Home > Business > What things to consider with a Bore Water Drilling Job?
What things to consider with a Bore Water Drilling Job?
We have actually located that individuals frequently do not think of the job and modern technology that enters into having a trusted resource of tidy, great-tasting alcohol consumption water through bore water drilling Melbourne. Lots of property owners attract their water from an exclusive well, opportunities are they really did not have to work with a well service provider themselves and were not there when the well was pierced. Enjoying borehole drilling Melbourne at work could be quite excellent; below is exactly how it functions.
The objective of well piercing is to get to an aquifer or water resource deep listed below the ground, yet that's not where the exploration quits. To make sure the well will certainly have adequate supply and a lengthy life; the well-piercing business will certainly continuously pierce listed below the groundwater level. Bedrock wells are generally in between 100 and 500 feet however sometimes could be greater than 500-feet-deep.
Centuries back, well piercing implied excavating deep right into the ground with shovels and containers up until you struck groundwater. Today there are a variety of approaches and strategies well piercing specialists could utilize to make certain homeowners have a dependable resource of water for several years.
How Does a Well Exploration Gear Job?
A well-piercing gear is a big item of tools that need to be offered a website by vehicle and took into put on the website where the well is to be dug. Boring gears are either rotating drillers, which birthed down right into the planet making use of a round movement or a "pounder," which elevates and reduced a hefty weight in a method called "cord boring" to punch openings.
A rotating drill gear makes use of an array of little bits. One of the most usual kinds are lengthy cord little bits or interlacing steel little bits– both which turn in clockwise instruction to birthed right into the planet and loosen up the dirt. Rock is reached the surface area as the little bit transforms. The transforming little bit usually fumes, so water or mud is made use of to maintain the exploration little bits cool down.
To avoid particles and various other surface area pollutants from entering into the water system at the end of the well, filters should be set up. These filters additionally avoid bigger fragments from being attracted right into the water pump. A display is positioned at the base of the well covering when exploration is full. Crushed rock, an all-natural purification tool, is likewise made use of below the well in case of bore hole drilling Melbourne.
If you have concerns concerning piercing brand-new wells, or would certainly such as info concerning how you can enhance the circulation of water from an existing well, call us, a prominent bore water drilling Melbourne based firm.


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106 critically endangered hawksbill turtles hatch on Sentosa's Tanjong Beach
The hatchlings made their way into the waters at Sentosa's Tanjong Beach.PHOTO: SENTOSA DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
Audrey Tan
Science and Environment Correspondent
Jan 19, 2018, 7:34 pm SGT
http://str.sg/o3zX
SINGAPORE - What's tiny, green, covered in sand and Singapore's latest celebration of wildlife?
Over 100 hawksbill turtles - which emerged out of eggs buried at a Sentosa beach on Friday morning (Jan 19), adding to the population of these critically-endangered reptiles.
The 106 hatchlings made their way into the waters at Sentosa's Tanjong Beach in what is the third time hawksbill turtles have hatched here since August.
Officers from the National Parks Board (NParks) took measurements and carried out checks on the baby turtles before they were released into the sea, said Sentosa Development Corporation, which manages the island.
The turtle nest was first spotted by a beachgoer on Nov 10 last year. There have been two other sightings in Sentosa, in 2010 and 1996.
A barrier was built around the nest to keep the eggs safe from natural predators such as monitor lizards and crabs, and reduce potential disturbance during the incubation period, the Sentosa spokesman told The Straits Times.
"As the hawksbill turtle is a critically endangered species, Sentosa Development Corporation... performed daily checks on the nest after the discovery," he said.
Hawksbill Turtle nest on Sentosa's Tanjong Beach
Hawksbill turtles grow to about 1.1m in terms of shell length and weigh about 68kg. Their name comes from tapering heads ending in a sharp point which resembles a beak.
This is the third batch of turtle hatchlings to emerge from Singapore's beaches since last August. Two other clutches of hawksbill turtle eggs were found in East Coast Park and these hatched in August and November last year.
Said turtle ecologist Rushan Abdul Rahman, 28: "It is not unusual to find turtles nesting on sandy beaches in the tropics, although some people may be surprised to know that this phenomenon takes place in urban Singapore too."
But he added that much of turtle nesting habits in Singapore remained unknown, such as whether hawksbill turtles return to the same exact location every time they return to nest, and how often they make nesting migrations.
Mr Rushan said that other studies have shown that some loggerhead turtle populations are happy to nest within a 100km range, whereas green turtles off Brazil's Ascension Island are much fussier about where they nest.
A Marine Turtle Working Group - comprising staff from NParks, academics from institutions such as the National University of Singapore, and interest groups and individuals - was re-established in 2016 to learn more about Singapore's native turtles.
If a turtle is spotted, people should keep their distance and speak softly, say experts. Touching the creature may scare or provoke it. People should also not handle the eggs as this might damage them.
Members of the public can call the Sentosa hotline on 1800-SENTOSA (7368672) if they spot a turtle nest on the resort island, and NParks on 1800-471-7300 if turtles are spotted at other parts of Singapore.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Viola Fauver Gregg Liuzzo legal definition of Viola Fauver Gregg Liuzzo
https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Viola+Fauver+Gregg+Liuzzo
Liuzzo, Viola Fauver Gregg
(redirected from Viola Fauver Gregg Liuzzo)
Civil Rights activist and martyr Viola Fauver Gregg Liuzzo was murdered after the 1965 voting rights march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, Alabama. A thirty-nine-year-old wife, mother, and student, Liuzzo had spontaneously driven from her home in Detroit to help with the historic march. While transporting other participants back to Selma afterward, she was killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). The tragedy both shocked and inspired U.S. citizens. President lyndon b. johnson decried her slaying on national television, and her death gave impetus for passing the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C.A. § 1973 et seq.). Two Alabama juries failed to convict her assassins, who were ultimately found guilty of conspiracy. Nearly two decades later, her family brought an unsuccessful $2 million lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), following congressional revelations that the bureau may have known about but done nothing to stop Klan plans to kill the marchers. Liuzzo's memory is honored by memorials in Alabama and commemorations in Detroit.
Liuzzo was born in the coal-mining town of California, Pennsylvania, on April 11, 1925. She dropped out of school in the tenth grade and worked as a waitress. In 1950, she married Anthony James Liuzzo, a business agent of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, with whom she had three children.
Liuzzo returned to school and, in 1962, she graduated with top honors from the Carnegie Institute of Detroit. She found employment as a medical laboratory assistant. Though a high school dropout, she loved reading, and introduced her children to the works of the philosopher Henry David Thoreau. She explained to them his theory of civil disobedience, a concept that would find widespread support during the Civil Rights Movement.
Despite her lack of formal education, Liuzzo won acceptance to Wayne State University. By 1965, she was studying Shakespeare and philosophy. Like other students across the United States, she became increasingly concerned about violence against civil rights workers. The civil rights movement was at a crossroads: it had achieved important gains against desegregation, but now it faced resistance and violence as it sought to win voting rights for African Americans living in the South. In early March 1965, a pivotal event in civil rights history pushed the movement forward and changed Liuzzo's life. The murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson at the hands of Alabama troopers had motivated civil rights leaders to stage a protest march from Selma, Alabama, to the capitol in Montgomery, fifty miles away. The march would be led by martin luther king, jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC); Ralph J. Bunche, an African American Nobel laureate and diplomat to the United Nations; and other dignitaries. Once at the capitol, they planned to confront Governor george wallace, an unbending foe of Integration. But, as in previous civil rights protests, Wallace's state troopers struck first. On March 7, hundreds of African Americans set out from Selma, only to be stopped minutes later by club-wielding police officers and troopers. As law enforcement officers beat men, women, and children, millions of horrified U.S. citizens watched on television. Liuzzo and her family were among the viewers.
Within days, protests erupted nationwide. In Washington, D.C., some six hundred people picketed outside the White House. In Detroit, Liuzzo joined 250 students in a march on local FBI offices. Wherever protests occurred, people demanded federal protection for civil rights workers and the passage of new voting rights legislation. King announced a new march from Selma to Montgomery. Before it could begin on March 9, federal judge frank m. johnson, fearing new violence, postponed it. Two days later, another civil rights worker—the Reverend James J. Reeb, a Unitarian minister from Boston—died at the hands of violent whites in Selma.
On March 15, President Lyndon B. Johnson appeared on television to address both houses of Congress. He called for passage of the voting rights bill and also gave his full support to the marchers in Selma. That night, Liuzzo attended a meeting at which several Wayne State students said they would join the march. She too decided to go. She packed a few clothes in a shopping bag, and by the next afternoon was driving south.
Liuzzo was one of thousands arriving at the church that served as the launching point for the march, Brown Chapel. Appointed to the reception desk to help with last-minute chores, she greeted new arrivals. As was her way, she wanted to do more, and soon she had volunteered the use of her car for transporting others. On March 21, the journey to Montgomery began as marchers passed a vast contingent of federal security. Governor Wallace had ruled out protecting the marchers as being too expensive, but President Johnson had made available military police, FBI agents, u.s. marshals, and nineteen hundred members of the Alabama National Guard who were placed under federal control. There was to be no repeat of the violence committed two weeks earlier by Alabama troopers.
The five-day march ended in a gathering of twenty-five thousand people at the capitol in Montgomery, where King once again preached his doctrine of nonviolence. Yet he warned of further struggles ahead.
"It's everybody's fight. There are too many people who just stand around talking."
