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Sunday, February 3, 2008
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Texas A&M: "For most people, the name 'E. coli' is synonymous with food poisoning and product recalls, but a professor in Texas A&M University's chemical engineering department envisions the bacteria as a future source of energy, helping to power our cars, homes and more. By genetically modifying the bacteria, Thomas Wood, a professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, has 'tweaked' a strain of E. coli so that it produces substantial amounts of hydrogen. Specifically, Wood's strain produces 140 times more hydrogen than is created in a naturally occurring process, according to an article in 'Microbial Biotechnology,' detailing his research. Though Wood acknowledges that there is still much work to be done before his research translates into any kind of commercial application, his initial success could prove to be a significant stepping stone on the path to the hydrogen-based economy that many believe is in this country's future."
Thanks to Science Blog for the link.
"2008 pres"
3:40:13 PM 
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Political Wire: "With just two days before Super Tuesday, a new Washington Post/ABC News national poll shows the Democratic presidential race extremely close with Sen. Hillary Clinton edging Sen. Barack Obama, 47% to 43%...On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain has jumped to a commanding lead over Mitt Romney, 48% to 24%, with Mike Huckabee at 16%."
Political Wire has a roundup of polls for Super Tuesday, Democrats and Republicans.
Political Wire: "The latest Gallup tracking poll shows Sen. Hillary Clinton with a 7 point lead nationally over Sen. Barack Obama, 48% to 41%. This is up from just a three point lead yesterday. On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain now holds a 20 point lead over Mitt Romney, 44% to 24%, 'his largest lead since he assumed the front-runner position following the New Hampshire Republican primary.' Mike Huckabee trails at 16%."
"2008 pres"
3:12:31 PM
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Rocky Mountain News: "Democrat Mark Udall continued to raise more money in the last part of 2007 than his Republican opponent, Bob Schaffer, for the open U.S. Senate seat and now has twice as much money in the bank for the coming campaign. Udall, a Democratic congressman, collected $1.06 million in the last three months of 2007, bringing his donations to $3.6 million for the year. Schaffer took in about $650,000 for the fourth quarter and $2.13 million for the year. Udall now has $3.6 million cash left for the race compared with $1.5 million for Schaffer, a former Republican congressman from Colorado."
"denver 2008"
7:23:25 AM
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Denver Post: "This is an election season of firsts for Latino voters. It's the first time all of the presidential campaigns are aggressively courting the Latino vote. It's the first time each campaign, particularly the Democrats', has significant Latino leadership supporting, campaigning and reaching out to the community. It's also the first time the Latino vote could be the deciding factor in several states."
"2008 pres"
6:02:14 AM
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Here's a recap of yesterday's meeting to educate about Powertech's proposed uranium mining operation in Weld County from The Fort Collins Coloradoan. From the article:
Wayne Heili, vice president of mining with Ur-Energy USA Inc., talked Saturday about groundwater restoration at an in-situ leach recovery mine in Wyoming. At such operations, the Environmental Protection Agency deems the water within the area of a mine unsuitable for drinking. Though restoration efforts can return the groundwater quality to what it was before the mine was open, it still won't be deemed drinkable, Heili said. Donna Wichers, senior vice president of in-situ recovery operations with Uranium One Americas, explained the mining process and assured the area is monitored to make sure there isn't any contamination. "It's a continuous, closed process," she said...
Thomas Johnson, a professor of environmental and radiological health sciences at CSU and co-chair of the symposium, said the workshop was not planned as a response to the 5,760-acre Powertech proposal in Weld County. "The intermountain region is where the uranium is," he said. Johnson said he wanted to educate people on the basics of uranium mining so they could ask more-educated questions about it.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here.
"2008 pres"
6:00:14 AM
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Richard Clarke (via The Philadelphia Inquirer): "When I left the Bush administration in 2003, it was clear to me that its strategy for defeating terrorism was leaving our nation more vulnerable and our people in a perilous place. Not only did its policies misappropriate resources, weaken the moral standing of America, and threaten long-standing legal and constitutional provisions, but the president also employed misleading and reckless rhetoric to perpetuate his agenda...Besides overstating successes in Afghanistan, painting a rosy future for Iraq, and touting unfinished domestic objectives, he again used his favorite tactic - fear - as a tool to scare Congress and the American people. On one issue in particular - FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) - the president misconstrued the truth and manipulated the facts...So it is no surprise that in one of Bush's last acts of relevance, he once again played the fear card. While he has failed in spreading democracy, stemming global terrorism, and leaving the country better off than when he took power, he did achieve one thing: successfully perpetuating fear for political gain. Sadly, it may be one of the only achievements of his presidency."
Thanks to the Daily Kos for the link.
