EARTH PORTATION curated News January 8th

AIR - Updating air pollution measurement methods with air quality, health effects research

Launching a natural research experiment in Kathmandu, Nepal, this month using advanced monitoring methods to assess health risk from air pollution, environmental health scientist Rick Peltier at the University of Massachusetts Amherst hopes to demonstrate for the first time in a real-world setting that air pollution can and should be regulated based on toxicology variables rather than simply on the volume of particles in the air .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-air-pollution-methods-quality-h

ANIMALS - 49-Million-Year-Old Cockroach Fossil Found

A common European and African cockroach may have gotten its evolutionary start in North America, according to new fossil findings .. ...
http://news.discovery.com/animals/insects/4-million-year-old

ANIMALS - Ants shape their thoraces to match the tasks they perform

It was now discovered that the specialization of queen and worker ants goes beyond the presence or absence of wings. In a study published in the open access scientific journal eLife, Roberto A. Keller and Patrícia Beldade from the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC, Portugal), in collaboration with Christian Peeters from Université Pierre et Marie Curie (France), showed that ants grow the size of their thoracic segments differently according to ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-ants-thoraces-tasks.htm

ANIMALS - DNews: How Every Living Thing 'Hunts' the Same Way

While we may think our routine trip to the grocery store or spontaneous walk at the park is our own doing, these excursions actually follow a universal pattern! Anthony explains the theory of the Levy walk and how it influences our daily pursuits .. ...
http://news.discovery.com/human/videos/how-every-living-thin

ANIMALS - New study finds extreme longevity in white sharks

Great white sharks—top predators throughout the world's ocean—grow much slower and live significantly longer than previously thought, according to a new study led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-extreme-longevity-white-sharks.

ANIMALS - Number of gray whales seen migrating south doubles from a year ago

The jump in numbers has researchers wondering if the once endangered species is growing or if its migration patterns are changing.The number of gray whales spotted migrating south off the Southern California coast in December was double what it was compared with the same period last year, raising questions about whether it reflects changing migration patterns or perhaps a population boom for the once endangered species .. ...
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-gray-whales-20140107,0,79

ANIMALS - Top 10 Weird Ways Animals Stay Warm in Winter

To conquer the cold, animals have astounding survival skills such as antifreeze blood, lounging by hot springs, and even having gender-bender orgies .. ...
http://news.discovery.com/animals/tpo-10-weird-ways-animals-

ART - Artist stages stunning nature-inspired fables in tiny 159 sq. ft. studio

Steadfastly eschewing any digital manipulation, Korean artist JeeYoung Lee creates magical images that take months to set up in her tiny studio of 159 square feet .. ...

http://www.treehugger.com/culture/jeeyoung-lee-stages-nature

ART - The power of packaging in consumer choices

When it comes to deciding what food to eat, one might expect that people's choices will be driven by past experience and personal preference, but how does the general appearance of the package impact buying decisions of consumers .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-power-packaging-consumer-choice

CLIMATE - Bill Nye, the ‘science guy’: More brutally cold winters may coming: ‘What if this polar vortex is the way it’s going to be often over the coming decades’

http://www.climatedepot.com/2014/01/08/bill-nye-the-science-

CLIMATE - Brrrr: Incredible Photos of the Polar Vortex

The polar vortex sweeping the country is producing some rather lovely photos. Here are a few of our favorites.The polar vortex sweeping across the country has pulled 187 million Americans into the grips of crazy cold weather, snarled travel, forced an early orange harvest, and heated up the climate debate. It is also producing some amazing photography, from professionals and amateurs alike. Here are a few that have come to our attention in the la ...

http://climatedesk.org/2014/01/brrrr-incredible-photos-of-th

CLIMATE - Climatologist Cliff Harris: ‘The claims that greenhouse warming causes more cold waves like we have seen this week really seems to be without any basis in observational evidence or in theory. The media needs to stop pushing this unsupported argument’

Harris: The recent work by Professor Elizabeth Barnes of Colorado State has shown that there were methodological deficiencies in the research suggesting increased jet undulations with global warming. And that there is no observational evidence of increased waviness.  Furthermore, there is little evidence that the jet approaching North America has weakened recently.  The IPCC, the global group
http://www.climatedepot.com/2014/01/08/climatologist-cliff-h

CLIMATE - Climatologist Dr. Judith Curry, Chair of School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Institute of Technology: ‘Is global warming causing the polar vortex? In a word, no.’

http://www.climatedepot.com/2014/01/08/climatologist-dr-judi

CLIMATE - Peer-reviewed paper: Antarctic Sea Ice Increasing: ‘Antarctic sea ice area is not retreating but has slowly increased since satellite measurements began in 1979? – Published in Journal of Geophysical Research in June 2013

http://www.climatedepot.com/2014/01/08/peer-reviewed-paper-a

CLIMATE - Scientists reject claims of record cold being caused by ‘global warming’ – Time Mag. blamed ‘polar vortex’ on ‘global cooling’ in 1974 – Special Report

