Really great tree, Amigo! and thanks for the web site, Walter!
All clicked for today.
Hallo this Thursday..........
all clicked for MA n Me..................
Clicked here.
Doing house-spring cleaning. WIndows open with nice cross breeze. Lovely.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A moderate earthquake of magnitude 5.3 struck Southern Californiaâs high desert on Thursday afternoon, breaking glass in nearby communities and rocking buildings in downtown Los Angeles.
http://www.pollutiononline.com/content/news/article.asp?docid=dc8b0c9e-90a3-4253-8071-8feab1aee2e7&atc~c=771+s=773+r=001+l=a&VNETCOOKIE=NO
"Report: Pesticides In The Nation's Streams And Ground Water
3/9/2006 Reston, VA ?- The U.S. Geological Survey recently released a report describing the occurrence of pesticides in streams and ground water during 1992-2001. The report concludes that pesticides are typically present throughout the year in most streams in urban and agricultural areas of the Nation, but are less common in ground water. The report also concludes that pesticides are seldom at concentrations likely to affect humans. However in many streams, particularly those draining urban and agricultural areas, pesticides were found at concentrations that may affect aquatic life or fish-eating wildlife."
The research is detailed in the March 6 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
New List: Top 20 Extinction Hotspots
By Bjorn Carey
LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 06 March 2006
05:56 pm ET
Animal conservation efforts generally focus on the areas richest in species diversity or where many species are believed to face increased risk of extinction.
But a new study suggests these efforts should be redirected to spots where animals possess specific traits that will be most threatened by future human activity.
Using the newest geographic, biological, and phylogenetic databases for nearly 4,000 mammal species, researchers have identified 20 regions around the globe as potential extinction hotspots.
The research is detailed in the March 6 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The areas where predicted latent risk is highest include the northern regions of North America and the islands in the southwest Pacific. Currently, these areas are relatively unmodified by humans, and mammals in these areas don't appear threatened.
But add humans to the mix and that could quickly change. Take for example the dodo, which was doing just fine until humans found it and then hunted it to extinction in just a few hundred years.
Top 20 Extinction Hotspots ranked by mean latent risk:
Hotspot
Mean latent risk
Projected annual human pop. growth % (2000-2015)
1
Southern Polynesia
0.97
0.46
2
Greenland
0.63
-0.76
3
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
0.61
1.96
4
Melanesian islands
0.54
2.78
5
Indian Ocean islands
0.54
2.15
6
Maluku
0.51
0.05
7
Bahamas
0.41
-0.65
8
New Guinea
0.36
2.91
9
Lesser Antilles
0.35
0.51
10
Nusa Tenggara
0.34
0.8
11
Northern Canada and Alaska
0.32
0.09
12
Sulawesi
0.31
1.92
13
Tasmania and Bass Strait
0.31
-0.11
14
Borneo
0.27
1.82
15
Siberian tundra
0.27
-0.56
16
Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia
0.26
1.62
17
Eastern Canadian Forests
0.26
-0.84
18
Patagonian Coast
0.25
1.64
19
Western Java
0.25
1.3
20
East Indian highlands
0.23
0.69
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/08/AR2006030802394_3.html?referrer=email&referrer=email
Wildlife Conservation Society field vet in East Asia
EXCELLENT article revealing all evidence and debate re role of migratory birds in the spread of avian flu.
That ought to keep everyone busy for a while.
Whew............... Ok, thanks sumac.
gone to read.
Aw, you can handle a couple more.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/03/060306214303.htm
"New Study Confirms The Ecological Virtues Of Organic Farming
Organic farming has long been touted as an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional agriculture. A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) provides strong evidence to support that claim. "
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/03/060303114337.htm
"Convergent Evolution Of Molecules In Electric Fish
Having a set of extra genes gave fish on separate continents the ability to evolve electric organs, report researchers from The University of Texas at Austin.
Weakly electric fish from South America, Sternarchorhynchus mormyrus, and Africa, Campylomormyrus phantasticus. Both fish evolved the ability to generate and sense electric fields. These two species also independently evolved curved jaws for bottom feeding. Electric discharges for each species are indicated. (Images courtesy of Carl D. Hopkins and John Sullivan)Dr. Harold Zakon and colleagues, in a paper recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that African and South American groups of fish independently evolved electric organs by modifying sodium channel proteins typically used in muscle contraction."
"Rat-Squirrel Not Extinct After All
By LAURAN NEERGAARD,
Associated Press Writer
It has the face of a rat and the tail of a skinny squirrel ?- and scientists say this creature discovered living in central Laos is pretty special: It's a species believed to have been extinct for 11 million years.
The long-whiskered rodent made international headlines last spring when biologists declared they'd discovered a brand new species, nicknamed the Laotian rock rat.
It turns out the little guy isn't new after all, but a rare kind of survivor: a member of a family until now known only from fossils.
Nor is it a rat. This species, called Diatomyidae, looks more like small squirrels or tree shrews, said paleontologist Mary Dawson of Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
Dawson, with colleagues in France and China, report the creature's new identity in Friday's edition of the journal Science.
The resemblance is "absolutely striking," Dawson said. As soon as her team spotted reports about the rodent's discovery, "we thought, 'My goodness, this is not a new family. We've known it from the fossil record.'"
