Friday Hope Blogging

The United States is dismantling its remaining B-53s:

Outside of the nuclear weapons communities, little notice was paid last week to the announcement that authorization had finally come through to begin dismantling the last of the minivan-size B-53s, the most powerful thermonuclear bombs ever deployed in the active U.S. stockpile.

A terror weapon if there ever was one, the 10,000-pound B-53 was designed to deliver an explosion of nine megatons. That is the equivalent of 9 million pounds of TNT, or 600 times the power of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.

(h/t: Cheryl.)

An Israeli company is creating a solar generator with 72-percent conversion efficiency:

The difference between the new 3rd generation generators and the 2nd generation generators is that the new model is a combined heat and power, concentrated PV and solar thermal system. What this means is that not only does the system convert solar energy into electricity, it also converts any heat captured in the mirror collectors into electrical and thermal power.

I'm fairly impressed by the appearance of this Dutch waste-to-power plant:

The plant will use the latest and most efficient techniques to process 260,000 to 350,000 tons of waste per year. In turn, this will generate enough electricity for 60,000 households each year....

[Erick] Van Egeraat’s design of the plant makes the incinerator not just a power station, but also an icon on the horizon. Circular openings in the building’s aluminum facade serve to transform the station into a beacon at night, when light from the facility shines through the exterior.

Not just that, but the design allows the light to start as a spark before growing into a ‘flame’ that covers the entire building, before transforming into ‘embers’. Quite a design feat for an incinerator.

To put it another way, Erick van Egeraat is the Albert Speer of envirofascism! Give that idea to a roomful of speedfreak monkeys with typewriters, and you'd have an article by Jonah Goldberg within the hour.

Argentina has created a new law to protect its glaciers:

The law...prohibits the release, dispersal or disposal of substances or contaminants, chemicals or waste of any kind or size in glaciers and periglacial environments. It also prohibited the exploration and explotaition of mines.

Telementoring could help surgeons in remote areas to perform more complex operations:

Telementoring may be an effective way for subspecialist surgeons to assist remotely located general surgeons in the care of patients in need of emergency subspecialty surgical procedures, according to new research findings published in the September issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons....

In a civilian setting, telementoring could have wide-ranging applications for general surgeons in rural medical centers where they must treat a wide range of conditions, often without the breadth of subspecialty expertise needed for all cases.

The word on the street is, you can keep dung out of your drinking water by constructing a vertico-horizontal lattice of crosslinked metallic or xyloid palings characterized by a periodic pattern of spatially homogeneous, gas-permeable interstices. If correct, this would force us to reconsider the basic assumptions of Crosby and Andrews (1944):

Simply fencing off streams and drainage ditches so farm animals can't deposit manure in and around them could cut levels of faecal pollution dramatically, according to scientists. This would protect the health of people exposed to river water and help Britain comply with EU rules on water quality.

It might be worth a shot, I suppose. In related news, a new study in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry says stop running with scissors, or you'll put your eye out.

The moon may be capable of supporting golf courses:

[A]fter a year of analysis NASA today announced that its LCROSS lunar-impact probe mission found up to a billion gallons of water ice in the floor of a permanently-shadowed crater near the moon's south pole.

That's enough, said researchers, to fill 1,500 Olympic-size swimming pools, all from one crater.

Researchers have discovered a fish that dwells 1.75 leagues under the sea:

Fish were not expected to be able to survive so deep, but scientists have captured footage of a new species of a scavenger-hunting snailfish swimming at an astounding 7,000 meters below the surface. The video, taken from an 8,000 meter-deep sea trench in the Southeast Pacific Ocean, showed a level of biodiversity that surprised seasoned marine biologist, who have previously surveyed five other deep sea trenches.

"Our findings […] will prompt a rethink into marine populations at extreme depths," said Alan Jamieson from the University of Aberdeen's Oceanlab, who led the expedition.

A common virus could kill cancer cells:

By the age of five, most people have been exposed to the virus, called reovirus. For some, it can trigger brief episodes of coughing or diarrhea while many other don't develop any symptoms. The body simply overpowers the virus. But what scientists have discovered is that the virus grows like gangbusters inside tumor cells with a specific malfunction that leads to tumor growth. That finding led researchers to ask: Is it possible to use the virus as a treatment?

Amanda Udis-Kessler responds to Albert Mohler:

You describe yourself as a “Christian committed to biblical truth.” To prevent the Tyler Clementis of the world from jumping off bridges, you have to become a Christian as committed to human flourishing as you are to biblical truth – to walk the hard path of Jesus, not the easier one that the Pharisees are presented as following....

You ask in your open letter whether there is anyone who could have stood between that boy and that bridge. The answer is yes. There is exactly one person who could have stood between that boy and that bridge, and that person is you.

(Via Truth Wins Out.)

The New York Subway. Around the world in 65 photos. The tomb of Rudj-Ka. The tippling woodpecker. Kindergarten weaving. And the evolution of type.


De 78 rpm a 33 1/3 rpm. 20 cartazes de filmes B dos anos 1930. The Great White Silence. Views of Moscow from 500 feet. Water skeletons. A mosquito's heart. The Stock Project. And human-animal relations in photo postcards, 1905-1935.


:Photoschau, photomicrography and Polyorama. Globe poster specimens. The Crystal Palace. Activities for the afterlife. And paintings by Leah Fusco.


And a short film.



(Painting at top: "Raita" by Vilho Lampi, 1934. Via wood s lot.)

Friday Hope Blogging

A federal judge has ordered the U.S. military to stop enforcing DADT:

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips issued a worldwide injunction banning enforcement of the discriminatory and counterproductive policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT). Tuesday's order followed a September ruling by Judge Phillips that found DADT to be an unconstitutional violation of the due process and free speech rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual service members. In an article in Tuesday's New York Times, the newspaper called the decision a "significant milestone for gay rights in the United States."

