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Air Date: September 23, 2005
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Loop Current Powers Hurricanes
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Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were so severe partly because they crossed through a certain ocean loophole. Scientists have been studying what they call "The Loop Current," 100 miles of deep, ultra-warm waters that act to intensify hurricanes. Host Bruce Gellerman talks with professor Nan Walker of Louisiana State University about the latest research. (04:00)
Flood Lessons
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After a 1953 storm killed 1800 people in the Netherlands, the Dutch built an elaborate system of dikes and dams to prevent another flooding disaster. Host Bruce Gellerman talks with a flood risk analyst in the Netherlands about the reasons and the resources it took to put the protection in place. (03:40)
The American Venice
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Host Bruce Gellerman talks with former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt about his idea to turn New Orleans into an island. (04:45)
Celestial Update
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Scientists are talking about a newly discovered object that's larger than Pluto. Astrophysicist and New York Hayden Planetarium Director Neil deGrasse Tyson talks with host Bruce Gellerman about this so-called "tenth planet" and about an asteroid that may be heading towards Earth. Look out!!! (09:00)
Moon Walkers
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As NASA considers a manned mission to the moon in the next few decades, Living on Earth takes a look back at the twelve men who lay claim to the title "Moonwalker." Host Bruce Gellerman talks with author Andrew Smith about his new book, "Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth." Also, astronaut Alan Bean, the fourth man to walk on the moon, talks about his life after returning to Earth, and the artwork that keeps his lunar memories alive. (09:00)
Emerging Science Note/Mosquito Fish/ Emily Torgrimson
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Living on Earth's Emily Torgrimson reports on efforts to use guppies in the battle against dengue fever. (01:30)
Home Grown/ Bill McKibben
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Writer Bill McKibben takes on a bet that he can make it through a winter eating food grown only in his native Vermont. (08:00)
Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes/ Jeff Young
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Living on Earth's Jeff Young learns the history of one of his favorite tomatoes: Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter. The man who developed it had a life as colorful as the plant that bears his name. (07:00)
Show Credits and Funders
Show Transcript
HOST: Bruce Gellerman
GUESTS: Nan Walker, J.K. Vrjiling, Bruce Babbitt, Andrew Smith, Alan Bean, Neil deGrasse Tyson
REPORTERS: Bill McKibben, Jeff Young
NOTE: Emily Torgrimson
GELLERMAN: From NPR, this is Living on Earth.
GELLERMAN: I'm Bruce Gellerman. Coming up: how mild mannered storms turn into monster hurricanes. Also, high-tech Holland prepares for the worst storm in ten thousand years. It has nothing to do with the little Dutch boy and his wooden shoes. And one man's vision for a new New Orleans: turn the Big Easy into an island:
BABBITT: Before we spend that money to replicate what was there two months ago, we better think about what the landscape and the waterscape is going to look like in fifty years and then rebuild the infrastructure of the island. Think of it as an American Venice.
GELLERMAN: Also, getting down and dirty…eating only what you grow at home.
McKIBBEN: Can you tell the difference between a turnip and a parsnip?
SOPHIE: No, I don't want to. They're disgusting.
GELLERMAN: Those stories and more - this week on Living on Earth. Stick around.
ANNOUNCER: Support for Living on Earth comes from the National Science Foundation and Stonyfield Farm.
Loop Current Powers Hurricanes
GELLERMAN: From the Jennifer and Ted Stanley Studios in Somerville, Massachusetts, this is Living on Earth. I'm Bruce Gellerman, sitting in for Steve Curwood.
Category 5 hurricanes are rare. They're the most powerful storms, with wind speeds in excess of 155 mph. Over the past 75 years there have been just 28 Cat 5's in the Atlantic Ocean basin. But this year, for the first time, we've had two in one season. Both Hurricane Katrina and Rita began as mild mannered tropical depressions in the Bahamas but within 30 hours had grown into monsters. The reason is the Loop Current.
And joining me from Louisiana State University's Coastal Studies Institute is Professor Nan Walker. She's director of the Earth Scan Laboratory there. Professor Walker, thank you very much for coming in.
WALKER: It's nice to be here, Bruce.
GELLERMAN: So, the Loop Current. I've heard it described as high test for hurricanes.
WALKER: Yeah, the Loop Current is actually part of the large scale clockwise gyre of the North Atlantic circulation. Basically, it's part of this gyre that's driven by the trade winds in the tropics and the westerlies in the mid-latitudes. And the Loop Current is, it actually is the source of the Gulf Stream. So, if you can imagine one large long ribbon of water flowing around this gyre. It's a little more complicated than that, but basically it's the warmest waters in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea. It flows through the Yucatan Straight into the Gulf of Mexico, makes a loop around, and out through the Florida Straight as the Florida Current and then the Gulf Stream.
GELLERMAN: You said "dire"?
WALKER: Gyre. Like a clockwise eddy, a huge eddy.
GELLERMAN: How big is it?
WALKER: Well it's approximately 100 miles wide, and it's a very deep warm pool of water. And it flows very rapidly; the waters in the Loop Current and the Gulf Stream are the fastest flowing waters in the Atlantic Ocean. They're what we call part of the Western Boundary Current of the Atlantic Ocean.
GELLERMAN: Sounds very mysterious, actually. How deep is it and how warm?
WALKER: The Loop Current is about 800 meters deep. So that's about 2,400 feet deep. And it's very warm. It's warmest at the surface, it's approximately 85 degrees Fahrenheit at the surface at the moment; and temperatures above 80 degrees are conducive to intensification of hurricanes.
GELLERMAN: So, how does the warm water affect the intensity of a hurricane?
WALKER: The warm water is actually, it's called the source of fuel for the hurricane because the winds evaporate the water, at the surface, obviously. And that water becomes the fuel for the hurricane when they condense as rain. And that is the energy source for the hurricane, primarily.
GELLERMAN: So, we could have seen this coming?
WALKER: Well, it's more complicated than just, you know, the hurricane moving over the Loop Current. Because the Loop Current is in the Gulf of Mexico probably 95 percent of the time. It's a normal feature of the Gulf of Mexico. You know, the fuel is there for hurricanes to intensify if they move over that current. However, Hurricane Ivan moved over the Loop Current and it did not intensify as Katrina and, recently, Rita did. So, there are other factors. And probably the key lies in the upper atmosphere, and it has to do with the temperatures and the humidity and the wind.
GELLERMAN: Nan Walker is director of the Earth Scan Laboratory at the Louisiana State University's Coastal Studies Institute. Professor, again, thank you very much.
WALKER: You're very welcome.
Related links:
- NOAA Satellite Map
- Professor Nan Walker bio
Flood Lessons
GELLERMAN: One third of the Netherlands is below sea level, and while the picture of the little boy in wooden shoes holding back the sea with his finger in the dike is an enduring, perhaps endearing, image of Holland, it's far from accurate.
Following what's called "the Misery of 1953," the worst flood in modern Dutch history, the Netherlands built an elaborate and formidable sea defense system. On the line from Delft is J.K Vrjiling, a flood risk analyst at the Technical University Campus in the 17th century city. Thank you for joining me.
VRJILING: Thank you.
GELLERMAN: Describe this, what's called, I guess, the Delta Works. The system of dikes and gates.
VRJILING: Yeah, the Delta Works are, in principle, based on the shortening of the coastline. From the old days on there have been always estuaries going into country, and that meant along these estuaries long dikes had to be maintained. And the main principle was to shorten the coastline and close off these estuaries by new and formidably strong dikes.
GELLERMAN: As I understand it, these Delta Works were designed to be tough enough to stand up against a storm so strong it would occur only once in 10,000 years?
VRJILING: That's correct.
GELLERMAN: How could that possibly be? How could you design something and know that it's going to last for 10,000 years?
VRJILING: It doesn't last for 10,000 years without maintenance. But it's based on an extrapolated storm search. We have 100 years of statistics about storm surge levels on the Dutch coast, and this is extrapolated to a level of once in 10,000 years, and that's our five meter storm surge level.
GELLERMAN: Five meters is as high as it would get, you predict, in 10,000 years?
VRJILING: Once in 10,000 years, yes.
GELLERMAN: And this system of dams and dikes could actually withstand that?
VRJILING: Yep, it should be able to withstand that.
GELLERMAN: Professor, I was reading about another expert in Rotterdam at Erasmus University, Anton Smitz , and he's a biologist. And he says that there are reasons for concern caused by these dikes and dams.
VRJILING: Yeah, he's not an engineer so he has doubts if it's possible to increase the height of the dikes and the strength of the dikes. So his idea is that we, as Dutchmen, were not wise to inhabit this low laying lands and that we do better in leaving them over to the sea again and let nature have free reign in our areas. But we say that's not so practical. We started to live here, we have a comfortable life here, and our technical means are sufficient to protect us against floods as long as we keep our own promises.
GELLERMAN: So Professor, you don't sound very concerned. You sound like this system…
VRJILING: No, the only concern that we really have is that the politicians are able to take decisions, eh? That may be also the case in New Orleans – that if you find out that you have to do something, that you're then able to do it.
GELLERMAN: I don't understand.
VRJILING: Suppose we measure sea level rise, and how many years does it then take to get a political decision to increase the strength of the dikes?
GELLERMAN: I see. So you're expecting that the sea will rise, perhaps at a greater rate than had been anticipated, and that the political decision-making process will be slower than that?
VRJILING: Exactly. That could be the case. And that's the main danger in my eyes.
GELLERMAN: Well, Professor, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
VRJILING: Okay, thank you very much.
The American Venice
GELLERMAN: President Bush has promised to provide the funds to restore New Orleans. But what should the new New Orleans look like? A newer version of the old one? Or a city that boldly ventures into the forefront of the 21st century?
In the coming months there will no doubt be many proposals, controversial and competing. One of the first comes from Bruce Babbitt, the Secretary of the Interior in the Clinton administration. He offers a back to the future proposal of what New Orleans can be, combining the classical and the contemporary, with a look to the future.
BABBITT: Most of southern Louisiana is going to be underwater in the coming century as sea levels continue to rise another foot, two, maybe three feet. And so, as we begin to think about rebuilding New Orleans we gotta look around and say "how we're going to do it?" And my conclusions was that we're going to have to envision New Orleans as an island.
GELLERMAN: You actually mean to create an island out of the city? Would it be built up? Would there be a dike around it? A moat? How would that work?
BABBITT: Well, my vision of an American Venice, if you will, is you would begin with the existing levee system. You would simply recognize, though, that with the sinking of the Delta, which, of course, we've all come to understand is because we've mismanaged the Mississippi River. And the sediment that used to build the Delta and keep it above sea level is now being trapped in all those dams a thousand miles away up on the Missouri River. The rest of it, because of the levee system, is going out to deep water.
So, the Delta continues to sink, sea level continues to rise, and the levee system will simply have to be raised and strengthened. But not just up against Lake Pontchartrain and not just in bits and pieces, because the sinking Delta will bring the water all the way around. So it will take a large levee system, connected by a causeway that will go across open water for twenty, thirty, forty miles. Something like the Interstate across Lake Pontchartrain. But it will effectively be the principle and only access route into a city surrounded by water.
GELLERMAN: Well, are those questions being asked now? Has your idea gotten any traction?
BABBITT: Well I can't say there's been a, you know, stampede toward lining up at my door listening for advice. But the comparison that I've tried to lay out is what happened in Florida historically. In 1947 there were two huge hurricanes that put 90 percent of South Florida under water. Absolutely devastating. And out of that experience the Florida legislature invented some new institutions. They created an entity called South Florida Water Management District, gave it the powers to plan water management across the entire landscape of South Florida. And they've flood-proofed South Florida; there has never been a flood disaster since then. There's been a lot of hurricanes and, mind you, plenty of damage localized from hurricanes. But the sort of Biblical floods that used to plague South Florida have been eliminated through broad, landscape-scale planning for the management of land and water. That's what's missing in South Louisiana right now.
GELLERMAN: Any guesstimate on the cost associated with turning New Orleans essentially into an island?
BABBITT: Well, it won't be really any more costly than what they're already talking about to rebuild it. And all I'm saying is we must, before we spend that money to replicate what was there two months ago, we better think about what the landscape and the waterscape is going to look like in 50 years. And then, rebuild the infrastructure of the island, including the internal circulation, the streets, water, sewer, infrastructure and the levy itself and the connection to the levees along the Mississippi River so that the city, if you will, is kind of, think of it as an American Venice. So there's not vulnerable, 'cause if it's done in the same fashion as the past it'll just be vulnerable from a different direction next time.
GELLERMAN: You know, when you say American Venice, I really like that idea. I must tell you I can just hear the Zydeco music on gondolas. It's a great idea.
BABBITT: Well, I think jazz is a much richer tradition than those guys playing guitars on gondolas, actually.
GELLERMAN: (Laughs). Secretary Babbitt, thank you very much. It was a real pleasure, sir.
BABBITT: It's been a pleasure. I enjoyed talking to you.
GELLERMAN: Bruce Babbitt was the Secretary of the Interior in the Clinton administration. His new book is called "Cities in the Wilderness."
[MUSIC: Mojave3 "Tomorrow's Taken" from 'Ask Me Tomorrow' (4AD - 1996)]
GELLERMAN: Coming up: One small step, and then? Whatever happened to the men who walked the moon? Find out when we return with Living on Earth.
[MUSIC: Bionaut "Bluebelle (The Birth of a Bionaut)" from 'Lubricate Your Living Room' (Matador - 2001)]
Celestial Update
GELLERMAN: It's Living on Earth, I'm Bruce Gellerman, sitting in for Steve Curwood. Astronomers have some good news, and possibly some bad news. The good news? They might have discovered a new planet. The bad news? We might need it.
Joining us is astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, head of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City and a frequent contributor to our program. Welcome back to Living on Earth, Dr. Tyson.
TYSON: Great to be back with you.
GELLERMAN: So, how exciting, they might have discovered a new planet in our solar system? The first since Pluto in 1930?
TYSON: Well, we've been discovering things in the outer solar system for quite some time now, or at least since the early 1990s, and so every time a new one of these objects is discovered, the media sort of jumps on it and says, "oh, another planet! Another planet!"
And then we look and see, well, it's kind of small, and mostly ice, and should it be a planet? And then that brings up the concern about what the definition of a planet is, and is Pluto really a planet? And so it goes on and on and on and on and on.
What makes this recent discovery rise above the rest is that this object is bigger than Pluto. So, whatever rules you invoke for Pluto, they would surely then have to apply to this object. So that's what made it exciting.
GELLERMAN: So, do you think it really is a planet?
TYSON: Well, as you may know, in the Rose Center for Earth and Space here in New York which contains the rebuilt Hayden Planetarium, we opened in 2000, and our exhibits did not count Pluto among the rest of the planets in the solar system. Rather than count planets, which I personally think is a pointless exercise – there's no science in how many planets there are orbiting a sun – what you want to do is group them by like properties. Then there's some knowledge to be gleaned from that. You can even teach that in elementary school.
So, rather than count and enumerate the planets, we grouped, for example, the small rocky objects in the inner solar system – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars – we grouped them together. And those are the terrestrial planets. The word is still a convenience, but you know they're all small, rocky and dense. Then there's the big, giant, gaseous, low-density Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. They fit together as a family. There's the asteroid belt that separates the two.
And in each of these families, the objects within them look more like each other than any one of them look like the other families. So now you have Pluto, which doesn't match anything else in the solar system except for other objects we've recently discovered orbiting the sun with it. These are objects that are mostly ice by volume which, if they came close enough to the sun, they'd grow a tail. Well, we have words for icy objects that grow tails: they're comets. And so we have relegated Pluto and its icy brethren to this new swath of real estate, recently discovered, which is the swarm of comets orbiting beyond Neptune.
