Category: News

 

Many water experts say that tap water in the U.S. is
perfectly safe to drink. Bottled
water, they point out, is not necessarily any safer, and sometimes it’s
just tap water with a much higher price tag.

 

Yet those statements can be hard to believe if the water
that flows from your tap smells funny, tastes bad, or is discolored. It can
also be difficult to ignore reports of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and other
unwanted substances in water.

 

What do the experts say when you dig a little deeper? “The
fact that it might have an off taste or odor may not appeal to the consumer,
but it doesn’t mean the water is unsafe,” says Philip C. Singer, Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

 

Of course there are exceptions to this. For example, if your
water tastes metallic it could be contaminated with lead from corroded pipes so
it’s worth checking out, says Joan B. Rose, Homer
Nowlin Chair in Water Research, Michigan State University. (In fact, she
recommends reporting any funny smell or taste to your local water utility just
to make sure there isn’t a problem with the pipes.) Iron, which is not
harmful, can also be the cause of a metal-like taste.  

 

If you have hydrogen sulfide in your water, it can smell
like rotten eggs.  Rose says it is
generally not harmful, but it can cause diarrhea for a short amount of time
while you get used to it. Some other common, but harmless tastes and smells: Minerals
might make your water taste a little salty. Algae can give water a musty taste
or smell. Some people are put off by the smell or taste of the chlorine used to
kill any pathogens in water.

 

Particles in water can make it cloudy (know as turbidity) and
water can appear rusty when pipes in your local distribution system are being
maintained or repaired, according to Kellogg J. Schwab, Director,
Johns Hopkins Center for Water and Health. He recommends
flushing the pipes by running your water until it’s clear.

 

Pharmaceuticals and other emerging contaminants are more
complicated. They are showing up in very low levels in streams, rivers, and
lakes, but we don’t find them as often in treated tap water, according to Rose.
“They haven’t been regulated yet because where they are found they are found at
very low levels and at levels where they are presumed not to be harmful to
public health,” says Singer. That doesn’t mean that the Environmental
Protection Agency couldn’t be looking harder for emerging contaminants,
especially when you take into account the precautionary
principle.

 

Schwab, Rose, and Singer all say they drink tap water in the
U.S. without worrying about it. “The bottom line is that here in the United
States you can go to any city and take a long drink at the water fountain and
be reasonable assured you’re not going to die,” says Schwab. “We have a pretty
high quality water system. Does that mean it’s risk free? No.” Outbreaks do happen,
but they are rare. In order to keep them rare, experts say we need to invest in
our aging infrastructure.   

 

Here are some steps you can take to make sure you’re
drinking the healthiest tap water possible:

 

• Find out what’s in your water. Read your Consumer
  Confidence Report (each year it should arrive in your mailbox by July 1) to
  learn where your water is from and what’s in it. Or find it online on the EPA’s website. You
  can also call the EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline, 800-426-4791, with
  questions.

 

• If you have your own well, follow the EPA’s guidelines
  on monitoring your water.

 

• Water filters can improve taste and smell and
  remove some contaminants. Do your homework to make sure you’re buying a filter
  that will address your specific needs. Look for one that’s been certified by
  the NSF International to address the
  issues you are concerned with. The Environmental Working Group has an extensive guide to choosing
  water filters. One thing to remember: You must change your filters
  regularly or there’s no point in filtering your water.

 

 

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips
and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question

or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book,
Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a
Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo!

Shopping and Amazon.com.

Check
out Yahoo! Green on Twitter
and Facebook.

Embattled Chief Executive of BP Tony Hayward come up with some controversial comments regarding the oil spill in Gulf of Mexico.  This time talking to Fox News sister network Sky News.

There has been some success in reducing the flow of the leak and the amount of  “oily liquid” clean up crews are picking up.

So Hayward told Sky while a detailed environmental assessment will be needed decide the impact :

“…everything we can see at this moment suggests that the overall environmental impact will be very, very modest.”

He said basically same thing to the UK’s Guardian newspaper last week :

 “…The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean.  The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to total water volume.”

The reaction to the latest comment?  At the very least, environmentalists we’ve talked to describe the “modest” characterization as “premature.”

“This has the potential,” according to Colin Butfield of the World Wildlife Fund, “to be a major environmental disaster

The numbers ARE building :

The estimated amount of oil released so far in the Gulf  is some 5 million gallons.   Over a million more than the Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969. Getting closer, day by day to the 11 million gallons spilled in the Exxon Valdez incident.

