The War of Models in the Bay

The Big News in the Bay for the week is that USDA released a report yesterday that touted conservation programs already in place in the agriculture industry, many of them voluntary, as having a beneficial effect on the Bay:

"Agriculture plays an important role in protecting water quality and maintaining economic stability in this watershed," said Dave White, Chief of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, as he announced the study results today. "This study confirms that farmers are reducing sediment and nutrient losses from their fields. Our voluntary, incentives-based conservation approach is delivering significant and proven results. This study will help us improve our conservation practices in the Chesapeake Bay area."

The study also shows that there are opportunities for further reductions of sediment and nutrient losses from agriculture by focusing conservation activities on the most vulnerable acres. Well managed farmland is among the best land uses for sustaining natural resources in the watershed. Conserving working lands will be instrumental in meeting objectives for a healthy Chesapeake Bay.

Key findings of the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) study include:

• Conservation practices have reduced edge-of-field losses of sediment by 55 percent, nitrogen in surface runoff by 42 percent, nitrogen in subsurface flow by 31 percent and phosphorus by 40 percent.
• Targeting enhances effectiveness and efficiency. Use of additional conservation practices on acres with a high need for additional treatment can reduce per-acre sediment and nutrient losses by more than twice that of treatment of acres with low or moderate conservation needs.
• Comprehensive conservation planning and implementation are essential. The study shows that the most significant conservation concern on cultivated cropland in the watershed is the loss of nitrogen by leaching and overland flow. Suites of conservation practices that include soil erosion and comprehensive nutrient management are required to address soil erosion and nutrient losses simultaneously.

The report is based on a computer model similar in many ways to EPA's Chesapeake Bay Model, which differs somewhat in it's input data, and parametrization.

To paraphrase Tom Lehrer, "Models are like sewers.  What you get out of them is what you put into them."

The USDA model has been well received by farmers and their advocates, as it somewhat mitigates the apparent impact of agriculture on the Bay, and they are using is as an excuse to cast doubt on the EPA model and the resulting TMDLs that put a considerable emphasis on reducing nutrient inputs into the Bay by putting the squeeze on agriculture.

Such attempts were not well received by advocates of EPAs approach, or even more stringent restrictions.  After all, they don't grow Chilean Sea Bass on the Eastern Shore...

I will offer one rebuttal that had to be largely written in anticipation of the USDA report, an article from Chesapeake Bay Foundation, citing one of their own experts, Dr. Beth McGee as to why the USDA study was erroneous:

...The LimnoTech report levied criticisms at the computer model used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop the Chesapeake Bay ‘pollution diet’ or Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). Specifically, the report compared the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) Partnership’s Watershed Model to one used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) report for the Chesapeake Bay Region. LimnoTech alleges that differences between the two modeling efforts draw into question the validity of using the CBP Watershed model to develop the Bay TMDL. This contention is completely without merit. Not only is the CBP Watershed Model a fully valid basis for the TMDL, the CEAP report reaffirms the need for agriculture to do far more to reduce its water quality impacts.

The CBP Watershed Model and the CEAP model were developed for two different purposes. The CBP Watershed Model was created as a management decision-making tool to assist with the development of the TMDL and includes comparable information about multiple pollution sources. The CEAP model is more narrowly focused on evaluating the effects of conservation practices on cropland. Because they were developed independently to achieve different goals, it is not surprising the modeling framework and several model parameters (e.g., hydrology, time frame, spatial scale) differ. Hence, comparing the models is like comparing apples to oranges.

At its core, the LimnoTech report is an attempt by national agribusiness lobbying groups to discredit the Chesapeake Bay TMDL and delay efforts to clean up the region’s rivers, streams, and the Chesapeake Bay. The Bay TMDL is a scientifically-based tool developed over a decade in collaboration with numerous federal, state, and academic partners using a state of the art model that peer reviews have validated time and time again. ANPC’s efforts to undermine the TMDL by attacking the credibility of the CBP Watershed Model distracts us from the real issue that agriculture, like all other sources of pollution, must do more if we are to restore the Chesapeake and the rivers that feed it.

I won't pass judgment on either model; my modeling expertise is minimal, and I have a jaundiced view of modeling in general.  As I have seen over and over, people who go looking for facts in a model tend to find what they expect to (and what they programmed into it).  All models are only approximations of a larger system, much of which evades capture. I'm only going to shout this once: ALL MODELS ARE WRONG, THE ONLY QUESTIONS ARE HOW WRONG AND IN WHAT WAYS!

I would say that the editorial by CBF repeatedly takes a cheap shot, constantly referring to the USDA study as the "LimnoTech report" and implying that they are industrial stooges of the agriculture. I daresay that most of the modeling carried out by EPA is actually done under contract to big environmental firms too.  So it would be fair for the farm organizations to call the CPB Watershed model the "Environ Model" or the "TetraTech model" depending on who did the majority of the work.

The EPA and USDA simply represent two different interest groups within the Federal government.  EPA largely represents the environmental lobby, the regulate everything, regardless of costs approach, while the USDA represents the "don't regulate us, we're too important" lobby for farmers.

I'm willing to bet that in the long run, the facts will show that neither model catches the truth all that well, and that the truth is likely to lie somewhere between the two.

Scientists Study Man's Perfect Fallibility

Scientists Baffled By Man's Incredible Ability To Fuck Up Every Time

BALTIMORE—Neurologists at Johns Hopkins University confirmed Monday they remain completely baffled by Rockville, MD resident Erik Collins, a man who possesses an extraordinary and previously undocumented ability to fuck everything up.

According to Dr. William Moore, head of a research team studying exactly how Collins manages to drop the goddamn ball every single time, the 32-year-old sales associate represents a major conundrum for modern science.

"We've never seen these cognitive abilities in a human subject before," said Moore, adding that Collins invariably misses important appointments, fails to call loved ones on their birthdays, and runs out of gas at busy intersections. "Probability dictates that even the biggest fuckups should occasionally get things right, if only by accident. But not Erik. We observed him making breakfast in 72 experimental trials, and 72 times he ended up with an inedible gray mush."

"Seriously, how does anyone screw up toast?" Moore added.

I think I had him as an intern.

Happy Saint Paddy's Day

Who knew it was so easy...

Some  More Saint Patrick's Girls below

Hey, Let's Pick On the Fat Slow Kid

The would be victim has, of course, become an internet hero.  Now the skinny aggressor's Mum wants the fat boy to apologize.

The shocking footage was viewed on thetelegraph.com.au four times more than the devastation that has struck Japan.

