Morning Papers - continued...

Zoos

Critter Cam

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2007/10/26/VI2007102600925.html?hpid=artslot


Zoo
Kris Larson October 29th, 2007
For about a week now I’ve been impatiently waiting for the developers of Zoo to get things fixed up so I could check it out. I have a big thing about zoos; I just love them. Even though part of my soul dies whenever I see an elephant in a pen or a jungle cat in a cage, I still love zoos. I don’t know what to tell you.
So I was delighted to see an application called Zoo. Maybe this virtual zoo will satisfy my zoo craving, I thought! And today it is up and running again, so I’ve been checking it out.

http://www.facebookobserver.com/facebook-applications/zoo/



Case against Marine Mammals in Captivity

http://youtube.com/profile?user=CaracalKittyWild



Animal-Encounter Travel
by: Carrie Katz
Dolphins by Veenendaal’s Journey
Are you an animal lover? This week is for you! Anybody who likes to incorporate wildlife encounters into their travel knows how much it can enhance a person’s globetrotting adventures, whether it’s the awe that comes from seeing lions and tigers up close, the quiet joy of feeding an elephant, the giddiness of watching monkeys swing from trees, or the serenity of swimming with dolphins. From bird watching in the Amazonian Jungle to waddling up to penguins in the Antartica snow, these rare and special opportunities to observe nature are well worth seeking out. This week we will discuss trip planning for wildlife encounters, including safaris, the Galapagos Islands, whale watching trips, unique places like the monkey temples in Southeast Asia, animal encounters in Africa, and more!

http://blog.realtravel.com/2007/10/29/animal-encounter-travel/



Week 4/5: Teff Conservation of Ecologial communities continued
Here is another blog post for the remaining questions; 3 and 4. I will continue to write about the journal project soon.
Week 4/5 questions continued:
3) Try a new type of food-maybe a grain other than wheat, rice or corn. Did you like it? How does eating different grains maintain biodiversity?
I have always been curious about trying different foods, but I have been skeptical in the past, since I'm not really sure whether I will like them. Just very recently, I have been 'going against the grain,' to say- I am trying Teff, which is a grain from Etheopia. The size is miniscule, one would wonder how a minute grain could be 'food?'

http://envscyg.blogspot.com/2007/10/week-45-teff-conservation-of-ecologial.html



Zoo animals lose a friend
Clayton Freiheit, who took over Denver Zoo when he was 32, dies at age 69 after work that increased attendance and prestige
By Mary Voelz Chandler, Rocky Mountain News
October 29, 2007
When a 5-year-old boy amuses himself by making drawings of zoos, take it as a sign he might grow up to build one of his own.
That was childhood for Clayton Freiheit, the animal-loving kid from Buffalo, N.Y., who kept a minor zoo in the family basement and then, in 1960, became curator of Buffalo Zoological Gardens.
He had not yet graduated from college, and, at age 22, reportedly was the youngest person to ever head a zoological park.
Ten years later, in October 1970, at all of 32, he took the reins of the Denver Zoo and, during his tenure, planned and designed attractions that boosted its attendance and prestige.
At the same time, he earned numerous awards and built a reputation for his expertise in zoology and conservation.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5734070,00.html



The good, the bad, and the blurry: Wildlife Photography
Category: Photography
Posted on: October 29, 2007 10:32 AM, by Brian Switek
Female Snow Leopard twins born last year at the Bronx Zoo.
When I initially started posting pictures on my blog, I didn't know if anyone would have anything to say about my pictures. I frequent zoos, museums, and aquariums, usually shooting between 200 and 600 shots per trip, the handful of good shots making their way onto the internet. I've been certainly pleasantly surprised, therefore, to see all the positive remarks made about my pictures, especially since I don't really have any idea what I'm doing. Still, many of you have asked how I have been able to get the kind of shots I've posted up here, and so I've written this little overview of how I take photographs. This isn't a "How-To" guide, but rather a summary of my own style, as highly amateur as it may be.

http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2007/10/the_good_the_bad_and_the_blurr.php



Branding the Anti-Zoo: The National Tiger Sanctuary
Author:
Jason Voiovich
Ecra Creative Group
Do you know what a happy tiger sounds like?
I heard it. Without exaggerating, it was the most amazing sound. It was a sort of rough “purr” sound. More like a snort, actually. The sound, I presume, a house cat would make if it weighed 500 pounds. And they made the sound whenever co-founder (and “mother”) Judy McGee gave them attention through the metal fences that separated us from them at the National Tiger Sanctuary in Bloomsdale, Missouri.

http://www.ecracreative.com/blog/?p=101



U.S., Canadian zoo officials left wondering after hippo dies in transit
CALGARY - Zoo officials on both sides of the border are trying to understand how a female hippo's death could have been prevented in a 28-hour transfer between zoos.
James Stevenson, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Six-year-old Hazina was loaded onto a transport truck Thursday morning in Denver and arrived at the Calgary Zoo on Friday afternoon. She was dead less than a day later from circulatory complications.
Her Calgary zookeepers discovered she had been lying in one position too long in her crate, had lost the feeling in her legs and was unable to stand. The hippopotamus was moved to a pool, where she appeared for a brief time to be recovering, but died early Saturday
Lynn Kramer, vice-president of biological programs at the Denver Zoo, called the situation "very, very unusual."

http://news.sympatico.msn.ca/Flying+proves+fatal+for+popular+hippo+being+transferred+between+zoos/National/ContentPosting.aspx?isfa=1&newsitemid=21408015&feedname=CP-NATIONAL&show=True&number=5&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&sym=rss



Hippo Dies at Calgary Zoo
Mon, October 29, 2007
Hippo dies at Calgary Zoo
Spent about 30 hours in crate being driven from the Colorado city
By BILL KAUFMANN, SUN MEDIA
The Calgary Zoo is coming under fire from animal rights activists after a female hippo being transported from Denver died soon after arriving in the city.
Six-year-old hippo Hazina spent about 30 hours in a truck crate being driven from the Colorado city for breeding purposes in Calgary — at least 11 of those hours lying too long in one position, said Calgary Zoo veterinarian Dr. Doug Whiteside.
Hazina developed a circulatory condition stemming from its hind legs and despite efforts to rehabilitate her in Calgary, died Saturday from toxic complications, he said.
"It s a very sad case — there’s nothing any of us could have done to predict this...it’s an isolated incident," said Whiteside.
But Zoocheck Canada director Rob Laidlaw said the latest fatality, when added to the deaths of an elephant and four gorillas since 2000, raise red flags about the zoo’s operations.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta/2007/10/29/4615063.html


Newt Gingrich, Environmentalist, Launches His New JHU Press Book
By Greg Rienzi
The Gazette
A political giant stands poised to become the talk of the environmental movement, and his name might raise some eyebrows.
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and longtime friend and conservationist Terry L. Maple have co-authored A Contract With the Earth, a new Johns Hopkins University Press book that attempts to refocus the environmental debate on the principle of common commitment.
The School of Advanced International Studies and the JHU Press will co-host the book's launch today in Washington at an event to be held at 5:30 p.m. in SAIS' Kenney Auditorium. Free and open to the public, it will feature a talk by Gingrich, who will answer questions from the audience afterward. Gingrich will be introduced by Scott Barrett, director of the school's International Policy Program.
The book, released today, spells out the need for ushering in an era of "bipartisan environmentalism." While acknowledging that liberals and conservatives do not see eye to eye on many issues, Gingrich and Maple argue that environmental stewardship is a mainstream value that transcends partisan politics. The authors believe that most people are weary of the legal and political conflicts that only serve, in their estimation, as roadblocks to effective environmental conservation.

http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette/2007/29oct07/29gingrich.html


Hippo dies after transfer to Calgary Zoo
Six-year-old animal had been lying down too long in truck and succumbed to circulatory complications
DAWN WALTON
October 30, 2007
CALGARY -- When staff at the Calgary Zoo tried to coax their new hippopotamus out of the crate that had held the 1,500-kilogram animal for the 30-hour journey from Colorado on Friday, they were startled to find the six-year-old couldn't stand.
Less than 24 hours later, Hazina - born and raised at the Denver Zoo and transferred to Calgary as part of an international breeding program - was dead. The hippo had been lying down for too long in the crate and succumbed to circulatory complications.
"Animals are moved all the time across North America and you do have the odd case where something goes wrong and this is, unfortunately, one of those cases," Doug Whiteside, a veterinarian at the Calgary Zoo, said yesterday, after news of the death was made public. "Once she got here, we did everything possible to save her life."
The Calgary Zoo has been plagued by bad news and bad luck in recent years.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20071030.HIPPO30/TPStory/National



US Zoos & Aquariums Pocket Directory Pocket PC Database 1.0
Fast facts about US zoos & aquariums. Quick reference for travelers and vacationers.

