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Arctic Ozone Loss 'Unprecedented,' Scientists Say

Tue, 2011-10-04 22:41 — Kathy Gilbeaux

by Emily Chung - CBC News - October 3, 2011

Left: Ozone in Earth's stratosphere at an altitude of approximately 12 miles (20 kilometers) in mid-March 2011, near the peak of the 2011 Arctic ozone loss. Right: chlorine monoxide – the primary agent of chemical ozone destruction in the cold polar lower stratosphere – for the same day and altitude. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Environment Canada cuts could disable future Canadian measurements

Unusual winter weather in the atmosphere high above the Earth's surface caused an "unprecedented" loss of protective ozone over the Arctic this year, scientists say.

The ozone layer in the stratosphere, located about 15 to 35 kilometres above the Earth's surface, protects the Earth from the sun's ultraviolet rays and harmful effects such as skin cancer. While an ozone hole has formed in the stratosphere over the Antarctic each spring since the mid 1980s, a paper published in Nature on Sunday marks the first time scientists have reported a comparable loss over the Arctic.

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How an Artificial Leaf Could Boost Solar Power

Thu, 2011-09-29 22:49 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Time.com - September 29, 2011

Photographer's Choice - RF

Nature is amazing. Take the humble leaf—it's capable of absorbing the sunlight and converting it into the chemical energy that fuels the growth of plants. Photosynthesis is one of the fundamental forces of life, and it's far superior to our technological efforts to harness sunlight. A photovoltaic solar panel can transform sunlight to electricity, but right now that power is difficult to store without expensive batteries, which limits the potential of solar energy. The sugars produced by photosynthesis, though, can be tapped by a plant for energy whenever it's needed. A solar cell that could mimic photosynthesis would be a game changer for alternative energy.

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IT and Information Sharing Environments for Community Health Resilience

Thu, 2011-09-29 09:44 — mdmcdonald

Information Technology (IT) and Information Sharing Environments (ISEs) are crucial to the evolution of community health resilience. Most people working to improve community health resilience do not understand the nuances of Information Sharing Environments, and how the rapid shifts in IT, mobile devices, social media, cloud computing, peer to peer parallel processing, smart grids, and the linking of millions of people, mobile devices, computers, and sensors are creating a societal mind, which is transforming community health resilience and the health and human security of Americans.

If you have thoughts on these topics, please comment within this collaboratory thread.

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Mexican Editor's Death Linked to Work with Social Media

Wed, 2011-09-28 22:33 — admin

By the CNN Wire Staff

September 28, 2011

Message reportedly found near the body blames social networks

MEXICO CITY (CNN) -- Amnesty International said Monday that a newspaper editor whose decapitated body was found over the weekend in the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo appears to have been targeted by a drug gang carrying out a reprisal for her work on social networks.

Though no investigation has yet been carried out, a message was found next to the body indicating that she was killed by members of organized crime "in retaliation for the information that the victim had distributed in social networks denouncing the activities of criminals in Nuevo Laredo," the human rights group said in a statement posted on its website.

The decapitated body of Maria Elizabeth Macias, the editor of Primera Hora, a daily newspaper based in Nuevo Laredo in the eastern state of Tamaulipas, was found Saturday morning.

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A Way to Make Motor Fuel Out of Wood? Add Water

Wed, 2011-09-28 21:27 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Samuel Bendett

The New York Times - by Matthew L. Wald - September 27, 2011

Technology from Renmatix obtained this sugar solution from wood pulp by applying very hot water at high pressure. The New York Times Company

A Georgia company says it has overcome a major roadblock in turning agricultural waste into vehicle fuel and other useful chemicals by experimenting with a technology that treats the waste with compressed water heated to very high temperatures.

The company, Renmatix, plans to cut the ribbon on a research and development center on Tuesday in King of Prussia, Pa., near the heart of the nation’s chemical and refining industry, to complete development of the process. The goal is to accomplish something that has eluded a dozen companies in recent years despite big government inducements: to commercialize a technology for making use of cellulosic biomass, or wood chips, switchgrass and the nonedible parts of crops.

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The Power of the 21st Century Librarian

Wed, 2011-09-28 11:19 — mdmcdonald

Michael D. McDonald, Dr.P.H.

It can be argued that libraries have their origins in the swarm behavior of individuals and groups acquiring and sharing cultural artifacts (e.g, pictographs, books) as the fundamental repositories of knowledge within a community and the broader society. Librarians have played a key role in the founding and differentiation of America at its origins. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, for example, played key roles in deepening and broadening the tradition of knowledge sharing within the early United States.

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Robert Kuttner: Can Europe Be Spared Cascading Collapse?

Tue, 2011-09-27 09:47 — mdmcdonald

The failure of the European authorities to arrest the speculative run on Greek bonds and the sense of inevitable wider collapse reminds me of the diplomatic failures that led to World War I.

In the summer of 1914, myopic bluffing by Europe's key leaders produced a catastrophe that nobody wanted. It began in Serbia, a small nationalistic province of a decaying Austro-Hungarian empire, but the conflagration soon spread to all of Europe like a chain of firecrackers. No leader was farsighted enough to grasp the wider common stakes and head off disaster. Each pursued only narrow self-interest.

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