tagged w/ Earth and Science
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I'm starting to see these little empty non-recyclable, non-biodegradable petroleum-based plastic containers everywhere. I've seen entire trash cans filled with these things at convenience stores after the morning rush... day after day.
In this day and age, you would think that Keurig and the companies associated with this product (Paul Newman's Own, Heifer, Green Mountain Coffee, Celestial Seasonings, Ghirardelli) who claim to be "organic" and/or "sustainable", would be more aware of it's impact to our environment.
You can contact these companies at the blog post above.
"The Keurig single-cup brewing system uses a special packaging for coffee, tea and hot cocoa called K-Cup portion packs or "K-Cups". Each K-Cup is an airtight, mini-brewer that locks out oxygen, light, moisture and humidity while locking in freshness and flavor. "
Personally, I'll take a french press any day over hot plastic brew.
http://www.coffeehabitat.com/images/2007/05/15/pitfall.jpg
About the K-Cup:
http://www.keurig.com/explore/choose.asp?mscsid=M4DDGKT2QWHL8LUSJH2PWEX7NT2PDTGFI'm starting to see these little empty non-recyclable, non-biodegradable... more
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Google is the closest thing to an Omniscient (all-knowing) entity in existence, which can be scientifically verified. She indexes over 9.5 billion WebPages, which is more than any other search engine on the web today. Not only is Google the closest known entity to being Omniscient, but She also sorts through this vast amount of knowledge using Her patented PageRank technology, organizing said data and making it easily accessible to us mere mortals.Google is the closest thing to an Omniscient (all-knowing) entity in existence, which... more
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quanta
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4 days ago
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Nearly 1.6 billion servings of Coca-Cola-branded beverages are served each day. Now some of them will be just a little bit greener now that Coke has announced the global rollout of its PlantBottle, a plastic bottle made from a blend of petroleum-based materials and 30% plant based materials (derived from sugar cane and molasses). The new bottles stand to cut down on carbon emissions by up to 25% compared to traditional PET bottles.Nearly 1.6 billion servings of Coca-Cola-branded beverages are served each day. Now... more
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quanta
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4 days ago
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If the earth could make music, what kind of songs would it sing? This crazy contraption, called the Terrafon, actually lets us find out the answer to that question! Designed as a huge turntable tone arm and transducer, this musical instrument plays the earth like a big gravelly vinyl record. Artists Olle Cornéer and Martin Lübcke premiered it as part of a performance entitled “Harvest” at the Volt Music Festival in Sweden. Read on to check out the video of these determined choir musicians as they drag the big wooden tool-of-music through the Swedish countryside.
Source: http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/11/14/terrafon-plays-the-earth-as-an-instrument/If the earth could make music, what kind of songs would it sing? This crazy... more
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Earth's orbit
Believe it or not, even space contains copious amounts of pollution. An estimated 4 million pounds of space debris — nuts, bolts, metal and carbon, even whole spacecraft — currently orbit the Earth, threatening satellites, communication and even the lives of our astronauts.Earth's orbit
Believe it or not, even space contains copious amounts of pollution. An... more
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quanta
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added this
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1 month ago
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In Graphic Detail
http://cait.wri.org/figures/World-FlowChart.jpg
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SHOCKING NEW NASA DATA / NEW PREDICTION = "3 TO 5 YEARS NO ICE IN ARCTIC"
THE PERMAFROST = IS NOW THAWING....
3-5 years All Arctic Ice will be gone. Five years after that... no ice on either pole!
Watch Video as prehistoric methane gas is released under the ice from the thawing permafrost below is ignited.
NEW DATA: The original time to reach the permafrost thawing tipping point wasn't predicted to happen until 2050.
We need to understand what is happening and how the effects of what is now taking place... will change all our lives in the "months and few years ahead".SHOCKING NEW NASA DATA / NEW PREDICTION = "3 TO 5 YEARS NO ICE IN ARCTIC"
THE... more
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Global warming... is much worse that you think.