UPDATE - Correction: Skinny kid's Mom wants skinny kid to apologize.  That's better.

When You really Have to Go...

...Go make a good decision

What should you do when you really, REALLY have to "go"? Make important life decisions, maybe. Controlling your bladder makes you better at controlling yourself when making decisions about your future, too, according to a study to be published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science...

That must be why I make such great decisions after three beers.

PRFC To Allow Oyster Gardening in the Potomac

PRFC reverses stand on oyster gardening

The Potomac River Fisheries Commission has decided to permit oyster gardening and is seeking other new ways to restore the once- plentiful, now nearly extinct species to the river.

The commission's actions came at its meeting in Colonial Beach last week, when it also received a report that just 72 bushels of oysters had been harvested from the river since the season opened in November...

72 bushels in a year? Back in the glory days of oysters, that might have been a mediocre day for a single boat, among hundreds.

...Disease, over-harvesting, nutrient pollution from farms and lawns and the naturally slow rate of Potomac oyster reproduction are often cited as reasons for the decline.

The decline has also caused the near disappearance of fees that the bistate commission once collected to replenish oyster grounds in the river...

No need replenish a resource that isn't being utilized.  Maybe if they just didn't fish them, there might be a few more.

...The commission's decision Friday to allow oyster gardening for non-commercial purposes may help add a few bushels to the river's oyster grounds.

The new policy reverses the PRFC's previous ban on oyster gardening in the river. The prohibition was based on a provision in PRFC's enabling legislation that forbids private leasing of the river's oyster grounds.

The new policy allows oysters to be grown in floats under piers for environmental and educational purposes. The policy stipulates that oyster gardens at piers on the Maryland shore of the river must follow Maryland guidelines and gardens on the Virginia shore must follow Virginia guidelines...

Boy, that must have taken a lot of courage...

My Fishing Hole in the News

Again

There are no views of the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant from any of the major roads that run through Lusby. Its two reactors sit in a wooded area along the Chesapeake Bay. The entrance is marked by a modest sign. But for those who live within its 10-mile evacuation zone, the plant makes its presence known in other ways.  

Ooh, that makes it sound so mysterious.  Never mind that it is plainly visible for miles north and south from the Bay.

There are siren towers and free supplies of potassium iodide pills at the health department. There is the feeling of unease on the part of drivers sitting in traffic on the two-lane Thomas Johnson Bridge — the main evacuation route for towns south of the plant. And then there are crises at other nuclear power plants such as the one at the Fukushima Daiichi facility in Japan triggered by last Friday’s massive earthquake and tsunami.

Many residents take comfort in knowing that Solomons Island doesn’t sit on a faultline the size of the San Andreas, and the Chesapeake Bay has more Atlantic sturgeon than it does tsunamis.

“The circumstances are completely different here. What’s more likely are hurricanes and tornadoes,” said Susan Shaw (R-Huntingtown), president of the Calvert Board of County Commissioners.

Shaw and others also note that there is a difference in the design of the reactors at the two plants. The Fukushima Daiichi plant has boiling water reactors, in which the water that circulates around the core turns into steam that is then used to turn turbines and generate electricity.

But it doesn't have a lot more sturgeon...  But then the article descends into the usual anti-nuclear hit job.

The Calvert Cliffs plant, by contrast, has pressurized water reactors, in which the water that circulates around the reactor’s core is kept under pressure so that it stays in liquid form. The liquid, which is radioactive, is then pumped through a series of tiny tubes. More water circulates around the tiny tubes and turns into steam used to generate electricity.

The difference in design, however, doesn’t necessarily make one safer than the other, experts said. The reactor at Three Mile Island near Middletown, Pa., which resulted in a partial-core meltdown, was a pressurized water reactor.

 

Few local residents have publicly expressed concerns about the plant’s safety or about expanding it. During hearings several years ago about adding another reactor, most of the opponents who showed up did not live near the plant, or even in the county.

One reason, said several residents, is that speaking out against the plant is unpopular.

That's right, we're all such meanies.We like jobs, and power coming on when we flick the switch, and petite bourgeoisie things like that.  Or maybe the vast majority of people who live near the plant aren't in the least concerned by its presence.

Norma Powers, who lives in Dowell, about eight miles from the plant, has been the most vocal resident critic.

Powers moved to the area in the 1980s for a job with the U.S. Navy, years before she learned she would be neighbor to a nuclear power plant. Now 72, she lives on a street with a siren tower. She gets an earful when the plant tests them quarterly.

She has envisioned catastrophic scenarios, such as an explosion at the liquid natural gas plant that is practically next door to the nuclear power plant. “Mother Nature has proven she can exceed reasonable expectations,” she said.

The possibility of an accident “always crosses our mind. It’s a constant worry,” said Megan Dinopoulos, 45, of Lusby. She said she thinks about it whenever she gets stuck in traffic on the Thomas Johnson Bridge. Crossing the 1 1 / 2-mile span can take as long as 45 minutes.

Powers said she and her husband, Bill Lewis, have yet to pick up free potassium iodide pills at the health department because they don’t plan to stick around in the event of a meltdown. “I’m going to get the [heck] out of here,” she said.

And therein lies one of her main issues: the dearth of evacuation routes. For those south of the plant, Route 4 is not possible since it goes right past the plant.

Her other option is to take to the water. “If we had a fast boat,” Powers said, “but we have a sailboat, so that wouldn’t do.

If she were really concerned she could move away,or even buy a real boat.  And while I'm not really concerned myself, if I were, I'd have my KI tablets at hand.  Come to think of it, I think we still have ours from when they distributed it free fter 9/11.  Not to mention a 500 g bottle at work.

But maybe this will discourage the other fishermen for a while..............  Nah, no such luck.

Zombies Found in Brazil

Zombie ants that is...

Four new Brazilian species in the genus Ophiocordyceps have been published in the online journal PLoS ONE. The fungi, named by Dr. Harry Evans and Dr. David Hughes, belong to a group of "zombifying" fungi that infect ants and then manipulate their behavior, eventually killing the ants after securing a prime location for spore dispersal.

So if you can have fungi making zombies out of ants, why not humans?  Well, fungi have had a lot more time to work on ants, for one thing. However, toxoplasmosis has been observed to cause behavior changes in rats and mice that make them less fearful of cats, and hence likely to infect the cats.  It has been speculated that it may cause similar behavior changes in men...

NASA Denies Claim of Extra-Terrestrial Life

NASA disavows its scientist's claim of alien life

Top scientists in different disciplines immediately found pitfalls in a newly published examination of three meteorites that went viral on the Internet over the weekend. NASA and its top scientists disavowed the work by noon Monday.