Florida will not appeal the court ruling that overturned the state's ban on gay adoptions:

The Florida Department of Children and Families announced Tuesday evening that the state agency would not appeal the September decision by the 3rd District Court of Appeals.

"We had weighed an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court to achieve an ultimate certainty and finality for all parties," said Joe Follick, the department's communications director.

"But the depth, clarity and unanimity of the DCA opinion -- and that of Miami-Dade Judge Cindy Lederman's original circuit court decision -- has made it evident that an appeal would have a less than limited chance of a different outcome."

In related news, The Naib posts an interesting chart, and makes a good point:

The problem with the old angry white guy strategy is that old angry white guys are not going to be around for very much longer (especially not with the Republicans trying to privatize social security and Medicaid.) The republican party and old conservatives in general are making a devils bargain for short term gains that will not serve them well in the long run.

New research suggests that a bedrock assumption of evolutionary psychology may not be entirely accurate:

In a study to be published in the journal Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, Miller and her colleagues carried out their own version of Buss and Schmitt's work, asking how much time and money college students spent in a typical week pursuing short-, intermediate- or long-term relationships. The proportion of mating effort dedicated to short-term mating was the same for men and women. Similarly, both men and women showed an equivalent tendency to lower their standards for sex partners, and men did not report feeling constrained to have far fewer sexual partners than they truly desired.

Furthermore:

"In more equal actual roles, men and women have more similar mate preferences," Eagly says. "In very different marital roles that confine women to a domestic role, men and women choose differently."

A new type of anaerobic digestion reactor allegedly produces as much electricity as 25 wind turbines:

These reactors use a consortium of methanogenic (methane-producing) bacteria to degrade waste and energy crops to produce biogas (a mixture of methane and carbon) which is then converted to electricity using a turbine.

The DoI has approved the country's first solar tower:

The solar ‘power tower’ has been proposed for the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California by BrightSource Energy, and it will produce up to 370 megawatts of clean energy. This energy would be enough to power between 111,000 to 277,500 American homes, and the project will create over 1,000 jobs.

Inhabitat has more on the geothermal hotspot under West Virginia:

The discovery was made by the Southern Methodist University, who was given a $481,500 grant by Google to look into potential geothermal activity. The discovery is believed to be 78% more than was previously estimated....

In the official discovery report, the university said, “The presence of a large, baseload, carbon neutral and sustainable energy resource in West Virginia could make an important contribution to enhancing US energy security and for decreasing CO2 emissions"....

Currently, West Virginia produces 16,350 MW per annum from coal. If it was to fully utilize its geothermal reserves, it could produce 18,890 MW.

MIT researchers have created a portable desalination system for use in disaster areas:

The system is designed to be cost effective. It is made from standard parts such as PVC pipe and basic electronic components. It can be assembled and operated by local people who do not need advanced technical training. The units can also operate efficiently in a wide range of weather conditions. They have built in computers with sensors that can change certain variables if it gets cloudy. For example, the computer can adjust power going to the pump or the position of the valves to ensure the system will always produce water.

American ranchers are increasingly trying to coexist with wolves, instead of exterminating them:

[D]eterrence projects are slowly gaining favor with ranchers living in wolf country, and they reflect a new, more collaborative way of dealing with Mexican wolves, which the Fish and Wildlife Service reintroduced to Arizona and New Mexico in 1998....

About 15 ranchers in Arizona and about a dozen in New Mexico have tried wolf deterrent strategies over the past several years, and many of them -- particularly in Arizona, where grazing is for the most part seasonal instead of year-round -- have seen some benefit.

The rinderpest virus has apparently been eradicated:

Scientists have eradicated a killer virus in the wild, only the second time such a feat has been achieved in human history.

Researchers at the UN said today that rinderpest, a virus that causes devastating cattle plague, has been wiped out, the first time such an announcement has been made since the end of smallpox more than 30 years ago.

John Anderson, the head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, called the success "the biggest achievement of veterinary history". Rinderpest is the first animal virus to be contained and then eradicated in the wild.

The Obama administration has proposed new regulations that would limit miners' exposure to coal dust:

Federal regulators want to cut the dust exposure limit in half over two years, under rules proposed by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.MSHA also would require mine operators for the first time to monitor and record dust levels in real time; require miners in the dustiest jobs to wear personal dust monitors; change sampling procedures to determine how well mines are complying with dust controls; and expand medical monitoring of miners.

Sixty French towns have returned to using horse-drawn carts for waste collection:

For Jean Baptiste, mayor of medieval Peyrestortes, near Perpignan and one of 60 towns now using horses to collect waste, the benefit above all is practical. "You can't turn a waste collection vehicle around here. We used to block streets to traffic and keep waste in open skips." He sold off a dustbin lorry and acquired two Breton carthorses instead. Asked whether the changes are saving money, he says: "It's too early. But money isn't the only reason. The exhaust smells have gone, the noise has gone, and instead we have the clip-clop of horses' hooves."

In other news: The 600th birthday of Prague's astronomical clock. Soviet magazine cartoons. The recovery of comet 164P/Christensen. LEGO letterpress. And cyanotypes by Anna Atkins.


45cat (via things). Trap rooms. The Hepcats Jive Talk Dictionary. Photos by Jonathan Kenyon. And the fine art of underwater pumpkin carving.


Vintage coffee tins. Photos by Justin Partyka (via wood s lot). Caspian dreams. Photos by Frans Erasmie. And Le Cochon Qui Rit.


And a short film.



(Painting at top: "Trace" by Gregory Thielker, 2008.)

