9.5 million litre toxic waste spill lays waste to Northern Alberta environment</h1> <article> <h1>9.5 million litre toxic waste spill lays waste to Northern Alberta environment</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:23:00 +0000</p> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <b><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/apache-pipeline-leaks-60000-barrels-of-salty-water-in-northwest-alberta/article12494371/" target="_blank">"The substance is the inky black colour of oil, and the treetops are brown... the landscape is dead" reports The Globe and Mail, about a June 1st Northern Albertan toxic waste spill (the 3rd leak in the region) which they say is the largest recent North American disaster.</a></b><br /> <br /><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/apache-pipeline-leaks-60000-barrels-of-salty-water-in-northwest-alberta/article12494371/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Source: The Globe & Mail: "Toxic waste spill in northern Alberta biggest of recent disasters in North America".</span></a><br /><br /> <ol style="text-align: left;"> <li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i>Reporting this here to share, since Facebook changes the waste spill's description to Apache's watered down terms when I try to post the link directly. </i></b></span></li> </ol> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> </div> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>Quantum Computing Closer as Scientists Store, Retrieve Data Inside Atom</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:07:00 +0000</p> BERKELEY, CA - Another step towards quantum computing – the Holy Grail of data processing and storage – was achieved when an international team of scientists that included researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) were able to successfully store and retrieve information using the nucleus of an atom.<P><br /><br />In a paper entitled: “Solid-state quantum memory using the 31P nuclear spin,” published in the October 23 issue of the journal /Nature/, the team described an experiment in which exceptionally pure and isotopically controlled crystals of silicon were precisely doped with phosphorus atoms. Quantum information was processed in phosphorus electrons, transferred to phosphorus nuclei, then subsequently transferred back to the electrons. This is the first demonstration that a single atomic nucleus can serve as quantum computational memory.<P><br /><br />John Morton of Oxford University was the lead author. Co-authoring the paper from Berkeley Lab were Thomas Schenkel, Eugene Haller and Joel Ager. Other co-authors were Richard Brown, Brendon Lovett and Arzhang Ardavan of Oxford University, and Alexei Tyryshkin, Shyam Shankar and Stephen Lyon, of Princeton, University.<P><br /><br />The immediate lure of quantum computing is blinding speed: a quantum computer would be able to perform certain mathematical tasks, such as factoring, many billions of times faster than the most powerful supercomputers of today. Beyond that, quantum computing should make it possible to engage calculations that cannot be considered with current “classical” computing technology. The secret behind quantum computing is the weird, counterintuitive but demonstrably real properties of quantum mechanics.<P><br /><br />In classical computing, information is processed and stored based on the charge of an electron, and represented in a binary digit or “bit.” Each bit carries a value of 0 (no charge) or 1 (charge). Quantum computing utilizes an intrinsic quantum property called “spin,” in which certain particles can act as if they were tiny bar magnets. Spin is assigned a directional state of either "up" or "down,” which can be used to encode data in 0s and 1s. However, unlike charge in classical computing, which is either present or not, spin can be up, down or both, thanks to a quantum effect called “superposition.”<P><br /><br />Superpositioning exponentially expands the storage capabilities of a quantum data bit or “qubit.” Whereas a byte of classical data, made up of three bits, can represent only one of the eight possible combinations of 0s and 1s, a quantum equivalent (sometimes called a qubyte) can represent all eight combinations at once. Furthermore, thanks to another quantum property called “entanglement,” operations on all eight combinations can be performed simultaneously.<P><br /><br />Of the many challenges facing quantum computing, one of the biggest has been finding a way to preserve the integrity of data while it is stored. Although the spin of electrons has proven well-suited for data processing, it is too fragile to be used as memory – the data quickly becomes corrupted by the influence of other electrons. To overcome this obstacle, the co-authors of this experiment turned to the more protected environs of the atomic nucleus.<P><br /><br />“In this exciting collaboration with colleagues from Oxford and Princeton, we have reported on a very important demonstration of coherent information transfer between the electron spin (processing qubit) and the nuclear spin (memory qubit) of phosphorus atoms in isotopically enriched silicon crystals,” said co-author Schenkel, a physicist in Berkeley Lab’s Accelerator and Fusion Research Division, who has been a leader in the use of ion beams for the development of quantum computer test structures. <a href="http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2008/10/22/a-toolkit-for-silicon-based-quantum-computing/">(See A Toolkit for Quantum Computing.)</a><P><br /><br />“The electron spin information was faithfully stored in the nuclear spin for nearly two seconds (thousands of times longer than ever reported for similar studies), then transferred back to the electron spin with about 90-percent fidelity,” Schenkel said.<P><br /><br />In this study, the co-authors created a superposition state in electron spin and transferred it to nuclear spin using a combination of microwave and radio-frequency pulses, which they applied to phosphorus-31. This stable isotope of phosphorus is the ideal electron donor for silicon-28, the stable isotope of silicon that is the basis for today’s computer technology. Said lead author Morton in a statement, “The electron acts as a middle-man between the nucleus and the outside world. It gives us a way to have our cake and eat it - fast processing speeds from the electron, and long memory times from the nucleus.”<P><br /><br />Crucial to the success of this study were the exceptionally pure silicon-28 crystals created by co-authors Haller and Ager. Haller is a world authority on crystal growth and purification and is credited with launching the modern era of isotopically enriched semiconductor research. Ager designed and built a one-of-its-kind reactor for creating isotopically enriched and chemically pure silicon, featuring a high conversion efficiency.<P><br /><br />Said Haller, “Crystals of natural silicon contain 4.7-percent of the isotope silicon-29, in addition to silicon-28 and silicon-30. For this study we needed silicon crystals that were not only chemically pure, but isotopically pure as well because silicon-29 has a nuclear spin that would interfere with the readout of the electron and nuclear spins of the phosphorus.”<P><br /><br />Since the silicon crystals to be doped would consist of billions of atoms, creating isotopically pure crystals of silicon-28 was a painstaking process. Once these exceptionally pure crystals were created, they then had to be doped with phosphorus-31 in specific areas of the crystal and to just the right amount – an undertaking that Ager compared to adding one extra person to Earth’s population at one particular address.<P><br /><br />Now that it has been demonstrated that electron spin data can be stored and retrieved via nuclear spin, future steps will require improving spin control and readout mechanisms. Also, while the quantum memory time observed in this study is exceptionally long by previous standards, it should still be possible to significantly extend this time.