LAMAR, Colo. - National Guard troops headed for snowbound fields in trucks piled high with hay Thursday and prepared their helicopters to resume an emergency haylift that had already dropped more than 900 bales across Colorado's rangeland in an effort to save stranded and starving cattle.
Using smaller helicopters, ranchers landed near frozen streams and used sledgehammers to chop ice from the water for the livestock to drink.
The situation on the snowbound plains is getting dire. Typically, cattle can survive only five to 10 days without food or water in good conditions, state veterinarian John Maulsby said. For the cattle in eastern Colorado and on the Kansas and Nebraska plains, it has now been a week since a blizzard dumped up to 3 feet of snow and whipped up 10-foot-high drifts.
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#1
-- I've been watching the TV news from the affected areas over the internet. Every commentator mentions that the National Guard is restricted in its relief operations by the fact that its heavy-lift choppers are all in Iraq. The choppers in use are not suitable for dropping sufficient hay bales.
-- I wonder how long it will take before the general public figures out that gas stations can pump fuel during power failures if they install emergency generators. This is a no-brainer.
#2
Another thing most people don't know is the National Guard doesn't own the equipment or the weapons. The Department of Defense does. Tell the States to buy their own equipment. What, it's too expensive and anyway Uncle Sam has provided it for so long the Governers think the State owns it? Ask 100 people what the National Guard is for and 90% will tell you it's for helping in State emergencies like tornados, floods, and hurricanes. Wise up. The National Guard exists at the sufference of the Federal Government.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/04/2007 20:17 Comments ||
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#3
I'll have to start sending emails about relative state/federal responsibilities to the TV news editors if I catch statements like that again.
(1) In November, Arkansas' outgoing Gov. Mike Huckabee and his wife, who have been happily married for 32 years, nonetheless set up a wedding registry at two department stores because it was apparently the easiest way for them to receive going-away gifts. Arkansas law prohibits gifts to public officials of more than $100, with a few exceptions, such as wedding gifts.
[Fort Smith Times Record, 11-13-06]
Thanks for all the great governing, Governor Huckabee! Here's a nice pair of oven mitts and a egg timer! Mazel tov!
(2) In October, Judge Robert Armstrong of Riverside, Calif., dismissed an indecent exposure charge against a woman solely because a state statute makes criminal only a person who "lewdly exposes his person, or the private parts thereof," which to Judge Armstrong clearly limited the law to males. (The prosecutor quickly filed an appeal.) [North County Times (Escondido, Calif.), 10-18-06]
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/04/2007 00:00 ||
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A 14-year-old British boy sailed into the record books Wednesday as the youngest person to make a solo voyage across the Atlantic.
Michael Perham, who skipped school to make the 47-day trip, cruised into Nelson's Dockyard in the Caribbean island Antigua at 2 p.m. British time after crossing 3,500 miles (5,600 km) of open water from Gibraltar, followed by his father, Peter. Steel bands greeted the teen, and onlookers waved from atop an old fort as he entered the channel leading to the dockyard.
"The best part of the journey has got to be finishing here. It's fantastic. It's a lovely area, lovely place. Just like to say thanks again to everyone who has supported me for this trip," he said after landing. Perham said his voyage was "great fun" but occasionally lonely. "Sometimes you felt a little bit down when you miss friends and family." he said.
Peter Perham, 47, sailed close by and was in radio contact. But under the rules of solo yachting was not allowed to make physical contact with his son during the voyage. He praised the boy's tenacity and urged other parents to support their children's dreams. "At home in England you can't even climb a tree without a safety certificate ... so I hope it will ignite a little spark in some families' fires," the elder Perham said.
Michael started sailing when he was 7. In a modified 28-foot (8.5-metre) yacht named Cheeky Monkey, he had hoped to complete the trip following the trade winds in about four weeks, but had to divert to Lanzarote and the Cape Verde islands when his navigation equipment failed. The trip was hampered by bad weather and equipment damage, including the rudder on his father Peter's boat and the sea anchor on the Cheeky Monkey.
In his diary blog, Michael, who is described on his www.sailmike.com Web site as cheerful and determined with a love of outdoor sports and chocolate, describes the ups and downs of the epic voyage.
"Experienced my first experience of squalls, they really do knock your teeth out," he wrote on November 25. He described how on December 15 he had to tie a rope around his waist and jump overboard to cut free his steering gear. He expressed joy at seeing dolphins skimming alongside his boat and flying fish landing in his lap. "It is an amazingly good feeling when you are on the open sea and no land in sight," he wrote.
#1
The Fox News article said he had daily e-mail contact with friends to fight loneliness. Is that really possible? Binny could be floating around on his yacht, checking in with Omar and keeping an eye on the WoT from sea!
Australia's devastating drought is far more likely to be part of a natural cycle than a result of the man-made greenhouse effect, an Australian climate scientist said Thursday. Barrie Hunt, a researcher with government science agency CSIRO, dismissed suggestions that global warming, believed to be caused by carbon emissions, is responsible for the "Big Dry" gripping much of south-eastern Australia.
