Blog

  • Invasive Fish and Mussels Transfer Toxins




    Some years back we were regaled with plenty of dire warnings about the zebra mussel.  Now that things have settled down we are starting to get good information.
    The headline is a touch misleading here.  The mussel collects the toxins out of the lake mud.  Last time I checked that is sort of a good idea.  The toxins end up in the shell and in the critter itself.  The gobie gobbles up these mussels wholesale and likely excretes the shells.  The toxins continue to cycle through the food chain and this active process eventually disposes of the problem in some crack or the other.
    The reality is that the zebra mussel has surely accelerated the cleaning up of the Great Lakes of a century of industrial pollution.  The gobie is converting them into fish food which will support large stocks of commercial fish.  This is likely to be a lot of carp soon enough.
    It is not what any of us would ever have planned, but I learned a long time ago to cut Mother Nature plenty of slack.
    Invasive Fish And Mussels Team Up To Transfer Toxic Substances
    by Staff Writers

    Ann Arbor, MI (SPX) Apr 14, 2010

    Two notorious Great Lakes invaders-the zebra mussel and the round goby-now play a central role in transferring toxic chemicals called PCBs up the food chain and into Saginaw Bay walleyes, one of that region’s most popular sport fish.

    The links between zebra mussels, round gobies and contaminated Saginaw Bay walleyes is a disturbing example of unanticipated problems that can occur when non-native species get loose in the Great Lakes, said University of Michigan fishery biologist David Jude, lead author of a paper on the topic published online in the Journal of Great Lakes Research.

    “This zebra mussel-to-goby link in Great Lakes contaminated areas is one of the main conduits of PCB transfer to top aquatic predators such as the walleye, and it plays a substantial role in PCB transfer to birds, mammals and reptiles in the region as well,” said Jude, a research scientist at the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment.

    Between 2005 and 2007, Jude’s team collected walleyes, round gobies and various other fish species, as well as zebra mussels and zooplankton, in the Tittabawassee River, the Saginaw River and Lake Huron’s Saginaw Bay. Then they measured levels of PCBs in all those organisms-the first such study in the Saginaw Bay region.

    “Though the levels of PCBs in Saginaw Bay walleyes have declined sharply in recent years, these toxic substances continue to show up at levels high enough to warrant concern,” Jude said.

    The highest levels were seen in the largest walleyes, which contained an average of 1,900 nanograms of PCBs per gram-just under the 2,000 nanogram Environmental Protection Agency threshold for mandatory fish-consumption advisories. A nanogram is a billionth of a gram.

    Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, are manmade chemicals that were once used in hundreds of industrial and commercial applications. But the manufacture of PCBs was banned in the United States in 1979, and EPA now classifies the chemicals as probable human carcinogens.

    Beginning in the 1940s, factories, chemical manufacturers and municipal wastewater treatment plants discharged PCBs into the Saginaw River; many of the PCBs settled into river-bottom sediments. The contamination led to advisories against human consumption of selected species and sizes of fish from the Saginaw River, as well as many species of fish in the Bay.

    In 2000-01, the mouth of the Saginaw River was dredged to remove accumulated sediments contaminated with PCBs, metals and various hazardous compounds. Since then, the level of PCBs has dropped precipitously in Saginaw Bay walleyes.

    In addition to the U-M scientists, Jude’s team includes researchers from Grand Valley State University and the University of Saskatchewan. The team compared its results to the findings of a similar study conducted in the same area in 1990, prior to the dredging project.

    Jude’s team found that the average concentration of PCBs in Saginaw River walleyes dropped 65 percent between 1990 and 2007, a result that is consistent with previous studies that also showed significant declines. Much of the change can likely be attributed to the dredging project, though changes in the food web and other factors may also have played a role, Jude said.

    The walleye is the top predator in the Saginaw Bay ecosystem, and the bay’s world-class walleye fishery is a key part of the $7 billion-a-year Great Lakes fishery.

    Twenty years ago, Saginaw Bay walleyes fed mainly on alewives, another non-native fish species. But alewives have been nearly eliminated from Lake Huron, a decline blamed largely on predation by salmon and the proliferation of invasive zebra and quagga mussels, which have depleted two of the alewives’ main food sources.

    As alewives declined, the zebra mussel/round goby/walleye link enabled substantial amounts of PCBs to continue moving up the food chain and into Saginaw Bay walleyes.

    Walleyes prey on round gobies, which in turn gorge on bottom-dwelling zebra mussels that suck up massive amounts of lake water. Each fingernail-size zebra mussel filters up to a liter of water a day-taking in any toxic substances present in the water. Some of those contaminants are incorporated into the mussels’ tissues and shells, and round gobies eat the little mollusks shell and all.

    “Zebra mussels can accumulate relatively high concentrations of PCBs, which can then be transferred to round gobies and eventually to walleyes,” Jude said.

    The Saginaw Bay/Saginaw River region is designated an International Joint Commission Area of Concern, due to contamination of sediments with persistent inorganic and organic pollutants. It is one of 14 Areas of Concern in Michigan.

    Authors of the Journal of Great Lakes Research paper are Jude and Stephen Hensler of the University of Michigan, Richard Rediske and Jim O’Keefe of Grand Valley State University, and John Giesy of the University of Saskatchewan.

  • Fisker to take Karma plug-in hybrid on 10 week tour [Schedule]

    Although sales of its Karma sedan are about a year off, Fisker is taking it shapely plug-in hybrid on a 10 week publicity tour hitting 42 cities in 26 states and three Canadian provinces.

