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.
China will introduce a fuel tax as soon as possible as part of a series of measures to cut down on energy consumption and pollution, state media said Wednesday. “The pricing of energy products has long been too low, which fails to reflect the scarcity of the resources and tends to foster using them with low costs,” Vice-finance minister Liao Xiaojun said. Liao said the government would also create tax breaks for the use of energy-saving equipment, and study lower purchase tax for cars that use less fuel and produce fewer emissions.
Non-native species that are adapted to thriving on disturbed surfaces (such as after a fire or the sides of roadways) have been found to do better after disturbances away from home than in their native territories. Researchers believe this may be due to a lack of the soil microorganisms that inhibit the plants from spreading on their home turf.
Heat `em up, move `em out: The global dispersal of a group of early primates 55 million years ago from Asia to Europe and North America appears to be related to the onset of an event known as the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), one of the most rapid and extreme global warming events recorded in geologic history. The whole dispersal event happened within about 25,000 years. It was during the PETM that modern primates first appeared 55 million years ago.
Beware Republicans offering improved auto fuel mileage legislation: Republican Rep. Richard Pombo, who chairs the House Resources Committee, said Tuesday that the House could accept a Senate proposal to boost vehicle mileage requirements as part of legislation to open more offshore areas to oil and natural gas drilling. The Senate will debate legislation this week to open a small area off the coast of Florida to drilling while preventing energy exploration within 125 miles of the state’s coastline through 2022. Some senators may try to add an amendment to the bill to nudge up the mileage requirement for U.S. vehicles by about one mile per gallon a year. It has been more than 20 years since Congress raised fuel efficiency standards, although the White House recently ordered automakers to boost mileage slightly in some vehicles. Senate Majority Leader Frist says he has sufficient votes to block a filibuster of the legislation. But this may be too little too late in Oregon, where bottom fish and crabs washing up dead on Oregon beaches are being killed by a recurring “dead zone” of low-oxygen water that appears to be triggered by global warming, scientists say.
Cross Wikipedia with a scientific journal and what do you get? The on-line Encyclopedia of Earth, apparently. Collaborative, web-based contributions will be accepted to generate the site, but only after your resume is reviewed. However, a Ph.D. is not mandatory. Topic editors will peer-review contributions before they are posted, more like a scientific journal. The EOE is part of the Digital Universe project of Larry Sanger, one of the founders of Wikipedia, who left Wikipedia believing that by turning its back on technical expertise in favor of egalitarianism, Wikipedia compromised the quality of information on the site. [A serious philosophical discussion that probably merits a diary sometime, but I’m at work 🙂 ]
By what name will future generations know our time?
Will they speak in anger and frustration of the time of the Great Unraveling, when profligate consumption exceeded Earth’s capacity to sustain and led to an accelerating wave of collapsing environmental systems, violent competition for what remained of the planet’s resources, and a dramatic dieback of the human population? Or will they look back in joyful celebration on the time of the Great Turning, when their forebears embraced the higher-order potential of their human nature, turned crisis into opportunity, and learned to live in creative partnership with one another and Earth?
[It seems to me a very healthy sign of where our nation’s zeitgeist is heading that the conversation that we were having on September 10, 2001 – and which has been all but shut off since — is starting to resurface, sadder but wiser after our flirtation with empire. No, we’re not out of the woods, but the Kool-Aid buzz is fading fast for more and more folks. – K.P.]
SYDNEY (AFP) July 26 — Australia has withdrawn troops helping evacuate its citizens in southern Lebanon because the situation in the area is too dangerous, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said.
Nelson said 12 unarmed Australian Defence Force troops were being moved north to Beruit following an Israeli air strike on a UN post in the town of Khiam in southern Lebanon that killed four UN observers.
“Late yesterday we made a decision to bring our 12 ADF personnel back from southern Lebanon to Beirut,” Nelson told national radio.
“I am not prepared to say at the moment precisely where they are. We have made the decision to bring them back to Beirut and they are being transferred in an appropriate and timely manner.”
KABUL (Reuters) July 27 — All 16 people aboard a helicopter, including several foreigners, were killed in the crash in rugged mountain terrain in southeastern Afghanistan, U.S.-led coalition forces said.
«« click on map for BBC story
The cause of the crash was not known, but it took place in an area where insurgents are active. At least two coalition soldiers were killed, a forces spokesman said. Twelve bodies had so far been recovered.
A mortar barrage followed minutes later by a car bomb blasted Baghdad’s upscale Karradah district Thursday, killing at least 31 people and wounding 153, police said…
…The United Nations reported last week that about 6,000 people were killed in Iraq in May and June.
UK drugs firm GlaxoSmithKline believes it has developed a vaccine for the H5N1 deadly strain of bird flu that may be capable of being mass produced by 2007. But once a disease appears to be under control you can’t get sloppy about vaccination: Polio is making a comeback in areas where it had been eradicated.
China will introduce a fuel tax as soon as possible as part of a series of measures to cut down on energy consumption and pollution, state media said Wednesday. “The pricing of energy products has long been too low, which fails to reflect the scarcity of the resources and tends to foster using them with low costs,” Vice-finance minister Liao Xiaojun said. Liao said the government would also create tax breaks for the use of energy-saving equipment, and study lower purchase tax for cars that use less fuel and produce fewer emissions.