Biologists said just because it looks as though the holes were made by bacteria doesn't make them fossils of extraterrestrial microbes. The meteorites could be riddled with Earthly contamination. And both astronomers and biologists complained that the study was not truly reviewed by peers.

There are questions about the credentials of the study's author, Richard Hoover. And the work appeared in an online journal that raises eyebrows because even its editor acknowledges it may have to shut down in June and that one reason for publishing the controversial claim was to help find a buyer.

"There's a lot of stuff there, but not a lot of science," said Rosie Redfield, a microbiologist at the University of British Columbia, who publicly dissected the paper over the weekend. "I looked at it and shuddered."...

 You might recall I expressed doubts....


I am a little disappointed.  I do want scenes like this in the future...

Hearing on Poaching Tomorrow

From CBFs BayBlog

At 1 p.m. tomorrow (March 16), the House Environmental Matters Committee will hold hearings on two bills that would crack down on the illegal harvest of fish, crabs and oysters. The first, House Bill 1154, sponsored by state Del. James Gilchrist and colleagues, would allow the state to revoke the commercial fishing licenses for people who fish will illegal nets or equipment or commit other violations. The second, House Bill 1225, would allow the state to impose a $25,000 fine or imprisonment of up to a year for commercial fishing on a revoked or suspended license.

A convenient time.  Recreational fisherman have other jobs, but commercial fishermen will be there in good numbers, you can be sure.

Who Knew Snakes Liked Silicone?

Japan Jokes Jam Joker

Gilbert Gottfried's jokes about Japan just cost him his job as the Aflac Duck

Gilbert Gottfried, a noted non-believer in “too soon,” has so far suffered the biggest blowback: His series of 12-in-a-row mocking tweets about Japan just got him fired by Aflac, for whom he’s provided the voice of the insurer’s spokes-duck for over a decade. Although Gottfried has since deleted them from his Twitter page, The Hollywood Reporter shares a couple of the offending jokes, like:

“Japan is really advanced. They don't go to the beach. The beach comes to them,” and,

“I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, 'There'll be another one floating by any minute now.”

Aflac, who does 75 percent of its business in Japan, swiftly issued a statement saying that Gottfried’s statements “certainly do not represent the thoughts and feelings of anyone at Aflac,” and pledging $100 million toward disaster relief. It’s also announced a nationwide casting call to find a new voice to play the duck, so here’s your big chance, guy who does a passable Gilbert Gottfried impersonation but knows when to keep his mouth shut.

I guess that's one way to encourage your employer to contribute.

Massive Sewage Spill in Baltimore

When it rains, it pours.

...Nearly 4.7 million gallons of untreated but diluted wastewater overflowed from city sewer lines during Thursday's downpour, spilling down city streets and flooding the lower level of the Penn Station parking garage, a city public works spokesman said Monday.

Six different major sewage overflows occurred in the city, according to spokesman Kurt Kocher, with the largest dumping 4.4 million gallons into the Jones Falls in the 400 block of E. Eager St. near the Baltimore Detention Center...

I pisses me off that cities won't pay enough to take care of their own wastes.  The citizens of Maryland as a whole are to be held responsible for the failure of Baltimore to keep it's own shit under control, through the "Flush Tax."  That's money that we could use to upgrade our own septic systems, which the state is arguing is such a problem that it need to to replace with sewage systems, that they would no doubt allow to overflow...

The overall sewage overflow for that one day surpassed all the spills reported by the city for the previous two years combined — 1.6 million gallons in 2010 and 2.2 million gallons in 2009. Sewage overflows and chronic dry-weather leaks are among the major causes of the high bacteria levels that render Baltimore's harbor and the streams that feed into it unsafe for swimming or wading.

 And it's supposed to rain again tomorrow.

The Inflated Millionaire

U.S. millionaires say $7 million not enough to be rich

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A million dollars ain't what it used to be.

More than four out of ten American millionaires say they do not feel rich. Indeed many would need to have at least $7.5 million in order to feel they were truly rich, according to a Fidelity Investments survey.

Some 42 percent of the more than 1,000 millionaires surveyed by Fidelity said they did not feel wealthy. Respondents had at least $1 million in investable assets, excluding any real estate or retirement accounts.

"Every person in the survey is wealthy," said Sanjiv Mirchandani, president of National Financial, a unit of Fidelity. "But they are still worried about outliving their assets."

The average age of respondents was 56 years old with a mean of $3.5 million of investable assets. The threshold for "rich" rose with age...

Why am I not shocked that everybody would feel better with twice the amount of money they currently have?

RIP Owsley

Psychedelic icon Owsley Stanley dies in Australia

Owsley “Bear” Stanley, a 1960s counterculture figure who flooded the flower power scene with LSD and was an early benefactor of the Grateful Dead, died in a car crash in his adopted home country of Australia on Sunday, his family said. He was believed to be 76.

The renegade grandson of a former governor of Kentucky, Stanley helped lay the foundation for the psychedelic era by producing more than a million doses of LSD at his labs in San Francisco’s Bay Area.

“He made acid so pure and wonderful that people like Jimi Hendrix wrote hit songs about it and others named their band in its honor,” former rock ‘n’ roll tour manager Sam Cutler wrote in his 2008 memoirs “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

Hendrix’s song “Purple Haze” was reputedly inspired by a batch of Stanley’s product, though the guitarist denied any drug link. The ear-splitting blues-psychedelic combo Blue Cheer took its named from another batch.

But he wasn't just an underground chemist, he was an original rock and roll sound engineer too: 

Stanley briefly managed the Grateful Dead, and oversaw every aspect of their live sound at a time when little thought was given to amplification in public venues. His tape recordings of Dead concerts were turned into live albums.

The Dead wrote about him in their song “Alice D. Millionaire” after a 1967 arrest prompted a newspaper to describe Stanley as an “LSD millionaire.” Steely Dan’s 1976 single “Kid Charlemagne” was loosely inspired by Stanley’s exploits.

Pi is Wrong

Not incorrect, just wrong...



Yesterday was National Pi Day, you know, 3.14...

Maryland House Drops Same Sex Marriage

No mention of group marriage, incestuous marriage, or human/animal marriage.  Next year maybe...

What's the News on the Bay Today?

Not much really, mostly the same old same old:

A few articles discussing O'Malley's septic proposal. Septic law would hurt local budgets, O'Malley continues push on septics bill in face of resistance, Septic Bill Looks To Be On Life Support, and Septic issue needs careful consideration. The point of view seems to depend mostly on whether their readership's ox is being gored or fattened.