UK-based author of recently-published “Oil  :  Money, Politics and Power” told Fox News Hayward is “…fighting against terrible odds.   He’s at the mercy of his engineers.”

At the same time, Bower has been critical of BP Hayward’s public relation approach to the crisis.

Regarding the “hits” BP is now taking from the White House, Hayward told Sky, “I think it is natural that the administration demonstrate they are on top of  it”

The folks in the Gulf elsewhere are probably hoping BP will “get on top of it” as well.

There will be an interruption of services in the Kelvin Smith Library Data Center from 2 to 6 a.m., Wednesday, May 19.

This is to allow Information Technology Services (ITS) to perform
regularly scheduled firewall maintenance. The firewall protects network resources and blocks incoming traffic by preventing access through open ports.

During this timeframe, several ITS services will be unavailable including:

• Financials
• HCM (Human Capital Management)
• SIS (Student Information Systems)

This work will not disrupt Internet connectivity.

If you have additional questions about this outage, contact the
ITS Help Desk at 368-HELP (4357) or go to help.case.edu.

In Arkansas’ closely-watched primary today for U.S. Senate, the polls and pundits are saying embattled incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) has a big enough lead to win against labor/progressive-backed challenger Bill Halter, maybe by enough points to avoid a runoff.

Long-time Arkansas political watcher John Brummett (who voted for Halter) says that if Lincoln wins, it’ll be because she’s getting the votes of Democrats who think she has the best shot of beating the Repulicans in November.

But what do investors think?

Given recent events, the phrase “wisdom of the market” may seem like an oxymoron. But traders in the prediction markets like those at Intrade, where investors can essentially bet on a candidate’s chances of emerging victorious, they have a decent track record of picking the winners.

And right now, traders are bullish on Lincoln’s chances of winning the primary. She’s currently trading at 80, which means investors give her about an 80% chance of being the Democratic nominee:

INTRADE: Arkansas – Democratic Senate Primary
Blanche Lincoln to win the Democratic nomination for 2010 Arkansas Senate Race

But what about November? Not so much. The market is showing little confidence in Lincoln’s prospects. Right now Lincoln is trading at 11, which means traders think she has an 11% chance of winning the general election:

INTRADE: Arkansas (Incumbent: Blanche Lincoln – D)

Democratic Party candidate to win

 

On the other side, the trend lines for the Arkansas GOP are all up and up: Intrade has Republicans with a 90% chance of winning the U.S. Senate seat.

What about the other big primary today in Kentucky? Republican Rand Paul is considered a safe bet for locking up the GOP nomination for U.S. senate: The traders are giving him about a 95% chance of winning.

After that, the traders think Republicans have about 66% odds of winning in November.

Congratulations to B. Bickham of CA who won a brand new Motorola CLIQ XT for T-Mobile on Tuesday May 18th, 2010 at 12:29PM.  Stay tuned for a quote and picture of our latest One-Paw Bandit winner.

Google today purchased Global IP Solutions, a $68 million move that could pave the way for a more native video chat solution (sorry, Qik and Sprint) for Android smartphones, possibly in gmail, or Google Talk, or maybe some new native app.

GIPS recently showed off its VideoEngine software, which you can see above. And between this, the Evo 4G and Qik, and the expected video chat on the next iPhone, we may well be ushering in a new connectivity era for smartphones. Stay tuned. [via Electronista]

 

 If you’re a developer looking for a GSM Palm Pre Plus but don’t want to enter into one of those pesky two year contracts, you’re in luck: Palm has made the AT&T Palm Pre Plus available through its developer portal for $479.99, a full 20% off the usual $599.99 asking price, with free 2-day shipping.  To qualify for the discount, which runs through June 30th, you have to be an active webOS developer.

The device is still SIM locked to the carrier – there’s still no truly unlocked GSM webOS device available with US 3G bands – but tools such as the webOS Meta-Doctor, developed by the webOS Internals team, enable devleopers to bypass carrier activation.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has added thousands of never-before-seen records to its online collection of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The treasure trove of government records, now up to date and posted on our website in its entirety, is the result of almost 200 FOIA requests and over a dozen lawsuits.

