Sleath Fisher Heron wallpaper, Alaska to spend $1.5 million on astroturf, California solar gets financial boost

Sleath Fisher Heron wallpaper

Alaska Legislature Plans $1.5 Million Astroturf Fight Against Endangered Species Act

Seeking to protect the oil industry, the Alaska state legislature has appropriated $1.5 million to fund an astroturf campaign to weaken the Endangered Species Act and put on a conference questioning the listing of polar bears as a threatened species.

Over the objections of some members who warned of “PR damage” to the state, a group of lawmakers late last week decided to move ahead with reviewing bids from public relations firms for the polar bear contract, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

It’s surreal to think elected officials would spend $1.5 million dollars to achieve nothing except pump money into the coffers of some “public relations” firm. Wasted money that will simply cause those determined to provide an extra measure of protection to polar bears  to rise money and file law suits to stop any changes to the current protection status. Even if Alaska officials manage to repeal polar bear protection under the Endangered Species Act, the bears will continue to get protection under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). MMPA provides that the bears den, birthing and feeding areas get a wide buffer from development. Alaska has one of the highest  per capita rates of rape and domestic violence in the nation. Why not spend that money on better public awareness, policing and prosecution. As everywhere Alaska has its share of struggling working Americans that could use a little help with health and dental care, school supplies and food stamps. $1.5 million dollars will not be spent on those worthy endeavors, but on repealing wildlife protection for animals that bring in billions of tourist dollars.

Federal officials, after a lot of public hearings and debate are already on record as saying the permit processes for new development in Alaska have stayed very close to what they have been for some time under the MMPA.

Lightning Reveals Its Power in Slow Motion(VIDEO). Would have been a good addition to yesterday’s post.

California solar startup Ausra acquired by French nuclear energy giant Areva. An interesting aspect of this besides the financial advantages of having a very profitable company like Areva backing green energy projects is the green technology being used. A particular type of solar energy capture,

While Areva is new to the solar market, the company’s $18 billion in annual revenues should help reassure bankers who tend to shy away from financing multibillion-dollar solar power plants using new technologies.

Areva will also continue to sell Ausra’s solar thermal equipment, which uses rows of long flat mirrors to focus the sun on water-filled tubes suspended over the arrays. The superheated water creates steam for industrial uses or to drive an electricity-generating turbine.

Northern Territory Lightning Storm wallpaper, Insects use wind to migrate

Northern Territory Lightning Storm wallpaper

Insects migrate in wind highways

Migrating insects use highways in the sky to speed their journey, according to a study published in Science magazine.

Researchers say moths and butterflies use sophisticated methods to find winds that will take them in certain directions for thousands of kilometres.

The little creatures travel on winds of up to 100km (60 miles) per hour.

Using some sort of internal compass the insects get back and forth more efficiently between their northern and southern migrations. Why doesn’t the wind tear up the delicate wings of the butterflies and moths. According to these researchers it sounds as though the insects are aware that the winds inside a windstream – think of the calm in the eye of a hurricane - are calm compared to the outside. Which also implies they have a mechanism for interpreting turbulence.

Maybe because its invisible  the wind is given short shift as an ecological factor in the lives of plants and animals – Heaven’s Breath: A Natural History of the Wind. Watson’s book was published in 1985 and mentions finding small spiders at very high altitudes trapped in wind turbulence.

We all cannot know everything. Probably one of reasons for the success of the printing press and the invention of the word humility. Though it is disappointing to see a group of people who want to guide public policy and spending thousands to do so, be so clueless – Virginia GOP Mocks Epic Snow Storm As ‘12 Inches Of Global Warming’. Which is the same as you or I looking outside on a rainy day and deciding its time to start building an arc that will hold two of everything. Global Warming and Oddball Winter Weather

*Since the 1970s, December-February temperature increases have ranged from 1 to 2 degrees in the Pacific Northwest to about 4 degrees in the Northeast to more than 6 degrees in Alaska.

*Winters are getting shorter, too. Spring arrives 10-14 days earlier than it did just 20 years ago.

*Global warming is bringing a clear trend toward heavier precipitation events.

*Many areas are seeing bigger and more intense snowstorms, especially in the upper Midwest and Northeast.

*Global warming is shifting storm tracks northward. Areas from the Dakotas eastward to northern Michigan have seen a trend toward more heavy snowfall season.

Hottest January in UAH satellite record – Human-caused global warming easily overwhelms much-hyped “cold snap”

Winter in New Hampshire wallpaper, A future with nine billion people, Leaves and networks

Winter in New Hampshire wallpaper

Is There Enough Food Out There For Nine Billion People?

Fewer hamburgers: Can’t imagine this one will go over well, but the authors do suggest that people will probably have to reduce their meat consumption slightly to feed nine billion people. This doesn’t mean going vegetarian. A recent study from Germany’s Potsdam Institute found that if everyone had a diet equivalent to eating meat three times a week, it’d be perfectly doable to feed nine billion people and rein in some of the gruesome excesses of factory farming. But if the whole world adopted a Western meat diet, we’d need to start razing forests for additional land—three million square kilometers all told, an area about two-thirds the size of the current Amazon rain forest. (Or, who knows? Maybe by 2050 we’ll all resort to in vitro meat instead.)

