47, an environmental scientist, Italian-American, married, 2 sons, originally a Catholic from Philly, now a Taoist ecophilosopher in the South due to job transfer. Enjoy jazz, hockey, good food and hikes in the woods.
One of America’s top scientists has said that the world has already entered a state of dangerous climate change. In his first broadcast interview as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, John Holdren told the BBC that the climate was changing much faster than predicted. “We are not talking anymore about what climate models say might happen in the future. We are experiencing dangerous human disruption of the global climate and we’re going to experience more.”
He blamed President Bush not only for refusing to cut emissions, but also for failing to live up to his rhetoric on harnessing technology to tackle climate change. “We are not starting to address climate change with the technology we have in hand, and we are not accelerating our investment in energy technology research and development.” Professor Holdren noted that US government spending on energy research had not increased since 2001. In order to make any progress, funding for climate technology needed to multiply by three or four times, he warned.
Gene therapy breakthrough against skin cancer: Immune cells removed from melanoma sufferers and genetically engineered to better recognize cancer can fight the disease when reintroduced into the patients. In a preliminary study, two of 17 participants with advanced melanoma were declared clinically free of the disease one year after receiving this experimental form of treatment.
Scientists plot to change planet definition: Scientists at NASA and Harvard University said they are planning a conference to provide an alternative to the recently adopted definition of a planet that demoted Pluto.
Juices may reduce Alzheimer’s risk: In a large epidemiological study, researchers found that people who drank three or more servings of fruit and vegetable juices per week had a 76 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than those who drank juice less than once per week.
Northern Iowa could have one of the nation’s largest wind farms by 2008. Iowa Winds LLC wants to build a 200- to 300-megawatt farm covering about 40,000 acres in Franklin County. A county zoning board will consider approving permits for the $200 million project next month. Iowa ranks third in the nation in wind energy behind Texas and California, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Company officials said the farm could be the nation’s largest — depending on the permits and the county’s power grid infrastructure.
I guess they’ll never see this posting, LOL: A prestigious Chinese university has advised first-year students not to use laptops in case they waste study time surfing the Internet, state media said Thursday. “We have been advised by the school to leave our laptops behind,” Liu Li, a student from central Hunan Province attending Zhejiang University in the east of China told the official Xinhua news agency. Between September 2005 and July 2006, two-thirds of the 90 students who dropped out of Zhejiang left because of Internet addiction, he said.
Brazil has proposed a fund to compensate developing countries that slow the destruction of their rainforests, a move that could help lower emissions of gases blamed for rising world temperatures. The Brazilian initiative, presented at a planning meeting for upcoming global climate talks in Rome, calls for creating a fund that countries could tap into if they could prove they had brought deforestation below rates of the 1990s.
“US government spending on energy research had not increased since 2001.“
I didn’t know that. Not surprising, though. God forbid they should make some sort of breakthrough and effect oil profits.
The possible breakthrough in cancer gene therapy is a bittersweet story for me. My closest friend was in an earlier phase of that gene therapy trial at NIH. The research is fascinating. The treatments are brutal. She lost her fight and we lost her a few years ago. Here’s hoping that the initial successes blossom into a possible cure for metastic melanoma, a particularly nasty form of cancer.
Governor [sic] Take Guard Appeal to Rumsfeld
Governors ask Rumsfeld to oppose broader presidential powers over National Guard
The nation’s governors sought help Thursday from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in their ongoing fight against proposals in Congress to give President Bush more control – and governors less – over the National Guard during disasters.
A letter from the two chairpersons of the National Governors Association, along with the two governors who head the group’s work on the Guard, asked Rumsfeld to join the unanimous opposition of governors to proposed changes spurred by the chaos and delays in sending help that followed Hurricane Katrina.
All 50 governors earlier this month signed a formal letter opposing a House provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that would let Bush federalize the Guard without governors’ consent in the event of a “serious natural or manmade disaster, accident or catastrophe.”
Adding to their worries, the NGA said, the Senate approved-version of the legislation would give Bush similar powers by redefining the Insurrection Act, a Civil War-era law that’s rarely used.
They’re up to no good. This type of thing barely hits the alternative press these days, never mind the corporate media, but add this to the massive detention centers they’re building and there is ample reason to be nervous.
This is precisely the sort of crap that Junior Caligula was trying to pull last year during the Katrina fiasco. I’m not too surprised that having been blocked one way, that this bunch of fascists would find another route.
Here’s a link to Mother Jones’ flash player driven Iraq timeline, “Lie By Lie”. This is their first installment and goes from Aug 1990 to March 2003. There is a wealth of information in an easy format. This is for folks like Booman, who love timelines. Check it out.
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 31 (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council on Thursday voted to create a United Nations peacekeeping force in Sudan’s Darfur region to avert a new humanitarian disaster, but the Khartoum government rejected the resolution as “illegal.”
The vote to send the force to Darfur once Sudan has agreed to its deployment passed with 12 votes in favor, none against and abstentions from Russia, China and Qatar, the only Arab council member.
The United Nations wants to replace and absorb an African Union force in Darfur, which has only enough money to exist until its mandate expires on Sept. 30. It has been unable to halt the humanitarian catastrophe in the west of the country.