Global warming activists in academia and the media are now seeking to link record-breaking cold to man-made “global warming.” The problem is, the science is failing to support their claims. Time Magazine was one of the first media outlets out of the gate with an article by senior writer Bryan Walsh blaming the “historic cold
http://www.climatedepot.com/2014/01/07/scientists-reject-cla

CLIMATE - TIME Mag blames global warming for frigid temps across US. CO2 made polar vortex ‘wobble like a drunk on 4th martini’

http://www.climatedepot.com/2014/01/07/time-mag-blames-globa

CLIMATE - Time Magazine Goes Both Ways On The Polar Vortex: ‘In 1974, Time Mag blamed the cold polar vortex on global cooling’ — In 2014: ‘Time Magazine blames the cold polar vortex on global warming’

http://www.climatedepot.com/2014/01/07/time-magazine-goes-bo

CLIMATE - Wash Post Throws Cold Water on Idea that Global Warming Is Causing Record Cold: ‘It’s still heavily debated…Elizabeth Barnes of Colorado State disputed the link’

http://www.climatedepot.com/2014/01/07/wash-post-throws-cold

CLIMATE - ‘It’s too darn cold’: Even polar bears and penguins moved indoors

http://www.climatedepot.com/2014/01/07/its-too-darn-cold-eve

EARTH - Paleontologist and librarian team up to create 3-D printout of rare fossil

University of Oregon paleontologist Edward Davis and librarian Dean Walton are creating a three-dimensional printout of a rare saber-toothed salmon fossil using a special printer housed at the Science Library .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-paleontologist-librarian-team-d

EARTH - Study: Seashell loss due to tourism increase may have global impact

Global tourism has increased fourfold over the last 30 years, resulting in human-induced seashell loss that may harm natural habitats worldwide, according to a University of Florida scientist .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-seashell-loss-due-tourism-globa

ECONOMICS - Laundering money—literally—could save billions of dollars

A dollar bill gets around, passing from hand to hand, falling on streets and sidewalks, eventually getting so grimy that a bank machine flags it and sends it to the shredder. Rather than destroying it, scientists have developed a new way to clean paper money to prolong its life. The research, which appears in the ACS journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, could save billions and minimize the environmental impact of banknote disp ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-laundering-moneyliterallycould-

EDUCATION - Enrollment now open for Yale’s new generation of online courses

Yale University is launching its next generation of free online courses, with four new courses debuting in the next six weeks. Registration is open now for all courses .. ...
http://news.yale.edu/2014/01/08/enrollment-now-open-yale-s-n

ENERGY - FERC’s New ‘Fast Track’ Rules Will Make Clean Energy Development Easier

California has led the nation on a key environmental issue once again. In this case, the Federal Energy Regulation Commission (FERC) adopted key aspects of California’s new interconnection rules for small wholesale energy projects like solar and small hydro. The fast track process is a dramatically cheaper and faster interconnection process for qualifying small projects, so this change represents a major improvement with nationwide impacts. FERC ...

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/ferc-adopts-new-

ENERGY - Greenland and Denmark to agree on uranium in 2014

An agreement between Greenland and Denmark governing uranium extraction in the Arctic territory will be in place by the end of the year, the Danish prime minister said on Wednesday .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-greenland-denmark-uranium.htm

FURNITURE - Turning hot air into cool designer chairs

Turning methane and other global warming into useful products can be energy intensive, but Newlight Technologies thinks they've found a way to turn hot air into hot chairs .. ...

http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/turning

HOMES - Zuli Connects the Smart Home With Bluetooth

The home automation platforms on display at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas use a lot of different wireless technologies -- Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Z-Wave, and an array of vendor-specific networks come to mind. All of them have their advantages and disadvantages, but all share the common need for a central networking hub, at a cost of some $50 or so, to connect disparate “smart” household devices into a common platform for your smartph ...

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Zuli-Connects-th

MOVIES - DVD Feature Film Review: Tiger Eyes

A moving depiction of a teenage girl's quest for a way out of her sadness, grief, and loss over the sudden death of her beloved father .. ...
http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/films.php?id=25

MUSIC - Swallow A Pill For Perfect Musical Pitch

A mood-stabilizing drug that restores the brain to its juvenile state could one day give adults the ability to improve their singing and learn new languages. Continue reading .. ...
http://news.discovery.com/human/life/swallow-a-pill-for-perf

PEOPLE - How to be a role model

First you need to realise that it's a conscious choice, says Heleana QuarteyOne of the most disempowering assumptions about role models is that the role has to be assigned to you by society once you have "arrived", or that you have to wait to be deemed good enough to be one. This is simply untrue, although interestingly it is often once we become established in our careers that we feel compelled to give back.What no one told me when I started out ...

http://www.theguardian.com/women-in-leadership/2014/jan/08/h
Enclosure: image/jpeg http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/20

PEOPLE - Where Are The Women in Professional Kitchens? Some Advice for Future Female Chefs

One of the great ironies in the food industry is that even though millions of women around the world cook and provide meals to their families daily, there are few women employed in professional kitchens (outside of pastry). And the few high profile female chefs often get overlooked, as was the case in Time Magazine’s recent cover story entitled “The Gods of Food,” where nary a woman was included among the nearly 100 chefs and food personalities . ...

http://www.good.is/posts/where-are-the-women-in-professional

PERMACULTURE - How does soil store CO2?