—Viola Liuzzo
Now that the march was over, Liuzzo prepared to make good on her promise of driving people back to Selma. Staff members of the SCLC advised her that further help was unnecessary, given the buses already waiting. Liuzzo nevertheless drove three women and a man to their destination and by nightfall, was returning to Selma again, this time with nineteen-year-old Leroy Moton, an African American barber and civil rights worker. In the swamplands of Lowndes County, a car chased them down and its occupants shot and killed Liuzzo. Moton, covered with Liuzzo's blood, feigned death and then ran three miles before finding safety with other civil rights workers.It took the FBI eight hours to arrest three suspects, all Klan members. Gary Thomas Rowe, Jr., a thirty-four-year-old Klan member who had been passing information to the FBI for five years, was riding with three others in the car from which the fatal shots were fired. Immediately, the state of Alabama indicted the other three men on first-degree murder charges. Rowe was given Immunity and put in Protective Custody in return for testifying against Eugene Thomas, age forty-three; William Orville Eaton, age forty-one; and Collie Leroy Wilkins, Jr., age twenty-one. According to Rowe's subsequent testimony, the men had received instructions from Klan leaders to punish one of the marchers.
A trial on state charges in May 1965 ended in a mistrial. However, a subsequent federal trial, based on a conspiracy to violate Luizzo's civil rights, brought guilty verdicts. Each of the defendants was sentenced to ten years. A subsequent appeal failed.
In 1979 the Liuzzo family filed a $2 million lawsuit against the FBI. The suit accused the bureau of Negligence in its hiring, training, and supervision of Rowe. The informant, it alleged, was a loose gun who had actively participated in the murder. U.S. district judge Charles Joiner heard the trial without a jury and on May 30, 1983, found that Rowe did not shoot Liuzzo. He further ruled that the government was not responsible for her death.
In 1982 the Detroit City Council honored Liuzzo for her contributions to the struggle for civil and Human Rights. In June 1982, a mayoral proclamation made June 1–8 Viola Liuzzo Commemoration Week. Other memorials followed. In 1985, nearly one hundred marchers led by the Reverend Joseph Lowery, president of the SCLC, retraced the historic Selma-to-Montgomery march and laid a wreath at the site where she was murdered. There along U.S. Route 80, beside a swampy stretch, stands a simple stone marker, dedicated in 1991 by women members of the SCLC. It reads, "In Memory of Our Sister Viola Liuzzo Who Gave Her Life in the Struggle for the Right to Vote."
Gentry, Curt. 1991. J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and His Secrets. New York: Norton.
Powers, Richard G. 1987. Secrecy and Power: The Life of J. Edgar Hoover. New York: Free Press.
Siegel, Beatrice. 1993. Murder on the Highway: The Viola Liuzzo Story. Four Winds Press.
Stanton, Mary. 1998. From Selma to Sorrow: The Life and Death of Viola Liuzzo. Athens: Univ. of Georgia Press.
West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Liuzzo, Viola Fauver Gregg
victim's rights
Victims' Rights
Vidal v. Girard's Executors
Videlicet
video of arrest as evidence
videos of sexual acts
Videos of students, legal issues
Vigilantibus et non dormientibus serviunt leges
Vigilantism
Villenous judgment
Vinculo matrimonii
vinculum juris
vindicatio
Vinson, Frederick Moore
Viola Fauver Gregg Liuzzo
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Violent argument with ex boyfriend
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994
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Virga
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Virginia Declaration of Rights
Virginia, United States v.
Virilia
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Vis major
visa overstay, banned from USA
Visible Means of Support
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viola da braccios
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viola damore
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violablely
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Randy Ellefson
Randy Ellefson: Lost Art
Artist: Randy Ellefson
Title: Lost Art
Just weeks after finishing his classical guitar degree in 1995, Randy Ellefson recorded these 18 tracks, never knowing he'd lose all guitar playing to severe tendonitis a year later. Now, in 2010, he has released the recordings that his fans have heard so much about. In the intervening years, he regained his other playing and has released three CDs of instrumentals (two rock, one all acoustic) to much acclaim. Now you can hear the playing that caused so much turmoil. Despite this, they are tranquil - or thrilling - performances of standard classical guitar repertoire. All the more surprising is that he'd only been playing classical guitar for two years when the recordings were made. But the art is lost to him for good.
1.1 Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 1: I. Adagio
1.2 Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 1: II. Allegro
1.3 Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 1: III. Adagio
1.4 Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 1: IV. Giga
1.5 Prelude No. 1 in E minor
1.7 Estudios Sencillos: I
1.8 Canarios
1.9 Lute Pieces: Allegro
1.10 Lute Pieces: Andante
1.11 Lute Pieces: Saltarello
1.12 Lagrima
1.13 Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: I. Prelude
1.14 Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: II. Allemande
1.15 Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: III. Courante
1.16 Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: IV. Sarabande
1.17 Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: V. Minuets I and II
1.18 Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: VI. Gigue


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Current (https://current.org/2014/10/friday-roundup-parachutist-gets-stuck-on-st-louis-tower-pbs-stations-finance-manager-pleads-guilty-to-embezzling/)
Friday roundup: Parachutist gets stuck on St. Louis tower; PBS station's finance manager pleads guilty to embezzling
Mike Janssen, Digital Editor | October 31, 2014
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• The broadcast tower of St. Louis's Nine Network picked up an unexpected Halloween decoration Thursday night: a parachutist who was stuck for two hours about 120 feet off the ground, reports KMOV-TV. Firefighters rescued 27-year-old Timothy Church after he attempted to jump off the tower. The illicit leaper and an accomplice were charged with trespassing.
Officials estimate Parachuter is 120-130 feet in air. He's now been dangling for an hour and a half. pic.twitter.com/wHJagGQrWA
— Cory Stark (@CoryStarkKMOV) October 31, 2014
• Elsewhere on the crime beat, a former finance manager for WFWA-TV in Fort Wayne, Ind., pleaded guilty Thursday to embezzling money from the station in July 2010, according to the News-Sentinel. Gail Waymire was indicted Sept. 10 on 20 counts of wire fraud, having allegedly stolen $130,000 by transferring money from a station account into her own accounts. She will be sentenced Feb. 4.
• If you've already listened to this week's episode of Serial and are despondent at the thought of waiting another week for the next episode, you can do the next best thing and read about Serial. Producer Sarah Koenig tells Vulture: "A part of me is thrilled that people seem to be into it and listening, and another part of me wants to hide under a blanket and huddle in a corner. Suddenly there's all this scrutiny, and people think I'm messing with them, but I'm not! In a great and terrible way, I'm learning right along with everyone else."
And she tells Nieman Storyboard how she'd do things differently if they were starting Serial today: "Have more than two episodes done by the time you launch."
• A four-year partnership between the Texas Tribune and the New York Times is coming to an end due to budget cutbacks at the Times. The partnership, "while innovative, ambitious and, relatively speaking, cheaply produced, was objectively an expendable line item," writes Tribune CEO Evan Smith. Under the partnership, the Tribune provided a semiweekly two-page section for the Times's Texas edition.
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WFWA
Indiana pubTV finance manager pleads guilty to stealing station funds
The former finance manager of WFWA-TV in Fort Wayne, Ind., has pleaded guilty to embezzling money from the PBS member station. In a plea bargain, Gail Waymire confessed to one count of routing nearly $9,000 of the station's funds to her personal bank account and waived a jury trial.
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Azolla Filiculoides in Desert Center, CA can be a real problem for municipal and home owners ponds and lakes as well as golf course ponds throughout the State of California. Now there is help with controlling and removing Azolla Filiculoides in Desert Center. View our aquamog fleet at dkenvironmental.com.
Water plants are plants that have adapted to residing in water places (salt water as well as freshwater). Also they are known as hydrophytes and / or macrophytes. These types of plants must have special variations for existing submerged in water, or at the water's surface. The most typical variation is aerenchyma, but floating foliage and very finely dissected leaves are also popular. Water plants can only grow in water and in soil that's permanently soaked with water. They're therefore a normal element of wetlands.
Water vegetation is usually an advantageous part of the water body, be it a lake or perhaps water-feature. The aquatic vegetation is a source of nutrition, refuge and oxygen to the wildlife living in water-feature or lagoon. But left unchecked these water plants can certainly propagate rather quickly and prohibit the activities within the water-feature or lake. That is when these particular water plants become aquatic weeds.
A fairly simple description of a water weed is a plant which grows (commonly too densely) in a area in a way that it prevents the value and / or enjoyment of that area. A lot of widespread types of water plants that will grown to be weeds are water milfoil, duckweed, pondweed, Azolla Filiculoides, water hyacinth, cattail, bulrush, ludwigia, and many more. They can flourish within ponds, lakes, streams, canals, navigation channels, storm water basins and channels, wetlands and lagoons. Typically the growth might be due to a variety of variables which include an excessive amount nutrients within the water or perhaps the arrival of rapidly-growing exotic species. The problems caused by aquatic weeds are numerous, which range from unpleasant growth and nuisance odors to clogging of waterways, flood damage, boat damages, and even drowning and impairment of water quality.
In many instances it is more efficient as well as economical to use a competent water weed control business to cut out and manage your water weed troubles. Throughout California one of the most seasoned service provider is DK Environmental. DK Environmental is located in the San Francisco Bay area but carries out aquatic weed extraction all around the State of California. The machines that DK Environmental utilizes is really unique to the western U . S .. With its fleet of aquamog amphibians DK can access virtually any water body system.


So, you're a fan of German Shepherd Dogs? They are indeed a wonderful, beautiful breed! But how well do you really know this incredible breed?
They Are the Second Most Popular Breed in the US!
The starring role of 'Rin Tin Tin' brought instant fame to this amazing breed, but it didn't stop there! Not only has the German Shepherd made an appearance on the cover of various magazines since, their vast intelligence and trainability has lead them to be regularly trained as service dogs, well known working dogs, show dogs, competition and tournament dogs, and…most of all, pets!
