Good Afternoon all,
Today is the day I renew my lodge stay, and hopefully start looking for housing. It's my last day of inprocessing! Yippee!
Anyway today there are several environmental articles. These include an article on Green Plumbing, an article on Peach Trees, and an article on the return of the wolverine to the Tahoe area of California.
I hope you enjoy today's pickings, and I'll see you tomorrow!
Today's Top 5:
1. War-torn Somalia Eradicates Polio (BBC)
2. Saving Water and Money with Green Plumbing (News 10)
3. Environmentally-Friendly Controls for Peach Tree Pests (Science Daily)
4. It's True: Wolverine is Thriving Near Tahoe (San Francisco Chronicle)
5. Google Plan Would Open TV Band for Wireless Use (New York Times)
Honorable Mentions:
1. Couple Find Love – in an Elevator! (IC Wales)
2. Welsh Man Wins Lottery, Keeps Job at McDonald's (NPR)
Top 5:
War-torn Somalia Eradicates Polio http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7312603.stm
Tuesday, 25 March 2008, 13:14 GMT
The UN paid tribute to Somalia's thousands of health work volunteers Polio has been eliminated from Somalia as no case of the disease has been reported for exactly one year, the UN World Health Organisation says. The WHO described it as a "landmark victory" and a testimony to the efforts of more than 10,000 volunteer workers.
The country has been riven by war and violence since 1991 and has no central government or detailed medical data.
But a WHO spokesman said the UN's network of monitors made it confident in its assessment.
"This truly historic achievement shows that polio can be eradicated everywhere, even in the most challenging and difficult settings," the WHO's Hussein Gezairy said.
Somalia was the last country with smallpox. I wanted to help ensure that we would not be the last place with polio too
Smallpox victim Ali Mao Moallim
Somalia's last case of indigenous polio was in 2002, but it was re-infected three years later with the virus originating from Nigeria.
The UN says its health workers repeatedly vaccinated more than 1.8m children under the age of five by visiting every household in every settlement multiple times.
The last case was reported on 25 March 2007 in central Somalia.
"This repeated success in Somalia indicates the disease can be stopped even in areas with no functioning central government," the WHO statement said.
One of the 10,000 volunteers was Ali Mao Moallim who was the last person on earth to contract smallpox more than 30 years ago.
"Somalia was the last country with smallpox. I wanted to help ensure that we would not be the last place with polio too," he said.
The disease, which causes paralysis, has been eliminated in developed nations but persists in parts of India, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
2. Saving Water and Money with Green Plumbing
http://www.news10.net/display_story.aspx?storyid=39641
Written by Elizabeth Bishop, Senior Internet News Producer
Updated: 3/25/2008 12:57:27 PM
Now and into the future, plumbers will be considered champions of the environment thanks to a new school of thought called Green Plumbing.
Green Plumbers started in Australia about seven years ago. After a 10-year drought, the Australian government knew something drastic needed to change in order for the country to have enough water. One of the ideas was training the plumbers in conservation. Steve Lehtonen heard about Green Plumbers and brought it here to the United States about a year ago.
"(The) master plumbers group in Australia said, 'We need to be green.' They were amazingly successful (with) savings of 50 percent for some of the states in Australia," said Lehtonen, who is now the director of Green Plumbers USA. "Our goal is to retrain 15,000 plumbers in California and 40,000 plumbers across the country over the next four years."
Lehtonen says in California, 19 percent of the total energy is used in the transportation of water. If we use less water, then we not only save water, we save energy.
Green Plumbers teaches plumbers how to train homeowners to save water, energy and money.
For example, showers built 30 to 40 years ago use about 10 gallons of water per minute. A 10-minute shower eats up 100 gallons of water, for one person. The law today allows new showers to use 2.5 gallons per minute. There are also water-saving toilets and water-heating systems. When you turn on hot water at home, it can take one to two minutes to heat up. During that time, one or two gallons of water is wasted. New hot water systems can save up to 20,000 gallons of water a year.
Water-saving technology can save bigger buildings and businesses about 100,000 gallons of water a year.
3. Environmentally-Friendly Controls for Peach Tree Pests
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080321121657.htm
ScienceDaily (Mar. 25, 2008)
Peach growers combat several insects that harm their crop, usually using chemical pesticides to do so. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in the Southeastern Fruit and Tree Nut Research Laboratory in Byron, Ga., are seeking environmentally friendly alternatives.
ARS entomologists David Shapiro-Ilan and Ted Cottrell, along with colleagues at the University of Florida and the University of Georgia, are evaluating two tiny, soil-dwelling nematodes as possible biological controls. They were used to thwart damage caused by the plum curculio weevil (Conotrachelus nenuphar), and two clear-winged moths, the peachtree borer (Synanthedon exitiosa), and the lesser peachtree borer (S. pictipes).
