Minas Viejas Waterfalls wallpaper, Invasion of the lionfish, Hydrogen energy news

Minas Viejas Waterfalls wallpaper

Venomous lionfish prowls fragile Caribbean waters

The red lionfish, a tropical native of the Indian and Pacific oceans that probably escaped from a Florida fish tank, is showing up everywhere — from the coasts of Cuba and Hispaniola to Little Cayman’s pristine Bloody Bay Wall, one of the region’s prime destinations for divers.

Wherever it appears, the adaptable predator corners fish and crustaceans up to half its size with its billowy fins and sucks them down in one violent gulp.

“This may very well become the most devastating marine invasion in history,” said Mark Hixon, an Oregon State University marine ecology expert who compared lionfish to a plague of locusts. “There is probably no way to stop the invasion completely.”

Researchers surmise that the first few lionfish were accidentally washed into the Atlantic during Hurricane Andrew in 1992. They’ve been spotted as far north as Rhode Island. They are not like small sharks that cruise around for food and attack an occasional human, the danger is more accidentally disturbing one. The sting is said to be very painful.

Just a month ago Massachusetts got its first hydrogen fuel station, now Missouri, Missouri’s first hydrogen fueling station will aid University research

The Missouri S&T buses that shuttle post employees from Rolla to Fort Leonard Wood are no longer powered by diesel. Today, it’s hydrogen that makes them go.

US Department of Energy funds long-term hydrogen vehicle development to the tune of $15.3 million
Compressed hydrogen tanks

* Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico – Up to $2.3 million to develop a concept using an electric field to increase the hydrogen binding energy in hydrogen adsorbents;
* North Western University, Illinois – Up to $2.2 million to design novel multi-component metal-hydride based mixtures for hydrogen storage; and up to a further $1.3 million to develop new hydrogen adsorbent materials with increased hydrogen binding energy through metal doping;
* Ohio State University, Ohio – Up to £1.1 million to develop high-capacity, reversible hydrogen storage materials using boron-based metal hydrides;

Other universities getting some research funds include Pennsylvania State University and US Borax Inc, Colorado.

* Obama’s Geek Economist

He soon caught on, however. “When the Internet first appeared, this heated debate developed among economists,” he recalls. “One side said the Internet will make it easier for companies to price-­discriminate, and it’ll be fabulously profitable. The other side argued that the Internet will be the great equalizer–it’ll make markets close to perfectly competitive and people much more price-sensitive, and profits will be highly constrained. I’m probably the leading guy associated with that second position. Arguably, I got lucky, but what I wrote basically turned out to be correct.”

Goolsbee’s writings on this subject started bringing him “calls from all over the place, from policy makers and businesspeople–online merchants, particularly.” In the late 1990s, he published some highly influential papers that evaluated the depressive effects of taxation on Internet commerce. Finally, having been an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business since the age of 25, Goolsbee (who was born in Waco, TX, and grew up in California) gained tenure at 32.

Seastacks Coastal wallpaper, Global warning stopped?, 1.2 billion gallons of wasted fuel

Seastacks Northwest Coast wallpaper

10 Best Science Fiction Planets. I tend to like Frank Herbert’s Dune (1965), but probably because I read the book in a geky teen phase and then saw the movie version on a local station that had one of those nightowl movie hours on Saturday night. It was more its own world with its own rules then anything else I’d seen.

Climate myths: Global warming stopped in 1998

According to the dataset of the UK Met Office Hadley Centre (see figure), 1998 was the warmest year by far since records began, but since 2003 there has been slight cooling.

But according to the dataset of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (see figure), 2005 was the warmest since records began, with 1998 and 2007 tied in second place.
Tracking the heat

Why the difference? The main reason is that there are no permanent weather stations in the Arctic Ocean, the place on Earth that has been warming fastest.

