@ehBeth,
Cleicked --------------- (love the old 'i' before 'e' rule - ecxept after 'c' - AND, a bunch of OTHER letters) ------------Grrrrrrin.......
ehBeth, are you upgrading to the new Windows 7 ?? I just did and think it's ok. Course my old XP program was ok also. The thing that make it all sizzle was that awhile back I added the max amount of memory I could install - 2 Gb - THAT made all the difference in the world. Moved my old compy from a trot to a race horse.
@danon5,
Once we get the main puter back (it seems to be another motherboard issue, no more IBM's for me) - I think we'll take the also unwell back-up computer and have Windows 7 installed on it.
Two puters. Neither works.
<sigh>
@ehBeth,
Hope puters will be working soon, Beth
Late clicks -
Good evening all ~
http://rainforest.care2.com/i?p=583091674
@Stradee,
Today is my 40th Anniversary. I'm all clicked so I'm off to celebrate!
Ongratulaations, tenny. Off to click.
Great whites near shore more often than believed
Shark experts surprised by research in Pacific
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
For years, humans have thought of great white sharks wandering the sea at random, only occasionally venturing close to shore.
We were wrong.
Pacific white sharks spend months near the northern and central California coast between August and February foraging among elephant seals, sea lions and other prey, according to a new study published online Tuesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. The team of 10 California-based researchers determined that these sharks probably pass close to populated beaches and have been spotted as far inland as the mouth of the San Francisco Bay, east of the Golden Gate Bridge.
"It shows you how wild it is off our West Coast of North America. This is Yellowstone," said Stanford University marine sciences professor Barbara A. Block, who co-wrote the paper.
By tracking their movements, scientists determined that the fearsome predators make such precise, regular migrations each year between the California coast and the Hawaiian islands that they have become genetically distinct from their counterparts on the other side of the Pacific.
The fact that "a major concentration" of great whites can ignore the humans who might have crossed their path there "shows us the sharks are really minding their own business. The number of interactions with people is very small, considering," said Stanford University post-doctoral scholar Salvador J. Jorgensen, the paper's lead writer.
The findings represent nearly a decade of work, during which scientists tagged 179 great white sharks that roam the Pacific. They lured the creatures to their boat with a carpet decoy designed to look like a seal, and used a lance to attach the tags with the aid of 2.3-inch titanium darts.
They used three technologies to track the sharks' movements: satellite tags, which archive travel data by measuring the light in the sea and using astronomical math to determine where they are swimming; acoustic tags, which register a precise location when a shark comes within about 820 feet of a receiver; and mitrochondrial DNA sampling, which maps the animals' genetic lineage through their maternal line.
While researchers set up acoustic receivers in four central California locations where they knew the sharks would congregate -- Año Nuevo Island, South Farallon Island, Point Reyes and Tomales Point -- they discovered by accident that several white sharks entered the mouth of the San Francisco Bay. That is because the five great whites set off receivers established by another team, which had put them there to track migrating salmon.
Just as important, the scientists were able to determine through satellite tagging that great whites left the California coastline each winter and traveled 1,240 to 3,100 miles to the Hawaiian islands. Scientists have called a certain location along the route the white shark cafe, because they suspect that mating or foraging may take place there.
Tagging records from May and June show that male white sharks "converge in a very specific area of the cafe," Jorgensen said, while female sharks move in and out of the area. "It adds a little more evidence to the argument that this could be an important reproductive area."
Jorgensen said the great whites swimming off California probably descended from migrants that came from areas near Australia and New Zealand during the late Pleistocene Epoch, as many as 150,000 to 200,000 years ago.
The new findings have several significant conservation implications for great whites, which rank as one of the world's most protected shark species. Researchers are conducting a census of the creatures off California's coast because their exact numbers are unknown, and they may be able to identify areas of their migration routes that need additional protection.
Even Block, however, said she looks at places such as Carmel Point with a new perspective now that she knows the extent to which white sharks frequent the area. The scientists hope to put additional receivers near popular beaches to monitor shark movements.
"When I go to the beach there, I look at it differently," she said. "These animals are coming in so close to shore because that's where the pinnipeds [seals and sea lions] are."