GELLERMAN: Well, what does this object look like?
TYSON: Well, it's not clear, orbiting very far away but still within the zone that we've identified as the zone of comets. By the way, there was an astronomer at mid-last century who theorized there might be this reservoir of comets beyond Neptune, and his name was Gerard Kuiper, so we call it the Kuiper Belt of Comets.
So, Pluto and this new object each orbit within the Kuiper Belt of Comets. We know that it is at least bigger than Pluto; could be much, much bigger than Pluto, it's not yet known. Its surface is surely almost 100 percent ice, and the rest of its volume is likely to be like the rest of what you find in the Kuiper Belt: mostly ice.
GELLERMAN: Now, this thing has got the unmemorable name of 2003UB313, am I right?
TYSON: Yeah, that's its phone number, we like to call it (laughs).
GELLERMAN: Not a very catchy name though.
TYSON: Yeah, and we don't use – I mean, that's the catalogue name, but even between friends and astronomers, we're ready to get the thing named according to the way other objects in the solar system are named, and we will surely use that new name thenceforth. But that takes a little while. We have to entertain suggestions. The discoverer wanted to name it "Xena," the famous warrior princess of television fame.
GELLERMAN: Huh.
TYSON: I kind of like that name. It has that kind of Greek sound to it, even though it's just a made-up name. It's not likely that will get through the judges, but we'll see.
GELLERMAN: Well, if there is a new planet, Dr. Tyson, it might come in very handy in the near future. I hear that astronomers have identified an asteroid that's heading our way?
TYSON: Yes, an asteroid was discovered mid-last year, and it has the uninteresting name 2004MN4. And it went unremarked upon on because many asteroids are discovered each year that never reach public notice. Except that when it went behind the sun, going out of view from the sun's glare, and then was rediscovered in December, we were able to calculate its orbit and determine that it's trajectory was going to intersect Earth in the year 2029 or the year 2036. This didn't make it to the front of the newspaper because around that same time, you might remember, there was a tsunami in Indonesia – which, of course, rightly so, got the better part of all the headlines. But, ironically, this object, if it hits Earth, would create a tsunami dwarfing the one reported on in December '04.
GELLERMAN: What are the chances of this asteroid hitting Earth?
TYSON: Well, rather than give you probabilities, because what you really need to know is what's going on. We know where the object is headed, and we know how fast it's moving, and we have a sense of the forces of gravity in the solar system. The problem is the uncertainty in that trajectory normally is not a problem; if it misses Earth by a million miles, or a million and a thousand miles, who cares? But, in this case, in the year 2029, the calculations show that this asteroid will come within the orbits of even our communication satellites.
GELLERMAN: Ooh, that's close.
TYSON: That's close. That's close. This will be the largest object ever known to come within our communication satellites in the era of space exploration. And so, turns out, what we know of the orbit right now, we can say it will not hit Earth in 2029 but it might hit Earth in 2036. It will hit Earth in 2036 if it passes through what we call a "keyhole," which is a range of positions close to Earth where the gravity of the Earth will realign its trajectory ensuring that seven years later it will hit Earth. And so what we need to do is deflect it in such a way that it misses that keyhole.
GELLERMAN: So, this keyhole's kind of like a place in space, a doorway?
TYSON: Exactly! It's like a car door through space where the gravity of Earth operating on that asteroid in that corridor will pull on that asteroid in 2029 in such a way that in 2036 it will hit Earth. So, you want to deflect the asteroid so that it misses that keyhole.
GELLERMAN: So, if it did hit Earth, do we know where it might hit?
TYSON: If the asteroid in 2029 passes anywhere in the keyhole we know where it will end up hitting Earth in 2036. It'll hit somewhere between Hawaii and California in, obviously, the Pacific Ocean. That hit will generate tsunamis on the level that has never been experienced in recorded history. But the advantage is you would know in advance so that, while you might lose $400 billion worth of property, no one actually has to die from this tragedy the way people died in Indonesia. There was no warning for that tsunami. This one you can have decades of warning if, in fact, we can't do anything about it.
GELLERMAN: So, it sounds like we should be planning for this right now.
TYSON: Right now, there's legislation in front of Congress to try to vote sensibly about directing monies for study. What would be the best way to deflect it? Do you shoot laser beams at it? Do you attach retrorockets to it? There's some leading ideas but there are many other ideas in the bin that are being considered. So, Congress has taken the first step.
GELLERMAN: So, Dr. Tyson, do you stay awake at night worrying about the demise of Earth from asteroids?
TYSON: Yeah, well, this asteroid is deflectable. It's about, you know, 200 meters across, about the size of the Rose Bowl, and, so this one, yeah, I know they're out there, and it's a shooting gallery. The ones I really worry about, however, are the kind that's the size that took out the dinosaurs. Those things are the size of Mt. Everest. That can happen again. It will happen again. And, in that case, if anyone survived you'd have to jumpstart civilization. That's what I worry about. This is one of the calls for being a multi-planet species – one planet gets taken out, you at least have another one left. Or find really effective ways of deflecting these things.
GELLERMAN: You're making planet Xena sound better and better all the time.
TYSON: (Laughs) Yeah. Planet Xena will be cold and dark, but Mars looks pretty good, actually.
GELLERMAN: Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson is director of the Hayden Planetarium and co-author, with Donald Goldsmith, of the book "Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution." Dr. Tyson, it's always good talking with you. Thank you.
TYSON: Thanks for having me on.
Related links:
- A Paper on the Asteroid by Russell Schweickart, B612 Foundation: "A Call to (Considered) Action"
- Neil deGrasse Tyson's biography
- "Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution" by Neil deGrasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith
[MUSIC: Clogs "Pencil Stick" from 'Stick Music' (Brassland – 2005)]
Moon Walkers
GELLERMAN: Sending a man to the moon is a trophy that America has proudly displayed on the nation's mantle since 1969 when Neil Armstrong took one small step and became the first man to walk on the moon. That trophy has gathered more than a little dust since the age of the Apollo Project, no one's been back to the moon in over 33 years.
But now, NASA plans to jump-start its lunar project, and promises to send a man back to the moon by 2018. Only a dozen men have been to the moon, and of those twelve, only nine survive. Writer Andrew Smith wondered what became of those men who shared that extraordinary experience. His new book is called "Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth." He joins me now. Andrew, hello.
SMITH: Hi, nice to be here.
GELLERMAN: I want you to clear up something for me right away. Listen to the quote by Armstrong and you tell me what he's saying.
RECORDING OF ARMSTRONG: That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
GELLERMAN: It's a little garbled there, but does he say "one small step for man" or "a man"?
SMITH: Well, to me it sounds like "man", but he insisted for years that he said "a man." But I think it's fairly clear from that that he left out the "a."
GELLERMAN: Did he come up with that himself? In the book you suggest it might not have been the case.
SMITH: Well, one thing we do know, I think, is that NASA didn't tell him what to say. Because the commander of the second mission, Apollo 12, which landed later in that year, 1969, he had an Italian journalist friend who just didn't believe that Neil Armstrong had been allowed to make up the words himself. So Pete Conrad, who was a very colorful character, this commander, he bet her 500 dollars that he could nominate the words he was going to say there and then, which he did. And he was a diminutive guy, Pete Conrad, so, sure enough, when he stepped off the ladder all the viewers and listeners heard him say, "Whoopie, that may have been a small step for Neil, but it was a big one for me!"
GELLERMAN: (Laughs)
SMITH: So I think, yeah, I think Armstrong probably did make it up.
GELLERMAN: You spoke to all of the nine surviving moonlanders.
SMITH: I spoke to all of them. Seven of them sat down for proper interviews and sort of lengthy chats, yeah.
GELLERMAN: They were all very strange men, the way I read your book.
SMITH: Yes, and I was going to say, one of the big surprises for me was what a diverse group of individuals they are. Because I'd expected that they would be fairly buttoned down, straight arrow sort of guys, and, in actual fact, they ranged right across the spectrum.
For instance, Edgar Mitchell, who was on the third mission to land, had what he called an epiphany on the way back from the moon and felt as though there was a consciousness around him in the universe. And he felt plugged into it and came back and quit NASA and founded a New Age organization.
Another quit NASA, Alan Bean, quit NASA and became a painter afterwards. And he now endlessly paints scenes from the moon landings in oils, and he's very, very successful at it. Another one felt he heard God talking to him on the surface of the moon. He came and quit when he got back and founded a ministry. So they really are a diverse bunch of people.
GELLERMAN: You don't paint a very good picture of Buzz Aldrin, actually. He's very competitive, and you say that when he was on the moon he only takes one picture of Armstrong, and that's a picture of him being reflected in Armstrong's visor.
SMITH: Yes, that's right. Michael Collins, who flew with him, who was the command module pilot, which means he was the one who stayed in the command module circling the moon and didn't land, he has said that Buzz took more umbrage with not being the first on the moon than he got joy from being the second. And he suffered a lot when he got back. He suffered from depression and alcoholism which wasn't spotted for a long time.
And don't forget that these guys weren't well paid. Those who were military were paid according to their military rank. At that time, that wasn't a great deal of money. And there was no danger money or anything like that. So I think Buzz, he's had a hard time. I mean, I can empathize with him a great deal, I think.
GELLERMAN: Yeah, there's a real sadness in the book. You write about one of the astronauts selling his autograph in Las Vegas for 10 dollars a pop.
SMITH: Well, yeah, his name was Dick Gordon. He was the command module pilot on Apollo 12, the second mission. And the funny thing is that, as far as all the memorabilia goes and the Apollo nuts and the celebrity aspect of the whole thing, as one collector explained to me, the command module pilots market value is much lower than any of the others. So they can't sell their autographs at 500 dollars a time the way Buzz does.
So I actually found him, yeah, at a Star Trek convention in Las Vegas, sitting at a table on his own signing autographs for 20 dollars a time, surrounded by all these other actors. And there were big lines at the other tables, people waiting to have their autographs signed, and then here was this genuine space hero who didn't have a big line. It was a strange and strangely poignant place to find someone who had been all the way to the moon.
GELLERMAN: The trip Apollo was about us.
SMITH: Yeah, I think it was, you know. I really think it was. And one of the things you notice when you go and meet these people who've had this extraordinary experience, and they are extraordinary men in lots of ways, but in other ways they're very, very ordinary people just like you and me. And they're having to deal with our expectations and our hopes of them. For instance, when people meet them they invariably ask, "so what was it like up there?" And there really is no simple way of answering it. It's what they all say. And it's one of the things that's frustrated every single one of them.
So I think it really was about us, yeah. And the fact that they were going in the first place was about us because there was no rational. There was no reason for them going in terms of science, geology, technology. All the scientists said that robots could do it just as well at a fraction of the cost and it would be much safer. But there was something about a human being going up there and actually being there and coming back and telling us about it, which we really wanted. And John F. Kennedy had no interest in space when he announced this, but he knew somehow that it was in the imagination, it would capture the imagination, and that people would respond to it. And, of course, they did.
GELLERMAN: Andrew Smith is author of "Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth." Mr. Smith, thank you very much.
SMITH: It's a pleasure.
GELLERMAN: Alan Bean was the fourth man to walk on the moon as the lunar module pilot for Apollo 12. He left NASA in 1981 and set up an artist's studio at his home in Houston, Texas, where he paints. Many of his paintings of the moon will soon be exhibited at the Butler Museum of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio. And Captain Bean, thank you very much for joining us.
BEAN: Well it's my pleasure, Bruce. And hello, listeners.
GELLERMAN: How did you go from astronaut to artist? How did that happen?
BEAN: Well, I think we're all trapped, all humans are trapped, being just who they are, and that was an interest that I had even before I became an astronaut. When I was a test pilot in the Navy I began to take watercolor, drawing, and things like that at night in a university near us. So when I got back from the moon and realized that hey, you know, I've been to a place that no artist has ever been in all of history, another world, maybe if I could learn to paint it well enough I could do something worthwhile. And, you know, celebrate what we as Americans did.
GELLERMAN: I once heard that in addition to your brushes you actually use moon tools for your paintings?
BEAN: Well, yes. I've always liked texture in a painting, and I wanted some moon dust, but we didn't get any. Nobody has a rock from the moon that I know of. I certainly don't. So I couldn't put any moon dust in my paintings. And one day I was looking up on the wall, they did give me the patches from my suit, the flag, you know, on my shoulder, the Apollo 12 patch on my chest –
GELLERMAN: Uh-huh.
BEAN: So I said, you know, they sure are dirty, and then it dawned on me: they're dirty with moon dust. If I cut those things up –
GELLERMAN: You didn't!
BEAN: – and put them in my painting I really would have moon dust in my painting.
GELLERMAN: You did it?
BEAN: I did it, yeah. I didn't want to, 'cause those meant a lot to me. I said, well, I'm spending the rest of my life doing these paintings, so if I'm using my life up I certainly can use up my patches.
GELLERMAN: Captain Bean, do you have a favorite picture that's going to be showing at the Butler Museum of American Art?
BEAN: One of my favorites. Pete Conrad, the commander of our mission, one of my very best friends ever, he was killed on a motorcycle some five, six years ago, and so there was one with the three of us in it – Pete Conrad, Dick Gordon, Al Bean – on the moon. Now, Dick Gordon never got on the moon, he stayed in the command module, but as an artist I had him on the moon standing between us, and I call the painting "The Fantasy." There the three of us that worked together, cared about each other, and tried to make, you know, this American dream come true.
GELLERMAN: Captain Alan Bean's paintings will be on display at the Butler Museum of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio. Captain Bean, thank you so very much.
BEAN: Bye-bye, Bruce.
Related link:
"Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth"
[MUSIC: Samuel J. Hoffman "Music For Peace Of Mind" from 'Theremin: Music Out Of The Moon' (Basta - 1999)]
GELLERMAN: Just ahead: think globally, but eat locally - Bill McKibben's homegrown winter diet is next on Living on Earth.
ANNOUNCER: Support for NPR comes from NPR stations, and: The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, online at m-o-t-t dot org, supporting efforts to promote a just, equitable and sustainable society; The Kresge Foundation. Building the capacity of nonprofit organizations through challenge grants since 1924. On the web at k-r-e-s-g-e dot org; The Annenberg Fund for excellence in communications and education; and, The W-K Kellogg Foundation. 'From Vision to Innovative Impact: 75 Years of Philanthropy; This is NPR, National Public Radio.
[MUSIC: Medeski, Martin & Wood "New Planet" from 'End of the World Party (Just In Case)' (BlueNote - 2004)]
GELLERMAN: It's Living on Earth. I'm Bruce Gellerman, and coming up: the tomato that bought a house? First, this Note on Emerging Science from Emily Torgrimson.
Emerging Science Note/Mosquito Fish
TORGRIMSON: A day in the life of a guppy: cruise 'round the plastic castle, swim up to the surface for pellets, check out the bejeweled mermaid on the far side of the tank, and now, help fight a dengue epidemic in India.
In recent weeks, dengue fever has killed dozens of people and affected hundreds in West Bengal, India. Dengue is a mosquito-born disease that causes fever, nausea, headaches, and, if it is not treated, death. But health officials in West Bengal have released thousands of guppies into waters where mosquitoes breed.
Mosquitoes there are proving resistant to many pesticides, so officials are relying on the help of guppies and gambusia - a fish commonly known as "the mosquitofish" because of its ability to eat its weight in mosquito larvae a day. And both fish species can survive where water quality is poor, like stagnant ponds or shallow bodies of water.
