was expected to roar across the coast near the Aboriginal community of Kalumburu early Wednesday.

Western Australia's cyclone warning center said Kalumburu and other communities in the far northwest were well prepared for the storm, which is predicted to have sustained winds of 285 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 320 kilometers per hour.



"I think most of the communities around there are fairly well prepared and they're just getting ready to batten down if the destructive inner core of the cyclone does come close to them," the center's Andrew Burton told ABC radio.

Women and children in Kalumburu were preparing to evacuate by air to the town of Wyndham while men were battening down their possessions and preparing for flooding, the Australian Associated Press reported from Western Australia.

Ingrid, one of the most powerful cyclones ever to hit Australia, first struck the far northeast on Thursday but caused little damage in the sparsely populated area.

The storm then headed back out to sea north of Australia and caused severe damage on Monday to the Tiwi Islands just off the north coast, destroying buildings, uprooting trees and cutting power and communications to remote Aboriginal communities.

No injuries were reported from the islands

Sudan's army slaughters elephants for Asian markets

Mon Mar 14,10:38 AM ET Science - AFP


NAIROBI (AFP) - Sudan's army and proxy militias are slaughtering large numbers of elephants in southern Sudan and parts of unstable central Africa to fill a growing Asian market, mainly in China, for ivory.




A report compiled for the British-based wildlife charity Care for the Wild International, said Sudan is now the focal point for the illegal ivory trade which is attacking elephant populations in surrounding nations.


Southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (news - web sites) (DRC), the Central African Republic, Kenya and possibly Chad have become major sources for raw ivory exports to Asia through Sudan, where the sale carved items produced before a 1989 international ban on the trade in ivory is allowed, it said.


Esmond Martin, a respected elephant researcher who led the month-long investigation, told reporters here that the Sudanese army and pro-government militias had virtually invaded Garamba National Park in the eastern DRC where "the killing of elephants is out of control."


"The poachers are mainly members of the Sudanese army who possess the necessary firearms and ammunition," he said. "They also have access to government transport to move tusks to Khartoum and Omdurman."


About 75 percent of all the ivory items sold in Sudan are purchased by Chinese nationals, said Martin, the lead author of the Care for the Wild International report.


While the large numbers of buyers also hail from South Korea (news - web sites) and the Gulf Arab states, the report said Chinese contractors working in Sudan's oil, construction and mining sectors are the largest consumers.


It said the demand for trophies in China, the world's most populous nation, has been fanned by its growing economy and the skyrocketing purchasing power of its population.


This, in turn, has driven up the cost of illegal ivory from about 15 (11 euros) to 43 dollars (32 euros) a kilo in 1997 to between 44 and 148 dollars per kilo, with an average of 105 dollars depending on the quality and weight of the tusks, it said.


Martin said the unregulated trade in Sudan -- which has about a stockpile of 50,000 kilos of ivory -- has cast a dark shadow on the elephant population in central African region.


Between 6,000 and 12,000 jumbos are killed annually in the central African countries to feed the demand in Asia for ivory, he said.

It passed the Senate yesterday 51-49...now, on to the House....



Bush renews call for Alaskan oil drilling as oil prices spike
Wednesday, March 9, 2005 Posted: 5:41 PM EST (2241 GMT)


COLUMBUS, Ohio (CNN) -- With oil prices nearing last year's record highs, President Bush renewed his call for Congress to authorize oil exploration in Alaska's largest wildlife refuge as part of a broader energy bill.

In a speech Tuesday in Ohio, Bush urged lawmakers to pass the energy bill that has stalled in Congress since the beginning of his first term, saying it would wean the United States away from overseas sources of crude.

"We have had four years of debate about a national energy bill. Now's the time to get the job done," he said.

Bush spoke after a visit to the Battelle Memorial Institute, a non-profit research corporation that is working on developing hydrogen fuel cells. He said he said reducing U.S. dependence on oil imports will be good for the economy and for national security.

But the sticking point for his last energy bill was a provision that would have opened a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration.

"Developing small section of ANWR would not only create thousands of new jobs, but it would eventually reduce our dependence on foreign oil by up to 1 million barrels of oil a day," Bush said.

Advocates like the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry's trade association, say the refuge sits atop enough oil to replace U.S. imports from Saudi Arabia for two decades.

Environmental groups like the Sierra Club say that figure is wildly overstated, arguing that any oil reserves beneath the refuge's coastal plain would last less than a year -- while opening the refuge to oil exploration would inflict irreparable damage to the vast wilderness area.

But Bush said oil exploration can be limited to a 2,000-acre site -- "the size of the Columbus airport" -- and could be done "with almost no impact on land or local wildlife."

He said drilling in ANWR should be part of an overall energy bill that would promote conservation, increase domestic energy production and modernize infrastructure such as power grids and pipelines.

Bush's proposed budget for 2006 would cut funding for research into energy conservation by 2.5 percent, from $868 million to $847 million, though some efforts -- like research into hydrogen-powered vehicles and fuel cell technology -- would see increases.

The overall request for "energy security" -- which includes funding for power grids and pipelines, nuclear, fossil fuel and hydroelectric research -- is down 2.7 percent from the 2005 budget, from $2.8 billion to $2.7 billion.

The president spoke as crude oil prices hit record highs in London and moved above $55 a barrel in New York, coming within two cents of the $55.67 record set in October before closing at $54.77.

The rising prices have prompted new calls by several senators for Bush to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and put off new purchases for the stockpile.

"We're asking that this be done, and I don't think we have much choice," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York. "The economy seems to be going along nicely now. But if you ask any economist what's the No. 1 thing that could stop it, it's oil prices."

Bush has rejected previous calls to ease price spikes by releasing oil from the reserve, which he says should be left intact for national emergencies.