Non-native species that are adapted to thriving on disturbed surfaces (such as after a fire or the sides of roadways) have been found to do better after disturbances away from home than in their native territories. Researchers believe this may be due to a lack of the soil microorganisms that inhibit the plants from spreading on their home turf.
Heat `em up, move `em out: The global dispersal of a group of early primates 55 million years ago from Asia to Europe and North America appears to be related to the onset of an event known as the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), one of the most rapid and extreme global warming events recorded in geologic history. The whole dispersal event happened within about 25,000 years. It was during the PETM that modern primates first appeared 55 million years ago.
Beware Republicans offering improved auto fuel mileage legislation: Republican Rep. Richard Pombo, who chairs the House Resources Committee, said Tuesday that the House could accept a Senate proposal to boost vehicle mileage requirements as part of legislation to open more offshore areas to oil and natural gas drilling. The Senate will debate legislation this week to open a small area off the coast of Florida to drilling while preventing energy exploration within 125 miles of the state’s coastline through 2022. Some senators may try to add an amendment to the bill to nudge up the mileage requirement for U.S. vehicles by about one mile per gallon a year. It has been more than 20 years since Congress raised fuel efficiency standards, although the White House recently ordered automakers to boost mileage slightly in some vehicles. Senate Majority Leader Frist says he has sufficient votes to block a filibuster of the legislation. But this may be too little too late in Oregon, where bottom fish and crabs washing up dead on Oregon beaches are being killed by a recurring “dead zone” of low-oxygen water that appears to be triggered by global warming, scientists say.
Speaking of enemies of the planet, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) has slammed the Denver regional office of EPA for having the temerity to take measurements of air pollution levels while visiting oil and gas production sites. Inhofe said the agency’s actions “give rise to concern” and threaten the “trust” between regulators and industry. This story has “The Daily Show” or “The Colbert Report” written all over it… …As does this one: The Sierra Club says the Bush administration is burying any hope of implementing better coal-mining policies after nominating an industry-friendly candidate to the federal agency charged with setting environmental standards for surface-mining operations. So many things to rant about; so little time…
Cross Wikipedia with a scientific journal and what do you get? The on-line Encyclopedia of Earth, apparently. Collaborative, web-based contributions will be accepted to generate the site, but only after your resume is reviewed. However, a Ph.D. is not mandatory. Topic editors will peer-review contributions before they are posted, more like a scientific journal. The EOE is part of the Digital Universe project of Larry Sanger, one of the founders of Wikipedia, who left Wikipedia believing that by turning its back on technical expertise in favor of egalitarianism, Wikipedia compromised the quality of information on the site. [A serious philosophical discussion that probably merits a diary sometime, but I’m at work 🙂 ]
Bad habits are hard to break: One of the major arguments in favor of growing GM crops has been undermined by a study showing that the benefits are short-lived because farmers quickly resort to spraying their fields with harmful pesticides.
I keep seeing reports to this effect, but I’ve been too polite to report it until now: Canada is lagging the US in controlling emissions of industrial chemical pollutants. Lagging the US! C’mon, guys, you don’t want word of this to start getting around, do you?
USA Today is spreading helpful memes and the buzz is growing: There are growing signs that the electric car, once on the road to extinction, may jolt back to life. and Truthout has an inspiring piece that asks the question “By what name will future generations know our time?” Go read it all; here’s a taste from “The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community”:
[It seems to me a very healthy sign of where our nation’s zeitgeist is heading that the conversation that we were having on September 10, 2001 – and which has been all but shut off since — is starting to resurface, sadder but wiser after our flirtation with empire. No, we’re not out of the woods, but the Kool-Aid buzz is fading fast for more and more folks. – K.P.]
.
SYDNEY (AFP) July 26 — Australia has withdrawn troops helping evacuate its citizens in southern Lebanon because the situation in the area is too dangerous, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said.
Nelson said 12 unarmed Australian Defence Force troops were being moved north to Beruit following an Israeli air strike on a UN post in the town of Khiam in southern Lebanon that killed four UN observers.
“Late yesterday we made a decision to bring our 12 ADF personnel back from southern Lebanon to Beirut,” Nelson told national radio.
“I am not prepared to say at the moment precisely where they are. We have made the decision to bring them back to Beirut and they are being transferred in an appropriate and timely manner.”
● Australia’s Downer warns of UN ‘suicide mission’ to Lebanon
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
.
KABUL (Reuters) July 27 — All 16 people aboard a helicopter, including several foreigners, were killed in the crash in rugged mountain terrain in southeastern Afghanistan, U.S.-led coalition forces said.
«« click on map for BBC storyThe cause of the crash was not known, but it took place in an area where insurgents are active. At least two coalition soldiers were killed, a forces spokesman said. Twelve bodies had so far been recovered.
After a debate in The Netherlands, it was decided to send some 1400 troops to the dangerous province Uruzgan, Afghanistan.
The two coalition casualties were Dutch nationals, the first soldiers killed on the ISAF/NATO mission in Afghanistan.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
back in Iraq: AP/AOL
Nope, no civil war there.