http://www.soft32.com/download_161077.html


Couple now charged with cruelty to animals
Deputies raided property last week
The Gazette Staff
A Deerfield Township couple has now been charged with cruelty to animals, just days after deputies took a large group of animals from their property.
Jim McCabe and Tammy Dailey, of 10080 Ohio 207, are now charged with 14 counts of cruelty to animals, all second-degree misdemeanors, after they were served a summons Monday.

http://www.chillicothegazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071030/UPDATES01/71030003/1002/


Rattling the cages
Posted October 30, 2007 05:17 PM (EST)
Zoos began as places of entertainment, where people curious about wild animals from foreign lands could look at them comfortably and safely while feeling a frisson of excitement at being so close to large carnivores, or shudder with revulsion at species felt to be ugly. The animals were on display for the pleasure of the populace, and were housed in small cages where they could be seen at will, unable to escape the gaze of the curious. The concept was very little different in philosophy (though it was in practice) to that of a museum on the one hand, or to the long history of animal exploitation in circuses, the use of animals in fights in the Roman Coliseum, or the horrors of bear baiting and cock fighting or dog fighting. These extreme cases of animal exploitation (and usually maiming and death) continue today in some parts of the world, but in western countries such activities have generally been banned (a notable exception being the indefensible and barbaric bull fights). Circuses using animals are also increasingly unwelcome in many places and we have been left with the more benign form of exploitation of the zoo.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-horton/rattling-the-cages_b_70467.html



Elephants Suffer in Zoos
The Birmingham Zoo's plan to create a new, $15 million exhibit to house six to eight male elephants ignores the elephant in the room: the fact that landlocked urban zoos cannot provide Earth's largest land mammals with the space and natural conditions

http://www.care2.com/news/member/525884267/526073



Not fair to elephants
Here we go again in the national elephant shuffle (10/26, Local, “Elephant 'penthouse' gets a tenant”).
Move Zoe from a small pen at Cameron Park Zoo (Waco, Texas) to the Kansas City Zoo to live with elephants she doesn¹t even know. Send Tanya, Abilene Zoo’s lone elephant, to a small pen in Waco to live with Tembo, an elephant she has never met.
Kansas City wants to breed Zoe, but if they can’t find a bull elephant, forced breeding through artificial insemination will be just fine.
Elephants are very intelligent, highly social animals that stay with their herds for life in the wild. To shuffle them around like trading cards is an insult to their very being and a reflection of how little regard zoos have for the needs of this species.

http://blogs.kansascity.com/unfettered_letters/2007/10/not-fair-to-ele.html


Dead hippo spent way too long in travel crate, says expert
Deborah Tetley, CanWest News Service
Published: Wednesday, October 31, 2007
CALGARY -- Twenty-nine hours is too long for most animals to be transported in a crate, said an expert after a young hippo died following a road trip from Denver, Colo., to the Calgary Zoo.
Michael Foley, owner of California-based Global Animal Transport, said he has moved several dozen large animals for zoos, including elephants, tigers and rhinos.
But Hazina -- a six-year-old hippopotamus who suffered a fatal heart attack from circulation complications developed during the trip -- spent nearly 30 hours in the crate, and that was far too long, Foley said.

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=fce94c59-77c6-408c-aa9b-384308376b77



DENVER ZOO RELEASES INFORMATION ON HIPPO TRANSPORT
Written by Tiffany Barnhart
Wednesday, 31 October 2007
Denver, CO (Oct. 31, 2007) – As the zoo continues to investigate the death of hippo Hazina, who died October 27, a day after being transported to Calgary Zoo, Denver Zoo is releasing information known at this time about the incident. The zoo, while mourning the loss of their beloved Director of 37 years, Clayton Freiheit, is working diligently to determine what could have been done differently to prevent the loss of Hazina.
Denver Zoo animal care staff hired Planned Migration, an experienced animal transport company that is well-respected within the zoo community and considered an expert in the field. Denver Zoo has worked with Planned Migration since April of 2000, and has transported 108 different animals with this company, including primates, pachyderms, felines, bears and birds, totaling 51 different trips, without incident.
“I checked on Hazina every two to three and a half hours and remained in contact with Denver Zoo throughout the trip. Hazina showed no outward signs of physical distress at any time during the drive. We had no idea that she was not doing well until we got to Calgary Zoo,” said Chris Danhauer, the owner and operator of Planned Migration that lead the transfer.
Danhauer is licensed by the USDA as an animal transporter and has nearly nine years experience transporting animals, in addition to 13 years of experience as a zookeeper. Danhauer has worked during his career at Denver Zoo with pachyderms, and served as the lead on numerous animal transfers for Denver Zoo. Denver Zoo felt and continues to feel extremely confident with his abilities to safely transport animals.

http://www.thecherrycreeknews.com/content/view/1960/2/



U.S., Canadian zoo officials left wondering after hippo dies in transit
(National News) Monday, 29 October 2007, 16:00 PST
James Stevenson, THE CANADIAN PRESS
CALGARY - Zoo officials on both sides of the border are trying to understand how a female hippo's death could have been prevented in a 28-hour transfer between zoos.
Six-year-old Hazina was loaded onto a transport truck Thursday morning in Denver and arrived at the Calgary Zoo on Friday afternoon. She was dead less than a day later from circulatory complications.
Her Calgary zookeepers discovered she had been lying in one position too long in her crate, had lost the feeling in her legs and was unable to stand. The hippopotamus was moved to a pool, where she appeared for a brief time to be recovering, but died early Saturday
Lynn Kramer, vice-president of biological programs at the Denver Zoo, called the situation "very, very unusual."

http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=101799&Itemid=266



Environment News (10/31/07): Amid Wildfires, Zoo Animal Rescues.
environment to all says:
As firefighters at last gain control of what may be one of the worst series of fires in U.S. history, more information is coming to light about wildlife that was lost or impacted by this week's Southern California tragedy.
While many animals housed at San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park were saved, two perished as a result of the blazes. Post-mortem analysis has yet to reveal the precise causes of death, but keepers believe they were due to evacuation-related stress.
The first victim was a rare clapper rail bird that was only one of two breeding females at the park. Destruction of coastal marshland habitat has drastically reduced numbers of this bird, so researchers were hopeful this female could help in repopulation efforts. Last year, her chicks were successfully released into the wild.
The second loss at the park was a Kiang, a wild member of the horse family. This male was also of breeding age. Among the least studied animals in the world, the Kiang is also rare.
"Very few zoos have this species in their collections," San Diego Zoo spokesperson Yadira Galindo told Discovery News. "The deaths of both of these animals represent a tremendous loss for us."

http://www.flickr.com/groups/349459@N25/discuss/72157602818491493/



Zoos, aquariums use holiday to scare up money, visitors
By MARK DAVIS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/11/07
If ever a holiday existed to benefit a zoo or aquarium, says Dennis Kelly, Oct. 31 is it.
"Face it," Kelly, Zoo Atlanta's CEO, said. "We own Halloween."
Kelly is right. Goose bumps are good business. As Zoo Atlanta prepares to unveil Boo At The Zoo Saturday evening, other zoos and aquariums around the country also are opening their gates to give folks the creeps.
At the Atlanta zoo, this year's scare-'em marks the first time the zoo has stayed open at night to attract families. In previous years — the first "Boo" bowed in 2002 — the zoo observed regular hours during October. Zoo Atlanta will remain open until 8:30 p.m. each Friday and Saturday this month. Also for the first time, this year's Boo at the Zoo has a theme — "Boo Town."