But Schumer said tapping the oil reserve would be a money-making proposition for the government, since it would be releasing crude into the market when prices are high and could buy back those stockpiles when prices come down. And Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, said Bush's refusals amount to "a gift to the oil companies."

"Taxpayers are paying to fill the SPRO with the highest prices ever," she said. "That makes no sense while our consumers are facing this madness at the pump."

At least one Republican -- Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, whose state has a large number of heating oil consumers -- joined six Democratic senators in signing a letter to Bush.

The rising cost of crude oil drove gasoline prices up an average of 7 cents a gallon over the past two weeks to an average of $1.97 for a gallon of self-serve regular, according to the Lundberg Survey's nationwide canvass of filling stations.

In Los Angeles and San Francisco, prices at some gas station have topped $2.50 a gallon, Boxer said. And the U.S. summer vacation season -- which typically boosts demand for fuel -- has yet to begin.

Bush did not specifically address the rising cost of gasoline in his Columbus speech, but he noted that the United States now imports more than half its oil from abroad -- "and our dependence is growing."

Bush also called on Congress to back the development of "clean coal" technology, which would allow broader use of the most abundant U.S. energy source with less environmental damage; encourage the construction of new nuclear power plants; and overhaul aging electrical grids and pipeline networks.

Indian Ocean may face another quake
Seismologists warn stress building on Sumatra faultsThe Associated Press
Updated: 3:06 p.m. ET March 16, 2005A buildup of stress on faults in Sumatra is likely to trigger another large earthquake — and potentially another tsunami — in the Indian Ocean region, seismologists say.

Researchers at the University of Ulster-Coleraine in Northern Ireland report in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature that stress is building not only in the Sumatra fault, where the magnitude 9.0 quake struck Dec. 26, but also on the adjacent fault zone known as the Sunda Trench, located under the sea west of Sumatra.

Another rupture could trigger a magnitude 7-7.5 quake on either fault. That would be a significant quake, but far less powerful than the one that unleashed a tsunami that left an estimated 300,000 people dead or missing.

The researchers stopped short of predicting when another large quake would strike the region. But similar events elsewhere in the world have occurred within a few years of each other, or even a few months.

Major earthquakes tend to cluster in areas called subduction zones where two or more plates of the Earth's crust grind and overlap. The Dec. 26 quake occurred where the edge of the deep, flat Indian plate dives below the ragged Burma plate. The nearby Sunda Trench marks where the Indian plate begins its grinding decent into the Earth's hot mantle.

The researchers noted several examples where major earthquakes in subduction zones have been coupled. In Japan, at least five major quakes in the Nankaido fault have been accompanied by similar events on the contiguous Toanakai/Tokai segment within five years — and three of the subsequent quakes ruptured in the same years as their precursors.

In Turkey, the destructive magnitude 7.4 Izmit quake near Istanbul in 1999 triggered the magnitude 7.1 Duzce quake three months later.

They said stress in the Sumatra fault is confined to its north portion, where there hasn't been a major rupture in 100 years. Stresses along both features are building to levels higher than those measured before the coupled earthquakes in Turkey, they reported.

Dear Friendly Bix,

Yesterday, we saw a relentless Republican attack on one of our most treasured natural wonders sneak through the Senate on a 51 to 49 vote. But, we also saw more than 260,000 Americans act in less than 24 hours to add their names to our Citizens' Roll Call in favor of protecting the Arctic Refuge.

It was the first time ever that I or anyone else could stand on the Senate floor and announce that, in a day's time, a quarter of a million Americans had gone online to express their passionate support for a given course of action.

That awesome display of grassroots power rattled our opponents. They even railed against my e-mail message on the Senate floor and entered its text into the Senate record. So, think of it this way. The Republican leaders of the Senate have 51 reasons to celebrate today, but you and I have 260,000 reasons to do the same.

If we keep working together - committed pro-environment Senators and a powerful grassroots movement all pulling in the same direction - we can still stop the plan for drilling in the Arctic from making it the rest of the way through Congress. And we can win the larger battle over two very different visions of America's energy future.

George W. Bush and the Washington Republicans have a plan to sell off our public lands to powerful special interests. As a result of their ruthless drive to undermine America's most beautiful natural treasures, the oil rigs are closer to the Arctic Refuge than they have ever been. But, the Bush administration's own scientists and economists admit that the Republicans' plan will not make us less dependent on foreign oil and will not lower prices at the pump. We have to put America's energy future in the hands of Americans - by inventing our way to real energy independence and having energy sources that create jobs and lower prices.

With your help, we will continue to wholeheartedly resist their special interest-funded partisan agenda. And, if we act with the same energy and determination as we have on this critical Arctic Refuge vote, sooner than later, our power and commitment will carry the day. I know you will be with me every step of the way and I thank you for the passion and energy that you bring to our work together.

Sincerely,

John Kerry

http://www.johnkerry.com/petition/rollcall.php

Hells' bells and whistles, I never saw this folder afore today.

I'm trying to remember what I was doing that night. I don't think that was me.

I can hardly stand to read these stories. I have loved elephants so much and for so long my mother gave me some ivory jewelry once. Oh, mourn. Sometimes I think I should have been an international elephant worker or something. There would have to be light, though, not dark, at tunnel's end. Or I could not bear it.

Mother Nature verses the Man Corporation.

The fact is these occurrences and battles between Mother Nature and the Man Corporation are expected and rather reliable. People congregate to these volatile areas. People are the ultimate grand prize. The people pay the burden of this continual conflict. Living in any area where there is continual crossfire, during any unexpected defining moments between Mother Nature and the Man Corporation, will always be intriguing. Therefore, living in any such area entails being familiar with the episodes and being prepared for self-reliance during one of the conflicts, resulting with the extended power outage of October 29, 2004.