<P><br /><br />“The good news is that there are no know physical limits that would prevent quantum memory time in nuclear spin from being longer,” said Ager. “With even greater isotopic and chemical purity of our silicon crystals, we should be able to store data in the nucleus for an arbitrarily long period of time, maybe even in terms of years.”<P><br /><br />The Berkeley Lab portion of this research was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, through the Materials Sciences and Engineering Division of its Basic Energy Sciences programs, and in part<br />by the National Security Agency.<P><br /><br />Berkeley Lab is a U.S. Department of Energy mational laboratory located in Berkeley, California. It conducts unclassified scientific research and is managed by the University of California. Visit our Website at www.lbl.gov/<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>NASA & US GOV'T SEEK HYPERSONIC SCIENCE RESEARCH PARTNERS</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:52:00 +0000</p> For more information about NASA's aeronautics research, visit:<br /><a href="http://aeronautics.nasa.gov">NASA Areonautics!</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.nasa.gov">Click here for more information about NASA and agency programs.</a><br /><br />Want more info. on the announcement and the <a href="http://www.grants.gov">process for submitting proposals? Click here!</a><br /><br />NASA AND AIR FORCE WORK TO ESTABLISH HYPERSONIC SCIENCE CENTERS<br /><br />WASHINGTON -- NASA and the United States Air Force are looking for university and industry partners as they work to advance hypersonic<br />research.<br /><br />NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate in Washington and the<br />Air Force Research Laboratory's Office of Science Research at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, have released a broad agency announcement describing their intent to establish three national hypersonic science centers. Hypersonic speed is defined as Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, and faster.<br /><br />NASA's Fundamental Aeronautics Program and the Air Force Office of Science Research plan to set aside as much as $30 million to fund the centers over five years. The maximum grant will be approximately $2 million a year. The jointly funded program will support university-level basic science or engineering research that provides improved understanding of hypersonic flight.<br /><br />"We have identified three critical research areas: air-breathing propulsion, materials and structures, and boundary layer control," said James Pittman, principal investigator for NASA's Fundamental Aeronautics Program's Hypersonics Project at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. "These three areas are the biggest hurdles to successful hypersonic flight and low-cost space access using an air-breathing engine."<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>CONSUMER ALERT - Canadian Food Inspection Agency</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 16:16:00 +0000</p> Consumer Advisory - Infant formula originating from China<br /><br />September 12, 2008 -- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Health Canada are advising consumers to avoid purchasing infant formula originating from China. While this product is not approved for sale in Canada, it is possible that it could have been illegally imported to Canada and may be for sale in some stores that carry ethnic foods.<br /><br />The Canadian government has become aware that melamine, a toxic substance when consumed, has been detected in infant formula which may have been exported illegally from China. Several illnesses in infants in China, and at least one death, have been linked to the consumption of this product.<br /><br />To date, no infant formulas contaminated with melamine have been found in Canada and, in fact, no formulas produced in China are approved for sale in Canada.<br /><br />The CFIA is investigating this situation and is advising consumers to avoid these products if they are found on store shelves. If consumers do have this product, they should contact us at 1 800 442-2342.<br /><br />The CFIA is implementing a border lookout on milk protein products and will test any suspect products found. In addition, CFIA inspectors will be checking retail establishments to determine if the formula is present in stores.<br /><br />All infant formula sold in Canada must be approved by Health Canada. Infant formula manufacturers are required to submit detailed information for Health Canada’s review in order to ensure that infant formula sold in Canada is safe and nutritious.<br /><br />Health Canada has contacted the four major manufacturers of infant formula sold in Canada: Abbott Nutritionals, Mead Johnson Nutritionals, Nestlé Canada and PBM Nutritionals. All four have confirmed that they do not use any milk ingredients sourced from China.<br /><br />Melamine is a chemical compound used in a number of commercial and industrial applications. Canada does not allow its use as a food ingredient. As a precautionary measure, the Agency is verifying that infant formula containing this product is not on Canadian store shelves.<br /><br />No illnesses have been reported in Canada related to the consumption of this product.<br /><br />For more information, please contact the CFIA at 1 800 442 2342 or visit our website at www.inspection.gc.ca.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>Made-in-China Baby Formula Found to Contain Melamine</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:07:00 +0000</p> Travel in Asia? Have a baby? Remember the poisoned pet food scandal? Well, heads up!<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2008-09-11-tainted-formula_N.htm">The US F.D.A. is alerting consumers that melamine has been found in made in China baby formula</a>, say reports in USA Today. Chinese press reports say a huge recall is underway in China.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>Berkeley Labs on LHC first beams & US contributions to the projecr</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:10:00 +0000</p> First Beam for Large Hadron Collider<br /><br />Washington, D.C. – An international collaboration of scientists today sent the first beam of protons zooming at nearly the speed of light around the world’s most powerful particle accelerator—the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)—located at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) invested a total $531 million in the construction of the accelerator and its detectors, which scientists believe could help unlock extraordinary discoveries about the nature of the physical universe.<br /> <br />Celebrations across the U.S. and around the world mark the LHC’s first circulating beam, an occasion more than 15 years in the making. An estimated 10,000 people from 60 countries have helped design and build the accelerator and its massive particle detectors, including more than 1,700 scientists, engineers, students and technicians from 94 U.S. universities and laboratories supported by DOE’s Office of Science and NSF. <br /><br />“As the largest and most powerful particle accelerator on Earth, the LHC represents a monumental technical achievement,” said U.S. Department of Energy Undersecretary for Science Raymond L. Orbach. “I congratulate the world's scientists and engineers who have made contributions to the construction of the accelerator for reaching this milestone. We now eagerly await the results that will emerge from operation of this extraordinary machine.”<br /><br />The first circulating beam is a major accomplishment on the way to the ultimate goal: high-energy beams colliding in the centers of the LHC’s particle detectors. Beyond revealing a new world of unknown particles, the LHC experiments could explain why those particles exist and behave as they do. They could reveal the origins of mass, shed light on dark matter, uncover hidden symmetries of the universe and possibly find extra dimensions of space.