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/living/stories/2007/10/11/halloweenzoo_1012.html



Endangered Costa Rican frog focus of study
MANCHESTER, England, Oct. 29 British biologists are studying a Costa Rican leaf frog, Cruziohyla calcarifer, to save it from extinction and learn how to care for it in zoos and aquariums.
Scientists from The University of Manchester and the Chester Zoo -- Britain's largest zoo -- said the brightly colored frog, a native of the Costa Rican rainforest, is being threatened by a combination of environmental change and disease.
"This research aims to contribute to our understanding of the basic factors that influence the development and survival of these frogs," said Richard Preziosi, the project's lead investigator. "For instance, with the exception of certain mammals, we know surprisingly little about what animals should be eating. And yet the diet of splendid leaf frogs affects their coloration which, in turn, determines their mating behavior.
"The global decline in amphibian populations means research such as this, carried out ex situ, is therefore critical for both conservation projects in the wild and for maintaining and successfully breeding the frogs in zoos and aquariums," he added.
The research is being complemented by field studies in Costa Rica that include examining the effect that ultraviolet rays have on the fitness and viability of captive-bred frogs.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/132596.html



Couple facing animal cruelty charges
The Gazette staff
A Deerfield Township couple has been charged with cruelty to animals just days after deputies took a large group of animals from their property.
Jim McCabe and Tammy Dailey, of 10080 Ohio 207, are charged with 14 counts of cruelty to animals, all second-degree misdemeanors, after they were served a summons Monday.
Deputies took all the animals from the property, including goats, horses, chickens and other livestock Thursday afternoon, saying they had received several complaints from neighbors.
McCabe and Daily say they keep the animals to be used in area petting zoos, and Daily said she was targeted after she filed a $7.5 million lawsuit against Sheriff Ron Nichols, which she subsequently dropped.
Both will appear in Chillicothe Municipal Court at 9 a.m. Friday, Nov. 9 for arraignment.

http://www.chillicothegazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071031/NEWS01/710310306/1002



Gorillas in our midst
In the North Georgia mountains, Jane and Steuart Dewar built a one-of-a-kind haven for gorillas in need
BY SCOTT FREEMAN
ALL PHOTOS BY JOEFF DAVIS
Published 10.31.07
SILVERBACK IN WAIT: Oliver is 19 years old, a gorilla's prime. The Dewars hope he can be matched with a female and start his own family.
Oliver steps out of his pen and looks warily at the stranger who peers through a window on the outer wall that surrounds him. He waits patiently for the stranger to leave and when he doesn't, Oliver takes off across the grass in a fast gallop. His face is angry and threatening. As he nears the window, Oliver reaches down and -- without breaking stride -- grabs a stick and tosses it at the window as he dashes by. He runs another 40 feet before he stops and looks back.
The stranger is still there.
Oliver had every expectation that the stranger would be gone. And why not? If you're a 376-pound gorilla and you decide to scare a human by charging him, you expect that human to be scared. And to take the opportunity to flee.
Oliver stands on all fours and ignores the stranger. Instead, he gazes across the field at the nearby mountains. Then, suddenly, Oliver springs into another full gallop. He bounces as much as he runs, propelling himself with his long and gangly arms, moving almost sideways. As he races past the window, he leans in and violently raps the glass with his huge knuckles. It doesn't break, but the crack is loud enough that it sounds like it should.
Once Oliver is again by his pen, he peers over his shoulder and looks back in what appears to be exasperation, as if he's thinking: You're still here?
Jane Dewar, who has watched the scene with delight, laughs. "He's checking you out," she says. "Come on, I'll introduce you." She walks behind the 15-foot-high concrete wall until she reaches a steel door. It leads into a little anteroom separated from Oliver's pen only by steel mesh. She's met there by Kelly Maneyapanda, one of Oliver's keepers. Dewar asks if she can give the gorilla some frozen blueberries. Maneyapanda nods her approval. "Don't be offended if he stays on the other side of the pen," Dewar says. "He can be shy around people he doesn't know."

http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A330123


Breeding elephants doesn't protect them
Zoos like those in Pittsburgh should help preserve the animals' native habitat instead
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
By Marianne Bessey
During this month's ground-breaking ceremony at the Pittsburgh zoo's proposed elephant breeding facility in Somerset Country, lots of lip service was paid to "conservation." It is without question that elephants, endangered in Asia and threatened in Africa, desperately need help. But will spending millions of dollars on breeding a handful of elephants actually help elephants -- or just the zoo's bottom line?

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07304/829727-35.stm

continued...

Driver in crash that killed horses could face additional charges

Round Lake firefighter Joe Couture comforts a horse. (Photo for the Tribune by Joe Shuman / October 28, 2007)

By Jeff Long, Tara Malone and Andrew L. Wang Tribune staff reporters
9:10 PM CDT, October 29, 2007

As three horses lay dead on a straw-matted barn floor Monday, dozens of survivors hovered in arcs around them, nursing wounds from the horrific crash Saturday that caused a tractor-trailer loaded with 59 Belgian draft horses to overturn in north suburban Wadsworth.

Some had bruised legs, others swollen eyes. A black yearling wore a thick bandage covering an artery that had been cut. A bruise knotted the neck of a dusty brown horse that chewed green hay in the paddock of a private farm where the horses were brought Saturday night to begin recovering.

The three dead horses, which had been euthanized hours earlier, brought the tally of fatalities to 18. Eight were killed, 10 have been euthanized because of their injuries and 41 remain alive, veterinarian Kevin Nelson said.

On Monday, state and federal officials joined the investigation, and Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran announced additional traffic citations against truck driver, James E. Anderson, 34, of McLeod, N.D. In addition to disregarding a red light, Anderson has been cited for failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident and not having a bill of lading, Curran said.

The wreck happened Saturday just before 7 p.m. at U.S. Highway 41 and Wadsworth Road in northeastern Lake County when the northbound tractor-trailer was struck by a pickup truck. Anderson lost control, and his rig overturned.

Curran said Anderson had been hired by the horses' owner to drive them from Millersburg, Ind., about 20 miles southeast of Elkhart, to Verndale, Minn., for auction. The horses arrived with numbered stickers taped to their backs, a means of identification often used at horse auctions....

Antarctica Ice Chime

Click here for 24 hour temperature loop - only four views 12 AM, 3AM, 3 PM, 6 PM

October 31, 2007
1200
Antarctica Temperature Satellite

The 3AM UTC image is where it is obvious there was a huge movement of frigid air off the top ice. It's noted to only be -10 C to - 20 C. The -20 was directly over the Polar Plateau.

The coldest reporting stations:

Vostok, Antarctica

Elevation :: 11220 ft / 3420 m

Temperature :: -62 °F / -52 °C

Conditions :: Clear

Humidity :: 47%

Dew Point :: -68 °F / -56 °C

Wind :: 6 mph / 9 km/h from the SE

Wind Gust :: -

Pressure :: in / hPa (Falling)

Visibility :: 12.0 miles / 20.0 kilometers

Aviation
Flight Rule :: VFR ()
Wind Speed :: 6 mph / 9 km/h /
Wind Dir :: 140° (SE)
Ceiling :: 100000 ft / 100000 m



Amundsen-Scott, AA

Elevation :: 9285 ft / 2830 m

Temperature :: -44 °F / -42 °C

Conditions :: Ice Crystals Mist

Wind :: 10 mph / 17 km/h / 4.6 m/s from the North

Pressure :: 28.58 in / 968 hPa (Falling)

Windchill :: -70 °F / -57 °C

Visibility :: 5.0 miles / 8.0 kilometers

UV :: 0 out of 16

Clouds:
Mostly Cloudy 2100 ft / 640 m
Overcast 7000 ft / 2133 m
(Above Ground Level)

Aviation
Flight Rule :: MVFR (NZSP)
Wind Speed :: 10 mph / 17 km/h / 4.6 m/s
Wind Dir :: 10° (North)
Ceiling :: 2100 ft / 640 m


The warmest reporting stations:

Base Orcadas, Antarctica

Elevation :: 20 ft / 6 m

Temperature :: 28 °F / -2 °C

Conditions :: Mist

Humidity :: 94%

Dew Point :: 27 °F / -3 °C

Wind :: 9 mph / 15 km/h from the North

Wind Gust :: -

Pressure :: 28.87 in / 978 hPa (Falling)

Visibility :: 2.0 miles / 4.0 kilometers

UV :: 0 out of 16
Clouds:
Mostly Cloudy 787 ft / 240 m
(Above Ground Level)




Palmer Station, Antarctica

Elevation :: 26 ft / 8 m

Temperature :: 27 °F / -3 °C

Conditions :: Clear

Humidity :: 64%

Dew Point: :: 20 °F / -7 °C

Wind :: Calm

Wind Gust :: -

Pressure :: 28.99 in / 982 hPa (Rising)

Visibility :: 10.0 miles / 16.0 kilometers

Aviation
Flight Rule :: VFR ()
Wind Speed :: 0 mph / 0 km/h /
Wind Dir :: N/A
Ceiling :: 100000 ft / 100000 m



October 31, 2007
1200 AM
Antarctica Wind Satellite (click here for animation)

Noted the diminished winds throughout the continent except for the areas where the high disturbance was noted in the jet stream. The transcending air mass due to the change in temperature which caused the temperature over the Blue Ice 'fell' off the three mile high ice to the surface thus resulting in high winds in those locations.


October 30, 2007
0600 gmt
Antarctica Jet Stream (click for 1 week loop) It's pretty clear the arrival of heat transfers and the absense of them. The most significant disturbance is noted arriving on October 25, 2007 at 2 o'clock and continues to circulate to the current 6 o'clock position.

Noted significant disturbance that forced the frigid air mass over the Blue Ice to diminish in capacity of coldness to counter the warm air arriving at 6 o'clock and another approaching at 8 o'clock.