The day of October 29,2004 was rather uneventful, rather ordinary. The wind, a division of Mother Nature, was present and rather normal and then it became very powerful, bending trees to the north and whistling through any leaks in the windows. This then became an unusual windy day, was flanked with Mother Nature’s formidable subsidiaries, rain and ice. This combination is an impressive group. Combined these forces can also extract high fees. Man Corporation, working with rules and industry standards, al be it a transformer ready to crash anyway, was surprised, but prepared with a new transformer, could not defend their constituents, the cash paying customers, against the extraordinary Mother Nature. Being accustomed and yet familiar with these power struggles is proof that we can not rely exclusively on the Man Corporation with an all-electric household. However, taking into consideration this continual conflict between these two powerful forces, the memories of the day the lights went out in October 2004, are not troubling.



The day will be remembered, as the day Mother Nature provided a rare opportunity to give notice to the Man Corporations electricity. People have forgotten that Mother Nature is not all consuming, nor the destructive bully that the Man Corporation wants us to remember. Once in awhile we need to be reminded of this soothing gentle embrace from Mother Nature. Mother Nature also provides opportunities for its gentle embrace, which is called the peace and quiet; when there is no humming household equipment noise, nor sounds of the humming street lamps. The house and the out-of-doors were calm; as if taking a much-needed rest, even the usual consistently barking neighborhood dogs were peaceful.

This day was also an opportunity to remember all that which the Man Corporation has given us. Noise, humming household equipment, humming street lamps and a little bit of hope that they can improve their electrical delivery system. The Man Corporation has also subtly taken over our lives with an inability to think rationally. If we live in the co-ops of large cities, we fear the power of Mother Nature and the Man Corporation conflicts in any form, or for any length of time, which may produce a power outage. This was also a day of remembering that which the Man Corporation has taken away: peace and the calm.

Mother Nature verses the Man Corporation. cont.


Fortunately, or unfortunately to some, living in a neighborhood which is not in a large city but where there is frequent conflicts between Mother Nature and the Man Corporation brings a burden of responsibility to the shoulders of each individual.
The individual does not like to take this responsibility. The individual wants to fully rely on either Mother Nature or the Man Corporation. This responsibility, without a doubt, means being prepared for the inevitable emergencies. One of the numerous responsibilities for self-preservation is to be personally prepared with a list of ‘standard’ safety actions, which may be applied to the location where you live. Remember that people congregate to volatile areas because these areas are most likely beautiful or rich in minerals, another subsidiary of Mother Nature. People are the ultimate grand prize.

Fortunately being self-reliant is not extraordinarily difficult be prepared with utensils, which in these times of the Man Corporation is now considered old age but insures hot meals and staying warm. Kerosene lamps and candles provide reliable illumination for extended outages of electricity. Providing you are educated and your life is not in danger read a book, write, or just talk to one another.
Although the computers, a by-product of the Man Corporation, might still be tweaked a bit, the fact is, take the advantage of being prepared. Remember that living in the areas where there is crossfire between Mother Nature and the Man Corporation is, at times, a lifestyle of being prepared for the unexpected.

csh 2004

Acknowledging that there are people who speed read, or just examines the bottom line. There are two important considerations regarding this writing practice: do not rely on the Man Corporation to provide you with all your needs; Mother Nature has already plotted its territory.

Nice essay, csh.

I do like having my own well.

Mother Nature is very good to us, but water will become an issue very soon.

Think 2 bucks a bottle is tough...

[shaking head]

Indonesia Earthquake Damages Buildings

Mar 28, 2:58 PM (ET)

By MICHAEL CASEY


BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) - A major earthquake struck off the west coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island late Monday, damaging hundreds of buildings and sending residents fleeing in panic. Officials issued a tsunami warning for as far away as Sri Lanka.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the temblor, which occurred at 11:09 p.m. local time (11:09 a.m. EST), measured a magnitude of 8.2. A later reading put the magnitude at 8.7, said Paul Earle, a USGS research geophysicist.

Tsunami warnings were issued in Thailand, Japan and Sri Lanka, although officials in Thailand later called it off for that country. The only tsunami reported within four hours was a tiny one - less than 4 inches - at the Cocos Islands, 1,400 miles west of Australia, meteorologists in Sydney said.

The worst damage was reported on Nias Island, off the Sumatran coast, close to the epicenter of the earthquake, and dozens may be buried in the rubble, said Agus Mendrofa, deputy district head on the island.

"Hundreds of buildings have been damaged or have collapsed. People who were standing fell over," Mendrofa said. "We're not sure about casualties, but there may be dozens of people buried in the rubble."

U.N. disaster relief coordinator Jan Egeland said there were unconfirmed reports of deaths.

"The hard-hit population of western Sumatra have been again struck by a very large earthquake," Egeland said.

Nias, a renowned surfing spot, was badly hit by the Dec. 26 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that killed at least 175,000 people in 12 Indian Ocean nations and left another 106,000 missing. At least 340 residents of Nias perished and 10,000 were left homeless.

Indonesian officials said the quake's epicenter was 56 miles south of the island of Simeulu, off of Sumatra's western coast, and just north of Nias. It was described by one of the agency's geologists as an aftershock of the devastating Dec. 26 quake.

An aftershock measuring 6.0 was reported in the same region nearly 30 minutes later, the USGS said.



Preliminary indications are that energy from the quake might be directed toward the southwest, said Frank Gonzalez, an oceanographer with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle. He stressed that it was based on "very scanty information" about the epicenter and magnitude.

In Banda Aceh, the Sumatran city hit hardest in December, the quake briefly cut electricity. Thousands poured into the streets to flee low-lying areas.

The West Coast-Alaska tsunami warning center said that if no tsunami waves are observed in the region near the epicenter within three hours, then it is likely that the danger has passed.

