Thu, 21 Jun 2007 08:28:55 GMT

NASA satellites watch as China constructs giant dam

Last June we described the progress of Three Gorges Dam in
The Yangtze River is the third largest river in the world, stretching more than 3,900 miles across China before reaching its mouth near Shanghai. Historically, the river has been prone to massive flooding, overflowing its banks about once every ten years. The dam is designed to greatly improve flood control on the river and protect the 15 million people and 3.7 million acres of farmland in the lower Yangtze flood plains.

Observations from the NASA-built Landsat satellites provide an overview of the dam's construction. The first images show the region prior to start of the project. By 2000, construction along each riverbank was underway, but sediment-filled water still flowed through a narrow channel near the river's south bank. The 2004 images below show limited development of the main wall and the partial filling of the reservoir, including numerous side canyons. By mid-2006, construction of the main wall was completed and a reservoir more than 2 miles (3 kilometers) across had filled just upstream of the dam.

Engineered to store more than 5 trillion gallons of water, the Three Gorges Dam is designed to produce more than 18,000 megawatts of electricity when all 26 turbines become operational in 2009­twenty times the power of Hoover Dam. The reservoir will also allow 10,000-ton freighters to enter the nation's interior, opening a region burgeoning with agricultural and manufactured products, increasing commercial shipping access to China's cities.

While Landsat is a premier research tool for observing changes on the Earth's surface, other NASA satellites are also helpful in determining how changing land cover and use may influence climate and the environment. Just as transforming forested lands into cities can change the local climate, scientists have found evidence that Three Gorges Dam and its enormous reservoir might have a similar effect.

In a recent study, researchers used computer models and data from NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite to estimate how the dam's construction impacted area rainfall. Information from NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites also revealed the dam's effect on land surface temperatures.

"The satellite data and computer modeling clearly indicate that the land use change associated with the dam's construction has increased precipitation in the region between the Daba and Qinling mountains," said lead author Liguang Wu of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and the University of Maryland - Baltimore County. The land changes also reduced rainfall in the region immediately surrounding Three Gorges Dam after the dam's water level abruptly rose in June 2003.

The researchers were surprised to see that the dam affected rainfall over such a large area - a 62-square-mile region - rather than just 6 miles projected in previous studies.

Land surface temperature changes were also found to occur in the area where more rain fell. In the daytime, temperatures between the Daba and the Qinling mountains decreased by an average of 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit (0.67 degrees Celsius). Where there was more rainfall, there were more clouds, which reduced the amount of sunlight and heat that reached the land surface, creating cooler daytime temperatures.

The study suggests that the cause of these temperature changes was the expansion of the width of the Yangtze River and the formation of the dam's reservoir. After construction, a 401-square-mile reservoir formed in the mountainous area. Before the dam, the Yangtze River was only one-third of a mile in width. The larger mass of water created a "lake effect," causing cooler temperatures and increased rainfall between the Daba and Qinling mountains, but less rainfall in the immediate vicinity of the reservoir.

When the dam becomes fully operational in 2009 and the reservoir reaches its peak size, scientists predict these regional temperature and precipitation changes may increase even more. The 2006 study was published in the American Geophysical Union's Geophysical Research Letters.

Greener Magazine Posted by: Greener Magazine      Read more     Source

June 20, 2007, 9:42 AM CT

Integrating best-practices to improve food responses

Implementing best-practice standards for emergency international food aid will improve the quality, timeliness and appropriateness of food aid, reports Daniel Maxwell, PhD, research director for Food Security and Complex Emergencies at the Feinstein International Center (FIC), part of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. In a forthcoming policy briefing paper from FIC, as well as an article in the journal Disasters, Maxwell outlines emerging best-practice standards for areas including information systems, analytical tools, and strategic targeting.

Information systems are essential for converting program planning to an analysis-driven process rather than a resource-driven process, notes Maxwell, who is also an associate professor at the Friedman School. Analyzing food security in a more holistic way will allow us to broaden responses beyond just food, he says. An integrated information system that incorporates analysis of baseline vulnerabilities of households, monitors household trends, and considers alternative responses will provide the evidence base for improved decision making and for planning a more appropriate humanitarian response.