    The tour will apparently stop in more cities than Fisker has retail outlets; the brand has signed up 37 retailer groups with a total of 45 showrooms, according to a list it published on its website.

    Fisker vice president of global sales and marketing Marti Eulberg told Automotive News that the tour will be the first opportunity for many of the 1,600 or so people who have left a $5,000 deposit to see the luxury-level plug-in hybrid.

    Fisker recommends that those interested in seeing the car in person contact their closest dealer in order to find out more information about the tour stops.

    Tour schedule
    4/27 Irvine, CA — Depart Fisker Automotive
    4/28 Las Vegas, NV – Gaudin Automotive
    5/1 San Antonio, TX – Barrett Holdings
    5/3 Austin, TX – Roger Beasley Highline Group
    5/4 Houston, TX – McDavid Auto Group
    5/5 Fort Worth, TX – Frank Kent Motor Co.
    5/6 Plano, TX – McDavid Auto Group
    5/7 Tulsa, OK – Don Thornton Cadillac
    5/10 Huntsville, AL – Century Automotive Group
    5/11 Atlanta, GA – Classic Cadillac
    5/13 Tampa Bay, FL – Elder Automotive Group
    5/14 West Palm Beach, FL – Palm Beach Motor Cars
    5/15 Miami, FL – Warren Henry Automobiles
    5/17 Orlando, FL – Fields Auto Group
    5/19 Winston Salem, NC – Flow Companies
    5/20 Greenbelt, MD – Capitol Cadillac
    5/21 Fairfax, VA – Ted Britt Auto Group
    5/22 Wilmington, DE – Union Park Automotive
    5/24 Langhorne, PA – H.A. Ott Motor Cars
    5/25 Paramus, NJ – Bergen Jaguar
    5/26 Great Neck, NY – Jaguar Great Neck
    5/27 Greenwich, CT – Miller Motor Cars
    5/28 Norwood, MA – Jake Kaplan’s Ltd.
    6/1 North Olmsted, OH – M2 Motors, Inc.
    6/2 Grand Blanc, MI – Serra Automotive
    6/3 Toronto, ON – Dilawri Group
    6/7 Glencoe, IL – Fields Auto Group
    6/8 Schaumburg, IL – Patrick Dealer Group
    6/9 Neenah, WI – Bergstrom Corp.
    6/10 Minneapolis, MN – Borton Automotive
    6/12 Saint Louis, MO – Plaza Motor Group
    6/15 Denver, CO – Rickenbaugh
    6/18 Calgary, AB – Dilawri Group
    6/21 Centerville, UT – Hadley Auto Company
    6/24 Vancouver, BC – Fields Auto Group
    6/25 Bellevue, WA – O’Brien Auto Group
    6/26 Portland, OR – Ron Tonkin Family of Dealerships
    6/27 Marin, CA – Price Family Dealerships
    6/28 Sacramento, CA – Price Family Dealerships
    6/29 Silicon Valley, CA – Price Family Dealerships
    6/30 Santa Monica, CA – Sullivan Luxury Cars
    7/3 Irvine, CA, Orange – Shelly Automotive Group
    7/5 San Diego, CA – Marvin K. Brown Auto Group

    References
    1.’Fisker’s Karma plug-in…’ view

       

    Source: Leftlane

  • Man of the Cloth

    Somehow I know that this horse will be beaten for a long time to come.  However it also is becoming a case study in the evaluation of an artifact using scientific tools like carbon 14 testing.  It is worth following for that reason.
    Dating problems are like this.  Conclusions drawn with certainty on a few samples must always be treated as tentative.  Yet that is easily forgotten when a public interest story is written.
    I think that the science itself is now close to been able to take multiple samples of minute size in order to produce a definitive carbon 14 profile.
    It will still prove nothing of course.  Tradition claims this is the original shroud.  I personally have a great deal of respect for the power of tradition, but also know that the capacity exists for outright substitution in the early days when it was possible.  At all times throughout the past two millennia, this artifact had some monetary value.  So it cannot be ruled out at all.
    At best it will be shown to be at least possible.
    There are plenty of other artifacts out there that deserve this level of scrutiny.  At least the observations on the vanillin are worthwhile and must apply elsewhere.  It will often eliminate forgeries and discover error.
    MAN OF THE CLOTH
    Shroud forgery? Not so fast, say scientists
    Study by university statisticians refute conclusion of Carbon-14 dating in 1988
    Posted: April 13, 2010
    By Jerome R. Corsi


    The radiocarbon dating that concluded the Shroud of Turin was a medieval forgery has been called into question by a new study published by the Italian Society of Statistics claiming the results contain huge inconsistencies.

    The article – authored by three Italian university-based statisticians and a professor of statistics from the London School of Economics – was published in Italian April 7 in the magazine of the Italian Statistical Society.

    The authors challenged the results of the 1988 radiocarbon testing performed at the University of Oxford, the University of Arizona and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and published in 1989 in Nature magazine. They charged that upon subsequent, more thorough testing the results failed to reach the level of statistical significance needed to establish with 95 percent confidence – as was originally claimed from the 1988 tests – that the Shroud of Turin was a medieval creation.


    Moreover, the authors charged that the 1988 radiocarbon tests failed to take into consideration pollution on the shroud, both from plant life from the many locations it had travelled and from centuries of contact with human hands. They point out that even Nobel Prize chemist Willard Frank Libby, the creator of the carbon-14 dating method, had warned such factors could contaminate the results.