Friday Hope Blogging

A right-wing Christian group has decided to stop funding an anti-gay event:

The group’s president, Alan Chambers, told CNN that the event has become too divisive [!!] and confrontational.

"All the recent attention to bullying helped us realize that we need to equip kids to live out biblical tolerance and grace while treating their neighbors as they'd like to be treated, whether they agree with them or not," Chambers told CNN on Wednesday.

That's one way of looking at it, I suppose. But it's not very muscular.

A couple of conservative activists are calling for an end to the death penalty:

From our conservative perspective, there are other reasons we oppose the death penalty. It is an expensive government program with the power to kill people. Conservatives don't trust the government is always capable, competent, or fair with far lighter tasks.

When it comes to life and death, mistakes are made, or perhaps worse, bad decisions are made. States have wrongly convicted people based on false confessions and inaccurate eyewitness identification. In some of these cases, the real perpetrator was identified decades after the crime occurred. Since DNA evidence is not available in the majority of murder cases, other wrongful convictions based on similar types of evidence may never come to light.

Perhaps we could extend this logic to "far lighter tasks" like bombing foreign capitals.

The FTC is working on new regulations to prevent greenwashing.

Among the proposed changes: Marketers shouldn't use labels like "green" or "eco-friendly" because they're too vague; if something's labeled as "biodegradable," then the entire package should "completely break down and return to nature" within a year; and if something's called "non-toxic" it should be non-toxic for humans and for the environment generally.

Public comments are welcome.

Zion National Park has completed the park system's first soundscape plan:

For the first time, soundscape measurement metrics that have been in development at the NPS Natural Sounds Program office in Ft. Collins, Colorado, will be driving forces in ongoing Park management and assessment procedures. One of these metrics is the “noise-free interval,” or average time between the audible presence of human sound. According to Frank Turina, an NPS Natural Sound Program planner, “Now it’s two to three minutes before you hear a human-caused sound, usually involving an overflight, and we want to expand that to a seven-minute period. If we meet that goal we will reassess the situation to see if a longer interval is warranted.”

While some environmental groups had pushed for the Park Service to set a higher standard for back country visitors, this first step, if successful, would effectively reduce sound intrusions to less than half their current level.

Chile has created a large marine preserve around a small island:

Today, the Chilean government announced the creation of a large marine reserve around tiny and remote Sala y Gómez island in the Pacific ocean. The Waitt Foundation, Oceana, and National Geographic mounted a March 2010 expedition to document marine diversity in waters surrounding the island. The government's move represents a more than 100-fold increase in the expanse of Chile's marine protected areas....

"Sala y Gómez is one of the last undisturbed and relatively pristine places left in the ocean," said Dr. Enric Sala, a marine ecologist and National Geographic Ocean Fellow. "The island and its surrounding ocean ecosystem, which includes deep seamounts with unique marine life, have global value. These seamounts are very vulnerable to fishing activities, and this inspirational step marks Chile's potential as a global leader in ocean conservation."

The DoE has agreed to a cleanup deadline at the horrendous Hanford site:

The decree gives DOE more time for important and difficult environmental cleanup work at Hanford but also requires DOE to answer directly to the court if it misses new deadlines. The consent decree represents the beginning of a new level of accountability for the federal government for Hanford nuclear reservation cleanup over the next 40 years, said Rob McKenna, Washington state attorney general, in a statement.

A court has overturned Ohio's ban on labels that identify rBGH-free products:

Earlier this week, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the state of Ohio's ban on labels that identify milk as rBST- or rBGH-free, meaning produced without the use of artificial bovine growth hormone. Consumer and organic food groups were jubilant at the Ohio news, which may have far-reaching repercussions not only for all milk, but for genetically engineered foods.

The White House will once again have solar panels:

Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the plans Tuesday in Washington at a conference of local, state, academic and nonprofit leaders aimed at identifying how the federal government can improve its environmental performance.

Former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush both tapped the sun during their days in the White House. Carter in the late 1970s spent $30,000 on a solar water-heating system for West Wing offices. Bush's solar systems powered a maintenance building and some of the mansion, and heated water for the pool.

This means that Obama is the new Carter, which makes him wrong, just like Carter was when he installed solar panels, which had to be removed and incinerated at a cost of eleventy-point-three billion dollars by a highly trained cadre of Reagan-era freedom fighters, each of whom received 12 medals for risking life and limb to restore America's dignity on the world stage.

Some experts believe that Obama's panels are even worse than Carter's, because they remind The American People of turf-marking vandalism like graffiti and miscegenation. Carter's panels had a certain pathos, and were more like a weird-looking sweater on some sad, disoriented old man, according to Washington insiders.

And it only gets worse:

Yesterday, the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar approved the nation's first-ever large-scale solar energy plants to be built on public lands. Both plants, located in California, are first in a series of clean energy projects under final review by the Department of Interior (DOI) that are to be built on public lands. The California projects will have access to 6,800 acres that could produce up to 754 megawatts, enough to power up to 566,000 typical homes.

America Held Hostage: Day One!

West Virginia seems to have a lot of geothermal power:

Researchers have uncovered the largest geothermal hot spot in the eastern United States. According to a unique collaboration between Google and academic geologists, West Virginia sits atop several hot patches of Earth, some as warm as 200˚C and as shallow as 5 kilometers. If engineers are able to tap the heat, the state could become a producer of green energy for the region.

Obama has repealed language in the Dodd-Frank bill that allowed the SEC to hide its records:

This broad and unnecessary language would have given the SEC the blanket authority to block the release of records in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and to withhold records in response to subpoenas filed by third-party civil litigants, even if such records were needed to expose corruption or incompetence at the agency.

The EPA is blocking 11 coal-mining permits in Kentucky:

It’s the first time in about 20 years the federal agency has made such a move in Kentucky, but it is similar to actions that it’s made in other Appalachian states, where regulators are complaining that the EPA is overstepping its bounds.