American police actually, often, train their GSDs' with German command phrases! They do this intentionally; they don't want the average person commanding their working dogs. It could become especially problematic if anyone was able to issue commands to a police dog, considering their jobs.
Remember, dogs make associations with the commands we give them and meanings we imply; it makes no difference what the word is (as long as it is trained consistently). Our dogs could be trained in Elvish or Klingon, as long as the associations are made. Humans learn the exact same way!
Dr. Stanley Coren at the University of British Columbia ranked German Shepherds as the third smartest dog breed. These dogs are highly intelligent, making them easily trainable and absolutely perfect for working tasks!
German Shepherds are known for their intelligence, and for good reason. In fact, you would be very hard pressed to find a 'herding breed' (their original purpose) that isn't considered highly intelligent; many of the dogs considered to be smartest in the world are herding breeds.
But why are herding breeds so smart, you ask? Well, consider the jobs they were tasked to complete. Compared to, say- hunting and tracking, for example (activities that come natural to the species anyway), directing a large herd of animals that tend to separate themselves is a task many humans would have trouble with.
FYI- Considered by many to be the most intelligent breed on Earth today, the Border Collie was also bred for herding purposes.
In 1914, GSDs were recommended for use as working dogs in the German army. German soldiers used the dogs for a number of purposes, some even being to provide aid to the injured or help deliver messages. German Shepherds weren't limited here; they even helped guide the blind!
When the idea was first proposed, German soldiers laughed. However, once they saw the amazing capabilities of this highly intelligent breed in action, they were hooked.
After the World Wars, enthusiasts sought a new name for the 'German Shepherd', being a little leery of the suffix. To combat this bias, the American Kennel Club chose to call them shepherd dogs, and the English called them Alsatian wolf dogs. Some Europeans still call them Alsatians to this day!
Believe it or not, many people argue whether the German Shepherd and Alsatian are the same breed, or different breeds altogether. To put doubt to rest, they are, indeed, one in the same.


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Home News Zuckerberg's Meeting with the European Parliament Tomorrow Will Be Livestreamed
Zuckerberg's Meeting with the European Parliament Tomorrow Will Be Livestreamed
Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently agreed to testify before the European parliament, with the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, announcing that Zuckerberg would attend a closed-door meeting with the representatives.
I will not attend the meeting with Mr Zuckerberg if it's held behind closed doors. It must be a public hearing – why not a Facebook Live? I strongly regret that the @EPPGroup has colluded with extreme right to keep everything behind closed doors. https://t.co/uYqEDlRtyo
— Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) May 16, 2018
The 'closed door' nature of the meeting fueled resentment among some sections of the European polity, with former Belgian politician and current member of the European parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, announcing that he won't attend the proceedings if they're held behind closed doors.
https://twitter.com/EP_President/status/998473764772950016
Now, according to a recent tweet from Tajani, Zuckerberg's meeting with the member of the European parliament will be livestreamed. In his tweet, Tajani wrote:
"I have personally discussed with Facebook CEO Mr Zuckerberg the possibility of webstreaming meeting with him. I am glad to announce that he has accepted this new request. Great news for EU citizens. I thank him for the respect shown towards EP."
The meeting will start at 6:15 pm Brussels time on Tuesday and is expected to last until 7:30pm. During the meeting, the European Parliament will focus on the recent Facebook scandal, which affected nearly 2.7 million Europeans, who's personal data was improperly harvested by a third-party app on the platform. In a statement regarding the meeting, Facebook said, "We're looking forward to the meeting and happy for it to be livestreamed".
TAGS facebookMark Zuckerberg
Facebook (aka Meta) Is the 'Worst Company' of 2021, As Per a Recent Survey
Meta Year-in-Review 2021: Here's What Trended on Facebook and Instagram This Year
Facebook Will Soon Let You Split Bills in the Messenger App
Facebook Is Making Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) Mandatory for Some Users
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube Lost $10 Billion Due to Apple's App Tracking Transparency: Report
Facebook Is Shutting Down Its Face Recognition System; Here's Why
Here Is a Leaked Image of Facebook's Meta Smartwatch with a Camera Notch
Facebook Now Officially Has a New Company Name – Meta
Facebook Might Be Looking to Rebrand; Change Name Next Week: Report
The Facebook Website Now Lets You Add Photos from Your Mobile; Here's How It Works
[UPDATE: Back Online] WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram Are Facing an Outage Right Now!


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Science 23 Mar 2007:
Vol. 315, Issue 5819, pp. 1638
Diamond Diversity
Brooks Hanson
The chemistry of diamonds brought up from Earth's mantle—notably their widely ranging nitrogen contents and nitrogen and carbon isotope values—has complicated understanding of their origins. It is commonly thought that many diamonds form from the movement of carbon-rich fluids into deep mantle rocks of a contrasting composition, thereby inducing diamond precipitation. To better constrain these fluids and sources, Thomassot et al. studied in detail nearly 60 diamonds contained within one small (<30 cm3) mantle sample carried to the surface in a kimberlite volcano in South Africa. Surprisingly, the nitrogen contents and isotopic values of these diamonds in this one sample spanned a large part of the ranges observed from all diamonds worldwide. The covariations of the data imply that these diamonds formed from a methane-rich fluid, not a more oxidized fluid as commonly assumed. The wide variation can be produced by the fractionation of nitrogen and carbon during growth of the diamonds over time. Such fluids may also account for the variable oxidation state of the mantle beneath Earth's most ancient crust. — BH
Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 10.1016/j.epsl.2007.02.020 (2007).
Activating En Passant
Gilbert Chin
Autotransporters are a family of bacterial virulence proteins that are first translocated across the inner membrane and then inserted into the outer membrane. The smaller C-terminal domain adopts a β barrel structure that spans the outer membrane and serves as a transitway for the larger N-terminal "passenger" domain, which is transported through the barrel; some passenger domains are released into the extracellular space by proteolysis.
In an extensive series of genetic and biochemical experiments, Dautin et al. show that the passenger domain of Escherichia coli autotransporter EspP is cleaved in an unusual fashion: not by a periplasmic or outer membrane protease, but by itself. Enzymatic hydrolysis of a peptide bond is customarily initiated by an activated nucleophile. Like the classical serine protease catalytic triad, where the carboxylate of an aspartate residue pulls on the hydroxyl proton of the active-site serine (via an intermediary histidine), EspP also uses an aspartate, which happens to reside on the inner surface of the β barrel and is located roughly halfway across the thickness of the outer membrane. This carboxylate pulls on the amide proton of an asparagine residue in the transiting passenger domain; this activates the amide nitrogen for attack on and cleavage of the peptide backbone, yielding a succinimide that could be resolved as a mixture of asparagine and isoasparagine. This asparagine-aspartate self-cleaving mechanism appears to be utilized by other autotransporters as well as by eukaryotic viruses during capsid maturation. — GJC
EMBO J. 26, 10.1038/sj.emboj.7601638 (2007).
At the Point of Attack
Stella Hurtley
Tuberculosis kills approximately 3 million people each year. The pathogenic agent Mycobacterium tuberculosis invades and replicates within macrophages, constructing for itself an intracellular vacuole that shelters it from immune surveillance and attack. Alteri et al. have investigated how M. tuberculosis binds to and invades potential host cells. On the surface of the microbe, they discovered fine fibers, referred to as pili, that are 2 to 3 nm wide and are likely to be important in enabling the microbe to adhere to target cells. They isolated the pili and have characterized their composition using mass spectrometry and immunochemistry. The pili are assembled from low-molecular-weight protein subunits; these bind to the protein laminin, which is an abundant component of the extracellular matrix within human tissues. Furthermore, the sera of tuberculosis patients contained antibodies that recognized the pilin subunit. The unanticipated identification of what may represent a key protein in the early stages of host colonization by M. tuberculosis may lead to the development of new therapies and vaccines. — SMH
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 104, 5145 (2007).
Sorting Storage Options
Jake Yeston
In the search for a practical mode of hydrogen storage for vehicle applications, light metal hydride compounds such as LiBH4 are appealing because of their high weight percentage of hydrogen. However, many such compounds are thermodynamically quite stable, and so require excessive heating to liberate H2. One means of addressing this problem is to mix together two or more hydride compounds which, on releasing hydrogen, can form a stable co-product that drives the reaction—MgH2, for example, reacts with LiBH4 to yield MgB2. Alapati et al. have used plane wave density functional theory in an effort to narrow the dauntingly large range of potential compound combinations worth exploring in this vein. Specifically, they performed a rough energy calculation of 152 known light metal solids and used the results to screen more than 300 unreported possible reactions among them. Thirteen reactions that fell within a promising range of enthalpies (including a lower as well as upper bound, so as to ensure feasible rehydrogenation of the material) were then subjected to more computationally intensive phonon density-of-states calculations. The authors note that their approach is limited by the assumption of reaction to a known morphology and also leaves open the question of favorable kinetics. Nonetheless, computed enthalpies of known reactions proved sufficiently accurate (within 10 kJ/mol of experiment) to offer a promising preliminary sifting mechanism for guiding future experiments. — JSY
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 9, 10.1039/b617927d (2007).
Natural Sunblock
Paula Kiberstis
Before the health hazards of ultraviolet (UV) light exposure were fully appreciated, sun worshippers applied lotions hoping to tan rather than burn. Skin tanning results from the production of the pigment melanin, which absorbs UV radiation and can partially protect cells from the UV-induced DNA damage that can ultimately cause skin cancer. Without melanin, cells are highly susceptible to sunlight; sunburn is the body's response to this damage.
