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Updated: 9:42 AM 8/4/2009 Project Kaisei Embarks to Investigate the “Dump”
Sylvia Earle “Explorer-in-Residence”
National Geographic, Mission Programs
“Solving a problem starts with knowing that you have one. Project Kaisei vividly shows how discarded plastics are clogging the ocean, causing a major problem for the planet’s vital “blue heart,” entangling marinelife and insidiously killing as it accumulates in the food chain, from tiny plankton to great whales. Best of all, the mission highlights hope with ideas for positive action.” http://www.projectkaisei.org/
Note: The Project Kaisei team will embark on a multi-week expedition to the “Plastic Vortex” from the West Coast in order to:
– Study and document the marine debris found in this area of the Pacific Ocean;
– Test catch methods for removing the debris;
– Conduct research on the chemical interactions of marine debris in the gyre and select fishes and wildlife related to persistent organic pollutants (POPs);
– Understand the needs required to undertake an eventual large scale clean-up of the waste material;
– Test technologies for conversion into an economically viable by-product: diesel fuel.”
Updated: 4:01 PM 4/26/2009
A giant, almost endless plastic soup extends
a wider distance than the length and breadth
of the United States, right smack in the middle
of the Pacific Ocean.
UPDATE 9:37 AM 8/4/2009 – Scripps Embarks…
Scripps Scientists Aboard Research Vessel to Study Huge Garbage Dump
“From August 2-21, a group of doctoral students and research volunteers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego will embark on an expedition aboard the Scripps research vessel New Horizon to explore the problem of plastic in the North Pacific Gyre.
The Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (SEAPLEX) is the first of its kind and will focus on a suite of critical questions. How much plastic is accumulating, how is it distributed, and how is it affecting ocean life?
The researchers hope to provide critical, timely data to policy makers and combine Scripps’ long tradition of Pacific exploration with focus on a new and pressing environmental problem. ” http://seaplexscience.com
This plastic “continent” stretches a distance wider than the United States and can be 90 deep or greater in places. It’s growing by leaps and bounds due to extensive plastic waste cast off by a “throwaway” mentality of the world’s consumers.
5 Things You Didn’t Know About Garbage
From Askmen.com
There’s a continent of garbage in the Pacific gyre. (Gyre: swirling center region of the ocean’s currents)
There’s garbage all over Mt. Everest – it’s “notoriously filthy.”
Some garbage can live a million years… or more.
Landfills pollute worse than… chernobyl. Then expel vast quantities of toxic gases.
Plasma” can obliterate garbage. (Discovery Link to Plasma Gasification)
See more about Plasma, below.
According to Charles Moore, garbage growth is so extensive that the expansion of this island of trash seems virtually unstoppable, and may eventually, sooner than later, choke off the world’s fish supply.
Currently, over 90% of the world’s larger consumable fish stores are gone, depleted.
In addition, if the destruction of plankton is severe enough, oxygen levels will diminish and the world’s atmosphere is at risk.
There are many foreseen as well as unforeseen repurcussions to the huge accumulations of non-biodegradable waste in the world’s oceans.
Animals are indeed dying in record numbers exceeding hundreds of thousands. Seabirds feed their young colorful plastic bits, and the baby birds die a slow death. Sea mammals perish in netting and plastic coils and strips and die from poisoning as well.
Almost all fish are becoming contaminated with plastic bits and chemicals – even the tiniest fish. As Charles Moore says, “You can buy certified organic produce, but no fishmonger on earth can sell you a certified, organic, wild caught fish.”
The only solution: To stop the plastic at its source. It would be impossible to clean up the ocean. No country or power has the money or wherewithal to remove even a small proportion of plastic trash.
The Mihama-Mikata facility processes 24 tons of municipal sold waste and 4 tons of sewage sludge per day, producing steam and hot water for local use.
The Utashinai plant processes up to 300 tons per day of waste and/or automobile shredder residue.
This facility produces up to 7.9 Megawatts of electricity, of which 3.6 MW are used to run the plasma torches and the plant, and up to 4.3 MW are sent to the electrical power grid.
In Ottawa, Canada, people are evaluating a demonstration facility that is currently processing 94 tons of waste per day, sending 4 MW of power to the grid.”
Note: This technology has been scaled back in the United States by 80%. Why is that? Could it be that it’s not “profitable” enough and the “greed” factor isn’t attractive to investors?
Or, perhaps the technology would impinge upon the profitability of current technologies.
SRI Institute, a respected California Company has been able to reproduce or review successful results repeatedly – over 50 times.
A fusion process similar to that of the sun occurs within a certain metal without dangerous radiation – a nuclear effect that creates heat 25 times the amount of electricity used, 70% of the time, at unpredictable times.