Those that keep up with population trends already know that by 2050 – only forty years away – there will be another 2 billion people on this little blue marble we call home ( currently approx. one billion people suffer from food insecurity that ranges from starvation to malnutrition). They will not just have to eat, they’ll need stuff like clothing, shelter, sewerage and other waste disposal. Whatever one’s political views or what the worlds governments believe, some changes in lifestyle are on the way. Hopefully technology in combination with some reasonable adjustments on humanity’s part will make it possible for us to enjoy a lifestyle that is not too austere. A good article that also has some links worth reading.

France will support a ban on global trade in bluefin tuna, but in exchange … Good news, but just a band-aid on a large problem. Unless other countries join in and severely limit their catches – or for countries such as the U.S. – limit their imports, the collapse of the bluefin tuna fishery will just take a little longer.

Would have been a good day for a leaf wallpaper to go with this story. Leaves teach a lesson in technology, Leaves Show Looped Networks May Be Better Than Branched

Tree branches have inspired efficient transit networks, but a new study finds inspiration in leaves. The curvy, connected leaf veins found in some plants are an efficient way to circumvent damaged areas and channel nutrients, report researchers led by Eleni Katifori of the Rockefeller University in New York City.

Shown nicely in the video at the link is the abundance of loops in a leaf. Loops that makes rerouting water and nutrients easier if part of the leaf is damaged.

Oahu Purple Sunset wallpaper, Ancient snake probably ate crocodiles, A single celled “beach ball”

Oahu Purple Sunset wallpaper

Ancient giant snakes devoured crocodiles

The largest snake the world has ever known likely had a diet that included crocodile, or at least an ancient relative of the reptile.

The snake find and that of a predecessor of today’s modern crocodiles were made at an open pit coal mine in Columbia, South America. Judging from the snake’s skeleton (Titanoboa), described as being similar to a boa-constrictor measured 14 meters(45 feet long). If we take 16′ as the average length of an American car, Titanoba would be almost 3 cars long. Modern anaconda – a type of boa – are said to reach up to maybe 30′(9.1m).

Zoologger: ‘Living beach ball’ is giant single cell. When I think of single celled organisms I generally think of some kind of single celled Protist( though not all Protists are single celled) and so small that you need a microscope to get a good look at their structure. So one single celled organism that is about the size of a beach ball- Syringammina fragilissima – is an interesting find. It might be cheating in a round about way. The actual cell is smaller than the mass, but they build up an outer crust (called the test) over time  by secreting a sticky cement-like substance. More on the history of this single-celled xenophyophore at the link.

I have doubts about “clean coal”, but  like many facets of energy production and their impact, maybe its just a problem waiting for a good solution, A New Clean Economy — With Old Sources of Energy

The new White House plan will support the development of five to 10 carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) demonstration projects by 2016. The idea is to show on a commercial scale that coal can be burned cleanly for electricity — without accelerating climate change — by injecting millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the ground. The new plan isn’t exactly new, though. In 2003, former President George W. Bush authorized a similar CCS pilot project called FutureGen, though the program was eventually shut down, ostensibly for exceeding budget projections. But under the current White House plan, the Department of Energy will be spending far more, investing more than $4 billion in CCS, with the expectation that industry will add another $7 billion.

There is more about coal and biofuels at the link. Reviving talk of large scale use of biofuels is discouraging though I can see a niche use of them on farms if the biofuel is made from the waste parts of plants.

Snow and Flowers Lake Goleon wallpaper, North American wolverines in decline, Alternative uses for everyday products

Snow and Flowers Lake Goleon wallpaper

Wolverine numbers ‘melting away’

The wolverine, a predator renowned for its strength and tenacious character, may be slowly melting away along with the snowpack upon which it lives.

Research shows wolverine numbers are falling across North America. Their decline has been linked to less snow settling as a result of climate change.

Wolverines are part of the weasel family ( genus Gulo) and are also the largest species of that family. They live in a biome called Taiga (Arboreal forests). They are native to North America, Northern China, Scandinavia and Russia. It’s thick fur and big feet(relative to its body size) are adaptations that suit its natural range which usually has a good amount of snowfall. While it feeds on carrion, it also does some of its own hunting.

Newspapers as cleaning rags, diapers as heating pads and other AltUses

For most people, vinegar brings salad dressing to mind. But for the co-founder and president of AltUse.com, it’s an inexpensive and common household item that can be used to clean windows, kill weeds, remove stains and prevent jeans from fading. Those are just some of the ideas that can be found on the AltUse website, which lists 2,000-plus alternative uses for 700 or so household items.

They list good old baking soda also. Good for brushing your teeth, removing some stains and they have a baking soda formula to make your own environmentally friendly fungicide.

I’m not an expert on Constitutional law, but this doesn’t sound good, America’s Competitors Will Use Supreme Court Ruling To Block Our Green Jobs Effort And Close Our Factories

The Washington Times, Fox News, and other corporations with significant foreign ownership already work full-time to turn American public opinion against our own government. “Free trade” advocacy groups with funding from outside our borders work to get us to open our markets to imports that close our factories, outsource our jobs, lower our standard of living and drive us into ever-increasing debt.

Just a water-cooler opinion, but the article might be a little overwrought or perhaps I’m too cynical. As the author notes many of our news outlets and corporations are already owned or partly owned by foreign companies. Those companies have done some kind of advocacy( funding political groups of one kind or another, PAC money, directly via the media outlets listed, etc) for their frequently narrow and selfish interests for years. The recent Supreme Court ruling might make that situation worse, if nothing else because of a variation on one of Murphy’s Laws – if things can be made worse they will.