"It seems this earthquake did not trigger a tsunami. If it had, the tsunami would have hit the coastline of Sumatra by now," said Prihar Yadi, a scientist with the Indonesia Geophysics Agency. "And if there's no tsunami on the coastline near the epicenter of the quake, there will not be one heading in the other direction."

Sirens blared along Sri Lanka's devastated east coast as the government warned seaside residents to evacuate immediately.

"The government has ordered coastal areas to move to higher ground. We are giving priorities to eastern coast," said Brig. Daya Ratnayake, the military spokesman.

Low-lying coastal areas in Malaysia's northern states also were being evacuated.

In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said U.S. diplomatic missions in Asia and Africa are in "battle mode" so that they can respond quickly to any contingency.

The International Red Cross in Geneva said their mobile phone systems were down so they haven't been able to talk to anyone on the ground in Indonesia.

At the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which was at the center of U.N. response to the Dec. 26 tsunami, Jamie McGoldrick said, "What's going on is a mobilization of people away from the coast."

But noted that the quake was "a weaker one than before" Dec. 26.

"There have been no reports of a tsunami and no initial reports of damage, but it's very early," said Rob Holden, a Geneva-based technical coordinator for the World Health Organization. "Police are now going around trying to calm people down."

Oceanographer David Burwell of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said the agency was watching water levels "but we don't have any gauges in that area." He said it would be a few hours before officials received any readings.

In Banda Aceh, the quake lasted about two minutes and felt like gentle swaying, like a rocking chair, causing people to feel dizzy. It woke people up and sent them running into the street.

People grabbed small bags of clothes - in many cases likely all the belongings they had left after the disaster - as they fled their tents and homes. Many were crying and jumping into cars and onto motorbikes and pedicabs, heading for higher ground.

Two women wearing prayer shawls and sarongs grabbed a fence and chanted "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great."

"People are still traumatized, still scared, they are running for higher ground," said Feri, a 24-year-old recovery volunteer who goes by one name.

The quake was felt as far away as Malaysia, about 300 miles from the epicenter, sending panicked residents fleeing their apartments and hotels in Kuala Lumpur and Penang after authorities activated fire alarms.

Officials issued a tsunami warning for residents of southern Thai provinces, three months after a tsunami devastated parts of Indonesia and other countries in the region.

The quake occurred at a depth of 18.6 miles, and was centered 125 west-northwest of Sibolga, Sumatra, and 150 miles southwest of Medan, Sumatra, the USGS said.

The depth does not mean a lot for a quake this large, Earle said, calling it a near-surface earthquake and comparable to the one that occurred Dec. 26.

After the Dec. 26 quake, the agency initially recorded the depth of that temblor at six miles. Shallow earthquakes like that generally are more destructive because the seismic energy is closer to the surface and has less distance to travel.

Monday's quake was considered to be at a moderate depth.

Tremors also were felt throughout peninsular Malaysia's west coast, causing thousands of residents to flee high-rise apartment buildings and hotels. There were no immediate reports of any casualties or major damage.

"I was getting ready for bed, and suddenly, the room started shaking," said Kuala Lumpur resident Jessie Chong. "I thought I was hallucinating at first, but then I heard my neighbors screaming and running out."

Police were evacuating many residents from low-lying coastal areas in Malaysia's northern states of Penang and Kedah, said Penang Police Chief Christopher Wan.

"We are on the alert for the possibility of a tsunami within the next few hours," Wan said by telephone. "We're better prepared now compared to last year."

Tremors form the quake could be felt in the Thai capital Bangkok for several minutes beginning at about 11:20 p.m.

Chalermchai Aekkantrong, deputy director of Thailand's meteorological department, told a radio station Monday that officials were asking people near the coast to evacuate, although there were no immediate reports of a tsunami.

NOAA spokesman Greg Romano said the U.S. State Department was passing on warnings to foreign governments about the tsunami danger.

The USGS said the quake occurred on a segment of the same fault line that triggered the magnitude-9 earthquake on Dec. 26, the world's biggest in 40 years.

The Dec. 26 quake triggered a huge tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean at the speed of a passenger jet. More than 1.5 million people were left homeless in 11 countries.

http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/...ke_science.html

Mystery Behind Monday's 'Great' Earthquake
By Michael Schirber
LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 28 March 2005
05:40 pm ET

Monday's 8.7-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sumatra apparently did not generate a significant tsunami, despite originating in the same area as the Dec. 26 earthquake that unleashed towering killer waves across the Indian Ocean.

The reason remains a mystery for now.

Fault Types



Strike-slip faults move horizontally. Normal and reverse faults involve vertical movement. Thrust faults involve angled vertical movement.

"This new event is very significant – what we call a great earthquake," said Jian Lin of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. "Events of this magnitude always have a good chance to create a tsunami."

Nature's fault

Monday's quake occurred about 120 miles southeast of the magnitude 9.3 earthquake of last December. The previous rupture – which had eight times the energy of the one Monday – was on a subduction zone, where the India continental plate slides beneath the Burma plate. This area is also called a thrust, or dip-slip, fault.

"A thrust fault, where one side goes up and one side goes down, is the perfect type for a tsunami," Lin told LiveScience in a telephone interview.

Another type of fault, called strike-slip, involves two plates sliding horizontally with respect to each other. This kind of motion does not generally cause the kind of water displacement, or paddle effect, necessary to create a tsunami.

Lin thought that Monday's event was a thrust fault temblor. "From my experience, a strike-slip would not have been this big," he said.

Two aftershocks to Monday's quake each measured more than magnitude 6. In fact Monday's event is likely to be considered an aftershock to the Dec. 26 temblor, scientists say.

Geologists puzzle over why certain earthquakes of similar magnitude – particularly in the central Pacific – do not unleash tsunamis.

Lin explained that other factors can determine whether a tsunami will form, like the depth at which the rupture occurs.

"Shallower events will have a huge effect," he said.