In objection letters about the permits from its Atlanta office to the Kentucky Division of Water, the EPA cited the state’s own assessment of poor water quality in the regions where the permits are sought. And it said state regulators, in moving to approve the permits, failed to conduct analyses to determine whether proposed discharges from new surface mining would likely violate state water quality standards.

During a 60-day expedition to Papua New Guinea, researchers found 200 new species:

Half of the new species were spiders, but the team also found two new mammals, nine new plants, two dozen frogs, and multitude of insects. Most surprising was the discovery of at least two species so unique that they are likely to be assigned their own genus.

Photo © Piotr Naskrecki/iLCP.

Researchers also found new coral reefs in the Mediterraean:

This area apparently stretches over a few kilometers, 700 meters under the surface and some 30-40 km off the coast of Tel Aviv. According to the researchers, this southeastern region of the Mediterranean has only sparse sea life and therefore the discovery is in fact parallel to discovering an oasis in the middle of an arid expanse. "We did not expect, know, or even imagine that we would come across these reefs and certainly not such large ones. It's like finding a flourishing oasis in the middle of the desert," said Dr. Yizhaq Makovsky, who directed the University of Haifa control center for the project.

Bank of America has halted foreclosure sales nationally:

Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America Corp., the nation's largest bank, said Friday it would stop sales of foreclosed homes in all 50 states as it reviews documents used to process foreclosures....

A document obtained last week by the Associated Press showed a Bank of America official acknowledging in a legal proceeding that she signed thousands of foreclosure documents a month and typically didn't read them. The official, Renee Hertzler, said in a February deposition that she signed 7,000 to 8,000 foreclosure documents a month.

Scotland may run on 100-percent renewable energy by 2025:

While many countries are complaining about the Copenhagen requirements, other countries are striving to go above and beyond the call of duty. Last week Northern Ireland stated that they were hoping to have 40 percent of the country running off renewable energy. This week, new First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond went even further, stating that the country could be running off of 100 percent renewable energy by 2025.

This ambitious goal happened a week after the SNP administration upped Scotland's renewable energy goal from 50 percent to 80 percent by 2020

(h/t: Karin.)

All too human landscapes in southwest Florida. Roadtown. An abandoned line of the Moscow Metro. Ptolemy's map of Germania, deciphered (via Cheryl). Newly discovered footage of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. And some striking images from North Korea:


The Urban Speaker. Some items relating to Heathrow Airport (via things). An exoskeleton for wheelchair users. The Adrspach-Teplice Rocks. Iceland digitized. Top discoveries by the Census of Marine Life. Typographic maps. And Mexico's Cave of Crystals:


Right-Wing Radio Duck. Apropos of which, right-wing icons and their neverending struggle against alien sociologists (via Peacay). "It's decorative gourd season, motherfuckers!" Work Hard and Starve. An audio letter from Ethiopia. And Io in true color:


Here's a movie, too.



(Image at top: "Desert Landscape" by Sidney Nolan.)

Friday Hope Blogging

Telemedicine has improved women's access to RU-486:

[A] pioneering telemedicine program in Iowa has provided the pill to about 1,900 women - with a doctor able to consult with a faraway patient in a video teleconference, then unlock a container by remote control to release the pill. To the alarm of anti-abortion activists, abortion providers in other states are pondering whether similar programs would enable them to serve more women, especially in rural areas.

The United States has apologized for intentionally infecting Guatemalans with venereal disease.

U.S. government medical researchers intentionally infected hundreds of people in Guatemala, including institutionalized mental patients, with gonorrhea and syphilis without their knowledge or permission more than 60 years ago.

Many of those infected were encouraged to pass the infection onto others as part of the study.

About one third of those who were infected never got adequate treatment.

On Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius offered extensive apologies for actions taken by the U.S. Public Health Service.

Despite this minor episode of overzealousness, we are and remain Teh Greatest Country Ever, and don't you forget it. (Or else.)

The Denver Women's Correctional Facility has ended a grotesque, degrading strip-search procedure:

Officials at the Denver Women's Correctional Facility (DWCF) today implemented a new strip search policy that no longer allows correctional officers to engage in degrading body cavity searches in which prisoners had been forced to open their labia and, according to some reports, even to pull back the skin of their clitorises.

Connecticut has halted all foreclosures:

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal on Friday ordered a moratorium on all foreclosures by all banks for 60 days--the most radical action taken by a state on issue of document irregularities.

California also expanded the moratorium on foreclosures it announced last week on Ally Financial foreclosures to include those by J.P. Morgan Chase.

(h/t: Atrios.)

A rapid test for drug-contaminated meat could help to save the Indian vulture:

A pilot study in collaboration with the RSPB, the Bombay Natural History Society and the Wildlife Institute of India proved the suitability of the immune test for detecting Diclofenac in animal tissue. The procedure is currently undergoing extensive testing at an Indian vulture-breeding center. However, this method is also suitable for many other fields of application, as shown for instance in studies on Diclofenac contamination of wastewater in Bavaria and Austria. In the meantime the antibody is also being used in clinical environments to study allergic reactions to the drug.

Federal courts have rejected yet another Bush-era environmental anti-regulation:

Two courts this week shot down a 2007 policy issued by the Bush administration that argued that protections for species under the Endangered Species Act could be limited to portions of their range, and that in deciding whether species are endangered, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could ignore loss of historic range. The decisions apply to the Gunnison’s and Utah prairie dogs and follow another recent decision invalidating removal of protection for northern Rocky Mountains gray wolves based on similar reasoning.