<br /><br />NSF has focused its support on funding university scientists who have contributed to the design and construction of the two largest detectors, CMS and ATLAS, and promoted the development of advanced computing innovations, essential to address the challenges posed by the enormity and richness of data to be accumulated. Continued support will enable scientists to optimize detector performance, successful data accumulation and sophisticated analysis, necessary for discovery.<br /><br />“This national and international collaboration of unprecedented scope, and our investment in basic science, fundamental to the NSF mission, provide an exciting opportunity to solve some of the core mysteries of the universe,” said Arden L. Bement, Jr., director of the NSF. “With the operation of the LHC, anticipation of transformative scientific discoveries soars to new heights.”<br /><br />DOE provided support for the design and construction of the ATLAS and CMS detectors through two DOE national laboratories—Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Illinois. While the construction was managed through Fermilab and Brookhaven, scientists and engineers at universities and other DOE national laboratories—Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) in California—played key roles in the design and construction and are finalizing preparations to collect and analyze the data at the energy frontier. In addition, DOE supported about 150 scientists, engineers and technicians from three DOE national laboratories—Brookhaven, Fermilab and Berkeley Lab—that built critical components for the LHC accelerator. They are joined by colleagues from DOE’s Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and Texas A&M University in ongoing accelerator R&D.<br /><br />“The LHC is a discovery machine,” said CERN Director General Robert Aymar, “its research programme has the potential to change our view of the Universe profoundly, continuing a tradition of human curiosity that’s as old as mankind itself.”<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>Large Hadron Collider Rap and other info</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:55:00 +0000</p> The LHC has been fired up without incident but the first collisions won't occur for about a month.<br /><br />You can see <a href="http://webcast.cern.ch/index.html">CERN LIVE WEBCASTS HERE.</a><br /><br />the LHC:<br /><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/s9XotvwgnaY&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param></object><br /><br />Why? check it: The LHC Rap :)<br /><br /><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/j50ZssEojtM&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param></object><br /><br />3 part series on the LHC experiments:<br /><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_fJ6PMfnz2E&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param></object><br /><br /><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MQNPpeVvZ9w&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param></object><br /><br /><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_XbKZwXK-3c&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param></object><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>NY Nuke Plant Sits Atop Potential Earhquake Zone</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:44:00 +0000</p> According to NASA's Earth Observatory, New York City is in greater danger of earthquake damage than was previously believed.<br /><br />NASA points that, alarmingly, the <a href="http://www.earth.columbia.edu/sitefiles/File/pressreleases/1696.pdf"> Indian Point nuclear facility just north of the city, sits on top of the meeting of two prevously unknown but active fault zones,</a> according to a study by Columbia University scientists.<br /><br />"We need to step backward from the simple old model, where you worry about one large, obvious fault, like they do in California," said coauthor Leonardo Seeber. "The problem here comes from many subtle faults. We now see there is earthquake activity on them. Each one is small, but when you add them up, they are probably more dangerous than we thought. We need to take a very close look." Seeber says that because the faults are mostly invisible at the surface and move infrequently, a big quake could easily hit one not yet identified. "The probability is not zero, and the damage could be great," he said. "It could be like something out of a Greek myth."<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>DIVERSE, WET ENVIRONMENTS EXISTED ON MARS: NASA</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:25:00 +0000</p> WASHINGTON -- Two studies based on data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have revealed that the Red Planet once hosted vast lakes, flowing rivers and a variety of other wet environments that had the potential to support life.<P><br /><br />One study, published in the July 17 issue of Nature, shows that vast regions of the ancient highlands of Mars, which cover about half the planet, contain clay minerals, which can form only in the presence of water. Volcanic lavas buried the clay-rich regions during subsequent, drier periods of the planet's history, but impact craters later exposed them at thousands of locations across Mars. The data for the study derives from images taken by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, or CRISM, and other instruments on the orbiter.<P><br /><br />"The big surprise from these new results is how pervasive and long-lasting Mars' water was, and how diverse the wet environments were," said Scott Murchie, CRISM principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD.<P><br /><br />The clay-like minerals, called phyllosilicates, preserve a record of the interaction of water with rocks dating back to what is called the Noachian period of Mars' history, approximately 4.6 billion to 3.8 billion years ago. This period corresponds to the earliest years of the solar system, when Earth, the moon and Mars sustained a cosmic bombardment by comets and asteroids. Rocks of this age have largely<br />been destroyed on Earth by plate tectonics. They are preserved on the moon, but were never exposed to liquid water. The phyllosilicate-containing rocks on Mars preserve a unique record of liquid water environments possibly suitable for life in the early<br />solar system.<P><br /><br />"The minerals present in Mars' ancient crust show a variety of wet environments," said John Mustard, a member of the CRISM team from Brown University, and lead author of the Nature study. "In most locations the rocks are lightly altered by liquid water, but in a few locations they have been so altered that a great deal of water must have flushed though the rocks and soil. This is really exciting because we're finding dozens of sites where future missions can land to understand if Mars was ever habitable and if so, to look for signs of past life."<P><br /><br />Another study, published in the June 2 issue of Nature Geosciences, finds that the wet conditions on Mars persisted for a long time. Thousands to millions of years after the clays formed, a system of river channels eroded them out of the highlands and concentrated them in a delta where the river emptied into a crater lake slightly larger than California's Lake Tahoe, approximately 25 miles in diameter.<P><br /><br />"The distribution of clays inside the ancient lakebed shows that standing water must have persisted for thousands of years," says Bethany Ehlmann, another member of the CRISM team from Brown. Ehlmann is lead author of the study of an ancient lake within a northern-Mars impact basin called Jezero Crater. "Clays are wonderful at trapping<br />and preserving organic matter, so if life ever existed in this region, there's a chance of its chemistry being preserved in the delta."