Since the famine in Sahel over 30 years ago, information systems have emphasized early warning before a crisis. This is important, but even if well-documented, early warning alone has proven inadequate to plan a response. Maxwell stresses the importance of continual contextual monitoring and periodic program evaluation. He also highlights the need to separate information systems from operational budgets in order to maintain objectivity and impartiality about information gathered......... Posted by: Ethen      Read more         Source

June 20, 2007, 9:36 AM CT

Major increase in federal research needed

Because coal will continue to provide a substantial portion of U.S. energy for at least the next several decades, a major increase in federal support for research and development is needed to ensure that this natural resource is extracted efficiently, safely, and in an environmentally responsible manner, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council. Policymakers also need a more accurate assessment of the extent and location of the nation's coal reserves, the report adds. It recommends an increase of about $144 million annually in new federal funding across a variety of areas.

Congress asked the Research Council to undertake a broad examination of U.S. needs for coal-related R&D -- focusing on resource assessment, mining, and processing -- and to recommend funding levels mandatory to meet these needs. The committee was also asked to consider how best to organize federal coal research. It recommended that, rather than creating a single, integrated multi-agency R&D program, specific research needs should be addressed by partnerships among federal agencies and relevant outside groups.

Over half the nation's electricity is currently generated by burning coal, but future levels of coal use will be largely determined by the timing and stringency of regulations to control carbon emissions, the report says. Coal use over the next 10 to 15 years -- until about 2020 -- could climb as high as 25 percent above 2004 levels, or drop as much as 15 percent below them, depending on environmental policies and economic conditions. By 2030, the uncertainty increases even more, the report says; coal use could range from about 70 percent above current levels to 50 percent below them. "Given the degree of uncertainty about future coal use, R&D policies need to accommodate a range of possible scenarios," said Corale Brierley, chair of the committee that wrote the report and president of Brierley Consultancy LLC, Highlands Ranch, Colo......... Posted by: Ethen      Read more         Source

June 20, 2007, 8:28 AM CT

Uncovering Ancient Human Behaviour

A major question in evolutionary studies today is how early did humans begin to think and behave in ways we would see as fundamentally modern? One index of 'behavioural modernity' is in the appearance of objects used purely as decoration or ornaments. Such items are widely regarded as having symbolic rather than practical value. By displaying them on the body as necklaces, pendants or bracelets or attached to clothing this also greatly increased their visual impact. The appearance of ornaments may be linked to a growing sense of self-awareness and identity amongst humans and any symbolic meanings would have been shared by members of the same group.

In Europe, amongst the oldest known symbolic ornaments are perforated animal teeth and shell beads, found in Upper Palaeolithic contexts that date to no more than 40,000 years ago. Such finds are apparently associated with both modern human and late Neanderthal sites. Together with cave paintings and engravings they offer the strongest indications that European societies of those times were capable of thinking in an abstract manner, and symbolising their ideas without relying on obvious links between a meaning and a sign. But, now, a growing body of evidence indicates symbolic material culture consisting of engravings, personal ornaments and systematic use of beads had emerged much earlier in Africa......... Posted by: Ethen      Read more         Source

June 19, 2007, 5:00 AM CT

CEOs' worth increases even when poor acquisitions are made

Following an acquisition of another company, chief executive officers' compensation levels commonly increase, even when the purchase turns out to be unprofitable, as per scientists at the University of Washington and University of British Columbia. That's because while a bad merger can decrease the value of a company's stock and options, CEOs typically acquire new stock options once the deal goes through, thus making up for any financial losses suffered as a result of the buy.

"There are major personal financial gains to be made by CEOs after any merger or acquisition so even if it ends up being a financial loss, shareholders suffer but CEOs nearly always come out ahead financially," says Jarrad Harford, an associate professor of finance and business economics at the UW Business School and co-author of the study. "The net effect is that a CEO's wealth actually increases even if he makes a poor acquisition decision. The experience is quite different for the shareholders".

However, he adds, companies whose boards of directors are more independent from management and generally exercise stricter corporate governance are more likely to penalize executives for unprofitable merger deals.

For their study, the scientists examined 370 mergers of publicly traded U.S. companies between 1993 and 2000. They compared the wealth of the CEOs of the purchasing companies a year before and a year after the acquisitions. Their wealth was determined by calculating their salaries, stock and option grants, and the value of their portfolio of existing stock and options......... Posted by: Ethen      Read more         Source

Sun, 17 Jun 2007 06:07:20 GMT

Bloggers' code ripped up

Last weblog entry looking at the debate surrounding Tim O'Reilly's proposal for a bloggers' code of conduct.

After the uproar, O'Reilly has now come out and said he has scrapped the plan.
Still, it gave him lots of coverage and publicity.

