Clipmarks | ruralart's clips

Preserving nature globally - the top 10

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 01:05:18 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: I'm really impressed with both what the Nature Conservancy does, and how they work with local communities to do it. Everyone benefits.

Clip Source: www.nature.org

Costa Rica: A Landmark Debt-for-Nature Swap

Canada: Spirit of the Great Bear Rainforest

New York: Saving the Heart of the Adirondacks

Climate Change:

China: Its First National Park

Africa: New Program Takes Off

California: Santa Cruz Island Success

Papua New Guinea: Protecting Marine Life and Human Needs

Grasslands: Conservancy Moves Into Argentina and Mongolia

Tennessee: A Big Deal to Connect the Cumberlands

Travel the Desert on foot by internet

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:48:36 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: This is pretty cool... great info and pictures.

Clip Source: www.nature.org

Our scientist is traveling across 300 kilometers of desert on foot — and you can follow along right here!

Sanjayan, lead scientist for The Nature Conservancy, is trekking across Africa's Namib Desert — the world's oldest and possibly driest desert — to map and assess a proposed national park in the Namib that would protect priority habitat for lions, elephants, rhinos, cheetah and oryx.

The Conservancy's partners — Save the Rhino Trust and Round River Conservation Studies — are working hard to establish this communally managed area. See below for the latest updates from Sanjayan's journey across one of the most remote spots on Earth!

Day 1: Hobatere Conservancy
The expedition is underway — and we're already down three camels and our solar-powered gear works only in fits. Oh, and then there's this pride of lions nearby...

Tags: nature, desert, travel, africa

Planetarium for your computer

Tue, 06 May 2008 00:46:08 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: This looks really neat - enjoy!

Clip Source: www.stellarium.org

Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.
It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go. view screenshots

Sourceforge

Sourceforge is the central website where we collaborate on Stellarium, and where you can be heard too!

Tags: planetarium, computers, stars, space, astronomy

US slipping in "human index"

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:22:50 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Living in SC, and doing art residencies in the schools across the state, I see the differences between "richer" and "poorer" areas first hand. They are stark, and SC has no areas that would even equal many of the more economically powerful states.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Development: US fails to measure up on 'human index'

· Nation slumps from 2nd to 12th in global table
· Richest fifth take home $168,000, poorest $11,000

Despite spending $230m (£115m) an hour on healthcare, Americans live shorter lives than citizens of almost every other developed country. And while it has the second-highest income per head in the world, the United States ranks 42nd in terms of life expectancy.

"We get in this report ... an evaluation of what the limitations of human development are in the US but also ... how the relative place of America has been slipping in comparison with other countries over recent years."

The US has a higher percentage of children living in poverty than any of the world's richest countries.

It also reveals 14% of the population - some 40 million Americans - lack the literacy skills to perform simple, everyday tasks such as understanding newspaper articles and instruction manuals.

It has 5% of the world's people but 24% of its prisoners.

Nature Conservancy - fabulous photos

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 00:15:52 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: The slide show is truly incredible - gorgeous photos. The Nature Conservancy is definitely worth donating to.

Clip Source: www.nature.org

The best of more than 11,000 images.

Shot by leading photographers.

Now at your fingertips.

"Natural Light" gives you access to the most arresting photos from The Nature Conservancy's huge archives. From Tibet to Tanzania, from hissing alligators to quivering zebras, "Natural Light" opens a brilliant window onto our work and the astonishing nature that we at the Conservancy encounter every day.

Tags: nature, nature conservancy, photography, conservation

Honey Bees Dying, Food Vanishing?

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:06:59 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Frightening, and amazing to me that so little is being done.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The US bee population fell by about 30% last year

The pollination of crops by bees is responsible for a third of the food produced in the US.

One in every three mouthfuls has been touched by their tiny feet; but our six-legged friends are in trouble.

They are getting sick and leaving their hives. Without bees, food gets more expensive - some products could disappear altogether.

Colony collapse disorder (CCD) emerged last year, and by spring 2007 bees were dying in huge numbers - over the year as a whole the total bee population fell by 30%.