Cui et al. show that the tumor suppressor p53, which functions as a transcription factor and is one of the most intensely studied proteins in biology, plays a crucial role in UV-induced melanin production. Studying p53-deficient mice as well as normal human skin samples, they find that UV light activates p53 in skin keratinocytes (the outermost cells) and that p53 activates the gene encoding pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC). The POMC protein is then cut in several places to generate peptides, including α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone, which stimulates melanocytes (cells located at the base of the epidermis) to produce melanin. Interestingly, POMC proteolysis also generates the opioid peptide β-endorphin, which the authors speculate might contribute to sun-seeking behavior in humans. — PAK
Cell 128, 853 (2007).
An Empathy Block
Everyday experience confirms the general belief that humans are social animals; the neural pathways subserving prosocial behaviors are a subject of current research, and the evolutionary origins of these behaviors are hotly debated. Although there is evidence that social exclusion can elicit redoubled efforts to develop social connections, the consequences of exclusion are predominantly negative—feeling hurt, acting belligerently, or adopting a lone-wolf lifestyle—and Twenge et al. have begun to examine what might mediate these apparently atypical responses.
Using a variety of experimental contexts (such as the canonical spilled-pencils incident) and measures (such as donations of money or cooperation in a prisoner's dilemma game), they find that being characterized as having a high likelihood of a prosocial lifestyle with many strong relationships, such as marriage, resulted in participants helping to pick up pencils (on average, 8 out of 20 spilled) versus the performance of those labeled as being apt to lead solitary lives (less than 1 pencil picked up). As to what factors mediate the extent (or absence) of prosocial behavior, some of the likely candidates (trusting the other or having a sense of belonging) did not register, whereas empathic concern did. Combining this finding with an earlier one, which showed that social exclusion activates the neural circuits encoding pain, produces the speculation that an after-effect of rejection is an emotional numbness or an inability to mirror the affective states of others. — GJC
J. Pers. Soc. Psych. 92, 56 (2007).
A Swell Stopper
Phil Szuromi
In rotaxane molecules, macrocycles are held onto rodlike cores by bulky end groups that effectively act as stoppers. Rotaxane synthesis usually requires first threading an open-ended rod through the cycle, followed by the addition of a third molecule to the free end of the rod in order to form the second stopper. Chiu et al. present a two-component system in which an enyl-2-vinylcyclopropane end group of the rodlike molecule "swells" after the macrocycle has been threaded. A Cope rearrangement that is slow at room temperature occurs after 2 days of heating at 50°C, creating a bulky cycloheptadiene capping group. Hydrogenation of the racemic product mixture yields a single saturated isomer for the rodlike molecule. The authors demonstrate the technique with two different macrocycles, confirming by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy that the rods and rings successfully interlock. — PDS
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 129, 10.1021/ja069362i (2007).
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Science 23 Mar 2007 : 1638


text:
This 100-year-old Marine vet fought in WWII and Korea. Now he's being honored for his place in Corps history
After almost 70 years, a Korean War POW's remains are coming home
Navy to name destroyer after Medal of Honor recipient who fell on grenade to shield wounded Marine
Pam Kragen, The San Diego Union-Tribune
Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton has played a major role in military history over the past 77 years, and John Farritor is one of the rare men who has seen that history unfold from the start.
The Vista, California veteran, who turned 100 on Tuesday, is one of the few surviving Marine veterans who marched 55 miles from Camp Elliott in San Diego to christen the newly opened base near Oceanside in September 1942.
He also fought with Camp Pendleton-based divisions in some of the Corps' most defining and deadly battles of World War II and the Korean War, including at Iwo Jima, Bougainville, the Pusan Perimeter, the Inchon Landing and the Chosin Reservoir.
the greatest generation history world war ii korean war unsung heroes news u.s. marine corps camp pendleton john farritor
Photo: DPAA
On Saturday, the remains of a Korean War POW who was declared Missing in Action (MIA) in 1950, will be coming home to Massachusetts.
rip korean war prisoner of war mia
Brandon Champion, Mlive.Com
President Dwight D. Eisenhower poses with Hospital Corpsman Third Class William R. Charette, U.S. Navy, honored for his actions in Korea on 17 March 1953. (U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command)
A Medal of Honor recipient from Michigan will have a guided-missile destroyer named after him, the United States Navy announced on Monday.
unsung heroes news u.s. navy hospital corpsman master chief william charette korean war the greatest generation
'On Desperate Ground' Explores One Of The Greatest Battles Of The Korean War
Joseph Ditzler, The Santa Fe New Mexican
U.S. Marine Corps/Cpl. Peter McDonald/Wikimedia Commons
On Desperate Ground: The Marines at The Reservoir, the Korean War's Greatest Battle by Hampton Sides, Doubleday, 416 pages
battle of chosin reservoir books Entertainment history Korean War Mandatory Fun news
Pentagon Identifies First 2 Of Korean War Remains Recovered From North Korea
William Cole, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
DoD photos
A 25th Infantry Division soldier and an Army medic whose dog tag was recovered are the first two Korean War identifications to be made from 55 sets of remains turned over to the United States by the North in July, officials said Thursday.
history Korean War korean war remains news north korea U.S. Army


This valentine is not for my husband of nearly forty years.
It's not for our four adult children either. It's not for our 'Israeli daughter', the girl who became part of our family over twenty years ago.
It's not even for our eight little grandchildren, who inspire the most boundless love imaginable.
This valentine is for our four bonus kids- the three who married into our family, and the one who is engaged to our youngest child.
In-law relationships are fodder for endless jokes and sometimes the source of much heartache. Not for a moment do I take for granted that our family hit the jackpot four times.
Each bonus kid brings so much happiness to the child he or she married, but there's more. Each bonus kid brings out the best in that child.
We were a few years into the married-kids stage of life when I realized the formative role our bonus kids played in who our children became. Adulthood is an age and a stage; it arrives in some form after enough years have passed. We "got them older" as my husband likes to say. But being a devoted spouse and parent isn't an age, it's an aspiration. We tried to model that for our kids, but a parents' example alone is not enough. Finding the right person to spend your life with is what inspired our kids to reach high, to emulate what they learned.
I've told our daughters-in-law and son-in-law many times: we raised these kids but you completed them. They are who they are because they wanted to be worthy of people like you.
As I've gotten to know these kids, I've grown to love them, and to appreciate the specialness they add to our family. One kid has the biggest heart for gift giving, choosing the most original presents which never fail to delight the recipient. That included crafting a custom-made memory book for my 60th birthday. The same kid is also an accomplished photographer. Another eats everything I cook with gusto and appreciation, making me feel like I'm the world's best cook. That kid has a smile that could melt a rock. Then there's the kid who is the model of patience and internal tranquility, bringing calm to any situation. This same kid is also the go-to for fun activities around town, most of which I'd never have found on my own. And then there is the kid who enchants all the grandchildren with imaginative play. The look in their eyes says it all.
My bonus kids have taught me so much about how to grow a family; these relationships take effort on both sides. I had to learn how to step back, give space, curb my bossy impulse. But what our bonus kids had to do was harder. When they married into our family they already had wonderful parents, siblings, and extended families of their own. The essential roles were filled. Yet they made room in their hearts for more. They joined our family all the way.
Two months ago I saw for myself the extent of their devotion. My brother, sister-in-law, and their family lost their home in a devastating fire. The morning after the fire, our house was command central. Our children and their spouses were on hand to help and comfort their shocked aunt, uncle, and cousins. Our kids in Chicago did the same, supporting their Chicago cousins grieving the loss of their childhood home. Whether 'born-in' or 'married-in', they functioned as one team. One family.
What began with four kids grew to eight, and, oh, how grateful I am for them!
Happy Valentines Day to the four kids who came to me as adults, and put deep roots in my heart.
When even the most mundane errand becomes a sugar consumption opportunity, we are a country in trouble.
Over the past few months I've become keenly aware of the candy bowls and treat baskets that dot the commerical landscape.
My wake-up call began the day I took my car in for service. I poured myself a tall cup of coffee in the customer lounge. Then I noticed the donut holes and granola bars. "Why do we need sugary treats to make it through an oil change?" I wondered. An hour later my car was ready. When I went to pay, the cashier offered me a big, juicy apple to take along. Because, evidently, donut holes and granola bars are not enough. Customers might need an additional infusion of carbs just to make it from the cashier to the parking lot.
Ever since that day I have been on the lookout for businesses peddling a sugar fix along with their merchandise or services. The dry cleaner is doing it. The financial planner is doing it. At a book fair last fall every single publisher and book seller had a dish of candy or treats at their table. 'Treats' used to be foods that were special because you ate them only now and then. Today? 'Treats' are now and now and now. On a day of errands you can knock off half a dozen treats before noon.
In case you haven't noticed we are in the midst of an obesity epidemic. Over one-third of US adults are obese, not to mention those that are just overweight. Take a look around you. Once upon a time, the obese person was the exception. Now the lean person is. Look back at photos and films from the fifties and sixties to see how much things have changed. Peruse vintage clothing from that era. A size ten will seem tiny compared to our generously sized, relaxed fit fashion. Notice the amply-proportioned mannequins turning up in many stores. A sea change, and not a good one.
Please don't say I am fat-shaming. I'm not. Fat is not shameful. Fat is dangerous and there are mountains of data to bear that out. Although I'm formerly a registered dietitian, you don't need a medical background to understand the scope of the problem. The data speaks for itself.
Diabetes has skyrocketed along with obesity. In 1958, when obesity rates were far lower, less than 1% of Americans were diagnosed diabetic. By 2015, that number rose to 7.4% of the US population. The Center for Disease Control estimates that as many as 7 million more people are undiagnosed diabetics. Some 84 million are prediabetic, a condition that can lead to Type 2 diabetes if left untreated.
