APPicture a beautiful beach spanning miles of coastline, gently lapped by aqua-colored water — and sprinkled with glass.
Ouch? Think again. It feels just like sand, but with granules that sparkle in the sunlight.
Faced with the constant erosion of Florida's beaches, Broward County officials are exploring using recycled glass — crushed into tiny grains and mixed with regular sand — to help fill gaps.
It's only natural, backers of the idea say, since sand is the main ingredient in glass.
"Basically, what we're doing is taking the material and returning it back to its natural state," said Phil Bresee, Broward's recycling manager.
The county would become the first in the nation to combine disposal of recycled glass with bolstering beach sand reserves, Bresee said.
"You reduce waste stream that goes to our landfills and you generate materials that could be available for our beaches," said Paden Woodruff of the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Sand is a valuable commodity in South Florida, where beach-related business generates more than $1 billion a year for Broward alone.
Sand to replenish eroded beaches is typically dredged from the ocean floor and piped to shore — about 13 million tons of it since 1970 in Broward. That's enough sand to fill the Empire State Building more than 12 times over.
But with reef preservation restricting future dredge sites, sand is becoming scarce. And the price is rising as construction and fuel costs rise and dredge operations are pushed farther offshore.
In 2005, dredging brought in about 2.6 million tons of sand at a cost of $45 million. A similar operation in 1991 brought in about 1.3 million tons of sand for just $9 million.
The county would create only 15,600 tons of the glass material each year, not enough to solve its sand shortage, but enough to create a reserve for filling eroded spots before they can worsen, Bresee said.
Most of Broward County's 24 miles of beaches are considered critically eroded, and more than a quarter of Florida's 1,350-mile coastline falls into the same category. About $80 million is spent annually restoring Florida's beaches...
Recycled glass also has been used for beaches along Lake Hood in New Zealand and on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao.
It's unclear how much the project would cost Broward County, or if the project is even feasible. The state and county have so far spent about $600,000 just on tests and engineering.
The county tested a small patch of glass sand on a dry patch of beach last year, using sensors to measure effects of heat and moisture. Scientists have also conducted laboratory tests that show organisms and wildlife can thrive in the material just like natural sand, they said. The county is awaiting a permit to test glass sand in the surf zone.
Some people are raising caution flags.
"There's no way that you can predict all the environmental consequences of an action like this," said Dennis Heinemann, a senior scientist with the Ocean Conservancy. "There always will be unforeseen consequences."
One example sits just off shore.
The state and Broward County are spending millions to remove some 700,000 old tires that were placed on the ocean floor off Fort Lauderdale in the 1970s and fastened together to create an artificial reef. The tires came loose, moving around and scouring the ocean floor and wedging against natural reefs, killing coral.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
"As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes"
By JOSEPH KAHN and JIM YARDLEY/ from The New York Times
No country in history has emerged as a major industrial power without creating a legacy of environmental damage that can take decades and big dollops of public wealth to undo.
But just as the speed and scale of China’s rise as an economic power have no clear parallel in history, so its pollution problem has shattered all precedents. Environmental degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions, that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party. And it is not clear that China can rein in its own economic juggernaut.
Public health is reeling. Pollution has made cancer China’s leading cause of death, the Ministry of Health says. Ambient air pollution alone is blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Nearly 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water.
Chinese cities often seem wrapped in a toxic gray shroud. Only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union...
Environmental woes that might be considered catastrophic in some countries can seem commonplace in China: industrial cities where people rarely see the sun; children killed or sickened by lead poisoning or other types of local pollution; a coastline so swamped by algal red tides that large sections of the ocean no longer sustain marine life.
China is choking on its own success. The economy is on a historic run, posting a succession of double-digit growth rates. But the growth derives, now more than at any time in the recent past, from a staggering expansion of heavy industry and urbanization that requires colossal inputs of energy, almost all from coal, the most readily available, and dirtiest, source.
“It is a very awkward situation for the country because our greatest achievement is also our biggest burden,” says Wang Jinnan, one of China’s leading environmental researchers. “There is pressure for change, but many people refuse to accept that we need a new approach so soon.”
...For the Communist Party, the political calculus is daunting. Reining in economic growth to alleviate pollution may seem logical, but the country’s authoritarian system is addicted to fast growth. Delivering prosperity placates the public, provides spoils for well-connected officials and forestalls demands for political change. A major slowdown could incite social unrest, alienate business interests and threaten the party’s rule.
But pollution poses its own threat. Officials blame fetid air and water for thousands of episodes of social unrest. Health care costs have climbed sharply. Severe water shortages could turn more farmland into desert. And the unconstrained expansion of energy-intensive industries creates greater dependence on imported oil and dirty coal, meaning that environmental problems get harder and more expensive to address the longer they are unresolved.
No country in history has emerged as a major industrial power without creating a legacy of environmental damage that can take decades and big dollops of public wealth to undo.
But just as the speed and scale of China’s rise as an economic power have no clear parallel in history, so its pollution problem has shattered all precedents. Environmental degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions, that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party. And it is not clear that China can rein in its own economic juggernaut.
Public health is reeling. Pollution has made cancer China’s leading cause of death, the Ministry of Health says. Ambient air pollution alone is blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Nearly 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water.
Chinese cities often seem wrapped in a toxic gray shroud. Only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union...
Environmental woes that might be considered catastrophic in some countries can seem commonplace in China: industrial cities where people rarely see the sun; children killed or sickened by lead poisoning or other types of local pollution; a coastline so swamped by algal red tides that large sections of the ocean no longer sustain marine life.
China is choking on its own success. The economy is on a historic run, posting a succession of double-digit growth rates. But the growth derives, now more than at any time in the recent past, from a staggering expansion of heavy industry and urbanization that requires colossal inputs of energy, almost all from coal, the most readily available, and dirtiest, source.
“It is a very awkward situation for the country because our greatest achievement is also our biggest burden,” says Wang Jinnan, one of China’s leading environmental researchers. “There is pressure for change, but many people refuse to accept that we need a new approach so soon.”
...For the Communist Party, the political calculus is daunting. Reining in economic growth to alleviate pollution may seem logical, but the country’s authoritarian system is addicted to fast growth. Delivering prosperity placates the public, provides spoils for well-connected officials and forestalls demands for political change. A major slowdown could incite social unrest, alienate business interests and threaten the party’s rule.
But pollution poses its own threat. Officials blame fetid air and water for thousands of episodes of social unrest. Health care costs have climbed sharply. Severe water shortages could turn more farmland into desert. And the unconstrained expansion of energy-intensive industries creates greater dependence on imported oil and dirty coal, meaning that environmental problems get harder and more expensive to address the longer they are unresolved.
"Global Warning: Brutal lessons from an Antarctic summer"
by Meredith Hooper - extract from The Ferocious Summer: Palmer's penguins and the warnings of Antarctica
January 2002
...The news is shocking. The season, Bill says flatly, has gone to hell. Palmer's Adélie penguins are in crisis, barely holding on. The weather has been relentless, dire. The seabird work is under real pressure. "We are arriving to a catastrophe, walking into a bitter scenario produced by climate change," he says. "The Adélie penguins don't have the capacity to survive the drastic changes that are occurring. There's no doubt. "
The real penguin losses in Antarctica are happening on the Antarctic Peninsula, where the greatest warming is occurring. Bill describes landing on the low, ice-enclosed Dion Islands during last winter's cruise in Marguerite Bay. In 1948, 21-year-old Bernard Stonehouse, surveying for the British with a husky team over dodgy sea ice, discovered an emperor penguin colony on the Dions, the furthest north these penguins breed.
