Coyote Gulch

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

? for President?
USA Today: "New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said he was banking on foreign policy expertise and appeal to Hispanics as he formally entered the crowded Democratic presidential field with bilingual remarks in Los Angeles on Monday."
"2008 pres"
6:49:30 PM

Iraq
CNN: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi will present a plan to House Democrats for a war funding bill that won't include a timeline for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq but will feature benchmarks with consequences, according to Democratic leadership aides. The bill also would raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 per hour from $5.15 per hour, and fund other domestic spending programs, which were still being negotiated. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said any talk of a deal was premature."

Thanks to Oliver Willis for the link.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "he Bush administration is quietly on track to nearly double the number of combat troops in Iraq this year, an analysis of Pentagon deployment orders showed Monday.

"This 'second surge' of troops in Iraq, which is being executed by extending tours for brigades already there and by deploying more units, could boost the number of combat troops to as many as 98,000 by the end of this year. When support troops are included, the total number of U.S. troops in Iraq could increase from 162,000 now to more than 200,000 -- the most ever -- by the end of the year."

Thanks to Ed Cone for the link.
"2008 pres"
6:35:12 PM

Corruption
TPM Muckraker: "Either James Comey was talking about a new, secret surveillance program in his testimony last week, or Alberto Gonzales lied to Congress in 2006 about the NSA[base ']s warrantless wiretapping program.

"In the initial coverage of Comey's testimony, almost all reports treated it as a given that the clandestine program at the heart of the now-infamous late-night race to Ashcroft's bedside was the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program -- what the White House insists on calling the 'Terrorist Surveillance Program'. But that may not be the case.

"After the New York Times uncovered how the NSA was tapping calls between the U.S. and foreign countries, Gonzales testified before Congress that there were no objections to the program's legality in the Justice Department."
"colorado water"
6:29:24 PM

Healthcare
Yahoo! "The US health care system ranks last among other major rich countries for quality, access and efficiency, according to two studies released Tuesday by a health care think tank.

"The studies by the Commonwealth Fund found that the United States, which has the most expensive health system in the world, underperforms consistently relative to other countries and differs most notably in the fact that Americans have no universal health insurance coverage."
"2008 pres"
6:27:16 PM

Are cell phones implicated in 'Colony Collapse Syndrome'?
The Independent: "Council chiefs are rethinking plans for mobile telephone masts because of fears that their radiation may be causing bees to disappear. Eastbourne's planning committee has refused permission for a new mast unless and until it is convinced there is no danger to the insects, and Bolton council has launched an investigation into the threat. Last month, The Independent on Sunday reported exclusively that exploratory research at Germany's Landau University suggested the radiation interferes with bees' navigation systems. The German scientists, whose work has won two international awards, found that bees failed to return to their hives when "cordless DECT mobile phones" were placed in the masts. The research was designed to indicate the effect mobile phone radiation and other 'electrosmog' may have on human brains. But it may also provide a clue to the reasons behind 'Colony Collapse Disorder', when hives suddenly empty, which has hit half of all US states and is spreading in continental Europe"
"2008 pres"
6:22:18 PM

Quantifying the value of open space

Here's an article about quantifying the value of roadless areas from MathTrek. From the article, "Biologists have long known that large areas of roadless space are generally far more beneficial to the natural environment than multiple smaller areas broken up by roads. Roads lead to increased human activity, groundwater contamination, introduction of invasive species, and other environmental compromises. A new mathematical analysis, published in the May 4 Science, offers a visual model of the quantity and distribution of roadless areas in the United States, providing a clear and useful guide to the ecological value of land for scientists and policymakers...

"[Raymond Watts, a geographer at the U.S. Geological Survey Science Center in Fort Collins, Colorado] says that until now, scientists have had no good way of measuring the value of open space. The stumbling block was the apparent complexity of the task. It is very difficult to measure precisely how pristine and ecologically important a particular piece of land is, because this depends on a host of regional factors. For example, the type of terrain, rainfall patterns, and habitat all make a difference. Calculating such factors throughout the United States would be an unmanageable challenge.

"Instead, Watts and his team have come up with a mathematical technique based on a simple observation: 'Generally speaking, you have an invulnerability to those conditions that increases as you leave the road behind,' Watts says. 'The simplest way to express that is to make it linear with distance.' He acknowledges that focusing only on distance greatly simplifies the reality but argues that having a clear indicator of the value of open space can help policymakers assess the impacts of various land use decisions.

"Watts and his team have created a three-dimensional map to show open space and its value at a glance. They started with a flat map of the contiguous United States divided into very small squares, with each square representing a 100-foot-by-100-foot parcel of land. The researchers covered each square with a column whose height is based on the area's distance from the nearest road. (Squares that contain a road have a column height of zero.)

"Within a given 'roadless' region of open space, the highest column ends up being at the center of the region. The columns get shorter as they get closer to a road. The result is that each region of open space is covered by a sort of pyramid, or mountain, with the highest point being the furthest from the surrounding roads. The researchers call these mounds the 'roadless volume,' and they use the height levels to estimate the ecological value of a section of land."

Be sure to read the whole article. Thanks to the author, Julie J. Rehmeyer, for the heads up in email.
"colorado water"
6:24:43 AM