<P><br /><br />CRISM's high spatial and spectral resolutions are better than any previous spectrometer sent to Mars and reveal variations in the types and composition of the phyllosilicate minerals. By combining data from CRISM and the orbiter's Context Imager and High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, the team identified three principal classes of water-related minerals dating to the early Noachian period. The classes are aluminum-phyllosilicates, hydrated silica or opal, and the more common and widespread iron/magnesium-phyllosilicates. The variations in the minerals suggest that different processes, or different types of watery environments, created them.<P><br /><br />"Our whole team is turning our findings into a list of sites where future missions could land to look for organic chemistry and perhaps determine whether life ever existed on Mars," said Murchie.<P><br /><br />NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Applied Physics Laboratory operates the CRISM instrument in coordination with an international team of researchers from universities, government and the private sector.<P><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>Polar Continental Shelf Project: 50 Years of Arctic Research</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:33:00 +0000</p> RESOLUTE BAY – The Government of Canada is recognizing 50 years of research and scientific support in Canada's Arctic by the Polar Continental Shelf Project (PCSP) with an open house on July 12 at the Polar Shelf base in Resolute. Local residents, community leaders, media, staff and researchers are participating in the celebrations.<br /><br />"Polar Shelf is recognized internationally for excellence in providing cost-effective logistical support to researchers working in the Arctic," said the Honourable Gary Lunn, Minister of Natural Resources. "And it will continue to play a key role in advancing our Government's Northern Strategy."<br /><br />The Northern Strategy focuses on four priorities: promoting economic and social development, improving and devolving governance, protecting our environmental heritage and strengthening Canada's Arctic sovereignty. Announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper last fall, the Northern Strategy is ultimately about turning potential into prosperity – so the North realizes its full social and economic potential with a future that is secure and sustainable.<br /><br />In Budget 2008, the Government of Canada allocated $34 million for new geological mapping to spur exploration for energy and minerals resources primarily in the north. As well, the Canada–Nunavut Geoscience Office will continue to seek new ways to bolster resource exploration in the North. The federal government has also committed an additional $40 million over four years for various surveys and data collection to confirm the undersea boundary of Canada's extended continental shelf in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. Canada has until 2013 to present its submission on the continental shelf to a United Nations committee.<br /><br />"Our government is extremely proud of our strong commitment to geoscience and geological mapping in the North," said Minister Lunn. "Polar Shelf is an essential tool in delivering these initiatives that will help create new economic and social opportunities for northerners and all Canadians."<br /><br />The work of Polar Shelf has taken on even greater significance in 2008 as it has been a key supporter of Canadian and international researchers conducting research as part of the International Polar Year (IPY). Canada allocated $150 million to IPY research activities – the largest new contribution of any country to this scientific project, which is itself the largest-ever global program dedicated to Arctic and Antarctic research.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>Methane Capture from Leaking Landfills Made Mandatory in Ontario</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:41:00 +0000</p> <a href="http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=14936">Edie is reporting that Ontario landfill sites must comply with new regulations</a> requiring them to stop greenhouse gas methane from leaking off their tips. Government funding will be available to offset smaller operators capital costs.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>Berkeley Lab Wins Four Prestigious 2008 R&D 100 Awards for Technology Advances</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:24:00 +0000</p> BERKELEY, CA — Four of R&D Magazine's prestigious R&D 100 Awards for 2008, which recognize the 100 most significant proven technological advances of the year, have gone to researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and their colleagues.<br /><br />The awards bring the total of Berkeley Lab’s R&D 100 awards — also called the “Oscars of Invention” — to 48, plus two Editors’ Choice Awards over the years.<br /><br />The 2008 award designees are:<br /><br />-Berkeley Lab PhyloChip — a DNA microarray that quickly, comprehensively, and accurately identifies species within microbial samples from any environmental source, without any culturing required.<br /><br />-Biomimetic Search Engine — a search engine that mimics the human cognitive process to find hidden and contextually relevant information in literature, databases, music, and other digital content.<br /><br />-FastBit Bitmap Index — the fastest indexing technology for accelerating searching operations of massive databases. FastBit is able to search up to 100 times faster than other technologies.<br /><br />-Nanostructured Polymer Electrolyte for Rechargeable Lithium Batteries — a polymer electrolyte that enables the development of rechargeable lithium metal batteries with energy density that is at least a factor of two larger than that of existing technology.<br /><br />Cheryl Fragiadakis, who heads Berkeley Lab's Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Management Department, says, "Winning four awards is a tremendous achievement that speaks very highly of the strength of our science and its relevance to solving complex global problems. I am particularly pleased to note that this year's winners are already being used or further developed by partners in the private sector."<br /><br />Berkeley Lab Phylochip<br /><br />The PhyloChip packs an enormous amount of analytical power into a device not much larger than a quarter. Its ability to test all manner of environmental samples for their microbial content is unprecedented. It allows scientists to detect what was undetectable before now, at a speed inconceivable before now. It was developed by Gary Andersen, Todd DeSantis, Eoin Brodie, and Yvette Piceno of Berkeley Lab’s Earth Sciences Division.<br /><br />The PhyloChip’s contributions to public health, medical diagnostics, and environmental cleanup projects have already paid large dividends. The information that it has already provided about the airborne bacterial content above U.S. cities is a first step in distinguishing between a climate-related bacterial change and a real bioterrorist threat. It promises even more advances in the development of biofuels and carbon sequestration. In short, scientists are continually finding new ways to use the PhyloChip, and make significant new discoveries along the way.<br /><br />Biomimetic Search Engine<br /><br />The Biomimetic Search Engine is the only search engine that couples the way people learn with the unmatched speed and data storage capabilities of computers. In doing so, it is revolutionizing how digital content is searched and utilized. Users can search huge databases and determine how objects are related, in what contexts they are related, and the strengths of those relationships. It was developed by Kasian Franks and Connie Myers, formerly of Berkeley Lab’s Life Sciences Division, and Raf Podowski. Both Franks and Podowski are now with the Emeryville, CA-based start-up company SeeqPod. A music search engine using the Biomimetic Search Engine can be found at www.seeqpod.com.