Clean Fusion Power This Decade

Finally achieving fusion energy may be closer than everyone thinks. For decades the dream has been to employ the reaction that powers stars to generate high-volume electricity without the drawbacks of fission reactors—no high-level waste, no weapons application, no risk of meltdown, no use of uranium, and (as with fission) no greenhouse gases.

Ed Moses is director of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore Labs. Focussing massive amounts of laser light for a billionth of a second, the NIF is expected to demonstrate ignition of a fusion reaction (more energy out than in) for the first time in the coming year, followed by the prospect of a prototype machine for generating continuous clean energy by the end of this decade. That could change everything. The NIF itself is a spectacular work of “technological sublime.” … – June 2010 longnow.org

Record 45% of Iraq and Afghanistan vets have filed for disability | The Raw Story

According to a new report from the Associated Press, a record 45% of the 1.6 million veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are seeking compensation for service-related injuries.

This is more than double the rate for Gulf War veterans. For all the publicity given to “Gulf War syndrome,” only an estimated 21% of the veterans of that conflict have filed disability claims.

The recent applicants are also citing a much larger number of ailments than veterans of previous wars — an average of eight or nine per person, which has shot up over the past year to 11 to 14. This compares to less than four for Vietnam War veterans who are currently receiving compensation, and just two for veterans of World War II and Korea.

The causes of the increase, and to what extent it simply reflects the poor economy, are not clear. “Government officials and some veterans’ advocates say that veterans who might have been able to work with certain disabilities may be more inclined to seek benefits now because they lost jobs or can’t find any,” the AP explains.

Much of the change, however, is clearly the legitimate result of more soldiers surving life-threatening injuries, along with an increased incidence of concussions and severe hearing loss resulting from IED blasts. …

via Record 45% of Iraq and Afghanistan vets have filed for disability | The Raw Story.

Iranian woman ‘gives birth to frog’

This is a story published in 2004 by the BBC.

An Iranian newspaper has reported the controversial story of a woman who claims to have given birth to a frog. The Iranian daily Etemaad says the creature is believed to have grown from larva to an adult frog inside her body.

While it is unclear how this could have happened, the paper carries quotes from medical experts who say there are human characteristics to the animal.

It has been speculated that the woman, who has not been named, unknowingly picked up the larva while she was swimming in a dirty pool. The woman, from the south-eastern city of Iranshahr, is a mother of two children.

The “so-called frog”, as the newspaper puts it, has yet to undergo precise genetic and anatomic tests.

But it quotes clinical biology expert Dr Aminifard as saying: “The similarities are in appearance, the shape of the fingers and the size and shape of the tongue.”

Medical history recounts stories of people who believed they had frogs – or even lizards or snakes – living and growing in their bodies.

via BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Iranian woman ‘gives birth to frog’.

Looking around, ashleyodell.blogspot.com has the best additional detail I found on this story:

Accompanying the caption “Tests are being carried out on the frog,” the BBC published this photo with its story:

We contacted David Dickey of the American Museum of Natural History, who identified the frog in the photo as a Chinese Gliding Frog, Polypedates dennysi, native to southern China. He noted that it looked like one from the exhibition at the museum.

And that was exactly where the photo was taken.

The photo the BBC used was credited, in the lower right hand corner, to the Associated Press. It was a cropped AP photo taken by Mary Altaffer of a Chinese Gliding frog at the “Frogs: A Chorus of Colors” exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Her photo accompanied the May 25 article “Frog Diversity Museum Exhibit Opens” by Associated Press Writer Deepti Hajela.

Since its initial publication, the BBC has changed the picture accompanying the frog child:

Dickey called the frog child story “the worst, most ridiculous example” of poor journalism he had ever seen. He recommended speaking to the world expert on this particular frog, Kraig Adler, Professor of Biology and Vice Provost for Life Sciences at Cornell University.

Dr. Adler says the frog child story is “biologically impossible.”

Hundreds Die as US-Backed Yemen Offensive Escalates

The fighting in the Abyan Province continues to escalate over the weekend, with Yemen’s military claiming “at least 62 militants” killed on Saturday alone, bringing the week-long toll to several hundred. Everyone slain has been officially labeled “al-Qaeda” by Yemen’s Defense Ministry, though in many cases they have been bombarding densely populated areas.The US has been launching drone strikes against targets in the Abyan Province for months now, and has played a role (exactly how big is a matter of some debate) in helping the new Yemeni regime launch the huge offensive aimed at conquering Abyan, which has been operating as a semi-independent emirate since last June.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta downplayed the seriousness of the situation in the country, however, saying that the US doesn’t need “boots on the ground” in the country and that the constant US air strikes against Yemeni territory are sufficient.