The December 2004 earthquake originated 6 miles (10 km) below the seafloor. The focus of Monday's quake was 18.6 miles (30 km) down, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. But Lin said that this is misleading, since geologists give this value as a default until they are able to make more precise measurements.

If the earthquake occurred deep in the Earth, then the resulting tsunami could be very small. A buoy monitored by Australian officials indeed detected a small tsunami.

Aftershocks



The March 28, 2005 earthquake and aftershocks as of 4:30 p.m. ET.

"My suspicion is that [the earthquake] has created a tsunami," Lin said. Other scientists agreed.

Lin said it is likely that satellites or hydrographic stations in the area will later detect tsunami signatures.

Not a surprise

The location of Monday's event could very likely be part of the aftermath of the December catastrophe. Lin explained that the release of stress in one part of a fault can increase stress in another part, increasing the likelihood of an earthquake.

Other geologists had warned just two weeks ago that the December quake added stress to the fault that could cause another very large release of energy at any time.

"We expected that this part of the subduction zone has been stressed by the Dec. 26 earthquake," Lin said. The new earthquake "is not a surprise."

According to Lin, there is a "gap" in this vicinity, which has not experienced a stress-relieving rupture in 400 years. If the recent temblor is on this gap, then four-centuries-worth of pressure might finally have been lifted.

"That could be good news," Lin said. "If this final patch is gone, then the people in that area could get some relief."

But if today’s rumblings were on the same part of the fault as the Dec. 23 event, then that final unrelieved patch would be feeling even more pressure now – increasing the likelihood of another rupture.

Geologists will be studying data from the event in coming days in an effort to learn more

fyi

Web posted Sunday, April 10, 2005

Slope operators hampered by spills
Recent spill among the worst By Tim Bradner
Alaska Journal of Commerce
Oil spill issues recently caused headaches for Alaska's two North Slope oil operators.
ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. said about 113,000 gallons of produced water spilled from a production pad on the west side of the Kuparuk River oil field on the North Slope, which is operated by the company. The spill occurred on March 26.
In a separate development, the state Department of Environmental Conservation released a report March 18 citing BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. for failure to report two spills of drilling fluids on a drill rig in late 2004 and 2003.
In both cases the fluids were contained and did not reach the ground surface, but both were beyond the minimum 55 gallons where a report is required, DEC said in its report.
The ConocoPhillips spill was the largest produced-water spill to date on the slope, DEC said. Produced water comes from the underground, oil-producing formations along with the crude oil and is injected back underground after being separated from the oil.
Although it is mostly water, produced water has a high salt content as well as trace amounts of oil and is harmful if it comes in contact with tundra plant life. In this case, the spill is estimated to have contained about 80 gallons of oil, according to ConocoPhillips.
Although the North Slope is covered with snow this time of year, environmental agencies are concerned that residual water in the snow could reach the tundra after the spring melt.
The spill was blamed on a possible leak from a six-inch pipe carrying the water from a separation plant to another pad where it was to be injected back into the producing formation, according to the DEC.
Leslie Pearson, manager of DEC's Prevention and Emergency Response Division, said the cause of the leak cannot be pinpointed until the buried pipe is excavated for examination. The cause could be corrosion, however, because the high salt content in produced water, Pearson said.
Pearson said there are about 50 spills of produced water a year in the North Slope oil fields, but most of them are small. This was one of the largest spills of any type on the slope that has been reported, she said. Cleanup operations are expected to take about two to three weeks, Pearson said.
In the 2003 and 2004 incidents involving BP, both involved spills of drilling fluids on a Nabors Alaska Drilling Co. rig working for BP. One was on July 31, 2003 and the second on Dec. 5, 2004.
Both releases of drill fluids resulted from a buildup of gas in the well during drilling. In both instances the fluids were contained. The July 2003 spill was estimated at 294 gallons and the December 2004 spill was estimated at 55 gallons, the minimum threshold for reporting to the DEC.
Senior BP managers were not notified in either event, according to the DEC. BP spokesman Daren Beaudo said employees of the drilling company appear not to have understood they were required to report the spills.
Employees of the drilling company later contacted oil industry critic Charles Hamel, who posted information about the spills on his Web site.
Pearson said the 55-gallon spill reporting requirement is widely understood in the industry, and should have been formally reported. The DEC and the state Department of Law will meet with BP soon on the reporting requirements, Pearson said.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn., April 22 - President Bush's plans to celebrate Earth Day in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park were undone by nature on Friday, as stormy weather in the area forced him to cancel and instead speak about the environment from inside a hangar here at the McGhee Tyson Airport.


"In the park, had I been there, I would have reminded people today is Earth Day, a day in which we recommit ourselves to being good stewards of the land," he said. "We didn't create this Earth, but we have an obligation to protect it."

What An Arrogant, Lying Pig!!!


The White House altered Mr. Bush's plans as he flew here from Washington, citing the danger posed by hail and thunderstorms to attendees of the outdoor events.

It had hoped to use the day to focus attention on what it called Mr. Bush's strong environmental record....

Strong...As In Strong Efforts To Cause Extreme Damage!


SMITE THE BASTARD!

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/23/politics/23bush.html?

Climate Research Faulted Over Missing Components
By ANDREW C. REVKIN

Published: April 22, 2005


The Bush administration's program to study climate change lacks a major component required by law, according to Congressional investigators. The program fails to include periodic assessments of how rising temperatures may affect people and the environment.

Required By LAW!!! What A Pig!

The investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, conclude in a report to be released today that none of the 21 studies of climate change that the administration plans to publish by September 2007 explicitly address the potential effects in eight areas specified by a 1990 law, the Global Change Research Act. The areas include agriculture, energy, water resources and biological diversity.

Without such an assessment, the accountability office said, "it may be difficult for the Congress and others to use this information effectively as the basis for making decisions on climate policy."

