Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Open Source politics MSNBC: "Bob Schieffer of CBS News made a good point on 'The Charlie Rose Show' last week. He said that successful presidents have all skillfully exploited the dominant medium of their times. The Founders were eloquent writers in the age of pamphleteering. Franklin D. Roosevelt restored hope in 1933 by mastering radio. And John F. Kennedy was the first president elected because of his understanding of television. "Will 2008 bring the first Internet president? Last time, Howard Dean and later John Kerry showed that the whole idea of 'early money' is now obsolete in presidential politics. The Internet lets candidates who catch fire raise millions in small donations practically overnight. That's why all the talk of Hillary Clinton's 'war chest' making her the front runner for 2008 is the most hackneyed punditry around. Money from wealthy donors remains the essential ingredient in most state and local campaigns, but 'free media' shapes the outcome of presidential races, and the Internet is the freest media of all." "2008 pres" 6:56:48 PM

Bluegills guarding water supplies Wired: "A type of fish so common that practically every American kid who ever dropped a fishing line and a bobber into a pond has probably caught one is being enlisted in the fight against terrorism. San Francisco, New York, Washington and other big cities are using bluegills -- also known as sunfish or bream -- as a sort of canary in a coal mine to safeguard their drinking water... "Big cities employ a range of safeguards against chemical and biological agents, constantly monitoring, testing and treating the water. But electronic protection systems can trace only the toxins they are programmed to detect, Lawler said. Bluegills -- a hardy species about the size of a human hand -- are considered more versatile. They are highly attuned to chemical disturbances in their environment, and when exposed to toxins, they experience the fish version of coughing, flexing their gills to expel unwanted particles. The computerized system in use in San Francisco and elsewhere is designed to detect even slight changes in the bluegills' vital signs and send an e-mail alert when something is wrong. San Francisco's bluegills went to work about a month ago, guarding the drinking water of more than 1 million people from substances such as cyanide, diesel fuel, mercury and pesticides. Eight bluegills swim in a tank deep in the basement of a water treatment plant south of the city... "New York City has been testing its system since 2002 and is seeking to expand it. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection reported at least one instance in which the system caught a toxin before it made it into the water supply: The fish noticed a diesel spill two hours earlier than any of the agency's other detection devices. They do have limitations. While the bluegills have successfully detected at least 30 toxic chemicals, they cannot reliably detect germs. And they are no use against other sorts of attacks -- say, the bombing of a water main, or an attack by computer hackers on the systems that control the flow of water. Still, Lawler said more than a dozen other cities have ordered the anti-terror apparatus, called the Intelligent Aquatic BioMonitoring System, which was originally developed for the Army and starts at around $45,000." "2008 pres" 6:50:14 PM

Global warming? Science Blog: "Satellite images acquired from 23 to 25 August 2006 have shown for the first time dramatic openings - over a geographic extent larger than the size of the British Isles ' in the Arctic's perennial sea ice pack north of Svalbard, and extending into the Russian Arctic all the way to the North Pole. "Observing data from Envisat's Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) instrument and the AMSR-E instrument aboard the EOS Aqua satellite, scientists were able to determine that around 5-10 percent of the Arctic's perennial sea ice, which had survived the summer melt season, has been fragmented by late summer storms. The area between Spitzbergen, the North Pole and Severnaya Zemlya is confirmed by AMSR-E to have had much lower ice concentrations than witnessed during earlier years." "2008 pres" 6:36:55 PM

