Valuable Information about Computers And Internet, Consumer Electronics And More

Monitoring changes to water levels in the sea, in rivers and lakes, in ice sheets and even under the ground, with the help of observations from satellites, has revealed that since the start of 1993, sea level has been rising by 3.3 mm a year, almost double the rate of the previous 50 years.

Sea level rise in one of the major consequences of global warming, but it is much more difficult to model and predict than temperature.

Since the 1990s, a number of altimeter satellites have been measuring the height of the ocean surface and this has dramatically improved our understanding of sea level rise.

Currently, three altimeter satellites cover the entire globe every 10 to 35 days, and can measure the height of the sea surface to a precision of 1 to 2 cm.

These measurements show that since the start of 1993, sea level has been rising by 3.3 mm a year, almost double the rate of the previous 50 years.

“For several years now, the rate of rise has not changed significantly,” said Anny Cazenave, from the Laboratoire d’Etudes en Geophysique et Oceanographie Spatiale (LEGOS) in Toulouse.

Cazenave’s team, and other groups, calculate that for 1993-2003, about half of the sea level rise was due to the oceans expanding as they became warmer, and the other half was due to shrinking land ice.

Since 2003, ocean warming has had a temporary break but sea level has continued to rise.

Now, about 80 percent of the annual sea level rise can be attributed to accelerated land ice loss from glaciers, Greenland and Antarctica.

This has been revealed by a brand new satellite technique, called space gravimetry.

The method has shown that the Greenland ice sheet is losing about 150 gigatonnes of ice each year, two thirds of which is large chunks of ice flowing rapidly into the sea.

Using GRACE, Cazenave and others have also looked at changes in water storage in river basins. In the period from 2002-2006, they found that some basins, including the Congo and the Mississippi, have been losing water, but river systems in the boreal regions are gaining water.

Meanwhile, scientists at the European Space Agency, collaborating with DeMontfort University in the UK, have begun to use data from the satellites that measure sea level, to assess lake and river levels on land.

The Indonesian holiday isle of Bali is up in arms over a new pornography bill which some say threatens Hindu traditions and the bikini-clad tourism industry.From its mountain temples festooned in ancient phallic symbols to its pristine beaches where Westerners bask in skimpy swimmers, Bali is an island famous for its easy-going lifestyle and sensual charms.

But a new bill designed to define pornography and set a moral tone across the vast, mainly Muslim archipelago of Indonesia is threatening to change all that, according to critics in Indonesia.

Balinese lawmakers, rights activists, artists and tourism entrepreneurs are planning to join forces in a campaign of civil disobedience against what they say is ill-conceived and politically motivated meddling from Jakarta.

They say the bill overlaps with earlier legislation, defines pornography too broadly and will encourage Muslim extremists to enforce their values on Hindu Bali.”Balinese and other ethnic groups have a different view on what sexual or pornographic materials are,” local intellectual Wayan Sayoga said at a protest rally of 5,000 people here Wednesday.

“We can view nudity without being trapped by lust because we look at it from an aesthetical perspective.” The bill, which could be passed in a matter of weeks, criminalises all public acts and material capable of raising sexual desires or violating “community morality,” including poetry and music.

Protesters wore traditional clothes, see-through temple blouses, performed traditional dances and read a poem that repeated the word “genital.”

“The Government should never forget that Indonesia is a country based on non-discrimination over race, religion and ethnicity,” activist Luh Anggraeni said.

“This porn bill is a serious threat to the country’s unity since it disrespects the perspective of others on many things.”

Luh Anggraeni of the Bali People’s Component, an umbrella group of artists and intellectuals opposed to the draft law, said it would criminalise innocent people who did not follow strict Islamic notions of decency.

“So we will see more women and men arrested in future because they wear clothes or stage art performances that according to the hardliners are violating the pornography law,” she said.

The same bill drew large protests in Bali and other islands two years ago, but Jakarta-based lawmakers backed by Muslim parties have pushed ahead with the plan and parliament is expected to pass it into law in October.

Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika has said the bill fails to consider cultural diversity in a nation which stretches from the conservative Islamic province of Aceh…

to the animist highlands of Papua, where women go topless and men wear almost nothing but long gourds on their penises.”It should provide sufficient space to accommodate the prevailing local wisdom in different communities across the nation,” former police detective Pastika was quoted as saying in The Jakarta Post.