Noel Hits Cuba; 22 Dead Elsewhere

Click on picture for higher resolution image


Tropical Depression 16 was intensifying into Tropical Storm Noel late in the morning of October 28, 2007, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging (click here)



October 30, 2007
Taveras, Dominican Republic
Photographer states :: This is the spillway of the Taveras Dam. It almost looks fun! We then hiked down to take the 1st picture under the plume of water shooting 50 ft. in the air.


October 30, 2007
Taveras, Domincan Republic
Photographer states :: For scale, my husband is 6 ft. tall in the bottom left. This is a picture of the spillway that was opened to relieve the pressure on the Taveras Dam. Unfortunatly for those downstream, all that water has to go somewhere! This is upstream from Baitoa and is causing damage to the bridge.

October 30, 2007

Taveras. Dominican Republic

Photographer states :: This is under the plume of water shooting 50 ft. in the air at Taveras Dam. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone! While we were taking these photos, the North end of the Baitoa Bridge was being washed away.

From the Associated Press

...The storm cut a destructive path across the island of Hispaniola, which is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Because of difficulties reaching remote areas of Hispaniola, there was uncertainty over death toll figures, with emergency officials reporting between 22 and 36 people dead.
Tuesday evening, a Dominican emergency commission spokesman revised the death toll in the country upward to at least 30. The official, Luis Luna Paulino, did not release specifics of the deaths, and earlier in the day he acknowledged miscalculating a previous toll.
Almost 12,000 people were driven from their homes and nearly 3,000 homes were destroyed, while collapsed bridges and swollen rivers have isolated 36 towns, Luna said.
"The rains continue to fall and we fear for several families," said Sergio Vargas, a merengue star and Dominican congressman who represents Villa Altagracia, a small town north of the capital, Santo Domingo.
In neighboring Haiti, at least six people died, including two women washed away by a river in the town of Gantier, said U.N. peacekeeping mission spokesman Mamadou Bah. Red Cross volunteers said a 3-year-old boy drowned as his family tried to rescue him from a raging river in the neighborhood of Duvivier.
Noel's outer bands were pounding the two countries Tuesday evening even as the center of the sluggish storm chugged away from Hispaniola, where damages by flash flooding are exacerbated by erosion and stripped hillsides....

The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Ice Chime) is:

October 31, 2007
0117 gmt
South Pole Satellite

After the loss of frigid temperatures of the Blue Ice in the satellite below it returned today but with some of the lowest temperatures noted recently. Vostok was -52 C while Amundsen-Scott is only -42 C. The Peninsula remains at between -2 C and -3 C.


October 30, 2007


1320 gmt


South Pole Satellite

The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is:

The Arctic Circle is becoming frozen but according to bloggers of the 'north' they state the flows are not new and the refreeze is coming late. One of the myths the Neocon newsnetworks like to promote is that there has never been more ice at the North Pole, but, they won't talk about the fact their president is lusting after oil in sea beds now exposed as never before in recorded history. They are such liars and manipulators and they expect to be taken seriously.

...Amid all this slushy angst, the Pacific walrus had decamped to the northwestern Alaskan coast in such numbers that Native elders were stunned and marine mammal scientists were rattled, as FNS reported earlier this month.
Barrow blogger Anne Brygger reports seeing a lone walrus swept along in broken floes off the coast, apparently caught up in shattered pans that just won't freeze hard.
"For the last few days ice has been showing up from somewhere to the north & east," she writes in the latest post from Tundra Garden. "It's small chunks, but they have 6 inches or more thickness, so they're not brand new.
"This is really late."
In their latest dispatch, posted on line Oct. 16, the ice gurus at NSIDC report sea ice extent has expanded to about 2.18 million square miles - a 37 percent increase since the Arctic cap set its all-time minimum record of 1.59 million square miles on Sept. 16.
The Northwest Passage has also refrozen, after opening for the first time in modern history.
"Though some portions of the channels appear to still be fairly free of ice, all possible routes would now require ice-hardened vessels or icebreakers to transit," the NSIDC says....


Elevation :: 33 ft / 10 m

Temperature :: 45 °F / 7 °C

Conditions :: Overcast

Humidity :: 81%

Dew Point :: 39 °F / 4 °C

Wind :: 15 mph / 24 km/h / 6.7 m/s from the SE

Wind Gust :: 18 mph / 30 km/h / 8.2 m/s

Pressure :: 29.58 in / 1002 hPa (Steady)

Windchill :: 38 °F / 3 °C

Visibility :: 10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers

UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds:
Scattered Clouds 2100 ft / 640 m
Mostly Cloudy 2800 ft / 853 m
Overcast 4300 ft / 1310 m
(Above Ground Level)

Mukasey is stonewalling. We have seen it before in the Alito and Robert's hearings.

By Richard B. Schmitt, Los Angeles Times October 19, 2007
WASHINGTON - The confirmation hearing of Attorney General-designate Michael B. Mukasey turned contentious yesterday as Senate Democrats accused the nominee of dodging questions about a controversial interrogation technique and backtracking on statements he made about the obligations of the president to follow the law....


With the confirmation hearings of the Bush/Cheney administration, the candidates are coached to remain silent. The Conservatives always point to Judge Ginsberg and her unwillingness to answer to the satisfaction of the questioner some issues.

Well.

The days of mimicking Judge Ginsberg are over. We have seen the corruption introduced into the Judiciary with Alito especially and in my opinion it is time for Senate confirmations to take on the character they should and vote against candidates that DON'T answer questions. Mr. Mukasey is STONEWALLING the USA Senate and it should be viewed as exactly that. He is holding the best interest of the American people hostage to his confirmation. We already know what a nightmare Gonzalez was and Bush's big push with him was the fact he was hispanic. Just because someone is a minority doesn't equate to the best candidate for the job.

If Mukasey can't answer questions, excuse him as a candidate. He will do exactly what he wants when it gets into office regardless of what he says in hearings. He won't answer because it would be a lie ! Liars are not allowed in office.

In the Robert's confirmation hearings, all we heard about Roe v. Wade was "Stare decisis" and when he took the bench, the first chance he got he turned against precident, gutted Roe v. Wade and we know for a fact has put women's lives in danger.

We need to KNOW whom is taking office and what qualities they bring otherwise they are rejected.

Republicans DON'T 'get it.' What Rudy Giuliani says in his latest campaign AGAINST American health insurance is EXACTLY the problem.

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani "I would urge everyone to get the P.S.A. test, there's nothing painful about the P.S.A. test. It's a blood test ... You should have it tested and find out."


The 'sympathy' vote didn't work when he ran before, neither did dressing in drag, so, what does he think he's doing?


In his dissertation to the public regarding his prostate cancer he states his survival rate in the USA is 82% while that same survival rate would drop to 44% in England. To begin he is comparing apples and oranges. The USA is not England and England is not the USA. In the USA we do a lot of 'screening' and I don't see that changing. But, that isn't really his greatest folly.

When my sister was diagnosed with a brain tumor she had the best insurance money could buy. Her husband was employed at a high end job and had the best benefits in the world. So did, Rudy Giuliani. Having access to health insurance turns the corner on wellness. Being able to go to screenings and then being able to access care when diagnosed is key to being cured.

Not only that,but, he goes on and on about 'deductions' in the amounts that would invite anyone currently able to AFFORD health insurance in the first place. As a matter of fact $15,000 and $7500 could even allow people to improve the health insurance they currently subscribe to and seek new carriers IF they can get accepted for a plan that also will accept for treatment PRE-EXISTING conditions. Did the former New York mayor change insurance carriers in the middle of his treatment for prostate cancer? Of course not, he was insured by the State of New York and nowhere is there better treatment. If he had tried to find new health insurance while he was treated, he probably would be rejected for insurance and if he did receive it he would have a pre-existing condition and it would not be covered.

But back to these 'deductions.' In order for tax deductions for health insurance to matter a family has to be able to afford it in the first place. If a family doesn't subscribe to health insurance because they cannot afford it, they'll never receive the deduction because they never spent the money in the first place and they will be locked out of the system. THAT is what is "W"rong in the first place. We have Americans underinsured and uninsured that cannot get health insurance because of the expense and pre-existing condtions.

Additionally, the priorities of the health insurance industry causes deaths. They refuse treatment even if you have insurance. There are some insurance companies like 'Great Western' that may not even bother to insure any Americans, because their 'in network' participants are few and far between, there is no such thing on any provider list for OB-GYN but ONLY Nurse Practitioners, and if a subscriber goes 'Out of Network' they pay nearly nothing which is what they want to pay in the first place.

There is a lot "W"rong with the health care industry in the USA. For one, it's an industry. I'm sorry but my body is not a PRODUCT. Rudy Giuliani is wrong and so are the Republicans. The system in the USA has to be completely revamped and to listen to Michael Moore is a delight. He loves the ideas of some of the wealthier countries that afford people 'in home service workers' when ill to do their laundry and vacations to keep stress low and the chances of illness caused by stress eliminated from their countries.