Shapiro-Ilan and Cottrell used the Steinernema riobrave nematode to defend against plum curculio larvae—producing a suppression rate of 78 to 100 percent.
For the peachtree borer, the researchers used another beneficial nematode, Steinernema carpocapsae. They found that a single field application of S. carpocapsae provided 88 percent suppression when applied to mature peachtree borer infestations in springtime. In a recent field trial, three applications of S. carpocapsae during the peachtree borer's fall egg-laying season completely suppressed all damage.
The scientists knew from lab studies that another peach pest, the lesser peachtree borer, is also highly susceptible to S. carpocapsae. But the researchers also realized that controlling the lesser peachtree borer would be more difficult because they attack trees aboveground—where the nematodes dry out and are less effective.
To deal with this problem, the researchers applied S. carpocapsae nematodes to tree wounds and then covered the wounds with moisture-holding bandages. In the first trial, 100 percent lesser peachtree borer mortality was attained in five days.
Adapted from materials provided by US Department of
4. It's True: Wolverine is Thriving Near Tahoe
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/25/BAHKVPL1V.DTL
Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Two more photographs of a wolverine lurking in the Tahoe National Forest were released Monday, extinguishing all doubt that the elusive predator exists in the wilds of California.
The wolverine pictures, taken from remote digital cameras by U.S. Forest Service researchers, mean the muscular carnivore with the almond-colored stripe has either avoided detection for three-quarters of a century or returned to the state after an epic journey.
An earlier image of what may be the same wolverine was captured inadvertently on Feb. 28 by a graduate student doing research on the wolverine's weasel family relative, the marten, and set off a near frenzy among giddy scientists and wildlife experts.
The dark photograph captured the animal from behind, showing off its distinctive stripe. The latest pictures, taken March 13, show the front of a wolverine that researchers believe is the same animal.
"We feel extremely lucky that this animal chose to visit another camera station," said William Zielinski, a research ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station, who was working with Oregon State University graduate student Katie Moriarty when they captured the first wolverine image. "It's nice to have a head shot rather than just a rear shot."
Researchers, biologists and volunteers have fanned out over 155 square miles from the spot where the photo was taken in the forest north of Truckee, hunting for genetic material.
Cameras and "hair snares," which capture animal hair, were rigged and all suspicious-looking animal deposits were scooped up. Dogs trained to detect wolverine scat were unleashed in the forest by the Center of Conservation Biology in Washington.
Airplanes even flew overhead in an attempt to pick up signals from wolverines surgically fitted with radio transmitters during studies in Montana. Several wolverines with the internal transmitters have disappeared from study areas, but no signal was detected in the Tahoe area, Zielinski said.
About 50 scat and hair samples were sent away for DNA analysis at the forest service's laboratory at the Rocky Mountain Research Station.
The wolverine, which had not been documented in the Sierra since 1922, was believed by many to have vanished from California. There have been reported sightings through the years, but most were discounted as mistaken identity, Zielisnki said.
Skins of California wolverines at UC Berkeley and in several museums have been analyzed in the laboratory, a fact that has injected a note of urgency into the search for genetic material.
"Fortunately, enough previous work has been done on the genetics of wolverines that, if we can get a good enough sample, our colleagues think they can help us identify the population of origin for this individual," Zielinski said. "The historical population of wolverines that once existed in the Sierra Nevada had a very unique and distinct genetic signature. So it should be pretty clear if it's a remnant from that population."
It's important to researchers because the nearest population of wolverines is 900 miles away in Central Washington. That means the animal either migrated across an enormous distance or it's part of a small group of native wolverines that somehow evaded detection for the better part of a century.
The third possibility is that it is a fugitive from some captive population of wolverines. All three possibilities on the face of it seem unlikely, Zielinski said.
Although their habitat can stretch 500 square miles, the longest a single wolverine has been documented traveling was 83 miles in Norway, according to researchers.
The North American wolverine is the largest member of the weasel family, with adults weighing as much as 45 pounds. Stocky and muscular, it has a bushy tail and broad head that reminds people of a small bear.
Remarkably strong, with powerful jaws, wolverines have been known to kill much larger prey, but in North America they are mostly scavengers.
Wolverines were once fairly common throughout the northern regions of the United States, but they are now found mainly in the Northern Cascades in Washington, the Northern Rockies in Montana and Idaho, and in Alaska.