Bill arrived at dawn one August morning. Washed pink sky, pearly grey ice, soft-focus light. He found just nine lonely pairs. Since Bernard made the first studies of an estimated 500 birds, the colony has been little visited. Outside influences can't be discounted. There can be no protective fences around vulnerable bird populations to exclude helicopters or passing yachts. But for Bill, the sight of those remnant pairs of emperors at a critical period of their brooding phase was deeply symbolic. "It was the saddest sight. They won't survive. They were the only known emperor penguin colony on the Antarctic Peninsula."
...In Antarctica, penguins were considered "indicator species". The food chain involved was thought to be remarkably simple. Large animals at the top, such as whales and penguins, ate krill, the small shrimp-like Euphasia superba which fed on phytoplankton, the grass of the sea. The hypothesis was that, as krill-eaters, penguins could reveal if too many tons of krill were being hauled out of the southern seas by the proliferating Eastern European fisheries: declining numbers of penguins would indicate too much fishing. Research was being carried out on penguin numbers along the Antarctic Peninsula, focusing on the five inner-island Adélie study sites at Palmer and a mix of sites further north at King George Island in the South Shetland Islands, where Adélies, gentoos and chinstraps nested. Concerns about managing resources drove the research, as well as concerns about changing the ecosystem.
But there was also the whale population reduction hypothesis: not a krill deficit, but an abundance. So many krill-eating baleen whales had been hunted and killed since the 1920s that there must, it was argued, be a " krill surplus" now that hunting had declined. The problem was the figures. At King George Island, the data of American researchers Wayne and Susan Trivelpiece showed the numbers of chinstrap penguins increasing, while Adélie numbers seesawed. The chinstraps' range was expanding south down the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula. Abundant krill could account for the increase.
But Adélies were also krill eaters. And, at the Palmer study sites, Adélies were in decline. Their numbers had decreased from 15,202 breeding pairs in 1975, when the data set began...
Overwinter survival is crucial to penguins. Dead penguins can't come back to breed. Underweight penguins with insufficient blubber insulation cannot sustain the brooding fasts. Overwinter survival, to use scientist-speak, can play a key role in driving long-term populations. Central to Bill's argument was the quantity and extent of sea ice. Had it changed? Was it reducing?
3 February, Litchfield Island
There are no sounds but the wash of the sea, the occasional calls of skuas. Every penguin is gone. The nests are abandoned. Listen to the silence. The silence of absence. The sound of failure.
Bill stands tall, still, on the carefully sorted pebbles. Standing where it should not be possible to stand, in the centre of a penguin colony, in the middle of summer. This season, on Litchfield Island, only seven pairs of penguins managed to keep eggs until hatching. Eighteen days ago, Bill counted four pairs of penguins in one colony, one pair in another. Five days ago, seven penguins remained. This space was still theirs. Now they have gone. The sound of extinction is approaching. In two to three years, Bill says, Litchfield will be vacant.
The map drawn in 1957 at Base N, showing the locations of local bird colonies, marks six Adélie colonies on the south-east peninsula of Litchfield. When Bill first arrived at Palmer in 1975, those colonies were extinct; 884 breeding pairs of Adélies were nesting further to the west, but still in the shadow of the high central hills, still on the island's southern slopes. With temperature change, with increased snow, the sites proved lethal. Storms tracking west to east between South America and the peninsula scoured snow from north-facing surfaces and dumped it in the lee. Penguin numbers fell rapidly.
Here is climate change in action, Antarctica as a living experiment. Litchfield Island is a precisely located landscape, with just two key species, Adélies and brown skuas...
Data from Litchfield had already revealed that, whenever an Adélie colony dropped below a certain number, the chicks were vulnerable to predation by brown skuas. Litchfield has six brown skua pairs. They are birds with long histories, many of them tracked.
As the population declined, they destroyed their meal table. This season, Litchfield's Adélie penguins failed to hatch chicks and so failed to deliver brown skua meals. This season, Litchfield's brown skuas fed until there were no Adélie eggs left, and no chicks. Nothing. Bill needed proof. Now he has it.
Shifting weather patterns challenge the precisely balanced interconnectedness of living things, their dependence on established networks to find food, to reproduce – to survive. Litchfield is an indisputable case study of the impact...
Here on the Antarctic Peninsula, impacts of warming can be tracked. It's a clear, stripped-down preview of what could occur elsewhere...
January 2002
...The news is shocking. The season, Bill says flatly, has gone to hell. Palmer's Adélie penguins are in crisis, barely holding on. The weather has been relentless, dire. The seabird work is under real pressure. "We are arriving to a catastrophe, walking into a bitter scenario produced by climate change," he says. "The Adélie penguins don't have the capacity to survive the drastic changes that are occurring. There's no doubt. "
The real penguin losses in Antarctica are happening on the Antarctic Peninsula, where the greatest warming is occurring. Bill describes landing on the low, ice-enclosed Dion Islands during last winter's cruise in Marguerite Bay. In 1948, 21-year-old Bernard Stonehouse, surveying for the British with a husky team over dodgy sea ice, discovered an emperor penguin colony on the Dions, the furthest north these penguins breed.
Bill arrived at dawn one August morning. Washed pink sky, pearly grey ice, soft-focus light. He found just nine lonely pairs. Since Bernard made the first studies of an estimated 500 birds, the colony has been little visited. Outside influences can't be discounted. There can be no protective fences around vulnerable bird populations to exclude helicopters or passing yachts. But for Bill, the sight of those remnant pairs of emperors at a critical period of their brooding phase was deeply symbolic. "It was the saddest sight. They won't survive. They were the only known emperor penguin colony on the Antarctic Peninsula."
...In Antarctica, penguins were considered "indicator species". The food chain involved was thought to be remarkably simple. Large animals at the top, such as whales and penguins, ate krill, the small shrimp-like Euphasia superba which fed on phytoplankton, the grass of the sea. The hypothesis was that, as krill-eaters, penguins could reveal if too many tons of krill were being hauled out of the southern seas by the proliferating Eastern European fisheries: declining numbers of penguins would indicate too much fishing. Research was being carried out on penguin numbers along the Antarctic Peninsula, focusing on the five inner-island Adélie study sites at Palmer and a mix of sites further north at King George Island in the South Shetland Islands, where Adélies, gentoos and chinstraps nested. Concerns about managing resources drove the research, as well as concerns about changing the ecosystem.
But there was also the whale population reduction hypothesis: not a krill deficit, but an abundance. So many krill-eating baleen whales had been hunted and killed since the 1920s that there must, it was argued, be a " krill surplus" now that hunting had declined. The problem was the figures. At King George Island, the data of American researchers Wayne and Susan Trivelpiece showed the numbers of chinstrap penguins increasing, while Adélie numbers seesawed. The chinstraps' range was expanding south down the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula. Abundant krill could account for the increase.
But Adélies were also krill eaters. And, at the Palmer study sites, Adélies were in decline. Their numbers had decreased from 15,202 breeding pairs in 1975, when the data set began...
Overwinter survival is crucial to penguins. Dead penguins can't come back to breed. Underweight penguins with insufficient blubber insulation cannot sustain the brooding fasts. Overwinter survival, to use scientist-speak, can play a key role in driving long-term populations. Central to Bill's argument was the quantity and extent of sea ice. Had it changed? Was it reducing?
3 February, Litchfield Island
There are no sounds but the wash of the sea, the occasional calls of skuas. Every penguin is gone. The nests are abandoned. Listen to the silence. The silence of absence. The sound of failure.
Bill stands tall, still, on the carefully sorted pebbles. Standing where it should not be possible to stand, in the centre of a penguin colony, in the middle of summer. This season, on Litchfield Island, only seven pairs of penguins managed to keep eggs until hatching. Eighteen days ago, Bill counted four pairs of penguins in one colony, one pair in another. Five days ago, seven penguins remained. This space was still theirs. Now they have gone. The sound of extinction is approaching. In two to three years, Bill says, Litchfield will be vacant.
