You and your 300 friends have supported 2,834,405.6 square feet!
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1 Aktbird57 .. 2012 65.069 acres
Nice Christmas avatar, ehBeth.
Happy clicking this week everyone.
Just checking in, but I've been clicking all week.
Hi Wildclickers!
Busy day - late clicks today.
sue, thanks for the interesting articles.
Lovely weather today - a tad cold during the a.m. hours, but sunny and warmer for the afternoon. Clear skies and freezing temps for the evening forecast though. Kittens outdoors for the next hour or so, then a mad dash for the heat blanket.
to cute
You and your 300 friends have supported 2,834,827.1 square feet!
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1 1577 65.078 acres
Record-breaking 81 here yesterday and more of the same for a couple of days. No rain. Can't remember whether I clicked yesterday. Better do it before I forget.
December 11, 2007
Observatory
When Removing One Predator Harms the Prey
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
The predator-prey relationship is simple, right? If a predator is around, that is bad for the prey, and if the predator is removed, that is good for the prey.
Ecological theory, however, suggests that isn't always the case, particularly if there is more than one predator species around and they share the same prey. In that case, elimination of the top predator may allow the midlevel predator to thrive, and a result may actually be worse for the prey.
Matt J. Rayner of the University of Auckland and colleagues found such a case on Little Barrier Island, a wildlife sanctuary in New Zealand. They studied the impact of two predators, feral cats and kiore, or Pacific rats, on a small burrowing seabird, Cook's petrel.
Kiore were introduced to the island hundreds of years ago, and cats were introduced in the 1870s. Both preyed on the petrels, with the cats also preying on the rats. Both were eventually eradicated, the cats in 1980, the rats in 2004.
The researchers analyzed data on petrel chick survivability from 1972 to 2007. As they report in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, removing the cats actually made life worse for the petrels, since that left more kiore to prey on them.
The researchers also found that the effect of the rats on petrels was worse at higher elevations than at lower ones. They suggest that at higher, colder elevations less variety of foods was available to the rats.
Only when the rats were eliminated did petrel breeding success increase, to a level above that when both predators were around. The researchers say the findings reinforce the idea that an understanding of an entire ecosystem is crucial to proper management of introduced species.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/science/11obprey.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print
December 11, 2007
Q & A
Always On
By C. CLAIBORNE RAY
Q. Many devices that are "always on" while seemingly "off" draw power so that they can spring into action on demand. How much electricity does a television, for example, use when plugged in but not turned on?
A. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has done extensive studies of standby power since 1996 for the Department of Energy. In particularly inefficient appliances, standby power use can be as high as 20 watts.
"For a single appliance, this may not seem like much," the laboratory's Web site says, "but when we add up the power use of the billions of appliances in the U.S., the power consumption of appliances that are not being used is substantial."
An exact reading of the standby power drawn by an individual appliance can be obtained only by using a fairly expensive energy meter or by turning off all the rest of a home's appliances and checking the utility meter.
For making an estimate, a laboratory Web site ?- standby.lbl.gov/data.html ?- provides tables of the minimum, average and maximum power used by appliances that cannot be switched off completely without being unplugged. For television sets, the laboratory estimates a minimum power use of zero watts, an average of 5 watts and a maximum of 21.6 watts.
From the "prairie potholes" of Canada and the upper Midwest to the destination states of Arkansas and Louisiana, the rhythms of the cross-continental migratory bird route known as the Mississippi Flyway are changing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/us/11hunting.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
December 10, 2007
South Korea Cleans Up Big Oil Spill
By CHOE SANG-HUN
SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 9 ?- Thousands of fishermen, soldiers and volunteers struggled on Sunday to clean up an oil spill that has caused an environmental disaster in South Korea. It has blackened once scenic beaches, coated birds and oysters in sludge and driven away tourists with its stomach-churning stench.
But the 7,000 people mobilized were too few to clean up the oil slick, which has been washing up since Saturday along a 12-mile-long shoreline of the nation's west coast. Strong tides, which dragged the sludge before pushing it ashore again, hampered the cleanup operations by villagers, who complained of headaches and nausea from the stench.
The oil spill occurred Friday when the steel wire linking a tugboat to a barge carrying a crane snapped in stormy seas. The barge lurched toward the Hebei Spirit, a Hong Kong-registered oil tanker, which was at anchor, and punched three holes into its hull.
The spill came a week after the South Korean port town of Yosu won the right to be the host in 2012 for an international event called Expo. Bidding for the event, South Korea championed the theme of "the living ocean and coast," a slogan it hoped would bolster environmental awareness in Asia.
The size of the oil spill was about one-fourth that of the 260,000 barrels, or 11 million gallons, leaked into Prince William Sound off Alaska from the Exxon Valdez in 1989. It was twice as big as a spill off South Korea in 1995 that cost $101 million in damages to fishermen and required a cleanup operation that took months.