The investigators also said the program was behind schedule, with just one report on track out of nine that are to be published by next September. The 1990 law requires a report to Congress every four years on the consequences of climate change.

What Bloody Difference Does It Make If All The Reports Have Erroneous Information?!!! IDIOTS!!!

The report was given to The New York Times by Congressional staff members.

Dr. James R. Mahoney, the Commerce Department official in charge of climate research, said yesterday that he would not comment on the report because he had not seen the final version.

In written comments to the Congressional investigators, however, Dr. Mahoney defended the program, saying government climate reports would include information on the potential effects on humans and nature. He added that the National Academy of Sciences would be consulted to ensure that the reports were adequate.

"We may commission additional reports, if needed, to cover specific topics found to be insufficiently addressed," Dr. Mahoney told the accountability office.

Addressing the delays, he noted that it took 10 years from enactment of the law in the first Bush administration for the Clinton administration to complete the first assessment. It was published in 2000.

"This is a sure indication the complexity of the effort envisioned by Congress cannot be reasonably accomplished within four years," he wrote, adding that the schedule of the coming series of reports represented "an essential and prudent balance of quality and timeliness."

The G.A.O. report was requested by Senators John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, and John McCain, Republican of Arizona. Mr. McCain, who supported President Bush's re-election, has criticized his policies on climate change.

Mr. Bush opposes mandatory restrictions on smokestack and tailpipe gases, which many climate scientists link to global warming, saying the science pointing to the risks remains uncertain.

Other Republicans have broken ranks with Mr. Bush on the climate since his re-election. In remarks at the Brookings Institution in February, Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, said although the administration had been right to reject the Kyoto Protocol, the climate treaty embraced by almost all other industrial powers, it had never offered a coherent alternative.

"We have been out of the game for four years," Mr. Hagel said. "That's dangerous. It's irresponsible."

Mr. Bush began reorganizing climate research in 2001, focusing on the uncertainties about the relationship between rising global temperatures and rising concentrations of heat-trapping emissions. His critics, including some scientists and former senior officials in the climate program, say the shift in focus was meant to distract attention from the broad scientific consensus that humans have caused most of the new global warming.

Rick S. Piltz, who resigned last month after 10 years in the Global Change Research Program, which coordinates climate work, said that Dr. Mahoney had good intentions, but that the program had been changed so that worrisome findings did not emerge that could increase pressure to curb emissions.

The first national assessment of potential impacts of climate change under the global change law projected a host of potential problems in the United States if emissions and climate trends persisted.

THIS MAN HATES US!

Smite?

Well...with the inclement weather, and all...I figured it would be most appropriate if a bolt of lightening came out of the sky, and SMITED his wretched self...left just a pair of smoking loafers...

I am still struggling with the entrepreneur spirits that have used innovation and a real desire to help the environment albeit makes a profit.

I am speaking about the industry that produces exhaust scrubbers for sale to the industrialists, refineries, and power plants and need I mention more?

I also realize that their lobby is not that wealthy, but there might be some who will listen to their business.

It appears that the Environmental and Pro Business admin. with their concerns for growing businesses and industries is operating from “Camp Runamuck”

Those guys can not stand in the rain.
1) they will melt
2) they fear acid rain

The whole so-called "clean up the environment" line, is just that...a line of BS. These companies have no desire to truly clean up the environment...that'd be a form of Capitalistic suicide, wouldn't it?

No, the idea is to keep polluting so as to keep the profits flowing for ALL the hogs at the trough...

Smite all those loafers.

"Excuse me, Mr. President, would you repeat that....Mr. President?

Sightings spark rush
to save ‘extinct’ woodpecker

Ivory-bills rediscovered after 60 years
in Arkansas woods; federal government
draws up conservation plan


WASHINGTON - The ivory-billed woodpecker, long feared extinct, has been rediscovered in a remote part of Arkansas some 60 years after the last confirmed U.S. sighting, bird experts said Thursday. In response, the federal government immediately announced a plan to save the bird.




"Today we are commiting to a multiagency, multimillion-dollar, multiyear program to provide hope for this bird's continued survival," Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced at a news conference.

She said this was the first time in her memory that an American species considered to be extinct had been rediscovered. "Second chances to save wildlife thought to be extinct are extremely rare," she said.



For birdwatchers, "nothing could have been more hoped for than this holy grail," Fitzpatrick told reporters Thursday.

Frank Gill, senior ornithologist at the Audubon Society, said the discovery “is kind of like finding Elvis.”

“There have been lots and lots of reports and many of them have been off but others have been possible,” Gill added. “But this time we got it.”


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7666344/

'Smoking gun' on humans and global warming claimed
NASA-led scientists say ocean data ties manmade emissions to warmer Earth.


Using ocean data collected by diving floats, U.S. climate scientists released a study Thursday that they said provides the "smoking gun" that ties manmade greenhouse gas emissions to global warming.

The researchers, some of them working for NASA and the Energy Department, went a step further, implicitly criticizing President Bush for not taking stronger action to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases.

They said the findings confirm that computer models of climate change are on target and that global temperatures will rise 1 degree Fahrenheit this century, even if greenhouse gases are capped tomorrow.



Floats and satellites used

More than 1,800 technology-packed floats, deployed in oceans worldwide beginning in 2000, are regularly diving as much as a mile undersea to take temperature and other readings. Their precise measurements are supplemented by better satellite gauging of ocean levels, which rise both from meltwater and as the sea warms and expands.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7665636/

I think I came out too strong…….

I pleaded with our local government, and you all know who comes with their power…

Well any way, I wrote a letter to the editor suggesting that the people vote no on a special tax …they are calling it progress
Many big guns came out with their support for the extra tax…must spend to invest

All I asked for was a vote NO on the special local tax until the local government looked at wastewater recycling and conserving our precious natural resource…water
the letter was not against progress but ....think before you spend...