Bill Kraegel of  Poolesville thinks that environmental education (which I cynically read as environmental propagandizing) is essential for the Bay cleanup.  I would be happier with a well rounded science education, starting with physics, chemistry and biology.  If you don't know those, you can't understand environmental problems.

Some consternation over the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission challenging the EPA's authority, and more consternation that a budget amendment awaiting U.S. Senate approval would block about $300 million of the cleanup effort in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Surprisingly, a newspaper in farm country thinks that the Bay Cleanup plans are unfair to farmers.

Kevin Conner thinks democracy sucks because people don't agree with his priorities.

A couple of light articles:  Hilda M. Willing (what poor grammar!) among last skipjacks, and grow more plants to help save the Bay!

Amazing Sheep Dogs

I've seen something like this before, but it's worth seeing. Sheep dogs, and their herders are amazing. Of course, it doesn't hurt that sheep are dumb.


Amazing sheep light ? brought to you by Videobash

Laurel and Hardy meet Santana

I was over at Theo's reading the articles, and I found this...

Not Skunked - 3/13/11

After a number of trials and tribulations, at last the boat was ready to fishing.  I left around 2 PM.  The wind and waves had come up a bit since the morning, but it  was still pretty nice.  This is a shot of the green marker buoy about a mile off the harbor.  It marks the western side of the channel up Chesapeake Bay,

Fishing was pretty good.  It started slow, but by 3 PM I was catching stripers pretty steadily.    Most of them were smalls, measuring 18 plus or minus a couple inches.  For reference, the green plastic bait is 7 inches long.

 


However, number 11...

 ... who hit around 4 PM, was a pretty good fish, 32 inches and probably 10-12 lbs.  It took me a few minutes to land.  I didn't have landing net, having busted my last one retrieving my glasses from the water yesterday while trying to put the canvas on the boat, so I had to lip it.  It left a rough spot on my finger.

After that, there was a flurry of activity, with one fish after another for about a half hour.

I ended up catching a total of 18 fish.  I lost one that might have been a big one, from the amount of drag it was pulling out before it pulled free.

It started to get a little rough, with water sloshing over the rails, so I bailed about 4:45, before a chance for any sunset pictures.

Beach Report, Sunday, March 13, 2011

It was beautiful at the beach this morning. 50s and warming, and no wind to speak of.  Time to get a new volleyball net.  Pretty soon there will be plenty of demand for it.










Skye seems to be doing very well with the arthritis meds.  We start DuraMax the night before, and keep it up all weekend.  She's still a little sore in the evening, but I'm sure she thinks it's worth it.









We met Charlie and Cheyenne down at the beach.  The dogs did a little playing together, but Cheyenne can run rings around Sky.  Here Cheyenne is bobbing for a sinking stick.  IIRC, she gave up and found a new one on dry land.

Fossil hunting was OK, but not great.  We got around 20 teeth, none of the them good enough for the window sill.  Here is a small, relatively intact Ecphora, Maryland's State Fossil (why not a Megalodon tooth?).  We've never found one that is completely intact, usually the tip is missing.

Could It Happen in the US?

It Already Has:

Not only could a disaster like the one that hit Japan Friday happen in the United States - one already has, and could again, experts said on "The Early Show on Saturday Morning."

The magnitude-8.9 shaker spawned a tsunami that swamped large swaths of northeastern Japan, leaving devastating damage and killing hundreds.

And Dr. Marcia McNutt, director of the U.S. Geological Survey, told c-anchor Rebecca Jarvis, "Every time an event like this happens, it's a wake-up call for us here in America that we need to be prepared."

McNutt said the exact scenario that we saw happen in Japan has already occurred, in the Pacific Northwest.

"Brian Atwater, who's a specialist at the U.S. Geological Survey, has looked back into the geologic record and seen evidence that, on the 26th of January, at 9 p.m., in the year 1700, there was an earthquake that generated a tsunami ... offshore Oregon ... that was actually historically recorded in Japan," McNutt said. "It was the same magnitude as this event. It happened then. It could happen again."

 But it's a real rare event on the left coast, isn't it?

"In the Pacific Northwest, it's certainly a longer time window for the repeating of these kinds of events than it is in Japan (where events like Friday's are thought to happen once a century). It's probably more in the order of 300-to-500 years."

Let's see, 1700 + 300 equals, well, any time now.

McNutt observed that, in the U.S., "Like Japan, for decades, we have been using building codes that are up to date. And so, like Japan, I think happily we can say that modern building codes should withstand strong shaking, and strong earthquakes. But, sadly, I think what this event in Japan has shown us is that something like a wall of water that is six feet high, running six miles inland, or even higher, is something that we are equally unprepared for. And that many of the same kinds of preparedness that we're talking about in terms of hardening our communities to floods, and to sea level rise, might be the very same things we should think about accelerating in terms of preparing ourselves for tsunamis."

Actually, getting communities prepared for tsunamis is much more important than preparing for the continuation of 3 mm/year sea level rise.

Cancer at the Pentagon

Cancer Research, that is

Walter Pincus Saturday, March 12, 2011; 2:44 PM, Washington Post Staff Writer

As the Pentagon seeks to trim spending, there are some programs Congress believes the military can't do without. Among them: cancer research.

For almost 20 years, the Defense Department has been the recipient of more than $3.6 billion for cancer research. The programs have never been requested in any presidential budget, and are outside the Pentagon's traditional mission of battlefield medicine and research...

The pentagon is spending almost 4 billion on cancer research?  What, do they intend to inflict a long, lingering 20 year death on our adversaries? 

...Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has said that the Pentagon, faced with mounting fiscal pressures, plans to cut projected spending by $78 billion over the next five years. He has also acknowledged that "not every defense dollar is sacred or well-spent...

 No $#!* Sherlock...

...The Pentagon's cancer research programs were initiated with a $25 million congressional earmark in 1992 for research on breast cancer. Since then, annual appropriations have increased, and the Pentagon's Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs have expanded to focus on prostate, lung and other kinds of cancers. Most of the spending has gone to individual grants managed through contractors...By contrast, the National Institute of Health's National Cancer Institute spent $600 million on breast cancer research in 2009...

Hmm, so if the work is being contracted out anyway, why not let health professionals, like say NIH/NCI handle it?  Surely they would have a better at being able to judge whether the research being paid for was worthwhile.  IIRC, this shift of "military" funds to cancer research happened at the end of the cold war, when liberals in Congress were looking at military funds to cut or divert as part of  the "peace dividend", though to be fair, G.H.W. Bush was president at the time, and helped popularize the term peace dividend.