“We’ve been successful,” Panetta said of the air war. No mention was made during the interview of the US boots already on the ground in Yemen, which Pentagon statements have made reference to for months and which were formally confirmed just two weeks ago. …

via Hundreds Die as US-Backed Yemen Offensive Escalates — News from Antiwar.com.

Sound increases the efficiency of boiling

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology achieved a 17-percent increase in boiling efficiency by using an acoustic field to enhance heat transfer. The acoustic field does this by efficiently removing vapor bubbles from the heated surface and suppressing the formation of an insulating vapor film.

As reported in the American Institute of Physics’ (AIP) journal the Physics of Fluids, bubble removal was enhanced because the acoustic field induces capillary waves on the bubble, causing its contact line to contract and detach the bubble from the surface.

The mechanisms associated with these interactions were explored using three acoustic experiments: an air bubble on the underside of a horizontal surface, a single vapor bubble on the top side of a horizontal heated surface, and pool boiling from a horizontal heated surface.

The researchers were able to isolate and identify the dominant forces involved in these acoustically forced motions by measuring the capillary waves induced on the bubbles, bubble motion, and heat transfer during boiling.

via Sound increases the efficiency of boiling.

This is why some people instinctively sing while cooking.

Vets throw war medals back

Nearly 50 U.S. military veterans at an anti-NATO rally in Chicago threw their service medals into the street on Sunday, an action they said symbolized their rejection of the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. …

(Reuters News) “Veterans symbolically discard service medals at anti-NATO rally – Nearly 50 U.S. military veterans at an anti-NATO rally in Chicago threw their service medals into the street on Sunday, an action they said symbolized their rejection of the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. ….

Impacts Spreading Life through the Cosmos?

… What Tetsuya Hara (Kyoto Sangyo University) and colleagues put forth in a recent paper are their calculations about the ejection of life-bearing rocks and water into space from events like the possible ‘dinosaur killer’ asteroid impact some 65 million years ago, which involved an asteroid 10 kilometers in diameter. It’s a remarkable fact that materials can be knocked off one planetary surface and wind up on another, and in some quantity. Consider, for example, the 100 or so meteorites identified by their isotopic composition as being from Mars. They show marked similarity in chemical composition to Viking’s analysis of Martian surface rocks in 1976, and trapped gases in some closely resemble the Martian atmosphere.

So planets in the same system can exchange materials, and of course the Allan Hills meteorite found in Antarctica (ALH 84001), thought to have been ejected from Mars about 16 million years ago, caused quite a stir back in 1996 when scientists thought they had found evidence for microscopic fossils within it, an analysis that remains controversial. But whether or not ALH 84001 contained life, the discovery of various kinds of extremophiles here on Earth and the possibility that they could survive for long periods trapped in rocky debris leads to the idea that one world can seed another, and as we’ve seen in earlier posts on the topic, the idea goes back as far as the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras, with a revival of interest in the 19th Century. …

via Impacts Spreading Life through the Cosmos?.

20,000 bees invade town + Update on Colony Collapse Disorder cause

IT was the day a Hampshire town was invaded – by a massive swarm of 20,000 bees.

Stunned onlookers described how the air turned black over parts of Romsey when the honeybees flew around residential areas on the lookout for a new home.

Even the police were called as the giant swarm moved south where some settled on homes and the corner of a garage in Anderson Road.

Resident Ian Little, of Footner Close, first spotted them as he drove into his road.

He said: “The air was literally black and it wasn’t until I came to a stop that I realised what it was.”

Shocked Mr Little got out of the car and heard an “intense buzz and the slamming of windows”. Volunteer beekeeper Peter Grimes was called out to deal with the bees, estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000 in number. He said they could have come from a hollow tree in woodland, outbuildings or someone’s chimney.

Mr Grimes, a member of the Romsey and District Beekeepers Association, was contacted by police to remove them and he used a protective veil over his face and gloves to move many into a temporary swarm box on the roof. He was watched at a distance by local residents. …

via Swarm of 20,000 bees invade Hampshire town (From Daily Echo).

