EARTH PORTATION curated News January 20th

ANIMALS - Conservationists, big oil join forces to help whales

Conservationists have joined forces with a company working on one of the world's largest oil and gas projects to help limit the impact of seismic surveys on endangered whales .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-unique-collaboration-minimize-s

ANIMALS - Dispersal patterns key to invasive species' success

In 1859 an Australian farmer named Thomas Austin released 24 grey rabbits from Europe into the wild because it "could do little harm and might provide a touch of home, in addition to a spot of hunting. .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-dispersal-patterns-key-invasive

ANIMALS - Keeping whales safe in sound

Global efforts are intensifying to safeguard whales and other marine species from the harms of powerful noise used in seismic seafloor surveys by the oil and gas industry and others. The impetus i .. ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140120090641.ht

ANIMALS - Dolphins Are 10 Times Stronger Than Human Athletes

Dolphins produce an eyebrow-raising amount of power, much more than Olympic athletes. Continue reading .. ...
http://news.discovery.com/adventure/travel/dolphins-are-10-t

ANIMALS - How a scorpion gets its sting

Defensins, as their name implies, are small proteins found in plants and animals that help ward off viral, bacterial or fungal pests. One fascinating question of invertebrate evolution is how these proteins evolved into venoms to attack their prey .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-scorpion.htm

ANIMALS - Move over elephants: Mimosas have memories too

Not long after publishing a paper in a prestigious journal about plants being able to 'talk' using sound, Monica Gagliano is back with her new findings showing that they can 'learn' .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-elephants-mimosas-memories.htm

BEES - Exposure to pesticides results in smaller worker bees

Exposure to a widely used pesticide causes worker bumblebees to grow less and then hatch out at a smaller size, according to a ne .. ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140120090643.ht

BEES - Thousands of honeybees outfitted with tiny sensors in Australia

Researchers are applying sensors to 5,000 bees to track them and try to find the causes of colony collapse .. ...

http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/honeybees-outfitt

BOOKS - Book Excerpt: What You Will See Inside A Hindu Temple

Dr. Mahendra Jani and Dr. Vandana Jani on Hindu prayers and devotions for temples and homes .. ...
http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/books/excerpts.php?id

BOOKS - Amazon Will Probably Dominate Books-by-Subscription, Too

The idea of a subscription model for e-books is gaining momentum. As elsewhere in publishing, Amazon's the behemot .. ...
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-15/new-subscrip

BOOKS - Book Excerpt: Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes

Nancy Ammerman report on religious people doing spiritual practices, including an Episcopal woman with many different pratices .. ...
http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/books/excerpts.php?id

BOOKS - Book Excerpt: The Zero Point Agreement

Julia Tallard Johnson in conversation with Parker J. Palmer about wanting to get off the tour bus and have our own spiritual pilgrimage .. ...
http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/books/excerpts.php?id

BOOKS - Book Review: Food Over Medicine

A naturopath's challenge that we be more careful about what we eat and what drugs we take .. ...
http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/books/books.php?id=25

EARTH - New Zealand's tallest mountain has shrunk

The highest point in New Zealand is about 100 feet shorter than we thought .. ...

http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/new-zealands-tall

EARTH - New Zealand's tallest mountain has shrunk

The highest point in New Zealand is about 100 feet shorter than we thought .. ...

http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/new-zealands-tall

ECONOMICS - Is Greed An Addiction?

http://origin-www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-20/is-gr

EDUCATION - Embracing Embodiment for Deeper Learning

Learning Styles as a concept has captured the attention of educators but from the lab of educational scientists comes little evidence of it's utility. So here's a good idea: let's replace it with embodiment instead. Following all humans can learn through their eyes, ears, and bodies, creating lessons that stimulate multiple sensory inputs should deepen learning. It's not a new idea, but perhaps an idea whose time has come .. ...
http://www.good.is/posts/embracing-embodiment-for-deeper-lea

EDUCATION - Your best teachers were probably part-timers

I've been adjunct for years now. Students should demand better treatment for - and from - their schools .. ...
http://www.good.is/posts/your-best-teachers-were-probably-pa

ENERGY - Help launch an energy independence pilot project at an elementary school in Croatia

A crowdfunding campaign to help a school in Croatia become energy independent through solar PV and an efficient lighting upgrade will get a helping hand from the United Nations Development Programme .. ...

http://www.treehugger.com/solar-technology/help-launch-energ

ENERGY - Volvo CE Braås facility now powered entirely by renewable energy

At the end of December 2013, Volvo Construction Equipment’s (CE) Braås facility, a 45,000 m2-site in southern Sweden, which specializes in the design and manufacture of articulated haulers, became powered entirely by renewable energy sources, including wind, biomass and hydropower.This follows in the footsteps of the Volvo Group’s trucks facility in Ghent which sets the standard for emissions-free industrial manufacturing in 2007. And just as Ghe ...
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2014/01/20140120-volvoce.htm

ENERGY - Dueling Charts of the Day: Peaker Plants vs. Green Power

Wind and solar power are transitioning from marginal to central players in the grid energy landscape. But wind and solar are also subject to the vagaries of daily and seasonal weather patterns, which means they sometimes can't be relied on to meet the grid’s critical needs. That’s particularly true when energy demand is peaking, and the grid turns to rarely used yet critical natural-gas-fired “peaker plants” as its resource of last resort. But c ...