...Last year, after Gates first said reductions would have to be made in Defense Department health programs, Johnson received an e-mail from an officer of one of his constituent organizations. The officer expressed concern that the funds could be at risk and cited a Washington Post article focusing attention on the issue.

Johnson replied: "There are far too many votes for Members of Congress who DO control the funding of this program to not continue this funding - this is one of the reasons that Members who like to talk about waste, fraud and abuse who want to cut programs have such a hard time doing so - the political scaffold that supports these programs is often too complicated to bring them down."...

So, like all federal money dumps, this one has a big constituency working to maintain it, and very little recognition/opposition from the country at large.  With the current budget crisis, this program needs to be shifted by to control by health professional, and maybe trimmed back along the way.  Or alternatively, we could give control over weapons acquisition programs to NIH...

Giving CPR/Mouth to Mouth Rescusitation to a Dog

EMBED-Dog's Life Saved Through CPR - Watch more free videos

Our old dog, Sybil, had epileptic fits once in a while, that would essentially knock her over twitching. They were pretty scary, but she would get right up afterward, if a little wobbly. I wonder if something like that was going on here.

No Danger Here

When Exercise Is Too Much of a Good Thing

Recently, researchers in Britain set out to study the heart health of a group of dauntingly fit older athletes. Uninterested in sluggards, the scientists recruited only men who had been part of a British national or Olympic team in distance running or rowing, as well as members of the extremely selective 100 Marathon club, which admits runners who, as you might have guessed, have completed at least a hundred marathons.

All of the men had trained and competed throughout their adult lives and continued to work out strenuously. Twelve were age 50 or older, with the oldest age 67; another 17 were relative striplings, ages 26 to 40. The scientists also gathered a group of 20 healthy men over 50, none of them endurance athletes, for comparison. The different groups underwent a new type of magnetic resonance imaging of their hearts that identifies very early signs of fibrosis, or scarring, within the heart muscle. Fibrosis, if it becomes severe, can lead to stiffening or thickening of portions of the heart, which can contribute to irregular heart function and, eventually, heart failure 

The results, published online a few weeks ago in The Journal of Applied Physiology, were rather disquieting. None of the younger athletes or the older nonathletes had fibrosis in their hearts. But half of the older lifelong athletes showed some heart muscle scarring. The affected men were, in each case, those who’d trained the longest and hardest. Spending more years exercising strenuously or completing more marathon or ultramarathon races was, in this study, associated with a greater likelihood of heart damage...

I believe in moderation in exercise. A long walk on the beach is great, a 26 mile run is insane.

Atlantis Found, Scientist Claims

Lost city of Atlantis, swamped by tsunami, may be found

(Reuters) - A U.S.-led research team may have finally located the lost city of Atlantis, the legendary metropolis believed swamped by a tsunami thousands of years ago in mud flats in southern Spain.

"This is the power of tsunamis," head researcher Richard Freund told Reuters.

"It is just so hard to understand that it can wipe out 60 miles inland, and that's pretty much what we're talking about," said Freund, a University of Hartford, Connecticut, professor who lead an international team searching for the true site of Atlantis.

Virgil Finlay - 'Golden_Atlantis'

Christine Balit - 'AtlantisSinks'

The team of archeologists and geologists in 2009 and 2010 used a combination of deep-ground radar, digital mapping, and underwater technology to survey the site.

Freund's discovery in central Spain of a strange series of "memorial cities," built in Atlantis' image by its refugees after the city's likely destruction by a tsunami, gave researchers added proof and confidence, he said.

Atlantis residents who did not perish in the tsunami fled inland and built new cities there, he added.

The team's findings will be unveiled on Sunday in "Finding Atlantis," a new National Geographic Channel special.

Frank Frazetta - 'Atlantis'

Greek philosopher Plato wrote about Atlantis some 2,600 years ago, describing it as "an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Hercules," as the Straits of Gibraltar were known in antiquity. Using Plato's detailed account of Atlantis as a map, searches have focused on the Mediterranean and Atlantic as the best possible sites for the city.

Tsunamis in the region have been documented for centuries, Freund says. One of the largest was a reported 10-story tidal wave that slammed Lisbon in November, 1755.

Debate about whether Atlantis truly existed has lasted for thousands of years. Plato's "dialogues" from around 360 B.C. are the only known historical sources of information about the iconic city. Plato said the island he called Atlantis "in a single day and night... disappeared into the depths of the sea."

Lorenzo Sperlonga- 'Twilight of Atlantis'

I have to say, I'm rooting for this one.  I don't know what would be required to prove that this city was the one that led to the legends that Plato wrote of.  However, it would not be the first suspect to come to light, and nothing has proven so far.  It's not out of the question that Plato heard multiple stories of cites drowned by the sea and either conflated them, or deliberately combined the stories into the Atlantis myth.

More Earthquake/Tsunami Videos

The water jetting out of the ground is the coolest.

A Beach Walk and a Puzzle

It was a fine spring morning at the beach.  Temperatures started at 45 F, but warmed into the mid 50's over the time we walked.  The wind was light, out of the west, the best of all possible winds.  The tide was high, but sand had built up enough to let us walk down the beach and back without having to detour through streets. 

The buffies are still here, and this one was hanging close to shore, and feeding.

Caught him in mid-plunge. 



Below is a real puzzle.  I'm hoping against hope that this large blob of "stuff" I found on the beach is ambergris.  Ambergris is an intestinal secretion of sperm whales, and was commonly use to help fix the scents of perfume. 

The blob fits the various descriptions of ambergris on the net quite well, the color, texture and scent are all well within variations described for the substance.

The blob is about 35 pounds, mostly a brownish granular texture, with large white inclusions.  It has the texture of soft wax, or heavy clay, and is greasy to the touch.  It has an odd, not terribly offensive odor, a bit fishy, but fairly strong.  

However, if it is proved to be ambergris it would be a highly unusual find.  Ambergris is rare on the ocean, where sperm whales live, but for it to wash into the bay (where sperm whales do not come, as far as I know), and work its way as far up as St. Leonard is pushing the bounds of possibility. 

Ambergris is also still considered a valuable commodity fetching as much as $10-20 a gram (that might be a bit high, though).  I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and I have a couple feelers out to find out if it really is ambergris.