    The statisticians further detected a “systematic contamination” in the samples of the shroud selected for radiocarbon dating tests that could have produced in the results of all three laboratories a “non-negligible error” that accounted for a wide variety of dates being produced from the samples tested at the three laboratories, ranging from A.D. 1260 to 1390.

    Medieval reweaving

    The conclusions coincide with other independent scientific research that suggests the samples taken in 1988 from the edge of the shroud may have been contaminated by expert medieval reweaving.

    A scientific paper was published in 2005 by the late Ray Rogers, a chemist with the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and a member of the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project, said that after a fire in 1532 nearly destroyed the shroud, French Poor Clare nuns repaired it by adding 16 burn patches. The nuns stitched a reinforcing cloth to the back of the shroud that is known as the Holland cloth.

    The nuns were able to repair the edges of the shroud by expertly reweaving with cotton much of the damage the fire did to the original linen cloth.

    Rogers was able to detect under a microscope the reweaving, because the cotton had been dyed to match the linen. The fibers could be distinguished in the reweaving at the edges of the shroud, because linen is resistant to dye, while cotton is not.

    Rogers’ paper made an impact on the Shroud of Turin research community worldwide, because immediately after the results of the 1988 radiocarbon dating were made public, he was a leading voice asserting the shroud was a medieval forgery.

    Just before he died, Rogers expressed his views in a video interview recorded with Barrie Schwortz, the official photographer of the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project. Rogers concluded the combination of 16th century cotton and first century linen skewed the 1988 radiocarbon dating tests.
    He also examined the rate of loss of vanillin in the linen fibers of the shroud.

    Vanillin disappears in the thermal decomposition of lignin, a complex polymer in the cells of the flax plants used to make linen.

    Rogers concluded in his 2005 paper that the linen in the main body of the shroud had lost vanillin, much like the Dead Sea scroll linens, suggesting the shroud itself is much older than the radiocarbon dating had suggested, very possibly reaching back 2,000 years to the time of Jesus Christ.
  • ClimateGate Whitewash





    It is a bit startling just how swiftly reports have come in to exonerate the good old boys who gave us global warming.  Here is Fred Singer on his take on the situation.
    There are now plenty of additional articles out there that have come down on this cabal of climate scientists very hard and few are pulling punches at all.  They are all on the way to been enshrined as participants of the greatest scientific hoax ever.  I added a second item on at the end of this one.
    In the end, the curious agenda of those statists who dream of world taxation and dispensation of lolly to the deserving will have to wait a lot longer.  There are plenty of real problems to keep us all occupied for the nonce.
    ClimateGate Whitewash
    April 14, 2010
    There is now a desperate effort afoot by assorted climate alarmists to explain away the revelations of the incriminating e-mails leaked last year from the University of East Anglia (UEA). A concerted whitewash campaign is in full swing to save the IPCC and its questionable conclusion that the warming of the last thirty years is anthropogenic. But ongoing investigations so far have avoided the real issue, namely whether the reported warming is genuine or a manufactured result by scientists in England and the United States who manipulated temperature data.
    Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) has repeatedly characterized anthropogenic global warming (AGW) as a “hoax” — and he may soon be vindicated. Certainly, the remedies invoked to “fight” AGW are a cruel hoax — mainly a tax burden on low-income households who will pay more for electricity, food, transportation, and other necessities of life.
    The UEA’s “internal” investigation has largely absolved Dr. Philip Jones, the head of its Climate Research Unit (CRU) and author of most of the e-mails, of any misdeeds. (The UEA has also commissioned an “independent” investigation by Sir Robert Muir-Russell, due in August.) Pennsylvania State University (PSU) has merely slapped the wrists of Dr. Michael Mann for various ethical offenses but sees nothing wrong with the science. The United Nations, at the urging of the Royal Society and U.S. National Academy of Sciences, has launched a supposedly independent investigation of IPCC procedures to be conducted by the InterAcademyCouncil (IAC), a creature of the science academies. It is likely to backfire and lower further the public’s opinion of the academies — and indeed of science generally.
    The latest report, by the British House of Commons’ Science and Technology Committee, received testimony from many sources, conducted hearings, and largely absolved Jones. How can we tell that it’s a whitewash? Here are some telltale signs:
    • It refers to the e-mails as “stolen.”
    • It did not take direct testimony from scientifically competent skeptics,
    • Yet it concludes that there is nothing wrong with the basic science and that warming is human-caused — essentially endorsing the IPCC.
    These investigations have focused mainly on procedural issues and scientific ethics, including the withholding of data, preventing skeptical scientists from publishing their results, pressuring editors of scientific journals (often with their ready connivance), and generally misusing the peer review process. None of the investigations have gone into any detail on how the data might have been manipulated — nor were any of the panels competent enough to do so. But this is really the most important task for any inquiry, since it deals directly with the central issue: Is there an appreciable human influence on climate change in the past decades? 
    Instead, much of the attention of newspapers, and of the public, has focused on secondary issues involving climate impacts, not causes: the melting of Himalayan glaciers, the possible inundation of the Netherlands, deforestation of the Amazon, crop failures in Africa, etc. While these issues are important and demonstrate the sloppiness of the IPCC process, they cannot decide the cause of warming: natural or anthropogenic. 
    So what do the e-mails really reveal?  We know that Jones and his gang largely succeeded in “hiding the decline” of temperature by using what he termed “Mike [Mann]’s trick.” Most assume that this refers to CRU tree-ring data after 1960, which do show a decline in temperature. However, I believe that it refers to Michael Mann’s “trick” in hiding the fact that his multi-proxy data did not show the expected warming after 1979. So he abruptly cut off his analysis in 1979 and simply inserted the thermometer data supplied by Jones, which do claim a strong temperature increase. Hence the “hockey-stick” graph in his Nature (1998) paper suggesting a sudden major warming period since the late ’70s. 
    Only a thorough investigation will be able to document that there was really no strong warming after 1979, that the instrumented record is based on data manipulation involving the selection of certain weather stations (and the omission of others that showed no warming), plus applying insufficient corrections for local heating. 
    How to confirm this? The only possibility may be an investigation by the U.S. Congress. Not this Congress, of course. But after the November 2010 elections, control of important committees like Science may change. Hearings that use real experts can then unravel ClimateGate, demonstrate the manipulation of temperature data, and once and for all destroy the “warming trend” on which the IPCC has based its fanciful conclusion of anthropogenic global warming.
    Once accomplished, it will become possible to do away with the myth that CO2 is a pollutant and all of the controls and regulations that are based on this mistaken notion. Yes, that includes EPA’s Endangerment Finding on CO2 and all cap-and-tax legislation. The nation, and indeed the world, will be better off. 
    The writer, an atmospheric physicist, is professor emeritus at the University of Virginia and former director of the U.S. Weather Satellite Service. He co-authored Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 years, a NY Times bestseller.
    And then we have this piece:
    Global Warming: Obituary and Post Mortem
    March 25, 2010, 1:45AM
     R.I.P.   Gllobal Warming       1992-2010       