@ehBeth,
Alex.... Imawake Imawake (ha, there's a thing a?)
Not for long I hope - so need to be an "I zzzzzz"
ehBeth wrote:
clicked
hoping the puter will be home soon
miss it - miss everyone!
miss you too Bethie.... love you girl! Hoping your 'puters will be 'puting soon. Love to HIM and Hbg. xxx
Hey y'all wildclickers
Wishing all a gentle day and trusting the creaking isn't too creaky for one and all.
((Dan)) - how's you and Patti? How's she coping these days? Hopefully better for a bit and no flaring. Saw my rheum doc yesterday and still have +ve AntiANA&DNA plus Rh+ factor. Nasty 'ole lupus (tho, I do love a wolf, love dem wolves), nasty arthritis - especially when you still feel like you're 16 years old in your head. Ha. Bloods are stable tho - so that's all ticketyboo. Big Smiles.
((Stradeeeeediddddlidlydeee)) - hellllllllo from Devon. Got mighty chilly here - have just been looking at the moon - it's glorious... GLORIOUS! Stars are twinkling and the clouds are rushing on past. Love that moon. Love it.
Happy Ann. Teeny
Enjoy your celebrations.
Sumac - good earthturn day to you
oooooooooooooooh soooooooooooooooooooooo tired - foot and ankle are steadily improving and I'm walking MUCH better today - did a little too much yesterday so... been feet up all day.
Gonna start back at work next week now.
gonna clickety crick clikc croak and head up the apples and pears.
((Cleickers))
@Izzie,
yizzieeeeeeeeeeeee
aww, cold weather and arthritis..........sending fleeceees
Feetsies need rest from weatherizing prop, house, vehicle, and kittens. Well, the herd just gets more food and a smart blanket...(tired though) cold weather supposed to arrive end of the week. Oh, and wearing woolies cause foot (one ankle) kinks from an old sports injury. Winter skiing on hold till next life....
Glad you're feeling better, iz. Prayers, hugs, and good thoughts to Devon.
Hugs to all ~
@Stradee,
Early clicks! All done. :-)
@Stradee,
That was so thoughtful. I had a great day and more to come.
Thank you, very much
Morning, wildclickers. Going to click for rainforest and wolves. Also on the prowl for interesting articles.
Pushing right along.
Senate Panel Approves Climate Legislation
By David A. Fahrenthold
Thursday, November 5, 2009 11:01 AM
MANHATTAN, Kan. -- A curious debate has broken out among American environmental groups, as the U.S. Senate finally, balkily starts to focus on the threat of climate change.Is this really the time to talk about the threat of climate change?
Now, some groups have actually muted their alarms about wildfires, shrinking glaciers, and rising seas. Not because they've stopped caring about them -- but because they're trying to win over people who might care more about a climate bill's non-environmental side benefits, like "green" jobs and reduced oil imports.
Smaller environmental groups, however, say this is the wrong moment to ease up on the scare, since that might send the signal that a weaker bill is acceptable.
At the heart of this intra-green disagreement is a behemoth of an unanswered question. Even after years of apocalyptic warnings about climate change, how much will Americans really sacrifice to fight it?
"It's a lack of faith in the American public," said Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological Diversity, an Arizona nonprofit, talking about the light-on-climate ads used by bigger groups. "If the scientists, the environmentalists in our country do their jobs, and explain the test of climate change, the public will come along.""Instead of doing that job," Suckling said, "we're running away from it."
The debate about how best to sell climate legislation is flaring now because this could be the culminating moment of a years-long effort to cap U.S. greenhouse gases. And playing down the threat from a warming climate may come with a cost for environmental groups, if it appears to give Senators license to weaken measures aimed at helping the environment, like caps on greenhouse gases. Already, the push for energy "made in America" has given industry an opening to press for things some green groups don't want: more offshore drilling in U.S. waters, and more support for the U.S. coal business.
Lou Hayden, of the American Petroleum Institute, said that his group does not debate environmentalists about climate science. But he said they will fight environmentalists on the jobs question, saying that the climate bill will kill more than it creates.
"Is it easier to respond to the jobs [argument] and to the kind of operational economic questions? Yes," Hayden said.