Darpa with the Pentagon has stated that “without a doubt, anomalous excess heat was reproduced in their own experiments.” The Pentagon is funding more experiments in Washington and another research laboratory.
This is extraordinary information.
Below:
Movie about the discreditation of the original Cold Fusion Science. Perhaps there is a case for complete redemption, now.
Quote:
“The original title of this documentary is : “Heavy Watergate : The War Against Cold Fusion”. On March 23rd 1989, two respected chemists makes an announcement that rocks the world of science.
Heavy water, readily available in the oceans, is used in tabletop experiments that yield enormous amounts of heat energy.
Appropriately named “cold fusion”, this purported breakthrough challenges many basic scientific concepts.
In response, the gatekeepers of “official science”, heavily reliant upon government funding for their hot fusion research, level an unprecedented smear campaign against the entire field of cold fusion science.
Was their discovery of “fire from water” too good to be true ?. Or was it the discovery of the millennium?
Filed under: Science, Videos by Comments Off on Cold Fusion Nuclear Effect
“Producer Christian Colson told the Daily Mail last night: ‘We have friends and colleagues in Bombay who are trying to speak with Mr Qureshi to get to the bottom of what happened. Her family is under a lot of pressure.’
He and director Danny Boyle are planning next month to visit the young stars, who were plucked off the street for auditions to star in the film.
Mr Colson added: ‘Danny and I are committed to Rubina and Azharuddin for the long term. We are trying to keep a roof over their heads, and keep them in school until they are 18. The problem is there are a lot of parties who are telling the parents different things.
‘We agreed to buy apartments a couple of months ago but that process stalled because they decided they wanted the money up front instead.
‘In the past few days we have got things back on track, and are now back looking at apartments.’
The film makers have set up a trust to give a lump sum to each child when they are 18.
Properties will also be placed in trust, with ownership released to the parents only when the children turn 18 and have completed their education.”
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A Father and Uncle are Purportedly Attempting to Sell the Child Actress, Rubina for 200,000 pounds. Rubina played a substantial role in the Oscar winning movie, “Slumdog.”
From the Telegraph: “Rafiq Qureshi, who lives in a one of India’s worst slums in the city of Mumbai, reportedly attempted to make an illegal adoption deal for the nine-year-old girl.
“We are considering Rubina’s future,” Mr Qureshi is alleged to have told a man posing as a prospective buyer.
“They’ve been talking about giving us a house, but all they do is talk.”
He referred the caller to his brother-in-law, Rajan More, who said: “Rubina’s life is miserable and she lives here with her stepmother. Most of the time she stays with me because she is not happy at her parents’ home.”
————
Re: Claims that the child is living in abject poverty and was not reimbursed for her acting services.
Could it be that the movie producers of the Oscar winner, “Slumdog,” didn’t pay the child actors in their movie a good, proper and generous fee?
Fortunes were made, and will continue to be made from this movie, much of it due to its poignant and heartrending expose of child exploitation of the worst sort.
Hopefully, the claims of low payment are false. This family was bestowed, whether by luck or intervention, a rare and special opportunity. Living in squalor and poverty afterwards doesn’t fit…
The children were lauded before the creme de la creme of Glittering Hollywood on Oscar Night. Great emotion and gratitude was expressed to the children for their participation. Then, the children return home to deep poverty… this whole story has so many ironies.
The child selling seems a terrible afterthought considering all the tragic precursors of this story. What an enormous tragedy to feel compelled to to sell your child so that he or she would have a better life.
On the other hand, this could just be a story about desperation and greed. Whatever, it is tragic.
Susan Boyle’s performance gives goosebumps every time I listen to it. Can’t remember ever experiencing that before. (So many times in succession)
She has a delightful, "real" personality – seems genuine to the core. So open, refreshing, honest and forthright. She is the quintessential "down to earth" normal citizen who has proven how extraordinary "ordinary" can really be.
They say everyone has been blessed with some extraordinary talent. The lucky ones find out what it is, and then use it.
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One would imagine that Simon Cowell hears the contestants before they go on the show. Even if so, he still does a remarkable job of being "wowed" and creating a climate of anticipation and unexpected climax.
It’s fine showmanship and gives people such as Susan Boyle an opportunity to shine.
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One can’t help noticing how attractive and pretty most newscasters are these days. The television lighting gives their skin a flawless patina, their makeup allows for a mannequin and doll-like facade.
It’s lovely, but surreal. At first it is nice to look at, even measure the length of their eyelashes and idly search for a stray wrinkle or two. They seem quite intelligent and personable for the most part. But, something seems missing, and it grows tiring, requiring a quick channel change.