The document collection now includes for the first time:

• documents detailing the Federal Communications Commission’s claimed authority to conduct warrantless searches of private residences;
• tens of thousands of pages of records describing the FBI’s misuse of its authority to issue National Security Letters;
• a summary of complaints to the Department of Homeland Security’s Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (TRIP);
• a description of the Department of Homeland Security’s role in the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative;
• a set of government contracts with Google and other technology firms for the digitization of government files;
• documents related to the FBI’s capacity to conduct surveillance on Skype, the internet telephony protocol; and
• copies of the National Science Foundation’s grant awards for wireless microelectromechanical sensor technology, so-called “smart dust.”

All of these documents, along with the rest of EFF’s FOIA repository, can be accessed directly or searched using EFF’s FOIA document search tool.

While a Wyoming coal plant and one Chevron refinery are the largest pollution sources for California, the three industries that together account for 40% of California’s GHG emissions include electric utilities, oil refineries and cement manufacturers – so these are the three industries most impacted by California’s climate legislation, AB32, which will begin next year.

California is the largest cement-producing state in the U.S., accounting for between 10% and 15% of U.S. cement production and cement industry employment with about 2,000 workers between 31 cement facilities.

The fossil energy that it takes to heat the cement mix up to 2,642 degrees Fahrenheit is why cement production has such high carbon dioxide emissions. (more…)

They’re called Confucius Classrooms, named after an ancient Chinese philosopher and they are becoming more and more popular throughout the United States.  They are classes, paid for in part by China and designed to teach U.S. school kids Chinese language and culture.  Proponents say it’s one extra tool students can use to be competitive in the global environment, but critics say it’s nothing more than a subtle attempt by the Chinese government to spread pro-China propaganda.

Confucius classrooms have been around for the past few years and there are currently 60 of them from New York to Oregon.  Each is administered through a network of organizations and universities that have deals with the Hanban, China’s official language teaching agency.  Chinese officials insist the programs have nothing to do with communism and the curriculum was created to help clear up misunderstandings about China.  Some parents are not so sure.

In Hacienda Heights, California, just east of Los Angeles, the notion of a Confucius Classroom was highly controversial and caused an uproar in the community.  Many parents and longtime community members spoke out against the program suggesting that their kids would be exposed to a communist agenda.  However, in the end some issues were resolved and the school board voted to put the classes in place to begin this fall.

At Riverview Elementary, in Lakeside, California, just outside of San Diego, third graders are learning Mandarin at a rapid pace.  The principal there, Olympia Kyriakidis insists this is a major asset for her students.  She says in addition to Spanish and multi-media classes, her kids are going to be at the top of their game and ready to compete in the global market.   As for concerns that there might be some hidden message being taught in the classes, Kyriakidis says she and her staff personally review all the materials by hand and have yet to find anything off color.  She says it’s all about language and culture, no politics.

The principal also points to a large American flag hanging in the corner of the room, and says no matter what it’s America First…. each class starts with the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States.

From Green Right Now Reports

American University plans to become a carbon-neutral campus, and the Washington D.C.-based institution is even willing to set an ambitious deadline: 2020.

“We have used the geographical limitations of our urban 84-acre campus in the nation’s capital to our advantage to more aggressively pursue renewable energy and carbon offsets,” said Chris O’Brien, director of sustainability. “Of the few plans that call for earlier carbon neutral dates, American University’s size, location, and academic focus make our active pursuit of sustainability distinctive.”

To meet its goals, AU will employ four strategies: reduce consumption, produce renewable energy, buy green power and buy and develop carbon offsets.

American, Northern Arizona State University, Antioch University, and the University of Montana are the only doctorate-granting universities with 2020 carbon neutrality dates. The announcement comes two years after President Neil Kerwin signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), pledging that AU would work to achieve carbon neutrality.

Of the 685 signers, 200 have submitted plans thus far. Many call for carbon neutrality by 2025, 2040, or 2050.

A recent purchase of wind-generated renewable energy credits equivalent to 100 percent of the university’s annual electricity usage has already helped the university progress more than halfway toward its carbon-neutrality goal. The campus also features a new Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold-designed building for the School of International Service, and the university is participating in a pilot program with the U.S. Green Building Council to develop a streamlined approach to green building certification for campuses.

Currently, a team is working to certify 30 AU buildings to LEED standards.

American University’s student population is around 11,000, counting undergraduates and graduates.

Emma Caulfield, former star of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has filed for divorce from husband Cornelius Grobbelaar after three years of marriage, The Associated Press reports.