The map drawn in 1957 at Base N, showing the locations of local bird colonies, marks six Adélie colonies on the south-east peninsula of Litchfield. When Bill first arrived at Palmer in 1975, those colonies were extinct; 884 breeding pairs of Adélies were nesting further to the west, but still in the shadow of the high central hills, still on the island's southern slopes. With temperature change, with increased snow, the sites proved lethal. Storms tracking west to east between South America and the peninsula scoured snow from north-facing surfaces and dumped it in the lee. Penguin numbers fell rapidly.
Here is climate change in action, Antarctica as a living experiment. Litchfield Island is a precisely located landscape, with just two key species, Adélies and brown skuas...
Data from Litchfield had already revealed that, whenever an Adélie colony dropped below a certain number, the chicks were vulnerable to predation by brown skuas. Litchfield has six brown skua pairs. They are birds with long histories, many of them tracked.
As the population declined, they destroyed their meal table. This season, Litchfield's Adélie penguins failed to hatch chicks and so failed to deliver brown skua meals. This season, Litchfield's brown skuas fed until there were no Adélie eggs left, and no chicks. Nothing. Bill needed proof. Now he has it.
Shifting weather patterns challenge the precisely balanced interconnectedness of living things, their dependence on established networks to find food, to reproduce – to survive. Litchfield is an indisputable case study of the impact...
Here on the Antarctic Peninsula, impacts of warming can be tracked. It's a clear, stripped-down preview of what could occur elsewhere...
Art, Ocean, Seals, Rocks, and Rock and Roll
I've been out visiting people in Connecticut. I also saw a lot of art, as well as a lot of the ocean. I visited the jellyfish at the Mystic Aquarium.
I found some cool rocks on the beach at Cape Cod - where a group of 3 dozen seals mosied by. There had been reports of Great White Sharks eating seals around there lately - and with an air temperature of 65 and a water temperature of 62 - I didn't exactly swim. I got in up to my knees getting some small rocks out of the surf.
When we were first at the beach, there were masses of brown, dead, seaweed washing up on the beach. There was so much that the waves were brown as they came ashore. But after a couple of days - the seaweed was gone, and the waves were clear.
I had taken my oil painting supplies and made some paintings while I was out there. The biggest challenge was in creating a contraption to bring them home - whereas the painting wouldn't get messed up - and wouldn't get paint on everything else as well. Between dowel rods, some wood with holes drilled for the rods and a couple boxes - it worked out.
The Smith College Museum of Art in Northampton had some good stuff. It was not lost on me that app. half of the art in their collection of art since 1900 was created by women. I don't know why it takes a women's college to be able to do that - I'm sure other mainstream museums could manage to do the same - if they were a little more conscious in their collecting.
Other places where I found art of interest included "The Clark" and The Plum Gallery- both in Williamstown, MA.
And I saw lots of art in Provincetown - including The Provincetown Art Association and Museum, The Kobalt Gallery, The Tao Water Art Gallery, The Kiley Court Gallery, and The Julie Heller Gallery
We also stopped by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland to see their exhibits and we saw lots of rocks at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC.
I found some cool rocks on the beach at Cape Cod - where a group of 3 dozen seals mosied by. There had been reports of Great White Sharks eating seals around there lately - and with an air temperature of 65 and a water temperature of 62 - I didn't exactly swim. I got in up to my knees getting some small rocks out of the surf.
When we were first at the beach, there were masses of brown, dead, seaweed washing up on the beach. There was so much that the waves were brown as they came ashore. But after a couple of days - the seaweed was gone, and the waves were clear.
I had taken my oil painting supplies and made some paintings while I was out there. The biggest challenge was in creating a contraption to bring them home - whereas the painting wouldn't get messed up - and wouldn't get paint on everything else as well. Between dowel rods, some wood with holes drilled for the rods and a couple boxes - it worked out.
The Smith College Museum of Art in Northampton had some good stuff. It was not lost on me that app. half of the art in their collection of art since 1900 was created by women. I don't know why it takes a women's college to be able to do that - I'm sure other mainstream museums could manage to do the same - if they were a little more conscious in their collecting.
Other places where I found art of interest included "The Clark" and The Plum Gallery- both in Williamstown, MA.
And I saw lots of art in Provincetown - including The Provincetown Art Association and Museum, The Kobalt Gallery, The Tao Water Art Gallery, The Kiley Court Gallery, and The Julie Heller Gallery
We also stopped by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland to see their exhibits and we saw lots of rocks at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Common Birds In Decline
Audubon's unprecedented analysis of forty years of citizen-science bird population data from our own Christmas Bird Count plus the Breeding Bird Survey reveals the alarming decline of many of our most common and beloved birds.
Since 1967 the average population of the common birds in steepest decline has fallen by 68 percent; some individual species nose-dived as much as 80 percent. All 20 birds on the national Common Birds in Decline list lost at least half their populations in just four decades.
The findings point to serious problems with both local habitats and national environmental trends. Only citizen action can make a difference for the birds and the state of our future.
Which Species? Why?
The wide variety of birds affected is reason for concern. Populations of meadowlarks and other farmland birds are diving because of suburban sprawl, industrial development, and the intensification of farming over the past 50 years.
Greater Scaup and other tundra-breeding birds are succumbing to dramatic changes to their breeding habitat as the permafrost melts earlier and more temperate predators move north in a likely response to global warming. Boreal forest birds like the Boreal Chickadee face deforestation from increased insect outbreaks and fire, as well as excessive logging, drilling, and mining.
The one distinction these common species share is the potential to become uncommon unless we all take action to protect them and their habitat.
BIrds on the list from my area of the country:
#1 Northern Bobwhite a chubby, robin-sized bird that runs along the ground in groups and is found in grasslands mixed with shrubs or widely spaced trees throughout much of the Eastern United States.
#6 Eastern Meadowlark: a robin-sized bird with a light brown back and brilliant yellow breast with a big, black "V", found in grasslands and open savannas in eastern Canada south through the eastern United States.
#9 Field Sparrow: a small brown songbird with a light rusty cap and a bright pink bill found in abandoned fields with scattered shrubs and trees in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains and Canada.
#10 Grasshopper Sparrow: a fairly nondescript, small brown bird with a short tail and a flat head often found hiding in larger patches of grassland, usually with few shrubs or trees, in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains and adjacent portions of southern Canada.
#14 Common Grackle: a dark bird longer than most blackbirds, slimmer than most crows, and very iridescent with long center-creased tail, found in a variety of open habitats with trees, including urban areas, parks, riparian areas, and a variety of woody wetlands in the United States and Canada.
#17 Whip-poor-will: a bird only active at night with mottled brown plumage, found in dry, open woodlands with little underbrush in most of the eastern United States, and parts of southeastern and south-central Canada, southwestern United States, Mexico, and into northern Central America.
#18 Horned Lark: a small grayish brown bird with dramatic black, yellow, and white facial and breast pattern, and small, feathered “horns” on its head, found in open, barren habitats in Canada, the United States (including Alaska), and northern Mexico outside of heavily forested areas.
What You Can Do:
Protect Local Habitat
Promote Sound Agricultural Policy
Support Sustainable Forests
Protect Wetlands
Fight Global Warming
Combat Invasive Species
Since 1967 the average population of the common birds in steepest decline has fallen by 68 percent; some individual species nose-dived as much as 80 percent. All 20 birds on the national Common Birds in Decline list lost at least half their populations in just four decades.
The findings point to serious problems with both local habitats and national environmental trends. Only citizen action can make a difference for the birds and the state of our future.
Which Species? Why?
The wide variety of birds affected is reason for concern. Populations of meadowlarks and other farmland birds are diving because of suburban sprawl, industrial development, and the intensification of farming over the past 50 years.