This summer, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would cap emissions by 2020, using a complex scheme called "cap and trade" that would allow companies to buy and sell allowances to pollute. But a similar bill has bogged down in the Senate, because most Republicans and many Democrats worry it would cause costly jumps in energy prices.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed its bill on Thursday despite a boycott from its seven Republicans. The bill passed 10 to 1, with Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) voting no.
Washington Post-ABC polls this year have shown that a steady but thin majority of Americans, 52 percent, favor a "cap and trade" bill. But a different poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press showed that, even after years of alarms about global warming, American opinions on the topic still seem to be shifting.
That poll found that a majority, 57 percent, of Americans think there is solid evidence of warming -- but that's down from the 71 percent who thought so in April 2008.Now, given the slow progress in the Senate, some green groups say they want to broaden their appeal beyond committed environmentalists, to the skeptical, the agnostic, and the distracted. That means downplaying doomsday predictions, and focusing on positives: a climate bill will create jobs in the renewable-energy industry, and keep money away from oil-state villains.
In 2006, for example, a well-known TV spot from the Environmental Defense Fund and the Ad Council showed a global warming as a speeding locomotive bearing down on a little girl.
This year, however, the train is gone. So is the word "warming." Instead, one spot from the Environmental Defense Fund shows solar panels and windmills, while an announcer talks about jobs and a reduced dependence on foreign oil.
"We need more renewable energy that's made in America and works for America, creating 1.7 million jobs," the narrator says. It doesn't mention the word "climate," but instead talks about cutting "carbon pollution," using a phrase common in recent ads by several groups.
"It's two words that are pretty easily understandable," said Daniel Lashof, of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "I mean, scientists like to talk about 'greenhouse gases.' Nobody knows what that means."On Tuesday night, climate activist Nancy Jackson was speaking to one of the most climate-skeptical audiences in the country: Kansans. She was speaking to college students here in Manhattan -- a town where one religious leader was only able to draw congregants to screenings of "An Inconvenient Truth" by passing out Nerf balls, so they could hurl them at the image of Al Gore.
"Take climate change off the table, OK?" Jackson said, after reciting evidence that the climate really is changing. "You don't have to buy it for everything I'm about to say, because everything we do [to combat climate change] is a good idea for at least three other reasons."
She told the students that Kansas has an abundance of wind, sun and crops like corn and prairie grasses -- all potential sources of renewable power. The message worked, at least on 21 year-old student Matthew Brandt. He said he doesn't believe in climate change, but -- after hearing Jackson's talk -- he was interested in windmills.
"I plan to have a wind turbine on my property," after graduation, Brandt said. "I figure it's a good investment."
One of the groups critical of the good-news approach to climate advocacy, the World Wildlife Fund, is running its own ads underlining fears about what climate change will bring. In Montana, the ads talk about increased wildfires. In Indiana, it's floods. In Maine, stronger storms.
"The reality is, we need to save ourselves," said Carter Roberts, that group's president. "The connection between an intact planet and people's well-being . . . is the part of the equation that's missing."
@sumac,
Hi all ---------- Happy Anny Teeny!!!!!!
Good to hear yer getting better Izzzzzzzz (nod) (Snap back) Ok, I'm up - I'm ok. With Patti it's the same old thing - some days yer the windshield, and somedays yer the bug. Some ok days, some not so ok days.
ehBeth, better get the old puter checked to see if it will accept Win 7. Also, there are a LOT of older programs that won't be accepted by the new Win 7. Ditto Also, at the price of the Win 7 prog you may be better off spending a couple of bucks extra and getting a new faster bigger brained puter. It would also (nuther one) come with the prog already installed, saving you the time trouble and possib money to get it done on the old one. A fast CPU (3+ g's) and max out the memory will do WONDERS.
Cliecking
@teenyboone,
Aw, glad your day was terrific! Sending good wishes for many more.
U and your Pattie too, dan!
Reading and running...so busy
Beth, sending good thoughts your way that puters will heal quickly.
You too mz izzieeeeeeeeee!
sue, weathers' finally arrived - very cold today.
Extra feed for critters n' kittens.