<br /><br />The Biomimetic Search Engine goes far beyond simply sifting through data for keywords. Instead, the system allows users to make previously unknown connections between seemingly unrelated terms. In this way, it helps to synthesize new information and further a person’s understanding of a given topic, which is the hallmark of discovery, innovation, and invention. The Biomimetic Search Engine is already revolutionizing how genomics data, the internet’s playable music and video files, and Wikipedia’s ever-growing content are searched and utilized. It is also poised to make inroads into the finance, sports, and health sectors.<br /><br />FastBit Bitmap Index<br /><br />FastBit significantly advances the state of the art in searching large datasets. It expands the types of data on which bitmap indexes can be used most efficiently, while at the same time it speeds up search operations on all types of data. It was developed by Kesheng Wu, Arie Shoshani, Ekow Otoo, and Kurt Stockinger of Berkeley Lab’s Computational Research Division.<br /><br />FastBit has improved the speed of drug-discovery software at the University of Hamburg, Germany, and improved the matching between web page content and advertisements at Yahoo! Research. A FastBit-enabled grid-based analysis of high-energy physics data received an award from the 2005 International Supercomputer Conference in Heidelberg, Germany, and the work on network traffic analysis received an honorable mention in the High Performance Analytics Challenge at the Supercomputing 2005 conference in Seattle. In short, FastBit contains significant innovations that are well-recognized and have a broad impact in science, technology, and education.<br /><br />Nanostructured Polymer Electrolyte for Rechargeable Lithium Batteries<br /><br />Until now, rechargeable battery architectures that include solid electrodes and liquid electrolytes have not advanced far beyond what they were at the birth of the first batteries. That’s beginning to change, thanks to solid-state batteries containing a nanostructured polymer electrolyte. The technology introduces a radically new architecture with a potential to enable electric battery-driven transportation technology. It was developed by Nitash Balsara, a scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division who also conducts research with the Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division. He’s also a professor in UC Berkeley's Department of Chemical Engineering. The technology has been licensed to the start-up company Seeo Inc., located in Berkeley, CA.<br /><br />The nanostructured polymer electrolyte exhibits high ionic conductivity, but can be engineered to be mechanically rigid, therefore resisting the growth of dendrites when contacted with a lithium metal electrode. Dendrite growth has prevented the commercialization of rechargeable batteries with a lithium metal anode. Batteries made with the nanostructured polymer electrolyte are also inherently safe because they lack liquids and flammable components, which prevent thermal runaway. In addition, products of side reactions cannot circulate and amplify within the cell. Solid-state lithium-ion batteries made possible by Berkeley Lab’s nanostructued polymer electrolyte are expected to meet the energy density goal established by the Department of Energy for electric vehicles — the highest hurdle for battery technology.<br /><br />The R&D 100 Award-winning technologies were nominated by Berkeley Lab's Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Management Department. All winners of the 2008 award will receive a plaque at R&D Magazine's formal awards banquet in Chicago on October 16.<br /><br />Berkeley Lab is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory located in Berkeley, California. It conducts unclassified scientific research and is managed by the University of California. Visit our website at www.lbl.gov.<br /><br />*****************<br /><br />John the Seeker adds this information:<br /><br />For those interested in FastBit bitmap indexing software, it can be found at https://codeforge.lbl.gov/projects/fastbit/<br /><br />Additional information about FastBit can be found at http://sdm.lbl.gov/fastbit/<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>A Stress Meter for Fault Zones</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:21:00 +0000</p> <span style="font-weight:bold;">The Speed of Seismic Waves is a Measure of Stress in Rocks During — and Possibly Before — Earthquakes</span><br /><br /><br />BERKELEY, CA – For the first time, scientists from Rice University, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have measured — in the field rather than in the laboratory — how changes in stress in rocks affect changes in the speed of seismic waves at depths where earthquakes begin. The measurements could lead to a "stress meter" for better understanding how fault-zone stress is related to earthquakes.<br /><br />"The goal of our project was to develop a method for measuring stress changes, especially at depths where earthquakes originate," says Fenglin Niu of Rice University's Department of Earth Science. "We call it a seismic stress meter."<br /><br />Niu is first author of the article reporting the research results, which appears in the 10 July issue of the journal Nature. Paul Silver of the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism coordinated the project, and Tom Daley and Ernest Majer of Berkeley Lab's Earth Sciences Division provided the precision instruments which generated and detected the seismic waves.<br /><br />"Over many years at Parkfield and other sites, Ernie Majer and I worked together to develop a suite of high-precision instruments for field work," says Daley. "One of our goals was to see if our existing cross-well instrumentation would have the sensitivity to measure the pressure changes and associated travel-time changes needed for this experiment."<br /> <br />The research team used the twin boreholes ("wells") of the National Science Foundation's San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) near Parkfield, CA, to send signals from a source one kilometer deep in the pilot hole to a receiver at the same depth in the main hole. At that depth the two SAFOD boreholes are separated by only about five meters, and any change in travel time between them is measured in microseconds.<br /><br />"The source is a stack of donut-shaped piezoelectric ceramic cylinders that expand when voltage is applied," Daley explains. "The source is suspended in the water that fills the hole, and when it expands it exerts pressure on the water, which exerts pressure on the rock; the seismic wave travels through the rock to the detector, which is in contact with the sides of the main bore hole and measures movement with accelerometers." <br /><br />The instruments were sensitive enough to detect changes in rock stress a kilometer deep, caused only by changes in the barometric pressure of the atmosphere — a mere change in the weight of the air on the surface.<br /><br />"To get the required sensitivity we did 'signal stacking,'" Daley says. "The source fires about four times a second, and we averaged every 45 minutes of data, to suppress random noise and to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. We collected this data continuously over two separate month-long periods."<br /><br />During the first month of data collection the team found a consistent relationship between barometric pressure and minute changes in the travel time of seismic waves between the source and the detector. Higher barometric pressure (corresponding to greater stress on the rock) meant less travel time — the seismic waves moved faster because tiny cracks in the rock closed up under pressure.