Greater Scaup and other tundra-breeding birds are succumbing to dramatic changes to their breeding habitat as the permafrost melts earlier and more temperate predators move north in a likely response to global warming. Boreal forest birds like the Boreal Chickadee face deforestation from increased insect outbreaks and fire, as well as excessive logging, drilling, and mining.
The one distinction these common species share is the potential to become uncommon unless we all take action to protect them and their habitat.
BIrds on the list from my area of the country:
#1 Northern Bobwhite a chubby, robin-sized bird that runs along the ground in groups and is found in grasslands mixed with shrubs or widely spaced trees throughout much of the Eastern United States.
#6 Eastern Meadowlark: a robin-sized bird with a light brown back and brilliant yellow breast with a big, black "V", found in grasslands and open savannas in eastern Canada south through the eastern United States.
#9 Field Sparrow: a small brown songbird with a light rusty cap and a bright pink bill found in abandoned fields with scattered shrubs and trees in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains and Canada.
#10 Grasshopper Sparrow: a fairly nondescript, small brown bird with a short tail and a flat head often found hiding in larger patches of grassland, usually with few shrubs or trees, in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains and adjacent portions of southern Canada.
#14 Common Grackle: a dark bird longer than most blackbirds, slimmer than most crows, and very iridescent with long center-creased tail, found in a variety of open habitats with trees, including urban areas, parks, riparian areas, and a variety of woody wetlands in the United States and Canada.
#17 Whip-poor-will: a bird only active at night with mottled brown plumage, found in dry, open woodlands with little underbrush in most of the eastern United States, and parts of southeastern and south-central Canada, southwestern United States, Mexico, and into northern Central America.
#18 Horned Lark: a small grayish brown bird with dramatic black, yellow, and white facial and breast pattern, and small, feathered “horns” on its head, found in open, barren habitats in Canada, the United States (including Alaska), and northern Mexico outside of heavily forested areas.
What You Can Do:
Protect Local Habitat
Promote Sound Agricultural Policy
Support Sustainable Forests
Protect Wetlands
Fight Global Warming
Combat Invasive Species
"A Gift Offer for Artists in China: Museums"
From the New York Times
For years their work could not be exhibited in China, but now the country’s leading contemporary artists are being courted by major art collectors abroad and their paintings set records at international auction sales. A local government in Sichuan Province — the area in western China known for its natural beauty, spicy food and talented painters — is taking notice.
It has offered to give eight contemporary artists, all under 60, their own personal museums to operate. The group includes some of China’s best-known avant-garde artists: Zhang Xiaogang, Wang Guangyi, Fang Lijun, Yue Minjun, Zhou Chunya, He Duoling, Zhang Peili and Wu Shanzhuan. All have accepted, and Dujiangyan, a city near the provincial capital, Chengdu, will soon begin construction on an 18-acre plot of land. The museums are scheduled to open in October 2008.
In a country with no major museum of contemporary art — not even in Beijing, where most of the eight artists work — this is a novel development. But in China, everything is changing at warp speed: artists who sold works for $100 in the 1990s have become multimillionaires operating huge studios and driving BMWs. They are helping to transform the style of the country’s biggest cities.
“Modern art used to be neglected,” said Lu Peng, an associate professor at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, who selected the artists. “Then modern art became popular in the market.”
The new project, which will also include a public museum, is expected to bolster tourism and to benefit a group of real estate companies that are redeveloping the provincial area. In addition to providing the land, Dujiangyan’s government is investing around $13 million in the museums.
The eight artists, ranging in age from 42 to 59, include a few from Sichuan, but the others come from all over China. They rose to prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s by producing paintings, installations and multimedia pieces that were often radical. Some of the work was viewed by the Chinese government as distasteful or antiauthoritarian.
But in recent years Beijing has significantly loosened restrictions on what can be exhibited in China as the global art market has fed a boom in new studios, galleries, museums and art districts in many of its cities. Today only the most controversial works — those with explicit sexual images or harsh depictions of high-ranking Communist Party officials — are banned...
For years their work could not be exhibited in China, but now the country’s leading contemporary artists are being courted by major art collectors abroad and their paintings set records at international auction sales. A local government in Sichuan Province — the area in western China known for its natural beauty, spicy food and talented painters — is taking notice.
It has offered to give eight contemporary artists, all under 60, their own personal museums to operate. The group includes some of China’s best-known avant-garde artists: Zhang Xiaogang, Wang Guangyi, Fang Lijun, Yue Minjun, Zhou Chunya, He Duoling, Zhang Peili and Wu Shanzhuan. All have accepted, and Dujiangyan, a city near the provincial capital, Chengdu, will soon begin construction on an 18-acre plot of land. The museums are scheduled to open in October 2008.
In a country with no major museum of contemporary art — not even in Beijing, where most of the eight artists work — this is a novel development. But in China, everything is changing at warp speed: artists who sold works for $100 in the 1990s have become multimillionaires operating huge studios and driving BMWs. They are helping to transform the style of the country’s biggest cities.
“Modern art used to be neglected,” said Lu Peng, an associate professor at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, who selected the artists. “Then modern art became popular in the market.”
The new project, which will also include a public museum, is expected to bolster tourism and to benefit a group of real estate companies that are redeveloping the provincial area. In addition to providing the land, Dujiangyan’s government is investing around $13 million in the museums.
The eight artists, ranging in age from 42 to 59, include a few from Sichuan, but the others come from all over China. They rose to prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s by producing paintings, installations and multimedia pieces that were often radical. Some of the work was viewed by the Chinese government as distasteful or antiauthoritarian.
But in recent years Beijing has significantly loosened restrictions on what can be exhibited in China as the global art market has fed a boom in new studios, galleries, museums and art districts in many of its cities. Today only the most controversial works — those with explicit sexual images or harsh depictions of high-ranking Communist Party officials — are banned...
"Fires sweep Greece turning villages to ash and killing 46 (+)"
With 46 dead yesterday afternoon and the toll expected to climb, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis declared a state of emergency, saying the forest fires 'can't be a coincidence'. He vowed that the arsonists would be found. Within hours police had arrested a suspect.
'All regions of the country are declared in a state of emergency in order to mobilise all means and forces to face this disaster,' he said in a televised address to the nation. 'We are living a national tragedy,' said Karamanlis.
He called an extraordinary cabinet meeting after visiting villages that had been reduced to cinders in the southern Peloponnese. With at least two tourists among the dead - and hundreds more holiday-makers threatened - Karamanlis urged Greece's EU partners to despatch more water-dropping planes and helicopters, saying it was a crisis Greece could not handle alone.
It was, he said, a day of 'national mourning' that would not be forgotten soon. All state buildings, including parliament, were ordered to fly flags at half-mast.
'These are very difficult times for all of us,' said Karamanlis, whose government has faced criticism for its handling of an unrivalled spate of forest fires that has wrought destruction across Greece this summer.
'I wish to express my deep grief over the lost lives. We are fighting against heavy odds, on many fronts and under particularly tough conditions.'
With new fires erupting almost hourly and authorities battling some 170 blazes from the Ionian Sea in the west, Ioannina in the north and the Peloponnese in the south, firefighting services have been stretched to the limit - despite the military being mobilised by the government. Gale-force winds known as the meltemi, which sweep across Greece in August, were also hampering efforts to extinguish the flames.
By late afternoon yesterday, as fires erupted on the fringes of Athens, threatening buildings, forcing the evacuation of monks from a monastery and closing the national highway, a wall of flames stretched across the Peloponnese with witnesses describing harrowing scenes.
Officials said the devastation was on a scale not seen in peacetime. Entire villages looked as though they had been vaporised, people and livestock incinerated. People who had tried to escape fires engulfing homesteads were found dead in their burnt-out cars. In one village near the Peloponnesian town of Zaharo, police discovered the bodies of a mother and her four children.