Critics of the method say guppies and gambusia often grow to outnumber native species of fish – they attack other fish by nipping at their fins, eyes, and preying on their eggs. There's no indication yet of the immediate effect the fish are having on the dengue epidemic, or other mosquito-born illnesses, like encephalitis and malaria.
That's this week's Note on Emerging Science. I'm Emily Torgrimson.
Home Grown
GELLERMAN: This is apple harvest time here in New England and fresh picked local varieties can now be found at roadside stands and farmers' markets. This is a season New Englanders cherish, and it couldn't have come too soon for Bill McKibben.
McKIBBEN: The apples in my market annoy me. They're from China and New Zealand and Washington state, and I live in Vermont's Champlain Valley, one of the world's great apple-growing regions. So, what an annoying waste of energy to fly these Red Delicious in from halfway around the planet. And what a waste of taste—these things have been bred for just one purpose-- endurance. Mostly, though, they're annoying because they don't come with connections, with stories. They've been grown on ten thousand-acre plantations with the latest industrial methods and the highest possible efficiency. They're cheap, I give you that. But they're so dull.
McKIBBEN: The roar you hear is a cider press. It belongs to my neighbor, Bill Suhr. His fifty-acre orchard produced a million pounds of apples last year, so he's not a backyard hobbyist.
SUHR: This time of year we're putting six varieties in: the Macintosh, Empire, Cortland, Macoun, Northern Spy, and Jonagold.
McKIBBEN: I drank a lot of Bill Suhr's cider this past winter because I'd asked the editors at Gourmet magazine if I could perform an experiment: could I make it through the winter feeding myself entirely on the food of this northern New England valley where I live. Up until 75 years ago or so, everyone who lived here obviously ate close to home—an orange or a banana was a Christmas-time treat.
And that's still how most people on the planet eat. But I knew that most of the infrastructure that once made that possible was now missing. Our food system operates on the principle that it's always summer somewhere, so it's forgotten how to get through winter. How many houses have a root cellar? Not mine. If I was going to make it, I would need to make connections with my neighbors. Ben Gleason, for instance.
GLEASON: Well, let's see, last year I went through I believe, 32 tons of wheat. Spring and summer were just wonderful and I thought, "Oh my gosh, we're going to have a normal year in Vermont," but then it started raining and it just go so wet that I had problems in harvesting. Almost everybody did.
McKIBBEN: Ben Gleason grows wheat on his farm in the nearby town of Bridport, Vermont. I'd always imagined wheat just came from the Midwest, and indeed, that's where it can be grown most cheaply. But Ben's been growing it for a quarter century here, hard red winter wheat which he grinds himself in a little shed next to his barn and then sells at the local co-op for 59 cents a pound, not much more than the stuff from the giant mills.
GLEASON: This is the bread flour.
McKIBBEN: Ecologically it makes a lot of sense: instead of traveling 1,500 miles like the average bite of American food, it only needed to cover ten miles before it reached my kitchen. And since it's easily available, it's starting to help other local businesses turn more local. The local pizzeria makes its dough with it, and the local bagel shop. And some of it—some of it goes to our local brewery, Otter Creek, owned by Morgan Wolaver
WOLAVER: I would love nothing more than to be able to survive financially in producing beer for the state of Vermont. Local beers are more fresh.
McKIBBEN: By Christmas-time, I'd settled into my routine. Local oats for breakfast, or pancakes. Maple syrup is the quintessential Vermont crop. Cheese sandwich for lunch—the local cheese factory is right next to the brewery. And for dinner, some potatoes, some carrots, some squash, some beets, and some creature—something that had been baa-ing or moo-ing or snorting a few weeks before, busy converting the grass of this valley into protein.
McKIBBEN: Some of my favorite protein came from Essex Farm, on the New York side of Lake Champlain. Mark Gunther and his wife, Kristin Kimball, opened this enterprise two years ago. You sign up to be a member and then you appear every Friday afternoon and Mark loads up your car with food.
GUNTHER: We have carrots, cabbage, beets, celery root, turnips, leeks, onions, pumpkins, butternut and buttercup squash, parsley, and kale all harvested fresh today. I think that's about the vegetable department.
McKIBBEN: But the vegetable department is only the beginning. They've got a small beef herd, so there are always steaks and hamburger in the freezer. The pigs produce bacon and ham. The chickens and the turkeys taste good, too.
McKIBBEN: They raise bees, they grow their own wheat. Except for dental floss, you'd never need to set foot in a store again.
McKIBBEN: Today, Mark is making cheeseburgers for lunch.
GUNTHER: This is beef from the bull that we ate for our wedding, and this is hamburger from him. We called him Charlie. So it's Charlie, with a little bit of Rea and Delia and Melissa in the cheese.
McKIBBEN: Mark Gunther is even more interested in local than I am. And yet there's nothing particularly grim or Luddite about his life. Just the opposite.
GUNTHER: There's nothing inherent about modern ways that I don't support. I'm trying to find out ways to increase the quality of my life, and I think, by extension, the lives of those around me.
McKIBBEN: In fact, Mark is at least as much an innovator as a throwback. When his wife, Kristin, got tired of churning butter by hand every week, he came up with a solution:
GUNTHER: I realized that someone had given us a fold-out bed, and that, probably, if I opened that up and put the milk can on it and bounced it, that I could be able to make butter quickly. And so now my weekly ritual has been every Tuesday or Wednesday night to turn on some Latino rhythms that I feel like listening to and I kind of do a kind of modified jumping dance with my fifty pounds of stainless steel and cream. Usually within about 600-700 bounces I open it up and find 10-12 pounds of butter ready to be rinsed and worked.
McKIBBEN: And his butter tastes great, too; maybe even better because I know its story. I'm not going to claim that every day of this experiment was pure gustatory bliss. There were moments when I sympathized with my daughter, Sophie.
McKIBBEN: Can you tell the difference between a parsnip and a turnip?
SOPHIE: No, I don't want to. They're disgusting.
McKIBBEN: When spring came, I was happy to eat the odd banana and drink the occasional pint of Guinness Stout. But I don't think I'm ever going back to eating the way I used to. I could give you a lot of good reasons—there's a British study, for instance, that just came out proving that eating local helped the environment twice as much even as eating organic. But all that's just an excuse. I'm hooked on the connections to the place I live. I spent the winter eating with my mind as well as my tongue, consuming connections along with my calories. It was the best dining I've ever done. I'm not going back to orange juice. I'm sticking with cider.
GELLERMAN: Bill McKibben is the author of "Wandering Home: A Long Walk Across America's Most Hopeful Landscape, Vermont's Champlain Valley and New York's Adirondacks." His story on local food was produced by Jay Allison, Chelsea Merz, and Viki Merrick. Special thanks to the public radio website, Transom-Dot-Org, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
[MUSIC: John Fahey "Poor Boy Long Ways From Home" from 'Best Of John Fahey: 1959-1977' (Takoma - 2002)]
Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes
GELLERMAN: These days at harvest festivals and county fairs you can find green thumb growers showing off the fruits of their labors--local produce grown with care and pride…and can anything be more worthy of a boast than a delectable tomato, ripening on the vine right in your own backyard? Especially those heirloom varieties, the ones with odd shapes, colors and names to match. There are the Tommy Toes, tiny as grapes, Brandywines, deep red as a glass of cabernet, and Banana Legs, yellow and yummy. Living on Earth's Jeff Young was curious about one of his favorites, a tomato with an especially peculiar name, and he discovered a story behind it as colorful as the fruit itself.
YOUNG: Where I grew up in West Virginia, old timers called them "Mortgage Lifters." They're tasty without being acidic, and the flattened, pinkish fruits get big. Really big—I'm talkin' a pound or two apiece. The best of them carried a longer name: "Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter Tomato." I often wondered about that name. So did Jeff McCormack.
YOUNG: Mccormack runs a seed catalog company from his home in Charlottesvile, Virginia. He specializes in rare lines of heirloom plants and seeds passed down through families and friends.
MCCORMACK: But, you know, when it's being passed down in a family for 200 years there must be something good about it.
YOUNG: In the mid 80s, McCormack got his hands on some tomato seeds and a heck of a story. It came in the form of a scratchy old tape recording of a conversation between Ed Martin of Virginia, and his grandfather, the originator of the Mortgage Lifter Tomato.
MARTIN: I am sitting at 860 Lee St talking to my grandfather MC Byles and he'd get mad if anybody said it is Marshall Cletis Byles.
YOUNG: Marshall Cletis Byles preferred to go by MC or just Charlie. The tape is tough to hear—cars, trains and, at one point, an ice cream truck interfere. But it rewards the careful listener. Martin tries to keep his grandad on topic—he wants to know the origin of the Mortgage Lifter Tomato.
MARTIN: That's a heck of a tomato. Look, didn't you tell me there were five tomatoes that made that thing?
YOUNG: Byles talks about the tomato all right, but not right away. He wanders in his recollection, as 85-year-olds are wont to do. He talks about cars he's owned, jobs he's worked, places he's lived—and what emerges is the story of a truly remarkable life. The grandson asks how Charlie got started with gardening. Byles tells him it was when his mother sent him to work in the cotton fields of North Carolina. He was four years old.
BYLES: Mother said "come out from under there." I said "what do you want?" She said, "you're going to work." "I'm too little to work." "No, you are not." I had to go out there and start pickin' cotton.
YOUNG: As a young man in the National Guard, Byles took up wrestling and got so good he went on a wrestling tour of towns in Appalachia where it's called "wrasslin.' The pay was a dollar for every minute he lasted in the ring.
BYLES: What you did, if he didn't throw you in 10 minutes, you'd get a dollar a minute. I never lost, but very few times.
YOUNG: Byles learned to pilot small planes and flew airmail routes. He loved fixing planes and inventing things. He once came up with a new kind of garden tiller, but didn't think to get a patent. He found business success as an auto mechanic in the rugged hills of Logan, West Virginia, where heavy coal and timber trucks constantly blew out radiators grinding up the steep grades.
McCORMACK: And I think that's where he acquired his name "Radiator Charlie."
YOUNG: That's seed saver Jeff McCormack.
McCORMACK: Incidentally, the shop was located at the foot of a large mountain where the trucks had to roll back down the mountain to his shop after the radiator blew.
YOUNG: Location, location, location. He sounds like the classic American tinkerer.
McCORMACK: Exactly. And the beauty of it is that he did this all without formal education.
BYLES: Well, I've always had a mind of doing things that nobody else couldn't do. I never been to school a day in my life but anything I wanted to do, I done it.
YOUNG: Sometime in the early 40s, Radiator Charlie Byles wanted to build a better tomato. You remember this is a story about a tomato, right? Well, this is how he did it.
BYLES: What I did I took ten plants and put them in a circle and put one in the center.
YOUNG: McCormack has studied this part of the tape carefully and says Byles invented an unorthodox but elegant system.
McCORMACK: Well, he started with four varieties of tomatoes and he placed a tomato called German Johnson in the center of a ring of 10 tomatoes. All these tomatoes were the largest seeds he could find in the country at the time. So, he would go around to the other tomatoes, collect pollen in the baby's ear syringe, then squirt it on the flowers of the German Johnson. Then he would save seed. After seven years, he felt he had a stable tomato with all qualities he was looking for, and once he was satisfied with that he never worked with any other tomato plants, did any other plant breeding. But he really ran with it after he developed it.
YOUNG: Ran all the way to the bank. Turns out Radiator Charlie Byles had quite a knack for marketing, and sold tomato seedlings for a buck apiece—a lot of money for a little plant in those days. He sold enough of them to pay off the mortgage on his house.
BYLES: I didn't pay but six thousand dollars for my home, and paid most of it off with tomato plants.
YOUNG: So, there you have it: Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter Tomato. McCormack says the story is more than just a good yarn. When he put it in the seed catalog it attracted curious gardeners who grew the tomato, saved the seed, and, perhaps unwittingly, helped keep the strain alive – a small victory for preserving genetic diversity at a time when most agriculture is heading toward a homogenized industrial scale. And McCormack finds something else of value in these seed stories, something a little harder to pin down.
MCCORMACK: What I'm trying to do is also sort of save the soul behind these seeds, the thin line that extends from one generation to another. And each, the people are connected with the seeds, culture and agriculture are inexorably intertwined. They're like two sides of the same coin.
YOUNG: MC "Radiator Charlie" Byles died at the ripe old age of 97. At the time of his talk with his grandson, he had already outlived many of his friends and family. He wondered aloud why he had lived so long.
BYLES: The Lord left me here all these years for some purpose. I don't know what it is.
MARTIN: Maybe it was that tomato. (LAUGHTER)
YOUNG: Maybe it was that tomato. And maybe that's not so bad. For Living on Earth, I'm Jeff Young in Charlottesville, VA.
[MUSIC: Guy Clark "Home Grown Tomato" from 'Keepers' (Sugar Hill Records – 1997]
GELLERMAN: To see pictures of Radiator Charlie and his Mortgage Lifter Tomato and to learn more about heirloom seeds visit our web site Living on Earth dot org. That's Living on Earth dot o-r-g.
[MUSIC: Guy Clark "Home Grown Tomato" from 'Keepers' (Sugar Hill Records – 1997]
When I die don't bury me
In a box in a cold dark cemetery
Out in the garden would be much better
Where I could be pushin' up home grown tomatoes
Home grown tomatoes, home grown tomatoes
What'd life be without home grown tomatoes
There's only two things that money can't buy
That's true love and home grown tomatoes.
Related links:
- Seed Savers Exchange
- Southern Exposure Seed Exchange – Mortgage Lifter seeds page
GELLERMAN: Next week on Living on Earth – It's been 16 years since two researchers ignited what's called the greatest controversy in 20th century science. But today, long after cold fusion was considered dead and gone, some researchers say it's alive and has the potential to the produce unlimited and virtually pollution free energy.
NAGLE: People come to me and say, "Dave, it sounds too good to be true." Well, yes, it is too good to be true, but that's what the promise is.
GELLERMAN: The changing science of cold fusion - on the next Living on Earth.
GELLERMAN: Living on Earth is produced by the World Media Foundation. Our crew includes Chris Ballman, Eileen Bolinsky, Jennifer Chu, Ingrid Lobet and Susan Shepherd - with help from Christopher Bolick, Kelley Cronin and Michelle Kweder. Our interns are Ashley Ahearn, Brianna Asbury and Emily Torgrimson. Our technical director is Dennis Foley. Alison Dean composed our themes. You can find us at loe dot org. Steve Curwood returns next week. I'm Bruce Gellerman. Thanks for listening.
ANNOUNCER: Funding for Living on Earth comes from the National Science Foundation, supporting coverage of emerging science; and Stonyfield Farm, organic yogurt, smoothies and milk. Ten percent of profits are donated to efforts that help protect and restore the earth. Details at Stonyfield dot com. Support also comes from NPR member stations, and the Ford Foundation, for reporting on U.S. environment and development issues, and the Oak Foundation, for coverage of marine issues.
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Scheme to snag iPhones leads to chaos in Calif.
PASADENA, Calif. -- An overnight campout for the new iPhone turned chaotic Friday morning when two men were arrested for fighting outside an Apple Store and a man's plan to hire homeless people to wait in line for the coveted devices backfired, authorities said.
Apple's new iPhone models, the 5S and 5C, were released worldwide Friday.
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FREEPRESS wrote on Sep 21, 2013 7:50 AM:
" These people are nuts! What's the point? It's not like this is a one time opportunity and Apple will run out of phones forever. It's exactly this kind of idiotic mentality that makes you wonder what kind of empty life so desperately needs a newly released product especially when the minute you walk out the door it's practicality obsolete. You'd think they were handing out magic lanterns with an infinite number of wishes. "
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Ibis LED is a table lamp by the German manufacturer Domus. An embossing element of the lamp is the elegant form-wood-bow out of noble-wood veneer. The wooden lamps body is fulfilled by a steel head and a shade-cover out of transparent Lunopal.
Domus succeeded in inserting the power supply of the table lamp, completely in the wooden bow, by a through-thought manufacture procedure. That is how the cable won't annoy the harmonic whole-image that is characterized by the interplay of steel and wood.
The Ibis LED table lamp runs with six 1.2W High-Power LEDs. The transparent shade cover out of Lunopal makes the technical light of the warm-white LEDs pleasantly soft and leads it directly ergonomic to the working space.
The German company Domus offers the table lamp Ibis LED with a corpus out of walnut or cherry wood. Only wood out of controlled cultivation is used to manufacture the lamps. Domus refuses moreover the use of lacquer in the benefit of plant oils and natural waxes. So that the open-pored beauty of the wood remains saved.