    2010 will be remembered as the year Global Warming died.  Global Warming wasMann made using clever computer ‘tricks’ and ‘massaged’ data. After slowly developing in the womb of junk science for several years, the primary birth announcement and christening occurred when Al Gore published Earth in the Balance in 1992.  Gore, the self proclaimed genius who had “created the internet” , eagerly adopted Global Warming and put his new baby in the public spotlight.

     Global Warming was a very good earner who attracteded billions of investor’s dollars to Gore’s for-profit corporation called Generation Investment Management.  From day one Global Warming was all about making money. His detractors dared to call him a fraudster and a control freak who wanted to tell everyone how to live. 

    Gore’s book was really quite boring and it failed to get Global Warming the attention (and money) Gore felt his baby deserved, so Gore followed up with An Inconvenient Truth in 2006. The movie will go down in history as an excellent example of what happens when one person, with a hidden financial agenda, tells one side of a story.

    Despite it’s success, the wildly popular movie was the beginning of the end for Global Warming. It triggered a quick and lethal downward spiral. The movie galvanized scientists who recognized a bogus pseuo-scientific scam when they saw one. Powerful opposition groups formed around the world. Books were written by scholars that destroyed the credibility of Al Gore’s pride and joy. 

    Global Warming was a cash cow, and his opposition had no money, but the opposition (“skeptics”) had something more powerful than money: The Truth. 

    Busted

    In short order Global Warming was busted for scamming the public, and forced to appear in Britain‘s high court. It was an inconvenient verdict for Al Gore’s baby: Guilty on eleven counts of scientific fraud which the judge described as “inaccuracies”, “false claims” and other synonyms for flat-out lies. The judge pointed out that the movie was one person telling one side of a story. All of the key pillars that Global Warming stood on were knocked out from under him on that fateful day in court.

    It was all downhill from there. Global Warming had already been in poor health for many years before his death due to relentless attacks from prominent scientists who beat the lies out of him.

    The final death-blow for global warming was a confession by Professor Phil Jones. Jones was the leader of Britain‘s Climate Research Unit (CRU) which provided temperature data to the U.N.’s International Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) and NASA. Jones stepped down in the wake of the  emails disclosure known as Climategate

    It probably cleared his conscience when Jones went public with the truth. At least he stated an important part of the truth anyway. His admissions included facts that stunned everyone who had been suckered by Al Gore and a high-level network of taxpayer-funded climate scammers.

    – Global Warming had completely disappeared in 1995.
    – Data for Global Warming’s Mann made ‘hockey stick graph’ has also gone missing.
    – Global Warming and global cooling periods have happened many times before, and human activity had nothing to do with it.

    Things got so bad after the Climategate scandal that even GreenPeace called for the resignation of the leader of the IPCC.   Rajendra Pachauri had been the butt of jokes that climate fraud was so easy, even a caveman can do it. 

    Post Mortem Analysis

    Jones was right. Global Warming was nothing new. Our planet has a long history of warming and cooling. Global temperature is never ‘stable’. The only constant thing about climate is change itself.

     

    The infamous hockey stick turned out to be a fake climate history.  Like a Criss Angel Mindfreak trick the computer tricks had morphed the actual climate history beyond recognition. The Medieval Warm Period disappeared, as did the Little Ice Age. The hockey stick got the past 100% wrong, and it was ridiculous to trust the hockey stick to predict future climate in the first place.  The history of actual thermometer readings (“raw data”) did not show any significant global warming whatsoever. The CRU had to digitally manipulate the raw data to create global warming. That was their specialty. 

    Climate Manipulation Unit would have been a more accurate name. The manipulation processes were called things like “cold bias removal”,  “temperature homogenization”, and one researcher admitted the big problem was to “hide the decline” in temperatures. The CRU’s biggest achievement was software that could morph any data-set into a hockey stick. 

    Looking both ways

    Gore was 100% successful in attracting a huge amount of public attention to climate. His mistake was his gross underestimation of both public intelligence and the power of his first “creation”: The Internet. There are still many real scientists out there who call bullshit when they see it. The mainstream media (MSM) gagged the skeptical scientists, but you can’t control the internet. 