<br /><br />During the second month of data collection, the quality of the data actually improved, but the researchers detected two anomalous departures from the established relation of barometric pressure to travel time. These excursions corresponded to two earthquakes in the Parkfield region, an area so well instrumented that earthquake magnitude and location, including depth, can be determined with great precision. One earthquake measured magnitude 3, the largest local event during the observation period; the other earthquake measured magnitude 1, but occurred closer to the experiment.<br /><br />The excursions in the travel-time data began 10 hours before the magnitude 3 event and 2 hours before the magnitude 1 event. In earlier, laboratory-based studies of the relationship of seismic-wave travel times and stress, such "preseismic" changes were related to changes in the properties of microcracks in the rock.<br /><br />"The same may be the case here," says Daley. "But in fact we do not have a clear physical explanation for these preseismic observations as yet, although they plausibly represent stress changes in the crust. Our goal is to determine if they are repeatable and, if so, to determine the ultimate physical basis. Nevertheless, what we've seen are interesting stress changes associated with earthquakes. It encourages us to continue this kind of observation."<br /><br />Says Rice's Fenglin Niu, "Detecting a preseismic velocity change is at best only a small step toward reliable earthquake prediction. Before we can supply any useful information before an earthquake, we will need a physical model that can explain when such a velocity change would occur before a quake."<br /><br />"Preseismic velocity changes observed from active source monitoring at the Parkfield SAFOD drill site," by Fenglin Niu, Paul G. Silver, Thomas M. Daley, Xin Cheng, and Ernest L. Majer, appears in the 10 July issue of Nature and is available online to subscribers at http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1038/nature07111.<br /><br />Berkeley Lab is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory located in Berkeley, California. It conducts unclassified scientific research and is managed by the University of California. Visit our website at http://www.lbl.gov.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>Toxins from Techopark Seeped Into St,. Lawrence: Group</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:08:00 +0000</p> As much as eight million litres of diesel and two tonnes of hazardous PCBs have leaked into a Canadian river according to watchdog group. The report took 4 years to prepare and is by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) which monitors pollution risks in North America.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=14927">Edie has a report.</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>OCEAN WIND POWER MAPS REVEAL POSSIBLE WIND ENERGY SOURCES</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:07:00 +0000</p> News from NASA :)<br /><br />WASHINGTON -- Efforts to harness the energy potential of Earth's ocean winds could soon gain an important new tool: global satellite maps from NASA. Scientists have been creating maps using nearly a decade of data from NASA's QuikSCAT satellite that reveal ocean areas where winds could produce wind energy.<br /><br />The new maps have many potential uses including planning the location of offshore wind farms to convert wind energy into electric energy. The research, published this week in Geophysical Research Letters, was funded by NASA's Earth Science Division, which works to advance the frontiers of scientific discovery about Earth, its climate and its future.<br /><br />"Wind energy is environmentally friendly. After the initial energy investment to build and install wind turbines, you don't burn fossil fuels that emit carbon," said study lead author Tim Liu, a senior research scientist and QuikSCAT science team leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Like solar power, wind energy is green energy."<br /><br />QuikSCAT, launched in 1999, tracks the speed, direction and power of winds near the ocean surface. Data from QuikSCAT, collected continuously by a specialized microwave radar instrument named SeaWinds, also are used to predict storms and enhance the accuracy of weather forecasts.<br /><br />Wind energy has the potential to provide 10 to 15 percent of future world energy requirements, according to Paul Dimotakis, chief technologist at JPL. If ocean areas with high winds were tapped for wind energy, they could potentially generate 500 to 800 watts of energy per square meter, according to Liu's research. Dimotakis notes<br />that while this is slightly less than solar energy (which generates about one kilowatt of energy per square meter), wind power can be converted to electricity more efficiently than solar energy and at a lower cost per watt of electricity produced.<br /><br />According to Liu, new technology has made floating wind farms in the open ocean possible. A number of wind farms are already in operation worldwide. Ocean wind farms have less environmental impact than onshore wind farms, whose noise tends to disturb sensitive wildlife in their immediate area. Also, winds are generally stronger over the ocean than on land because there is less friction over water to slow the winds down - there are no hills or mountains to block the wind's path.<br /><br />Ideally, offshore wind farms should be located in areas where winds blow continuously at high speeds. The new research identifies such areas and offers explanations for the physical mechanisms that produce the high winds.<br /><br />An example of one such high-wind mechanism is located off the coast of Northern California near Cape Mendocino. The protruding land mass of the cape deflects northerly winds along the California coast, creating a local wind jet that blows year-round. Similar jets are formed from westerly winds blowing around Tasmania, New Zealand, and Tierra del Fuego in South America, among other locations. Areas with<br />large-scale, high wind power potential also can be found in regions of the mid-latitudes of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, where winter storms normally track.<br /><br />The new QuikSCAT maps, which add to previous generations of QuikSCAT wind atlases, also will be beneficial to the shipping industry by highlighting areas of the ocean where high winds could be hazardous to ships, allowing them to steer clear of these areas. <br /><br />Scientists use the QuikSCAT data to examine how ocean winds affect weather and climate, by driving ocean currents, mixing ocean waters, and affecting the carbon, heat and water interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere.<br /><br />JPL manages QuikSCAT for NASA. <a href="http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov"></a>More information about QuikSCAT here. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.nasa.gov">For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>Let X = X: old galaxies, army space spies, toxic bilge, more</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Fri, 30 May 2008 04:42:00 +0000</p> PODCAST The crew of the Goodship Let X = X take you tripping through the galaxy of science. In this episode: primeval galaxies; U.S. army space surveillance; toxic petrochemical waste in Africa; PLOS: the Public Library of Science. Music by Rochester, NY's "The Window Room".<br/><br/><a href='http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=31845066'>read more</a> | <a href='http://digg.com/general_sciences/Let_X_X_old_galaxies_army_space_spies_toxic_bilge_more'>digg story</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>Security & Prosperity Partnership Will Effect Energy, Water & Environment</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Wed, 28 May 2008 19:25:00 +0000</p> The 300 policy changes being put into place via the corporate instigated and undemocratic S.P.P. (or Security and Prosperity Partnership), will have far-reaching implications for energy policy and the environment. I am still wading through the information but for anyone who wants to know more here are several sources of information.