The anecdotal evidence from friends in the south it is their perception that this summer has been a little cooler or hotter depending on who I’m talking to and their location. To me it seems cooler, but that is probably because our rain fall has been a little higher then the last couple summers. Anecdotal evidence makes for interesting banter, but doesn’t prove much.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers started this site (warning uses a lot of Flash) called EcoDrivingUSA.com. Under the main heading how to be a good EcoDriver, Maintenance Practices

Check Your Tire Pressure Monthly

Tip #5The Department of Energy estimates that 1.2 billion gallons of fuel were wasted in 2005 as a result of driving on underinflated tires. Tires can deflate naturally, by as much as 1.5 PSI (pounds per square inch) a month. Experts estimate that 25% of automobiles are running on tires with lower than recommended pressure. Fuel efficiency is reduced by 1% for every 3 PSI that tires are under-inflated. So, keeping your tires properly inflated translates into a free tank of gas a year and reduces CO2 emissions too. Check tire pressure at least once a month. The correct tire pressure in PSI can be found on the tire label, as well as on the door frame, sill or edge. If all Californians properly inflated and aligned their tires, we’d save 300 million gallons of gas a year, according to the California Energy Commission.

Its a little odd that a former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich(R) can’t seem to get these simple facts.

“15 Square km of rain forest disappears every minute” Just a scan someone sent me of an advertisment run in a magaizine by the World Wildlife Fund. Funny and sad at the same time.

Desert Meteor Crater wallpaper, Wind energy boosts jobs, Florida wildlife losing out to condos

Meteor Crater Arizona wallpaper

Wind Industry Employing 50,000: AWEA to House Small Business Committee

With the federal production tax credit (PTC) expiration date looming over the industry, wind power now employs some 50,000 Americans (directly and indirectly) and created as many as 10,000 new domestic jobs in 2007 alone…

According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s recently released “20% Wind Energy by 2030” feasibility report, the industry could spur the creation of more than 500,000 domestic jobs.

By comparison, the tech sector of the economy (network systems and data communications analysts) in a projection by the The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) is only expected to grow by 106,000 jobs. Tech associated jobs - lower paying ones - might bring that total to half a million.

In the immediate future Florida might have to deal with a tropical storm headed its way. Long term it might be one big peninsula with the remnants of its wildlife population and unique ecosystems squeezed in between, Florida Wildlife Crowded by Swelling Human Population

TALLAHASSEE, Florida, August 18, 2008 (ENS) - Florida’s wildlife, already displaced from much of its habitat by human activities, will face even greater pressure over the next 50 years as the human population doubles its current size of 18 million people, finds a new report by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, FWC.

Issued Thursday, the report, “Wildlife 2060,” shows how continuing the past patterns of urban sprawl could result in fragmented natural places that will squeeze Florida’s wild species such as bears, panthers, bobcats, alligators, eagles and wild turkeys, manatees, gopher tortoises and Florida scrub-jays.

“Natural habitats could become islands in a sea of development,” said Dr. Thomas Eason, conservation initiatives coordinator for the FWC. “Corridors for some animals to move about the state will be cut off by roads, subdivisions and shopping malls.”

Since he has said previously that he was an evolutionist and had concerns about green house gases I assumed  presidential candidate Senator McCain (R-AZ) was a little more knowledgeable about science, The candidates define ‘rich’

My friends, we spent $3 million of your money to study the DNA of bears in Montana. Now I don’t know if that was a paternity issue or a criminal issue, but the point is — but the point is it was $3 million of your money. It was your money.

“And you know, we laugh about it, but we cry and we should cry because the Congress is supposed to be careful stewards of your tax dollars.

Some bear hunting is allowed in Montana. The studies there concern sustainability for those hunts and maintaining a healthy genetic diversity - among other things. In other words these studies are for the benefit of the people of Montana that enjoy the bears, about bear ecology andreserving America’s natural heritage for future generations. Then it is not like the Senator hasn’t supported his share of pork.