Bees are making headlines these days, and not in a positive way. Colony collapse disorder has cut through honeybee populations, with some beekeepers reportedly losing up to 90 percent of their stock in recent years. European bee populations are also declining, and so are some species of North American bumblebee. That data is often interpreted to mean that all of the world’s 20,000 bee species are in danger, and that we may be in the midst of a “global pollinator crisis.” …

via Huffpost

An environmental advocacy group released a report Tuesday finding a common pesticide is contributing to the collapse of honeybee colonies. Bee losses have averaged 30 percent annually for the last four years, double what’s normal. …
Scientists believe a combination of factors contributes to Colony Collapse Disorder, including habitat loss, parasites and viruses. But recent studies point to a common group of pesticides called neonicotinoids…

Paul Towers is with the Pesticide Action Network North America. He says current science suggests even low levels of pesticides can cause serious damage to bee colonies:

TOWERS: “While they may not kill the bees outright they suppress or depress their immune system, and make them vulnerable to a whole host of other factors, these other pathogens, the varroa mite, chief among them, and poor nutrition.  It’s this combination of factors that puts the honeybees at greatest risk.”

Studies of corn grown from seeds treated with these pesticides show that the chemical does work its way into the pollen, as well as the soil and nearby untreated plants.

Several European Union countries have already limited use because of the risk to honeybees.  A resolution introduced into the state Assembly asks the California Department of Pesticide Regulation to review the science.

Many California crops rely on bees.  The almond industry alone rents about 1.5 million honeybee colonies each year.  …

via Capradio

Neonicotinoids are a class of neuro-active insecticides chemically related to nicotine. The development of this class of insecticides began with work in the 1980s by Shell and the 1990s by Bayer.^[1] The neonicotinoids were developed in large part because they show reduced toxicity compared to previously used organophosphate and carbamate insecticides. Most neonicotinoids show much lower toxicity in mammals than insects, but some breakdown products are toxic.^[2] Neonicotinoids are the first new class of insecticides introduced in the last 50 years, and the neonicotinoid imidacloprid is currently the most widely used insecticide in the world.^[3] Recently, the use of some members of this class has been restricted in some countries due to evidence of a connection to honey-bee colony collapse disorder.^[4][5]

via Wikipedia

… imidacloprid breaks down rapidly in water in the presence of light (half-life = 1–4 hours) but is persistent in water in the absence of light. It has a water solubility of .61 g/L. which is relatively high.^[15] In the dark, at pH between 5 and 7, it breaks down very slowly, and at pH 9, the half-life is about 1 year. In soil under aerobic conditions, imidacloprid is persistent with half-lives on the order of 1–3 years. …

Imidacloprid is one of the most toxic insecticides to bees. The acute oral LD₅₀ ranges from 0.005 µg a.i./bee to 0.07 µg a.i./bee, which makes imidacloprid more toxic to bees than the organophosphate dimethoate (oral LD₅₀ 0.152 µg/bee) or the pyrethroid cypermethrin (oral LD₅₀ 0.160 µg/bee).^[21] The toxicity of imidacloprid to bees differs from most insecticides in that it is more toxic orally than by contact. The contact acute LD₅₀ is 0.024 µg a.i./bee (micrograms of active ingredient per bee).^[22]

Imidacloprid was first widely used in the United States in 1996 as it replaced 3 broad classes of insecticides. In 2006, U.S. commercial migratory beekeepers reported sharp declines in their honey bee colonies. This has happened in the past, however unlike previous losses, adult bees were abandoning their hives. Scientists named this phenomenon colony collapse disorder (CCD).

via Wikipedia

Neonicotinoids are what’s known as “systemic,” meaning they suffuse and “express” themselves in the whole plant when it germinates, including nectar and pollen. That’s precisely what makes them so effective at attacking pests—and, unfortunately, “nontarget” species like honeybees and other beneficial insects too.A reader recently alerted me to the fact that Bayer isn’t just marketing its product to industrial-scale farmers. It’s also marketing neonics to consumers and landscapers—meaning that they’re much more ubiquitous than even I thought.

Walk into the garden section of any Home Depot or Lowe’s, and you’re likely to find a product called Bayer 2-1 Systemic Rose and Flower Care, which offers broad-spectrum pest control (i.e., it kills a wide range of insects) and synthetic fertilizer in one convenient product. Take a close look at the label (PDF; see page 2), and you’ll find that its one active pesticide ingredient is imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid. “Apply granules to soil around base of plant, sprinkling evenlyin the area under branches,” the instructions state. How does the product work? Bayer provides a helpful explanation right on the label:

This product is absorbed by roots and moves through the entire plant. Even new growth is fed and protected against insects for up to 8 weeks. Rain or watering cannot wash off this internal protection!