“With these decisions, the Bush-era policy is a dead letter and ought to be immediately rescinded by the Obama administration,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director with the Center for Biological Diversity. “By severely undermining protections for endangered species like the gray wolf, Gunnison’s prairie dog and others, this policy is clearly contrary to the letter and spirit of the Endangered Species Act ”

Researchers have found a previously unknown population of a rare bird:

The Baudo oropendola (Psarocolius cassini) has gone from less than a dozen known individuals to nearly a hundred due to the discovery of two new colonies in northwestern Colombia by local conservation group, Fundación ProAves. However, the new colonies are located in an unprotected area currently being impacted by deforestation.

George Fenwick, president of American Bird Conservancy which focuses on bird conservation, said in a press release that his organization "is thrilled to have helped fund the research expedition that led to this stunning discovery of these two new colonies of this rare bird. Now we need to work with ProAves to conserve and protect them."

Photo: Fundación ProAves

In Chicago, families are occupying a building and demanding that it be turned into a library:

In a largely Hispanic neighbourhood on the lower west side of Chicago, parents and their kids have been occupying a field house, demanding that it be turned into a library instead of being torn down and the land used for a soccer field. This is a neighbourhood where 40% of the students live below the poverty line....

It would cost about a million dollars to fix up La Casita. What does a million dollars get the American military in Afghanistan–a paperclip? Surely President Obama, formerly a resident of Chicago, could turn his sights to these brave and struggling families yearning for books.

The US has strengthened offshore drilling regulations:

Today, the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, announced newly tightened regulations for offshore drilling. The rules are effective immediately, but the moratorium on offshore drilling imposed by the Obama administration at the beginning of the spill remains in place. They're aimed at clamping down on some of the key areas that allowed the disaster on the Deepwater Horizon to take place -- stronger oversight for worker training, emergency response, and blowout protectors, to name a few.

The White House has announced its plan to cut GHG emissions by 28 percent.

A large step forward for federal sustainability came this month as the White House released its Strategic Sustainability Performance Plans for nearly every Federal agency. This is the first time that all the agencies have submitted plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).

The Department of the Interior has a new policy on scientific integrity:

The order establishes codes of conduct for employees engaged in scientific activities or who use science to make decisions, and it requires all bureaus and offices to document and make public scientific or technological findings or conclusions used in decision-making....

Francesca Grifo, senior scientist and director of the scientific integrity program at the Union of Concerned Scientists applauded the new policy. "The principles outlined in the order, if fully implemented, would go a long way toward stopping the manipulation and distortion of science, on everything from underwater oil drilling to wildlife protection," she said in a statement.

Two more cities have rejected the ICE's S-Comm program:

A broad coalition of civil rights groups applaud Santa Clara and Arlington for joining San Francisco in requesting to opt out of ICE’s dangerous fingerprinting program. S-Comm is a program that automatically shares with ICE any fingerprints taken by local law enforcement right after individuals are arrested, even if the criminal charges are eventually dismissed or the result of an unlawful arrest. The program has sparked strong opposition from civil rights organizations, law enforcement, and city officials from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco, over concerns it is being forced on hundreds of counties without any mechanism for oversight or accountability.

A new study details the steep decline in breast cancer deaths:

Sixty years ago, a woman had just a 25 percent chance of living 10 years if she got a breast cancer diagnosis. Now the survival rate is more than 75 percent, U.S. doctors reported on Wednesday.

The study of women treated at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center demonstrates how improvements in treatment and screening have transformed the disease from a virtual death sentence, experts said.

Where a death ray is when you need it. Beach frolics, 1921. The sound of Akkadian. The Paleogene California River. Images from Manzhouli, China. A close-up view of the Campanula. And photos by Alain Delorme.


Gliese 581g or bust. Insect photography. The Yale Papyrus Collection. An interview with Giorgio Agamben (via wood s lot). Isolated building studies. And photos by Sebastian Schutyser.


Wara Wara. A rephotographic survey of East Germany. Street views of Antarctica. Venus' south polar vortex. And Mexican walls.


Last, a short film (via The Bioscope).



(Photo at top by A. Ellis and S. Johnson, from "Floral Mimicry Enhances Pollen Export: the Evolution of Pollination by Sexual Deceit Outside of the Orchidaceae," American Naturalist, November 2010. Via Surprising Science.)

Friday Hope Blogging

A court has overturned Florida's ban on gay adoption:

In a 28-page opinion, a three-judge panel of the court noted that gay people are permitted to become foster parents or legal guardians in Florida, yet are the only group not allowed to adopt.

“It is difficult to see any rational basis in utilizing homosexual persons as foster parents or guardians on a temporary or permanent basis, while imposing a blanket prohibition on those same persons,” wrote Judge Gerald Cope for the panel. “All other persons are eligible to be considered case-by-case to be adoptive parents.”

New York's new Smart Growth act will take effect next week:

On August 31, 2010, Governor David Paterson signed into law the Smart Growth Public Infrastructure Policy Act, which is intended to...augment the state's environmental policy by declaring a fiscally prudent state policy of maximizing the social, economic and environmental benefits from public infrastructure development through minimizing unnecessary costs of sprawl development including environmental degradation, disinvestment in urban and suburban communities and loss of open space induced by sprawl....

The Obama administration has issued an emergency order that tightens safety standards in coal mines:

Citing a "grave danger" to the nation's coal miners, the Obama administration said Tuesday that mine operators must take additional steps to control the buildup of highly explosive coal dust underground....

Experts from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health urged a toughening of federal 'rock dusting' standards in reports published in 2006 and 2009. But MSHA officials did not act until another NIOSH report was published this May, a month after 29 miners died in an explosion at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County.

California has passed new renewable energy regulations:

The California Air Resources Board approved one of the strictest renewable energy regulations in the nation Thursday, requiring utilities to get a third of their energy from renewable resources by 2020....