Many people in Papua still live naked or half-naked. Are we going to arrest them all?”…

Up to a quarter of fish in stores and restaurants in New York City was mislabeled as a more expensive variety, according to samples collected by two U.S. teenagers and tested with modern genetic identification methods.In the worst cases, two samples of filleted fish sold as red snapper, caught mostly off the southeast United States and in the Caribbean, were instead the endangered Acadian redfish from the North Atlantic, according to the tests, revealed on Friday.

“We never expected these results. People should get what they pay for,” Kate Stoeckle, 18, told Reuters of the project with Louisa Strauss, 17.

The two classmates from New York’s Trinity school collected and sent off 60 fish samples to the University of Guelph in Canada. Of 56 samples that could be identified by a four-year-old DNA identification technique, 14 were mislabeled.

In all cases, the fish was labeled as a more costly type, apparently ruling out simple chance. It was the first known student use of DNA barcoding technology in a public market.

“We really like sushi and we’d take home fish samples and put them in alcohol,” Stoeckle said of fish bought in shops and restaurants in Upper Manhattan.

Stoeckle’s father Mark is an expert in genetic barcoding — a system that produces a unique readout of a species’ genes similar to the black and white barcode stripes often used to identify items sold in shops.

“Americans spend an estimated $70 billion per year on seafood and we think authorities should do routine DNA barcoding of fish,” Louisa Strauss said in a statement. Costs of barcoding run to tens of dollars per sample.

Up to a quarter of fish in stores and restaurants in New York City was mislabeled as a more expensive variety, according to samples collected by two U.S. teenagers and tested with modern genetic identification methods.

In the worst cases, two samples of filleted fish sold as red snapper, caught mostly off the southeast United States and in the Caribbean, were instead the endangered Acadian redfish from the North Atlantic, according to the tests, revealed on Friday.

“We never expected these results. People should get what they pay for,” Kate Stoeckle, 18, told Reuters of the project with Louisa Strauss, 17.

The two classmates from New York’s Trinity school collected and sent off 60 fish samples to the University of Guelph in Canada. Of 56 samples that could be identified by a four-year-old DNA identification technique, 14 were mislabeled.

In all cases, the fish was labeled as a more costly type, apparently ruling out simple chance. It was the first known student use of DNA barcoding technology in a public market.

“We really like sushi and we’d take home fish samples and put them in alcohol,” Stoeckle said of fish bought in shops and restaurants in Upper Manhattan.

Stoeckle’s father Mark is an expert in genetic barcoding — a system that produces a unique readout of a species’ genes similar to the black and white barcode stripes often used to identify items sold in shops.

“Americans spend an estimated $70 billion per year on seafood and we think authorities should do routine DNA barcoding of fish,” Louisa Strauss said in a statement. Costs of barcoding run to tens of dollars per sample.

also what should i do to improve planet earth?

Start with yourself at your home and community.
1) Try to use the least enegry of water and electricity.
2) Always do the 3 R of reduce, reuse, and recycle.
3) Try to use least plastic bags and reusable bag is the best choice.
4) Try to use car pool to work or school and come home.
5) Try to use more buses instead of driving and all short distance trips by walking.
6) Try to own or drive a car with small engine and it is ideal to own a hybrid car.
7) Try to clean and sort out the items for recycling purpose and dump the gabage not able to recycle.
Start to sign a petition with the people in your community to against the use of fossil fuel that harm our health to the local authority.
9) Boycott any agents selling environmental unfriendly fuel (such as bunker fuel used by Hong Kong ferry boats) and toxic chemical products.
10) Try to organize the public at large to keep the trees, wetlands, river and srteams and, particularly the waterfronts clean (Hong Kong has the dirtiest waterfronts and knowns as the stink pot waterfront in many ferry harbours and it was refused by the Hollywood movie director of the “Batman” for the stunt work in the Victoria Harbour) and conteminated with variour kinds of virus.
11) Try to sell all used papers, magazines, cans and bottles for recycling.
12) Donate your bulk household items of chairs, beds, tables, clothes, and computer to the Value Village or Salvation Army second hand stores.
13) Try to use less detergent, soap, shampoo, and cleaning chemicals.
14) Keep your lawn clean and grass well trimed and make the environment looks cleaner and better.
This can make the dump site leave more space and make the air more clean and fresh.