Some beekeepers lost closer to 90%, and the fear is it will get worse.

Bees' influence on supermarket shelves is vast. As well as fruits and vegetables, it could get as far as beef and dairy products because cows are fed alfalfa - another bee-pollinated plant.

In a world so dominated by man it may come as a big shock to realise there are some things we cannot do without nature's help.

Tags: food, hunger, crops, agriculture, bees, disease

The War Comes Home

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:23:39 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Simultaneously incredibly sad and wonderfully uplifting. The way the community pulled together is wonderful.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Tracking a Marine Lost at Home

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — A week after Eric W. Hall disappeared into the woods of Southwest Florida, his mother stood in a parking lot overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. She had asked for volunteers. Would they come?

Becky Hall’s son had experienced a flashback, fleeing a relative’s home after sensing that Iraqi insurgents had surrounded him. He was 24, a former Marine corporal from Indiana who had been medically discharged after a bomb ripped through his leg. Here, among the retirees and strip malls, he was a stranger.

And yet his absence spurred a community to action. More than 50 people stepped forward that first day in February. Others came later, young and old, contributing four-wheelers, pickup trucks, boats, horses, search-and-rescue dogs, and even a small plane.

“He has these issues as a result of what we asked him to do,”

Tags: military, war, afghanistan, iraq, veterans, vietnam, tampa, florida, jungle, post traumatic stress

February Lunar Eclipse

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:11:38 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Great site with wonderful photos and info on astrophysics, solar system, etc.

Clip Source: sci.esa.int

Total Lunar Eclipse from ESAC

Date: 21 Feb 2008
Depicts: Lunar Eclipse
Location: ESAC, Spain
Copyright: Manuel Castillo

Image of the total lunar eclipse on 21 February 2008 captured at ESAC, Spain. The difference in surface brightness across the lunar surface due to the position of the Earth's shadow is clearly evident.

____________________________________
Last Update: 21 Feb 2008

Tags: lunar, eclipse, space, solar system

Losing the Dark

Sun, 04 May 2008 22:35:56 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Maps showing the loss of dark over the last 50 years or so.

Clip Source: www.yosemite.org

Growth of Light Pollution in North America

The maps show artificial night sky brightness and are based on upward light measured by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program after accounting for propagation and scattering of that light in the atmosphere.

The night sky in all areas here which are not black (but have other colors) is considered polluted. Today, two thirds of the USA's population have lost naked eye visibility of the Milky Way.

The colors indicate the artificial night sky brightness as a fraction of the average natural night sky brightness.

Tags: astronomy, night, dark, sky, lights

Midwest Floods may starve the world

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:27:00 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: In our global economy, flooding in the American midwest could lead to starvation around the world. Rather frightening.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

But officials were worried that worse might lie ahead as the rain-gorged tributaries spill into the Mississippi River system, threatening scores of communities. The Mississippi is expected to crest by midweek or days later.

For Mr. Timmerman and the thousands of other farmers who have seen their fields turn to floodplains, the rain and flooding could not have struck at a worse time, and their plight extends far beyond the Midwest.

Soaring global demand in addition to the increased use of corn for ethanol, an alternative fuel, have shrunk the worldwide supply of staples that are the core of practically every continent’s diet.

“The American farmer, we feed the world,” Mr. Timmerman said. “We’re going to be short on corn and we’re going to be short on soybeans.”

Meanwhile, the price of oil has jumped, raising the cost of producing crops and feeding livestock and causing an increase in grocery bills here and abroad, sparking riots and protests in at least two dozen countries.

Tags: floods, farming, corn, soybeans, starvation, food

Nanoparticles rescure HIV drug

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:37:48 GMT

clipped by: ruralart

Clip Source: ncsu.edu

Nanoparticles Help Combat HIV

Researchers at North Carolina State University have discovered that adding tiny bits of gold to a failed HIV drug rekindle the drug's ability to stop the virus from invading the body's immune system.