The CDC projects that as many as 1 in 3 Americans could be diabetic by 2050. That means that in the span of 100 years the percentage of diabetics could go from less than 1% to as much as 33%.
Most alarming of all is the rise in Type 2 diabetes among children and teens, coinciding with the increase in childhood obesity. Type 2 diabetes in kids was almost unheard of before 1980.
Diabetes can lead to devastating health consequences, among them blindness, kidney failure, and leg and foot amputations.
There's more. Evidence is mounting of a relationship between high sugar diets, high blood sugar, and dementia. One recently published, longitudinal study found a faster rate of cognitive decline among people with high blood sugar compared to those whose blood sugar was normal. The study even showed an association between pre-diabetes and cognitive decline.
Perhaps the widespread prevalence of diabetes will lull us into seeing it as less harmful than it is. Maybe the prospect of dementia feels too many decades away to worry about. Well, there's always cancer, unique in it's ability to scare the daylights out of you.
According to the National Cancer Institute there is consistent evidence that obesity is associated with an increased risk of a number of cancers. One of those is breast cancer. Which brings me to the tipping point that propelled me to write this essay.
Recently I went to one of Minnesota's top facilities for an annual mammogram. Guess what greeted me in the waiting room? A big old dish of candy. Because even having a mammogram has become a sugar-dosing opportunity.
What made this so infuriating is that I expect health care providers to lead by example, rather than blindly follow harmful social trends.
Solving our obesity problem requires us to change behaviors that have become part of our cultural landscape. Human beings were not designed to consume donuts as big as your head or restaurant portions that could feed a family. And we are not built to consume sweets, treats, and candy every day, much less multiple times a day. But we are a nation hooked on sugar, and the opiod-like stimulation of the brain it produces.
Where to begin? Well, how about getting rid of those candy dishes? Sound harsh? Then try this thought experiment. Imagine that the car repair shop, the dry cleaners, the cute boutique, and even the mammogram center have bowls of free cigarettes and matches on the counter.
The idea is preposterous, but only because we now understand smoking's danger and take it seriously. It's time we regard the non-stop consumption of sugar as the danger that it is.
Have you ever held onto something for years, something you didn't really need, and then one day, suddenly, this thing is exactly what you need?
That's what happened to me yesterday.
For 45 years I've held on to two hankies, embroidered with my initial, given to me when I was 'sweet sixteen'. Embroidered hankies are a throwback to another era, to a time when long gone department stores like Daytons or Powers sold such things. And a time when people bought them. Probably an older relative or a friend of my mother's chose those hankies for me, thinking a lady always needs one in her purse.
Well, this lady has always relied on travel packs of tissues. But I could never bring myself to toss the hankies. They stayed with me through college. They moved with me as a newlywed nearly 40 years ago. They've been tucked away in a closet or drawer ever since.
I kept them not only because they are a tangible reminder of another time, but because they are a tangible reminder of the sixteen year old I was. Awkward, not cool, but eager to grow up and get going on life, with no clue as to how it would turn out. Only hopes.
For 45 years those hankies sat unused. Until last night.
Our local kids and grandchildren were here for Shabbat, as usual. One family was getting ready to leave today on a long-planned, long-awaited trip to Disney World. Over dinner we heard about what rides they'd go on and what characters the kids hoped to meet. Such excitement!
Then it was time to for them to go home and pack. Our five year-old granddaughter grew clingy and teary. "Nanny, I'm going to miss you and Popsi so much!" she cried. "But it's just five days," I reminded her. "We'll see you next Shabbat and you'll tell me all about Disney!"
Quivering lips and many hugs later, she headed for the car with her family. The tears and sobbing continued at home.
"She is definitely in a Nanny phase!" my daughter said.
I thought back to earlier in the week, when I gave my daughter a dress I no longer needed, but that would be perfect for her.
Evidently traces of my cologne clung to the dress.
As she plied her mom with hug after hug, she said happily, "I just can't stop hugging and smelling you!" This continued all the way to daycare, so powerful, so visceral is our sense of smell and its bond to memory.
Suddenly, I knew exactly what I needed to do.
I texted our daughter. "Would it be helpful if I dropped off a hanky with my cologne on it? Then she can tuck it under her pillow at night."
"YES!" our daughter texted back, along with a video of our sobbing granddaughter, who said this would definitely make her feel better.
I went upstairs and found the two hankies that had never wiped a nose or caught a sneeze. Hankies that had never mopped a brow or dabbed a tear.
I spritzed them with cologne and delivered them to our daughter.
They are now on their way to Disney.
There's only one more thing I wish I could do.
I wish I could go back and meet my sixteen year old self.
"You were smart to save those hankies. There's magic ahead for you. You'll see."
They say becoming a grandparent is transformative. That the explosion of love brings out a side you never knew was there.
But I never dreamed that the love of grandchildren had the power to transform my husband into a gardener.
What's the Opposite of a 'Selfie'?
Great lives offer us a yardstick by which to measure our own.
Barbara Bush's funeral service was a fresh reminder of that truth. The tributes to her were touching, soaring, funny, heartfelt.
She built a cohesive family.
She lived a consequential life.
Those words captured my attention as beacons, as directional markers. Three not-so-commonly used words that we need now more than ever.
Start with selfless. I wonder how many people know what this old-fashioned word means. Might they think that 'selfless' is a 'selfie' gone bad, where you missed your shot and ended up with a picture of the floor?
'Selfless'-- to be concerned more with the needs and wishes of others than with one's own--feels at odds with our culture of self-promotion and self-actualization. It's not that people have stopped practicing selflessness. Putting the needs of others before yourself is built into parenthood. Selflessness is part of volunteering your time. It underscores the tiny interactions of everyday life. But hearing that word used to eulogize Mrs. Bush reminded me of its importance, its corrective power against the selfie culture. It's a word that deserves respect, elevation.
Barbara Bush built a cohesive family. Cohesive- I love that word! A cohesive family is unified. It sticks together. Cohesiveness doesn't rely on love. It reaches for something that transcends the ups and downs of feelings. A cohesive family is in it for the long haul. Its glue withstands bumps. Such a family allows breathing room. Its members give each other space for difference. Where love can fracture, cohesion can stretch.
Unfortunately, in many families there are personalities, circumstances, and other factors that make cohesion impossible. Thus, the building of a cohesive family is all the more noteworthy. It's aspirational and inspirational, a stunning achievement.
The first two words lead straight to the third word, consequential. A consequential life is a life of significance, a life that mattered, a life that made a difference.
In a culture that exalts celebrity, it's easy to think that the sure path to a consequential life is to be famous. Although Mrs. Bush was indeed famous, it was not her fame that made her life consequential but what she chose to do with the years she was granted.
Fame is available to a few; living a consequential life is available to all.
This is what I learned from Barbara Bush, a selfless person who built a cohesive family and lived a consequential life.
A trio of words that offer a concise philosophy on how to live.
A century ago many families lived in big, multi-generational clusters. Some still do.
In this arrangement everybody receives something essential. Parents get support for the nonstop demands of child-rearing. Kids bask in the love and attention of grandparents, their biggest fans. For grandparents the gifts are the most precious. When grandchildren are born, they fling the door open to a room in your heart you didn't know was there. It's a room you don't want to leave.
If your grandchildren live nearby, you don't have to.
We have two sets of grandchildren living minutes away. You could say that we have our own version of the multi-generational lifestyle.
Our house is the hub for for a happy band of cousins that get together several times each week. Little kids who love to play together, eat dinner together, have slumber parties together. They snuggle on the couch to watch TV, then play hide and seek to stall for more time. Finally, they line up together for a Hershey kiss before they go home (two kisses on Shabbat).
Last week, our Chicago kids and three grandsons arrived at our house for a nine-day visit. That was the start of a non-stop party because having the Chicago cousins here is so, so special. The kids wanted to play together EVERY DAY and they did! A total of four boys, four girls, all four years old and under. Three are infants; two of those infants are newborns.
Every night was playtime for the five children old enough to play. Dinner was in shifts, with the kids eating first at their little green table. Then they piled onto the couch to watch TV while the grownups ate and eagerly chatted. The babies were passed from one set of arms to the next.
Over the days, lines blurred. This aunt cuddling that nephew. This uncle throwing that niece in the air. Every lap was open seating.
Saying goodnight took a long, sweet time, as each child made the rounds, hugging cousins, aunts and uncles.
Every night at bedtime, our grandsons asked the same question: Will the cousins come back to play again tomorrow?
Yes, I promised. They will.
I know that this is not the lifestyle for everyone my age. Cooking for a crowd night after night, running the dishwasher three times a day, a return of toys and baby gear---no thanks, some say. We raised our kids. This is too much. This is over the top.
But I still prefer chaos. I love over-the-top. I'll take that every time.
And there's this. On Saturday afternoon we settled our three visiting grandsons down to nap. Then our local son asked if he could drop off his newborn while he ran errands. Sure, I said, why not? Within an hour that baby was fed and napping too. Mike and I gave each other a fist bump, then relaxed with coffee and the newspaper. Getting a four-year old, a two-year old, and two infants to nap at the same is how you feel like a rock star at sixty!
Saturday night was the grande finale of our week-long party and we all made the most of it. Goodbyes stretched out for a long time.
The Chicago crew hit the road early the next morning. Our four-year old grandson climbed into his car seat, head bowed and tears flowing. His parents said he was still waving goodbye long after our house disappeared from sight.
He wasn't the only one shedding tears.