I am wondering what specific major I should pursue if I want to get involved in developing alternative fuel vehicles? I know it should be some kind of engineering, most likely biological, biochemical, or chemical. I am not totally sure and would really appreciate an answer so I can go ahead and start getting exactly what classes I will need.

Chemist. here you will learn all the needed content in making an alternative fuel.
You don’t need to be a mechanical engineer because you can read those stuff through books and dissect your car for actual application.

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Mechanical engineering. Accept no substitutes. They’ll teach you mechanisms, statics and dynamics, heat transfer and thermodynamics (the most important part of any of this,) vibration analysis, properties of materials, tribology (friction and lubrication) and properties of fuels. Then you can take courses in electric circuits, basic chemical engineering, and more specialized stuff like combustion, fluid flow, and everything else you need to know to design a motor vehicle that actually works.

I’m a simple person, i don’t waste water or electricy! Cause global warming i wan do more than it.

I wan to create a small garden but i don know how to begin. i live at tropical area, i wan to know the fertilizer dat we can make from nature thing, wat the plant dat easy to take care n more idea to create a green spaces!

I have a HUUUUGE list available at www agua-luna com it’s like 33 pages long and would just spam this whole answer. But here’s a few cut from the list below. if you’d like the entire list feel free to visit www agua-luna com or email me through the site directly and I’ll send you a copy.

Also Agua-Luna com now offers Carbon Offsetting Credits, since our Team of Volunteers is already accomplishing several carbon eliminating projects, we’re now converting the carbon offsets to you. Visit www agua-luna com for a FREE carbon calculator to calculate your carbon footprint for free and more info on carbon credits.

You could also Volunteer with us, planting a tree or working on a Sustainable Renewable Energy Building Project in Mexico with us. Again see www agua-luna com for more info.

I also do some free consulting, there’s more info on the site about that too. Here’s some more ways to help the environment…