text:
JAN 16, 2013 - San Francisco Chronicle
A Must Read - Share
News of the Day From Across the Nation
Chuck Hagel secured the backing of two of the staunchest pro-Israel Senate Democrats in a clear boost to the Republican's prospects of becoming President Obama's next defense secretary.
2 Bachmann campaign: A top adviser in Michele Bachmann's 2012 White House bid has filed a complaint with federal election officials alleging illegal coordination between her presidential campaign and her independent political action committee.
4 Police officer killed: A police officer in the Sacramento County city of Galt was shot and killed Tuesday after responding
Read More
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Hey you have no friends!!! Get to work and start inviting friends to help build your Comunitee. Click Here to invite friends.
© 2011 Comunitee, Inc.


text:
Once upon a time I didn't really give a crap about podcasts. Well, I guess it's more accurate to say that I was ignorant to the awesomeness that lies within the little ear nuggets. But there came a time when my iPhone playlists had bored me and I needed some auditory entertainment. One early morning bus ride through Atlanta and I was hooked. The diversity of content and style, as well as relatively few "commercials" made me an instant fan. Now podcasts are on heavy rotation in my earbuds. I've got several I keep up with, but I decided to narrow it down to my top 3, the ones I never miss. If you've never given them a listen, do yourself a favor and download, buddy.
The Moth Podcast
I LOVE storytelling. I mean, I REALLY LOVE storytelling. That's why I love television and movies so much… I just love a good story. But what I love even more than a good story is a TRUE story, told to me by someone who has lived it. That is the beauty of The Moth Podcast. Live (true) storytelling in front of a crowd. Often funny, always interesting.
Stuff You Should Know
The great thing about the Stuff You Should Know podcast is that you won't even realize you are learning something when you listen to it. Hosted by two moderately funny guys from Atlanta, each podcast defines, describes, and explains one (or more) of life's mysteries. I now understand the BCS college football rankings and venomous snakes like never before.
Savage Love
How could we possibly have a top 3 list without some kind of advice/call-in show? And how could anyone possibly include an advice/call-in show that wasn't Savage Love? Dan Savage answers any love or sex related question callers can come up with, from how to handle a polyamorous relationship to what exactly is a male chastity belt? He is super sex-positive and doesn't sugar-coat anything. Great advice no matter how you like to get it on.
Got any podcast gems in your iPod that you think ought to have made the cut?
xo Em


text:
If I'm going to promote movies that aren't even being shot yet, I might as well link to a trailer for a movie coming soon: Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes. Stars Robert Downey, Jr., Jude Law, and Rachel McAdams. From the trailer, it seems to bear little resemblance to the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novels, but I will (1) go back and re-read one with an eye out for fist-fights, and (2) keep an open mind. If the movie attracts to new fans to the detective, surely that can't be a bad thing.
Enjoying a Dunhill Cabinetta 1989
Another trip to London, another stop to the Dunhill Tobacconist at the corner of St. James and Pall Mall. The shop, which opened just a little over a year ago, has a beautiful and somewhat modern humidor and wall of cigar lockers along with a world class selection of cigars. On my last visit, I tried… Read more »
Posted on June 28, 2015 by Ami


text:
Made from the finest quality suede leather, the Ash Women's Jessica Ankle Boots - Prune are embellished with silver and gold tone circular stud detail on either side of the upper. Featuring a comfortable, chunky heel and a pointed toe, the boots slip on effortlessly through the curved opening. With decorative stitched detail, these fabulous, cowboy-style boots will see you through the seasons. - L.M.
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The sign of a good coaching staff is how the team adjusts in the second half. Down 21-10 at the half, Kansas State showed it knows how to adjust, as the Wildcats outscored Baylor 15-0 in the third quarter to take a 25-21 lead, and setting up a battle in the fourth quarter.
For KSU, that battle never happened. After reeling off 15 straight points in the third, Baylor answered with 14 of their own, and a 35-25 win.
The Wildcats got the scoring started in the second half on a Jack Cantele field goal to get the score to 21-13.
Baylor got the ball on the next possession, but after 4 plays, the Bears were forced to punt, and the Wildcats capitalized on the stop. Weston Hiebert blocked the punt, and it was recovered by KSU at the Baylor 19, giving the 'Cats great field position.
From there, it only took a John Hubert 17-yard run, and a Daniel Sams 2-yard keeper to get the Cats to within 2. They went for the two-point conversion, but were stopped.
Baylor again got the ball back, but on the second play of the drive, quarterback Bryce Petty was stripped by Ryan Mueller, who recovered the ball at the Baylor 44, and the Wildcats were again in business.
KSU put together a 10-play drive that ended in a touchdown. The 'Cats again went for two, and they were again denied, leaving the score at 25-21 at the end of the third quarter.
Again showing the quick strike offense, Baylor needed only 5 plays and 1:12 to retake the lead, when Tevin Reese took a pass from Petty and raced 54 yards for the score, and a 28-25 lead.
Kansas State had a chance to tie the game with 6:49 left, but Jack Cantele missed a 41-yard field goal to keep the score at 28-25.
Late in the game, Baylor added a rushing touchdown to take the lead to 35-25.
Previous Update
The Baylor Bears have one of the quickest scoring offenses in the nation, and they proved it in the first half against Kansas State.
Kansas State has had issues with the defensive side of the ball, but the Wildcat D held the Bears in check for most of the half until 9:00 left in the half when Baylor needed only two plays to go 95 yards. The tie game was now 14-7 instead, and it took only 0:34 seconds to do it.
After a Jack Cantele field goal got KSU to within 4, Baylor again showed the quick strike offense, this time taking only 0:38 seconds to go 73 yards, and suddenly the Bears led 21-10. The two combined drives took 4 plays, 168 yards and 1:10 of game clock.
The Bears now have 16 scoring drives that lasted less than a minute, which leads the nation.
For KSU, quarterback Daniel Sams has been electric. Sams has carried the ball 15 times for 124 yards, while completing two passes for 24 yards. Sams also scored the lone Wildcat touchdown of the half.
The majority of the Baylor offense has come through the air. Quarterback Bryce Petty is 10 for 16 for 261 yards and two touchdowns.
Lache Seastrunk is considered a Heisman Trophy candidate, but the Wildcat defense has held him in check so far, with only six carries for 31 yards.


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by Suzzane
(Sunny California)
Just wanted to pass along some of my experience using green tea as a metabolism booster.
I tried the green tea fat burner pills that you can pick up in you local pharmacy or health food store.
The pills say they can increase your metabolism, and in turn help you burn fat. I was only looking for a little boost to help loos a few pounds so I gave them a try.
A couple of things I wanted to share with others.
If you take the pills (morning and noon) not a whole lot seems to happen. The pills are high in cafeine, so I had a sleepless night one day when I took them after 3pm. (Just a heads up!)
BUT.... if you eat a good diet and excercise (even a walk around the block every 2nd day or so) the results were amazing. The weight just slid off and I felt fabulous!
If any one else has tried green tea to boost metabolism I hope it worked as well for you.
Click here to read or post comments
Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Green Tea Forum.


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Website: HangTightStudio.com
Social Media: Facebook | Flickr | Etsy
For as long as she can remember, Heather knew her path in life would be a creative one. When she was younger, you were bound to find her curled up in her room doodling, putting together fun collage books, thinking up new fashions to create or playing her flute. Not much has changed since those carefree days of childhood and you're just as likely to find her doing the same things today! When she was growing up her mother always told her "you can be anything you want to be" and those simple words of encouragement ignited her imagination for the possibilities that lay ahead.
Heather received a B.F.A in Fashion Design from the Savannah College of Art and Design and moved out to San Francisco shortly after graduating to start a career in the fashion industry. The time she spent working in the industry was invaluable and it played a significant role in shaping the designer she is today. She was fortunate to work with a talented group of artists, travel all over the world and get an in-depth look at the creative process of designing and manufacturing.
During this time Heather discovered her passion for surface design and that discovery changed her life.
After enjoying a successful career in the fashion industry, Heather took the knowledge and experience she gained and launched her own surface design company under the name of Hang Tight Studio. She's always had a soft spot for all things vintage, whether it's fabric, furniture or clothing and that influence shows through in her designs. Heather's diverse style bridges the gap between retro and contemporary design and color is a major source of inspiration for her. She loves creating a wide variety of designs including vintage inspired geometrics, fanciful florals and whimsical creations filled with fun characters and motifs. Each design represents a piece of her personality and working on a variety of patterns keeps her constantly inspired.
Shortly after launching Hang Tight Studio in 2000, Heather relocated to the beautiful seaside town of Kennebunk, Maine. She lives and works out of her 1850's farmhouse, surrounded by a menagerie of furry & feathered "kids" including 2 cats, a duck, a bunny and her studio sidekick Emma Jean (a Sussex Spaniel). Nestled in her brightly lit lime green studio, Heather spends her days dreaming up new designs, connecting with other artists and whipping up fun creations behind her sewing machine. She's beyond excited to be a part of the Modern Yardage family and to share her designs with you. She hopes they ignite your imagination and inspire you to sew your own fabulous creations! Visit Heather's website to keep in touch and stay up to date with what she's up to at www.hangtightstudio.com.


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Blog ID: 7
Sunny or cloudy, the UV rays can burn. Apply sunscreen at least 15 minutes before being exposed to the sun and reapply every two hours for the best protection.
Dermatologists recommend lotion over sprays because they provide more even coverage. If you are planning to use a spray, rub the lotion in and be persistent about reapplication.
Look for these factors in your sunscreen:
"Broad-spectrum" to protect from both UVA and UVB rays
Water-resistant Apply to these areas:
Legs - Don't forget to get the backs of your legs where it is common to develop skin cancer.
Face - This is the most common place to develop basal cell carcinoma. Apply a moisturizer with SPF and a sunscreen that's lightweight and oil-free.
Back and arms - These are prime spots for melanoma. Have a friend help you apply to get to those hard-to-reach areas.
Neck and chest - Tour skin is particularly sensitive here, so apply sunscreen generously.
Ears - The area under your ears is particularly susceptible to aging and cancer because it doesn't have the benefit of the shadow of your chin.
Eyes - If regular sunscreen brings on irritation, try a formula with zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. Don't forget to put on shades that block both UVA and UVB rays.
Lips - Often forgotten these burn easily. Your ideal shield is SPF 30 lip balm. Avoid glossy lip colors as they intensify the sun damage. If you feel yourself beginning to burn, take a quick break under the shade, slop on some more sunscreen and slap on a shirt or hat for extra coverage.
Skin cancer screening
Worried or just curious about a mole or skin spot? Community has experts who can help! Call 800.777.7775 to make an appointment with a Community dermatologist for a skin cancer screening. Skin cancer has a 99% cure rate if detected early - so why wait?
Dermatologists recommend lotion over sprays because they provide more even coverage. If you are planning to use a spray, rub the lotion in and be persistent about reapplication.
Look for these factors in your sunscreen:
To make an appointment with an MD Anderson Cancer Network® certified physician at Community, call 800-777-7775 today!
Community Health Network is the first healthcare organization to achieve system-wide recognition by MD Anderson Cancer Network® as a certified member. The five hospital locations providing qualified cancer services in the network have met the rigorous standards to treat cancer patients with MD Anderson evidence-based guidelines and best practices. Learn more.


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Let us make YOUR DREAMS a reality
Grand Coral
Location: Right in front of our Beach Club and The Taj
This new dock meets one of the most romantic dreams of any couple to say "I do", between the turquoise and crystal clear Caribbean waters. An arch decorated with flowers at the end of the spring is a special touch to create the perfect ambience for a romantic ceremony.
Location: On the site
located in the Porto Playa condo hotel, La Sirena is a seafood restaurant offering the freshest ceviche, oysters, grilled local fish, and a comprehensive bar. Other menu options are available for wedding groups. La Sirena has capacity for 85 people. The restaurant offers a separate lounge for cocktails, ceremonies and rehearsal dinners.
Contemporary oceanfront setting north of Playa del Carmen
Location: 10 minutes drive north of Playa.
Formerly known as Blue Cocoa, this beautiful, contemporary beach resort features exceptional Mexican cuisine and magnificent views of the Caribbean. With capacity for 150 people for outdoor events in the Beach Club, Grand Coral offers tranquility and privacy lovers who dream of for your event on the beach ceremonies, wedding receptions and special events.
Beautiful sea views in a relaxed setting in Playa del Carmen
Location: 10 minutes walk from Condohotels
The Newest Beach Club has a style inspired by Brazil of the 50`s beautiful Caribbean views from Coco Beach. The Beach Club Royal Canibal is located in the northern part of Playa del Carmen offers an eclectic fusion of cuisine including Mediterranean, Peruvian, Caribbean, African and Mexican. With capacity for up to 250 people. www.canibalroyal.com
Lots of fun and oceanfront setting in the Riviera Maya
Location: 4 blocks from Condohotels
With casual atmosphere and magnificent sea views, two outdoor bars, palapas and the most beautiful beaches of the Riviera Maya, the Kool beach club offers best place for great ceremonies and receptions for up to 350 people. www.koolbeachclub.com.mx


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Wallace V. Bricker, 93, of Mercersburg died away at 5:30 a.m. Saturday, April 20, 2013. Services will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday in First Church of God, Mercersburg. Burial will be in Fairview Cemetery, Mercersburg. The family will receive friends one hour prior to services Wednesday in the church. Arrangements were made by Lininger-Fries Funeral Home Inc., Mercersburg.
Location, ST | website.com


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For centuries, elevated wooden platforms were used to protect dried fish and game meat from bears, wolverines, and other animals. Borrowing this Native tradition, many Alaskan pioneers constructed a storage cabin on stilts, or "cache," even before building a place to live.
Over the years we have published three versions of our cookbook, A Cache of Recipes. As each season brings new cooks and new ingredients to work with our recipes evolve. This year, with our cookbook inventory dwindling, we decided to go digital.
Throughout the summer, we'll feature new recipes on our website, slowly adding to our online archive. We hope you enjoy our new cache of recipes!
Lunch in a bag. This cookie will sustain you for a long day of travel or adventure.
Filed In: Lunch
An authentic experience suited to your home kitchen. Serve with sweet sesame buns; leftovers are perfect for fried rice or Asian noodle soup.
Filed In: Dinner
Zucchinis are abundant in backyard gardens and farmers' markets. This is a perfect summer appetizer with fresh ingredients and a flaky crust.
A decadent chocolate dessert that is easy to make and perfect for any dinner party.
Filed In: Dessert
Both guests and staff love this salad and this recipe is a great way to showcase how good raw kale can be.
Sweet and tangy ribs that fall off the bone with every bite. This Asiatic dish goes great with coconut rice and grilled bok choy.
Our chefs took inventory one morning and found an excess of lentils (already cooked for that evening's veggie burgers) and a plethora of almonds. Created out of convenience, this spread has become one of our most popular sandwich toppings.
Housemade granola is such a satisfying treat. A mouthwatering aroma fills the kitchen as it bakes. This always makes a great gift, and you can customize it by adding dried fruits of your choice.
Filed In: Breakfast
PO Box 67, Denali National Park, Alaska 99755
907-683-2290 firstname.lastname@example.com


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More projects from Vanessa Wilson's classes on Craftsy:
Offer some kudos...
Join the conversation...
Ask a question...
Add your comment...
|Here are some details about my project:
|Eco-Friendly, Funky, Cute, Mod
What was your source for this sewing project?
Online Photo or Website
Name of website or photo Fused Plastic Bag Wallet
What materials did you use? I used a total of 4 plastic grocery store bags, thread, sewing machine, velcro dots (optional)
What advice would you give someone starting this project? Keep the iron on dry and at medium heat and take your time fusing the bags- don't scorch them. Make sure your measurements are exact and that you sew really close to the edges otherwise your cards may not fit. Always audition one of your cards before sewing the pockets down to make sure you made the pockets large enough.
Very Interesting :)


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Dissolution of Corporation for Lafourche Parish - June 15, 2013
Published: Friday, June 14, 2013 at 1:13 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, June 14, 2013 at 1:13 p.m.
Dissolution of Corporation for Lafourche Parish - June 15, 2013
• Corporation: Plaisance Inspection and Enterprises Inc; Dissolution of; Entry#1154197 on 4/16/2013.
• Corporation: Acadia Finance Systems Inc; dissolustion Of; Entry#1155104 on 4/30/2013.
• Corporation: Tower Services Inc; Dissolution of; Entry#1156068 on 5/13/2013.
• Corporation: Guidrys Auto Repair Inc; Dissolution of; Entry#1156368 on 5/13/2013.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.


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Looking to find a bar packed with women — or with men? At the risk of sounding a little hackneyed, there's an app for that.
Scene Tap is a pending smart-phone app that uses facial-recognition technology to tell users where to find bars and clubs packed with the kind of people they'd like to meet. (And by that, I mean chicks or dudes.)
The app will debut next month, and it's already generating some buzz online. Some think it's creepy. Others are hoping it marks the end of disappointing nights out.
The service depends on the participation of bar owners, who will install cameras that scan the crowd and determine how many men and women are present. So far, about 200 bars across the country have signed up — and 50 of those are in SceneTap's hometown of Chicago, according to Forbes.
The technology isn't sophisticated enough to detect identity, according to SceneTap. But it'll tell you if there's a sausage fest happening at the bar you're about to enter.
Would you download the app?
Visit seattlepi.com's home page for more Seattle news. Contact Amy Rolph at email@example.com or on Twitter as @amyrolph and @bigblog.


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Welcome to Harvest!
Thank you for viewing the Harvest Baptist Website. We hope that you will be encouraged by what you find on our website. At Harvest you will find a friendly group of people who are seeking to
live their lives according to the Bible. If you have any questions that we can answer about Harvest,or if you would just like someone to pray with, please don't hesitate to contact us. We would love the opportunity to minister and be a help and encouragement to you and your family.Please make time to visit our services.