When fully implemented, the renewable energy standard will remove between 12 million and 13 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, along with other pollutants, according to the air board. It also will be one the more important steps toward meeting California's greenhouse gas reduction law, AB32, which requires the state return to 1990 emissions levels by 2020.

Central American countries are using volcanoes for power:

Guatemala, which already has two geothermal plants, is offering tax breaks on the equipment needed to build more in hopes of getting 60 percent of its power from a combination of geothermal and hydroelectric sources by 2022. Costa Rica already operates four plants and will bring a fifth online early next year; it’s considering an additional two. El Salvador and Nicaragua are also expanding geothermal power from volcanoes.

The United States is donating $50 million for clean-burning stoves in the developing world:

Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced a public-private partnership called the Global Alliance for Clean Cook Stoves to which the US government will donate $50 million to increase the number of clean burning cook stoves in the developing world. In less developed nations, most people cook on stoves that use wood, kerosene or dung for fuel, which can be a major source of pollution for the home and the environment. They release climate change-causing smoke into the air and can cause terrible respiratory problems for the people who use them — it is estimated they cause 1.9 million deaths yearly. This new initiative will put clean burning stoves into the hands of about 100 million people worldwide by 2020.

Orangutans seem to be able to survive in timber plantations:

Selectively logged forests and timber plantations can serve as habitat for orangutans, suggesting that populations of the endangered ape may be more resilient than previously believed, reports research published in the journal PlosONE....

"This is important news for orangutan conservation because this iconic species is highly endangered with extinction in the wild," said Meijaard. "Their native habitat in Indonesia and Malaysia has been much reduced in size and fragmented, and hunting of these apes continues in many parts of their range."

German researchers have discovered a new species of ape:

The new species was discovered in rainforests between the borders of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia: an area that contains a number of gibbon species.

The new species had been thought by past researchers to be the yellow-cheeked gibbons (Nomascus gabriellae), however analysis of the animals’ DNA and distinct calls convinced researchers that although the species looks almost exactly like yellow-cheeked gibbons, they were in fact a wholly different gibbon.

Both of the gibbons belong to the family of 'crested gibbons', one of the most imperiled groups of mammals in the world.

Scientists have also rediscovered several species of amphibian that were thought to be extinct:

A search for 100 of the world's 'lost amphibians'—unseen for decades and in many cases supposed extinct—have turned up three species so far, one of which hasn't been recorded since the Nazis were bombing London. The lost amphibian expeditions, formed by Conservation International (CI) and the IUCN Amphibian Specialist Group (ASG), have found surviving populations of the cave splayfoot salamander (Chiropterotriton Mosaueri) in Mexico, the Mount Nimba reed frog (Hyperolius Nimbae) in the Ivory Coast, and the Omaniundu reed frog (Hyperolius sankuruensis) from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The recently rediscovered Mount Nimba reed frog. Photo © Ngoran Germain Kouame.

Palm oil plantations built on peatlands will be ineligible for carbon credits under the CDM:

Plantations on peatlands will no longer be supported by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a framework for industrialized countries to reduce their emissions via projects in developing countries, reports Wetlands International.

The decision, which came last Friday during the executive board meeting, will bar biofuel plantations established on peatlands from earning carbon credits that could then be sold to industrialized countries to "offset" emissions. The concern is that under the CDM, carbon finance is used to perversely subsidize conversion of carbon-dense peatlands for oil palm plantations, a process that generates substantial greenhouse gas emissions, thereby undermining any potential carbon dioxide savings from use of palm oil-based biodiesel.

In related news, General Mills has agreed to stop buying palm oil from unsustainable sources:

Environmentalists on Friday praised a decision by U.S. food-maker General Mills to stop buying palm oil from companies accused of rain forest destruction — the latest in a string of multinationals to announce policy reversals....

"We are concerned about the role of palm oil expansion in the deforestation of the world's rain forests," the company announced on its website.

Common bacteria may be able to degrade AZO dyes in textile effluent:

Certain species of lactic-acid bacteria produce a red coloration when combined with tartrazine, a yellow food-coloring agent—commonly known as FD&C Yellow No. 5—that belongs to a class of synthetic chemicals known AZO dyes. During testing, ARS researchers noticed that several Lactobacilli also modified other AZO dyes, including those used and discharged by the textile industry into wastewater streams

Hooray, says I, for ornithopters!

Aviation history was made when the University of Toronto's human-powered aircraft with flapping wings became the first of its kind to fly continuously....For centuries engineers have attempted such a feat, ever since Leonardo da Vinci sketched the first human-powered ornithopter in 1485.

But under the power and piloting of Todd Reichert, an Engineering PhD candidate at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS), the wing-flapping device sustained both altitude and airspeed for 19.3 seconds, and covered a distance of 145 metres at an average speed of 25.6 kilometres per hour.

You can see a video of the flight here.

In other aviation news, keep watching the skies!

Witness testimony from more than 120 former or retired military personnel points to an ongoing and alarming intervention by unidentified aerial objects at nuclear weapons sites, as recently as 2003. In some cases, several nuclear missiles simultaneously and inexplicably malfunctioned while a disc-shaped object silently hovered nearby. Six former U.S. Air Force officers and one former enlisted man will break their silence about these events at the National Press Club and urge the government to publicly confirm their reality.

Surely it's no coincidence that the United States and Russia have asked the IAEA to safeguard the plutonium removed from their nuclear weapons. Cheryl Rofer explains:

This is a good thing in the immediate sense that there should be international oversight of that material and in the larger sense that the United States and Russia are opening up weapon-related stuff to inspection.

Researchers have discovered a letter in a previously unknown language:

"Our investigations determined that this piece of paper records a number system in a language that has been lost for hundreds of years," Jeffrey Quilter, an archaeologist at Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, said.

