Last year the U.S. wind energy industry installed a record 8,358 megawatts of new generating capacity that can serve more than 2 million homes, according to the American Wind Energy Association. The Washington, D.C.-based trade association of America’s wind industry has more than 1,800 member companies. At the end of 2008, however, financing for new wind projects and orders for turbine components slowed and the wind turbine manufacturing sector started to get slammed with layoffs. According to Denise Bode, chief executive of the association, there needs to be quick action on the stimulus bill to restore the industry’s momentum and create jobs. The new wind projects completed last year account for about 42 percent of the entire new power-producing capacity added across the U.S. last year, according to initial estimates, Wind energy generating capacity in the U.S. now totals 25,170 megawatts, which can power the equivalent of close to 7 million homes. The top five states, in terms of wind power generating capacity, are Texas, Iowa, California, Minnesota and Washington. The wind industry has about 85,000 workers, or 35,000 more than a year ago. Many of the 8,000 construction jobs within the industry […]
Ten thousand years ago, at the end of the last glacial period, the Black Sea was a lake, cut off from the Sea of Marmara and beyond it the Mediterranean by the Bosphorus sill. Some researchers estimate Black Sea level at that time was 80 meters below present day (their hypothesized extent of the Black Lake at that level is represented by dark blue water). They claim a flood 9,500 years ago brought sea level to approximately 30 meters below present levels (the flooded area is represented by light blue water). Such a flood would have inundated 70,000 square kilometers and wiped out early Neolithic civilizations in the region. (Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) Black Sea 30 m below present day levels Enlarge Image Giosan and his colleagues estimate that the Black Sea was around 30 meters below present day levels (Black Lake is represented by dark blue water) before a breach of the Bosporus sill 9,500 years ago raised levels to a maximum of 20 meters |(the flooded area is represented by light blue water). Their estimates mean that the magnitude of the Black Sea flood was 5 or 10 meters but not 50 to […]
CAIRO, Egypt — President Barack Obama chose an Arabic satellite TV network for his first formal television interview as president, part of a concerted effort to repair relations with the Muslim world that were damaged under the previous administration. Obama cited his Muslim background and relatives, practically a taboo issue during the U.S. presidential campaign, and said in the interview, which aired Tuesday, that one of his main tasks was to communicate to Muslims ‘that the Americans are not your enemy.’ The interview on the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news channel aired as Obama’s new envoy to the region, former Sen. George J. Mitchell, arrived in Egypt on Tuesday for a visit that will also take him to Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Obama said the U.S. had made mistakes in the past but ‘that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there’s no reason why we can’t restore that.’ Obama also emphasized the importance of engaging with Iran, a country the Bush administration often singled out as the most dangerous in the region. Obama condemned Iran’s threats against Israel, […]
CHICAGO — U.S. roads, airports, schools, levees, dams, and other infrastructure are in overall poor shape and require a $2.2 trillion investment to bring them up to par, an engineering group said on Wednesday. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave infrastructure a grade of ‘D’ as U.S. President Barack Obama seeks $825 billion in extra government spending and tax cuts to ease the economic crisis. Infrastructure earned the same dismal grade in 2005, but the group’s estimated five-year price tag to fix it rose by $600 billion to $2.2 trillion. Earlier this month, the engineers estimated that the president’s stimulus package contained some $90 billion in infrastructure spending. It called that amount a down payment that was long overdue. The group, which represents 146,000 engineers, assesses the nation’s infrastructure every four years. It has helped draw attention to what many experts say is the United States’ haphazard approach to building and repairing the economy’s backbone. ‘Crumbling infrastructure has a direct impact on our personal and economic health, and the nation’s infrastructure crisis is endangering our future prosperity,’ the group’s president, D. Wayne Klotz, said in a statement. ‘Our leaders are looking for solutions […]
Drinking coffee may do more than just keep you awake. A new study suggests an intriguing potential link to mental health later in life, as well. A team of Swedish and Danish researchers tracked coffee consumption in a group of 1,409 middle-age men and women for an average of 21 years. During that time, 61 participants developed dementia, 48 with Alzheimer’s disease. After controlling for numerous socioeconomic and health factors, including high cholesterol and high blood pressure, the scientists found that the subjects who had reported drinking three to five cups of coffee daily were 65 percent less likely to have developed dementia, compared with those who drank two cups or less. People who drank more than five cups a day also were at reduced risk of dementia, the researchers said, but there were not enough people in this group to draw statistically significant conclusions. Dr. Miia Kivipelto, an associate professor of neurology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and lead author of the study, does not as yet advocate drinking coffee as a preventive health measure. ‘This is an observational study, she said. ‘We have no evidence that for people who are not drinking coffee, taking […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