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Filed under: Links, Music, Videos by Comments Off on Susan Boyle Stuns
“It’s here and it’s definitely deadly. A fungus that’s killing off bats so fast, one expert says some species could be wiped out.
Scientists have tracked White Nose Syndrome for about three years in this part of the country. It’s killed an estimated one million bats, according to the Washington Post.
Now the mysterious fungus is in two Virginia caves, biologists confirmed just last week: the Breathing Cave in Bath County and Clover Hollow in Giles County, hundreds of miles from the other known infected caves.” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30174433/
“We thought we’d have more time to prepare,” said Rick Reynolds, a wildlife biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. “Unfortunately, no one knows what to do about it,” he told the newspaper.”
“If this continues to spread, we are talking about extinctions,” Thomas Kunz, an ecologist and bat expert at Boston University, told the newspaper.
“I’ve studied bats for 44 years. This is unprecedented in my lifetime. It’s not alarmist. These are just the facts.”
No bats or few bats could have a devastating effect on our food supply and you’d be itching and scratching a lot more. Bats eat mosquitos and a lot of the insects.
“What are these insects going to do that aren’t being eaten?” Kunz said. “They can cause serious damage to crops, gardens and forests, further upsetting both the natural and human-altered ecosystems.”
“According to Andrew Madden, the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Western District Manager, the bat mortality rates in the region has reached a ‘catastrophic’ level… Mortality in some caves and mines in Massachusetts may be as high as 95 or 100 percent.
…Bats eat thousands of pounds of agricultural pests and nuisance species like mosquitoes every summer, so there’s no telling how the changes to the bat population could ripple through the ecosystem, not to mention the human food chain.” 04/12/2009 http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_12126510
Feds Warn Cavers to Keep OUT of Caves
CBS Video – Why Are Bats Dying Off
“Basically, they’re starving to death… White Nose Syndrome is only a byproduct. Probably due to bio accumulation of pesticides and climate change. Bats are voracious insect eaters and their loss could be catastrophic for agriculture.”
The Great Bat Die Off – New England East Coastal Regions, Spreading to Other StatesThe little brown bat is a furry little round creature with a tiny upturned nose and a huge penchant for pesty insects. These bats are dying off in increasingly alarming numbers. In a number of caves, they death rate is 100%.
Wildlife biologists are extremely concerned and consider this a major problem.
The culprit has been identified as a white fungus that infests the nose, skin and wings of the bat.
The bats are found flying around in winter rather than hibernating, in extremely poor condition, severely dehydrated and starving.
One little bat was gamely trying to drink from snow to quench thirst. Unfortunately, he will undoubtedly perish as bats cannot survive during the day exposed to cold and light.
Biologists are puzzled as to why the bats are leaving their caves in droves in the daytime, severely malnourished, dehydrated and underweight.
Here are some quotes from Mine Conservation Regarding Bats:
“Bats are primary predators of vast numbers of insects that fly at night, and many such insects rank among North America’s most costly agricultural and forest pests.
These include cucumber, potato, and snout beetles; corn-borer, corn earworm, cutworm, and grain moths; leafhoppers; and mosquitoes.
A single little brown bat can catch more than 1,200 mosquito-sized insects in an hour, and the 25 million Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) that formerly occupied Eagle Creek Cave in Arizona consumed over 250 tons of insects nightly, the majority of which were agricultural pests.
A colony of Mexican free-tailed bats living in the old Orient Mine in Colorado consumes nearly two tons of insects nightly, largely moths.
Just one of the many moths that such bats eat, the corn earworm moth, attacks a wide variety of crops, from corn and cotton to tomatoes and pumpkins.
Since each female moth is capable of laying hundreds of eggs, as few as 100 can force a farmer to spray a large area of crop lands.
Illustrative of the impact that even small colonies of bats can have, just 150 big brown bats can eat sufficient cucumber beetles each summer to protect farmers from 33 million of these beetles’ root worm larvae, pests that cost American farmers an estimated billion dollars annually.
Long-nosed (Leptonycteris curasoae and L. nivalis) and long-tongued bats (Choeronycteris mexicana) are believed to be important pollinators for some 60species of agave plants and to serve as both pollinatorsand seed dispersers for dozens of species of columnar cacti, including organ pipe and saguaro, which rank among the southwestern desert’s most familiar and ecologically important plants.
Loss of these bats could further jeopardize these already declining plants, harming an entire ecosystem.
Bats are primary pollinators and seed dispersers for many of the most ecologically important plants of the desert Southwest. This lesser long-nosed bat is about to pollinate a saguaro cactus.
Mexican free-tailed bats rank among North America’s most valuable wildlife, consuming enormous quantities of insect pests each summer night.”