"It is very, very highly likely that what we are seeing at the moment is natural climatic variability," Hunt told the Australian newspaper.
After studying a CSIRO model of Australia's natural climate patterns over the past 10,000 years, Hunt said the current drought, whose severity has led some scientists to label it a once in a millennium event, was by no means unique.
He said historical data -- which used air pressure, temperature, wind and rainfall information -- put current conditions into perspective, revealing 30 periods of drought lasting longer than eight years in the past ten millenia.
"The longest sequence was 14 years in Queensland-New South Wales, 11 in the south-east and 10 in the south-west."
He said that each of those significant dry spells occurred at random times and had an unpredictable duration.
For example, the Queensland-NSW area went 800 years without a drought longer than eight years, "but there is another period of 462 years where you get five of these", he said.
"When people talk about it as a 1,000-year drought, they haven't got the information. They don't understand that according to natural variability we could get another one in 50 years or it might be another 800 years, and there's no way of predicting it," Hunt said.
In a city with an international reputation for rudeness, it is a gesture that any British visitor will find indispensable. You stick out your lower lip, raise your eyebrows and shoulders simultaneously and emit a nonchalant "Bof".
The Gallic Shrug is one of many simple but brutally effective gestures listed in a new travel guide produced by the Paris tourist board.
Aware that it can do very little to change the stereotype of the arrogant Frenchman, it wants to help discerning visitors blend in by using the same body language.
C'est So Paris, produced by the Ile-de-France regional committee of tourism, lists the gestures under the colloquial title "Cop the Parisian Attitude".
They are specially designed for British visitors who have traditionally been made to feel uncomfortable by rude waiters, couldn't-care-less taxi drivers or sulky beauties sitting outside cafés on the Champs-Elysées.
While the Gallic Shrug can be useful in numerous everyday situations from a response to sloppy service to reacting to spurned romantic advances more offensive displays are also graphically illustrated.
They include Le Camembert, which is used to tell somebody to shut up. You hold your hand in front of you in the shape of an L, and then slowly bring thumbs and forefingers together, as if gently clasping a small slice of soft cheese. A blank face signifying vast indifference completes this traditional French pose.
"It's a rude way of telling someone to shut their mouth; not to be used in polite company," said a tourism committee spokesman.
Just as offensive is Les Boules, or The Balls. "It's a vulgar way of saying that you're unlucky, you're upset or you can't take any more," said the spokesman.
The gesture involves "holding an imaginary set of tennis balls one in each hand" in front of your chest and twisting your face into a look of utter frustration.
Another traditional favourite is La Moue, or The Pout. It has been widely employed by French icons throughout the ages especially female ones, from Napoleon's empress Joséphine de Beauharnais to the actress Brigitte Bardot.
"It's the classic way to convey just about any negative emotion, including discontent, disdain and disgust," said the spokesman. The guide advises Britons to "start by looking bored", then "pucker your lips" before "shaking your head slowly for more impact".
Another useful expression is "Répète". It involves cupping your hand over your ear, so feigning deafness. The guide adds usefully: "Scowl at the same time to express displeasure." But if you're so fed up you want to make a rapid exit, hold a hand out vertically, move it up and down and tap the top of your wrist with your other hand. Your companions will get the message.
The guide says: "You don't need to be French to understand Parisians. Use the gestures the next time you're in Paris. People will start mistaking you for a native in no time." The article includes a helpful graphic.
#4
The left out the olfactory component of French nonverbal communication.
Right. And all americans are fat, their soldiers can't fight and have to hide behind technology, they're stoopid and uneducated, it's a country without culture, they're owned by the jooooos, etc, etc...
I'm such an idiot. I go to rightwing blogs and all, read the comments (see above, and more), and think "these guys don't know what they talk about", and then I come back here, and I think I'd better use my internet time to look for god interracial porn.
#6
I agree that the knee-jerk bloviation is boring.
What I found interesting about the article was the fact that the Paris tourist board is spending a great deal of money promoting French stereotypes in the hope that, by reminding Brits and Americans of past experiences in the City of Lights, that foreign visitors might cough up more dough for a repeat performance.
I've not been to France, but I am not unaware of the many contributions that the French have given to the world, and I am cognizant of the many examples of French courage and honor earned on battlefields in the not-so-distant past - Dien Bien Phu and Verdun being just a small sample.
But one of the difficulties afflicting US-French relations in the 21st century is the lack of English-language portals hosted by any of the main French dailies. One can surmise the reason(s) for such a deficit, but there can be little doubt that the isolation of French political and cultural discourse from the Anglo-phone world is not to the West's benefit. We are talking past one another, comfortable with our prejudices, because engagement and debate on subjects involving the life of death or Civilization is just too difficult, painful, or expensive to broach and recourse to the NYT's-owned IHT doesn't cut it.
Perhaps non-francophone readers like myself aren't missing much when it comes to the op-ed pages of Figaro or Le Monde , but sooner or later one of those rags will have to make the effort.