By Sunday, it became clear to local residents that they were battling an environmental disaster. The tidal flats near Taean County, about 95 miles southwest of Seoul, are home to rich wildlife, oysters and fish farms, and a national park. Each year, millions of tourists flock there to bathe in the summer or watch migrating birds stop to feed in the muddy flats teeming with clams. About 64,000 people live in Taean.
"Everyone is out there fighting ?- there is so much oil we have to use buckets to scoop it up," Moon Hong-chol, a resident in the village of Wonbuk in Taean, said by telephone. "The dark brown slime is all over our oyster and abalone and clam beds. Tourists are canceling resort reservations. I think we are finished."
The provincial government appealed to people to donate used clothes for soldiers who were collecting the sludge in the freezing cold.
The central government declared a state of disaster, which makes it easier for regional governments to mobilize personnel and equipment.
Neither ship involved in the spill was in danger of sinking, and there were no casualties. But the tanker spilled an estimated 10,500 tons, or 2.8 million gallons, of crude oil before the last of the three holes was plugged Sunday.
"The worst is over in that there is no more spill," said Ryu Young, a coast guard official in Taean. "We are doing our best to contain as much of the slick as possible before it reaches the shore."
The 147,000-ton Hebei Spirit was five miles off the coast at the time of the collision, waiting to unload its 1.8 million barrels of crude oil at a nearby port.
The barge belonged to Samsung Heavy Industries, a shipbuilder affiliated with the Samsung conglomerate. The police were questioning officials of the company, as well as the crews of the barge and the tanker, the Yonhap news agency reported.
Kang Moo-hyun, minister of maritime affairs and fisheries, said Sunday that it would take at least two months to complete the cleanup.
"The oil stuck to the shore or sank to the sea bottom, causing serious damage to the maritime biology and ecosystem in the region," Mr. Kang said. "Even if some maritime organisms survive, they won't be marketable for quite a while."
Coast guard vessels hurried to establish floating oil fences, but high waves left them useless. Offshore, 105 coast guard, navy and private fishing boats were throwing absorbing cloth and spraying chemicals, as oil continued to zigzag toward the shore, where people wearing rubber gloves and masks spread out with mats to absorb oil.
"All day, people have been scrubbing boulders coated with oil and scooping up sand soaked with oil," said Lee Hyun-jin, a resident in the village of Sowon in Taean. "But now they are retreating because the sea is in high tide again. We feel hopelessly outnumbered."
Kim Eun-young, in the nearby village of Yiwon, said: "This morning, we found clumps of oil floating like ugly pan-fried cakes. They retreated with the tide and now are coming back again."
"This is getting worse, and we have 260 villagers out there today with buckets, cans and whatnot, compared with 57 yesterday," Ms. Kim added.
You and your 300 friends have supported 2,834,920.7 square feet!
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1 1578 65.080 acres
sumac wrote:Record-breaking 81 here yesterday and more of the same for a couple of days. No rain. Can't remember whether I clicked yesterday. Better do it before I forget.
Would you believe it's 53 degrees here, today? Rainy, crazy, weather! All clicked!
Morning all,
late clicks yesterday.
Took my Patti to hospital for IV antibiotics - her MS is causing kidney problems on a recurring basis. She will be there five days.
It's really quiet here.
danon5 wrote:Morning all,
late clicks yesterday.
Took my Patti to hospital for IV antibiotics - her MS is causing kidney problems on a recurring basis. She will be there five days.
It's really quiet here.
Danon,
I hope everything, will be alright! :wink:
Shall we sing a bit to liven things up?
(this is when I really miss wordworker)
Did anyone know there was a Poinsettia Day? and that today's the day ...
You and your 300 friends have supported 2,835,389.0 square feet!
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1 1579 65.090 acres
Teeny, earlier the weather was cold and clear, mid morning - overcast, this afternoon sunny, and now cold again. Thermal weather.
Beth, what a georgous poinsetta decoration! Christmas!
Dan, sending healing prayers to your Pattie.
News of Alysia! She's been taken off the feeding tube, and is breathing on her own, responds to her family, doctors and nurses, and we couldn't be happier! Thanks for all your prayers!
G'day all!
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sumac - JPB's looking for your picks for this week's foooootball games
G'Day to you all - too, ehBeth.
Stradee, thank you so much for your concern.
There is little that can be done to help my Patti - but, so far we have some years to go together.
Still too quiet for you, danon?
How's your puppy coping without Patti at home?
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You and your 300 friends have supported 2,835,833.9 square feet!
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1 1580 65.095 acres
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St. Lucia's Day today - the Swedish festival of light
Volume on and click!