<br /><br /><a href="http://judicialwatch.org/SPP.shtml">Judicial Watch has exposed the Security and Prosperity partnership, via a set of revealing documents they obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.</a> These show that the Bush administration and U.S. government's are attempting to unite the U.S., Canada and Mexico through cooperation on federal policies and infrastructure. <br /><br />The <a href="http://www.augustreview.com/issues/regionalization/toward_a_north_american_union_200608181/">August Review also has a quite thorough article on the SPP</a> and North American Union.<br /><br />You can also view a selection of videos, many of talks given across Canada concerning the SPP and the NAU via the SPP Information Channel. I am including a embedded video link to that channel below.<br /><br />Lastly, here is <a href="http://www.nrcan-rncan.gc.ca/media/newsreleases/2007/200766a_e.htm">Natural Resources Canada's news release concerning the trilateral SPP meetings and energy policy in Canada.</a> Notice that electricity is mentined and that will include hydroelectricity. Since the SPP seeks to share resources between the US, Canada and Mexico and since the US is the largest consumer of energy and resources, it's pretty obvious who will be doing most of the "Sharing" of Canada's as well as Mexico's water and water power - the United States of America.<br /><br /><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/p/327066ABAACF9535"></param></object><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Call to Action on World Food Emergency</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Tue, 27 May 2008 01:05:00 +0000</p> fwd'd from ETC Group (Action group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration)<br />26 May 2008<br />ETC Group<br />ANNOUNCEMENT <br />http://www.etcgroup.org <br /> <br /> <br />Call to Action on World Food Emergency<br /> <br />On 22 May, International Biodiversity Day, ETC Group joined with civil society and social movements from around the world to launch a "Call to Action on the World Food Emergency." ETC Group is attending the 9th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn, 19-30 May 2008.<br /> <br />ETC Group invites you to sign on to the international Call to Action by social movements and civil society on the World Food Emergency and the underlying loss of biodiversity. To read the full statement in English, French and Spanish, go to http://www.nyeleni.eu/foodemergency/ .<br /> <br />No More “Failures-as-Usual"!<br />Historic, systemic failures of governments and international institutions are responsible. Governments will meet at the U.N. FAO Food Summit in Rome 3-5 June and they must begin by accepting their responsibility for today's food emergency and the loss of biodiversity.<br /> <br />The emergency today has its roots in governments' and intergovernmental organisations' failures, among others, to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food and to produce food, especially for domestic markets.<br /> <br />Henry Saragih, international co-ordinator of La Via Campesina said: "This food crisis is the result of the ongoing market liberalisation and the neglect of food production by international institutions and national governments”. Saragih added “This has to change! Peasant and family farmers need policies that protect and stabilize domestic markets and support food production for local and national markets " .<br /> <br />In the midst of collapsing farm, livestock and fish stocks and skyrocketing food and fuel prices, new policies, practices and structures are required to resolve the current food emergency and to prevent future - and greater - tragedies. Governments' and intergovernmental organisations' policies have undermined agricultural productivity and destroyed national food security. This has had a dramatic impact on agricultural biodiversity and its resilient ecosystems that underpin the sustainable production of food from crops and livestock in all regions of the world.<br /> <br />Mana Diakite, USC West Africa declared: ” The push for agrofuels and the so-called new green revolution is threatening our local seeds and livestock breeds and undermining our food sovereignty in the Sahel , as elsewhere.” Diakite added ”We need a new approach that protects us from misguided technologies and invasive markets that are forced on our farmers and livestock keepers and erode our precious agricultural biodiversity .”<br /> <br />Social movements and civil society organisations have joined together to develop a global plan of action for food and agriculture and are willing to discuss this plan with governments and intergovernmental organisations that will be attending the U.N. Food Summit, 3-5 June 2008, in Rome.<br /> <br />We call for, among other demands:<br /> <br />• A State of Emergency: In this crisis peoples and states can call for a State of Emergency and suspend agreements and regulate citizens and corporate activities. They must do so immediately allowing people to take back control of their food systems;<br /> <br />• UN Commission on Food Production, Consumption and Trade: A new inclusive mechanism is needed to replace the UN Task Force. This Commission should have a significant and substantive representation of small-scale food producers and marginalized consumers ;<br /> <br />• No quick fixes: This is a generational emergency which is likely to continue for another generation – long term solutions are required. Governments must not be allowed to repeat the same institutional mistakes and short-term technofix solutions of the past. No more Green Revolutions – long term food sovereignty solutions are needed.<br /> <br />To read the full statement, go to http://www.nyeleni.eu/foodemergency/<br /> <br />The statement and global plan of action was prepared by members of the IPC, the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty. The IPC is a facilitation mechanism in which key international social movements and organisations collaborate around the issue of food sovereignty: these include ROPPA, WFFP, WFF, La Via Campesina, and many movements and NGOs in all regions (see: http://www.foodsovereignty.org/new/focalpoints.php ). The IPC is coordinating a Parallel Forum to the FAO Food Summit in Rome, 1- 4 June 2008 "Terra Preta: Forum on the Food Crisis, Climate Change, Agrofuels and Food Sovereignty " http://www.foodsovereignty.org/new/terrapreta.php .<br /> <br /><a href=" http://www.nyeleni.eu/foodemergency/">Copies of the full Civil Society Statement on the World Food Emergency are available in English, French and Spanish here.</a><br /> <br />To <a href="http://www.nyeleni.eu/foodemergency/">sign the Call to Action statement, please submit your signature by c;icking here and signing at the website.</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>Ancient Arctic Ice Shelf Break Up Speeds Up - Fastest Melt On Record</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Sat, 24 May 2008 19:27:00 +0000</p> The Arctic ice shelf is disintegrating. Even the thickest and oldest ice, which is 3000 years old and thick as a ten story building, is breaking up along the north coast of Canada, as tracked by the Canadian military and scientists. <br /><br />BBC has a video on the huge fissures that have been developing: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7418041.stm<br /><br />And over on Thomas Homer-Dixon's page is a time-lapse video captured via sateltite of how the ancient ice is being flushed down the strait between Canada's and Greenland's coasts: <br />source: www.homerdixon.com<br /><br />This is the fastest arctic ice melt on record, shocking scientists, according to the BBC.<br /><br />(ED: Maybe one of the pieces of ice will hit Dixie Lee Ray in the head and knock some sense into her?)