#10
"To offend the French, fondle a slice of cheese"
Hell, to offend the Phrench, just be American.
Quite pleasurable, too. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/04/2007 19:35 Comments ||
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#11
Thanks, DMFD. That's better than a "Gallic Shrug", no? :)
An English-language news portal is a necessity if a publication desires to punch above its native online weight. People interested in things Norsky can check Aftenposten. Access to German political news and events can be had via DW or Spiegel Online, and the Danes and Finns have, respectively, timely EL articles posted at J-P and H-S.
Oslo and Helsinki are just a click away. For English-only readers, Paris is not so close.
I strongly believe that the lack of comprehensive EL news portals hosted by the major French dailies is having a noticeable impact on the effectiveness of French foreign and domestic policies. That may be a good thing for US and UK policy makers in the short-run, but if the increasingly influential Anglo-phone blogosphere doesn't have access to French cultural and political discourse, then the only voices heard discussing French concerns will be from US-UK government/media sources. And I think that will lead to long-term trouble.
#13
"English-language portal" > myself and other Netters had been saying that for yarns now, but for naught. Americans still get ENGLISH/BRIT-CENTRIC, FRENCH-LANGUAGE Channels + Giant Brit Breasts from BBS America, etal. HHHHHHHMMMMM, HHHMMMMMMMMM, CHEESE vs. BIG BREASTS - "tis a mighty quagmire/quandry to choose from. OBVIOUSLY THE CHEESE HAVE BEEN VICTORIOUS.
MULTAN: Armed men cut off the ears and nose of a man who married a woman from their tribe against their will, after he and his family refused to hand her over, police said on Wednesday. The attackers also chopped off the ears of the mans brother, while severing his mothers hand in the latest reported honour crime in the countrys conservative rural areas.
Mohammad Iqbals wife, Shehnaz, was not at home when about 15-armed members of her clan carried out the attack in Multan on Tuesday, demanding that she be returned to them. The assailants, who were armed with small arms, daggers and axes, tortured Iqbal and cut off his ears and nose when he refused to produce Shenhaz, Naeem-ul-Hassan, a deputy superintendent of police, told Reuters, adding that five suspects had so far been arrested.
They dragged us on the floor and thrashed us before cutting our limbs, Mohammad Yasin, Iqbals brother, told Reuters from Nishtar hospital, where he was being treated along with his brother and mother. Shehnaz married Iqbal out of choice last year and the couple left Multan along with Iqbals family apparently for fear of reprisals from Shehnazs relatives. The family returned to Multan recently to celebrate Eidul Azha.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/04/2007 00:00 ||
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#2
"Armed men cut off the ears and nose of a man who married a woman from their tribe against their will, after he and his family refused to hand her over, police said on Wednesday. The attackers also chopped off the ears of the mans brother, while severing his mothers hand"
And they got their Reg Grundies in a knot when Saddam went bungee jumping.
#5
Good point, JosephM -- the parasite that gives women round heels and turns men into alley cats, surly and stupid. So perhaps if we give the entire population a large spoonful of worming medication, they'll suddenly become sane... until reinfested, anyway.
A couple were burnt alive in a village in front of their children, a good 10 years after their marriage, police said on Wednesday. The attack on Zahoor Ahmed and his wife Naseem took place in front of their four children in Chak Saboo village on Tuesday, on charges that Ahmed had allegedly kidnapped Naseem 10 years ago to marry her, police said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/04/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Note that Karachi is in Pakistan. I'll bet this wasn't a Hindu thing.
#2
Interesting that they burned alive the "kidnapper" and the "kidnapped". It doesn't say but I'd bet she was raped first because she lived in dishonor with her kidnapper for a decade raising a family and all. At least that is how it usually happens in the world of Islamic-influenced tribal justice.
MULTAN: A young boy who tried to copy hanging scenes from the execution video of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein died in Rahim Yar Khan, said police on Monday. Mubashar Ali (9) hanged himself, while re-enacting Husseins hanging with his 10-year-old sisters help, after tying a rope to a ceiling fan and his neck in his home, according to a local police official. Did a pretty good imitation, didn't he?
Posted by: Fred ||
01/04/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Apparently Iraqis haven't got to the point where they put a "Do not try this at home!" message on everything.
Kid was watching television with an uncle and saw bits of that video. Later they found him hanged. Another uncle sez it's all the TV's fault for showing Saddam with a noose around his neck. Why do they even have to show that? If he's that indignant, he'd be better off asking the other uncle why he allowed the kids to see it.
Bonus quotes from some distant psychologist who knows only what he was told when the reporter called for quotes.
#4
as I commented the other day on this. Why is a young child even able to watch this.
Yeah, blame the TV not the uncle who allowed him to watch. Just like blaming the gun instead of the shooter.
Posted by: Jan ||
01/04/2007 22:09 Comments ||
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With South Korea's birth rate at its lowest ever, medical students are resorting to robots to practice bringing babies into the world.