PLEASE SELECT: "WATCH FULL PROGRAM"
Summary:
Dan Miller's presentation focuses on why the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports are actually best case scenarios. For example, IPCC climate models do not include the effect of melting permafrost releasing greenhouse gases, even though the permafrost is melting now and it holds more greenhouse gases than all that mankind has ever released.
Another example is that IPCC predictions of sea level rise only take into account thermal expansion of the oceans and melting of glaciers; the largest factor, disintegration of glaciers, was not included because it is hard to model. The result is that sea level rise will likely be substantially higher this century than the IPCC predicts.
Miller discusses several other potential catastrophes that are not included in IPCC predictions and also discusses tipping points that could put climate change solutions out of our reach in years or decades, the psychology of climate change, and why it is difficult for people to respond to the threat posed by a warming earth.
His talk concludes with a discussion of ways to address climate change and the risks and opportunities that companies face due to the climate crisis.
More Information:
The Climate Project
http://www.theclimateproject.org/aboutus.php
NASA | Earth Observatory
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=6632
NASA | Science for a Hungry World: Part 6
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=6632
HOME PROJECT: A Visual Global Tour /current effects of global warming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU
.Global warming... is much worse that you think.
PLEASE SELECT: "WATCH FULL... more
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The ancient Nazca people, who once flourished in the valleys of south coastal Peru, literally fell with the trees they chopped down, new research has concluded. The Nazca caused their own collapse when they cleared their forests in order to make way for agriculture, thus exposing the landscape to wind and flood erosion.The ancient Nazca people, who once flourished in the valleys of south coastal Peru,... more
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Unpredictable predictions.People have the right to know when an earthquake will happen but It's unlikely to happen that way.Unpredictable predictions.People have the right to know when an earthquake will happen... more
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quanta
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added this
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19 days ago
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This is the start of something big...
http://top10produce.com/retailerbenefits.aspx
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A vast pool of molten rock in the continental crust that underlies southwestern Washington state could supply magma to three active volcanoes in the Cascade Mountains -- Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainier and Mount Adams -- according to a new study that's causing a stir among scientists.
The study, published Sunday in the magazine Nature Geoscience, concluded that the magma pool among the three mountains could be the "most widespread magma-bearing area of continental crust discovered so far."
Other scientists dismiss the existence of an underground vat of magma covering potentially hundreds of square miles as "farfetched" and "highly unlikely." Rather than magma heated to 1,300 to 1,400 degrees, some think it could be water.
More @ linkA vast pool of molten rock in the continental crust that underlies southwestern... more
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It is the greatest animal battle on the planet, and it has finally been caught on camera.
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In his famous lecture on Life in the Universe, Stephen Hawking asks: "What are the chances that we will encounter some alien form of life, as we explore the galaxy?"
If the argument about the time scale for the appearance of life on Earth is correct, Hawking says "there ought to be many other stars, whose planets have life on them. Some of these stellar systems could have formed 5 billion years before the Earth. So why is the galaxy not crawling with self-designing mechanical or biological life forms?"
Why hasn't the Earth been visited, and even colonized? Hawking asks. "I discount suggestions that UFO's contain beings from outer space. I think any visits by aliens, would be much more obvious, and probably also, much more unpleasant."
Hawking continues: "What is the explanation of why we have not been visited? One possibility is that the argument, about the appearance of life on Earth, is wrong. Maybe the probability of life spontaneously appearing is so low, that Earth is the only planet in the galaxy, or in the observable universe, in which it happened. Another possibility is that there was a reasonable probability of forming self reproducing systems, like cells, but that most of these forms of life did not evolve intelligence."
We are used to thinking of intelligent life, as an inevitable consequence of evolution, Hawking emphasized, but it is more likely that evolution is a random process, with intelligence as only one of a large number of possible outcomes.