Fiji Fishing Sunset, Cars with good not great mpg, Strange changes to Endangered Species rules

Fiji Fishing Sunset wallpaper

The NYT has an article up on cars, small SUVs and a minivan that get good if not great gas mileage, Misers in Disguise: A Dozen Unlikely Fuel Sippers. Some of the picks include the MAZDA 5 minivan - M.P.G. RATING: 21 city, 27 highway, 23 combined, the TOYOTA CAMRY HYBRID - M.P.G. RATING: 33 city, 34 highway, 34 combined and the new smaller class SUV the NISSAN VERSA - M.P.G. RATING: 24 city, 32 highway, 27 combined. The Versa was something of a surprise. Its about the size as the Honda CRV or Toyota RAV 4. A couple of the cars on the list seem questionable such as the Chvey Corvette at M.P.G. RATING: 16 city, 26 highway, 19 combined; i guess if you do mostly suburban/rural highway driving and just have to have an old school sports car you could do worse.

New wildlife rules: Effects remain unclear

Interior spokesman Chris Paolino said the rule wouldn’t allow agencies to harm an endangered species.
“This is not a get-out-of-jail-free card,” he said. “If a project could affect the black -footed ferret, there still has to be a consultation [with federal scientists].”
But he didn’t know where in the environmental-review process the agencies would be able to declare there would be no harm to a listed animal or plant. Nor could he say what would happen if a project ended up causing harm or how that could be determined.

The new rule was announced that mining companies or building contractors for example could make their own decisions about what to do about encroaching on endangered species, yet now claim that the rule change is not a pass to do anything they like even though the scientific review process is missing. That would seem to qualify as some kind of government doublespeak. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne  is a Bush appointee.

Blue grey hairstreak butterfly

Green Technology wallpaper, Listening to plants for pollution warnings, Green tech news

Green Tech II wallpaper

I’ve always had my doubts about the benefits of talking to your plants. Though just in case it provides some psychological benefit to the plant’s owner I tend not to interrupt. There does seem to be some benefit, and non-psychological at that, to listening to plants, Scientists “Listen” to Plants to Find Water Pollution

Scientists in Israel have discovered a new way to test for water pollution by “listening” to what the plants growing in water have to say.

By shining a laser beam on the tiny pieces of algae floating in the water, the researchers said they hear sound waves that tell them the type and amount of contamination in the water.

“It is a red light, telling us that something is beginning to go wrong with the quality of water,” said Zvy Dubinsky, an aquatic biologist at Israel’s Bar Ilan University. “Algae is the first thing to be affected by a change in water quality.”

The article points out that close to half of the earth’s human population lives in areas where fresh potable water is “stressed”.

Just a few green technology hedlines from around the country, Green Tech Expo at the Border Governors Conference

The Border Governors represent the ten Border States of Arizona, Baja California, California, Chihuahua, Coahulia, Nuevo Leon, New Mexico, Sonora, Tamaulipas and Texas. This year, the Border Governors Conference — at which government officials from these states work together on a range of cross-border issues — has alternative energy and environmental issues on the top of its agenda.

from Jackson, N.J. Solar Panels Will Help County Go “Green”

The Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders will spend $500,000 on solar panel arrays that will produce all the energy needed to light and heat the county’s 43,000-square-foot southern complex in Manahawkin.

There is an almost daily report of some city moving to green tech to help save energy costs. This wave of green energy in the public sector provides an impetus for industry to move in that direction too. With cities providing great case studies in costs and efficiency for the private sector.

EPA-funded project emphasizes ‘green’ technology

As part of the local Beacon Hill Redevelopment Project, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded $1.4 million to the Kansas City, MO, Water Services Department in a project that will emphasize “green” wastewater techniques, according to an August 13 press release.

The project will include the relocation or replacement of sewers and water mains, and incorporate green stormwater infrastructure, such as rain gardens, bio-retention cells and an underground detention basin, according to the release.

As a nation we could do a lot better on conserving and recycling water. Because of suburban sprawl much of the water that would be naturally recycled back into lakes and shallow aquafers is wasted.

Flaming Scallop or Rough File Shell. I’m not sure that these are the type that make for good eating, but some folks with aquariums like to have them for the added color and showy tentacles. Unfortunately many owners report that they don’t last long in captivity.