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/dueling-charts-o

ENERGY - India Could Reach 100% Renewables By Mid-Century

Originally published on RenewEconomyby Emma FitzpatrickWhen the world thinks of countries that could go 100 per cent renewable, the immediate thoughts go to islands with solar and storage, hydro and geothermal rich countries such as Iceland, or even wind and wave-rich countries like Scotland.One of the last economies imagined going fully renewable would be India, the rising economic giant that is still yet to connect several hundred million .. ...

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/01/17/india-reach-100-renewabl

MUSIC - Beats Music builds a unique, if messy, listening experience around emotion

The Beats empire has officially expanded beyond its humble headphone roots. In just a few hours Beats Music will officially launch, the latest contestant for your streaming music dollar. Of course, the market for such services is already pretty .. .. ...

http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/20/beats-music/?ncid=rss_tru

MUSIC - Composer makes great music using only his bike as an instrument (video)

This man turns everyday objects into musical instruments and builds songs from the various sounds that he extracts from those improved instruments .. ...

http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/composer-makes-music-using-o

PEOPLE - Prince Charles taking on more royal duties

.. ...
http://www.today.com/video/today/5412474

PLANTS - 12 uses for coconut oil on your body and around the house

You'll soon be addicted to this magic bullet of versatility .. ...

http://www.treehugger.com/green-home/12-uses-coconut-oil-you

PLANTS - Deciphering plants' electrical signals to devise new environmental biosensors

Science is becoming closer emulating the fiction of a popular Avatar movie, by deciphering plants’ electrical signals to devise new holistic environment .. ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140120114758.ht

PLANTS - House plants seen in all the best offices

You'd never know it but these plant photos were taken in some of the most fashionable offices .. ...

http://www.treehugger.com/slideshows/interior-design/house-p

SCIENCE - Houston, we have ants: Mimicking how ants adjust to microgravity in space could lead to better robots, scientist says

Professor Deborah Gordon recently sent hundreds of ants to the orbiting International Space Station. By studying how the ants adjust their behavior to cope with near-zero gravity conditions, scientists could improve the algorithms autonomous robots follow to search disaster scenes for survivors .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-houston-ants-mimicking-adjust-m

SCIENCE - Peeking into Schrödinger's Box

Until recently, measuring a 27-dimensional quantum state would have been a time-consuming, multistage process using a technique called quantum tomography, which is similar to creating a 3D image fro .. ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140120085054.ht

SCIENCE - Ultra-thin tool heating for injection molding

In future, thin-film heating will allow plastic parts to be produced with greatly improved surface quality. Researchers have also found a way to make the whole process more energy .. ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140120090453.ht

SCIENCE - New form of quantum matter: Natural 3D counterpart to graphene discovered

The discovery of what is essentially a 3D version of graphene – the 2D sheets of carbon through which electrons race at many times the speed at which they move through silicon - promises exciting new things to come for the high-tech industry, including much faster transistors and far more compact hard drives. A collaboration of researchers at the DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has discovered that sodium bismuthate can ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-quantum-natural-3d-counterpart-

SCIENCE - Smooth sailing: Rough surfaces that can reduce drag

From the sleek hulls of racing yachts to Michael Phelps' shaved legs, most objects that move through the water quickly are also smooth. But researchers from UCLA have found that bumpiness can sometimes be better .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-smooth-rough-surfaces.htm

SPACE - Astronomers Capture First Image of ‘Cosmic Web’ That Holds Galaxies Together

Just a few years ago, indirect evidence (“signatures”) of gigantic cosmic “tendrils”, or filaments, was discovered lurking around distant multi-galactic formations.Vast in scale but invisible, such filamentous structures apparently account for much of the missing matter required to keep galaxies intact (and prevent them from dispersing randomly throughout the cosmos). These intricately branching filaments — believed to be composed of some

http://planetsave.com/2014/01/20/astronomers-capture-first-i

TREES - Fungi sequester more carbon than leaf litter

Scientists have long known that fungi are central to forest health, but they are also helping to regulate our climate .. ...

http://www.treehugger.com/climate-change/fungi-northern-fore

URBAN - 15 Conical Bamboo Pillars Hold Up Gorgeous Open Air Cafe in Viet Nam

Read the rest of 15 Conical Bamboo Pillars Hold Up Gorgeous Open Air Cafe in Viet NamPermalink |Add todel.icio.us | diggPost tags: bamboo, bamboo cafe, bamboo restaurant in Viet Nam, eco design, green design, green materials, natural light, smoke-dried bamboo, sustainable design, Sustainable Materials, Vo Trong Nghia Architect .. ...

http://inhabitat.com/15-smoke-dried-conical-bamboo-pillars-h

URBAN - No, it's not a "fake sun" or "virtual sunrise" on that Tienanmen Square monitor. It's a commercial.