The resolution calls for up to 22,500 U.N. troops and police officers and an immediate injection of air, engineering and communications support for the 7,000-member African force.
(snip)
But in Khartoum, Ali Tamin Fartak, a presidential adviser, told Reuters, “Our stand is very clear, that the Sudanese government has not been consulted and it is not appropriate to pass a resolution before they seek the permission of Sudan.”
Another presidential adviser, Majzoub al-Khalifa, told Al Jazeera television that the resolution was “illegal.”
Gene therapy breakthrough against skin cancer: Immune cells removed from melanoma sufferers and genetically engineered to better recognize cancer can fight the disease when reintroduced into the patients. In a preliminary study, two of 17 participants with advanced melanoma were declared clinically free of the disease one year after receiving this experimental form of treatment.
Scientists plot to change planet definition: Scientists at NASA and Harvard University said they are planning a conference to provide an alternative to the recently adopted definition of a planet that demoted Pluto.
Juices may reduce Alzheimer’s risk: In a large epidemiological study, researchers found that people who drank three or more servings of fruit and vegetable juices per week had a 76 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than those who drank juice less than once per week.
Go placidly amid the noise and haste: Longstanding anger and hostility compromise lung function and hasten the natural decline in lung power that is a normal part of aging.
Northern Iowa could have one of the nation’s largest wind farms by 2008. Iowa Winds LLC wants to build a 200- to 300-megawatt farm covering about 40,000 acres in Franklin County. A county zoning board will consider approving permits for the $200 million project next month. Iowa ranks third in the nation in wind energy behind Texas and California, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Company officials said the farm could be the nation’s largest — depending on the permits and the county’s power grid infrastructure.
NASA has awarded a multi-billion dollar contract to Lockheed-Martin to build the next generation of US spaceships, called Orion, to take humans to the Moon and Mars.
The announcement last week that DuPont will spend $50 million to build a factory to make solar-panel components is a sign of boom times in the solar-energy industry. And Japan’s Sharp Corp., the world’s biggest maker of solar cells, expects the cost of generating solar power to halve by 2010 and to be comparable with that of nuclear power by 2030, Sharp’s president said. [I suspect it will be quicker than that… – K.P.]
I guess they’ll never see this posting, LOL: A prestigious Chinese university has advised first-year students not to use laptops in case they waste study time surfing the Internet, state media said Thursday. “We have been advised by the school to leave our laptops behind,” Liu Li, a student from central Hunan Province attending Zhejiang University in the east of China told the official Xinhua news agency. Between September 2005 and July 2006, two-thirds of the 90 students who dropped out of Zhejiang left because of Internet addiction, he said.
Brazil has proposed a fund to compensate developing countries that slow the destruction of their rainforests, a move that could help lower emissions of gases blamed for rising world temperatures. The Brazilian initiative, presented at a planning meeting for upcoming global climate talks in Rome, calls for creating a fund that countries could tap into if they could prove they had brought deforestation below rates of the 1990s.
The Bureau of Land Management has neglected its public commitments to monitor and limit harm to wildlife and air quality from natural gas drilling in western Wyoming, according to an internal BLM assessment.
“US government spending on energy research had not increased since 2001.“
I didn’t know that. Not surprising, though. God forbid they should make some sort of breakthrough and effect oil profits.
The possible breakthrough in cancer gene therapy is a bittersweet story for me. My closest friend was in an earlier phase of that gene therapy trial at NIH. The research is fascinating. The treatments are brutal. She lost her fight and we lost her a few years ago. Here’s hoping that the initial successes blossom into a possible cure for metastic melanoma, a particularly nasty form of cancer.
Link
Governors ask Rumsfeld to oppose broader presidential powers over National Guard
The nation’s governors sought help Thursday from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in their ongoing fight against proposals in Congress to give President Bush more control – and governors less – over the National Guard during disasters.
A letter from the two chairpersons of the National Governors Association, along with the two governors who head the group’s work on the Guard, asked Rumsfeld to join the unanimous opposition of governors to proposed changes spurred by the chaos and delays in sending help that followed Hurricane Katrina.
All 50 governors earlier this month signed a formal letter opposing a House provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that would let Bush federalize the Guard without governors’ consent in the event of a “serious natural or manmade disaster, accident or catastrophe.”
Adding to their worries, the NGA said, the Senate approved-version of the legislation would give Bush similar powers by redefining the Insurrection Act, a Civil War-era law that’s rarely used.
They’re up to no good. This type of thing barely hits the alternative press these days, never mind the corporate media, but add this to the massive detention centers they’re building and there is ample reason to be nervous.
This is precisely the sort of crap that Junior Caligula was trying to pull last year during the Katrina fiasco. I’m not too surprised that having been blocked one way, that this bunch of fascists would find another route.
Here’s a link to Mother Jones’ flash player driven Iraq timeline, “Lie By Lie”. This is their first installment and goes from Aug 1990 to March 2003. There is a wealth of information in an easy format. This is for folks like Booman, who love timelines. Check it out.
Katherine Harris on how “you can make the polls say anything”: video
Coming from one of the 2000 presidential election thieves, I’d have to say she’s probably right.
UN votes for UN force in Darfur; Sudan says “no”