    They actually tried to manipulate public opinion on the internet by creating RealClimate, a website that acted as a cheerleader for the Climategate scientists and their fearmongering, while silmutaneously promoting the bogus “hide the decline temperature histories” as being the real deal. Dozens of other websites were also set up to promote the phony CRU and IPCC temperature histories. The real temperature histories were systematicly hidden from genuine scientists by repeated and illegal failures to comply with freedom of information requests. 

     

    Gore had spent his political career operating safely under the umbrella of a centrally owned and compliant MSM. The powers that be in this world, including the MSM, hate the internet. The net flipped their apple cart upside down and they never even saw it coming. The decentralization of news and information is literally putting them out of business while exposing their previous iron-fisted control over what the public knew and when they got to know it. Nothing has made this more clear than the collapse of the Global Warming scam. 

    If you yell “fire” people will always take notice and jump into action. But if they find out it was a hoax the instigator loses all credibility forever. Al Gore is now an international joke. Gore is a college student turned politician who was never a climate scientist in the first place. 

    Gore seems to be missing in action ever since his pride and joy was unmasked. There is nothing out of character here. For many years Gore has  used a “duck and cover” tactic every time a real climate scientist challenged him to a debate. Perhaps he is trying to find out where his cash-cow disappeared to, the same way O.J. Simpson scurried away “to find the real killers.”

     

    There is one piece of bad news. The funeral for Global Warming is being delayed and a quick burial will not be permitted. Like a scene from a ‘B’ horror movie, the climate profiteers are trying to resuscitate the maggot-infested carcass of Global Warming. New lies and new scare tactics are being cooked up as I write this. Thefinancial interests will keep trying desperately to revive Al Gore’s baby. They want to bleed every possible penny from the public and achieve even greater control over our personal lives and lifestyle choices, all under the pretext of saving the planet.  They will ignore the real science, as exposed by Climategate, and pray that the public joins them in being ignorant. 

    But the good news outweighs the bad. People are not so ignorant anymore. Almost nobody (33%) still believes “human activity” causes global warmingSee Graph Top-Right  “Planetary trends” (natural cycles) is now the most accepted explanation with support at 48%. These encouraging trendlines will continue. The ‘skeptics’ are now the majority, and that will never change.  

  • Exceeding the 2008 Peak of Oil Production

    Stuart at Early Warning has a post on reviving global oil production – Exceeding the 2008 Peak of Oil Production.

    The peak of monthly production was in July 2008. The trough in the depths of the global recession depends on which series one looks at, but I have been examining the recovery from May 2009 onward. And at this point, the latest figures show us about 1.3mbd to 1.4mbd (mbd = millions of barrels/day) away from reaching the July 2008 peak again.

    A few days back, I analyzed the composition of the recovery from May 2009 to the most recent figures (based on IEA OMR data). That showed the recovery coming from a variety of countries, but with two-thirds of it coming from non-OPEC countries, and only about 0.7mbd coming from OPEC. …

    As you can see, in contrast to the recovery composition, the decline came almost entirely from OPEC’s voluntary cutback in the fall of 2008, with about 3.3mbd of reduction from OPEC, and less than 0.2mbd of reduction in non-OPEC production.

    Given that OPEC has only restored about 0.7 out of 3.3mbd of cutbacks, about 2.6mbd of previously demonstrated capacity remains unused. This is about twice as large as the 1.3mbd or so distance from where production is now to the July 2008 peak level.

    Therefore, if the global economic recovery continues, and in particular if OPEC is willing to restore their production cuts at prices that don’t derail that recovery, then it appears likely that the July 2008 liquid fuel production level will be exceeded.

    This is true even if one assumes nothing about Iraqi production increases.


  • Get More Out of Yoga Class by Setting an Intention

    Filed under: , ,


    Perhaps you have already been in a yoga class where the teacher has asked you to set an intention at the start of the class. Let me explain the specifics of what makes an effective intention, why it’s a valuable part of your yoga practice and the difference between intentions and goals.

    What is an intention?

    Think of an intention as a promise you make to yourself about something you want to do, be or say. It could be something you would like to improve about yourself in your yoga practice, such as having more patience or not pushing yourself past your limit in your poses.

    An intention can also be a dedication of your yoga practice to a person that has been a mentor to you or to someone you are experiencing a challenging time with. In either case, when you offer your practice to another, your intention becomes a practice of love and compassion towards this individual.

    When you set an intention, you bring more meaning into your practice and into your life. By bringing a whole new level of awareness into your practice, you strengthen your practice and transform your inner-being.

    Continue reading Get More Out of Yoga Class by Setting an Intention

    Permalink | Email this | Comments

  • Skip Orange Juice at Breakfast: Erika’s Progress on the 30-Day Challenge

    Filed under: , ,


    On Monday, three of That’s Fit.ca’s readers kicked-off their first day of our 30-Day Nutrition Challenge. Here, we check-in with Erika, to see how she is doing a few days into her gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, caffeine-free, alcohol-free and processed foods-free existence.

    Erika: So far, so good! I had some quinoa with dried blueberries, almond milk and cinnamon for breakfast. And I started that off with a big glass of water with the juice of half a lemon in it for a liver detox. Is freshly squeezed orange juice an option?

    Healthy Foodie: This is a good breakfast. Mind you, while fresh-squeezed OJ is fine within the parameters of the challenge, I recommend you curb your intake a bit. Juice has a high sugar content, even unsweetened juice, so perhaps avoid having it every morning. Also, it’s best for digestion if you drink juice about 20 minutes before eating other foods. Fruit juices, because of their sugar content, can play havoc with your digestion when mixed with other foods.