A photograph of the letter recently released by archaeologists shows a column of numbers written in Spanish and translated into a language that scholars say is now extinct.

Addictive ads (1894-1954). The Hand Drawn Map Association (via things). Money art by Kristima Lakoff. The good old days of Letraset. Scenes from the 35th Parallel. Pomological watercolors and Bheoir Lochlannachis. The Edison Mental Fitness Test (I got 86 percent, which makes me an unemployable failure). And the National Maritime Museum's astronomy photographs of the year.


Robots! The song of the blue wren anatomized. The fire syringe anatomized. Emblemata amatoria, and how. Building NASA. The UK Sound Map. Cortot discoveries. Sketches by João Cristino da Silva. Photos by Carl Curman. Photos by Sakis Dazanis.


"When thou a Dangerous Way dost goe, Walke surely, though thy pace be slowe." Apropos of which, dust models. New views of Saturn's aurora. Vesuvius 1944 and Klyuchevsky 2010. Randomized cryptozoology via Tops and Tails. "Coming Attractions" slides are among the coming attractions at Starts Thursday! Also, painted photographs.


And a short film about seashells, dedicated to someone very sweet.



(Image at top: "This series of images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a dark mass of gas and dust, called a core, where new stars and planets will likely spring up." Via NASA.)

Friday Nudibranch Blogging

Friday Hope Blogging

I found that I had a bit of breathing room this morning, and it felt all wrong. Life without stress, deadlines and unremunerated effort is no life at all!

I was at a loss, for a moment, until I remembered that I keep this millstone handy for just such an emergency.

By which I mean that it's good to be back, of course.

Anyway. Increasing women's access to education seems to lower child mortality, for some odd reason.

[R]esearchers at IHME...found 31 countries had improved the average years of schooling of reproductive-age women by more than three years between 1990 and 2009. This includes several countries in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates. In seven of the world's 10 most populous countries, women of reproductive age had on average received more than six years of schooling by 2009, meaning they likely completed primary school.

Most of the countries on pace to meet Millennium Development Goal 4 – reducing the child mortality rate by 66% between 1990 and 2015 – have improved their average years of schooling for reproductive-age women faster than the global average of 1.9 years since 1990.

Israel's Supreme Court has ruled that Jerusalem must fund construction of a gay community center:

Thursday’s ruling was the latest sign that a hostile climate toward Jerusalem’s gay community may be abating....

The court said the city must help fund the center because it serves a significant chunk of the city’s population. The city said it would not appeal the decision.

A federal judge has ruled "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" unconstitutional:

A federal judge said she will issue an order to halt the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, after she declared the ban on openly gay service members unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips ruled Thursday that the prohibition on openly gay service members was unconstitutional because it violates the First and Fifth Amendment rights of gays and lesbians.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is closing additional caves and mines to protect bats:

While most important bat caves have long been closed on refuges to protect bats from human disturbance, the new policy also closes mines, which can also be significant roosting and hibernating sites for bats, particularly in western states. Approximately nine different refuges with mine complexes will see these sites made off-limits by the new directive. The agency is also planning to implement new research and monitoring protocols for those caves to address white-nose syndrome.

In the Amazon, indigenous tribes and ranchers are joining forces to combat wildfires:

Facing the worst outbreak of forest fires in three years, cattle ranchers and indigenous tribesmen in the southern Amazon have teamed up to extinguish nearly two dozen blazes over the past three months, offering hope that new alliances between long-time adversaries could help keep deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon on a downward trajectory.

Environmentalists have defeated a logging company in Tasmania:

Gunns Limited, an Australian logging company, that has been engaged in a long-running battle with environmentalists over the firm's cutting of old-growth forests on Tasmania, conceded defeat Thursday, reports the Environment News Service.

Speaking at the ForestWorks conference in Melboure, Australia, Gunns chief executive Greg L'Estrange said the company will transition its operations from native forests to plantations, effectively ending the practice that has won the company so much animosity from green groups over the years.

Apropos of which, it seems that ants may prevent elephants from deforesting the savanna:

These insect defenders might be having an even larger effect on the African savanna ecosystem, the scientists say. When there are enough elephants around, they can destroy so many trees that they convert wooded areas into open grassland. The ants may be preventing that. “It really is a David-and-Goliath type of story,” says Palmer. “These little ants are up against these huge herbivores, protecting trees and having a major impact on the properties of the ecosystems in which they live.”

In Cambodia, threatened vulture populations are rebounding, thanks to conservation efforts:

Cambodia is now the only country in Asia where vulture populations are increasing....

WCS says the vulture population in Cambodia is rebounding as a the result of several programs organized by the Cambodia Vulture Conservation Project. Local communities are paid to protect vulture nests, while vulture food sources are supplemented by ‘vulture restaurants,’ feeding stations that also provide an opportunity to see the birds.

Also in Cambodia, researchers have found surprisingly high numbers of white-shouldered Ibis, which is Asia's rarest waterbird:

The discovery, which exceeds the previous estimate of 330 birds by 30 percent, was welcomed by conservationists.

"Discovering so many White-shouldered Ibis really improves our chances of saving the species," said Hugh Wright, a doctoral student at University of East Anglia and an expert on the species, in a statement. "During this record-breaking count, one of our main sites actually had far fewer birds than in previous surveys. I don’t believe these birds move very far and they were probably still present at that site. Considering previous counts, this means that the actual population could even exceed 500 birds."

Photo: Hugh Wright/UEA

A previously unknown spider species is able to spin 82-foot webs above flowing water:

Researchers Matjaz Kuntner and Ingi Agnarsson of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History found the giant webs suspended across flowing bodies of water. It's the first time any spider has been shown to achieve such a feat, the team reported in a new study....