That’s great news for your flower garden—and bad news for honeybees and other benign insects that your flowers might be beckoning with pollen and nectar.

via MotherJones

In the past months, three separate studies—two of them just out in the prestigious journal Science—have added to a substantial body of literature linking widespread use of neonicotinoids to CCD. The latest research will renew pressure on the EPA to reconsider its registration of Bayer’s products. The EPA green-lighted Bayer’s products based largely on a study funded by the chemical giant itself—which was later discredited by the EPA’s own scientists, as this leaked memo shows.

When seeds are treated with neonics, the pesticides get absorbed by the plant’s vascular system and then “expressed” in the pollen and nectar, where they attack the nervous systems of insects. Bayer targeted its treatments at the most prolific US crop—corn—and since the late 1990s, corn farmers have been blanketing millions of acres of farmland with neonic-treated seeds.

And it’s not just corn. In addition to the vast corn crop mentioned above, Bayer’s neonics have worked their way into substantial portions of the soy, wheat, cotton, sorghum, and peanut seed markets.

via MotherJones (March2012)

The EPA under Obama may be stronger than it was during the frightening Bush years, at least on some issues. But there’s one mess that started back in 2003 that continues to make the agency look more like an industry protection agency than anything related to the environment.

Grist has the story of a leaked memo that has nothing to do with Wikileaks, and instead has everything to do with the nation’s food supply. The EPA has essentially allowed agrichemical giant Bayer to monitor itself on the safety and use of its own pesticide, clothianidin.

The pesticide has been used widely on corn, the largest crop in the U.S., and Bayer is currently trying to get it registered for use on cotton and mustard seed. Those crops don’t make up the country’s entire food supply, of course, but corn is a huge attraction for bees, which if you haven’t heard by now, are in serious trouble. And because they’re in trouble, so is a lot of the food we eat. … Clothianidin …is of the neonicotinoid family of pesticides. They are designed as systemics, to be taken up by a plant’s vascular system and expressed through pollen, nectar and guttation droplets from which bees then forage and drink …

via HowStuffWorks

Bayer CropScience LP has agreed to pay a $37,790 civil penalty to the U.S. to settle allegations that it failed to adequately implement a risk management program aimed at preventing and responding to chemical accidents and releases at its pesticide-manufacturing facility in Kansas City, Mo.Bayer CropScience LP has also agreed to spend $100,000 on a supplemental environmental project to install a series of air monitors around its facility, located at 8400 Hawthorn Road in Kansas City, Mo., to aid in the detection of any future chemical releases from the plant. The company produces more than 35 million pounds of pesticides at the facility annually.

via AgroPages

Quarterly earnings at Germany’s largest drugmaker Bayer surpassed expectations as strong strong sales of farming pesticides offset margin pressure at its engineering plastics unit. … First-quarter adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) … for the group rose 9.4 percent to 2.44 billion euros ($3.22 billion), above the average estimate of 2.23 billion in a Reuters poll. … Sales at Bayer’s CropScience unit, the world’s second-largest crop chemicals maker after Switzerland’s Syngenta, jumped 15.6 percent.

“The season got off to an early and promising start in the northern hemisphere,” Chief Executive Marijn Dekkers s aid in a statement. The unit generates the bulk of its annual revenues in the first half of the year, when farmers in the northern hemisphere typically spray their fields.

“Very good start into 2012 especially of CropScience. We have to increase our earnings projections,” said DZ Bank analyst Peter Spengler.

via CNBC

Clothianidin was given a ‘conditional registration’ in 2003. EPA is supposed to license (“register”) pesticides only if they meet standards for protection of environment and human health. But pesticide law allows EPA to waive these requirements and grant a “conditional” registration when health and safety data are lacking in the case of a new pesticide, allowing companies to sell the pesticide before EPA gets safety data. The company is supposed to submit the data by the end of the conditional registration period. Conditional registrations account for 2/3 of current pesticide product registrations.

Unfortunately, it is a common practice for the EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs, to afford rapid market access for products that remain in use for many years before they are tested. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, of the 16,000 current product registrations: 11,000 (68%) have been conditionally registered.