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>PODCAST: Babbling Bats, Very Fly Cheese, Viral Deli Meat, Death on Line</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Fri, 23 May 2008 18:06:00 +0000</p> <a href="http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=34609044">Let X = X, your fix of geek chic</a><br><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>Inflatable Space Station</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Sun, 11 May 2008 21:39:00 +0000</p> It may sound like a joke but isn't. Space.com is reporting on a <a href="http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/080509-bigelow-genesis1-milestone.html">private orbital space station which also happens to be, well, inflatable,</a> of all things!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>HELP NOW TO GET CRITICAL BILL ON\ CLIMATE CHANGE PASSED</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 02:23:00 +0000</p> Reposted from David Suzuki's blog<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">WE NEED YOUR HELP NOW TO GET CRITICAL BILL ON GLOBAL WARMING PASSED<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.davidsuzuki.org/_Email_Archive/email04080801.asp?utm_source=myspace&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=ClimateAction">Take Action Now!</a><br /><br />Please join thousands of concerned citizens from across Canada in helping get a bill now stuck in a parliamentary committee passed.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">What’s at stake?</span><br /><br />The bill – C-377, the Climate Change Accountability Act -- would set science-based emission reduction targets for Canada.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">What’s happening?</span><br /><br />The bill is stuck before the House of Commons environment committee. Some members (see partial list below) have been blocking progress by not letting other members of the committee talk. If the filibuster continues, this bill could be killed.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">What you can do now</span><br /><br />If you want real progress on climate change to happen, let committee members know you want them to end the stalemate and allow the committee to get back to work.<br /><br />Please call, email, write or visit the following members of the Environment Committee and Government responsible for blocking the work of the Environment Committee. Copy your own Member of Parliament, the Prime Minister, and your local newspaper.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.davidsuzuki.org/_Email_Archive/email04080801.asp?utm_source=myspace&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=ClimateAction">Take Action Now!</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>show podcast</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 08:50:00 +0000</p> Porta oxygen; hi-tech heists; rats help beat adult-onset diabetes<br /><br /><a href="http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=31811860">Let X = X</a><br><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 22:44:00 +0000</p> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3OmN4B7yyS8&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param></object><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> <article> <h1>'Beelze-Toad': Giant Predatory Fossil Frog Found</h1> <p>murray.dianne@gmail.com (Dianne Murray.) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:29:00 +0000</p> The size of a bowling ball, ancient armour-plated frog is dubbed Beelzebufo (devil toad) by scientists. Who says they have no sense of humour? <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwB7nzKiEl7uPz08Ni4ppF5c14_uKpSbca97RxUf0ICN_uuc4GrnYNQ183lh0Bj_OE695liQQzNp4z-lGpKtQP5jNzZyjKDeid95B8uzn6RADzcuePiu3cI0iNVCX0RFfPPPig/s1600-h/giant_frog_h1.jpg"></a>Graphic by: David Krause, Stony Brook University<br /><br />A team of researchers, led by Stony Brook University paleontologist David Krause, has discovered the remains in Madagascar of what may be the largest frog ever to exist.<br /><br />The 16-inch, 10-pound ancient frog, scientifically named Beelzebufo, or devil frog, links a group of frogs that lived 65 to 70 million years ago with frogs living today in South America.<br /><br />Discovery of the voracious predatory fossil frog -- reported on-line this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) -- is significant in that it may provide direct evidence of a one-time land connection between Madagascar, the largest island off Africa's southeast coast, and South America.<br /><br />To identify Beelzebufo and determine its relationship to other frogs, Krause collaborated with fossil frog experts Susan Evans, lead author of the PNAS article, and Marc Jones of the University College London. The authors concluded that the new frog represents the first known occurrence of a fossil group in Madagascar with living representatives in South America.<br /><br />"Beelzebufo appears to be a very close relative of a group of South American frogs known as 'ceratophyrines,' or 'pac-man' frogs, because of their immense mouths," said Krause, whose research was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The ceratophryines are known to camouflage themselves in their surroundings, then ambush predators.<br /><br />"The finding presents a real puzzle biogeographically, particularly because of the poor fossil record of frogs on southern continents," said Krause. "We're asking ourselves, 'What's a 'South American' frog doing half-way around the world, in Madagascar?'"<br /><br />He said that because frogs "are not adept at dispersal across marine barriers, and since the few fossil frogs that are known from the Late Cretaceous in Africa are unrelated to Beelzebufo, one possibility is that there was a land connection between South America and Madagascar during that period."<br /><br />Some geoscientists have suggested a lingering physical link between South America and Madagascar during the Late Cretaceous Period -- a link involving Antarctica. Antarctica in the Late Cretaceous was much warmer than it is today.<br /><br />"The occurrence of this frog in Madagascar and its relatives' existence in South America provides strong evidence that the supercontinent Gondwana 'disassembled' during the latest part of the Cretaceous," said Richard Lane, program director in NSF's Division of Earth Sciences.<br /><br />Krause and colleagues have hypothesized this connection based on previous discoveries of sauropod and theropod dinosaurs, crocodiles and mammals in Madagascar that were very closely related to forms in South America.<br /><br />Beelzebufo is one of the largest frogs on record and was perhaps the largest frog ever to exist. The size and robustness of its bones and its relatedness to the rotund South American forms indicates it was also probably the heaviest frog to exist.<br /><br />The size, girth, appearance, and predatory nature of the frog prompted its discoverers to call it the "armored frog from hell." They derived the genus name from the Greek word for devil (Beelzebub) and the Latin word for toad (bufo). The species name, ampinga, means "shield."<br /><br />The largest living frog today is the goliath frog of West Africa, which attains lengths of 12.5 inches and weights of 7.2 pounds. The largest frog alive on Madagascar today, at just over four inches long, "would have been a nice hors d'oeuvre for Beelzebufo," Krause said.<br /><br />Since the discovery of the first bones found in northwestern Madagascar in 1993, Krause and his team have gathered some 75 fossil fragments of Beelzebufo. Through the accumulation of these fossils, the team has been able to reconstruct the frog's skeleton, including nearly the entire skull.<br /><br />Not only was the frog huge, it was powerful in design, had a protective shield, an extremely wide mouth and powerful jaws. These features made Beelzebufo capable of killing lizards and other small vertebrates, perhaps even hatchling dinosaurs.<br /><br />The research was also funded by the National Geographic Society.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"> </script></div> </article> </main></body></html>