EARTH Portation curated news: EARTH PORTATION curated News December 30th

ANIMALS - Museum bird DNA 'ready for use' in Naturalis Biodiversity Center

DNA barcoding is used as an effective tool for both the identification of known species and the discovery of new ones. The core idea of DNA barcoding is based on the fact that just a small portion of a single gene already can show that there is less variation between the individuals of one species than between those of several species .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2013-12-museum-bird-dna-ready-naturalis

BIRDS - Testosterone in male songbirds may enhance desire to sing but not song quality

For the male canary, the ability to sing a pitch-perfect song is critical to wooing female canaries. As the seasons change, so does song quality and frequency. The hormone testosterone plays a role in this changing song behavior .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2013-12-testosterone-male-songbirds-des

BOOKS - Book Excerpt: The Wisdom of Love

Jacob Needleman on the need for lovers to nourish each other's inner life and search for truth .. ...
http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/books/excerpts.php?id

EARTH - Countdown to 2014: Best places to ring in the new year

As the clock ticks down to midnight, a crowd gathers in Times Square, waiting for a glittering ball to descend and launch the New Year. But this isn’t New York, it’s Hong Kong, where a ball drop has also become an annual tradition .. ...
http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/countdown-2014-best-places-rin

ECONOMICS - An Unlikely Star of the Holiday-Shipping Season: The U.S. Postal Service

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-12-30/an-unlikely-

ECONOMICS - Online economy continues to bloom

Online shopping in Australia is enjoying a strong second wave of growth as more consumers build internet browsing, purchasing and financial transactions into their everyday lives .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2013-12-online-economy-bloom.htm

ECONOMICS - The world braces for retirement crisis

A global retirement crisis is bearing down on workers of all ages. It will play out for decades, and its consequences will be far-reaching .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2013-12-world-braces-crisis.htm

EDUCATION - 6 Innovative Programs Getting Children Back in School

It costs more to not educate a child than it does to educate a child. Around the world there are innovative programs working to get these children into school. Here are 6 featured on the CEI database .. ...
http://www.good.is/posts/6-innovative-programs-getting-child

ENVIRONMENT - Japan’s homeless hired for Fukushima clean up

The ongoing and potentially deadly work of cleaning up Japan's nuclear disaster zone has fallen on the country's neediest.According to a Reuters report, homeless Japanese people are being recruited (reportedly the work of Japanese gangsters) to work for under minimum wage to clean up radioactive fallout across an area of northern Japan, as the radiation clean up following the Fukushima meltdown runs heavily behind schedule.Via Reuters:In January, ...
http://www.salon.com/2013/12/30/japans_homeless_hired_for_fu

HOMES - MEKA reinvents shipping container housing

Their patented system takes the best of both worlds: the mobility of the shipping container with the flexibility of prefab .. ...

http://www.treehugger.com/modular-design/meka-world-reinvent

MOVIES - DNews: The Top Sci-Fi Films of All Time

Anthony sits down with filmmaker & Film Riot host, Ryan Connolly to discuss the top 5 science fiction films of all time .. ...
http://news.discovery.com/human/videos/the-top-sci-fi-films-

MOVIES - Make a Movie

The White House is hosting a film festival for kids K-12 .. ...
http://www.good.is/posts/encourage-children-s-creativit

MOVIES - Why Matt Smith's Doctor "Deserved Better"

Matt Smith has been one of the most engaging actors ever to play that ageless time traveler on Doctor Who — but if he'd been given better, weightier material to work with, he might have been the best Doctor of all, argues a new article in The Atlantic.Read more... .. ...

http://io9.com/why-matt-smiths-doctor-deserved-better-149182

PEOPLE - Gone in 2013: A Tribute to 10 Remarkable Women in Science

Pioneering scientists and engineers are often overlooked in popular retrospectives commemorating the year’s departed. In particular, women in such fields tend to be given short shrift. To counter this regrettable circumstance, I present here a selection of 10 notable women in science who left us in 2013. Each of these individuals contributed greatly to her field and should be remembered for her exceptional accomplishments. This, of course, is not ...
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/12/30/go

PEOPLE - U.S. Population Rises Just 0.72 Percent, Census Bureau Finds

An outside demographer says last year’s growth rate was the lowest in more than seven decades. .. ...
http://www-nc.nytimes.com/2013/12/31/us/us-population-rises-

PLANTS - How smoker's breath saved this caterpillar's life

Meet the tobacco hornworm, a caterpillar that regularly eats tobacco leaves loaded with nicotine. Research now shows this little bugger has a strange and unique defense against hungry spiders: It "puffs out" nicotine, creating a kind of toxic bad breath. This serves as a potent warning that says, "Eat me and you'll die!"Read more... .. ...

http://io9.com/how-smokers-breath-saved-this-caterpillars-li

SCIENCE - The Biodiversity Bubble: How What We Don't Know Could Get Us Killed

Ask most scientists and they’ll tell you that the current crisis that scares them most is the biodiversity crisis. What current biodiversity crisis? My point, exactly .. ...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenkotler/2013/12/30/the-biod

SPACE - When Did Galaxies Get Their Spirals?

What makes a spiral galaxy, well, spiral? And how long does it take them to get in a spin? Continue reading .. ...
http://news.discovery.com/space/galaxies/when-did-galaxies-g

SUSTAINABILITY - 9 Simple and Effective Green New Year’s Resolutions

Many of us make New Year’s resolutions every year, to help us achieve our financial goals or to improve our health, but not too many of us make those New Year’s resolutions for environmental reasons.However, if you’re concerned about having a smaller environmental footprint, and saving money while you’re at it, here are 9 simple and effective green New Year’s resolutions that you can put into practice in 2014:Some of these are really basic, such ...

http://ecopreneurist.com/2013/12/30/9-simple-effective-green

URBAN - The 2013 Shipping Container News: Our 15 favorite boxes

Shipping containers do a lot more than ship stuff. See them used as everything from bridges to stores to housing to baths .. ...

http://www.treehugger.com/slideshows/modular-design/2013-shi

WIND - Siemens Puts Weight Behind US Offshore Wind

Image Credit: Siemens There were new signs on Monday that the Cape Wind offshore wind power plant in Nantucket Sound in Massachusetts will become a reality. The developer and Siemens finalized a deal under which Siemens will supply turbines for the project, and Siemens said it would likely become an equity investor. Cape Wind and Siemens said they signed a contract for 130 3.6-megawatt turbines, adding up to 46 ...

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/siemens-puts-wei

WORK - How to make job sharing work

Bringing job sharing to senior roles will create businesses which are more agile, innovative, profitable and socially responsibleIn my work helping organisations to become more sustainable and socially responsible, I've become obsessed by the lack of senior level job sharing opportunities in UK companies. I believe that greater job flexibility is a viable way to create more social sustainability alongside agility, profit and innovation.More senio ...