The scientists are interested in determining how exactly the Darwin bark spiders build their webs across streams, rivers, and lakes. In Madagascar, they observed orb-shaped webs spanning up to 30 square feet, with anchor lines up to 82 feet in length.

Vegetation along the Potomac River is recovering:

The Potomac, which runs through the heart of the United States Capital, has suffered centuries of environmental degradation. Water quality has declined steadily as more humans have populated its watershed. However, according to new research, the river is beginning to benefit from restoration efforts that have improved water clarity and reduced nutrient overload. The result has been a ten-fold increase in native submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV). This SAV consists of plant life below the water surface which is an important habitat for fish and other marine life.

Baltimore has finally begun tearing down its "Highway to Nowhere":

The demolition of the roadway will reunite the communities of West Baltimore that have been physically separated since the highway’s construction in the early 1970’s. The full improvement project is scheduled for completion in fall of 2010.

There's more info here.

A federal judge has banned the planting of genetically engineered sugar beets:

[The Center for Food Safety], along with some organic seed producers, sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture, arguing that the USDA did not look carefully enough at the potential impact of cross-pollination before it approved genetically engineered sugar beets.

A federal judge agreed.

The Obama administration claims that it will plug 3,500 oil and gas wells in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Center for Biological Diversity applauded today’s order from the Obama administration to permanently plug nearly 3,500 abandoned oil and gas wells in the Gulf of Mexico. The administration also said about 650 unused production platforms will be dismantled.

“This is an important first step in cleaning up what’s become a dumping ground for the offshore oil and gas industry,” said Peter Galvin, conservation director for the Center. “These old wells can and do leak oil that only adds to the environmental problems the Gulf has suffered in recent decades.”

The tiny Pacific island nation of Kiribati has closed most of its territorial waters to fishing, in the rather touching belief that it will teach the rest of us a lesson:

mongabay.com: Is there a message you would like to convey to the broader public?

President Anote Tong: We must get away from the idea that one person, one action cannot make a difference. One million is 1+1+1 and so on. Every person and every action is important....

mongabay.com: What gives you hope?

President Anote Tong: I refuse to believe that any individual with a conscience would deliberately continue on a business-as-usual path knowing that their actions would result in the demise of others.

Cambridge University researchers have designed a cheap, organic solar cell:

The university team has reportedly come up with a commercial model that combines efficiency improvements, a longer lifespan, low-cost (and low-toxicity) raw materials, a cost-effective manufacturing process, and a product line that focuses on economies of scale and ease of installation. If this can be done, then cheaply produced solar cells have the ability to transform poorer countries and their energy demands.

Researchers may have found a way to render MRSA harmless:

Dr. Shoham identified a bacterial protein, known as AgrA, as the key molecule responsible for the release of toxins. AgrA, however, needs to be activated to induce toxin production. His goal was to block the activation of AgrA with a drug, thus preventing the cascade of toxin release into the blood that can lead to serious infections throughout the body. The screening for AgrA inhibitors was initially carried out in a computer by docking a library of 90,000 compounds and finding out which compounds would fit best into the activation site on AgrA. Subsequently, about one hundred of the best scoring compounds were acquired and tested in the laboratory for inhibition of the production of a toxin that ruptures red blood cells. Seven of these compounds were found to be active. Testing compounds bearing chemical similarity to the original compounds lead to the discovery of additional and more potent compounds. More than a dozen active compounds have been discovered by this method.

The UN hopes to ban DDT (even though it was already banned by Rachel Carson, who is consequently worse than 12 naked Hitlers dancing the macarena on a box of puppies).

"The aim ... is to achieve a 30 percent cut in the application of DDT worldwide by 2014 and its total phase-out by the early 2020s if not sooner," the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement.

As all true patriots know, DDT hasn't been used anywhere on earth since Carson issued her monstrous ukase, so the UN can only be aiming to intensify DDT non-use by nearly a third. This will make lost jobs and productivity 30 percent harder to unlose, and rekill millions who have already been sacrificed to the anti-human death cult of enviro-fascist anophelephilia.

Which is why I support it, natch. (Here's something else we can all agree on: Sasquatch Israel!)

In related unrelated news, French supermarkets are offering self-service wine dispensers:

Astrid Terzian introduced this concept that hearkens back to a bygone era when wine would arrive in Paris shops in tonneaux and consumers would bring their own flagons to fill. But today, Terzian says, she started this scheme in fall 2008 to fill a niche, tapping into two key themes, environmental awareness and the economy. (She actually wanted to buy a wine property and run a B&B but it was too expensive. So she turned to what she says she knew how to do: sales.) The elimination of packaging mass means that the wine can be shipped much more efficiently from a cost and carbon perspective.

Globe Genie will virtually teleport you to random streets worldwide. Just think: People used to say "shut-in" like it was a bad thing. (Link via things.) Furthermore, odd bits of London. And shotgun tracts of the Lower Mississippi. And photographs by Sean D. McCormick. And via wood s lot, photographs by Frank Robert.


William Notman and the Victoria Bridge, Montreal, QC, Canada (1858-1860). Indian textile designs. Vintage mobile cinema. A Soviet menu from 1967. Extremely long exposures (also via things). A Charley Harper mural in the Cincinnati federal building. And a collection of photograms.


Works of Industry of All Nations. Animated albums. You can now create your own soundtrack for a silent film online, which means you must. Zoomorphic cities vs. caves of Borneo. The lifting of Chicago vs. the undermining of Chicago. Shooting gallery portraiture vs. report cards. And, inevitably, some Eastern European matchbook covers.


And a movie, obviously.



(Photo at top: "Blondin crossing Niagara Falls on the high wire" by J. McPherson. Via Luminous Lint.)