Posted by: leon      Read more     Source

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 22:36:47 GMT

Highgear AdventurePlus

I've done a fair amount of hiking and camping in my life; enough to make me look down on most camping gadgets as distractions that detract from the experience of roughing it proAdventurePlus from Highgear, however, sounds like a gadget that any hiker, from neophyte to (very) crusty veteran, would want to have in his or her arsenal. Why? Well, the AdventurePlus doesn't bring anything new to the mix of equipment, but it does do a lot of consolidation (always a good thing when you have to carry everything you need on your back) by combining an LED flashlight, compass, thermometer, 5x magnifying glass, safety mirror, safety whistle and dry storage compartment into one compact, $20 device that you can carry around your neck via the included lanyard. Since you should always carry the above items in your pack when out in the wild anyway, putting them all together in one package makes a lot of sense.

Via FitSugar Posted by: Eric Hanson      Read more     Source

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 14:46:19 GMT

What is Anticipointment?

It seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Here's something from the first Using Information Technology, a thick "practical introduction to computers & communication" written way back in 1995: Anticipointment, as Berkley, California, editor Hank Roberts explained in an online computer conference, is a word coined "to describe always finding that, just as the techie-toy I've been dreaming about getting for six months has become affordable, there's something so much better on the horizon that I guess I have to wait just a bit longer." Maybe the only difference today is that six months is nowadays as short as weeks or even days? Posted by: Rico Mossesgeld      Read more     Source

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 08:01:56 GMT

Irritating voices - you choose

It is extraordinary that the largest purchase most of the population makes, that of the family house, is in the hands of firms staffed by people with no moral code, the professional skills of failed used car salesmen and the dress sense of a hair dressers's assistant.

The estate agents.

Had HIPS included a properly drawn up Housebuyer's Survey, a survey upon which the putative purchaser could have sued, the estate agents would have been introduced to the concept of honesty. And HIPS would have facilitated the introduction of electronic conveyancing, currently in its infancy.

It was not to be.

HIPS have been emasculated, and the shell that is left can be avoided by a little room naming creativity. Private industry has invested millions in staff training in preparation for HIPS, and it is all going to be wasted. The government may get away with this sort of incompetence in the NHS, but not in the private sector. Wait for the writs.

Once again, Ruth Kelly is in trouble.

And then, the most awful thought. We know Patricia Hewitt's days are numbered. Gordon may punish St Ruth by moving her to health. A nightmare too awful even to contemplate. For one unexpected reason. Dr Crippen has consistently said that Patricia Hewitt has the most irritating voice in politics.

Now, I am not so sure. I have today been listening to the lugubrious tones of St Ruth. It is a close call, but I think she may be even worse than Patricia. If she is moved to the Department of Health, I do not think I will be able to cope.

See what you think:

First, listen to Patricia lying about how much she enjoys her job:



Then, listen to St Ruth lying about government housing policy:



Readers, I fear I may have misled you. And so, on to the NHS BLOG DOCTOR poll

Who has the more irritating voice?Patricia HewittRuth Kelly Free polls from Pollhost.com
Labels: Irritating voices Posted by: Dr John Crippen      Read more     Source

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 02:51:11 GMT

More Games: Coming Soon to a Stock Market Near You....

With all the recent activity virtual world for China's Internet audience and with compThe9 getting large chucks of venture capital money to bring Chinese gamers a higher quality of product, it's no surprise toGareth Powell at China Economic News on Friday that more of China's online gaming companies are looking at floating IPO's in markets outside China in the next year.

China has become the world's second largest Internet marketplace. Internet use in China actually surpassed American Internet use sometime last year. There are now between 150 and 200 million Internet users in China. Forbes reported last year that American users spent about 130 million hours per week on the Internet, while Chinese users spent a whopping two billion hours per week at their terminals.

Online gaming has become a preoccupation in Communist China. Take, as an example, the Luke Razzell blogged last month about the Chinese couple fighting for custody of their online identities in divorce court. The estranged husband and wife jointly owned more than 10 ZhengTU Online accounts - each representing an online identity. Because of the level of success they had achieved through the game, each identity, according to Razzell, is worth about RMB 10,000 (around $1,300). The husband wants to keep all ten online identities and let the wife have their newly renovated apartment. The wife wants to split the real stuff and the virtual stuff down the middle. The story was also Pacific Epoch.

So with such enthusiasm for its product in the Chinese market place, ZhengTU is one of the companies looking at floating an IPO in the next year. At the moment ZhengTU is China's third place gaming company and has about a 15% market share in China. Also looking at an IPO next year: 9you and Kingsoft, both in the gaming company top ten in China.... Posted by: Greg Cruey      Read more     Source