    Continue reading Skip Orange Juice at Breakfast: Erika’s Progress on the 30-Day Challenge

    Permalink | Email this | Comments

  • You Could Not Make It Up: Global warming monitoring needs to find ‘missing heat’, say scientists by David Adam, environment correspondent, The Guardian

    Article Tags: World Temperatures, You could not make it up

    article image

    Sea surface temperature from March this year. Illustration: MODIS/Aqua/NASA

    Further study on oceans needed before hidden heat ‘comes back to haunt us’, say researchers in Colorado

    Experts need to beef up ways to measure the heat content of oceans as a way to track more reliably the course of global warming, scientists say today.

    Kevin Trenberth and John Fasullo, climate scientists at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, say that only about half of the heat believed to have built up in the Earth in recent years can be accounted for. New instruments are needed to locate and monitor this missing heat, they say, which could be storing up trouble for the future.

    “The heat will come back to haunt us sooner or later,” Trenberth said. “The reprieve we’ve had from warming temperatures in the last few years will not continue. It is critical to track the build-up of energy in our climate system so we can understand what is happening and predict our future climate.”

    Click source to read more of this “where is it” report from David Adam”. Thanks to ClimateGate we know “who done it” & “why they did it”, maybe soon we will have a “what was it“. This latest mystery is bizarrely there as a result of NO warming, the only warming that is apparent, is with corrupted data on a computer, you could not make it up!

    Source: guardian.co.uk

    Read in full with comments »   


  • Glympse Rolls Out Facebook Tie-In, Looks to Gain Traction in Location-Aware Social Networks

    Glympse on the iPhone
    Gregory T. Huang wrote:

    Question: Where is Glympse? Answer: Getting more socially connected.

    The Redmond, WA, startup, which makes location-based software for mobile phones, is announcing today it has integrated its service with Facebook. This means consumers can automatically share where they are in real-time with certain friends and contacts in their social network via their iPhone or Android smartphone.

    It’s not a custom deal with Facebook, but it takes advantage of the social network’s capabilities and reach. The integration allows anyone who has the Glympse service to have their location pop up on a map within Facebook so their friends can see where they in real time. The move “will help in the distribution” but doesn’t generate direct revenue, says Glympse co-founder and CEO Bryan Trussel. “It’s a breadth awareness and usage play for us.” Translation: it could help the company grow, and in a big way.

    The idea behind the company is that your friends, family, and business contacts can get an immediate “glympse” of where you are, automatically and dynamically (your position moves on the map; see photo below), for a certain amount of time that you set. So you don’t have to text or call them saying you’re going to be a few minutes late, or you just left the house. About a year ago, we pointed out that the main challenge the company faces is getting a critical mass of consumers to use the technology—and then figuring out how to get paid. A pretty familiar road for any Internet or mobile startup.

    Since then, location-based mobile services have exploded, with the rise of map applications on smartphones, more widespread adoption of smartphones themselves (and “social phones” like the new Microsoft Kin), and the popularity of location-based social networks like Foursquare. Other companies in the sector include Loopt, Brightkite, uLocate, Pelago, and Google with its Latitude service.

    “People are expecting their phone to know where they are, and to filter information based on their location,” says Trussel, who had a 16-year run at Microsoft before starting Glympse. In terms of building a reliable and mainstream location-sharing service, he says, “We set out to be the quickest, lightest, simplest way to do it.”

    Glympse

    Trussel says Glympse has kept true to its original vision from the company’s founding in 2008. Now it is being flexible about how it is approaching things like integrating into all the online social networks. For example, the fact that Facebook is soon coming out with its own location-sharing service doesn’t seem to concern Trussel. “We look at Facebook not as a competitor but as a great social network we can integrate into,” he says. “The more larger networks are built, and even built around location, the better for us.” One question for startups like Glympse, though, will be whether Facebook will try to “own” its location-based services itself, or keep the software platform open for application developers to build on.

    The Glympse app remains free, and is available on Windows phones as well as the iPhone and Android phones; a BlackBerry version is coming soon too. It sounds like location-based advertising will be a big part of Glympse’s business model, as well as licensing its technology to partners (presumably wireless carriers and handset makers). Trussel declined to comment on the company’s partners, revenues, number of customers, or funding plans. Last year, he said Glympse had been angel-financed and had a half-dozen employees.

    “We feel we’ve hit critical mass now,” Trussel says. “We’ve filed the IP patents. We have breadth on the platform, we’ve got the social network integration, and we’ve distinguished ourselves in the location space, where you can share as much or as little as you want…The good part for us is, the opportunity is much greater than the resources we have.”

    UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS



























  • Closing Time: With Chad Qualls struggling, get Juan Gutierrez on the horn

    We’ve seen plenty of ninth-inning turmoil through the opening two weeks of 2010 and there’s no letup in sight. Get out the log for struggling closers, it’s time to make another entry. Chad Qualls(notes), you’re the next stopper under the microscope.

    Qualls had a steady if unspectacular season as Arizona’s closer in 2009 (3.63 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 24 saves in 29 chances), but his season ended prematurely with a dislocated kneecap in August and not much has gone right since. Offseason surgery on the left knee pushed Qualls back for spring training, he didn’t get many people out when he finally started working in March (9.2 IP, 12 H, 8 R), and things haven’t gone well in the real games. Qualls allowed a home run in his first appearance (a mop-up assignment) and he’s really come unglued this week, blowing two consecutive saves at Los Angeles.

