Grinnel Lake wallpaper, U.S. faces major water supply issues, Solar house pays $15 month bill

Grinnell Lake wallpaper

Grinnell Lake is in Montana and is part of Glacier National Park. The park is home to an estimated thousand species of plants. GNP borders the Canadian park Waterton Lakes. Before it was designated a National Park by President Taft in 1910 it was a Forest Preserve. So even a hundred years ago the American people recognized the need to preserve our natural heritage.

The U.S. Nears the Limits of Its Water Supplies

Water concerns are not restricted to the southeast region — similar issues have also been popping up in other parts of the United States. In the Midwest, concerns abound as to whether the newly emerging biofuel industry is putting undue pressure on the region’s groundwater resources. The issue came into focus for the first time in the late summer of 2006 in Granite Falls, MN where an ethanol plant in its first year of operation depleted the groundwater so much that it had to begin pumping water from the Minnesota River.

In early February, it was reported that there is a 50 percent chance Lake Mead (on the Arizona/Nevada border), will be dry by 2021 if climate change continues as expected and future water use is not limited.

It is curious how the media and many average citizens can obsess about certian hot button social issues that in most cases are a personal matter and not make the same if not more noise about something as basic as our water supply.

With utilities bills soaring, some Seattleites turning to solar power

Even when the sky is gray and cloudy, Brown’s solar system often will generate a kilowatt or two, reducing her electricity bill through winter. In summer, she pays only about $15 per month.

Until 2003, Brown didn’t think she could afford to install the necessary equipment to generate solar power on her West Seattle home. But she refinanced her house and used equity to install the more-affordable hot-water system (about $6,000) and the pricier solar electric system ($28,000), known as photovoltaic.

It is estimated that an outlay this large could take 20 years for her to recoup the costs, but that is considering current energy prices. As oil recently broke a per barrel record, that will in turn effect the costs of relatively cheap coal for which there will be more demand. There there is the intangible benefit of being less dependent on the traditional power grid.

Azaleas and Dogwoods wallpaper, Modern lizards undergo amazing adaptations, Black Spider Monkey

Azaleas and Dogwoods wallpaper

Lizards Undergo Rapid Evolution After Introduction To A New Home

“Striking differences in head size and shape, increased bite strength and the development of new structures in the lizard’s digestive tracts were noted after only 36 years, which is an extremely short time scale,” says Duncan Irschick, a professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “These physical changes have occurred side-by-side with dramatic changes in population density and social structure.”

The lizards even developed specialized plant digestive cells in their new habitat.

Black spider monkey (Ateles paniscus paniscus). A new world monkey. Reportedly not as advanced as his old world ape cousins. They’re found in the rain forests of Central and South America. As fruit eaters with the occasional meal of leaves they play an important role in forest ecology by spreading the seeds of the fruit they eat.

Misty Snowy Mountains wallpaper, Ethanol pushing food prices

Misty Snowy Mountains

Battling Ethanol-Propelled Food Prices

According to statistics released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Labor, food prices for the first three months of the year rose at a rate that translates to an annual increase of 5.3 percent (adjusted for seasonal variations). That’s slightly higher than last year’s increase, and much higher than the increases in previous years. From 2001 to 2006, the price of food increased each year by an average of only 2.5 percent. According to the World Bank, the situation worldwide is more dire: food prices have nearly doubled over the past three years. That’s erased a decade of economic gains for the poor in some countries.

There is a government mandate, an initiative pushed by Dubya that 15 billion gallons of corn ethanol be produced domestically by 2015. A staggering number considering that 15 billion is more then double the amount produced in 2006. An amount that has already had such a devastating effect on our food prices and that of other countries that depend on us for cheap grain. There is a niche market for ethanol, trying to expand that niche to country wide use in all situations where a liquid fuel is the gas of choice is turning out to be a mistake that all of us are paying for. Removing the mandates now will not immediately result in lower prices, the market will need time to settle into a new set of supply versus demand, but ultimately ending these mandates will help not just with food prices, but get us back on track to pursuing a more practical solution for liquid fossil fuels replacement.

White Sands Bliss wallpaper

Nearly 1 in 5 US troops reports mental problems, possible brain injury from Iraq, Afghanistan

Roughly one in every five U.S. troops who have survived the bombs and other dangers of Iraq and Afghanistan now suffers from major depression or post-traumatic stress, an independent study said Thursday. It estimated the toll at 300,000 or more.

Vista Briars wallpaper, Swedes find oldest living trees, Arctic ice shelves continue to decline

Vista Briars wallpaper

This might help keep people from touching your monitor, but no guarantee.

Swedish spruce may be world’s oldest living tree

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Scientists have found a cluster of spruces in the mountains in western Sweden which, at an age of 8,000 years, may be the world’s oldest living trees.

The hardy Norway spruces were found perched high on a mountain side where they have remained safe from recent dangers such as logging, but exposed to the harsh weather conditions of the mountain range that separates Norway and Sweden.

Carbon dating of the trees carried out at a laboratory in Miami, Florida, showed the oldest of them first set root about 8,000 years ago, making it the world’s oldest known living tree, Umea University Professor Leif Kullman said.

I was very young 8000 years ago so I have no direct memory of when these trees took root. That carbon dating stuff is supposed to be pretty accurate though.

Scientists and Canadian Rangers Discover Further Break-Up of Arctic Ice Shelves

“Canadian ice shelves have undergone substantial changes in the past six years, starting with the first break-up event on the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, and the loss of the Ayles Ice Shelf,” said Dr. Luke Copland of the University of Ottawa. “These latest break-ups we are seeing have come after decades of warming and are irreversible,” said Dr. Derek Mueller of Trent University. Only five large ice shelves remain in Arctic Canada, covering less than a tenth of the area than they did a century ago.

The pace of climate change may have been underestimated. Not surprising, even scientists don’t live in a bubble and there has been so much shrill political upheaval surrounding the subject. Climate change scientists ‘underestimating impact on sea levels’

Squirrel Fish wallpaper, Triceratops and a real Iron Man

Squirrel Fish wallpaper

Odd, at least to me that the Squirrel Fish, a relatively small species ranging from 30-60cm uses sounds to repel attackers. Unless it seems that the attacker is just far too big to scare off then it might make a series of clicks to signal that a tactical retreat is in order. They’re warm water species that live among coral reefs usually waiting until dark to come out to feed.

If you’ve been saving up for that Triceratops fossil skeleton it might be your lucky day, Triceratops skeleton to be auctioned in Paris

The 7.5 meter-long skeleton is the first specimen of similar quality to be sold at auction since a Tyrannosaurus Rex nicknamed Sue was sold in New York more than a decade ago in 1997, Christie’s said.

It said the skeleton, with an estimated value of 500,000 euros ($790,800), had no name so far but the purchaser would be able to give it one.

Building the Real Iron Man

It’s fantasy versus reality, and the spread is shrinking. The latter, the XOS, is the latest and arguably most advanced exoskeleton in existence, developed by one-man idea factory Steve Jacobsen and the engineers at Sarcos, a robotics company he started in 1983 that was recently purchased by the defense giant Raytheon.

Amazing how small they’ve gotten the hydraulic mechanisms to power and extend the limbs, but they also seem to be the weak point especially as being suited for military combat. Still has potential for construction and dangerous exploration.