Here's Michael on his PodCast.

http://audio.kvmr.org/mmoore29oct2007.mp3

He even takes on the Democrats running as Presidential hopefuls. That is a lot "W"rong with the USA health insurance industry and it's completely unconscionable to allow people to live without any health insurance in a country that spends trillions of dollars on bombs and missiles.

Rudy Giuliani is "W"rong on everything. He personifies exactly what is the problem.

Critics Fault Response to San Diego Fires (click for NPR report)

October 29, 2007

Chuka Vista, California

Photographer states :: Sara ve su casa quemada...una amiga de chula vista visita lo que fue su casa.

If the wildfires occurred to me? I'd be on vacation, too. Who can cope? I mean really. Home one day with all the comforts a life's work can afford and homeless the next.

Back next week. I leave two wildfires questions behind. (click here)

1) If the state fire safety rules -- requiring that state-trained "spotters" be aboard -- that kept military helicopters from going up early last week were so crucial, then why did state officials later essentially agree to waive them? In a phone interview Friday, top state officials defended the decision-making seen last Monday with great passion. They can't reconcile that with the decision 36 hours or so later to back down. It was, is and will always be incredible that the question of "spotters" wasn't resolved before San Diego County's encore nightmare.
2) The congressmen who are doing such a good job exposing the state's bureaucratic tomfoolery in its wildfire response have some explaining to do themselves. Couldn't they have spared an earmark to cover the cost of outfitting the California Air National Guard's C-130 with a fire-retardant tank, something that was promised to happen after the 2003 wildfires but never did?
Instead, Duncan Hunter funneled $63 million ...

This is what CORRUPTION does. The misdirection of public monies for the favor of a crony provides REAL damage in the REAL world. The political world of the Republicans needs to be abandoned because it isn't NEED based, it's crony based. The country suffers at the hand of politics. The electorate has to focus on candidates the speak to the issues with real solutions, not theory, not beliefs, but, real solutions to real problems. GET RID OF THESE REPUBLICAN BOZOS. They don't know what reality is !

Heavily criticized plane is defunded (click here)

...Hunter has received $36,000 in campaign contributions from Anthony duPont, president of duPont Aerospace, the company developing the plane at a facility in El Cajon.
The cutoff of funds might be the death knell for the project, duPont said.
But Hunter remains optimistic.
“Congressman Hunter continues to support the program, and DP-2 funding could very well be revisited in the next budget cycle,” said spokesman Joe Kasper.
Hunter had sought $6 million for the project next year.

...into the DP-2 Vectored Thrust Aircraft boondoggle. And Dana Rohrabacher worried more about buying expensive planes the military didn't want than about helping California's wildfire-fighting capacity. This is from a May story in the Washington Post:

... Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) has made one of the biggest earmark requests in the new Congress, seeking $2.4 billion to build 10 more C-17 planes -- which the Pentagon has said it does not need.

Do know how much 'Alternative Energy' infrastructure $2.4 billion would buy? A lot. The new jobs it would create? Get rid of these people.

I know a lot of people are selling it as hard as they can, but don't buy the narrative that last week saw a perfect synergy of local, state and federal officials and resources. It's not true, not by a long shot.Posted by Chris Reed at October 29, 2007 09:19 AM

The Carribean Sea vortex has become a Tropical Storm Noel. Slow as molasses, isn't it? (click for 2 hour loo0)

October 29, 2007
Baitoa, Dominican Republic
Photographer states :: This is a small creek that runs through town, usually 1 foot wide. About 1 ft. of shore has been lost and is threatening the treeline.


October 29, 2007
Baitoa, Dominican Republic
Photographer states :: A small mudslide caused this 30-40 ft. tree to fall on this small shack....amazingly a man, 1 year old and 8 month pregnant woman were sleeping at the time and are all fine....strong little shack!!


The 14th named storm of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season brought dramatic skies to the seafront of Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic.

In pictures: Tropical Storm Noel (click here)

October 30, 2007
0915z
UNISYS Water Vapor GOES East Water Vapor Satellite


Huge. Meanderingly slow. Lacking sufficient water vapor to become volitile quickly. Anti-Cyclonic air masses (it's cyclonic, I was looking at the southern hemisphere at the same time I made this entry. Oops.) are usually attributed to a high pressure system normally, but, the 'miminum' millibars currently are 999. It's extremely sluggish though. If one looks at the entire hemisphere all the vortices are taking on a sluggish movement.

UNISYS Hemispheric Satellite (click here)


CARIBBEAN SEA... ALTHOUGH TROPICAL STORM NOEL IS NOW N OF CUBA THE EFFECTS REMAIN ACROSS PORTIONS OF THE CARIBBEAN TONIGHT.

FLASH FLOODING AND MUD SLIDES CONTINUE TO BE CONCERN OVER THE MOUNTAINOUS ISLANDS OF HISPANIOLA.

THESE HEAVY RAINS ARE EXPECTED TO CONTINUE AS E CUBA SHOULD BEGIN TO SEE THE EFFECTS AS THE STORM MOVES WNW.

HEAVY SHOWERS/ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS ARE S OF PUERTO RICO FROM 16N-19N BETWEEN 64W-68W. ELSEWHERE...A SURFACE TROUGH EXTENDS FROM S OF NOEL ACROSS THE CENTRAL CARIBBEAN FROM E CUBA NEAR 19N76W JUST E OF JAMAICA ALONG 15N78W TO 12N82W.

A BROAD UPPER HIGH ASSOCIATED WITH NOEL COVERS MOST OF THE CARIBBEAN W OF 70W. CLUSTERS OF SCATTERED SHOWERS/ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS IN THE GULF OF HONDURAS S OF 19N W OF 83W TO INLAND OVER CENTRAL AMERICA.



Tropical Storm Noel Rains Lash Haiti (click here)
By JONATHAN M. KATZ – 22 hours ago
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Tropical Storm Noel lashed Haiti with heavy rains early Monday as it moved across the impoverished Caribbean nation, generating fears of flash flooding on deforested hills often blanketed by rows of flimsy shacks.
Noel, the 14th named storm of the Atlantic season, was expected to drop as much as 20 inches of rain on Haiti and the Dominican Republic — which share the island of Hispaniola — before heading on a path east of Cuba toward the Bahamas.
The storm weakened overnight as it encountered Hispaniola's mountainous terrain but still poses a serious threat to Haiti, which is recovering from floods that killed at least 37 and sent more than 4,000 people to shelters earlier this month.
Noel had sustained winds of about 45 mph and is expected to move over or near Haiti's western coast Monday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
At 8 a.m. EDT, Noel's poorly organized center was located near the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, forecasters said....

...Forecasters said Noel, with tropical storm force winds fanning 140 miles from its center, could drop 10 to 20 inches of water on Hispaniola.
Dominican authorities said at least 600 people had been evacuated as the storm touched off landslides, flooded rivers and pushed storm surges onto Santo Domingo's seaside boulevard.
Swollen rivers also forced evacuations in Cabaret, a town north of Port-au-Prince where floods killed at least 23 people earlier this month, said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of Haiti's civil protection agency....



At least 20 killed by storm in Dominican Republic (click here)
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
A tropical storm has killed at least 20 people after triggering major floods in the Dominican Republic.
Another 20 people have been reported missing after Tropical Storm Noel dumped up to 20 inches of rain on the country yesterday.
The storm is now heading of the Bahamas and is also expected to hit Florida in the south-eastern United States.

So, enjoy Halloween and don't forget to purchase a pumpkin from your local family farm

Have fun ! Life demands it !

September 19, 2007

Penobscot, Maine

The most threatening reality the USA and global community has to face is simply abandoned by The Bush Executive Branch.

Cataba River, Lake Wylie Dam and the continued drought of the southern USA (click here).

This issue needs to be confronted with reason and possibility. This has taken an emotional tone and there is far less scientific involvement than there should be. Scientists need to 'literally' oversee the 'transport in' of water to reinfuse the lakes while ensuring the biotic nature of the lakes are preserved through water testing with the arrival of tankers of H2O. There is no sense in spending infrastructure monies on anything but desalination facilities. The emergency of water resources in the south can use the current lake resources 'artifically' infused with water trucked in from areas similar in biotic nature to insure balance. I don't see currently stable watersheds, such as the Great Lakes being tapped for the lack of preparedness of the south. It would throw the Great Lake system into chaos.

It's a two directive approach. This is gross negligence of the federal authorities of the USA in relation to Human Induced Global Warming and it's much predicted consequences.

Funding for the infrastructure changes as well as the trucked in water can be obtained through little and under utilized excise taxes, such as cigarettes tax (click here), liquor taxes (click here), and state sales taxes (click here).