    The latest mishap came Thursday night as Qualls coughed up a two-run lead in the ninth. The tying run was a little on the cheesy side – a piddly infield hit followed by a wild throw – but Qualls can’t blame his teammates too much, he made his own mess. He started the carnival by walking the leadoff man, and Manny Ramirez(notes) and James Loney(notes) scorched base hits later in the frame.

    With Qualls struggling to find his form, it’s time to kick the tires on Arizona’s main setup man, Juan Gutierrez(notes). You’ll remember Gutierrez was sharp as the temporary closer down the stretch in 2009 (converting on 8-of-9 save chances), and he’s off to a superb start this time around, with four scoreless innings already in the books (1 H, 1 BB, 4 K). If A.J. Hinch decides to make a switch for the ninth inning, there’s little doubt Gutierrez would get the first look. Gutierrez has already become a hot pickup into the overnight, and that trend will continue Friday as the save carousel continues to turn.

    (Yep, there’s a lot more stuff to talk about Thursday, but we felt it was important to get the Arizona news out to you as soon as possible. Check back shortly for the rest of this morning’s Closing Time, in full.)  

  • ModNation Racers "exclusive behind the scenes look"

    Sony and United Front Games continues the ModNation Racers media blitz with some brand new behind the scene look at the games highly stylized Kart studio, in-depth character creator and the career mode. Watch the vids after

  • Ask Umbra’s pearls of wisdom on stress

    by Umbra Fisk

    Dearest readers,

    Achy muscles from hunching over your computer? Tumultuous
    tummy from crazy deadlines? Tension headache from staring at that tiny cell
    phone screen too long? Well, April is National Stress Awareness Month and today
    is National Stress Awareness Day, so step away from the laptop, the calendar,
    and the phone for some deep breathing and your fave anxiety-reducing activity.
    Otherwise, stress may land you in the doctor’s office, and then you’ll just be
    fretting about all the pharmaceuticals you’re popping (and leaching into our
    waterways), and medical bills piling up, and time lost from work, and and AND! That’s
    why I pilfered the archives for these calming little morsels on chillin’ like a
    villain.

    Being eco eating you?
    If achieving the nirvana level of being green is what’s stressing you, relax
    first—perhaps through some sort of meditative or spiritual practice—and then
    make some goals for yourself. Sit down and write out the highest hopes you have
    for your personal environmental impact on everything from your home to your
    neighborhood to the earth. Look carefully at those hopes, and from them select
    the realistic goals for what you might be able to achieve in your lifetime. And
    then set reasonable, human timelines for achieving these goals. Get the full Ask Umbra answer.

    Light my fire.
    A little candlelight can be totally soothing. Worried about candles making you
    ill? Easy: Burn fewer candles. Like any burning object, candles give off
    particles and vapors that can enter your lungs and irritate your respiratory
    system. Most of these irritants are present only in negligible amounts, with
    the exception of lead, which is used to keep wicks stiff. U.S. candle
    manufacturers voluntarily ceased using lead wicks in recent years, but
    companies in other countries continue the practice. If you don’t know the
    candle’s country of origin, you can test for lead in the wick by cutting off a
    section, stripping the outer cotton sleeve, and rubbing the core on a piece of
    paper. If it contains lead, it will leave a pencil-like mark. Also, avoid
    scented candles (which contain chemical additives), paraffin candles (which are
    made from petroleum), and smoky flames (which produce more soot). Get the full Ask Umbra answer.

    Just say om.
    Downward dogging can be good for working out the kinks, but the vinyl and
    phthalates in conventional yoga mats? Not so much. Vinyl is toxic to the
    environment during production and disposal, through creation and release of
    dioxin—among other issues, including that it is made from a nonrenewable
    resource. Phthalates are “plasticizers” often found in soft vinyl
    materials, which do leach out during a product’s lifetime. Exposure to
    phthalates has been linked to negative reproductive health
    effects
    in both men and women. However, many manufacturers are offering
    PVC-free options, usually made of jute and rubber. Get the full Ask Umbra answer.

    Such a tea-se.
    Nothing like a hot cup of tea to soothe the nerves. Ah, but how to heat the
    water: gas stove, microwave, or electric tea kettle? A review of the literature
    (various governmental energy-efficiency advisories, like this one from Canada) indicates that the electric kettle is
    No. 1 in efficiency. So pop a reusable tea filter full of organic leaves into a
    reusable mug, and take a chill pill. Get the full Ask Umbra answer.

    Tranquilly,
    Umbra

    Related Links:

    Ask Umbra on birth control, single-serve coffee, and sanitizing countertops

    Ask Umbra on Ronald McDonald’s retirement, card games, and a coffee stirring stir

    Ask Umbra on Babeland’s boinking for bucks






  • Ultimate Collection of Linux and Unix Cheat Sheets!

    I received this tip from my former college instructor and colleague from Coleman University, Thomas Nicholson who is a Network Security master! This will make you really happy if you are like me, and like to split your time in the Windows and ‘Nix worlds. I know quite a few Linux/Unix commands, and I can cd around the terminal with the best of them, but every now and again I can use some help. These are also good if you are not a Linux/Unix guy and have had a Linux server thrown in your lap to manage.

    Well, a blogger by the name of Scott Klarr Jr. has apparently found a really sweet collection of Unix/Linux cheat sheets to help you grep your way to salvation! In fact, this collection has approximately 70 cheat sheets for you  to geek out with!

    cheatsheets

    With the Ubuntu 10.04 release just around the corner, these sheets might be just what you need to bone up on your Linux knowledge to get a jump start on your way to open source.