They set out to prove that through meticulous comparisons between the bones of today's specimens and fossils found in China and elsewhere in Asia.
To reappear after 11 million years is more exciting than if the rodent really had been a new species, said George Schaller, a naturalist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, which unveiled the creature's existence last year. Indeed, such reappearances are so rare that paleontologists dub them "the Lazarus effect."
"It shows you it's well worth looking around in this world, still, to see what's out there," Schaller said.
The nocturnal rodent lives in Laotian forests largely unexplored by outsiders, because of the geographic remoteness and history of political turmoil.
Schaller calls the area "an absolute wonderland," because biologists who have ventured in have found unique animals, like a type of wild ox called the saola, barking deer, and never-before-seen bats. Dawson describes it as a prehistoric zoo, teeming with information about past and present biodiversity.
All the attention to the ancient rodent will be "wonderful for conservation," Schaller said. "This way, Laos will be proud of that region for all these new animals, which will help conservation in that some of the forests, I hope, will be preserved."
Locals call the rodent kha-nyou. Scientists haven't yet a bagged a breathing one, only the bodies of those recently caught by hunters or for sale at meat markets, where researchers with the New York-based conservation society first spotted the creature.
Now the challenge is to trap some live ones, and calculate how many still exist to tell whether the species is endangered, Dawson said.
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. "
aktbird57 - You and your 290 friends have supported 2,274,167.4 square feet!
Marine Wetlands habitat supported: 102,166.7 square feet.
You have supported: (0.0)
Your 290 friends have supported: (102,166.7)
American Prairie habitat supported: 48,759.6 square feet.
You have supported: (11,728.4)
Your 290 friends have supported: (37,031.2)
Rainforest habitat supported: 2,123,241.1 square feet.
You have supported: (169,081.8)
Your 290 friends have supported: (1,954,159.2)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2274167.4 square feet is equal to 52.21 acres
Ah, the new avatar suits you, ehBeth.
<I actually had my hairdresser base my Christmas party hairdo on that pic of Endora - it startled more than a few people>
I always loved that character....and the actress who played it.
I forgot to pick up the URL on this, but it is from
www.livescience.com.
"Bering Sea Altered by Warm Conditions
By Sara Goudarzi
LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 09 March 2006
02:00 pm ET
Rising air and water temperatures are altering the environment of the Bering Sea, a new study finds.
But warming temperatures of recent years have caused the environment to change from Arctic to sub-Arctic conditions in the region and have created an inviting haven for animals that were previously confined to the warmer waters of the south.
These warmer waters are bad news for animals adapted to cold-water environments, however. These creatures have to move north in search of cooler waters, which in turn is causing problems for people who live off of them."
Now this is a fascinating story. First scientific proof.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060309/sc_nm/cyprus_olives_dc_1&printer=1;_ylt=AuzPHXp7a3BJf7.Jra1EATYiANEA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
"Ancient Cypriots fed olive oil to furnaces-study By Michele Kambas
Wed Mar 8, 8:54 PM ET
It is praised for its culinary and health properties by any cook worth his salt, but long before olive oil made it into the Mediterranean diet Cypriots used it as fuel to melt copper, archaeologists say.
Italian researchers have discovered that environmentally friendly olive oil was used in furnaces at a site in southern Cyprus up to 4,000 years ago, instead of the fume-belching charcoal used in industry for hundreds of years since....
Described as "liquid gold" by the ancient Greek poet Homer, olive oil has long been associated with grooming, pampering and the religious rites of the ancients, but not - at least in the Mediterranean - with heavy industry......
"There were no storage areas for charcoal. We have discovered that to melt copper you need five kilos of olive oil, compared to 80 kilos of charcoal." "
This is a ghastly development.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/10/opinion/10jeffords.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
".....Now, President Bush and the Environmental Protection Agency want to weaken the largely successful Toxics Release Inventory program, which requires companies to tell the public how they dispose of or release nearly 650 chemicals that may harm human health and the environment. The disclosure program makes data available for anyone ?- journalists, policymakers, investors or parents ?- to learn exactly which chemicals are being released from corporate smokestacks and discharge pipes.
Congress developed this critical program in 1986, in response to the catastrophic deaths of thousands of people after a spill of toxic chemicals at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. It has worked well since its inception, but the Environmental Protection Agency is now proposing three detrimental changes that could go into effect within the next year.
The first would relax the current annual reporting requirement and let companies make reports every other year instead; the second would allow polluters to release 10 times more toxic chemicals ?- up to 5,000 pounds annually ?- without disclosing the volume released or where the pollutants went; and the third would permit companies to conceal releases of up to 500 pounds annually of particularly dangerous toxic materials, like PCB's, lead and mercury, which can accumulate in people's bodies. All three changes effectively increase the amount of pollution that companies can emit without telling anyone. ...
The E.P.A.'s weakening of the Toxics Release Inventory program does not require Congressional approval, only notification. This is just one more example of the Bush Administration's efforts to quietly undermine our nation's environmental protections. Washington should be working to expand corporate disclosure and accountability, rather than moving to allow polluters to conceal their toxic releases."