UPDATE 3/14/11: Alas, not ambergris. I consulted two different sources, one in France and one in New Zealand, who looked at photos of the material, and showed me some simple physical tests, which determined that the material is tallow, or some similar animal fat, aged in the bay.

When All You Have is Politics, Everything is Politics

Shameless:

Tsunami Updates

Crescent City harbor 'destroyed' in tsunami; man swept off beach near Klamath missing at sea

It appears Crescent City and southern Oregon bore the brunt of Friday's tsunami, with officials reporting devastated harbors, sunken boats and a total of seven people swept out to sea, one of whom is presumed dead.

Triggered by a massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan, the tsunami caused tides to begin rising sharply shortly after 7:30 a.m. in Crescent City and surges pounded the coastline throughout the day, with some waves reportedly exceeding 8 feet.

Early Friday evening, the U.S. Coast Guard announced it was suspending the search for a 25-year-old man who was swept off the beach near the mouth of the Klamath River. According to officials, the man and two other people had traveled to the coast to take photos of the incoming waves when all three were swept out to sea. According to the Coast Guard, two of the people were able to get safely back to shore but the third man was not.

Authorities had not released the man's identity as of the Times-Standard's deadline Friday.

According to the dispatch center for the Curry County Sheriff's Office in Oregon, four people were also swept off a beach near Brookings after venturing down to the shore to get a closer look at the surge waves. All were able to make it back to shore, and only minor injuries were reported, according to the dispatch center.

Though both harbors were safely evacuated, the surge waves caused extensive damage to the ports in Brookings and Crescent City.

Looking at the storm surge site for Crescent City, it looks like waves continue to roll in and out:






The tsunami hits at McKinleyville, CA, where Georgia's sister and her family live:



A cool time lapse video of the tsunami in Crescent City Harbor:

Michael Moore is a Math Challanged Moron

I opened up my email just after I posted this and saw that Ted had sent it to me last night, so I guess this counts as "$#!* My Brother Sends", too.

Like A Virgin...

Paying to become 'like a virgin' in China

Despite the gradual liberalization of attitudes towards pre-marital sex in China, as well as rampant prostitution and Internet pornography – a woman’s virginity is still highly valued by many men here, especially in rural areas.

So what’s a girl trying to disguise her past sexual experience to do?

Pretend to be a virgin.Search the words “artificial hymen” on Google in Chinese, and you’ll get seven million results. Search “Joan of Arc Red,” and you’ll get over a million results – it’s the biggest selling brand in China’s growing fake hymen market...

“After you put this into the vagina, it’ll dissolve and expand. Have sex in about 20 to 30 minutes, and you’ll ‘bleed’,” explains the instructions. “A better effect will be reached if you appear to be shy and in pain.”

That's what I like, shy and in pain...

Not a big market in the US, except maybe some ethnic enclaves...

Sure, why not, you don't have to watch it...

Man, the Smooth Ape

How man 'lost his penile spines'. 

Scientists believe men once had small spines on their genitalia such as those found in chimpanzees, cats and mice.

Analysis of the genomes of humans, chimpanzees and macaques indicates that a DNA sequence thought to play a role in the production of these spines have been deleted in humans, but has been preserved in other primates.

It suggests another genetic deletion may have led to the expansion of specific regions of the human brain...

You thought I was going to talk about hair?  So why do Chimpanzees and other animals have them, and why (assuming our 4.5 million year old common ancestor had them too) did we lose them?

...Penile spines are barb-like structures found in many mammals. Their role remains under debate, and they may play different roles in different species.

They may increase stimulation for the male during mating. They might also play a part in inducing female ovulation in a small number of species, but there is evidence that they can cause damage to the female too.

Then there is the suggestion that they might have evolved to remove "mating plugs" - material that some male species deposit in the female genital tract to block other males' attempts to fertilise the same female...

You thought French Ticklers were a joke, didn't you?

When the Seeing Eye Dog Goes Blind

Get a second...

Blind man keeps his old guide dog after it loses its sight... and then gets a new one who now leads them both around:

After six years of loyal service, Graham Waspe was devastated when his guide dog Edward was left blind after developing cataracts.

But his devastation turned to joy when his replacement Opal turned out to be a real gem.

Mr Waspe's new dog is not just aiding his owner to carry out everyday tasks, but also helping Edward to get around.

Mr Waspe, of Stowmarket, Suffolk, received his new dog last November after Edward developed the inoperable problem which resulted in him needing both eyes removed.

And the two-year-old bitch has stepped in where Edward left off as they tour their old haunts together...

One thing about huskies; I'm sure they make perfectly awful seeing eye dogs, unless the blind person is willing to take 1000 mile side jaunts through the Yukon Territory in winter.

The Eight Billion Dollar Scam

Head Start has been a icon of liberal education reform for as long as I can remember, almost literally, since it began in 1965.  Designed to give children of low income parents a boost entering school, where their performance has traditionally been (and remains) abysmal, doubts over the efficacy of the program have been raised many times down through the years.

In 2011, the Obama administration proposes to budget $8.2 billion (with a b), up 1.1 billion from 2010.  And what do we get for $8.2 billion (with a b)?  Brief learning gains:

Participation in Head Start has positive effects on children’s learning while they are in the program, but most of the advantage they gain disappears by the end of 1st grade, a federal impact study of Head Start programs says.

The article tries hard to put lipstick on the pig, but just can't escape the conclusion that it's largely as waste of time and money.

Deborah Lowe Vandell, the chairwoman of the education department at the University of California, Irvine, said in an e-mail that the study’s analysis of some subgroups of preschoolers participating in Head Start showed the program was more effective in improving the cognitive and academic performance of children most at risk of failing academically, those with the lowest academic performance when they entered Head Start and children with limited proficiency in English.

“At the same time,” she wrote, “I wish that stronger positive effects had been demonstrated for a broader range of children. A possible explanation for these differential effects is that Head Start was not sufficiently challenging for children with stronger cognitive and language skills.”

 So what is Head Start? First, it is a way to transfer federal funds to a favored constituency, teachers and teacher unions.  Second, it is a transfer of wealth from middle class tax payers to low income parents for what amounts to a baby sitting service.  That may well be the most valuable service it performs, but it needn't be disguised as an educational program.

With the deficit the way it is, it's time to end Head Start.

How to Open a Beer Bottle With a Chainsaw

Just How Loud Did Pterodactyls Scream?

Quentin Tarantino claims to know:

Quentin is suing his next door neighbor for putting his pet parrots outside during the day, where their incessant screaming annoys him and disturbs his creative juices (I would think screaming might actually help...):

According to a lawsuit filed at Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, his neighbours' Macaws emit 'earsplitting shrieks and screams' for seven or eight hours a day.