Kyunghee University Medical Center in Seoul is the first institution in South Korea to use Noelle, a life-sized robot, and her "newborn" to give obstetric students experience.
"With this simulator training tool, we can conduct not only normal deliveries, but also complicated deliveries such as breech births, Caesarean deliveries," Professor Jung Eui told Reuters Television. "Students can practice in a very realistic situation with this mannequin."
Students regularly crowd around Noelle as she gives "birth." They take turns at monitoring her vital signs and at pulling the "baby" out of her body... (insert joke here)
A German archaeologist says he has found relics of "humanity's first war" in the northeast of Syria in the form of clay balls used as ammunition almost 6,000 years ago, Die Zeit weekly said in its edition due for publication on Thursday.
"We have there the oldest example of an offensive war," said Clemens Reichel, who is leading an archaeological dig in the ancient city of Hamoukar, on the border with Iraq, for the University of Chicago.
Reichel said that the city, whose fortifications were three metres (10 feet) thick, was besieged and reduced to ashes probably by attackers from southern Mesopotamia.
"It was not a little skirmish which took place here," said Reichel, who has been leading the dig since 2003. He spoke of a real "combat zone", to which the some 2,300 balls of clay discovered at the main part of the site bear witness.
#2
This is why I always roll my eyes at the "Visualize World Peace" and "War Never Solved Anything" crowd; human beings have been at this war thing for a very, very long time, and we've learned that it does, indeed, solve many problems. As witness the remains of that besieged city...
Posted by: Jonathan ||
01/04/2007 9:49 Comments ||
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" to which the some 2,300 balls of clay discovered at the main part of the site bear witness."
#5
I dunno. They COULD be sling ammunition, and it's certain there was much more violence in prehistory than in civilized era, but there's another explanation for clay balls.
Cooking.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
01/04/2007 10:02 Comments ||
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#6
There had to have been war way before this to have given somebody the idea of building a wall around the city in the first place.
"First War" my ass...
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
01/04/2007 10:27 Comments ||
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#7
Damn good catch, LotR. It was a fortified city and it was the "first"?
It wasn't even the second; the attackers knew how to take on the fortifications.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
01/04/2007 10:57 Comments ||
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#8
War is muuuch older than 6,000 years old. In fact scientists have obeserved tribes of chimpanzes attacking and wiping out smaller tribes.
Humans and their forebears have been waging war on one another since before the first ape-like ancestor stood upright. Somewhere around 50-100 thousand years ago the Cro Magnons and Neandethals probably warred on each other with the end result being that the Neanderthals were wiped out (this is in contention in some circles).
Before that, as was pointed out in an earlier post, chimpanzees were warring on other tribes.
There's a pretty good book called "The Demon Male" (I forget the author) that goes into detail regarding our misperception of "peaceful" chimps and apes, looks at some of the outright fabrications wrought by anthropologists and apologists through the centuries regarding how bad humans, and particularly human males, are, and beats the liberal notion of "peaceful primitive societies" about the head and shoulders with a #2 cluebat.
Humans and our forebears are and always have been a predatory, competitive species. Our rise to dominance on this planet has been won by a lot of hard infighting amongst ourselves.
#11
Mojo wrote: "Try 35-40 thousand, when the Neanderthals mysteriously died out."
I blame Bushitler, and his illegal war for oil. You see, the Neanderthals were located in lots of places where oil would be discovered a mere 40,000 years later. It's all about Halliburton and Dick Cheney's greedy friends. Won't you people open yours eyes and see what's going on?
Posted by: Tibor ||
01/04/2007 11:37 Comments ||
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#12
6000 years? Not even close, sweetie. Try 35-40 thousand, when the Neanderthals mysteriously died out.
Try at least 3 or 4 million years. If chimpanzes do war you can bet as even the most primitive representatives of the Homo did it too, perhaps even australopithecus did it too.
#14
Actually, there's a good theory that the Neanderthals died out because of a small chunk of bone in their nose. Really.
This lump of bone protruded into their sinus cavity and brought more blood capillaries to the surface to warm air as it was being inhaled. This would be a big advantage during an ice age, as it would protect your trachea and lungs from cold air.
However, when the ice age was over, and things got warm and humid, these same lumps of bone would almost guarantee perpetual sinusitis and sinus infection.
And if you've ever had a months-long sinus infection, you know it can suck the life out of you.
In any event, sinusitis might have wiped out the Neanderthal.
#16
I thought it was the extra bone in the ankle of the Sapiens that gave them the extra bounce needed to score goal after goal against the largely land locked mouth breathers.
#17
Big deal, we had mud pie fights all the time....i am guessing that archeologists will find evidence of these skirmishes in the future some time and marvel at the shape and hardness of our well manufactured mud pies.
#3
This is certainly a plausible theory. But there are lots of plausible theories.
One that I keep seeing which makes a lot of sense is that mass extinctions can occur when an era's environment and its plants and animals have been around and relatively stable for so long that viruses and prions get the upper hand.