'There's absolute pandemonium here. It's like a war zone. In a single night everything we know has been destroyed,' Nikos Kakovessis, a resident of the town, said. 'People have lost their homes, their cattle, everything they own. May God cast his hand to stop this evil. May the worst be over.'
Frightened locals, authorities said, had been joined on the beaches of the peninsula by tourists forced to flee hotels and resorts at the peak of the holiday season. Many had fled the flames with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. With thousands expected to spend last night outside, nearby tavernas were providing tablecloths for evacuees to sleep on.
Greece has seen more than 300 fires in the past three months. The ecological disaster has dented the popularity of the ruling Conservatives, who have called early elections to take place on 16 September.
-----
(Extra info)Arson is often suspected, mostly to clear land for development. No construction is allowed in Greece in areas designated as forest land, and fires could be set to circumvent the law by disputing the status of the area.
Meanwhile:
States, feds try to keep up with wildfires
With major fires burning in more than a dozen states and officials on high alert for more, authorities are scrambling to contain the blazes and keep new ones from igniting, despite unfavorable weather and strained resources.
The worst fires have hit the West, where stifling heat, drought conditions and frequent thunderstorms bringing wind and lightning have proven a disastrous natural combination. More than 1 million acres already have been torched in Idaho and Montana, where crews from around the country battled 36 large blazes as of Aug. 17, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). Oregon, Washington and Wyoming also faced at least three major fires each, and conflagrations continued in states as far afield as Alaska and Hawaii.
The NIFC, which coordinates firefighting efforts nationwide from its base in Boise, Idaho, last month raised the nation’s wildfire preparedness level to its highest degree, freeing up additional help from cooperating agencies at home and abroad. Canada, for example, is expected to send units to assist in Idaho and Montana. At least 6.1 million acres across the United States have burned so far this year, according to statistics compiled by the NIFC and updated daily.
“Every year the fire season is longer and worse than the year before, and we’re seeing that again this year,” says Steven Kline, director of federal forestry programs with the National Association of State Foresters in Washington, D.C.
Governors in at least 11 states, most of them in the West, have made emergency declarations this summer due to wildfires, and some states – most recently Michigan and Montana – announced burning bans in an effort to prevent uncontrolled blazes. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. asked localities across the state to ban the personal use of fireworks, but many local leaders ignored the request amid questions over whether they had authority to impose a ban.
Flood news
"North Korea Says 600 Dead From Floods"
Floods that swept across North Korea earlier this month killed at least 600 people...
"Thousands suffer in Sudan floods"
Sudan's worst floods in living memory have left left hundreds of thousands of people short of food, while more than 30000 homes have been washed away...
"At least 26 people have died in floods across the (US) Midwest "
Ohio Governor Ted Strickland declared a state of emergency in nine counties yesterday as the worst flooding in 100 years shut down streets and schools...
"Floods wreak havoc in China province, 7 dead"
Seven people died and another five went missing in the floods in the inland province...
"Dyer overcome by floods"
"Deaths mount despite ebbing floods in Bangladesh"
"Uganda: Floods Displace 50000 in East"
"Asian floods affect (20) millions"
Floods that swept across North Korea earlier this month killed at least 600 people...
"Thousands suffer in Sudan floods"
Sudan's worst floods in living memory have left left hundreds of thousands of people short of food, while more than 30000 homes have been washed away...
"At least 26 people have died in floods across the (US) Midwest "
Ohio Governor Ted Strickland declared a state of emergency in nine counties yesterday as the worst flooding in 100 years shut down streets and schools...
"Floods wreak havoc in China province, 7 dead"
Seven people died and another five went missing in the floods in the inland province...
"Dyer overcome by floods"
"Deaths mount despite ebbing floods in Bangladesh"
"Uganda: Floods Displace 50000 in East"
"Asian floods affect (20) millions"
The Law of the Sea Convention
From the New York Times
A solemn international treaty known as the Law of the Sea Convention will celebrate its 25th anniversary this December, and for 25 years the mere mention of its name has been enough to induce deep slumber. Yet for all kinds of reasons — not least growing fears about the availability of energy resources — people are finally paying attention. That includes the Senate, where right-wing scare tactics and official inertia have long blocked the treaty’s ratification, leaving America as the only major power standing on the sidelines.
That could change this fall, when the treaty will again be presented for Senate approval. One reason for optimism is that President Bush has added his voice to a diverse pro-treaty coalition that includes the environmental community, fishing interests, the oil and gas industry, the shipping industry, the State Department and the Navy.
But the main reason is this: unless the United States joins up, it could very well lose out in what is shaping up as a mad scramble to lay claim to what are believed to be immense deposits of oil, gas and other resources under the Arctic ice — deposits that are becoming more and more accessible as the earth warms and the ice melts.
The Law of the Sea will provide the forum for determining who gets what. The law gives each nation control over its own coastal waters — an “exclusive economic zone” extending 200 miles offshore. The rest is regarded as international waters, subject to agreed-upon rules governing fishing, protection of the marine environment, navigation and mining on the ocean floor. A country can claim territory and mineral deposits beyond the 200-mile limit, but only if it can prove that the seabed is a physical extension of its continental shelf. Claims and disputes will be resolved by arbitration panels established by the treaty.
The Russians, the Canadians and the Danes are all busily staking claims to thousands of square miles of the Arctic seabed beyond their 200-mile zones; the Russians have already planted a flag 15,000 feet under the North Pole. And two weeks ago, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter, Healy, embarked on the third in a series of polar mapping expeditions to help strengthen the United States’ territorial claims to the seabed off Alaska.
But the United States will have a hard time pressing those claims unless it ratifies the treaty and gets a seat at the negotiating table. One of the main right-wing arguments over the years is that the treaty would threaten American sovereignty by impeding unfettered exploitation of the ocean’s resources — a “giant giveaway of American wealth,” in the words of one critic. The facts suggest just the reverse. By not signing, we could easily find ourselves out of the hunt altogether.
A solemn international treaty known as the Law of the Sea Convention will celebrate its 25th anniversary this December, and for 25 years the mere mention of its name has been enough to induce deep slumber. Yet for all kinds of reasons — not least growing fears about the availability of energy resources — people are finally paying attention. That includes the Senate, where right-wing scare tactics and official inertia have long blocked the treaty’s ratification, leaving America as the only major power standing on the sidelines.
That could change this fall, when the treaty will again be presented for Senate approval. One reason for optimism is that President Bush has added his voice to a diverse pro-treaty coalition that includes the environmental community, fishing interests, the oil and gas industry, the shipping industry, the State Department and the Navy.
But the main reason is this: unless the United States joins up, it could very well lose out in what is shaping up as a mad scramble to lay claim to what are believed to be immense deposits of oil, gas and other resources under the Arctic ice — deposits that are becoming more and more accessible as the earth warms and the ice melts.
The Law of the Sea will provide the forum for determining who gets what. The law gives each nation control over its own coastal waters — an “exclusive economic zone” extending 200 miles offshore. The rest is regarded as international waters, subject to agreed-upon rules governing fishing, protection of the marine environment, navigation and mining on the ocean floor. A country can claim territory and mineral deposits beyond the 200-mile limit, but only if it can prove that the seabed is a physical extension of its continental shelf. Claims and disputes will be resolved by arbitration panels established by the treaty.
The Russians, the Canadians and the Danes are all busily staking claims to thousands of square miles of the Arctic seabed beyond their 200-mile zones; the Russians have already planted a flag 15,000 feet under the North Pole. And two weeks ago, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter, Healy, embarked on the third in a series of polar mapping expeditions to help strengthen the United States’ territorial claims to the seabed off Alaska.
