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Stocks Follow Oil Lower on Reserve Talks

Sat, 2012-03-31 00:52 — Kathy Gilbeaux

A man refuels his car as gas prices are reflected into the windows of the United Oil gas station in Los Angeles, California March 24, 2012.  REUTERS/Bret Hartman

Reuters - by Rodrigo Campos - March 28, 2012

(Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Wednesday as the U.S. and some European governments mulled the release of strategic oil reserves, while commodity-related shares weighed on global equities.

U.S. stocks closed weaker, though far from the day's lows, in the wake of economic data that was slightly below expectations.

France, the United States and Britain are in talks about the possible release of strategic oil stocks to help push fuel prices lower, French ministers said, only weeks ahead of the country's presidential election. Purchasing power is among voters' top concerns.

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Special Report - Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX)

Thu, 2012-03-29 23:03 — Kathy Gilbeaux

28 March 2012

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX) on 28 March. The report assesses the evidence that climate change has led to changes in climate extremes and the extent to which policies to avoid, prepare for, respond to and recover from the risks of disaster can reduce the impact of such events. Please click here for an IPCC press release on the report, and here for the report itself.

http://www.ipcc.ch/news_and_events/news.shtml#.T3UOlfXh98F

Special Report - Overview

http://ipcc-wg2.gov/SREX/

Special Report - Press Release (4 page .PDF file)

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Global Warming Presents Historic Disaster Risk, Report Says

Thu, 2012-03-29 21:59 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Samuel Bendett

      

Mumbai is among the densely populated cities that scientists say is at great risk. (Photo: Getty Images)

by Seth Borenstein - Associated Press - yahoo.com - March 28, 2012

WASHINGTON — Global warming is leading to such severe storms, droughts, and heat waves that nations should prepare for an unprecedented onslaught of deadly and costly weather disasters, an international panel of climate scientists said in a new report issued Wednesday.

The greatest threat from extreme weather is to highly populated, poor regions of the world, the report warns, but no corner of the globe — from Mumbai to Miami — is immune. The document by a Nobel Prize-winning panel of climate scientists forecasts stronger tropical cyclones and more frequent heat waves, deluges, and droughts.

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George Clooney's Satellite Spies Reveal Secrets of Sudan's Bloody Army

Wed, 2012-03-28 16:55 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

George Clooney on a visit to the Zamzam refugee camp in north Darfur in 2008. Photograph: Sherren Zorba/AP

by Paul Harris - guardian.co.uk - March 24, 2012

Actor and activist funds a hi-tech project that is tracking troops and warning civilians of attacks.

Nathaniel Raymond is the first to admit that he has an unusual job description. "I count tanks from space for George Clooney," said the tall, easygoing Massachusetts native as he sat in a conference room in front of a map of the Sudanese region of South Kordofan.

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Fukushima Reactor Water Level Shallower Than Thought

Tue, 2012-03-27 23:19 — Kathy Gilbeaux

yomiuri.co.jp - March 28, 2012

The water level in the containment vessel of the No. 2 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is only about 60 centimeters deep, far shallower than previously assumed levels of about four meters, according to Tokyo Electric Power Co.

The lower-than-expected water level was discovered for the first time when the power utility used an industrial endoscope to check the crippled reactor's interior on Monday, TEPCO said.

According to some experts, it is possible that nuclear fuel that melted through the reactor's pressure vessel and accumulated on the bottom of the containment vessel in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami may not be completely covered in the water.

TEPCO said the water temperature in the vessel remained relatively low within a range of 48.5 C to 50 C. The discovery of the unexpectedly shallow water level will not affect TEPCO's judgment that the reactor is in a state of "cold shutdown."

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120327006202.htm

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Global Change - Anthropocene - The Geology of Humanity

Tue, 2012-03-27 15:23 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Nguyen Huu Ninh

igbp.net - March 19, 2012 - Global Change Magazine No. 78

In this issue, we take a look at the Anthropocene, humanity's epoch. We also examine urban expansion, consumption of resources, natural catastrophes' effects on economics and how to better build our future.

http://www.igbp.net/5.1081640c135c7c04eb48000371.html

Anthropocene - The Geology of Humanity (32 page .PDF file)

http://www.igbp.net/download/18.1081640c135c7c04eb480001182/NL78-for_web.pdf

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Insights from Past Millennia into Climatic Impacts on Human Health and Survival

Tue, 2012-03-27 11:20 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Janine Rees

      

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov - by A. J. McMichael - National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia.

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Dr. Kim and the Future of the World Bank

Sun, 2012-03-25 15:42 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

Photograph by Ramin Talaie/Bloomberg/Getty Images

by John Cassidy - newyorker.com - March 23, 2012

So President Obama’s pick to head the World Bank wasn’t Larry Summers, and it wasn’t Susan Rice, and it wasn’t Jeff Sachs. It was Jim Yong Kim, the president of Dartmouth College—a man most Americans have never heard of. . .

. . . Kim, a Korean-born physician and anthropologist who taught at Harvard Medical School, is a pioneering figure in building public-health delivery systems for developing countries. . .

. . . In the past twenty years, the biggest change in the field of economic development and poverty reduction has been the integration of public-health initiatives with traditional lending programs.

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Exercise 24: Using Social Media for Crisis Response

Sun, 2012-03-25 14:05 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Samuel Bendett

      

worldfinancialreview.com - By George H. Bressler, Murray E. Jennex & Eric G. Frost

“Can populations self-organize a crisis response? This is a field report on the first two efforts in a continuing series of exercises termed Exercise 24 or X24. These exercises attempted to demonstrate that self-organizing groups can form and respond to a crisis using low-cost social media and other emerging web technologies.”

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Firefly Technology Sheds New Light

Thu, 2012-03-22 13:34 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The light-producing enzyme in the firefly is the key to rapid pathogen detection // Source: cri.cn

submitted by Luis Kun

Homeland Security News Wire - March 22, 2012

A new device, employing the same chemical which lights up fireflies, can easily detect food contamination; the researchers who developed the system hope it will soon be used to test for other diseases, including HIV-AIDS.

Food contamination can now be detected easily by a new device based on the chemical which lights up fireflies.

The Bioluminescent Assay in Real-Time (BART), jointly invented by Professor Jim Murray of the Cardiff University’s School of Biosciences and Dr. Laurence Tisi of Lumora, allows users to test rapidly and simply for food poisoning bacteria. Professor Murray and his partners at technology company Lumora Ltd. hope to develop the system to test for other diseases, including HIV-AIDS.

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