Pollution in Beijing is horrible, but the "fake sun" was not put on the screen because of it .. ...

http://www.treehugger.com/health/no-its-not-fake-sun-or-virt

URBAN - Compact Modular Pre-Fab Cottage Made from Local Materials Sits Amongst Trees Near Traverse City

Read the rest of Compact Modular Pre-Fab Cottage Made from Local Materials Sits Amongst Trees Near Traverse CityPermalink |Add todel.icio.us | diggPost tags: "sustainable architecture", eco design, green architecture, green design, green home, MF architect, mf architects, Michigan, Modular House, modules, pre-fab cottage, prefab cottage, prefab modules, Sustainable Building, sustainable design,

http://inhabitat.com/compact-modular-pre-fab-cottage-made-fr

URBAN - Dramatic Cantilevered House Boasts Magnificent Mountain Views in Nagano

Read the rest of Dramatic Cantilevered House Boasts Magnificent Mountain Views in NaganoPermalink |Add todel.icio.us | diggPost tags: cantilevered house, House in Yatsugatake, Kidosaki Architects Studio, minimalist architecture, modern architect, mountain scenery, nagano, panoramic views, Yatsugatake Mountain .. ...

http://inhabitat.com/dramatic-cantilevered-house-boasts-magn

URBAN - Notoriously Hostile St. Louis County Poised to Adopt Complete Streets

St. Louis County has had a reputation for being hostile to cyclists and pedestrians, but now the county is poised to adopt a complete streets policy. Image: St. Louis Post DispatchWhen it comes to safe streets, St. Louis County has often embodied the old guard mentality. It was county Department of Highways and Traffic spokesperson David Wrone who won our “Motor Mouths” Competition last year for his startlingly dismissive statements to bike advoc ...

http://streetsblog.net/2014/01/17/notoriously-hostile-st-lou

URBAN - Refurbished study room at Yale Center for British Art boasts improved access, better technology

There are plenty of things to celebrate at the reopening of the Yale Center for British Art’s study room, including greater access to the largest collection of British art outside Great Britain, key technology upgrades, and a renovated study space filled with natural light .. ...
http://news.yale.edu/2014/01/17/refurbished-study-room-yale-

URBAN - Report: Hamburg working to eliminate cars within city limits by 2034 [w/poll]

Filed under: Europe, Government/LegalHard as it may be to fathom, there are places in the world where cars simply don't make sense. Many of these places are the centers of major cities. And while most major American cities are fairly easy to get through via car, that's because they've benefited from more modern city planning techniques, utilizing things like the grid system.In Europe, where cities were laid out centuries before the New World was ...

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/01/16/hamburg-germany-car-ban

URBAN - Ricardo Bofill Transforms Cement Factory Ruins Into Castle-Like Architecture Headquarters

Read the rest of Ricardo Bofill Transforms Cement Factory Ruins Into Castle-Like Architecture HeadquartersPermalink |Add todel.icio.us | diggPost tags: Architecture, Barcelona, Cement Factory, Green Building, green design, green renovation, repurposed architecture, repurposed factory, Ricardo Bofill, sustainable desig .. ...

http://inhabitat.com/cement-factory-ruins-transformed-into-c

URBAN - Stefano Boeri's Vertical Forest gets planted

One of the world's most famous architectural renderings turns into a building. Will it thrive .. ...

http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/stefano-boeris-

URBAN - Submit Your Architecture Projects to the 2014 Holcim Awards – $2 Million in Prize Money Awarded!

THE HOLCIM AWARDS IS NOW ACCEPTING ENTRIES!Since accepting its first application back in 2005, the Holcim Awards has recognized more that 150 innovative architecture projects from across the globe that have advanced sustainability in the built environment. Now in it’s eighth year, the Holcim Awards has become one of the most important international design competitions, highlighting exceptional work from global minds that want to contribute to a g ...

http://inhabitat.com/submit-your-architecture-projects-to-th

URBAN - The Rise of Living Architecture (Book Review)

Green roofs, living walls, vertical farms are all part of a new living architecture .. ...

http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/rise-living-arc

URBAN - The Suburb Where Everybody Can Walk to School

In Lakewood, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, thoughtful planning means kids can get to school in a healthy way and the city can save money. Photo: Lakewood City School DistrictLakewood, Ohio, population 51,000, doesn’t have any school buses. It never has.Because of the way its schools were designed and sited, this inner-ring Cleveland suburb doesn’t need buses — every child in the district lives less than two miles from their classroom, and most are ...

http://dc.streetsblog.org/2014/01/17/the-suburb-where-everyb

WATER - Island channel could power about half of Scotland, studies show

Renewable tidal energy sufficient to power about half of Scotland could be harnessed from a single stretch of water off the north coast of the Scotland, engineer .. ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140120090645.ht

WRITE - The Universe in a Glass of Wine

... a poem, by Richard Feynman .. ...
http://www.good.is/posts/the-universe-in-a-glass-of-win