My chances for persuasion might be more successful if the next time I used the softer sales technique?
Norm.don’t loose that stuff…

I need to write the letter regarding the taxes the fed and local government receive plus the law suite money that the tobacco industries are required to give to the states…..where are the non smokers spending it?......

Maybe I won’t want to hit them so hard….on the tobacco I mean…..

Open a can o worms, eh?

A Neo-Con mascot bird...

Murder and Deceit: How One Bird Gets a Meal Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience Senior Writer
LiveScience.com
Thu Apr 28, 3:27 PM ET



If birds could read, this tale of deceit and murder would shock the avian world.

A parasitic bird called the Horsfield's hawk-cuckoo lays an egg in the nest of another bird species, such as the bushrobin. That's just the beginning of the treachery. When the hawk-cuckoo chick is born, it pushes the bushrobin's natural offspring out of the nest.

And the newborn hawk-cuckoo has another trick up its sleeve or, rather, up its wing feathers.

Scientists have wondered how the parasitic chick gets fed, because other studies have shown that it takes the stimulation of multiple open beaks -- either the sight or the sound -- to compel a mother bushrobin to provide food.

The clue to the mystery is in bright yellow patches on the ends of the hawk-cuckoo's wings.

Japanese researchers found that the chicks make those patches quiver, and they mimic the mouths of other chicks. So the lone nestling gets fed.

The patches don't resemble open mouths all that much, the scientists say, but it seems the bushrobins can't tell the difference in a relatively dark nest. The researchers tested the idea by covering the yellow patches with black paint. When they did that, the parasitic chicks got less food.

Weird Science


Partly Human Organs in a Flock of Smelly Sheep
By Paul Elias
Associated Press
posted: 30 April 2005
09:55 am ET



RENO, Nev. (AP) -- On a farm about six miles outside this gambling town, Jason Chamberlain looks over a flock of about 50 smelly sheep, many of them possessing partially human livers, hearts, brains and other organs.

The University of Nevada-Reno researcher talks matter-of-factly about his plans to euthanize one of the pregnant sheep in a nearby lab. He can't wait to examine the effects of the human cells he had injected into the fetus' brain about two months ago.

"It's mice on a large scale,'' Chamberlain says with a shrug.

As strange as his work may sound, it falls firmly within the new ethics guidelines the influential National Academies issued this past week for stem cell research.

In fact, the Academies' report endorses research that co-mingles human and animal tissue as vital to ensuring that experimental drugs and new tissue replacement therapies are safe for people.

Doctors have transplanted pig valves into human hearts for years, and scientists have injected human cells into lab animals for even longer.

But the biological co-mingling of animal and human is now evolving into even more exotic and unsettling mixes of species, evoking the Greek myth of the monstrous chimera, which was part lion, part goat and part serpent.

In the past two years, scientists have created pigs with human blood, fused rabbit eggs with human DNA and injected human stem cells to make paralyzed mice walk.

Particularly worrisome to some scientists are the nightmare scenarios that could arise from the mixing of brain cells: What if a human mind somehow got trapped inside a sheep's head?



The "idea that human neuronal cells might participate in 'higher order' brain functions in a nonhuman animal, however unlikely that may be, raises concerns that need to be considered,'' the academies report warned.

In January, an informal ethics committee at Stanford University endorsed a proposal to create mice with brains nearly completely made of human brain cells. Stem cell scientist Irving Weissman said his experiment could provide unparalleled insight into how the human brain develops and how degenerative brain diseases like Parkinson's progress.

Stanford law professor Hank Greely, who chaired the ethics committee, said the board was satisfied that the size and shape of the mouse brain would prevent the human cells from creating any traits of humanity. Just in case, Greely said, the committee recommended closely monitoring the mice's behavior and immediately killing any that display human-like behavior.

The Academies' report recommends that each institution involved in stem cell research create a formal, standing committee to specifically oversee the work, including experiments that mix human and animal cells.

Weissman, who has already created mice with 1 percent human brain cells, said he has no immediate plans to make mostly human mouse brains, but wanted to get ethical clearance in any case. A formal Stanford committee that oversees research at the university would also need to authorize the experiment.

Few human-animal hybrids are as advanced as the sheep created by another stem cell scientist, Esmail Zanjani, and his team at the University of Nevada-Reno. They want to one day turn sheep into living factories for human organs and tissues and along the way create cutting-edge lab animals to more effectively test experimental drugs.

Zanjani is most optimistic about the sheep that grow partially human livers after human stem cells are injected into them while they are still in the womb. Most of the adult sheep in his experiment contain about 10 percent human liver cells, though a few have as much as 40 percent, Zanjani said.

Because the human liver regenerates, the research raises the possibility of transplanting partial organs into people whose livers are failing.

Zanjani must first ensure no animal diseases would be passed on to patients. He also must find an efficient way to completely separate the human and sheep cells, a tough task because the human cells aren't clumped together but are rather spread throughout the sheep's liver.

Zanjani and other stem cell scientists defend their research and insist they aren't creating monsters -- or anything remotely human.

"We haven't seen them act as anything but sheep,'' Zanjani said.

Zanjani's goals are many years from being realized.

He's also had trouble raising funds, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture is investigating the university over allegations made by another researcher that the school mishandled its research sheep. Zanjani declined to comment on that matter, and university officials have stood by their practices.

Allegations about the proper treatment of lab animals may take on strange new meanings as scientists work their way up the evolutionary chart. First, human stem cells were injected into bacteria, then mice and now sheep. Such research blurs biological divisions between species that couldn't until now be breached.

Drawing ethical boundaries that no research appears to have crossed yet, the Academies recommend a prohibition on mixing human stem cells with embryos from monkeys and other primates. But even that policy recommendation isn't tough enough for some researchers.