The house is back to being clean and quiet, but I hope not for long. We still have five grandkids here. It's time for them to come back and mess everything up!
"Just stay right here, 'cause these are the good old days," sang Carly Simon a generation ago. Yes, yes, these are the best days of all.
Upon turning eighty, writer Joseph Epstein took inventory of his suits, shoes, and overcoats. His assessment? No need to buy more. "These should see me out", he said.
Epstein's poignant, witty essay moved both Mike and me. Eighty is still two decades away, but the idea that there's a point where certain purchases no longer make sense stuck with us.
We kidded about it in a light hearted way. For some reason we had accumulated box upon box of Q-tips, a Costco shopping brain glitch. The last time I opened the cupboard and saw those untold numbers of little white reminders of absent-minded shopping, I said to Mike: "No need to buy more Q-tips. These will see us out." We laughed about the Q-tips and laughed about the idea.
Then we went shopping for a new dining set for our patio.
When it comes to patio furniture, we've always gone low-budget. It's Minnesota, after all. The summer is short, the winter harsh. Outdoor furniture takes a beating no matter what. So we always bought cheap, and when the wood rotted or the metal rusted, out it went.
Something happened this time on the way to buy a cheap table and chairs. We discovered a new kind of patio furniture made of nearly indestructible composite material. "It's guaranteed for twenty years!" crowed the young salesman, not much beyond twenty himself.
Furniture guaranteed to last until we are eighty? He had my attention.
I walked slowly around the large rectangular table, with comfortable chairs at each end and benches along the sides. Benches that allow you to squeeze in one more. I imagined our sturdy-backed little grandchildren lined up on those benches. A dining set built for overflowing capacity.
It was perfect. I wanted it at once.
Mike took a different, very sensible view. He looked at the price, which was at least four times what we have ever paid for such furniture. Then he did the math. He figured out the cost per use, based how many times per year we would likely use the set over the next twenty years. His estimate? About $10 a time, in a best-case scenario.
I am a sucker for best-case scenarios. And I thought that $10 per use sounded just fine.
On the ride home, we both had the same thought. "This will see us out" we agreed. And although we were smiling, it was not the same as talking about Q-tips.
Furniture can come with a twenty year guarantee but there's no such guarantee for people. Not for twenty years, not for ten years, not even for a day.
What happens if Mike outlives me by many years? Will he still troop out to the patio for dinner with the family? I picture myself in some heavenly realm calling out to them, "Hey you guys! It's a gorgeous day! Go eat dinner outside!" But there they are, sitting in the air-conditioned kitchen, and no one can hear me.
Back to the here and now. The dining set awaits, ready to hold our family, our friends, our food, our laughter, and our memories for the next two decades.
And now, in addition to all the usual reasons that we pray for health and long life, Mike and I have a new one. We want to outlast the damn patio furniture!
Fifteen years after my father died suddenly, had he finally come to say goodbye?
The way this long-forgotten note appeared seemed like more than mere coincidence.
On a bitterly cold January day, when I was 18, my dad had a heart attack. He was found lying on the ground, alongside the truck he drove for a living. By the time help arrived it was too late. He was 53.
There was no warning. My father simply vanished from this world. When the day began, when I left for school in the morning, he was here, in all his green-eyed, robust aliveness. When the day ended, he was gone. There would be no tender exchange of love and thanks, no last embrace.
Fast forward 15 years, and that 18-year old girl was now a 33-year-old married mother of four.
With summer road trip season in full swing, what parent doesn't need a good idea for keeping the peace in the car?
We took many lengthy road trips with our four closely spaced children and this little gem was a lifesaver. I wish that I could take credit for the simple genius behind this idea, but credit goes to parenting expert John Rosemond, whose books I devoured during our child-rearing years.
His approach is strict, clear, and puts the adults in charge.
In other words, it is totally counter-cultural and it really works.
I'm eager to share the goodies with a new generation of parents.
So, here is how a stack of poker chips enabled our kids to control their behavior over long hours in the car.
At the start of each road trip, before we pulled out of the driveway, we showed the kids an index card on which were written three simple rules for behavior in the car.
We gave each child three poker chips.
In a few sentences I laid out the plan.
And with that, we hit the road.
To no one's surprise, each child managed to lose a chip before we reached the highway. The kids usually forfeited their second chips moments later, and then….peace reigned for the next many hours.
Every now and then I would catch them checking their pockets to make sure the remaining precious chip was still there.
That chip was their ticket to swimming at the hotel pool, a walk to the nearest ice cream shop, or whatever recreation was available wherever we happened to be.
The next morning, everyone got their three chips back when we hit the road again.
The system worked like a charm because it was simple and we enforced it without discussion, threats, or debate.
You break a rule, you lose a chip.
The kids knew we meant business.
In all of our many road trips, I think that there was only one time that a child had to stay behind with a parent because he or she blew through all of their chips.
The beauty of having such a clear system was that it actually freed all of us up to enjoy our time together because the kids' behavior was under control.
We were all spared the misery of tiresome haranguing, threats, and arguing.
Our kids are grown and are now young parents themselves.
Today there are many delightful high-tech gadgets that will keep kids occupied for hours in the car.
But being occupied is not the same thing as learning self-discipline.
The simple poker chip teaches kids an essential life lesson.


Already planning your next kitchen remodel? Then you will want to see what is happening in the world of kitchen design trends for the upcoming year. With so many kitchen remodel ideas, it may be hard to narrow down your choices and pinpoint the perfect design and aesthetic for your home.
However, once you have a good starting point, you know what you are looking for, and have set your budget, the entire process will be much easier to accomplish from start to finish.
One of the biggest considerations to make during your kitchen remodel is your countertops. So many different countertop materials and trends have come and gone over the years, so it can be a bit perplexing when trying to find something that is still in style.
Quartz is always a great option to consider and also awards you with durability and longevity. Quartz has a much harder surface than other countertop types. You just need to watch the heat and avoid placing anything hot on the surface, or you can damage the material.
The days of a crisp and clean white kitchen look are over, and now we are looking toward a future that incorporates color into the design and sets the mood for a timeless kitchen. Moody kitchen tones are the design trend for 2019 and are much more dramatic and vibrant when compared to the often used whitewash look that drew so much appeal in previous years.
Mixing and matching are also in for 2019 and applies to both the cabinets and flooring. You can personalize the aesthetic you are looking to achieve and explore other options when it comes to the flooring you use. Don't be afraid to incorporate your favorite design or color or mix patterns with vibrant colors.
While the design trends mentioned above step away from the ordinary trends of the past, the minimalist approach is still prevalent. For a more modern and contemporary and updated look going minimal is recommended.
For this aesthetic, you should strive for clean-lined cabinetry, lose the intricate molding, and find finishes that are timeless and minimal.
No matter which design trend you follow, or which approach you embark on for your next kitchen renovation, you can always contact us at Cardigan to go over the many cabinet and flooring options that are available to you.


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Smudges left on Android touch screens leave tell-tale signs that can often be used to recover password pattens used to lock the phones, according to research presented earlier this week.
The smudge attacks work by photographing Android handsets from a variety of angles using standard cameras and lights. The oily residues from fingers sliding across the touch-screen surface are then analyzed using standard computers running photo-editing software.
"We believe smudge attacks are a threat for three reasons," the researchers wrote in a paper presented at the Fourth Usenix Workshop on Offensive Technologies, which took place on Monday in Washington DC.
In one experiment that simulated an attack under ideal circumstances – in which touch screens weren't wiped – the researchers were able to recover the entire password pattern 68 per cent of the time if the phone first had been held to the user's face. Partial patterns were recovered 96 per cent of the time. Facial contact ensured there was enough skin oil to cause broad smudging, the researchers said.
A separate experiment, in which the touch screen was put in a user's pocket and allowed to move around slightly, was intended to simulate more realistic usage scenarios.


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I'm a multimedia fine art practitioner working with various media and techniques to create powerful images that focus on things that trigger my imagination. Cities, animals, nature, and people are all sources of inspiration for my art. I graduated from London Guildhall University (now London Metropolitan University) in London England with a diploma in Art and Design and continued my studies later on to acquire a Postgraduate diploma in Digital Imaging and Animation. Creating a layered and collaged digital imagery that expresses the complexities of modern life I try to incorporate textures and color and bring a sense of mystery into the work. The pages in my website express my current and ongoing interests, reflections, flowers, black and white photography and my recent exhibition entitled Animal Kingdom or Noah's Ark-A Modern Take on a beautiful Biblical Story. I enjoy collaborative projects and am open to any interesting ideas. My images are for sale and can be printed in all sizes on the finest art paper or on high quality photographic paper.


Crude oil is not the only commodity that is crashing. Iron ore is on a similar trajectory and for a common reason. Namely, the two-decade-long economic boom fuelled by the money printing rampage of the world's central banks is beginning to cool rapidly. What the old-time Austrians called "malinvestment" and what Warren Buffet once referred to as the "naked swimmers" exposed by a receding tide is now becoming all too apparent.
This cooling phase is graphically evident in the cliff-diving movement of most industrial commodities. But it is important to recognize that these are not indicative of some timeless and repetitive cycle—–or an example merely of the old adage that high prices are their own best cure.
Instead, today's plunging commodity prices represent something new under the sun. That is, they are the product of a fracturing monetary supernova that was a unique and never before experienced aberration caused by the 1990s rise, and then the subsequent lunatic expansion after the 2008 crisis, of a cancerous regime of Keynesian central banking.
Stated differently, the worldwide economic and industrial boom since the early 1990s was not indicative of sublime human progress or the break-out of a newly energetic market capitalism on a global basis. Instead, the approximate $50 trillion gain in the reported global GDP over the past two decades was an unhealthy and unsustainable economic deformation financed by a vast outpouring of fiat credit and false prices in the capital markets.