The Conservative South has been at the center of denying the existance of Human Induced Global Warming and there is no reason the rest of the country, which has been prudent in taking steps at the state environmental level, should feel an obligation to rescue them. There were eleven states in this country that sued for controls to Greenhouse Gases while the remaining states provided 'industy cronies' to defeat such a measure. Now, when they are in need of effective policy the rest of the country's resources is supposed to bail them out of trouble?

NO WAY.

The Southern Conservative states need to realize their folly and develop policy, infrastructure and the means to pay for it BY THEMSELVES. Otherwise, we will continue to have Republican legislators in DC all to willing to continue to obstruct effective federal law to stop and reverse the deadly trends we are seeing today !

Drought in southeast US fuels battle over water resources (click here)
Docks and piers at T-Bones, a shoreline restaurant on Lake Wylie, sink into the mud, showing the effects of increasingly low water levels 20 October 2007 in Lake Wylie, South Carolina. An extreme drought in the southeastern United States has fueled a bitter tri-state battle over dwindling water resources.
Millions of people in the state of Georgia fear their taps could run dry, while environmentalists in Florida say freshwater mollusks protected under the US Endangered Species Act risk dying off.
Hoping to guarantee no one will go thirsty, Georgia authorities want to drastically reduce the outflow from a reservoir that supplies drinking water to three million people. But neighboring Alabama claims that would have devastating economic effects on its population, while Florida says a reduced flow would threaten fragile ecosystems. "You'd think people would come before mussels," said Bob Leamy, 55, walking on caked mud that was once under Lake Lanier's waters. The man-made lake is at the frontline of the battle of words. It supplies drinking water for more than three million people in the city of Atlanta, feeds the Chattahoochee river that runs along the border with Alabama and flows into Florida's Apalachicola river. Because of the drought, the 38,000 acre reservoir is almost five meters (15 feet) below average levels, and officials say the water will continue to dwindle. Georgia has filed a legal motion seeking to force the US Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the reservoir, to limit the release of water. Alabama and Florida both oppose the motion...



...while in the UK...

Benn announces 'stronger' climate change bill (click here)
Rosalind Ryan, Elizabeth Stewart and agenciesMonday October 29, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
The government today announced a "stronger, more effective and more transparent" climate change bill, following a period of public consultation and scrutiny.
The environment secretary, Hilary Benn, said in a speech at Kew Gardens that the amended bill was a "ground-breaking blueprint" to help lower Britain's carbon emissions and would strengthen the country's position in response to climate change.
Mr Benn said: "We need to step up the fight against climate change and we need to do it fast. The draft bill we set out earlier this year and have now refined is a ground-breaking blueprint for moving the UK towards ea low carbon economy."...


...in Australia...

Greens want clarification on climate change agreement (click here)
Posted 7 hours 10 minutes ago
The Greens are calling on Prime Minister John Howard to explain what kind of global climate agreement the Coalition would be willing to ratify.
Mr Howard said this morning that his Government would be willing to sign and ratify an international agreement, as long as it applied to major emitters like China and India in an appropriate way.
Greens climate and energy spokeswoman Senator Christine Milne says Mr Howard has to explain what that means.
"If he's talking about ratifying a treaty which is very weak or which doesn't bind Australia to significant targets then it's worthless," she said.
"Let's hear something real from the Prime Minister, instead of just hot air."

There is absolutely no reason why First World nations have to POSTPONE their own infrastruture changes 'anticipating' the entrance of Third World nations such as China and India into standards of climate change protocol. It's a strategy that is superfluous of purpose and seeks to undermine global protections instead of empowering them through infrastruture changes and economic incentives/sanctions leading to the cooperation of China and India. The policies of Howard and Bush are dismal and stupid while geared toward profiteers and exploitive cronies.

Making 'commitments' toward responsibility to change the course of Human Induced Global Warming is NOT meeting those commitments either. Commitments have to be met with rigor to satisfy in an aggressive manner that will actually 'deliver' environmental safety as well as the political 'mind speak.' It takes infrastructure monetary commitments that are real and measurable with NO corruption tolerated, but, every dollar devoted to it's purpose. These are the monies of the people that need their safety net intact and Earth lush and green insuring the safety of species once again.

PM's climate change credibility 'shredded' (click here)

By Adam Gartrell, Jane Bunce and Peter Veness
October 27, 2007 05:55pm
LABOR says the coalition's climate change credibility has been "shredded" by revelations Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull recently failed to convince cabinet to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
Mr Turnbull and Prime Minister John Howard today repeatedly refused to contradict a newspaper report the minister told cabinet just six weeks ago the Government would gain kudos and lose nothing by ratifying the international climate change agreement.
Cabinet reportedly decided not to take Mr Turnbull's advice because it believed such a backflip would not look credible with voters after 10 years opposing the agreement.
Mr Turnbull today refused to even say whether he personally believed, or had ever believed, Australia should sign Kyoto.
He said it would be only a symbolic or political move if Australia did sign the agreement at this stage.
"It would not change what we are doing because we are already committed to meet ... those targets," Mr Turnbull told Sky News....

The American Educational System on all levels is in shambles.

Beside the moronic testing demands of the American Schools, Bush ADVOCATED for the inclusion of "I thunk it up" (click here) as a science. It's theology. There is absolutely no scientific proof available and even with funding there is no scientific proof available in this imagineering by the Neocon Republicans that simply WANT Americans dum as doornails to service one purpose and that is the aggressions of the military. Why have a scientific community 'inhouse' in the USA when everything can be outsourced and the political rhetoric that guarantees 'the opiate' of the American people as the most Godly Christian Righteous people stay intact.

There is a method to the madness that has beset the American people. Dumbing down Americans insures their grateful indulgence of an aggressive military.

CLICK ON ABOVE TITLE

...The across-the-board success standard demanded by the law is politically attractive. It seeks to ensure that no student is allowed to languish because of economic, ethnic or racial reasons, nor because of disabilities or language barriers. Indeed, for too long, schools in poor and minority communities did not receive the attention they deserved.
But the notion that all students will reach proficiency is simply folly -- what UC Berkeley Professor Bruce Fuller calls "well-intentioned pie-in-the-sky."
In almost any social science experiment, perfection is unattainable unless the bar is set too low. If every student succeeds, we haven't demanded enough of our students.
Moreover, the standard encourages states to game the system. Under No Child Left
Behind, the definition of proficiency and the design of the tests to measure it are left to the individual states.
Consequently, states are rewarded for keeping standards low because it allows them to claim greater success. One study this year found that Colorado, Wisconsin and Michigan generally set the lowest bar, while South Carolina, California, Maine and Massachusetts have the highest.
To the extent that No Child Left Behind has jump-started our K-12 schools, it's because of a shrinking measuring stick rather than academic gains....


Empowering Teacher Unions prevents tragedies such as "No Child Left Behind." The strongest and best educational advocate a child has is the teacher at the front of the classroom taking pride in how the student is achieving. We are a good country, full of work-a-day people that believe in the profession they practice. I don't care if one is a teacher, a preacher, a common laborer, when it comes to having pride in their professions all take notice of each other and the community of piers they seek to be a part.

If Teacher Unions were strong and intact across this nation they could have easily stood up 'in masse' to the legislation that would come to hurt the best outcomes of their students, causing a failure chain proven to be at the top of the chain in high school graduating classes falling in achievement on SATs.

The 'landscape' of the American Colleges and Universities will be institutions unable to find candidates qualified for their programs while turning to open more seats to foreign students willing to serve as teachers and medical workers in the USA to satisfy enrollment costs. The current and present 'task' for educational institutions Pre-K through PhD in the USA is to stop the escalating costs by demanding DC to return much needed dollars to the function of all schools and to hold the line on academic achievement realizing the damage done to the American student. Not to rollback achievement standards, but, to report regularly the standing of the students and perhaps needed remediation to return function to the American student.

Why Teacher Unions Are Good for Teachers and the Public (click here)
They Protect Teachers' Rights, Support Teacher Professionalism, and Check Administrative Power
By Diane Ravitch
We live in an era when leaders in business and the media demand that schools function like businesses in a free market economy, competing for students and staff. Many such voices say that such corporate-style school reform is stymied by the teacher unions, which stand in the way of leaders who want unchecked power to assign, reward, punish, or remove their employees. Some academics blame the unions when student achievement remains stagnant. If scores are low, the critics say it must be because of the teachers’ contract, not because the district has a weak curriculum or lacks resources or has mediocre leadership. If some teachers are incompetent, it must be because of the contract, not because the district has a flawed, bureaucratic hiring process or has failed to evaluate new teachers before awarding them tenure. These critics want to scrap the contract, throw away teachers’ legal protections, and bring teacher unions to their collective knees....