Amendment 43 and Referendum I Here's the next installment of the Rocky Mountain News' analysis of their recent voter poll. From the article, "More than half of Colorado voters support giving legal rights to gay couples, but an almost equal number don't want them to get married, according to a new Rocky Mountain News/CBS 4 poll. Fifty-eight percent of registered voters said in a recent survey that they support Referendum I, a measure that would allow gay couples to register as domestic partners and obtain many of the legal rights and responsibilities given to married couples, such as making medical decisions for a partner.At the same time, 52 percent of voters said they support Amendment 43, a measure that would effectively ban gay marriage by putting a one man-one woman definition of marriage in the state constitution. While voters who support Referendum I typically oppose Amendment 43, and vice versa, nearly one in five voters said they approve of both measures... "The current gay rights battle began in February, when a coalition of 10 Christian groups called Coloradans for Marriage launched a campaign for what is now known as Amendment 43. The measure is backed by the Colorado Springs- based evangelical group Focus on the Family, the National Association of Evangelicals and the Colorado Catholic Conference. Similar ballot measures, known as defense of marriage acts, have been approved in recent years by voters in nearly 20 states. Some use the simple "one man-one woman" language, while others also ban civil unions. The Colorado gay rights community fired back with an unusual tactic: They persuaded state lawmakers to sponsor a domestic partnership bill, which was passed by both houses and referred to the November ballot as Referendum I. National organizations on both sides of the issue are closely watching the Colorado campaigns because the state appears to be the only one with competing measures on the same ballot... "The voter poll shows that, in general, there are major demographic differences between supporters of Referendum I and those who favor Amendment 43. Young people heavily support Referendum I (70 percent of those under age 35), whereas older voters strongly favor Amendment 43 (64 percent of those age 65 and older). Republicans tend to favor Amendment 43 (76 percent) while Democrats and independents support Referendum I (67 percent of independents and 76 percent of Democrats). Education levels matter, too. More than two out of three voters with a post-graduate degree support Ref I, whereas almost equal numbers of voters with a high school degree or less show the strongest support for Amendment 43. Where repondents live also makes a difference. Denver voters show the strongest support for Referendum I (75 percent) and the strongest opposition to Amendment 43 (63 percent). It is the opposite in Colorado Springs. Those voters show the strongest support for Amendment 43 (66 percent yes and 28 percent no) and the most disapproval of Referendum I (39 percent yes and 59 percent no). The poll also showed that voters who know a gay or lesbian person are much more likely to support Ref I." "denver 2006" 6:35:39 AM

Ritter or Beauprez for governor? Here's a report on the gubernatorial debate yesterday from the Denver Post. From the article, "Democrat Bill Ritter on Monday accused Republican Congressman Bob Beauprez of casting votes that hurt senior citizens - as the gubernatorial candidates contended for a crucial voting bloc. Ritter said Beauprez voted to cut about $7 billion from the Medicaid budget while supporting tax cuts for the nation's wealthiest citizens... "The attack brought a sharp response from Beauprez, who said he supported the reduction in Medicaid spending in an attempt to reduce fraud. The sparring over aid to seniors came during the second forum with the candidates on Monday. Earlier in the day, Beauprez emphasized his 'real world' business experience during a debate hosted by Associated General Contractors. At the seniors' forum, Ritter also criticized Beauprez for failing to support efforts to allow senior citizens to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada. Beauprez said he was most concerned about public safety." "denver 2006" 6:29:09 AM