Intelligence, Hawking believes contrary to our human-centric existece, may not have any long-term survival value. In comparison the microbial world, will live on, even if all other life on Earth is wiped out by our actions. Hawking's main insight is that intelligence was an unlikely development for life on Earth, from the chronology of evolution: "It took a very long time, two and a half billion years, to go from single cells to multi-cell beings, which are a necessary precursor to intelligence. This is a good fraction of the total time available, before the Sun blows up. So it would be consistent with the hypothesis, that the probability for life to develop intelligence, is low. In this case, we might expect to find many other life forms in the galaxy, but we are unlikely to find intelligent life."
Another possibility is that there is a reasonable probability for life to form, and to evolve to intelligent beings, but at some point in their technological development "the system becomes unstable, and the intelligent life destroys itself. This would be a very pessimistic conclusion. I very much hope it isn't true."
Hawkling prefers another possibility: that there are other forms of intelligent life out there, but that we have been overlooked. If we should pick up signals from alien civilizations, Hawking warns,"we should have be wary of answering back, until we have evolved" a bit further. Meeting a more advanced civilization, at our present stage,' Hawking says "might be a bit like the original inhabitants of America meeting Columbus. I don't think they were better off for it."In his famous lecture on Life in the Universe, Stephen Hawking asks: "What are the... more
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A US company and its Chinese partner are piloting a bus powered by ultracapacitors in Washington DC. Ultracapacitors lack the capacity of regular batteries but are considerably cheaper and can be recharge completely in under a minute. Sinautec Automobile Technologies, based in Arlington, VA, and its Chinese partner, Shanghai Aowei Technology Development Company, have spent the past three years demonstrating the approach with 17 municipal buses on the outskirts of Shanghai. The executive director of Sinautec touts the energy efficiency of this approach: 'Even if you use the dirtiest coal plant on the planet [to charge an ultracapacitor], it generates a third of the carbon dioxide of diesel.A US company and its Chinese partner are piloting a bus powered by ultracapacitors in... more
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Is it possible to be 'all-knowing' and 'all-powerful' provided that what one means by these terms is that god knows all that can be known and can do all that can be done?
"Can ominscient god who,
Knows the future find,
The ominpotence to
Change his future mind?"Is it possible to be 'all-knowing' and 'all-powerful' provided that what one means by... more
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There are an estimated 14,000 types of mushrooms - roughly 3,000 are edible, 700 have known medicinal properties, and fewer than 1% are recognized as poisonous. There's nothing like some funky fungus for a tasty, nutritious meat substitute or an excellent meal addition. Here's 10 ways to experience the magic of mushrooms at home.There are an estimated 14,000 types of mushrooms - roughly 3,000 are edible, 700 have... more
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That's the flag of the Benin Empire, a pre-colonial African state situated in modern Nigeria that lasted from 1440 until 1897. (via andre)That's the flag of the Benin Empire, a pre-colonial African state situated in modern... more
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From BBC: Albatrosses associate with killer whales out in the open ocean, tiny cameras attached to the birds reveal. Unique pictures retrieved from the cameras placed on the albatrosses' backs show the birds feeding alongside the killer whales, also known as orcas. The birds are thought to feed on food scraps left by the marine mammals. The discovery may explain how black-browed albatrosses find their prey in an apparently featureless open ocean, say the researchers. Black-browed albatrosses (Thalassarche melanophrys) travel hundreds of kilometers to locate and feed on their prey. They may travel large distances in only a matter of days to feed on fish before returning to their breeding colony on Bird Island, South Georgia in the southern Atlantic Ocean.
Although a number of studies have looked at the foraging behavior of albatrosses, it is not known exactly what strategy the birds employ to locate food on the open sea.From BBC: Albatrosses associate with killer whales out in the open ocean, tiny cameras... more
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jcub
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added this
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1 month ago
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![PLANETS [data and graphics]; Know Your Neighborhood Pantheon](http://i2.crtcdn.net/images/asset/901/252/76/l30970_60x45.jpg)