“The environment has become the experiment and all of us – not just bees and beekeepers – have become the experimental subjects,” said Tom Theobald, a 35-year beekeeper who began beekeeping after working with IBM. “In an apparent rush to get products to the market, chemicals have been routinely granted “conditional” registrations. Of 94 pesticide active ingredients released since 1997, 70% have been given conditional registrations, with unanswered questions of unknown magnitude. In the case of clothianidin those questions were huge. The EPA’s basic charge is “the prevention of unreasonable risk to man and the environment” and these practices hardly satisfy that obligation. We must do better, there is too much at stake.”

via HuffPost

A pamphlet distributed by the National Union of French Apiculture quoted Albert Einstein. “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live,” Einstein was quoted as saying. “No more bees, no more pollination … no more men!”

via Snopes

“FAO estimates that of the slightly more than 100 crop species that provide 90 percent of food supplies for 146 countries, 71 are bee-pollinated (mainly by wild bees) …”

via FAO

 

Where the world’s ships go to die

The beaches off the Bangladeshi city of Chittagong form one of the world’s largest graveyards for ships.

The government of Bangladesh does not allow filming in these huge ship-breaking yards, so the BBC’s Simon Reeve and his guide Morshed Ali Khan took a boat trip to view one of the most spectacular sights of the Indian Ocean.

Ship-breaking is dirty and dangerous work and scores of workers are believed to be killed here annually, but for the owners of the yards it is a lucrative business. …

via BBC News – Where the world’s ships go to die.

The Probo Koala, now re-named the Gulf Jash, a ship which caused an environmental and human rights disaster in the Ivory Coast in August 2006, has been sold for scrapping on the infamous ship breaking beaches of Chittagong in Bangladesh. Environmental, human rights and labour rights organisations represented by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform fear that the Probo Koala will be allowed to perpetuate its deadly legacy by being broken down in unsafe and environmentally damaging conditions. The NGOs call on the government of Bangladesh to refuse the import of the death ship and say no to illegal toxic waste trade. It is expected that the Probo Koala contains many tonnes of hazardous asbestos, PCBs, toxic paints, fuel and chemical residues. Currently the ship is located in Vietnam.

In 2006, the transnational company Trafigura used the Probo Koala to illegally dump 528 tonnes of toxic waste in Abidjan, the largest city of the Ivory Coast, causing the death of 16 people according to the Ivorian authorities [1]. Global Marketing Systems (GMS), a US company specialised in the brokering of vessels for demolition, confirmed it had bought the ship last week, but had so far not disclosed its final destination [2].  However its website listed that one of the advantages of utilising Bangladesh as a destination for end-of-life vessels is the lack of requirements for testing for gas residues within the ship [3]. These gases might ignite and explode when a shipbreaking worker uses a cutting torch.

“The Probo Koala already is a symbol of an unaccountable and irresponsible shipping industry,” said Bangladeshi lawyer and director of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), Rizwana Hasan. “We demand that this ship and all others like her, carrying toxic substances and intent on exploiting yet again the population and environment in the developing world, be barred from entry into Bangladesh.”

Shipbreaking as is done on the beaches of South Asia is one of the world’s most dangerous and polluting enterprises [4]. The NGO Shipbreaking Platform has, through its member organisation BELA, successfully petitioned in the Bangladeshi courts to stop the import of toxic ships for breaking, and safer methods of breaking ships already exist today. However, due to intense political and economic pressure from the shipbreaking and shipping industry, the court ruling has temporarily been lifted pending further decisions. Unless and until the High Court decision is allowed to stand, toxic ships will continue to pile up on the beaches of Bangladesh where they are broken apart by hand exposing workers to explosions and occupational disease, while contaminating the coastal environment. …

via shipbreakingplatform.org

Bridge over troubled waters leaves its mark on luxury liner in China

The Pearl No.7 – which is as tall as a seven-storey building – sailed straight into disaster as she tried to pass under a bridge.

Luckily no one was hurt, but the boat came out a little shorter than when she went in – losing a chimney in the collision in east China on Wednesday.

Reports said the ship had completed a sea trial only the day before.

The deluxe cruiser is equipped with a shopping mall and entertainment centre for up to 1,000 people.

Pictures also show that the bridge, in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, didn’t escape the collision unscathed – it now has an almost perfect chimney-shaped hole in its side.

Sources said the accident had been caused by ‘miscommunication’ about the vessel’s height.

Before striking the bridge, the ship was being towed to a downtown terminal in preparation for the National Day holiday in October. …

via Bridge over troubled waters leaves its mark on luxury liner in China | Metro.co.uk.