Friday, October 29th, 2010
ALYSSA DANIGELIS, - Discovery News
Stephan: I find this fascinating, and take it to mean that we are already at the launch of a second generation of technology. If you notice technologies move from the mechanical to the electronic -- turn tables, to tapes, to CDs, to mpgs being one example -- and, I predict, the third generation will be biological. Click through to look at the pictures. And the underwater version is even more exciting.
Noise from wind turbine blades, inadvertent bat and bird kills and even the way wind turbines look have made installing them anything but a breeze. New York design firm Atelier DNA has an alternative concept that ditches blades in favor of stalks. Resembling thin cattails, the Windstalks generate electricity when the wind sets them waving. The designers came up with the idea for the planned city Masdar, a 2.3-square-mile, automobile-free area being built outside of Abu Dhabi. Atelier DNA’s ‘Windstalk
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Friday, October 29th, 2010
JACK EWING, - The New York Times
Stephan:
A main indicator of consumer and business sentiment in Europe rose more than expected on Thursday, while a public bank that finances private enterprise in ex-Communist countries raised its growth forecasts.
Assembly line workers at the car supplier FSG Automotive in Oelsnitz, Germany. The country’s unemployment rate fell to 7 percent, an 18-year low.
The two reports, along with a drop in German unemployment, reinforced expectations that Europe and the former Soviet Union were recovering from last year’s sharp downturn, though growth was still wobbly in places.
The European Commission’s economic sentiment indicator, which measures confidence among consumers and a broad range of industries, rose 0.5 points in October after rising 0.3 points in September. In the euro area, the index rose 0.9 points for the second month in a row. The index is 104.1 for both regions, above the long-term average.
But strong gains in Northern Europe were partly offset by continued pessimism in Spain and other countries in the south that have been the focus of Europe’s sovereign debt crisis.
‘So far, the expected growth dip in the euro area has not really materialized,
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Thursday, October 28th, 2010
STEVEN AFTERGOOD, - Secrecy News
Stephan: This is a disturbing story, but the source is reputable
Secrecy News, a publication of the Federation of American Scientists, reports on new developments in government secrecy and provides public access to documentary resources on secrecy, intelligence and national security policy.
There were 5,135 inventions that were under secrecy orders at the end of Fiscal Year 2010, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office told Secrecy News last week. It’s a 1% rise over the year before, and the highest total in more than a decade.
Under the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951, patent applications on new inventions can be subject to secrecy orders restricting their publication if government agencies believe that disclosure would be ‘detrimental to the national security.
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Thursday, October 28th, 2010
FIONA MACRAE, - Mail (U.K.)
Stephan: This is the inevitable extension of the same processes devastating the Chesapeake Bay, and Puget Sound. Our failure to control the waste products of our culture, are literally killing the food chain upon which we depend. It is a clear example of Virtual Corporate States impeding regulation, even when the destructive impact is clear and unambiguous.
Shrimp could be becoming hooked on antidepressants
It sounds a tad fishy but shrimps are becoming hooked on Prozac, scientists believe.
They fear the ‘happy pills’ are tinkering with the creatures’ brain chemistry, making them more vulnerable to being eaten by other fish and birds.
The Portsmouth University researchers looked at the effect of the anti-depressant fluoxetine, also known as Prozac, on the behaviour of shrimps.
The shrimps are widely found in British coastal waters, close to treatment plants where the water may be contaminated with Prozac.
The researchers found that the crustaceans, which are usually happiest when hiding under rocks or clumps of seaweed, were drawn out into the open.
It is thought that just as in people, Prozac is altering levels of the brain chemical serotonin.
But, while in people this lifts mood, in shrimps, it draws them towards light – and into harm’s way.
Marine zoologist Alex Ford said: ‘Crustaceans are crucial to the food chain and if shrimps’ natural behaviour is changed because of anti-depressant levels in the sea this could seriously affect the natural balance of the eco-system.’
Other fish are also likely to be at risk from anti-depressants, with more than 26million prescriptions written out each year in England and Wales alone.
Dr Ford […]
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Thursday, October 28th, 2010
JULIET EILPERIN, Staff Writer - The Washington Post
Stephan: I confess that I find it hard to conceive of species vanishing from the earth. I know it happens intellectually, but It's hard to think about. When I try I tend to think of iconic animals -- whales, elephants/ It's harder to imagine a small rodent one's never seen. Perhaps that's common, and why we have been so insensitive to this. We must develop a new model that recognizes that all life is inter-connected and interdependent, and that policies that recognize this must replace those based solely in profit.
A growing number of creatures could disappear from the earth, with one-fifth of all vertebrates and as many as a third of all sharks and rays now facing the threat of extinction, according to a new survey assessing nearly 26,000 species across the globe.
In addition, forces such as habitat destruction, over-exploitation and invasive competitors move 52 species a category closer to extinction each year, according to the research, published online Tuesday by the journal Science. At the same time, the findings demonstrate that these losses would be at least 20 percent higher without conservation efforts now underway.
‘We know what we need to do,’ said Andrew Rosenberg, senior vice president for science and knowledge at the advocacy group Conservation International and one of the paper’s co-authors. ‘We need to focus on protected areas, both terrestrial and marine.’
The survey, conducted by 174 researchers from 38 countries, came as delegates from around the world are meeting in Nagoya, Japan, to debate conservation goals for the coming decade.
The researchers analyzed the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s ‘Red List’ – a periodic accounting that classifies mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish along a spectrum depending on how imperiled they are.
While many industrialized countries have […]
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