We've all heard about the "dinosaur killer" that hit the Earth in present day Mexico that supposedly wiped out the Cretaceous flora and fauna. A very sexy concept, no doubt. But what is less publicized is that the dinosaurs were on the ropes already by that time.
Careful analysis of fossils indicates that the number of species was already dwindling to near nothing. Something had decimated the dinosaurs before the impact, which really was nothing more than a final push off of a cliff.
Could widespread success of microbes have done this? Again, very plausible, and until now absolutely unprovable. Recently, though, paleontologists have found dinosaur soft tissue preserved in some fossils that may contain enough DNA for analysis.
It may be difficult if not impossible to prove, but if it is the case, it certainly has implications for our own era, at some point.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
01/04/2007 7:01 Comments ||
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Posted by: Mike ||
01/04/2007 10:02 Comments ||
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#5
I can accept a spectrum of theories causing both gradual and punctuated changes that result in die offs.
Other than those mentioned, there is the "toxic geology" theory, that underneath the ground there are several different things that might suddenly release vast amount of poisons into the atmosphere and water.
This includes massive underwater methane ice deposits that warm to a critical mass then blast vast amounts of methane gas all at once. Undersea volcanic calderas that acidify entire seas with sulfuric acid. Gigantic volcanic eruptions, etc.
Even good old petroleum may be more a product of geology than decay, and in past might have erupted in a giant sea of burning crude.
#6
This does not seem very plausible to me considering the world is 6000 years old. And the Flood would hardly have any effect on these plankton things.
#7
Oh yeah, I forgot. We can just blame it on God, reduce it to some voodoo like cult belief and suppress any and all questions by saying you need to have faith. Move along now, nothing here to see.
#8
There is an article in the Oct '06 Scientific American that describes the process.
The thing is the process makes good biological sense and seems very plausible. I've even seen it first hand in aquariums (though not exact same trigger, but a disruption of the system in some way).
In a nutshell:
1) Period of high vulcanic activities raises atomospheric CO2 and Methane
2) A greenhouse process starts to raise ocean temps
3) Warmer water dissolves far less oxygen
4) This starts to raise the chemocline, the boundary between anoxic water and oxygenated water. Usually this is a stable layer, but the rising temps allow less oxygen so the boundary moves closer to the surface
5) Anaerobes start claming the new teritory that is now condusive to their growth. The Hydrogen sulfide levels begin to go up. This cycle is self-accelerating because die off because of the H2S only provides more nutrients for the anaerobes to grow faster and produce more H2S
6) Chemocline layer reaches close to surface of oceans and H2S begins to bleed heavily into atmosphere (whilst killing much in the oceans)
7) H2S in atmosphere begins decimating land based life.
8) As concentration of H2S rise in atomosphere, it begins to attack ozone
9) UV starts to take toll / combined with the H2S it is a nasty one-two punch
Now, from owning several large (180g - 700+ g) saltwater aquarims, I can say for certain that a warm tank and H2S are a major danger, as it will decimate a tank with only a little release. And I mean decimate.
Disturbing Anoxic regions of your sand (and releasing H2S) will decimate everything. What does survive, if anything, won't last long.
Nutrient levels start to increase geometric and the algeas at surface start to go nuts (but only for a little bit), starving off even more oxygen.
What's worse, you tend to get bacterial blooms with even further consumption of oxygen. This allows the boundary to rise all the way to surface. Algaes will die off as soon as the H2S starts to reach them. The aerobic bacteria are gone, the algae are gone, the anerobes eat what remains from die off. Once they've consumed what's there, most die off, until you are left with only a few anaerobes and a barren waste land.
I've seen this run-away in a few hours killing everything from a small release (note, in aquriums, the algae usually don't have time to do much, because the depth of most tanks allows the H2S to spread up water colmun very quickly).
However in oceans, the algaes would take off for a while on the surface allowing even less to dissolve in the water (surface agitation allows the oxygen to dissolve, a bloom of algae prevents completely). The bacteria begin doing their thing, and well, it is all over in a very short time, be it oceans or a tank.
The key in this (from Earth's view) is throwing the balance of Chemocline off, so that it moves closer and closer to the surface. Once past threshold, it is all over.
That's the key to theroy, everything is great until temps rise causing far less oxygen to dissolve and 'artificially' allowing the boundary to move past threshold, triggering a cascade that is so fast most things cannot react (nor could they as to most H2S is killer) - essentially it removes the gas exchange from the system and suffocates.
Also, emperically, you have a choice with your closed water systems. Run them warmer for increased metabolism and activity (say growth in fish and corals) or run them cooler with less metabolism but more oxygen. Most of us running salt water tanks involving coral will run 2 - 4 degrees cooler than their natural environment.
This is because although very stable for the most part, once something goes out of whack in a minor way, running it cooler can give you time to adjust and react before a cascade.
Now, I am not saying this happened in the past, but the theory makes good sense from my Biochem side and Emperical evidence from running salt water systems.