For that reason, the radical swings in commodity prices during the last two decades mark the path of a central bank generated macro-economic bubble, not merely the unique local supply and demand factors which pertain to crude oil, copper, iron ore, or the rest. Accordingly, the chart below which shows that iron ore prices have plunged from $150 per ton in early 2013 to about $65 per ton at present only captures the tail end of the cycle.
What really happened is that the central bank instigated global macro-economic bubble ripped commodity pricing cycles out of their historical moorings, resulting in a one time eruption of price levels that had no relationship to sustainable supply and demand factors in the mines and petroleum patch. What materialized, instead, was an unprecedented one-time mismatch of commodity production and use that caused pricing abnormalities of gargantuan proportions.
Thus, the true free market benchmark for iron ore is the pre-1994 price of about $20-25 per ton. This represented the long-time equilibrium between advancing mining technology and diminishing ore grades available to steel mills in the DM economies.
But as shown below, after Mr. Deng institutionalized export mercantilism and printing press prosperity in the form of China's red capitalism in the early 1990s, iron ore prices broke orbit and soared to $100 per ton in the second half of the decade and then went parabolic from there. After peaking at $140 per ton on the eve of the financial crisis,China's mad cap "infrastructure" stimulus boom after 2008 drove the price to a peak of $180 per ton in 2011-2012. To wit, iron ore prices peaked at nearly 9X their historic range.
The crucial point is that there was nothing normal, sustainable or economic about the $180 per ton peak. It was a pure deformation of central bank credit expansion and the accompanying false pricing of debt and other forms of long-term capital.
Needless to say, the same thing is true of copper. Its historical benchmarks were in the 60 cents to 100 cents per pound range. Yet after 1994, the global bubble—again led by the enormous credit explosion and currency exchange rate suppression in China and its BRIC satellites—carried the price to $4 per pound in the eve of the financial crisis, and then to nearly $5 during the peak of China's post-crisis credit explosion.
Indeed, in the case of copper, not only was the cycle driven by unsustainable construction demand; it was also powered by dodgy forms of financial engineering that turned copper inventories into financing collateral that was sometimes re-hypothecated many times over.
The exact same considerations apply most especially to crude oil. China's GDP grew from $1 trillion to $9 trillion during the 13 years after the turn of the century. Growth of such enormous proportions is not remotely possible in an honest economy based on productivity, savings, investment and sound money. Likewise, China's call on the global oil supply system—-which soared by 4X from 3 million bbls/day to nearly 12 million—–is also a drastic aberration; it is a product of runaway credit creation that financed false "demand".
And that was only the beginning of the aberration. The China engine pulled additional false petroleum demand into the world market equation due to the boom among its suppliers—such as Brazil, Canada and Australia for raw materials and South Korea and Taiwan for components and parts. Output levels and petroleum consumption in Germany and the US were also goosed by China's voracious demand for German capital goods and Caterpillar's heavy machinery, for example.
Accordingly, the crude oil price path shown below reflects the same global monetary supernova. The $20 price in place during the 1990s was no higher in inflation adjusted terms than it had been one century earlier when the mighty Spindletop gusher was discovered in East Texas in 1901. By contrast, the 5X eruption to north of $100 per barrel during this century represents the impact of fiat credit and false capital market prices deforming the entire warp and woof of the global economy.
Self-evidently, we are now in the cliff-diving phase, but unlike the bounce after the September 2008 financial crisis, there will be no rebound this time around. That is owing to two reasons.
First, most of the world is at "peak debt". That is, the ratio of total credit market debt to current national income ranges between 350% and 500% in every major economy; and that is the limit of what can be serviced even at today's aberrantly low interest rates.
As Milton Friedman famously observed, markets are ultimately not fooled by the money illusion. In this case, the illusion is that today's sub-economic interest rates will last forever and that debt carrying capacity has been elevated accordingly.
Not true. Short-term interest rates may be temporarily and artificially pegged at the zero bound by central bankers, but at the end of the day debt carrying capacity is tethered by real economics and normalized costs of money and debt.
Accordingly, the central banks are now pushing on a string. The credit channel of monetary transmission is over and done. The only remaining effect of the residual level of money printing still underway is that ZIRP enables carry trade gamblers to drive financial asset prices ever higher, thereby setting up another thundering collapse of the financial bubbles being generated for the third time this century by the world's central banks.
The second reason for no commodity price rebound is the monumental overhang of the malinvestments which have been made, especially since the 2008 crisis. That is obviously what is now pummelling the petroleum sector.
The huge expansion of high cost crude oil capacity—–in the shale patch, tar sands and deep off-shore—-was due to the aberrationally high price of oil and the inordinately cheap cost of capital which were generated during the last two decades by the global central banks. The above price chart for the WTI marker price of crude, for example, is what explains the eruption of shale oil production from 1 million bbls/day prior to the financial crisis to more than 4 million at present., not an alleged technological miracle called "fracking".
However, the iron ore capacity expansion story is no less cogent. On the eve of the financial crisis, the Big Three miners—-Vale, BHP and Rio—had already doubled their mining capacity from 250 million tons annually at the turn of the century, to 195 million tons per quarter or 780 million tons annually.
But when prices soared to $180/ton in 2012, investment levels were drastically scaled-up even further. Currently, the Big Three have combined capacity of more than 1.1 billion tons annually that is not only in the investment pipeline, but is actually so far advanced that completion makes more sense than abandonment. Accordingly, not withstanding the massive over-supply already in the market, several hundred million more tons will compound the surplus and drive prices even closer to the out-of-pocket cash cost of production in the years immediately ahead.
The above depicted capacity expansion is a quintessential reflection of the manner in which false prices in the capital markets drive excessive and wasteful investment, and cause the crash following the credit driven boom to be all the more destructive. So the cliff-diving price action here is not just another commodity cycle, but instead is a proxy for the fracturing global credit bubble, led by China department.
But these "leverage ratios" are actually far more dangerous and unstable than the pure numbers suggest because the denominator—national income or GDP—-has been erected on an unsustainable frenzy of fixed asset investment. Accordingly, China's so-called GDP of $9 trillion contains a huge component of one-time spending that will disappear in the years ahead, but which will leave behind enormous economic waste and monumental over-investment that will result in sub-economic returns and write-offs for years to come. Stated differently, China's true total debt ratio is much higher than 3X currently reported due to the unsustainable bloat in its reported national income.
On the one hand, capacity could not grow at the breakneck speed of China's initial ramp in steel production—so prices soared. And again, not just in the range of traditional cyclical amplitudes. As indicated above, prices rose from $20 per ton in the early 1990s to $180 per ton by 2012—meaning that vast windfall rents were earned on the difference between low cash costs on existing or recently constructed iron ore capacity and the soaring prices in spot and contract markets.
The reality of truly obscene current profits and the propaganda about endless growth in the miracle of red capitalism, combined with the cheap debt available in global capital markets, resulted in an explosion of iron ore mining capacity like the world has never before witnessed in any mineral industry.
Stated differently, the Big Three miners would never have expanded their capacity from 250 million tons to 1.1 billion tons in an honest free market. Nor would they have posted such egregious financial trends as have occurred over the past decade. To wit, even as the global iron ore (and also copper) boom gather steam in the run-up to the financial crisis, the three miners spent $55 billion on CapEx during the four years ending in 2007.
By contrast, during the four most recent years they spent 3.2X more or $175 billion. Not surprisingly, the residue on their balance sheets is unmistakable. Their combined debt went from about $12 billion in 2004 to more than $90 billion at present.
But now, prices will be driven down to the lowest marginal cost of supply, meaning that Big Three EBITDA will violently collapse, causing leverage ratios to soar and new CapEx to be drastically downsized. In turn, Caterpillar's order book will take a giant hit, and so will its supply chain running all the way back to Peoria.
So the collapse of the mother of all commodity bubbles is virtually baked into the cake. As one industry CEO recently acknowledged, his company's truly variable, cash cost of production is about $20 per ton and he will not hesitate to keep producing for positive variable profit. That means iron ore prices will also plunge far below the current $66 per ton quote now extant in the market.
In short, when the classical Austrians talked about "malinvestment" the pending disasters in the global steel and iron ore industries (and also mining equipment and other supplier industries) are what they had in mind. Except none of them could have imagined the fevered and irrational magnitudes of the deformations that have resulted from the actions of the mad money printers who now run the world's central banks.
In any case, the main place where this phenomenon has really increased in frequency is along the coasts. The reason being that coastlines are facing the double whammy of heavier rains/storms and rising sea levels. The following graphic sums this up nicely.
NOAA has recently produced a report on the amount of increase in nuisance flooding along the continental United States' three coastlines. The changes are not subtle. Since the 1960s, nuisance flooding has increased by between 300 and 925%, depending on location. Don't you wish you could get this kind of returns on your investments? This isn't all a function of climate change, but it is a function of our activities. In addition to climate related changes to rain and sea, many locations are also slowly sinking due to either the pumping of groundwater or loss of barrier islands as a knock on affect of how we manage rivers and coastlines.
The biggest losers so far are along the east coast, with Annapolis, Maryland going from an average of 3.8 nuisance flood days per year in 1957-1963 to now experiencing 39.3 days per year on average (2007-2013). More than a month under water per year? At what point are we going to have to simply cede these lands back to the oceans? The US is not alone in this. This same trend is happening all around the world.