Recycle paper, cardboard, newsprint and magazines.
Recycle aluminum cans.
Recycle all batteries.
Recycle and reuse. Roughly 50% of the average person’s trash can be recycled. Don’t forget that hazardous waste like batteries, your printer’s ink cartridges, and cell phones can be recycled too! Find out how and where to recycle in your area. Always buy recycled paper. Just 1 ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees.
Just because your community doesn’t pick up all recyclables on the curb, it doesn’t mean there are not viable alternatives nearby. Check with dry cleaners, supermarkets, manufacturers, your local public works department and civic organizations to find out where recycled goods can be dropped off, at a location near you.
Did you know that just in 1995 alone, recycled toner cartridges kept over 21,000 tons of trash out of landfills? Believe it or not, now you can recycle your printer’s toner cartridges! Every year, Americans throw out enough printer cartridges to stretch from Los Angeles to New York City and back again. Toner cartridges can be recycled, having just as good a performance as an unrecycled cartridge. To recycle your toner cartridges, find a local business that does printer cartridge recycling, or contact the manufacturer of your current toner cartridge and ask about a cartridge recycling program.
Not only should you recycle, but buy products that are recycled. By purchasing these products, you are helping to conserve natural resources, and to protect the environment.
Wash clothes in cold water.
Hot water is unnecessary for most clothes. When needed, use warm water.
Fill your toilet tank.
Put a plastic bottle or two, filled with water and rocks, in your tank to reduce the amount of water used in each flush.
Clean your filters.
Clean the filters of your air-conditioners once a month to improve energy efficiency. While you’re at it, change your car’s filters as recommended in your manual.
Get a low-flow shower head.
Stop at the hardware store on your way home, and get a low-flow shower head. Takes a few minutes to install, and it’ll save gallons of water a day.
Lower your thermostats.
If you use heating, get by with less heat and wear warmer clothes. If you use air-conditioning, get by with less cooling and wear cooler clothes.
If it’s a nice sunny day, hanging clothes only takes a few minutes, and you’re using solar power instead of electricity to do the job. It also makes your clothes last longer.
Turn down your water heater.
Most people have their water heater’s thermostat turned up too high, wasting energy. Turn it down to 130 degrees, saving energy but still hot enough to kill bacteria.
Use CFC light bulbs.
If your light bulb burns out, replace it with a Compact Flourescent bulb (those spiral-looking ones). They’re more expensive, but if you just replace them one at a time, it doesn’t cost much, and the energy savings is great. And as they last longer, over the long run, you’ll save money.
Wash and dry only full loads of laundry and dishes.
Follow your community’s water use restrictions or guidelines.
Install a low-flow shower head.
If you are not looking to change your car just yet there are a number of ways you can be more environmentally friendly and help you save money by conserving fuel.
Lighten your car to reduce weight by not carrying unnecessary items.
Cut your speed and stick to the speed limits
Drive smoothly avoiding heavy accelerating and braking.
When stationary for a long time, switch off the engine.
Closing windows will make the car more efficient by being more aerodynamic. Remove roof bars when not is use also helps.
Make sure your tyres are properly inflated as under inflated tyres cause more resistance.
Where possible, walk, cycle or even use public transport.
If possible lift share to reduce the number of cars on the road.
Try mass transit.
Millions of people use it, and it saves tons of fuel. If you don’t already, give it a try.
Unload your car.
Remove excess weight from your car (such as stuff that might be in the trunk) to reduce the amount of fuel you use.
Walk instead of drive.
You don’t have to do this all the time, but walking the short trip to a store, or to lunch from work, or some other short trip like that, can reduce the amount of fuel you use over the long term, and you shed some fat at the same time. Or at least burn off that morning donut.
Buy a smaller car.
You won’t be able to do this today, probably, but the next time you’re in the market for an automobile, get a smaller and energy-efficient car rather than a big, lumbering one. It’s one of the best things you can do to reduce your fuel consumption.
Inflate your tires.
Many people don’t realize that their tires are under-inflated. Check the recommended pressure for your tires, and fill them up to that pressure. It only takes a few minutes, but it will save you on fuel consumption (a little) and more importantly, make your tires last longer and reduce the rubber that’s worn off your tires.
Get creative with gift-giving. The gift of time, services, or environmentally positive gifts may be more appreciated than disposable goods that are not to the taste or needs of the recipient.
Look into those lifestyle changes you’ve been putting off
Work from home more. Many organisations, when prodded a little, will accept flexible work arrangements where there is no impact to the work that needs to get done.
Use your oven less.
The oven not only uses a lot of energy, it heats up your kitchen, requiring more cooling. Instead, use toaster ovens, crockpots, microwaves, and electric grills when you can. And when you do use your oven, open it less - you lose 25% of the heat every time you open the oven door.
Mend your stuff.
Try not to throw stuff away and buy new stuff if the old stuff can be fixed. Torn clothing? Takes a few minutes to sew up.
Install a water filter.
If you buy a lot of bottled water, use your tap instead. Some places need a filter to make tap water taste drinkable, but they don’t cost much and they can save money, water, and plastic bottles over time.
Unplug appliances.
If you don’t use an appliance several times a day, it’s better to unplug it, as they often use energy even when turned off
Use rechargeable batteries.
Instead of throwing your batteries away all the time, reuse rechargeable batteries. Costs a little more, but cheaper in the long run.
When you’re looking to buy appliances, be sure to research the most energy-efficient ones. They may cost a little more, but they’ll more than make up for that in the long run with lower energy bills.
Buy a smaller home.
The next time you’re home-shopping, instead of buying the McMansion, look for a smaller home that’s big enough to meet your needs comfortably. Reducing the amount of stuff you own is a good way to need less house. It’s cheaper, and requires less energy to heat and cool. And easier to clean at the same time.
Look for energy efficiency.
Use acryllic paint.
Compost.
It’s not hard to set one up (look it up online), and you can save a lot of waste from the landfill and help your garden at the same time
Water grass early in the morning.
Reduces the amount of water you need to keep your grass looking fabulous.
Plant shade trees near your house.
It’ll take awhile before they can make a difference, but shade trees greatly reduce the need to cool a home.
Coat your roof.
This’ll take up an afternoon, but you only have to do it once every few years. And it’ll

save you a lot of money and energy in heating and cooling over the long-term, more than making up for the cost of paint.
Avoid fast food.
Instead, eat at home or at a sit-down restaurant. Fast food restaurants are one of the worst polluters of the environment, both in the massive amounts of beef they must raise, in the wasted packaging, and in the energy they use in so many ways. And they’re tremendously unhealthy.
Buy a manual reel mower or electric mower.
If you’re looking for a new lawn mower, and you have a small yard, consider getting a manual one. They’re much advanced from the reel mowers of our grandparents’ generation, much quieter, cheaper, and they save on fuel and pollution. Electric mowers are also quieter and use much less energy.
Clean up.