But the United States will have a hard time pressing those claims unless it ratifies the treaty and gets a seat at the negotiating table. One of the main right-wing arguments over the years is that the treaty would threaten American sovereignty by impeding unfettered exploitation of the ocean’s resources — a “giant giveaway of American wealth,” in the words of one critic. The facts suggest just the reverse. By not signing, we could easily find ourselves out of the hunt altogether.
Friday, August 17, 2007
"Arctic sea ice hits record low"
There was less sea ice in the Arctic on Friday than ever before on record, and the melting is continuing, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported.
"Today is a historic day," said Mark Serreze, a senior research scientist at the center. "This is the least sea ice we've ever seen in the satellite record and we have another month left to go in the melt season this year."
Satellite measurements showed 2.02 million square miles of ice in the Arctic, falling below the Sept. 21, 2005, record minimum of 2.05 million square miles, the agency said.
Sea ice is particularly low in the East Siberian side of the Arctic and the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska, the center reported.
Ice in the Canadian Archipelago is also quite low. Along the Atlantic side of the Arctic Ocean, sea ice extent is not as unusually low, but there is still less than normal, according to the center located in Boulder, Colo.
The snow and ice center is part of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado. It receives support from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation.
Scientists began monitoring the extent of Arctic sea ice in the 1970s when satellite images became available.
The polar regions have long been of concern to climate specialists studying global warming because those regions are expected to feel the impact of climate change sooner and to a greater extent than other areas.
Sea ice in the Arctic helps keep those regions cool by reflecting sunlight that might be absorbed by darker land or ocean surfaces. Exposed to direct sun, for example, instead of reflecting 80 percent of the sunlight, the ocean absorbs 90 percent. That causes the ocean to heat up and raises Arctic temperatures.
Unusually clear sky conditions have prevailed in the Arctic in June and July, promoting more sunshine at the time when the sun is highest in the sky over the region.
The center said this led to an unusually high amount of solar energy being pumped onto the Arctic ice surface, accelerating the melting process. Fairly strong winds also brought in some warm air from the south.
But, Serreze said in a telephone interview, while some natural variability is involved in the melting "we simply can't explain everything through natural processes."
"It is very strong evidence that we are starting to see an effect of greenhouse warming," he said.
The puzzling thing, he said, is that the melting is actually occurring faster than computer climate models have predicted.
Several years ago he would have predicted a complete melt of Arctic sea ice in summer would occur by the year 2070 to 2100, Serreze said. But at the rates now occurring, a complete melt could happen by 2030, he said Friday.
There will still be ice in winter, he said, but it could be gone in summer.
National Snow and Ice Data Center: http://www.nsidc.org
Thursday, August 16, 2007
"U.S. government to pay $80,000 settlement to pair arrested for wearing anti-Bush T-shirts"
A couple arrested at a rally after refusing to cover T-shirts that bore anti-President George W. Bush slogans settled their lawsuit against the federal government for $80,000, the American Civil Liberties Union announced.
Nicole and Jeffery Rank of Corpus Christi, Texas, were handcuffed and removed from the July 4, 2004, rally at the state Capitol, where Bush gave a speech. A judge dismissed trespassing charges against them, and an order closing the case was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Charleston.
"This settlement is a real victory not only for our clients but for the First Amendment," said Andrew Schneider, executive director of the ACLU of West Virginia. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees free speech, among other rights.
"As a result of the Ranks' courageous stand, public officials will think twice before they eject peaceful protesters from public events for exercising their right to dissent," Schneider said...
The front of the Ranks' homemade T-shirts bore the international symbol for "no" superimposed over the word "Bush." The back of Nicole Rank's T-shirt said "Love America, Hate Bush." On the back of Jeffery Rank's T-shirt was the message "Regime Change Starts at Home."
The ACLU said in a statement that a presidential advance manual makes it clear that the government tries to exclude dissenters from the president's appearances. "As a last resort," the manual says, "security should remove the demonstrators from the event."
Nicole and Jeffery Rank of Corpus Christi, Texas, were handcuffed and removed from the July 4, 2004, rally at the state Capitol, where Bush gave a speech. A judge dismissed trespassing charges against them, and an order closing the case was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Charleston.
"This settlement is a real victory not only for our clients but for the First Amendment," said Andrew Schneider, executive director of the ACLU of West Virginia. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees free speech, among other rights.
"As a result of the Ranks' courageous stand, public officials will think twice before they eject peaceful protesters from public events for exercising their right to dissent," Schneider said...
The front of the Ranks' homemade T-shirts bore the international symbol for "no" superimposed over the word "Bush." The back of Nicole Rank's T-shirt said "Love America, Hate Bush." On the back of Jeffery Rank's T-shirt was the message "Regime Change Starts at Home."
The ACLU said in a statement that a presidential advance manual makes it clear that the government tries to exclude dissenters from the president's appearances. "As a last resort," the manual says, "security should remove the demonstrators from the event."
"Tolls, Congestion Pricing Face Drivers in Five U.S. Cities"
Getting around in New York City is about to become easier for pedestrians and transit passengers, but more expensive for drivers who want to enter Manhattan's downtown business district. On Monday, New York was awarded $354 million in federal funds to implement a congestion pricing program that aims to keep more cars and trucks out of the core downtown area.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters selected five metropolitan areas as the first communities to participate in a new $848.1 million federal initiative to fight traffic gridlock. As the nation's largest city, New York is receiving the lion's share of the funds.
Miami, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Seattle also were chosen to receive smaller amounts for their traffic programs after a nationwide competition to select winners from among the 26 cities that applied to join the Department of Transportation's Urban Partnership program. The program aims to cut traffic congestion using approaches like congestion pricing, transit, tolling, and teleworking.
___________
New York: 354.5 Million
The pilot would establish congestion pricing to manage traffic in the Central Business District. On weekdays from 6 am to 6 pm, trucks would be charged $21 a day and cars would be charged $8 to enter this area, in addition to premium parking fees charged by city and private lots...
If the State Legislature approves a pilot congestion pricing plan or an alternative pricing mechanism, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority will receive $184 million for new bus facilities and the city will receive $112.7 million to establish Bus Rapid Transit in all five boroughs.
The city will also receive $29.3 million for pedestrian and traffic signal improvements, $10.4 million in grant money to implement congestion pricing, $15.8 to improve ferry service, and $2 million to conduct research.
___________
Minneapolis: $133.3 Million
The $133.3 million transportation award to Minneapolis is especially timely after the collapse of the I-35W Bridge on August 1 that killed nine people, with four others still missing and presumed dead...
As part of Minnesota's plan, High Occupancy Toll lanes will replace High Occupancy Vehicle lanes along I-35W from 66th Street to Burnsville Parkway, speeding commutes into the Twin Cities while giving drivers new options for getting home faster.
Shoulder lanes will operate as toll lanes during congested periods and will charge tolls based on the levels of traffic.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation will use $13.2 million of the funding to purchase new buses and equipment, Secretary Peters said...
___________
Seattle: $138.7 Million
A different bridge figures prominently in the federal grant to Washington state.
The federal government will provide $138.7 million if Washington will impose a toll on the old Highway 520 floating bridge, Secretary Peters said. Spanning Seattle's Lake Washington, it is the longest floating bridge in the world.
Tolls would be part of a comprehensive effort to reduce congestion and to raise money toward a replacement bridge, she said.
The grant includes $86 million for toll equipment, enforcement cameras, message signs and telecommute programs.
There would be $41 million for new King County Metro Transit buses, plus two park-and-ride lots at south Kirkland and Redmond. An additional $12 million is included to add passenger-ferry service from Vashon Island to Seattle.
___________
San Francisco: $158 million
This grant centers on the San Francisco Doyle Drive congestion pricing program. It will use tolling to manage congestion on Doyle Drive, the elevated access road connecting the Golden Gate Bridge to downtown San Francisco.