Teacher Union Members are people, too.

AFT Members Hit by Wildfires in Southern California (click here)
Contributions are urgently needed for the many AFT members across Southern California who have suffered devastating losses in the state's recent wildfires. More than a dozen fires have scorched communities from San Diego County to north of Los Angeles, leaving neighborhoods looking like "moonscapes" and "hell on earth," AFT eyewitnesses report....

The current Secretary of Education, Margaret Spelling, wants to taylor make the American School System to 'fit' the needs of business. No more free lance anything. No more scientific investigation for the 'simple knowledge' of it all. No more literary writing for whimsy. No more 'thought experiments' unless it is to serve A PRACTICALLY to society. In other words, ONLY RIGHT BRAIN thinking allowed in the USA and ONLY within the religious context of The Religous Right !

U.S. Education Secretary Spellings Meets with Business Leaders, Touts Success of Dunbar Magnet School (click here)
No Child Left Behind is Working and Should be Reauthorized by Congress this Year

FOR RELEASE:February 22, 2007
Contact: Katherine McLane, Trey Ditto(202) 401-1576
More Resources
Photos
Tampa, FL — Today, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings discussed with business leaders, teachers, students and parents the importance of the No Child Left Behind Act and its reauthorization this year.
The No Child Left Behind Act shines a spotlight on the nation's achievement gap and works to ensure that every child in America, regardless of race, income or zip code, receives a quality education.
In a roundtable discussion with local business leaders, Secretary Spellings commended the business community for their important role in ensuring America's students are prepared for college and the workforce.
"For the business community, competitiveness is a critical issue; especially considering the private sector is the largest consumer of talent coming out of our nation's schools," Spellings said. "With 90 percent of the fastest growing jobs requiring post-secondary education or training, a college degree has never been more important."...

The USA Dollar - where is the value?

US household saving rate – source Federal Reserve bank of Saint-Louis

The fall off in American's saving began when The Baby Boomers attempted to rescue their retirements by assessing the stock market, quite frankly. The popularity of 401Ks replaced savings and the average American didn't feel alienated from Wall Street. However, the Bush Administration has brought a devalued dollar, corruption to lending, a bankrupt mortgage market and with that reality a gross depletion in whatever did exist in the way of savings by Americans.


Goldman Sachs' total assets versus Federal Reserve bank credit (source Financial Sense University)


US economy: Perfusion by Fed and Wall Street conceals recession - Decoded news (June 5, 2007) - (click here)

Paulson has done nothing to improve the fiscal accountability between the USA and China. The reason is primarily due to the aggressive nature of the Neocon Bush administration, it's willingness 'to go to guns' outside the propriety of the International Standards of engagement, it's aggression at the Russian borders; that also would eventually compromise China if Russia were to be invaded and fall to border issues of instability. And who needs over 1 billion people in a country with an unstable government?

While high hopes were first expected of Paulson, its' obvious he became involved as US Secretary of the Treasury to benefit Goldman-Sachs with insight from inside the anarchic Bush administration. Goldman-Sach's stock values have skyrocketed and placed them 'at advantage' over their competitors, a place they have never been before. THAT reality, in the face of bolstering a company through corruption, in a financial instutition all too willing to thwart it's competition is startlingly concerning and potentially catastrophic. It will cause a shift in the concerns of Goldman-Sachs from the greater community of financial institutions seeking to limit poor management practices impact on a greater market.

AFX News LimitedChina yuan central parity rate set at record 7.4718 to dollar vs 7.4810 (click here)
10.28.07, 9:38 PM ET
BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - The central bank has set the yuan central parity rate at record 7.4718 to the dollar, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trading System.
The rate, published on the official Chinamoney website (www.chinamoney.com.cn), compares with the midpoint of 7.4810 set the previous trading day.
The People's Bank (nasdaq: PBCT - news - people ) of China (PBoC) started setting a daily central parity rate on Jan 4, 2006.
On July 21, 2005, China freed the yuan from its long-standing peg to the dollar in favor of a trade-weighted basket of currencies, and allowed the local unit to appreciate by 2.1 pct. The PBoC allows a trading band of 0.5 pct on either side of the central parity rate...



The recession is on track! With a US growth down to 0.6 percent in the first quarter (1) (even lower than the 0.8 percent anticipated by LEAP/E2020 in our estimation of the US GDP multicurrency evolution), it is a fact that the US economy is at a stop and about to contract (what it has in fact started doing for two quarters already when calculated in euros, British pounds or Yuans; see. GEAB N°15). The housing market keeps falling down (sales went down by -3.2 percent in April), household revenues are negative (-0.1 percent) and their saving rate continues to plunge down to historic levels (-1.3 percent in April) (2),... the list is long of all the indicators currently falling into negative territory. However the « dream merchants » (most of the economic and financial media and experts) prefer to focus on confidence indicators (i.e. subjective indicators, more reactive to the general “atmosphere”, one precisely created by those media and institutional operators) (3).

The "NO BID" contracts placed Halliburton stockholders at bay from suing Richard Cheney, former CEO. It was allowed to keep all it's overcharges to the USA people through the USA Treasury now manned by Hank Paulson even after jettsoning KBR. Now, in wonderful revelation Halliburton may be leaving North American soil forever. Oh, Happy Day ! The USA will no longer have the company that caused the Iraq invasion within it's rhelm of possible aggressor companies. When it leaves the USA it cannot wheeled political influence as it no longer can be a huge contributor to the Republican Party. Halliburton will no longer have the potential to influence wars again. THAT needs to be a lesson to the intelligence communities of the USA government. They need to track potentials in political fiscal realities that provide corruption elected officials with reasons to exploit the American conscience and Treasury.

Halliburton says North American pricing a concern, bullish on other regions (click here)
6 days ago
HOUSTON - Halliburton Co. is gearing up for increased oilfield services work in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America in the coming quarters, though pricing declines for some services in North America remain a concern, the company's chief executive said Monday.
A day after Halliburton reported a 19 per cent rise in third-quarter income, chairman and CEO Dave Lesar said the company was intent on maintaining its growth in the Eastern Hemisphere, where revenue jumped 29 per cent in the July-September period.
In particular, Halliburton opened a manufacturing facility in Malaysia in the most-recent quarter, and plans to open another plant for manufacturing and technology in Singapore by year's end - both to make sure the company has the tools to help customers in the region produce oil and natural gas.
To that end, Halliburton announced in March it would split its corporate headquarters between Houston and Dubai, where Lesar now works, placing him closer to important markets in the Middle East and Asia.
"Our outlook for the Eastern Hemisphere continues to remain very positive," Lesar said in a conference call Monday with investors and analysts.
Halliburton shares, which fell five per cent Friday, rose 22 cents to US$39.07 in afternoon trading Monday. They've traded in a range of $27.65 to $41.95 in the past year....

Conservation within this administration has been horrendous

The Department of the Interior has been highly exploitive of it's power in managing the nation's assets, including delisting species still delicate in their stability. The American Bald Eagle is the first to be delisted while developers scrambled for lands once protected. Noted in the radio interview at NPR openly states, in not so many words, there was no protection of the newly and returned nesting areas. That reality allows for exploitation of wealth seekers while the population of American Bald Eagles will surely drop and potently require a return of the Eagles to the protected lists and once again the engagement of lands where they can once again nest safely. There is simply gross mismangement by this adminisration and in all honesty it is pre-mediated. This much disarray of species protections comes because of 'desire to dismantle' rather than simply incompetency.



Bald Eagle Comes Off Endangered List (click here for link)

Radio link (click here)

Day to Day, June 28, 2007 · The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that it is removing the American bald eagle from the nation's list of threatened and endangered species. Al Cecere, founder and president of the American Eagle Foundation, talks with Anthony Brooks.



Within the mismangement of these initiatives is also a developing issue with the public as to what delisting means. The public was never provided any overview to the delisting, just that American Bald Eagles were now fair game. :



Polk County
Officials: Man cited after shooting of bald eagle (click here)
October 23, 2007



Oregon teenager accused of killing bald eagle (click here)
Oct 23, 2007
By The Associated Press
SHERIDAN, Ore. — A Sheridan teenager has been charged with killing a bald eagle along the Willamette River.


Terry rancher to pay $15,000 in restitution for eagle deaths (click here)
Oct 26, 2007
The Associated Press
BILLINGS — A Terry rancher whose efforts to poison skunks and raccoons ended with the unintentional deaths of three eagles has been ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution.
Ronald E. Tibbetts, 61, was also given six months of unsupervised probation.