"The boundary is going to push further into larger animals,'' New York Medical College professor Stuart Newman said. "That's just asking for trouble.''

Newman and anti-biotechnology activist Jeremy Rifkin have been tracking this issue for the last decade and were behind a rather creative assault on both interspecies mixing and the government's policy of patenting individual human genes and other living matter.

Years ago, the two applied for a patent for what they called a "humanzee,'' a hypothetical -- but very possible -- creation that was half human and chimp.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office finally denied their application this year, ruling that the proposed invention was too human: Constitutional prohibitions against slavery prevents the patenting of people.

Newman and Rifkin were delighted, since they never intended to create the creature and instead wanted to use their application to protest what they see as science and commerce turning people into commodities.

And that's a point, Newman warns, that stem scientists are edging closer to every day: "Once you are on the slope, you tend to move down it.''

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That is absolutely gross.

They're going too far

HMMM.. I wonder if people will do that to stop more types of research. It's kind of cynical, but looks like it could be effective.

Evolution going on trial in Kansas

State to hold courtroom-style hearings
Updated: 4:07 p.m. ET May 2, 2005TOPEKA, Kan - Evolution is going on trial in Kansas.


Eighty years after a famed courtroom battle in Tennessee pitted religious beliefs about the origins of life against the theories of British scientist Charles Darwin, Kansas is holding its own hearings on what school children should be taught about how life on Earth began.

The Kansas Board of Education has scheduled six days of courtroom-style hearings to begin Thursday in the capitol Topeka. More than two dozen witnesses will give testimony and be subject to cross-examination, with the majority expected to argue against teaching evolution.

Many prominent U.S. scientific groups have denounced the debate as founded on fallacy and have promised to boycott the hearings, which opponents say are part of a larger nationwide effort by religious interests to gain control over government.

"I feel like I'm in a time warp here," said Topeka attorney Pedro Irigonegaray who has agreed to defend evolution as valid science. "To debate evolution is similar to debating whether the Earth is round. It is an absurd proposition."

Widespread debate
Irigonegaray's opponent will be attorney John Calvert, managing director of the Intelligent Design Network, a Kansas organization that argues the Earth was created through intentional design rather than random organism evolution.



The group is one of many that have been formed over the last several years to challenge the validity of evolutionary concepts and seek to open the schoolroom door to ideas that humans and other living creatures are too intricately designed to have come about randomly.

While many call themselves creationists, who believe that God was the ultimate designer of all life, they are stopping short of saying creationism should be taught in schools.

"We're not against evolution," said Calvert. "But there is a lot of evidence that suggests that life is the product of intelligence. I think it is inappropriate for the state to prejudge the question whether we are the product of design or just an occurrence."

Debates over evolution are currently being waged in more than a dozen states, including Texas where one bill would allowing for creationism to be taught alongside evolution.

Kansas has been grappling with the issue for years, garnering worldwide attention in 1999 when the state school board voted to downplay evolution in science classes.

Subsequent elections altered the membership of the school board and led to renewed backing for evolution instruction in 2001. But elections last year gave religious conservatives a 6-4 majority and the board is now finalizing new science standards, which will guide teachers about how and what to teach students.

The current proposal pushed by conservatives would not eliminate evolution entirely from instruction, nor would it require creationism be taught, but it would encourage teachers to discuss various viewpoints and eliminate core evolution claims as required curriculum.

School board member Sue Gamble, who describes herself as a moderate, said she will not attend the hearings, which she calls "a farce." She said the argument over evolution is part of a larger agenda by Christian conservatives to gradually alter the legal and social landscape in the United States.

"I think it is a desire by a minority ... to establish a theocracy, both within Kansas and growing to a national level," Gamble said.

Old Testament teachings
Some evolution detractors say that the belief that humans, animals and organisms evolved over long spans of time is inconsistent with Biblical teachings that life was created by God. The Bible's Old Testament says that God created life on Earth including the first humans, Adam and Eve, in six days.

Detractors also argue that evolution is invalid science because it cannot be tested or verified and say it is inappropriately being indoctrinated into education and discouraging consideration of alternatives.

But defenders say that evolution is not totally inconsistent with Biblical beliefs, and it provides a foundational concept for understanding many areas of science, including genetics and molecular biology.

The theory of evolution came to prominence in 1859 when Darwin published "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection," and it was the subject of a 1925 trial in Tennessee in which teacher John Thomas Scopes was accused of violating a ban against teaching evolution.

Kansas School Board chairman Steve Abrams said the hearings are less about religion than they are about seeking the best possible education for the state's children.

"If students ... do not understand the weaknesses of evolutionary theory as well as the strengths, a grave injustice is being done to them," Abrams said.

Lets make the mob even MORE ignorant.

C'mon Bee!

That should read "even MORE ignoranter"



Yep, if things keep regressing the way they have been....

A gathering of 'Merka's leading "intellectuals", sometime in the future:

SORRY CHARLEY

Out of Tuna
Bluefin tuna, unable to swim inside the lines, at risk of extinction

Apparently western Atlantic bluefin tuna don't understand the concept of fisheries quotas, and may soon face extinction because of it, marine scientists report in the journal Nature. Bluefin tuna can grow up to 10 feet in length and weigh 1,500 lbs., and, due to high demand for sushi, they can fetch as much as $98,000 on the Tokyo fish market. Scientists have known there are two populations of bluefin tuna -- a western population whose numbers have declined by 80 percent in the last 30 years and an eastern population thought to be larger -- but weren't sure if the different enforced catch quotas on these populations were really working. Electronic tagging of hundreds of tuna allowed marine biologists such as Stanford's Barbara Block to see that using separate quotas for the two populations may not be effective, what with the fish seeing no boundaries and often voyaging into each others' territories.



http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/03/science/...serland&emc=rss