Hope this helped, feel free to contact me personally if you have any questions if you’d like assistance in making your first self sufficient steps, I’m willing to walk you step by step threw the process. I’ve written several how-to DIY guides available at www agua-luna com on the subject. I also offer online and on-site workshops, seminars and internships to help others help the environment.

Dan Martin
Alterative Energy / Sustainable Consultant, Living 100% on Alternative & Author of How One Simple Yet Incredibly Powerful Resource Is Transforming The Lives of Regular People From All Over The World… In

im talking about the lowest gas price in usa and canad of history….that will never ever ever be the same….

the lowest price i ever remember seeing was 16.9 cents a gallon, in the early ’50s, in CT.
17.9, 18.9, 19.9 were fairly common at the time.
i’ve read about 13.9, and, if i remember correctly, even 9.9, although i’m not sure about the latter.
however, remember, wages, and everything else, were much lower then.
as i recall, in the 30s, bread was 10 cents a loaf.

my uncle for a while kept a list of what he bought, and how much he paid for it, in the 30s.
at first one might be jealous, until one thinks that many people worked for less than 50 cents an hour.
that puts a better perspective on things.

a far better measure would be, how many hours did one have to work to buy 10 gallons of gas.
and no, i’ve not seen that — but i’d like to.
maybe i’ll go look.

http://inflationdata.com/inflation/image… <== gasoline
http://inflationdata.com/inflation/image… <== stock

http://www.dallasfed.org/fed/annual/1999… <== good article. but you have to be careful - the means of comparison are not always obvious.

Water is most essential part of our life. It helps us in many ways :-
1) Removes our thrust.
2) For bathing purpose
3) For cooking food
4) For agricultural purposes

It keeps us clean?

KEEPS US CALM

Yes. This demonstrates Algores hypocrasy:
A  Tale of Two Houses
House #1 A 20 room mansion ( not including 8 bathrooms ) heated by
natural gas. Add on a pool ( and a pool house) and a separate guest house, all heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than the average American household does in a year. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2400. per month. In natural gas alone, this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern ’snow belt’ area. It’s in the South.
————————————–…
House #2
Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university. This house incorporates every ‘green’ feature current home construction can provide. The house is 4,000 square feet ( 4 bedrooms ) and is nestled on a high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground.

The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas and it consumes one-quarter electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Surrounding flowers and shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape.

HOUSE #1 is outside of Nashville , Tennessee ; it is the abode of the ‘environmentalist ‘ Al Gore.
HOUSE #2 is on a ranch near Crawford , Texas;
it is the residence the of the President of the United States , George W. Bush. An ‘inconvenient truth.’
I sure hope this gets passed to everyone! And, yes … I DID check Snopes prior to forwarding it.
I copied and pasted this info from an email I got from a friend……there are pictures which DO NOT post on yahoo…..if you’d like to see the pics, email me.

Actually, the White House is NOT used for comparison, an “average” american home is, but the point sticks. Algore wants everyone but HIM to “think green”

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I imagine the power consumption of the white house is classified information. But Al would have to be growing pot or something to use as much juice as all those lights and offices plus whatever secret stuff they have.

Or is it ours they want to use ?

great answers all..A lot of alert people keep on,we need this

One planet. I’m willing to step up to do what needs to be done, yes.

This weekend a local open space preserve is celebrating 20 years since residents there voted to support open space preservation. They did so knowing that there would be some expenses incurred in management, but they recognized the value of having open space, both for its intrinsic value and as a boost to property values.

I find it very economical to do what is necessary to correct problems on the only planet we have that supports us. To do otherwise, I believe, is unwise, for current inhabitants and those of the future

Which environmentalists are you talking about? Surely anyone who cares about the environment is an environmentalist.
You say ‘ours’, who is this group of people you are speaking for?

Richard Branson (owner of the Virgin Group) is an environmentalist who uses his own money.

This is not two different groups of people, this is one group on the same planet. I am a geographer and I believe that if we don’t change our ways soon we will have to work harder to maintain our current lifestyles in the future, than we would if we just altered our lifestyles now.
The evidence is there for all to see, if you refuse to believe it you are a fool. I studied all of these things for seven years, global warming, sea-levels rising, oil reserves. It is incontrevertible!

……..

no, only the working people who must work and feed their families. Most environmentalist have never had a real job, or they work for the gov. which is about the same thing. Its easy to criticize when it cost you nothing to change.