Startling: The suit alleges the macaws, like this one, make 'obnoxious pterodactyl-like screams'

'Nearly every day, Mr Tarantino and others in his home are subjected to the Macaws' obnoxious pterodactyl-like screams, which are not only startling, but have also seriously disrupted Mr Tarantino's ability to work as a writer in his home,' the court papers state.

'In short, the Macaws are a nuisance and have greatly interfered with Mr Tarantino's quiet use and enjoyment of his home.'

When I lived in Los Angeles as a teenager, we often had naturalized parrots visit the very tall palm trees at my parents house.  While audible, I don't remember them ever disturbing my study.  But then, I didn't study very hard.  Several species of parrots have been released and established breeding populations in the L.A. area.

What Are Friends For?

EMBED-Guy Staples The Back Of His Co-Worker's Head - Watch more free videos

Feds Go After Charter Boat Poachers

It's long acknowledged fact that many charter boats and recreational fishermen have taken advantage large schools of stripped bass off in the Exclusive Economic Zone (the area beyond the 3 miles, out to 200 miles).  Fishing for striped bass in the EEZ is forbidden, even catch and release, but enforcement of the law has been problematical, both due to lack of resources, the inability to catch people in the act of fishing, and quite likely, lack of political will.  Huge schools of large stripers often roam to area immediately outside 3 miles, and have been a strong temptation for charter and recreational fishermen to sneak out, catch their limit and return before being boarded.  Now, it would appear the Federal government is moving to make that less tempting:

A three-year federal undercover investigation into Virginia-based charter boats illegally fishing for striped bass more than 3 miles off the coast led to the seizure Thursday of electronics and records from a number of vessels.

Special agents from the law enforcement office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration served search warrants on at least four boats that primarily operate out of Rudee Inlet in Virginia Beach.

Seizures included GPS units, cell phones, radios, ship logs, manifests and client lists, a source familiar with the investigation said.

The investigation is being handled by NOAA and the Department of Justice Environmental Crimes Unit, the team that last year successfully prosecuted the massive Potomac River striped bass poaching operation.

Good show, boys...

Monster Quake in Japan, Tsunami Warnings for Pacific Ocean Coasts

Seen  at Watts Up With That:

Tsunami Warning for the entire Pacific basin coastline including California, impact at 7-8 AM local time e.g. San Francisco.

UPDATE: Japanese media reporting the city of Kurihara has been completely destroyed, population 77,000+

UPDATE: One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded. Hawaii under Tsunami Warning. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center Updates / Warning Website Link. Aftershocks continuing.

Tsunami Watch issued for California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Canada…

UPDATE: Here’s a screencap from live streaming from Japan via news helicopter showing the Tsunami as it strike s the north coast:

UPDATE: Now that I'm awake, I fixed the misspelling in the title...

Georgia will call her sister who lives on the coast in Northern Calif to make sure they're aware of it.

UPDATE:


UPDATE: A whole bunch of pictures here.

UPDATE:  Watch the progress of the Pacific Ocean tsunamis here.

UPDATE: The first strike of the  tsunami recorded at St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea on Extra Tropical Surge Site 





UPDATE: 1318 EST  Looks like its just now hitting Northern California:  North Spit, California:










UPDATE:  It looks like Port Orford, Oregon took a 5 ft wave:

Time lapse of tidal wave at Crescent City, Calif:

Bottled Water; Silly and Expensive

Some 2.7 million tons of petroleum-derived plastic are used to bottle water worldwide every year, and costs consumers up to 1,900 times more than tap water

Today Americans consume over 30 billion liters of water out of some 50 billion (mostly plastic) bottles every year. The Beverage Marketing Association reports that in 2008 bottled water comprised over 28 percent of the U.S. liquid refreshment beverage market. The only bottled drinks Americans consume more of are carbonated sodas like Coke and Pepsi.

And frankly, yes, it is a ridiculous waste that we obtain so much of our drinking water this way when it is free flowing and just as good if not better for you right out of the tap. According to the Earth Policy Institute (EPI), some 2.7 million tons of petroleum-derived plastic are used to bottle water around the world every year. “Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year,” says EPI researcher Emily Arnold. And just because we can recycle these bottles does not mean that we do: The Container Recycling Institute reports that 86 percent of plastic water bottles in the U.S. end up as garbage or litter.

The financial costs to consumers are high, too: According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), bottled water costs up to 1,900 times more than tap water. And the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) reports that 90 percent or more of the money consumers shell out for it pays for everything but the water itself: bottling, packaging, shipping, marketing, other expenses—and, of course, profits. EWG is particularly appalled at the lack of transparency by leading bottled water sellers as to the sources of their water and whether it is purified or has been tested for contaminants. According to a recent survey by the group, 18 percent of the 173 bottled waters on the U.S. market today fail to list the location of their source; a third disclose nothing about the treatment or purity of the water inside their plastic bottles.

 Our water co-op sells water for about 0.7 cents a gallon.  Try finding that at Walmart. And we deliver.

Drip, Drip, Drip, The Worlds Slowest Experiment

And it's due any day now:

Begun in 1927 by Professor Thomas Parnell, this experiment was meant to reveal the surprising properties of an everyday material: pitch. Pitch is the name of a number of hard tar-like substances and in this case bitumen was used. Though at room temperature pitch appears to be a solid and can be shattered by a hammer, it is in fact a very high-viscosity liquid, and Professor Parnell wanted to prove it.

Just getting ready to perform the experiment took years. First the Professor heated a sample of pitch and poured it into a sealed funnel. Then, he waited. For three years Parnell let the pitch settle in the funnel, until in 1930, when he felt the pitch was settled enough, he cut the bottom of the funnel, freeing the pitch to begin its mind-bogglingly slow downward escape.

Professor Parnell lived long enough to record only two drips - the first in 1938, eight years after the opening of the funnel - and the second, nine years later in 1947.

And I thought most ecology was dull...

Maryland Proposes Lawn Fertilizer Controls, Too

A while ago, I posted how Virginia was proposing to limit lawn fertilizers. Now Maryland legislators have followed suit: 

Bills under consideration in the General Assembly would limit the nitrogen and phosphorus content of fertilizers, as well as establishing signage and education requirements.

The goal is to cut down on overapplication of fertilizer on residential lawns, golf courses and other areas, which sends harmful nutrients flowing into creeks, rivers and the Chesapeake Bay...