Keep warm, wildclickers
On my way to clicking. Yes, Stradee dry cold fronts coming through lowering the temps.
@sumac,
...and now a 30% chance of rain....
needed for clearing the air and bringing water quality to normal
water rates increased - so angry
http://rainforest.care2.com/i?p=583091674
Our water raates increased too. We were so successful at conserving after and during the 2008 drought that they missed the revenue.
Rooftop veg plots taking root in Japanese cities
TOKYO During his lunch breaks, Hayato Kashiwagi slips out of his office in Tokyo and heads for a nearby building where, on the rooftop three stories up, he tends a garden teeming with vegetables.
As he waters the vegetables, Kashiwagi surveyed the bountiful crop. "This is an oasis that allows me to forget all about work," the 25-year-old said.
An increasing number of young Japanese workers are now finding fulfillment in growing vegetables in urban plots during their break times or on their way home.
Most urban plots are located on rooftops - providing office workers seeking a way to reduce the stress of everyday life with easy access to a patch of green space filled with vegetables such as eggplant, carrot, lettuce and tomato.
Kashiwagi's office is located in the Kanda-Surugadai district of Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. Kashiwagi, an employee of an incorporated association, said he visits the nearby rooftop garden once or twice a week.
The entire rooftop of the building, which is owned by Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co., is covered with soil. Since spring, Kashiwagi and his colleagues have rented the eight-square-meter space on the rooftop. They grow 10 kinds of vegetables there, including daikon radish, broad beans and Chinese cabbage.
Kashiwagi said he spends his working day in front of a computer, so he enjoys taking off his jacket, rolling up his sleeves and tending to the vegetables on the rooftop. "My accumulated tiredness is wiped away up here as I water the vegetables and pull the weeds," Kashiwagi said.
Kashiwagi began growing vegetables atop the building after his boss, who had been tending a plot there, invited him to rent a plot on the roof.
Now, it is part of Kashiwagi's daily routine to take care of the vegetables during his breaks and after work in rotation with his colleagues. He also makes regular visits to a home center with colleagues to buy seeds.
Kashiwagi said his group particularly enjoys what they have dubbed the "harvest festival" - a once-a-month gathering they hold at which they cook and eat the tasty vegetables they harvest accompanied by cold beers.
Kashiwagi says he also grows vegetables such as Welsh onion and Chinese chives at home using planters. "But the vegetables grow bigger in the rooftop garden because they get a lot of sunshine.
"I enjoy watching the vegetables thriving here on the rooftop," Kashiwagi said.
According to Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, it began leasing out areas of its rooftop for no charge in 2004. The number of applicants grew rapidly in the following two years and now all 24 lots on the rooftop are being worked. Currently, about 30 people are waiting for a chance to plant a rooftop crop, the company said.
Rooftop gardens were not rare in Tokyo, but until recently most gardens were used by restaurants to grow vegetables used in their dishes. In September, Ginza Farm, Inc., which leases garden space to individuals, established a plot on a rooftop in Omotesando, Tokyo, that covers 50 square meters.
"Recently, farming has captured the popular imagination, so we figured there would be many who would like to experience it firsthand," a company spokesman said. "Here in Omotesando, people can visit easily after work."
The Omotesando rooftop garden is divided into 16 lots, and the rent for each lot - which each covers about three square meters - is about 16,000 yen a month. All the plots were snapped up before the rooftop was opened, the company said.
A 23-year-old nutritionist said she visits the rooftop two or three times a week before work to tend to cauliflowers and lettuce.
"I enjoy growing vegetables - they're so cute," she said. "I feel like I'm raising children."
Soradofarm, a rooftop garden located on the roof of JR Ebisu Station, opened in September. The rent for each three-square-meter lot is 46,000 yen for six months. The garden received about 70 applications for its 34 lots.
So why are so many workers interested in growing vegetables in the middle of Tokyo?
Kenji Takashio, secretary general of nonprofit organization O-Edo Yasai Kenkyu-kai, which promotes rooftop gardening, said, "I believe people are attracted by the handiness of rooftop gardens, where they can to engage in agriculture in their own area, and don't have to trek out to farms away from urban areas."