Managing Drought and Water Scarcity in Vulnerable Environments YubaNet.com: "Odd as it sounds, in some places the smartest way to safeguard the water supply is to let it drain out of the reservoirs and soak into the ground. That's what been discovered in local water shortages in Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico - all of which could be microcosms of water shortage issues looming throughout the Western U.S. "In these three cases - Cedar Bluff Reservoir (Hays, KS), Optima Lake, (Guymon, OK), and Storrie Lake (Las Vegas, NM) - water losses from evaporation are so high that they can accelerate water supply emergencies for farms and cities, explains Tom Brikowski, a professor of hydrology at the University of Texas at Dallas. Brikowski and Wayland Anderson, a Denver engineer, are presenting their work at the Geological Society of America conference on Managing Drought and Water Scarcity in Vulnerable Environments: Creating a Roadmap for Change. The meeting takes place 18-20 September at the Radisson Hotel and Conference Center in Longmont, Colorado. "In the case of the City of Hays, the trouble starts 20 miles upstream at the Cedar Bluff Reservoir. Because of changes in farming practices, the reservoir gets only half the inflowing water it did when built in 1949. It now loses 75 percent of its inflowing water to evaporation. As a result, water losses most years now equal or exceed inflows. Reservoir releases were cut in 1979... "But how do you do that? In the case of Hays, nature had already provided for underground storage in the form of the Smoky Hill River aquifer. The aquifer has provided half the city's water supply for decades. Since the building of the Cedar Bluff reservoir, however, stream flow on top of it has dropped by 50 percent. That stream water recharged the wells, which, in turn, kept alive the town of Hays, Brikowski explains. "At the behest of the City of Hays, Brikowski and Anderson created a detailed three-dimensional model of the sandy, gravelly ('alluvial') ground beneath the Smokey Hill River. Anderson analyzed the water balance of the reservoir. Next they simulated what had happened to the dropping water table, how much groundwater the aquifer could store, and how long a drought it could endure." "colorado water" 6:22:02 AM

Vision statement? Managing water transfers out of the Arkansas River basin is the subject of this article from the Pueblo Chieftain. They write, "What began as a contentious discussion about farmers' right to sell water, cities' growth, rural economy and water quality ended in a consensus on the need for a vision about what the Arkansas Valley should look like in the future. An Arkansas Basin Roundtable committee met Monday to begin drafting a roundtable statement about guidelines for interbasin water transfers. Las Animas Mayor Lawrence Sena chairs the committee, which was appointed in response to his suggestion at a June roundtable meeting that the roundtable support requirements for cities to have adequate water supplies before growth is allowed. "Sena developed a detailed set of proposed guidelines as well as a longer list of related issues to be forwarded to the state Interbasin Compact Committee. In response, Colorado Springs and Aurora presented a counterproposal set of guidelines at Monday's meeting. After approximately two hours of wrangling over specific points in both sets, the committee took a collective step back and agreed to try something much simpler: Develop a vision statement." Vision statement? You can't make this stuff up. "colorado water" 6:03:13 AM

Ritter or Beauprez for governor? Early voting for the November 7th general election starts on October 23rd. In the spirit of voter education the Rocky Mountain News has a gubernatorial election quiz. They write, "Think you know the top candidates for governor well? Let's put your knowledge of Republican Bob Beauprez and Democrat Bill Ritter to the test. Below are quotes from their Monday debates before a contractors group in Lakewood and seniors at Denver's Jewish Community Center. Match Bob or Bill to his quote - five points for every correct answer." Coyote Gulch scored a perfect 80. The Rocky says, "80-60: You're a political genius. Or you need to get a life." "denver 2006" 5:56:32 AM

Global warming? 2006 may go down as the year that the U.S. got on board the climate change bandwagon, according to the Voice of San Diego. From the article, "Scientists admit they've been frustrated. They've known about global warming since the late 1980s. They've written hundreds of papers about its causes. Humankind is burning fossil fuels, producing greenhouse gases that trap more of the sun's energy. And they've detailed its effects and implications: Warmer oceans. Higher sea levels. Stronger hurricanes. Skinnier polar bears. More common heat waves. The rest of us haven't quite gotten it. A powerful minority of scientists -- some with financial backing from the fossil fuel industry -- have characterized the earth's increasing temperature as part of a natural cycle of warm temperatures. Within the last year, public perception of the debate has been changing. Some scientists and environmentalists say historians will reflect on 2006 as the seminal year in the debate. The year the Republican governor of California agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The year that millions saw Al Gore's definitive global warming movie. The year that a heat wave killed 140 across the state. Two-thousand-and-six. The moment the tide turned on global warming. The moment we realized: Climate change is real." Be sure to read the whole article. "2008 pres" 5:48:46 AM

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