  • The Light Curtain That Measures Objects

    Object100 can perform a variety of measuring tasks within the automation industry, recognizing the position and shape of objects. As an intelligent light curtain system, Object100 can measure objects and detect any overhang or overheight.

    Its very high sampling rate ensures the machine’s control system gets all the necessary data it needs in an instant. Small and quickly moving objects are immediately detected and measured. The system can be easily configured for the most wide-ranging of applications by using the simple Teach-in procedure.

    The light curtain with the compact profile gives design engineers a great deal of freedom, not only when it comes to new concepts, but also for refitting and modernizing older machines and equipment. Despite its incredibly compact size, it offers an operating range of up to 4m.

    The ObjectC 100 controller is available in four versions: Digital I/O, Analog, RS485 and CAN Bus. Thanks to the comfortable teach-in function ObjectC 100 is suitable to many different tasks e.g. detection or sorting of objects.

    The versions with the RS485 respectively the CAN bus interface submit additional information about the status of each beam. The integrated measure function enables to measure fast moving objects. With these versions it is possible to measure a longer period.

    The ObjectC 100 Analog submits the measurement results as current or voltage value. The control unit is easy to connect to analogue PLCs.

  • DARPA’s ‘Transformer TX’ program is a flying vehicle for the military

    darpa ev

    Eco Factor: Low-emission vehicle for military to be powered by hybrid electric drive.

    DARPA’s anticipated “Transformer TX” program is aimed at developing a flying car for the military that will have a vertical-takeoff system. The vehicle will handle like an off-road-capable SUV on the ground and can cruise like a single-engine aircraft at an altitude of up to 10,000 feet.

    (more…)

  • Tomato Power

    Inhabitat has a post on tomato powered illumination – Table Lamp Powered Completely by Tomatoes!.

    We all know tomatoes pack a powerful acidic punch, but we never thought we’d see one lighting up a room! Cygalle Shapiro of Israel-based d-VISION has created an incredible LED lamp that is completely powered by real, edible tomatoes. Currently exhibited at the Milan Furniture Fair, the design collects energy from a chemical reaction between tomato acids, zinc, and copper. This design doesn’t only explore advances in lighting technology – its also an art piece that sends clear and powerful social-conscience messages about where and how we receive energy.

    d-VISION’s tomato lamp calls attention to the amount of natural resources needed to produce even the smallest amount of power for everyday living. Although the tomato lamp utilizes an organic energy source, it still takes a considerately large amount of tomatoes just to power one lamp. The lamp holds power until the tomatoes go stale, signaling a beginning and end to energy sources. The designer highlights value by creating the tomato-powered circuits and lamp completely out of gold.


  • Climategate scientists: We’re not guilty by Lawrence Solomon, National Post

    Article Tags: ClimateGate, Lawrence Solomon

    Climate-change partisans find mere sins of omission

    To allay public concern over Climategate — the unauthorized release of some 3000 documents from the computers of the Climatic Research Unit at East Anglia University — the university established two independent inquiries to attend to the widespread view that science had been corrupted through the distortion and destruction of data, through cover-ups, and through the perversion of the peer review process.

    The first of these inquiries has neatly dismissed all concerns of impropriety through the oversight of its chair, Lord Oxburgh of Liverpool, a man of impeccable credentials in the climate change field. Lord Oxburgh is chair of the multinational Falck Renewables, a European leader with major windfarms in the U.K., France, Spain and Italy, and he’s chair of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association, a lobby group which argues that carbon capture could become a $-trillion industry by 2050.

    Lord Oxburgh’s judicial temperament also served him well in his role as chair of the university inquiry. “We are sleepwalking” into a global warming threat so dire, Lord Oxburgh explained in 2007, that the world may need to do more to discourage carbon dioxide emitters than to simply put a price on carbon. “It may be that we shall need, in parallel with that, regulations which impose very severe penalties on people who emit more than specified amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere,” he explained.

    Source: network.nationalpost.com

    Read in full with comments »   


  • Caver 0.9.1 side-scroller reviewed

    We folks at BestWindowsMobileApps.com love our mobile game and due to the many new games that come out for Windows Mobile we forget some of the old games. One of our reader Harry recently sent us an email about a game that we saw a while ago and we though why not review that so here we are with a review for Caver.

    Read the rest of the review at BestWindowsMobileApps.com here.


  • City Cycle chainless electric bike concept for urban commuters

    city cycle_2

    Eco Factor: Electric bicycle for a zero-emission ride.

    The brainchild of industrial designer Christian Vollmer is a chainless bike that has been designed using a pedelec system that works in tandem with a new belt system. The bike is intended for all those who don’t want to walk into work exhausted.

    (more…)

  • Gizmag reviews Elgato’s Netstream DTT: a digital TV transmitter for the home

    Elgato's Netstream stream digital TV wirelessly over a home network

    German-based company Elgato is well known for its range of digital television tuners that turn a Mac (and more recently a Windows PC) into a fully-fledged PVR/TV as well as its easy-to-use EyeTV software that has become the standard for Mac-based PVR functionality. Released in February, the EyeTV Netstream DTT is the latest bit of hardware to join Elgato’s venerable line of hardware that lets users go mobile by streaming digital television or recorded programs over a wireless home network. We took a unit through its paces to see if it lives up to Elgato’s previous offerings…
    Continue Reading Gizmag reviews Elgato’s Netstream DTT: a digital TV transmitter for the home

    Tags: ,
    ,
    ,
    ,
    ,
    ,
    ,
    ,

    Related Articles: