"4 / 15: A female great antshrike (Taraba major) (left) feeds her chick at the Ibera natural reserve, Argentina. Photograph: Daniel Garcia/AFP/Getty Images"
- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
from Bookmarklet
Zoe is enjoying your bird shots. She's signing "bird" and saying "birdy!"
- Trish Haley
"14 / 15: A tiny orange (male) Juan Fernández firecrown hummingbird. The bird is found only on Robinson Crusoe Island in the Juan Fernandez archipelago. Conservationists have called for drastic action to rescue the Juan Fernández archipelago's biodiversity from alien invaders (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environ...). Photograph: Paul Evans"
- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
from Bookmarklet
"8.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide was emitted into the earth's atmosphere in 2008, a growth of 2 percent despite the economic crisis. This averages out to each person contributing a record high of 1.3 tons of carbon, according to a report in the journal Nature Science. While the global recession slowed the growth of fossil fuel emissions for the first time this decade this year, it did not lower overall emissions in 2008."
- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
from Bookmarklet
"The study points out that the blame for carbon emissions still rests largely on wealthy countries. In the 1990s CO2 emissions grew at a rate of 1 percent every year, but in the 2000s the percentage of annual growth rose to 3.6 percent. This is in part due to the developing world producing more manufacturing goods for the developed world: these goods are largely sold to Europe, the...
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- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
"A new study indicates that major chemicals most often cited as leading causes of climate change, such as carbon dioxide and methane, are outclassed in their warming potential by compounds receiving less attention."
- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
from Bookmarklet
"NASA scientist Timothy Lee, lead author of the study with Francisco and NASA postdoctoral fellow Partha Bera, characterized the fluorinated compounds as having the potential to quickly slam the atmospheric window shut, as opposed to gradually easing it shut like carbon dioxide. In the results, chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons...
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- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
"CFC use has waned with the discovery that the chemicals contribute to the destruction of Earth's ozone layer, which absorbs most of the dangerous ultraviolet radiation from the sun. But HFCs and PFCs are widely used in air conditioning and the manufacturing of electronics, appliances and carpets. Other uses range from application as a blood substitute in transfusions to tracking leaks...
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- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
"The evolutionary history of New Zealand's many extinct flightless moa has been re-written in the first comprehensive study of more than 260 sub-fossil specimens to combine all known genetic, anatomical, geological and ecological information about the unique bird lineage."
- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
from Bookmarklet
"Found on the south and north islands of New Zealand, the evolutionary history and relationships between the moa species has long been subject to scientific debate, with past studies suggesting that up to 64 species existed with as many as 20 generic groups. The new study found that moas should be grouped into only three families, six genera and it reduced the number of species to nine....
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- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
"New Zealand broke away from Gondwana at least 60 million years ago and a wide variety of moas subsequently evolved there, ranging in size from a large turkey to the three-metre tall Dinornis, which weighed up to 300 kg. Maori people are known to have killed large numbers of birds for their meat, eggs and feathers -- moa is a Polynesian word for chicken -- after they arrived on the...
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- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
CAN WE HAZ HEALTH CARE NAO? "The health care bill--which includes an opt-out public option--will require $849 billion over 10 years in new spending, to be paid for with cuts to Medicare, while reducing the deficit by $127 billion. In that time it will extend coverage to 31 million Americans--94 percent of citizens will be covered by 2019. Over the second 10 years, CBO projects even greater cost savings--up to $650 billion, with the caveat that after 10 years, their analyses become highly uncertain."
- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
from Bookmarklet
Raising the deficit, one missile at a time... "The $626 billion measure, passed 93-7, also would ban outright any transfer of accused enemy combatants from the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility into the United States. Current law permits transfer of detainees to face trial or go to prison. ... The underlying bill combines $128 billion for overseas military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan with $498 billion for the rest of the Defense Department's budget. An analysis by congressional researchers puts the tally for Afghanistan at about $300 billion and for Iraq at more than $700 billion since Sept. 11, 2001 -- totaling more than $1 trillion."
- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
from Bookmarklet