Highly diverse mixtures of native prairie plant species have emerged as a leader in the quest to identify the best source of biomass for producing sustainable, bio-based fuel to replace petroleum. A new study led by David Tilman, Regents Professor of Ecology in the University of Minnesota's College of Biological Sciences, shows that mixtures of native perennial grasses and other flowering plants provide more usable energy per acre than corn grain ethanol or soybean biodiesel and are far better for the environment.
"Biofuels made from high-diversity mixtures of prairie plants can reduce global warming by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Even when grown on infertile soils, they can provide a substantial portion of global energy needs, and leave fertile land for food production," Tilman said.
The findings are published in the Dec. 8 issue of the journal Science and featured on the cover.
Based on 10 years of research at Cedar Creek Natural History Area, the study shows that degraded agricultural land planted with highly diverse mixtures of prairie grasses and other flowering plants produces 238 percent more bioenergy on average, than the same land planted with various single prairie plant species, including monocultures of switchgrass.
Tilman and two colleagues, postdoctoral researcher Jason Hill and research associate Clarence Lehman, estimate that fuel made from this prairie biomass would yield 51 percent more energy per acre than ethanol from corn grown on fertile land. This is because perennial prairie plants require little energy to grow and because all parts of the plant above ground are usable.
Fuels made from prairie biomass are "carbon negative," which means that producing and using them actually reduces the amount of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) in the atmosphere. This is because prairie plants store more carbon in their roots and soil than is released by the fossil fuels needed to grow and convert them into biofuels. Using prairie biomass to make fuel would lead to the long-term removal and storage of from 1.2 to 1.8 U.S. tons of carbon dioxide per acre per year. This net removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide could continue for about 100 years, the researchers estimate.
In contrast, corn ethanol and soybean biodiesel are "carbon positive," meaning they add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, although less than fossil fuels.
Switchgrass, which is being developed as a perennial bioenergy crop, was one of 16 species in the study. When grown by itself in poor soil, it did not perform better than other single species and gave less than a third of the bioenergy of high-diversity plots.
"Switchgrass is very productive when it's grown like corn in fertile soil with lots of fertilizer, pesticide and energy inputs, but this approach doesn't yield as much energy gain as mixed species in poor soil, nor does it have the same environmental benefits," said Hill.
To date, all biofuels, including cutting-edge nonfood energy crops such as switchgrass, elephant grass, hybrid poplar and hybrid willow, have been produced as monocultures grown primarily in fertile soils.
The researchers estimate that growing mixed prairie grasses on all of the world's degraded land could produce enough bioenergy to replace 13 percent of global petroleum consumption and 19 percent of global electricity consumption.
The practice of using degraded land to grow mixed prairie grasses for biofuels could provide stable production of energy and have additional benefits, such as renewed soil fertility, cleaner ground and surface waters, preservation of wildlife habitats, and recreational opportunities.
There are 30 million acres of grasslands in the U.S. Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which pays farmers to manage land to benefit the environment. Current CRP regulations do not allow prairie grasses grown on this land to be used for renewable energy, but the U.S. Farm Bill could be revised to accommodate this practice, Tilman added. Doing so would have important economic, environmental and energy security benefits.
"It is time to take biofuels seriously," Tilman said. "We need to accelerate our work on biomass production and its conversion into useful energy sources. Ultimately, this means we need to start paying farmers for all the services they provide society -- for biofuels and for the removal and storage of carbon dioxide."
Scientists from Whitehead Institute and MIT have engineered yeast that can improve the speed and efficiency of ethanol production, a key component to making biofuels a significant part of the U.S. energy supply. Currently used as a fuel additive to improve gasoline combustibility, ethanol is often touted as a potential solution to the growing oil-driven energy crisis.
There are significant obstacles to producing ethanol. One is that high ethanol levels are toxic to the yeast that ferments corn and other plant material into ethanol.
By manipulating the yeast genome, the researchers have engineered a new strain of yeast that can tolerate elevated levels of both ethanol and glucose, while producing ethanol faster than un-engineered yeast.
The work will be reported in the Dec. 8 issue of Science.
Fuels such as E85, which is 85 percent ethanol, are becoming common in states where corn is plentiful; however, their use is mainly confined to the Midwest because corn supplies are limited and ethanol production technology is not yet efficient enough.
Boosting efficiency has been an elusive goal, but the researchers, led by Hal Alper, a postdoctoral associate in the laboratories of MIT chemical engineering professor Gregory Stephanopoulos and Whitehead Member Gerald Fink, took a new approach.
The team targeted two proteins that belong to a class of proteins called transcription factors. These proteins typically control large groups of genes, regulating when these genes are turned on or shut off.
When the researchers altered a transcription factor called the TATA-binding protein, it caused the over-expression of at least a dozen genes, all of which were found to be necessary to elicit an improved ethanol tolerance. As a result, that strain of yeast was able to survive high ethanol concentrations.
In addition, this altered strain produced 50 percent more ethanol during a 21-hour period than normal yeast.