"2008 pres"
5:51:29 AM
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Here's a look at the future of water (and drought) in the West from National Geographic. From the article:
The U.S. West will see devastating droughts as global warming reduces the amount of mountain snow and causes the snow that does fall to melt earlier in the year, a new study says. By storing moisture in the form of snow, mountains act as huge natural reservoirs, releasing water into rivers long into the summer dry season. "We're losing that reservoir," said research leader Tim Barnett, an oceanographer and climate researcher at the University of California, San Diego. "Spring runoff is getting earlier and earlier in the year, so you have to let water go over the dams into the ocean." Summers are also becoming hotter and longer. "That dries things out more and leads to fires," Barnett added...
Those findings may come as a surprise this year, when the West is getting so much snow that skiers and snowmobilers are dying in avalanches in places that normally don't get that much snow. But that doesn't mean the future won't see significantly less snowfall. "We'll still have wet years and dry years," Barnett said. "People have a problem distinguishing weather events and things that happen on a long scale. ... It's important to think of climate on time scales of a decade or more." Sadly, he said, residents of states like California, Utah, and Arizona are in line for some rude surprises. "Global warming is an abstraction to most people," he said. "Well, the people who live in the West, if they haven't already, are going to very shortly find out what global warming really means to them."
Barnett predicts a crisis in water management that will require not only government action but individual sacrifices. Governments may be able to help by building more dams to store early season runoff for the increasingly dry summers. "I don't know how much room they have to put in dams," he said, "but I think we're in a situation where the environmentalists are going to have to stand down a little bit." Lining aqueducts and irrigation canals to prevent seepage losses will also help, he said. But individual conservation is also needed. "When you brush your teeth, do you leave the water running[~]maybe wasting a gallon of water?" he asked. "Multiply a gallon of water [a day] by 30 million people ..." In addition, he suggests that desert-region growth may need to be restricted. "Right now we're at, or very close to, the limit of what the Southwest can sustain. And yet they're building huge subdivisions in the desert," he said.
Thanks to The Water Information Program for the link. More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"2008 pres"
5:47:26 AM
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Blogs for Victory: "The GOP battle now revolves around whether McCain is conservative enough, or whether all conservatives should rally to Romney as being the more conservative candidate. I have to say, I'm a bit mystified by this battle - not mystified that we're having it (McCain has made a habit of outraging the GOP's conservative base over the years), but that its carried on with such intensity, as if any GOPer getting sworn in on January 20th, 2009 would be able to dictate an absolutely conservative agenda. Ain't gonna happen, people; time for a reality check."
Daily Kos: "After relying on comfortable standbys for decades, this year the Democratic Party has chosen to face the future. Two barrier-breaking candidates. History will be made."
Campaign Finance Institute: "A new analysis by the Campaign Finance Institute of end-of-the-year reports by the six presidential candidates still in the race highlights some of the candidates' potential financial strengths and weaknesses as the presidential primary season heads toward an unprecedented twenty-two primaries on Tuesday, February 5. A fuller review of the reports, covering all the candidates, will be issued next week.
"All of the presidential candidates were required to file their 2007 year-end financial reports with the Federal Election Commission by midnight on January 31. These reports do not reflect some very substantial fundraising in January, or even more substantial spending for that month's contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan, Nevada, South Carolina and Florida. Nevertheless, the mixture of small and large donors does give some clues for those who may be wondering about what will come next."
Thanks to beSpacific for the link.
Matt Singer (via Left in the West): "Yes we can. Wow. Early guess: this marriage of soaring rhetoric, masterful production, and big names becomes one of the most watched pieces of political advertising in history. Watching this, I could not help but remember the statement from Hillary Clinton about giving people false hope -- and remember why in this two person race I prefer Barack Obama." -- in praise of this video.
Denver Post: "The crowd for Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul was so large it surprised his own organizers. They were forced to hurriedly open partitions to double the size of the ballroom space minutes before Paul's scheduled appearance in the Four Seasons Ballroom. When that wasn't enough hundreds of people stood rimming the hall that sits 1,536.
'I'm just totally dumbfounded,' Paul said as he began his speech before a raucous sign-waving crowd. 'The enthusiasm seems to be growing. Freedom is popular.'"
Rocky Mountain News: "Mitt Romney coasted to a win in presidential preference voting by Maine Republicans on Saturday, claiming his third victory in a caucus state and fourth overall. The former Massachusetts governor had 52 percent of the vote with 68 percent of the towns holding caucuses reporting. John McCain trailed with 21 percent, Ron Paul was third with 19 percent, and Mike Huckabee had 6 percent. Undecided votes accounted for 2 percent. The nonbinding votes, the first step toward electing 18 Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention, took place in public schools, Grange halls, fire stations and town halls across the state."
"2008 pres"
5:23:34 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 2:05:36 PM.
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