The Bush administration pre-meditatedly acts to undermine the authority of legislation long standing in this country as some of the most moral of it's initiatives. The Bush/Cheney draft to undermine The Endangered Species Act is being exploited by the timber industry before it received public hearings and appropriate passage into legislation. With the filing of this lawsuit, the timber industry nationally is ravaging forests. Yesterday in passing some forested areas along I-40 in North Carolina, I noted 'fragmented' forests near the road and clearing of trees where ever possible, while at times leaving simply a highway 'lined' with perhaps a forest only 30 feet in width but giving the perception of an entire forest in daylight hours.

The Bush administration is again commiting treason and empowering zealotry in an industry intent on exploiting profits at every turn before their damages are realized and stopped by the people of states and the nation. This is all pre-mediated and longly lusted assaults against the moral content of the legislation of the American public, now with decades of investment and soon to be 'reinvestment' when this administration finally is ousted or leaves DC. As noted in the article below the lawsuit filed by the timber industry was all inside information from the Bush Administration with a date one month previous to public knowledge.



Timber Industry Uses Draft Bush Endangered Species Act Regulations (click here)
Lawsuit seeks removal of marbled murrelet from threatened species list, elimination of old-growth forest protections
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 30, 2007
For more information, please contact:
Kristen Boyles, Earthjustice, 206-343-7340, X33
Noah Greenwald, Center for Biological Diversity, 503-484-7495
Scott Greacen, EPIC, 707-476-8340
...The timber lawsuit was filed on March 7, 2007, nearly one month before the draft regulations surfaced. Industry lawyers are trying to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the marbled murrelet from the federal threatened list under a provision of the draft regulations. Current regulations contain no such requirement.
"The murrelet is just the tip of the iceberg," said Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist for the Center for Biological Diversity. "These draft regulations are really a rewrite of the Endangered Species Act itself, a litigation magnet designed to help industry strip protection from hundreds of endangered species."...

Whoever would consider the NRA a Conservation proponent WILLING to stand upto the Bush Administration. The NRA has reaped enormous enthusiasm under this administration while war promotes gun interest and the lack of regulation, allowing The Assault Weapons Ban to lapse; the NRA also took issue with the grossly exploitive Bush Interior Department.


NRA Pressured To Resist Bush Energy Policies (click here)
Hunters Wary of Limited Land Access
By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 7, 2007; Page A03
SEATTLE -- After years of close association with the Republican Party and hard-nosed opposition to federal land-use regulation, the National Rifle Association is being pressured by its membership to distance itself from President Bush's energy policies that have opened more public land for oil and gas drilling and limited access to hunters and anglers.
"The Bush administration has placed more emphasis on oil and gas than access rights for hunters," said Ronald L. Schmeits, second vice president of the NRA, a member of its board of directors and a bank president in Raton, N.M....


I believe this is a wonderful idea, but, when this type of program is met with poor examples set by the USA and it's willingly exploitive industries; there raises the question as to what exactly will come out of the program in the way of sustainability and quite frankly $4 million is a token to the monies actually needed for these countries. Species protections are important but sustainability is of utmost importance while working with the United Nations Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (click here) in a warming world dominated in contribution of CO2 by the USA.


The United States Announces 33 Grants to Support $4 million in Conservation Projects for Elephants, Tigers, Great Apes and Rhinoceroses in 17 Countries (click here)
U.S. Department of the Interior
Office of the Secretary
June 13, 2007
THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The United States of America today announced 33 Grants totaling more than $1.7 million to support conservation of Asian elephants, great apes, rhinoceroses, and tigers in 17 countries.
International conservation organizations and other partners will contribute more than $2 million in matching funds for a total of more than $4 million to support conservation projects for the species.
“The American people have a great love and appreciation for wildlife and want to support the efforts of other nations to protect and conserve these species,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior Todd Willens. “Combining these grants with the matching funds put up by partners, we will monitor and study elephants, tigers and rhinos, ensure they are protected from poaching and other illegal activities and enable their habitat to be conserved.”
“Through this partnership approach, we are leveraging our conservation dollars to provide the greatest benefit to these species,” Willens said.
Willens made the announcement as the head of the U.S. delegation to the on-going 14th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
The United States is awarding the grants to support voluntary conservation efforts in cooperation with local communities and landowners in Cambodia, India, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Russia, Cameroon, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Nigeria, Republic of Congo and Liberia....

...the Bush attacks on Social Security....

Implications of the Bush budget for people over 55 (click here)


It was the Baby Boomer's fault they were born evidently. The entire myth surrounding SSI stating it needs to be revamped, takes 'opportunity' of a dispreportionate number of people coming into the 'system' with this aging generation. It gives no credit to the resourcefulness of the Baby Boomer generation, their desire to stay involved and vital as well as connected to fiscal independance. It never discusses the social trend of this generation to rely on their own resources, the income INTO the USA Treasury of those additional earnings hence counter balancing the deficit they create. It's a good estimate, the Baby Boomer Generation will carry it's own deficit in SSI to provide a continuation of a government supplement to the next generations of Americans that remains intact in it's heritage from FDR. Those aspects of reality are never discussed or incorporated into facts, figures and charts.


Social Security: Bush's Lies vs. Reality (click here)




Bush's Social Security Plan Is Said to Require Vast Borrowing (click on)
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON
Published: November 28, 2004

...The budget deficit in the year ended Sept. 30 was $413 billion. The total national debt is about $7.5 trillion, including $3 trillion owed by the government to itself, much of it in the form of the Social Security trust fund. Rising debt forces the government to pay out more of its revenue in interest payments, and can put upward pressure on the interest rates paid by businesses and consumers....

...Senator John E. Sununu of New Hampshire and Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, both Republicans, have sponsored legislation that would allow workers to contribute more to their personal accounts than most other plans proposed by members of Congress and outside groups and would not require tax increases or benefit cuts. But by some estimates it would require nearly $2 trillion in borrowing - and, in the view of its critics, much more - and even then would rely on the idea that the new system would create so much more economic growth that it would partly pay for itself by generating additional tax revenues for the government.

Representative Jim Kolbe, Republican of Arizona, said the government could probably keep new borrowing to $800 billion over 10 years, but only if Congress and the administration are willing to back tax increases and benefit cuts as part of a broad overhaul of the retirement system....

Where do I start with this one?

Shortly after Bush was re-elected in 2004 he started a rant about SSI and demanded $2 trillion for it's 'reorganization' to begin privatization. He startled the nation and with over half the USA already traumatized by the overt illegality and immorality of the Iraq invasion, there was a shift in Republicans as well when Bush openly assaulted SSI. The country had just witnessed as well a return to the inequity of Medicare and subscribed to a perscription drug program KNOWN to be wrongly lead and allowed corrupt structure, but, it rationalized anyway as a good program because it provided a much needed benefit to seniors and the disabled.

Basically, the Medicare Perscription Drug Program is known to be corrupt, but, it is tolerated because a Republican Majority at the time demanded same. They were more interested in causing fiscal damage to the country than prudent and just policy because if the people of the USA would not stand behind the demise of SSI, Bush would attempt to assault the social programs by loading domestic budgets while separating the military budget. When SSI becomes the major component to the federal budget then it can be opened to legislation to trim it change it. That is why the tax cuts as well. Bush is attempting to privatize SSI in which ever way he can. Not that it is an agenda of the MAJORITY of Americans, but, only an agenda of the MAJORITY of wealthy Republicans.

SSI and Medicare/Medicaid need protectors and better advocates with moral character enough to secure the needs of Americans away from fiscal immoralists such as Republican Conservatives whom see the country as a black hole for their 2% Upper Class monies.

The Medicare Perscription Drug Program can do better, but, it's going to take Democrats to fix it. The only answer the Republicans have is to allow exploitation of it to increase the costs so Americans in this generation or next will see the benefit in dismantling it all together.

A Serious Drug Problem (click here)

...Another answer is to point to the haste with which key players in the drug bill's passage cashed in - making the claims that they wrote a pharma-friendly Medicare bill out of genuine concern for the public's welfare look ludicrous.

Let's look at just two examples.

Billy Tauzin, who shepherded the drug bill through when he was a member of Congress, now heads the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the all-powerful industry lobby group, for an estimated $2 million a year. In his new job, he's making novel arguments against allowing Americans to buy cheaper drugs from Canada: Al Qaeda, he suggests, might use fake Viagra tablets to get anthrax into this country.

Meanwhile, Thomas Scully, the former Medicare administrator - who threatened to fire Medicare's chief actuary if he gave Congress the real numbers on the drug bill's cost - was granted a special waiver from the ethics rules. This allowed him to negotiate for a future health industry lobbying job at the very same time he was pushing the drug bill.

If all this sounds like a story of a corrupt deal created by a corrupt system, it is. And it was a very expensive deal indeed. According to the Medicare trustees, the fiscal gap over the next 75 years created by the 2003 law - not the financing gap for Medicare as a whole, just the additional gap created by legislation passed 18 months ago - will be $8.7 trillion....