Global CO2 emissions continue to rise—in 2012 alone, 35.7 billion tons of this greenhouse gas entered the atmosphere. Some of it is absorbed by the oceans, plants and soil. They provide a significant reservoir of carbon. Scientists have now discovered how organic carbon is stored in soil: The carbon only binds to certain soil structures. This means that soil's capacity to absorb CO2 needs to be re-assessed and incorporated into today's climate mo ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-soil-co2.htm

PERMACULTURE - Soil testing the old fashioned way

I fully approve of keeping old skills alive, but eating dirt to test its pH may be pushing it .. ...

http://www.treehugger.com/lawn-garden/soil-testing-old-fashi

SCIENCE - Nanofibers align to the sound of Beethoven and Mozart

(Phys.org) —Humans create and perform music for a variety of purposes such as aesthetic pleasure, healing, religion, and ceremony. Accordingly, a scientific question arises: Can molecules or molecular assemblies interact physically with the sound vibrations of music? In the journal ChemPlusChem, Japanese researchers have now revealed their physical interaction. When classical music was playing, a designed supramolecular nanofiber in a solution
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-nanofibers-align-beethoven-moza

SCIENCE - New Initiative Seeks to Make All Particle-Physics Papers Freely Available

January sees the start of what has been billed as the largest-scale open-access initiative ever built: an international effort to switch the entire field of particle physics to open-access publishing.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=new-initiat

SCIENCE - Scientists improve detection of Arctic clouds

(Phys.org) —Thin Arctic clouds can no longer hide, thanks to scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Atmospheric data gathered by skyward pointing instruments can be "contaminated" by clouds so wispy that they appear to the instruments as tiny, suspended particles called aerosols, the desired target. The researchers showed how a simple modification of typical methods used to detect denser clouds and remove them from the data results
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-scientists-arctic-clouds.htm

SCIENCE - Soap bubbles for predicting cyclone intensity?

Could soap bubbles be used to predict the strength of hurricanes and typhoons? However unexpected it may sound, this question prompted physicists at the Laboratoire Ondes et Matière d'Aquitaine (CNRS, France) to perform a highly novel experiment: They used soap bubbles to model atmospheric flow. A detailed study of the rotation rates of the bubble vortices enabled the scientists to obtain a relationship that accurately describes the evolution of ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-soap-cyclone-intensity.htm

SPACE - One-way trip to Mars? Sign me up, says Frenchwoman

A comfortable, middle-class Parisian life may be the envy of many people, but Florence Porcel would give it all up to be among the first Earthlings to settle on Mars—even with no option of return .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-one-way-mars-frenchwoman.htm

SPACE - Quasars illuminate swiftly swirling clouds around galaxies

A new study of light from quasars has provided astronomers with illuminating insights into the swirling clouds of gas that form stars and galaxies, proving that the clouds can shift and change much more quickly than previously thought .. ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140108154517.ht

SPACE - Space weather forces Orbital to postpone cargo launch (Update)

Turbulent space weather forced Orbital Sciences on Wednesday to postpone the launch of its unmanned Cygnus spacecraft on its first regular contract flight to supply the International Space Station .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-orbital-readies-cargo-mission-s

TREES - Temperature found to be most significant driver of the world's tallest trees

Understanding forest biodiversity and how carbon dioxide is stored within trees is an important area of ecological research. The bigger the tree, the more carbon it stores and a study in New Phytologist explores global variance in tree height, identifying temperature as the most important factor behind the tallest species .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-temperature-significant-driver-

TREES - What is the fate of the oldest trees on earth?

The bristlecone pine has survived in an extreme environment for thousands of years, but the trees' survival is threatened by global warming .. ...

http://www.treehugger.com/climate-change/what-fate-oldest-tr

URBAN - Do small apartments really pose a health risk?

They may help solve New York City's housing crisis, but could urban micro-apartments be detrimental to residents' mental health .. ...

http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/do-small-apartm

URBAN - Everybody's doing it: Open Streets events (aka Ciclovia) are taking over the world! (video)

The open streets movement aims to give public roads back to everybody, if only for for a few days each year .. ...

http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/open-streets-events-aka-cicl

WATER - The ocean's hidden waves show their power

Their effect on the surface of the ocean is negligible, producing a rise of just inches that is virtually imperceptible on a turbulent sea. But internal waves, which are hidden entirely within the ocean, can tower hundreds of feet, with profound effects on the Earth's climate and on ocean ecosystems .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-ocean-hidden-power.htm

WORK - The Case for Extending Jobless Benefits in Seven Charts

Failing to extend federal unemployment benefits would drive labor out of the workforce, exacerbating bad trends and causing all kinds of economic damag .. ...
http://origin-www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-07/7-cha

WRITE - Literary mood reflects the economic mood of past 10 years, study finds

The frequency of words expressing misery and unhappiness in books reflects the economic conditions in the 10 years prior to the work's composition, according to researchers in Bristol and London .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-literary-mood-economic-years.ht