| Tuesday, January 17, 2006 |  |
| Prehistoric 'Kitchen' Found in Indiana | 1 comment |
| 17 Jan 2006 @ 08:35 Prehistoric 'Kitchen' Found in Indiana Mon Jan 16, 8:07 PM ET Workers building a boat ramp at southeastern Indiana's Charlestown State Park have uncovered the apparent remains of a 4,000-year-old "kitchen" ancient American Indians tribes may have used to prepare their winter food supply. The discovery of the site in eastern Clark County prompted the state to temporarily halt work on the Ohio River boat ramp project. Bob McCullough, who heads an archaeological survey team from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, said the low-lying area was probably used by nomadic tribes of hunters and gatherers. He said they appear to have collected hickory nuts, used large slabs of rock to crush them and then made fires to boil them and extract fatty oils. Tribes often stored such high-energy nut oils for use during the lean winter months, McCullough said. The IPFW team has made two trips to the site and plans a third study of the area. The archaeological work is required under federal and state historic preservation laws. No human remains or bones have been found at the site. McCullough said he was surprised by how well-preserved the cooking area site was, but he said it was protected over the centuries by layers of silt deposited by floodwaters. Michael Strezewski, the lead archaeologist from IPFW on the first two visits to the park last fall, estimated the site dates from about 2000 B.C. He said it contains large amounts of Laurel chert, a stone from which stone tools can be created. Other artifacts included stone slabs used for grinding and cracking nuts, the remains of fire pits and some charred bits of plant material. The area being studied is part of a 2,700-acre expansion at the park closed to the public. Over the years, several archaeological sites have been found in the park area. Larry Gray, the park's property manager, said the $3 million project to install a five-lane boat ramp, a picnic area, parking lot and riverfront walking trail would probably be delayed until late this year or next year. "I wish we were going to be prepared to open it in April or May this year, but we're not. We have to do things properly, and it takes time," he said. More > |
| California Launchess $3.2 Billion Solar Energy Subsidy Program | 1 comment |
| 17 Jan 2006 @ 08:09 California Launchess $3.2 Billion Solar Energy Subsidy Program Mercury News (San Jose, CA) [link] State panel approves plan for solar power subsidies By Paul Rogers Mercury News Guaranteeing California's role as America's solar power king, state energy regulators Thursday gave final approval to a record $3.2 billion plan to provide rebates through 2017 to the owners of homes, businesses, farms and public buildings who install solar systems. The plan, which will cover roughly one-third the cost of solar systems, was approved on a 3-1 vote by the California Public Utilities Commission. The vote was a major victory for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who championed the idea as a candidate for office in 2003, only to see it stall in the state Legislature last year. Schwarzenegger presented it to the PUC instead. "Today is a great day for California,'' he said in a statement. "When I ran for office, I promised the people of California an affordable, reliable and more environmentally friendly energy supply. Today is a big step towards that goal.'' The program will be funded by a new $1.10 monthly fee on residential power bills. It will be offset, PUC officials said, by the elimination of another fee that expires in 2007. Environmentalists and solar industry leaders celebrated, but said there are still two key provisions the state Legislature must approve. One would require developers of new subdivisions to offer solar power as an option on all homes. The other would increase the number of customers eligible to receive credit on their bills for generating surplus power and supplying it to the state power grid. Existing law caps such credits at 0.5 percent of each utility's total demand. Because of the growth of solar power in California, that cap is close to being reached. Environmentalists, Schwarzenegger and the PUC want it increased to 2.5 percent or more, but utilities are resisting. Democratic leaders in Sacramento said Thursday that they will work on those issues, but intend to require that industrial, commercial and government solar jobs pay high ``prevailing wages'' -- generally comparable to union wages. That position doomed the solar effort last year because environmentalists and Schwarzenegger said it would raise costs too much. ``On any other expenditure done by the state, prevailing wage is the law,'' said Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles. ``If you begin to chip away here, it would start undermining the wages that are paid to California workers.'' Eva Salas, owner of Stonegate, a 33-unit apartment complex in East Palo Alto, said she is interested in learning more about installing solar power to cut her $10,000-a-year PG&E bill for lighting and washing machines. ``It would also be good for my tenants, many of whom are low-income, to reduce their energy bills,'' she said. More > |
| Foldable Solar Battery Charger | 3 comments |
 17 Jan 2006 @ 08:02Foldable Solar Battery Charger Hot on the heels of the world's only pocket-sized solar lighter comes the worlds lightest and most compact solar charger. Weighing in at just nine ounces, this foldable charger fits in most backpacks and laptop bags and is powerful enough to charge most personal electronic accessories. Laptops, cell phones, iPods and PDAs all fit the bill, and it'll even charge NiMh, NiCd or Lithium ion batteries with an accessory charger. Each charger provides 10 watts of power (operating at 15.6 Volts) and can be daisy-chained together for anyone who needs solar mega-charging. It's pretty spendy, at US $299, but seems like a great fit for anyone who's doing some serious off-the-grid living or traveling and needs heavy-duty charging capacity Thanks to Peter who looked it up and found the link to purchase this. More > |
| LIME: Monkey See, Monkey Do | 0 comments |
| 17 Jan 2006 @ 07:59 LIME: Monkey See, Monkey Do January 16, 2006 07:55 PM - Lime Planet, New York, New York Inspired by the plight of his film’s über-gorilla, King Kong director Peter Jackson is backing efforts by the International Gorilla Conservation Programme to save Kong’s smaller, less fictional friends. The Independent reports that Jackson’s efforts include charity premieres of the film and plans for the King Kong DVD to include a documentary film about wild gorillas. There are thought to be fewer than 1,000 gorillas left in the wild, and some folks predict that the species will become extinct within the next few decades. |
| Environment in crisis: 'We are past the point of no return' - James Lovelock | 0 comments |
| 17 Jan 2006 @ 07:23 Environment in crisis: 'We are past the point of no return' Thirty years ago, the scientist James Lovelock worked out that the Earth possessed a planetary-scale control system which kept the environment fit for life. He called it Gaia, and the theory has become widely accepted. Now, he believes mankind's abuse of the environment is making that mechanism work against us. His astonishing conclusion - that climate change is already insoluble, and life on Earth will never be the same again. By Michael McCarthy Environment Editor Published: 16 January 2006 The world has already passed the point of no return for climate change, and civilisation as we know it is now unlikely to survive, according to James Lovelock, the scientist and green guru who conceived the idea of Gaia - the Earth which keeps itself fit for life. In a profoundly pessimistic new assessment, published in today's Independent, Professor Lovelock suggests that efforts to counter global warming cannot succeed, and that, in effect, it is already too late. The world and human society face disaster to a worse extent, and on a faster timescale, than almost anybody realises, he believes. He writes: " Before this century is over, billions of us will die, and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable." In making such a statement, far gloomier than any yet made by a scientist of comparable international standing, Professor Lovelock accepts he is going out on a limb. But as the man who conceived the first wholly new way of looking at life on Earth since Charles Darwin, he feels his own analysis of what is happening leaves him no choice. He believes that it is the self-regulating mechanism of Gaia itself - increasingly accepted by other scientists worldwide, although they prefer to term it the Earth System - which, perversely, will ensure that the warming cannot be mastered. This is because the system contains myriad feedback mechanisms which in the past have acted in concert to keep the Earth much cooler than it otherwise would be. Now, however, they will come together to amplify the warming being caused by human activities such as transport and industry through huge emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2 ). It means that the harmful consequences of human beings damaging the living planet's ancient regulatory system will be non-linear - in other words, likely to accelerate uncontrollably. READ MORE More > |