Drivers on Doyle Drive will be charged a fee according to the level of congestion on the road. The fee would be collected electronically through overhead sensors, not at a separate toll plaza, says the San Francisco Transportation Authority.
The revenues will be used to rebuild the roadway to earthquake safety standards, improve parking access to Golden Gate Transit ferry services, and provide better transit service.
___________
Miami: $62.9 Million
With its award of $62.9 million, the state of Florida intends to begin converting the underused and unpopular High Occupancy Vehicle lanes on Interstate 95 into an electronic High Occupancy Toll highway.
The Florida Department of Transportation will reconstruct and restripe the 21 mile stretch of I-95 between Interstate 395 in downtown Miami and Interstate 595 near Fort Lauderdale to allow 12 total lanes of traffic.
Two lanes in each direction will have tolls, while four lanes in each direction will still be free of charge. Toll prices will vary depending on the volume of traffic in the express lanes.
______________________________________________________
While I think it's good to come up with ways to reduce traffic - it seems that these sorts of things are quite a bit more of a burden on people with less money. I suppose that must be part of the plan. It wouldn't make much difference to those with a large disposable income.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters selected five metropolitan areas as the first communities to participate in a new $848.1 million federal initiative to fight traffic gridlock. As the nation's largest city, New York is receiving the lion's share of the funds.
Miami, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Seattle also were chosen to receive smaller amounts for their traffic programs after a nationwide competition to select winners from among the 26 cities that applied to join the Department of Transportation's Urban Partnership program. The program aims to cut traffic congestion using approaches like congestion pricing, transit, tolling, and teleworking.
___________
New York: 354.5 Million
The pilot would establish congestion pricing to manage traffic in the Central Business District. On weekdays from 6 am to 6 pm, trucks would be charged $21 a day and cars would be charged $8 to enter this area, in addition to premium parking fees charged by city and private lots...
If the State Legislature approves a pilot congestion pricing plan or an alternative pricing mechanism, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority will receive $184 million for new bus facilities and the city will receive $112.7 million to establish Bus Rapid Transit in all five boroughs.
The city will also receive $29.3 million for pedestrian and traffic signal improvements, $10.4 million in grant money to implement congestion pricing, $15.8 to improve ferry service, and $2 million to conduct research.
___________
Minneapolis: $133.3 Million
The $133.3 million transportation award to Minneapolis is especially timely after the collapse of the I-35W Bridge on August 1 that killed nine people, with four others still missing and presumed dead...
As part of Minnesota's plan, High Occupancy Toll lanes will replace High Occupancy Vehicle lanes along I-35W from 66th Street to Burnsville Parkway, speeding commutes into the Twin Cities while giving drivers new options for getting home faster.
Shoulder lanes will operate as toll lanes during congested periods and will charge tolls based on the levels of traffic.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation will use $13.2 million of the funding to purchase new buses and equipment, Secretary Peters said...
___________
Seattle: $138.7 Million
A different bridge figures prominently in the federal grant to Washington state.
The federal government will provide $138.7 million if Washington will impose a toll on the old Highway 520 floating bridge, Secretary Peters said. Spanning Seattle's Lake Washington, it is the longest floating bridge in the world.
Tolls would be part of a comprehensive effort to reduce congestion and to raise money toward a replacement bridge, she said.
The grant includes $86 million for toll equipment, enforcement cameras, message signs and telecommute programs.
There would be $41 million for new King County Metro Transit buses, plus two park-and-ride lots at south Kirkland and Redmond. An additional $12 million is included to add passenger-ferry service from Vashon Island to Seattle.
___________
San Francisco: $158 million
This grant centers on the San Francisco Doyle Drive congestion pricing program. It will use tolling to manage congestion on Doyle Drive, the elevated access road connecting the Golden Gate Bridge to downtown San Francisco.
Drivers on Doyle Drive will be charged a fee according to the level of congestion on the road. The fee would be collected electronically through overhead sensors, not at a separate toll plaza, says the San Francisco Transportation Authority.
The revenues will be used to rebuild the roadway to earthquake safety standards, improve parking access to Golden Gate Transit ferry services, and provide better transit service.
___________
Miami: $62.9 Million
With its award of $62.9 million, the state of Florida intends to begin converting the underused and unpopular High Occupancy Vehicle lanes on Interstate 95 into an electronic High Occupancy Toll highway.
The Florida Department of Transportation will reconstruct and restripe the 21 mile stretch of I-95 between Interstate 395 in downtown Miami and Interstate 595 near Fort Lauderdale to allow 12 total lanes of traffic.
Two lanes in each direction will have tolls, while four lanes in each direction will still be free of charge. Toll prices will vary depending on the volume of traffic in the express lanes.
______________________________________________________
While I think it's good to come up with ways to reduce traffic - it seems that these sorts of things are quite a bit more of a burden on people with less money. I suppose that must be part of the plan. It wouldn't make much difference to those with a large disposable income.
7.9 Earthquake in Peru
A powerful earthquake struck Peru's central coast at 18:40 local time Wednesday, shaking buildings in the capital, prompting a tsunami warning, killing hundreds of people and injuring at least 1,000 others. More deaths and injuries are being reported hourly.
Peru's Health Minister Carlos Vallejos said in a radio broadcast early Thursday that the quake has claimed at least 115 lives and injured more than 1,000 other people.
But the nation's civil defense agency, which is in charge of rescue efforts, said on its website that more than 330 people have died.
The quake caused cars to jump and shattered windows of some downtown Lima buildings. People fled into the streets of Lima, and communities closer to the epicenter, near the hardest hit city of Ica, a city of 650,000 people located 165 miles southeast of the capital.
Many Lima residents chose to bed down outside after the quake shook their homes. (Photo credit unknown)
The quake measured magnitude 7.9, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and four strong aftershocks were felt following the main quake.
The epicenter was placed at about 90 miles southeast of Lima at a depth of about 25 miles, according to the Geophysics Institute of Peru.
Peru's Health Minister Carlos Vallejos said in a radio broadcast early Thursday that the quake has claimed at least 115 lives and injured more than 1,000 other people.
But the nation's civil defense agency, which is in charge of rescue efforts, said on its website that more than 330 people have died.
The quake caused cars to jump and shattered windows of some downtown Lima buildings. People fled into the streets of Lima, and communities closer to the epicenter, near the hardest hit city of Ica, a city of 650,000 people located 165 miles southeast of the capital.
Many Lima residents chose to bed down outside after the quake shook their homes. (Photo credit unknown)
The quake measured magnitude 7.9, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and four strong aftershocks were felt following the main quake.
The epicenter was placed at about 90 miles southeast of Lima at a depth of about 25 miles, according to the Geophysics Institute of Peru.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
"A Star with a Comet's Tail"
From NASA
Astronomers using a NASA space telescope, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, have spotted an amazingly long comet-like tail behind a star streaking through space. The star, named Mira after the Latin word for "wonderful," has been a favorite of astronomers for about 400 years, yet this is the first time the tail has been seen.
Galaxy Evolution Explorer--"GALEX" for short--scanned the popular star during its ongoing survey of the entire sky in ultraviolet light. Astronomers then noticed what looked like a comet with a gargantuan tail. In fact, material blowing off Mira is forming a wake 13 light-years long, or about 20,000 times the average distance of Pluto from the sun. Nothing like this has ever been seen before around a star...
Astronomers say Mira's tail offers a unique opportunity to study how stars like our sun die and ultimately seed new solar systems. Mira is an older star called a red giant that is losing massive amounts of surface material. As Mira hurtles along, its tail sheds carbon, oxygen and other important elements needed for new stars, planets and possibly even life to form. This tail material, visible now for the first time, has been released over the past 30,000 years.