5. Google Plan Would Open TV Band for Wireless Use http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/business/media/25google.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1206479909-1Vae1UM9VKEd/EbzdIKTTQ
By BLOOMBERG NEWS
Published: March 25, 2008
Google proposed a plan on Monday that may let wireless Internet devices use vacant television airwaves without interfering with current equipment.
Skip to next paragraph RelatedE-Commerce Report: A New Tool From Google Alarms Sites (March 24, 2008) Times Topics: Google Inc.In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, Google offered suggestions on how the airwaves, known as white spaces, could provide high-speed mobile access to consumers without disrupting televisions and wireless microphones.
Google and Microsoft are part of a group that wants the F.C.C. to unlock the airwaves for unlicensed uses, like mobile Web access, after broadcasters convert to digital signals in 2009. Google said that its proposals could help ensure that consumers anywhere would be able to use devices on those airwaves by late next year.
“Google is a strong believer in the potential of this spectrum to bring Internet access to more Americans,” Richard S. Whitt, a lawyer for the company, based in Mountain View, Calif., said in a conference call. “The spectrum is way too valuable to be wasted.”
Google plans to bolster revenue by creating more Internet services for mobile phones and devices. Portable technology is outselling personal computers, giving the company new spots to place online advertising. Only about 5 percent of the nation’s TV white spaces are being used, Mr. Whitt said.
Last week, Google scored a victory in an F.C.C. auction of airwaves after Verizon Wireless agreed to spend $4.74 billion on spectrum that will be available for any legal device. Bids had to surpass a $4.6 billion threshold to activate the so-called open-access rules on the spectrum. Google had sought the rules to spur the use of new wireless devices.
To protect airwaves used by the military and public safety agencies, Google proposed the use of spectrum-sensing technology, which would free up the airwaves when they are needed by the government. The company also backed ideas submitted by Motorola last year that would protect TV signals and wireless microphones.
In addition to Google and Microsoft, the White Spaces Coalition includes Royal Philips Electronics, Intel and Dell. The proposals announced Monday were developed by Google alone, Mr. Whitt said.
Honorable Mentions:
1. Couple Find Love – in an Elevator!
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/03/25/couple-find-love-in-an-elevator-91466-20669943/
Mar 25 2008 by Katie Norman, South Wales Echo
A COUPLE who met in an elevator have taken their love to a whole new level.
Kirk Bowling first laid eyes on his girlfriend Elizabeth Evans in an elevator at their Cardiff apartment block – and chose the same venue to ask her to marry him.
With the help of concierge Ken Payne, the 24-year-old doctor surprised his trainee solicitor girlfriend by decorating an elevator at The Aspect, in Queen Street, with flowers, candles and chocolates.
He called Elizabeth, 23, telling her he needed help carrying a heavy load out of the lift, when secretly he wanted to propose.
He said: “I filled the lift with roses and her favourite flower, the pink lily.
“While I was waiting for her, the doors opened on the ninth floor and there was a middle-aged couple waiting to get in the lift.
“They just looked at me and saw me holding a massive engagement ring with flowers and chocolates. It was a bit embarrassing.”
When he finally arrived at the tenth floor, where they each have an apartment, Elizabeth was waiting.
He got down on one knee to propose, delivering a memorised speech to declare his love.
He even asked her friends and mum to lie about plans for the weekend to ensure she was free for a surprise break at a Bristol hotel.
The couple first met while on their way to work eight months ago. Kirk, who works at Llandough Hospital, said: “I was in a mad rush and I remember getting into the lift and Liz was there dressed for her work placement.
“She was in a rush as well but we both caught each other’s eye.
“I tried looking for her afterwards but I had nothing to go on apart from the way she looked. She tried looking for me but she didn’t know my name either.
“It was fortuitous that a month later we met again in the lift and started chatting.”
The couple were finally put in permanent contact when a mutual friend joined the social networking website Facebook. They messaged each other for two months before they met up.
Elizabeth is now planning her wedding for next July and showing off her engagement ring to colleagues at law firm Geldards.
She said: “I was kind of expecting a proposal but the way he did it was a surprise.
“I thought it was so sweet and original. I was shaking and crying and everything he said was so sweet.”
2. Welsh Man Wins Lottery, Keeps Job at McDonald's
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89022326&ft=1&f=1004
by Renee Montagne
Morning Edition, March 25, 2008 · At a McDonald's restaurant in Wales, a young burger flipper quit his job after winning $2.5 million in the lottery.
The 25-year-old married his girlfriend in a lavish wedding ceremony and bought an expensive home. But he missed his friends at work and, a year-and-a-half later, went back to flipping burgers for $10 an hour.
His wife supports his decision. She doesn't have to worry about income — her husband makes more on the interest from his lottery winnings each week than he does serving Big Macs.
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