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Acidosis is now generally known to be present in various diseases, such as diabetes, nephritis, uremia, and when violent diarrhea and vomiting occur clinically, there is also a rapid decrease in the body fluids. In most cases of cholera, the victim falls into a state of temporary inanition, and in consequence of the action of the toxin on the kidneys, so-called cholera nephritis very often develops. The decrease of blood alkali and the accumulation of acid in the body, make the existence of acidosis a certainty.
Sellards noted the remarkable tolerance of the urine to alkali, while Rogers observed a notable decrease of alkali in the blood.
During the cholera epidemic of last year, 529 cases were treated in the Dairen Isolation Hospital. Owing to a lack of apparatus Van Slyke's method for the determination of acidosis could not be employed. Traube's quinin method was resorted to instead, and the
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Magic Moon Beach House
Magic Moon Beach House
Magic Moon Beach House (3 bedroom) is truly beachfront, only 50 meters away from an ocean you can see and feel! And if you have ever been on the sandy shores of Puerto Viejo and seen the moonlight ripple across the night sea, felt the warm, salty breeze, heard the coconut's leaves rustle above you, then you may be under the spell of Mother Earth's irresistible beauty. That's why this place is called Magic Moon.
You may then wake the next morning to the sound of a thousand birds calling you from the garden to watch as the sun rises from the blue-green depths before you, or to come share a ripe banana, papaya or passion fruit from the garden around you.
Days Under the Sun
The first decision of the day is whether to go for a walk or run on an endless and secluded beach, go for a swim, get out your surfboard, or do some yoga on the terrace.
From your terrace your eyes will be massaged by shades of green and splashed by the natural gaudiness of flowers never allowed by the generous tropics to stop blooming. You can make your coffee without losing sight of the hummingbirds thrusting into the nectar-filled centers of the hibiscus blossoms.
If you need to rest some more, the hammock is just a few steps from the breakfast table.
In Harmony with Nature
Living here, you not only observe nature, but are part of it and can feel good about your impact on the environment in the following ways:
- ocean water quality: 3 kms away from town and almost no neighbors
- air quality: you are a hedge and large garden away from a gravel road with almost no traffic, so no noise either
- water: no city water with chlorine to burn your eyes in the morning shower; you have an excellent well with tested water and filters for drinking water
- diet: the gardens are full of 100% organic fruits, roots, tubers, edible leaves, herbs and spices, bon appetit!
- waste water: treated monthly with microorganisms to purify it before it returns to the ground water
- garbage: not only do you use less packaged foods, but compost, returning organic garbage nutrients to the garden
- recycling of glass and plastic bottles and aluminium cans
The House
The Beach House is large enough to accommodate a family or couple who likes to have room.
The house has a equipped kitchen, with filtered water to drink, you can take a warm shower (if you want), secure, with safe and trap door storage room, and has phone and high-speed internet.
It is designed to maximize airflow, both through and upwards, and has heat insulating roofs so you won't feel like you are in a solar dryer.
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The Promise of a Big Payoff...
Researchers Wrestle with When to Make...
Protein Engineers Recognized for Advances in...
Maximum Depth Sequencing Has the Potential...
The Carlyle Group will acquire Johnson & Johnson's in vitro diagnostics business Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics (OCD) for $4.15 billion, both said today, in a deal the buyer said reflected the expectation of continued growth for diagnostics as it becomes a greater component of clinical healthcare.
"Through accelerated investment in research and product development and continued expansion into both emerging and established markets, we expect to tap into rising demand for sophisticated medical diagnostic products and services worldwide," Stephen H. Wise, managing director of The Carlyle Group, said in a statement from the global alternative asset manager.
The deal is subject to an acceptance period that will end March 31 unless it is extended. During that time, J&J said, it will consult with relevant works councils and trade unions. If the offer is accepted by Johnson & Johnson, the proposed transaction would be expected to close toward the middle of the year, pending fulfillment of certain conditions, including, but not limited to, the receipt of applicable antitrust clearances and other customary closing requirements.
"Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics plays an important role in healthcare, and we're confident that it's well positioned to serve the interests of its patients, customers, and employees," said Alex Gorsky, J&J's chairman and CEO, in a company statement. "This transaction is a result of our disciplined approach to portfolio management in order to achieve the greatest value for Johnson & Johnson."
J&J said it will further discuss the OCD transaction on January 21, during its scheduled quarterly earnings meeting.
OCD provides in vitro diagnostic products for the early screening, diagnosis, monitoring, and confirmation of diseases by clinical laboratories and the transfusion medicine community worldwide, with emphasis on supporting hospitals, laboratories, and blood centers worldwide.
OCD is headquartered in Raritan, NJ, with manufacturing operations in Rochester, NY; Pompano Beach, FL; and Pencoed, Wales, U.K. The business operates in 130 countries.
A year ago this month (January 22, 2013), Gorsky told analysts on a conference call that J&J was "exploring all options, including a possible divestiture" of OCD, saying at the time, "When you look at diagnostics, we have good technology and a lot of good businesses, but they are not number one or two in the market."
News reports at the time had OCD as fifth-largest, though Roche Diagnostics' Business Overview 2013 had the J&J unit ranked fourth, preceded by Siemens (third), Abbott Laboratories (second), and Roche (first).
The Carlyle Group said an undisclosed amount of equity for the transaction comes from its $13 billion U.S. Buyout fund Carlyle Partners VI, which completed fundraising in November 2013 with 269 investors from 43 countries.
Carlyle was among two potential suitors for OCD, competing with a combination of Blackstone Group and Danaher to buy the business from J&J, according to The Wall Street Journal. In September, Reuters identified Abbott Laboratories and General Electric as possible bidders.
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text: Business Business news Seattle crime family strip club up for auction By Vanessa Romo • Jun 28, 2011 Associated Press One of Seattle's seediest buildings is going up for auction on Wednesday. Rick's Nightclub on Lake City Way was seized by federal agents more than a year ago. Boeing showcases 787 in Paris, reports on unmanned aircrafts By The Associated Press • Jun 22, 2011 Boeing LE BOURGET, France — Boeing is showcasing it 787 Wednesday at the Paris Air Show. After a three-year delay the first new 787 is expected to be delivered in August or September to All Nippon Airways. Seattle to battle over sick leave By Vanessa Romo • Jun 21, 2011 Allan Foster / Flickr In what is likely to be a contentious summer debate, the Seattle City Council will receive a proposal this week to mandate all Seattle workers be allowed between five and nine paid sick days a year. Gregoire says Spain sold her on deep-bore tunnel By KPLU News Staff • Jun 20, 2011 WSDOT If you question whether the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle should be replaced with a deep-bore tunnel, a trip to Madrid, Spain, could clear up some uncertainties. That's all Governor Chris Gregoire said it took to confirm her decision. Protesters gather at Boeing vs. NLRB hearing By The Associated Press • Jun 17, 2011 NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – About two dozen protesters have gathered in North Charleston as a congressional committee opens a hearing on the National Labor Relations Board complaint against Boeing. The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is convening here Friday to discuss the complaint. Outside the chamber, Charleston docks worker Georgette Carr said the state needs good jobs but that companies shouldn't be allowed to break federal labor laws in creating them. 'True' Vancouver cleans up after Stanley Cup riot By Craig McCulloch • Jun 17, 2011 Craig McCulloch / KPLU The day after mayhem erupted on the streets of Vancouver, B.C., over the Canucks' loss to the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup final, thousands of residents came downtown to help with cleanup efforts and write messages on the sheets of plywood covering shattered windows. Dems want NLRB attorney's testimony delayed By The Associated Press • Jun 16, 2011 Two ranking Democrats say a labor board attorney shouldn't have to testify about an ongoing lawsuit over South Carolina's Boeing plant. Chase ordered to disclose ATM fee By Austin Jenkins • Jun 16, 2011 Washington Governor Chris Gregoire says JP Morgan Chase must figure out a way to make their ATMs warn welfare clients of an 85-cent fee to withdraw cash. The governor made her comments Wednesday after she declined to veto the disclosure requirement. Study: Washington has 2nd highest teen unemployment By Jake Ellison • Jun 15, 2011 In a new study, Washington teens are only slightly better off than teens in Georgia when it comes to unemployment rates, and that puts them second in the country for the worst employment opportunities. The analysis of newly-released Census Bureau data by the fiscally conservative Washington, D.C.-based group Employment Policies Institute finds that 25 states have teen unemployment above 25 percent as of April. And, when data about discouraged job seekers is factored into the picture, 23 states have rates above 27 percent. Washington's rate plus the discouraged job seekers is 35.4 percent, the Institute reports. Washington lost jobs in May By The Associated Press • Jun 15, 2011 Associated Press Washington's slow economic recovery is sputtering. Business travel on the rise By Vanessa Romo • Jun 15, 2011 tsparks / Flickr The travel industry usually experiences a bump in leisure travel from June through August. What better time to see the world – or grandma – than when little Susy is out of school? But this year the domino effect of rising fuel prices leading to rising airline ticket prices means families are staying put. Luckily for Seattle's hotel industry, summer business travelers are taking their place. Investigation finds 'flawed' safety culture at Hanford By Anna King • Jun 14, 2011 A high-level whistleblower from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is meeting with members of Congress this week. The topic: the safety culture at Hanford's $12 billion waste treatment plant. A new report backs up his claim that the Department of Energy and its contractors discourage workers from raising safety concerns. Cheated by Seattle parking meter? City will take your call By Jake Ellison • Jun 13, 2011 The Seattle Department of Transportation writes in its blog that sure enough, a number of on-street parking pay stations "recently experienced some technical problems." SDOT says a cell tower lost signal strength intermittently and that caused all the trouble. Boeing cuts ribbon on $750 million South Carolina plant By The Associated Press • Jun 10, 2011 Boeing NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and state officials have joined hundreds of Boeing workers in North Charleston to cut the ribbon opening the company's 787 jetliner assembly plant at the center of a National Labor Relations Board dispute. Haley on Friday called Boeing a great American company said its workers make all South Carolinians proud. More buying wedding insurance ('cold feet' not covered) By Vanessa Romo • Jun 10, 2011 epSos.de / Flickr June is one of the most popular months of the year to get married. That means brides-to-be are preparing for their long-awaited - and probably highly expensive - wedding day. While there are no guarantees for a successful marriage, a new type of business can guarantee the special day goes as planned. Pages« first ‹ previous … 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 … next › last »


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Japan Consumer Prices Fall for 15th Month
Japan's consumer prices continued their long stretch of declines in May, falling for the 15th straight month, providing a reality check to any suggestion that an end to the nation's deflationary problem is just around the corner.
Further stoking concerns that entrenched price falls could choke off the country's economic recovery, the core consumer price index, which excludes volatile fresh food prices, dropped 1.2% from a year earlier in May, compared with a 1.5% fall in April, data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed Friday. The slide was a tad milder than the 1.3% decrease expected by private economists.
The pace of the fall in core CPI slowed, suggesting a recovery in the broader economy has started to help raise domestic demand and prevent prices from decreasing further.
But some analysts say deflation may linger as the yen remains strong, dragging on Japan's export-driven economy and reducing the prices of oil, food, metals, and other commodities that the country buys overseas.
If consumer prices show little sign of rising in near term, the Bank of Japan could be forced to take additional monetary easing measures as the government is now aiming to put an end to deflation.


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La Nina drought
Corn plants are seen at a drought-affected farm near Rufino, Santa Fe province, 283 miles north of Buenos Aires. In the agricultural heart of Argentina, one of the largest exporters of food products, farmers are attending daily to the deterioration of their crops due to lack of rain caused by the La Nina phenomenon. Farmers heavily invested in their crops could be facing bankruptcy as the drought affects the crop cycle.
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