The addition of gold nanoparticles to a modified version of a drug designed in the 1990s to combat HIV – but discarded due to its harmful side effects – creates a compound that prevents the virus from gaining a cellular foothold

The drug, a compound known as TAK-779, was originally found to bind to a specific location on human T-cells, which blocks the HIV virus' entry to the body's immune system. Unfortunately, the portion of the drug's molecule that made binding possible had unpleasant side effects. When that portion of the molecule – an ammonium salt – was removed, the drug lost its binding ability.

Tags: hiv, drugs, nanoparticles

Black Holes and Galactic Collisions

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:45:51 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Impressive and fascinating. I had no idea our galaxy was going to collide with another one!

Clip Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

Homing in on Black Holes

To gain insight into the most mysterious objects in the universe, astronomers shine a light at the chaotic core of our own Milky Way

Without question, the Milky Way's black hole is the strangest thing in our galaxy—a three-dimensional cavity in space just ten times the physical size of our sun but with four million times the mass, a virtual bottomless pit from which nothing can escape. Every major galaxy, it turns out, has a black hole at its core. Now, for the first time, scientists have the chance to study the havoc these mind-boggling entities wreak.

Clip Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

However, a fearsome collision looms. The closest large galaxy, called Andromeda, is on a collision course with the Milky Way. The two will start to merge about two billion years from now, gradually forming a massive galaxy that Loeb and his Harvard-Smithsonian colleague T. J. Cox call "Milkomeda."

Tags: astronomy, astrophysics, stars, space, galaxy

Yes We Will Have No Bananas

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 05:34:03 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Amazing the way oil, the rain forest, shipping, and marketing developed and then may lose the banana market... not to mention Mother Nature's assistance/interference.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The immediate reasons for the price increase are the rising cost of oil and reduced supply caused by floods in Ecuador, the world’s biggest banana exporter. But something larger is going on that will affect prices for years to come.

That bananas have long been the cheapest fruit at the grocery store is astonishing. They’re grown thousands of miles away, they must be transported in cooled containers and even then they survive no more than two weeks after they’re cut off the tree.

Americans eat as many bananas as apples and oranges combined, which is especially amazing when you consider that not so long ago, bananas were virtually unknown here. They became a staple only after the men who in the late 19th century founded the United Fruit Company (today’s Chiquita) figured out how to get bananas to American tables quickly — by clearing rainforest in Latin America, building railroads and communication networks and inventing refrigeration techniques to control ripening.

Tags: bananas, oil, rain forest, deforestation, flood

Veil prevents French Citizenship

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:10:02 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Interesting, both that it happened and the response. And how would all of this differ in other countries?

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

LA VERRIÈRE, France — When Faiza Silmi applied for French citizenship, she worried that her French was not quite good enough or that her Moroccan upbringing would pose a problem.

“I would never have imagined that they would turn me down because of what I choose to wear,” Ms. Silmi said, her hazel eyes looking out of the narrow slit in her niqab, an Islamic facial veil that is among three flowing layers of turquoise, blue and black that cover her body from head to toe.

But last month, France’s highest administrative court upheld a decision to deny citizenship to Ms. Silmi, 32, on the ground that her “radical” practice of Islam was incompatible with French values like equality of the sexes.

The ruling on Ms. Silmi has received almost unequivocal support across the political spectrum, including among many Muslims. Fadela Amara, the French minister for urban affairs, called Ms. Silmi’s niqab “a prison” and a “straitjacket.”

SC teenager killed by roller coaster

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:43:45 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: The article reviews several other roller coaster deaths and injuries.

Clip Source: www.thestate.com

A teenager was decapitated by a roller coaster after he hopped a pair of fences and entered a restricted area Saturday at Six Flags Over Georgia, authorities said.

Six Flags officials are uncertain why the unidentified 17-year-old from Columbia, S.C. scaled two six-foot fences and passed signs that said the restricted area was both off-limits and dangerous to visitors, spokeswoman Hela Sheth said in a news release.

The teen was struck and killed by the roller coaster "while it was in operation," according to the park's news release. Police said the ride was going full-speed when the teen was struck. The ride's top speed is 50 mph, according to the park's Web site.

No one riding on the roller coaster was injured, Sheth said. The teen was with another boy who also entered the restricted area but was not injured, Pierce said.