The prospect of using this approach to engineer similar tolerance traits in industrial yeast could dramatically impact industrial ethanol production, a multi-step process in which yeast plays a crucial role. First, cornstarch or another polymer of glucose is broken down into single sugar (glucose) molecules by enzymes, then yeast ferments the glucose into ethanol and carbon dioxide.
Last year, four billion gallons of ethanol were produced from 1.43 billion bushels of corn grain (including kernels, stalks, leaves, cobs, husks) in the United States, according to the Department of Energy. In comparison, the United States consumed about 140 billion gallons of gasoline.
#2
> By manipulating the yeast genome, the researchers have engineered a new strain of yeast that can tolerate elevated levels of both ethanol and glucose
They just gene sequenced everyone that could survive 10 red-bull and vodkas.
#5
When the researchers altered a transcription factor called the TATA-binding protein, it caused the over-expression of at least a dozen genes, all of which were found to be necessary to elicit an improved ethanol tolerance. As a result, that strain of yeast was able to survive high ethanol concentrations.
I've overexpressed in my genes when I had a low tolerance too.
...then yeast ferments the glucose into ethanol and carbon dioxide.
#7
"...then yeast ferments the glucose into ethanol and carbon dioxide."
This bit simply isn't true. As any homebrewer worth his malt could tell you, yeast at first RESPIRES producing water and carbon dioxide until all the oxygen in the fermentation vessel is used up. Only then does it start FERMENTATION (an anaerobic process) which results in water and alcohol. Any fizzy beverage is one which has a small amount of oxygen and sugar added during a later stage to produce a small bit of respiration (and carbon dioxide), or is pressure carbonated.
The good news in the article is the strain of yeast which ferments to a higher level of alcohol before it shuts down. Most beer yeasts quit at 6-8%, better wine yeasts at 14-16%. If you could even increase this to 25%, that's a significant increase in productivity.
I wonder if the bourbon industry know about this......
Posted by: no mo uro ||
01/04/2007 6:47 Comments ||
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#9
This doesn't make sense. Why use yeast, that requires sugars, to produce ethanol, instead of algae, that only needs sunlight, and consumes CO2, to make biodiesel and ethanol?
http://web.mit.edu/erc/spotlights/alg-all.html
"For the past year, exhaust from MITs main power plant has been bubbling up through tubes of algae soup. The result? A dramatic cut in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissionsand abundant algae that can be turned into biofuel for the power plant or a diesel vehicle. Utility companies have been watching field trials of the algae-soup system with keen interest, hoping to combine low-cost exhaust cleanup with renewable-fuel production."
My point is, while yeast can give you more ethanol, and faster, it does so at much greater cost, and creates considerable waste.
If you have an economic need for a yeast ethanol generator, then it should at least be in tandem with an algae bio-diesel generator, that also makes some ethanol as a bi-product.
On the grand scale, we have already mastered the automobile diesel engine. It is an efficient engine and takes little re-tooling for an automobile plant to convert from gasoline engines to diesel engines.
However, ethanol has only half the energy of gasoline, we don't have a very good engine for it yet, and it may need so rather nasty fuel additives to make it work well.
#12
Around 3 times the weight of CO2 is produced by burning any hydrocarbon.
Posted by: ed ||
01/04/2007 13:46 Comments ||
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#13
Ethanol is viable because of government subsidies. It's useful as an oxygenator, but as has low energy density and requires too much energy inputs to produce just to burn in internal combustion engines. Alcohol (methanol) will be useful when fuel cells are in wide use.
Posted by: ed ||
01/04/2007 13:54 Comments ||
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#14
Ed, that's about what I thought although I figured it was 2.66 based on the atomic weights of C & O. 1 C from the fuel, two O from the air.
BUT, the claim was 9+ tons of CO2. Using your figure of 3x that means that you would have to burn at least 3 tons of fuel. Which at 20 mpg means that you would drive ~50k mpy.
This really does reek of Lancet math, since I didn't even take into account the fact that not all C in the fuel turns into C02.
#15
Burning a liquid hydrocarbon produces about 8 times the mass of the hydrocarbon in H2O and CO2.
Since H2O and CO2 are both greenhouse gases, it looks like some scientifically ignorant greenie (is there any other kind) has replaced 'x tonnes of greenhouse gases' with 'x tonnes of CO2'.
Oklahoma and Colorado call it the Make My Day law. Florida calls its version Stand Your Ground.
But Delegate Bill Janis (R-Goochland) hopes that after the legislative session convening Jan. 10 Virginians will have a Castle Doctrine statute to call their own.
Hes proposing a bill that would protect people from being sued if, out of self-defense, they kill or injure someone who breaks into their home.
When someone breaks into your home, they violate something pretty sacred, Janis says, which is the sanctity of the home. He says peoples homes are their castles, something they have a right to protect.
Virginias courts have traditionally given some leeway to people who harm others while trying to defend themselves, but its not the legal guarantee of a state statute.