This trend is only going to get worse year after year as the sea levels continue to rise. All along the coasts, 'nuisance floods' that used to happen every 1-10 years now are happening 4 or more times a year. More frequent nuisance floods also means much greater chances of extreme flooding during storms as high winds cause more dangerous storm surges due to the higher sea levels. Along the west coast and in the north east winters are the most likely season for these floods. The rest of the east and gulf coasts are primarily inundated in the autumn. The full report can be found here (link).
Climate change is not about sudden catastrophe so much as it is about the drip, drip of Chinese water torture. How many times would you like to mop out your nicely finished basement or store?
David Korowicz was mentioned by Dave Kimble in a recent comment he left below Ugo Bardi's Seneca cliff post, and I have heard Nicole Foss also mention him as an excellent systems analyst well worth following; so, seeing as I had not yet bothered to take the time to look him up, this morning I found a fascinating youtube film of him giving a lecture at the The New Emergency Conference.
David Korowicz documents the disturbing growth in the complexity of trade and financial networks and in the various types of infrastructure. He sees the collapse process as a system of re-enforcing feedbacks that cut investment in energy and R&D and cause supply chains and IT networks to break down.
2015: what is in store?
2014 is as good as over; while most people look back on the past year for world shaking events, achievements, and which celebrity got divorced, I as usual look to the future…. and 2015 could be the decisive year for Western Civilisation, not that some people ever notice mind you.
Christmas has a habit of bringing people nearer to you that you might not otherwise associate with. Since losing faith in humanity many years ago, I'm very choosy about whom I associate with, because people more often than not just depress me with their absolute lack of foresight. One such person who shall remain nameless proudly told me on Boxing Day about how he was going to demolish the house he's lived in most of his life to build a two story 400 m² 6 bedroom McMansion with three phase airconditioning…… his excitement was palpable, and frankly I don't even understand why he was showing his plans off to me, I was totally underwhelmed and it took all of my self control to not tell him what I thought of his stupid plans. Just to make matters worse, the building company he's planning to use is American based, so the profits won't even stay here in Australia. When I sarcastically mentioned that his 50 inch TV would be too small for such a house…. he agreed! I asked him if he realised that by having three phase power he would get a triple bill, likely attached to the three service fees I would guess such a connection would entail. It never occurred to him of course, ignorance is bliss… Be blowed if I would pay the utility $225 a quarter even before using a single one of their electrons. He had no idea of what I was talking about, and I can see him copping quarterly bills well in excess of $1000 in this idiotic plan.
We've been saying this would happen for a long time, that oil prices would drop as demand falls on a move into economic depression. A temporary supply glut opens up, price support evaporates, prices fall to those of the lowest cost producer and all the expensive and complex production goes out of business. No one invests in exploration or drilling or production, or probably even maintenance, for years, meaning that supply will follow demand to the downside over time. Any kind of economic recovery way down the line will then be energy supply-constrained. First financial crisis buys you time in terms of peak oil, because you burn through remaining high energy profit ratio energy sources less quickly, but then it aggravates the situation later, but collapsing supply more quickly. We are headed into a much lower energy future, and that means life is going to change.
So you see why I think my non blood relation's timing is way off! He of course is not the least bit interested in anything I have to say, I even discovered yesterday that he has completely disconnected me from his cyber existence, my grim readings obviously clashing with his future expectations. Buoyed by statements like "I can't really overcapitalise in my suburb" and "property values can only go up where I live", he was justifying everything in his own blissfully unaware mind that life was going to change alright, only it would be for the better. What's a deflationary spiral he may well have asked, should he even have known to ask such a question… And stuff his three children's future climate too! Ah well, you can't save everybody, especially when they are unwilling to help themselves.
If the global economy unravels, then unemployment, underemployment, and fear will combine to reduce consumption. Investment and GDP will decline. The economy will deflate. Just like the 1930s. And Australia will not fare anywhere near as well this time as it did after GFC MkI when commodity prices were still high and Chinese demand was strong.
If the world economy deflates, fixed asset values will decline. Rental properties are especially vulnerable. Stagnant incomes, increasing unemployment, and credit card debt guarantee consumers will prioritize spending decisions based on urgent need: food, fuel, and then rent (or mortgage payments). This last Christmas binge could be the last. In periods of declining economic activity, rental property owners (houses, apartment buildings, supermarkets and so on) face potential bankruptcy because of higher vacancy rates. It will also become increasingly difficult for rents to keep up with maintenance costs.
One key indicator of deflation that seems to be even more worrisome to investors, however, is global commodity prices and what commodity price weakness suggests for demand. Copper fell over 12% in 2014, largely due to slumping demand in China and other industrial economies. Natural gas prices have fallen more than 12% this year. And oil prices have fallen by over 40% due to a glut of new supply and weak demand growth in many developing economies. The International Energy Agency has cut its estimates for demand for crude five times in the past six months, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The negative impact on incomes due to the decline in oil prices is a global issue, with nations such as Russia, Nigeria and Venezuela in visible financial distress. The price of the Russian Ruble has declined in tandem with oil prices, raising concerns about whether Russia will be able to service its hard currency debt. But the decline in oil prices is more than just a supply phenomenon. The lack of growth in the demand for oil, coupled with rising supplies in the U.S. and elsewhere, has raised concerns about the overall health of the global economy.
We believe that the weakness in U.S. equity and debt markets stems from a more fundamental problem than concerns about future growth, namely that investors are once again starting to seriously question the disclosure from the largest banks and investment houses regarding their credit exposure to highly leveraged borrowers. This concern is evidenced by weakness in the equity market valuations of lenders with exposure to the oil sector as well as the recent changes in the relative position of spreads in the U.S.bond markets.
Hmmmm don't crashes occur in seven year cycles? Watch this space….
Currently the monetary system is controlled by a "for profit" Central Banking system. The major problem with this system is the idea of profit itself. Profit means "to obtain a financial advantage or benefit". Unlike barter, the concept of profit necessitates a winner and a loser in any transaction. Most people are not aware that the current monetary system is a for profit system designed to create wealth and power for those that control the system, just as one would profit from the oil or manufacturing industry. Central banking is the business of controlling the monetary system to enrich only those that wield control of the system.
Regarding the business of usury, whenever a "loan" of non-existent currency is created there is also an interest charge built into the contract. When the borrower pays back the "loan" they are also required to pay back an interest charge that is over and above the newly created currency. The point to understand here is that the interest due was not created along with the new digital currency and thus a shortfall of currency is actually built into the system. Thus bankruptcy is a fundamental component of the current monetary system because there is always a shortage of currency. If every dollar of debt in existence today were to be paid back right now, all the interest would still be outstanding. This is the mathematical formula that has been used for centuries in order to steal tangible wealth from the actual creators of that wealth.
The concept of "profit" is what is holding us back as a species. We have been indoctrinated into a short term "take what we can NOW" philosophy that is based on the fallacy of continuous growth and competition. I submit that we would be far better off if we forged our future by cultivating the creative use of our finite resources using a co-operative intellectual methodology.
Profit stifles as much creativity as it generates. Just look at the alternate technologies that have been suppressed because they would have upset the current paradigm, technology such as almost free and truly sustainable energy and anti-gravity devices. If either of these technologies ever went main stream the oil economy would take a huge hit and there would be an immediate shift in the controlling power structure.
Another guest post from our resident Climate Scientist, Mark Cochrane who has been too busy this year to write much for us… never good news of course, but it's imperative we stay abreast of the news as the future unfolds.
Two papers now show that the collapse of the Western Antarctic ice sheet is a foregone conclusion. No matter what we do, that ice (equal to 4 m of sea level rise) is going to melt. We can accelerate the rate but we cannot slow it. It isn't being melted from above, it is being lifted from below, allowing the ice to flow into the sea. There are no remaining impediments (e.g. ridges or mountains) to keep the ice sheet from collapsing completely, so the dominoes are falling whether we like it or not.
One study (Rignot et al. 2014 in Geophysical Research Letters) focused on the observed melting over the last few decades, while the other based their conclusions on computer modeling of the future decay of the ice sheet (Joughlin et al. 2014 Science). Having scientists confirm the same findings using different methods provides confidence that, although the timeline may change a bit, the main results are likely correct. Both studies put the minimum time for this collapse at 200 years, with the maximum time for the collapse being 500 or 900 years, respectively. Best case is a doubling of rates of sea level rise….
While having 200+ years until complete collapse may not sound like an urgent problem, it is. If the West Antarctic ice sheet collapse is certain then most if not all of Greenland will be right on its heels and even portions of the larger East Antarctic ice sheet will be pouring into the oceans. What this means is that not only will sea levels continue to rise, they will continue to rise at increasing rates. Most of humanity lives near the coastlines. We have bequeathed future generations with a legacy of ever shifting shorelines. Many of the world's largest cities will either have to be abandoned, moved, or protected with massive sea walls that will rapidly become obsolescent as sea levels keep rising. Most goods are shipped by sea meaning that port cities are key. It should be interesting to see how we keep retrofitting docks around the world.
Where is all of this leading us? We have now reached 400 ppm CO2 in the atmosphere. Why is that important?
Since we have no way of removing significant amounts of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, this is the future that we have programmed into the Earth's climate system. For those looking for future beach-front property, sea levels were 40 m higher than today. It will take hundreds, if not thousands, of years for all of this to play out so don't move quite yet! The wildcard in our future will be the weather we experience. CO2 is now rising at about 75 times anything in the geological record so no one really knows what we will experience but chances are that it will not be a good experience in most places. 'Climate' is average weather (at least 30 years), meaning that seasons and weather patterns should be roughly stable or bounded over that time period. However, we are now changing the climate continuously so that trying to define 'average' weather over several decades doesn't really make sense anymore than it would to buy your kid's clothes based on their average height between ages 5 and 15.


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