...The legislation that appears the most likely to pass is a wide-ranging bill developed by the Chesapeake Bay Commission, which has lawmakers from Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania...

That bill would:

• Limit the amount of nitrogen in fertilizer that's sold at retail stores and require a certain percent of nitrogen to be in a slow-release form.
• Ban phosphorus in fertilizer that's sold at retail stores, except for blends used on new grass or if a soil test indicates a need for phosphorus.
• Limit when and how companies can apply fertilizer on residential lawns.
• Require the state to certify professional fertilizer applicators.
• Require the state and the University of Maryland to launch a fertilizer education program for homeowners.
• Ban fertilizer from being labeled for use as a de-icer.

I will then allow the dust to blow in my lawn proudly (I do it now in shame).

Canada To Ban Products Containing Mercury

CFLs, Dental Fillings, Scientific Instruments Exempted 

The federal government is proposing new rules that would ban the manufacture, import, and sale of most mercury-containing products in Canada.

The new regulations are designed to reduce the amount of mercury entering the environment in Canada.

Some mercury-containing products will still be allowed to be manufactured and imported. These include scientific instruments, dental fillings and fluorescent lamps. But there will be limits on the amount of mercury allowed in different types of fluorescent lamps.

"These proposed regulations would eliminate about 4.5 tonnes of mercury in products currently entering the Canadian marketplace each year," Environment Minister Peter Kent said in a statement released on Monday.

Thank goodness the get to keep their mercury thermometers, manometers, and barometers. I wonder if any modern Canadian money can be coated with metallic Hg the way we used to be able to do it with silver dimes.

The More Things Change, Redux

Do drivers with "green cars" put on more miles?

Sweden seems to be experiencing what experts call a backfire effect from the company's rash of green car sales. Swedish car buyers have been snapping up clean diesel and ethanol vehicles in droves thanks to sizable government incentives, but, according to reports, the nation has actually seen its emissions from the transportation sector increase by an impressive 100,000 tons. What happened?

Remember this post?

According to statistics from the Swedish Transportation Agency, average emissions from new cars in the country decreased from 164 to 151 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven, Swedish drivers used their green cars to cover more territory than ever before. Thanks in part to better fuel economy and the idea that a green vehicle has a slimmer impact on the environment, the overall result is more fuel burned, more emissions spewed.

But that's just those silly, environmentally unconscious Swedes.  That wouldn't happen in an environmentally serious country like the US would it?

A similar scenario has played out here in the Land of the Free, where American drivers covered an additional 20.5 billion vehicle miles in 2010 compared to 2009. That number marks a .7 percent increase in vehicle miles traveled (VMT), which might be enough to offset any emission gains garnered by the controversial Cash for Clunkers program. Whether due to more efficient cars or an improving economy, we're driving more miles again, which means using more energy. Isn't there some sort of story that describes this situation?

Unanticipated effects will get you every time.

See Ya Later, Alligator

"Watchgator" seized protecting pot plants

Department of Justice agents raided an East Hemet house Monday night and seized almost 2,300 marijuana plants valued at least $1.5 million -- and a four-foot alligator being used to help guard the stash.

Agents with Arcnet, the Allied Riverside Cities Narcotics Enforcement Team, raided the house and found what they described as a "watchgator" named Wally in a back room, where it was living in a black cement-mixing tub full of water.

One man was arrested, and the gator was taken to a sanctuary in San Bernardino County's High Desert.

The gator, which weighed about 55 pounds, was reported to the California Department of Fish and Game, which then contacted the Phelan-based Forever Wild Exotic Animal Sanctuary.

"He was extremely healthy -- a little too well taken care of," said Joel Almquist, who runs the sanctuary. "It's still an alligator; some are pretty mellow, but if you get bit by a three-footer, you're going to remember it for a long time. It's kind of like being bit by a vise with teeth. It's not a pleasant experience."

 Well, at least they took good care of the 'gator. I had a pet cayman when I was a teenager. I took it to high school for biology class and it died in a cold snap.

Hot Chick Eats Live Octopus

What else can I say?



Sorry, they seem to have made this one private net wide. I can't find a single loose copy.

Long Day at NPR

Following yesterday's revelations that the head fund raiser for NPR met with bogus Muslim Brotherhood donors who offered a 5 million dollar donation, and admitted that NPR could do without Federal funding to dominoes start toppling:

CEO of NPR (Vivianne Schiller) is fired,

Fundraiser (Ron Schiller) looses the job he was going to at Aspen Institute,

O'Keefe claims more NPR film.

PBS was stung too, 

CPB was also "interviewed"?

Democratic Fund Raiser appointed new head of NPR

Harry Reid thinks Cowboy Poetry needs Federal support

NPR, PBS campaigns to keep federal funds called unlawful

House majority leader want NPR defunded

Obama thinks NPR needs a raise.

New Mother at 60 Years Old

Oldest wild bird in US is new mother

HONOLULU -- The oldest known wild bird in the U.S. is a new mother. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist spotted the Laysan albatross that's at least 60 years old a few weeks ago. It was with a chick at Midway Atoll, a remote wildlife refuge 1,300 miles northwest of Honolulu.

A U.S. Geological Survey scientist first banded the seabird as she incubated an egg in 1956. She was estimated to be at least 5 years old at the time. The albatross has since worn out five bird bands.

 You'd think at 60 she'd have had enough experience to know better.

O'Malley Lowers Septic Sights Slightly

MD Governor O'Malley offered to drop some of the portions of his plan to impose sewages systems statewide for any development with 5 or more houses, in an effort to make it less burdensome to farmers who fear it would impact plans to break up their farms and pass it on to family members.  Rather than requiring sewage systems in all cases:

The septics bill would only allow farmers to divide their land into parcels once -- a measure environmentalists say is designed to keep developers from skirting septic requirements by getting farmers to gradually sell them land over time.

However, amendments crafted by the governor would allow farmers to split their land four times, but only for family members, not for sale to developers. It would also allow farmers to divide their land for other, non-residential means, like building a winery or dairy operation.

Rather clever I think.  The farmers objected on the basis of their concerns about the break up of family farms, but I suspect their concerns went a lot deeper than that.  By giving them the one item they constantly used as an example, they will be hard pressed to say, "But........."

Previous posts on Gov. O'Malley's septic ban proposal here,  here,  here and here.

A New View of the Bay

A new website was announced today that aims to provide high quality map data for the Chesapeake Bay:

http://www.chesapeakeview.psu.edu/

I spent a few minutes flitting around the site, looking into odd corners.  It looks like a potentially valuable resource.  I wish I had more experience with GIS.