Without a rule on the books, intruders who are injured in such confrontations can sue in civil court for personal injury, malicious wounding or even wrongful death cases Janis sees as revictimizing the person whose home was intruded into.
The legislature has said no to similar proposals in recent years. But in the fall Janis decided hed try to reintroduce such legislation after one of his close friends sisters returned to her North Side home after a party to find a stranger in her kitchen. They fought near the front door, but the man escaped. He was eventually caught and indicted of several similar crimes. Although the woman didnt injure the intruder, Janis says he wants to protect her right to defend herself.
Other legislators dont think such issues are up to them.
What if a homeless person comes in your basement? Are you going to shoot him? asks Delegate Jennifer McClellan (D-Henrico), who voted against identical legislation last year.
If someone kills somebody, they couldnt be sued, McClellan says. If a person should not be held liable, then they wont win the case. Thats something a jury should decide, not the General Assembly.
Results in other states seem to be mixed. Supporters in Oklahoma credit their Make My Day with a drop in home invasions. But critics point to cases such as one in Colorado, in which a man shot his neighbors barking dog with a pellet gun. In response, the dogs owner used a club to break out the glass in his neighbors front door. The man who shot the dog then killed the dogs owner with a shotgun. Colorados Make My Day law shields him from prosecution in his neighbors death. Gee, I guess I'd better ask Rantburgers. If some homeless guy broke into your basement, would you shoot him?
#1
What if a homeless person comes in your basement? Are you going to shoot him? asks Delegate Jennifer McClellan (D-Henrico), who voted against identical legislation last year.
#2
If the prosecutor did not bring criminal charges against the homeowner, there shouldn't be any civil suits relating to the case either. McClellan carps about homeless people. Well - how about they make an exception in the bill for unarmed intruders? Would she now support the amended bill? I suspect not.
If when I say, "stop or I'll shoot! Hands up!!", he stops and gets his mitts in the air, then no, I won't shoot him.
If however he continues on and poses any semblance of a threat whatsoever to me or my family, well then he's made his decision, and I'll make mine. Quickly.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/04/2007 14:12 Comments ||
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#4
It would depend on the person. If he left quietly no, if there were some argument/discussion he would finish the conversation with Saint Peter.
#10
That's the kind of response expected from a liberal Dummocrat. Homeless, mebbe not. Most homeless don't break in, just accost you on the street for handouts. What if someone broke in with the intent to rob you, then dispose of your carcass so you couldn't testify ? Would you offer him a muffin fresh out of the oven, or would you pull the trigger ?
#11
Wonder if some wit will pass out the delegate's address to the homeless in the area, and see if visitors change her mind....
Of course, a "homeless person" is unlikely to be anywhere near where she lives. They mostly hang around downtown Richmond.
It's true that most prosecutors in Virginia won't bring criminal charges for defending your home, but there are always a few ultra-liberals in Northern Virginia and Charlottesville. And if you just wound somebody, you can be sure he'll get a shyster lawyer who claims he was just climbing through your bedroom window at 3 am to ask which way to choir practice. Janis has the right idea.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/04/2007 17:49 Comments ||
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#12
This seems to be just common sense based upon the private property rules on the books back in 1787 or so. But, then, I'm not an enlightened "progressive", so I guess a law may be needed.
And, on the homeless person intruder front...I have NEVER heard of that happening, even in urban areas, much less out in the burbs, where this is more likely to do good. After the rash of "He wounded me after I broke in to his home" civil suits, this should be a FEDERAL (applies to ALL states) issue.
Posted by: BA ||
01/04/2007 18:08 Comments ||
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#13
LOL, that was either purdy damn funny or just plain crazy WXJ.
#14
So a guy breaks into my home. I'll know he's just some "homeless" slob because he'll be wearing a sandwich board sign that reads: "I'm just a homeless guy intruding into your castle and I'm not here to rob, rape, or pillage."
Believing this to be the truth, I hold him at gun point and call the police. When the cops arrive, I ask them to deliver this poor man to Jennifer McClellan's home and stick him through her basement window. That should "make her day" because she always welcomes uninvited strangers into her home.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(1) In November, Arkansas' outgoing Gov. Mike Huckabee and his wife, who have been happily married for 32 years, nonetheless set up a wedding registry at two department stores because it was apparently the easiest way for them to receive going-away gifts. Arkansas law prohibits gifts to public officials of more than $100, with a few exceptions, such as wedding gifts.
MULTAN: Armed men cut off the ears and nose of a man who married a woman from their tribe against their will, after he and his family refused to hand her over, police said on Wednesday. The attackers also chopped off the ears of the mans brother, while severing his mothers hand in the latest reported honour crime in the countrys conservative rural areas. 
MULTAN: A young boy who tried to copy hanging scenes from the execution video of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein died in Rahim Yar Khan, said police on Monday. Mubashar Ali (9) hanged himself, while re-enacting Husseins hanging with his 10-year-old sisters help, after tying a rope to a ceiling fan and his neck in his home, according to a local police official.