"This is an utterly new phenomenon to us, and we are still in the process of understanding the physics involved," says co-author Mark Seibert of the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Pasadena. "We hope to be able to read Mira's tail like a ticker tape to learn about the star's life."...
" The Puzzle of Hidden Ability"
By Sharon Begley / Newsweek
Even their parents struggle to draw the tiniest hint of emotion or social connection from autistic children, so imagine what happens when a stranger sits with the child for hours to get through the standard IQ test. For 10 of the test's 12 sections, the child must listen and respond to spoken questions. Since for many autistics it is torture to try to engage with someone even on this impersonal level, it's no wonder so many wind up with IQ scores just above a carrot's (I wish I were exaggerating; 20s are not unknown). More precisely, fully three quarters of autistics are classified as having below-normal intelligence, with many deemed mentally retarded.
It's finally dawning on scientists that there's a problem here. Testing autistic kids' intelligence in a way that requires them to engage with a stranger "is like giving a blind person an intelligence test that requires him to process visual information," says Michelle Dawson of Rivière-des-Prairies Hospital in Montreal. She and colleagues therefore tried a different IQ test, one that requires no social interaction. As they report in the journal Psychological Science, autistic children's scores came out starkly different than on the oral, interactive IQ test—suggesting a burning intelligence inside these kids that educators are failing to uncover.
That failure has lifelong implications. "If we label these children as below-normal in intelligence, that is how they're treated," says Laurent Mottron, who led the study. The disparity between scores on the two IQ tests also makes you wonder who else the tests, which are used for everything from screening military recruits to filling "gifted" classes, are mislabeling.
For the study, children took two IQ tests. In the more widely used Wechsler, they tried to arrange and complete pictures, do simple arithmetic, demonstrate vocabulary comprehension and answer questions such as what to do if you find a wallet on the street—almost all in response to a stranger's questions. In the Raven's Progressive Matrices test, they got brief instructions, then went off on their own to analyze three-by-three arrays of geometric designs, with one missing, and choose (from six or eight possibilities) the design that belonged in the empty place. The disparity in scores was striking. One autistic child's Wechsler result meant he was mentally retarded (an IQ below 70); his Raven's put him in the 94th percentile. Overall, the autistics (all had full-blown autism, not Asperger's) scored around the 30th percentile on the Wechsler, which corresponds to "low average" IQ. But they averaged in the 56th percentile on the Raven's. Not a single autistic child scored in the "high intelligence" range on the Wechsler; on the Raven's, one third did. Healthy children showed no such disparity.
The Wechsler measures "crystallized intelligence"—what you've learned. The Raven's measures "fluid intelligence"—the ability to learn, process information, ignore distractions, solve problems and reason—and so is arguably a truer measure of intelligence, says psychologist Steven Stemler of Wesleyan University.
That presents a puzzle. If many autistics are more intelligent than an IQ test shows, why haven't their parents noticed? Partly because many parents welcome a low score, which brings their child more special services from schools and public agencies, says one scientist who has an autistic son (and who fears that being named would antagonize the close-knit autism community). But another force is at work. "We often think of intelligence as what you can show, such as by speaking fluently," says psychologist Morton Ann Gernsbacher of the University of Wisconsin. "Parents as well as professionals might be biased to look at that" rather than dig for the hidden intellectual spark.
The challenge is to coax that spark into the kind of intelligence that manifests itself in practice. That is something autism researchers are far from doing. Worse, much of the expert advice might be counterproductive. Many experts dismiss autistics' exceptional reading, artistic or other abilities as side effects of abnormal brain function, "not a reflection of genuine human intelligence, which it is likely to be," says Mottron. They advise parents to steer their child away from what he excels at and obsesses over, such as letters and words and details, and toward what he struggles with, such as faces and the big picture. Dawson, who is autistic, thinks that's a prescription for intellectual failure; autistics should be encouraged to build on their strengths, as everyone else is. The problem of a lurking intelligence that won't be coaxed out by the usual education and parenting methods is not necessarily unique to autistics. It makes you wonder how many other children, whose intellectual potential we're too blind to see, we've also given up on.
Even their parents struggle to draw the tiniest hint of emotion or social connection from autistic children, so imagine what happens when a stranger sits with the child for hours to get through the standard IQ test. For 10 of the test's 12 sections, the child must listen and respond to spoken questions. Since for many autistics it is torture to try to engage with someone even on this impersonal level, it's no wonder so many wind up with IQ scores just above a carrot's (I wish I were exaggerating; 20s are not unknown). More precisely, fully three quarters of autistics are classified as having below-normal intelligence, with many deemed mentally retarded.
It's finally dawning on scientists that there's a problem here. Testing autistic kids' intelligence in a way that requires them to engage with a stranger "is like giving a blind person an intelligence test that requires him to process visual information," says Michelle Dawson of Rivière-des-Prairies Hospital in Montreal. She and colleagues therefore tried a different IQ test, one that requires no social interaction. As they report in the journal Psychological Science, autistic children's scores came out starkly different than on the oral, interactive IQ test—suggesting a burning intelligence inside these kids that educators are failing to uncover.
That failure has lifelong implications. "If we label these children as below-normal in intelligence, that is how they're treated," says Laurent Mottron, who led the study. The disparity between scores on the two IQ tests also makes you wonder who else the tests, which are used for everything from screening military recruits to filling "gifted" classes, are mislabeling.
For the study, children took two IQ tests. In the more widely used Wechsler, they tried to arrange and complete pictures, do simple arithmetic, demonstrate vocabulary comprehension and answer questions such as what to do if you find a wallet on the street—almost all in response to a stranger's questions. In the Raven's Progressive Matrices test, they got brief instructions, then went off on their own to analyze three-by-three arrays of geometric designs, with one missing, and choose (from six or eight possibilities) the design that belonged in the empty place. The disparity in scores was striking. One autistic child's Wechsler result meant he was mentally retarded (an IQ below 70); his Raven's put him in the 94th percentile. Overall, the autistics (all had full-blown autism, not Asperger's) scored around the 30th percentile on the Wechsler, which corresponds to "low average" IQ. But they averaged in the 56th percentile on the Raven's. Not a single autistic child scored in the "high intelligence" range on the Wechsler; on the Raven's, one third did. Healthy children showed no such disparity.
The Wechsler measures "crystallized intelligence"—what you've learned. The Raven's measures "fluid intelligence"—the ability to learn, process information, ignore distractions, solve problems and reason—and so is arguably a truer measure of intelligence, says psychologist Steven Stemler of Wesleyan University.
That presents a puzzle. If many autistics are more intelligent than an IQ test shows, why haven't their parents noticed? Partly because many parents welcome a low score, which brings their child more special services from schools and public agencies, says one scientist who has an autistic son (and who fears that being named would antagonize the close-knit autism community). But another force is at work. "We often think of intelligence as what you can show, such as by speaking fluently," says psychologist Morton Ann Gernsbacher of the University of Wisconsin. "Parents as well as professionals might be biased to look at that" rather than dig for the hidden intellectual spark.
The challenge is to coax that spark into the kind of intelligence that manifests itself in practice. That is something autism researchers are far from doing. Worse, much of the expert advice might be counterproductive. Many experts dismiss autistics' exceptional reading, artistic or other abilities as side effects of abnormal brain function, "not a reflection of genuine human intelligence, which it is likely to be," says Mottron. They advise parents to steer their child away from what he excels at and obsesses over, such as letters and words and details, and toward what he struggles with, such as faces and the big picture. Dawson, who is autistic, thinks that's a prescription for intellectual failure; autistics should be encouraged to build on their strengths, as everyone else is. The problem of a lurking intelligence that won't be coaxed out by the usual education and parenting methods is not necessarily unique to autistics. It makes you wonder how many other children, whose intellectual potential we're too blind to see, we've also given up on.
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