Grobbelaar and Caulfield — who wed on Aug. 23, 2006 — separated on May 7. Caulfield, 37, cites irreconcilable differences for the split in documents filed in Los Angeles Superior Court last Thursday.

Caulfield is best remembered for playing the demonic Anya on The CW’s cult series, which ran for seven seasons before being cancelled in 2003.

Adam Wheeler, a 23 year old man from Delaware made his way to Harvard University by showing fake grants and scholarships. He was admitted to the school in 2007 after he claimed he had perfect record in Andover and he had also claimed that he studied in for a yea in Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A professor noticed the similarity between Wheeler’s writing and that of a colleague while reviewing his application. University started to check Wheeler’s background after he took the school’s endorsement for scholarships. Wheeler has been charged against 20 offenses including identity fraud and he was arrested on Monday by authorities of Massachusetts.

Wheeler also said he was employed by McLean Hospital which is affiliated with Harvard, but in fact he was not employed by any such hospitals. According to the reports before Harvard, Wheeler used to be a student of Bowdoin College in Maine, but he got suspended for dishonesty, the authorities said.

This is a serious crime and he should be punished for that, Harvard is a well known university and not only Harvard, but any other college or University do not deserve such a student who faked everything from the beginning.

No related posts.

Did they or didn’t they?

I was told that the McMahon campaign worked closely with the New York Times on the Blumenthal story — providing military records, information on the deferments and, most damningly, that video from the Norwalk event.

And, last night, the campaign wasn’t shy about saying so. Staffers tweeted on the topic and posted Kevin Rennie’s blog entry about it on the campaign website. Just before 11 p.m. last night, they sent out a press release with Rennie’s blog post — in case you missed it.

Now, however, the website has been scrubbed and the campaign appears to be backing off its claim of credit.

A New York Times spokeswoman tells Politico that the story was the product of “extensive independent reporting.” 

 If the McMahon campaign provided the video and other help, should the story have said so? Is this inside baseball or are there larger principles at play?

And one more question: Did the McMahon campaign undercut the story by giving the Dems an out?

That’s the tack Democratic chair Nancy DiNardo is taking. “Linda McMahon’s malicious, deceptive attack on Dick Blumenthal’s record of service is the lowest kind of political smear,” DiNardo said in a statement. “Her campaign admits they are the ones who cherry-picked the quotes and are behind the hit piece.”

Erin Kutz wrote:

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino announced today that venture capital firm Spencer Trask will sponsor a startup competition starting in July, and award $25,000 for the winning company to work in the “Innovation District” that the city is developing, the Boston Globe reported. Menino made the announcement alongside plans to develop 1,000 acres in the city’s seaport and Marine Industrial Park area, and said that the venture firm will award another $25,000 next year to fuel growth in a startup working in the area. The Innovation District will also be home to state startup competition MassChallenge, which launched in April.

As expected, the ramifications of Google’s admission of collecting personal data with its Street View cars are beginning to unfold. The company has already started destroying the data at the request and with the cooperation of regulators, but is facing increased scrutiny and, it has to be said, rhetoric, especially in Germany, a country where … (read more)

Sure, the ghost special effects somehow have gotten worse in the last 20 years, but it’s pretty much impossible to not be charmed by the Ghostbusters returning to the New York Public Library. [Improv Everywhere] More »

[JURIST] Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) [official website] Antonio Maria Costa on Monday opened a UN conference on international crime prevention by warning of the inadequacies of the current international crime control system. Costa indicated that organized crime is gaining economic strength [press release] and that countries must find ways to disrupt the international criminal market. In particular, Costa warned about the inadequacies of dealing with new threats against the environment, identity theft, and Internet crimes as well as the traditional threats of piracy, kidnapping, and slavery. Members of the conference were also urged to utilize the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime [materials] protocol adopted in 2000 as an important mechanism in crime prevention.

Costa’s statements come two months after the EU released a report [JURIST report] detailing organized crime in Bulgaria and Romania and the steps the countries must take to gain full rights under the EU. That assessment echoed statements made in previous progress reports [materials; JURIST report]. In January 2007, Bulgaria and Romania officially joined the EU [JURIST report] following six years of accession negotiations. Both countries have been required to comply with a series of benchmarks; failing to do so could result in EU intervention and the potential loss of economic aid under Articles 36-38 of the Act of Accession [text], which lays out safeguard mechanisms [EC backgrounder] in the event of problems posing a threat to the functioning of the EU.

[JURIST] DC-based consumer advocacy organization Food and Water Watch (FWW) [advocacy website] filed suit [complaint, PDF] in a US district court Monday against the US Department of Interior (DOI) and the Minerals Management Service (MMS) [official websites] for an injunction to halt drilling at the BP Atlantis Facility [corporate website] in the Gulf of Mexico. FWW joined suit with Kenneth Abbott, a former safety contract engineer for BP, claiming that DOI and MMS allowed BP to operate the Atlantis Facility without documented, approved final engineering drawings considered critical to safe operation. FWW and Abbot hold that although federal law requires 100 percent engineer approved “as built” drawings for most platform systems, less then 10 percent of BP’s Atlantis Facility drawings had met these specifications. The complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas [official website], lists several attempts by both FWW and Abbott to address this safety issues with the DOI and MMS, but no action was taken by either government organization to compel BP to produce the requisite drawings.

The gravity of BP’s conduct has and will continue to have long lasting effect on the environment and public health, and DOI and MMS’s failure to enforce its regulations against BP has only accelerated the time to another BP catastrophe. Accordingly, it is necessary that DOI and MMS be enjoined to temporarily prohibit production at the BP Atlantis Facility in order to protect and prevent further catastrophic destruction, and to further ensure the its regulations are enforced. … [U]nless relief is granted by this Court, a catastrophe is certain to occur at the [facility], which will undoubtedly cause unprecedented, irreparable damages to the environment in and surround the Gulf of Mexico and the general public health.

BP has repeatedly claimed that it has worked with the DOI and MMS to meet the specifications required for the Atlantis Facility, but the allegations against them raise more doubts on how well federal regulators, especially MMS, have been inspecting BP facilities in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon explosion [BBC backgrounder] last month. In response, the Obama administration asked DOI Secretary Kenneth Salazar [official profile] to conduct a “top-to-bottom” reform of the MMS [speech text] and ordered immediate inspections of all deep water operations in the Gulf. Salazar and other federal officials will be questioned on Tuesday by Senate committees on the efficacy of actions taken to prevent the April oil spill.

On Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano [official profile] defended [testimony] the federal government’s “all-hands-on-deck” response to the oil spill before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs [official website], stating that the government lacked the resources and expertise to deal with a spill of this magnitude, and must therefore depend on the response of BP to resolve the subsea oil spill. President Barack Obama has announced that he is forming a presidential commission [AP report] to investigate the cause of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, and will be similar to the ones that investigated the Challenger explosion and the nuclear disaster on Three Mile Island. Also on Monday, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works [official website] asked US Attorney General Eric Holder to open an investigation [press release] into potential violations of civil and criminal laws related to the BP oil spill. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was a result of an oil well blowout that the caused an explosion 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf. Eleven platform workers are missing and presumed dead, and 17 others were injured. The amount of oil spilled into the Gulf is part of an ongoing debate [NPR report] and has ranged from 5,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The resulting oil slick has covered at least 2,500 square miles. The White House is keeping a daily chronology of events [text].

Filed under: Truck, Work, Chevrolet, GM, GMC

General Motors has just announced the hauling capacities for the 2011 Chevrolet Silverado HD and GMC Sierra HD pickups. The new trucks can now pull up to 21,700 pounds in fifth-wheel configuration and lug around 6,635 pounds worth of payload, thereby making them the new best-in class champions. The traditional tow rating sits at 17,000 pounds. What did GM change to give the trucks their new credentials? The company says that it extensively tested the trucks’ systems, including the engine, transmission and brakes at the new gross combined vehicle weight and found that the thing could handle the abuse.

Both the Silverado HD and the Sierra HD now come with tougher bed rails, though. GM specified a new high-strength steel that can take more of a beating compared to last year’s pieces. The new tow ratings best the next closest competitor, the 2011 Ford F-350, by 1,000 pounds on the conventional towing front and a more modest 100 pounds under fifth-wheel conditions.

How did we ever live in a world where pickup trucks couldn’t tow three Bentley Continental GT coupes and a gooseneck car trailer? Hit the jump for the press release.

[Source: GM]

Continue reading GM announces best-in-class towing, payload figures for heavy-duty Silverado, Sierra

GM announces best-in-class towing, payload figures for heavy-duty Silverado, Sierra originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 18 May 2010 11:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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