POMEROY — George Wright has always been somewhat of a conservationist at heart, so it was no surprise to see him transplanting king-sized hickory nuts into a tub of dark soil.
“King hickory nut trees are scarce here,” he says. “My goal is to help get them re-established in this part of the country.”
Asked where he got his “seed” hickory nuts, he said a couple of places, one being underneath a tree near Annie Chapman’s Morgan Rest Bed and Breakfast on Lincoln Hill in Pomeroy.
The whole process of starting King hickory nut tree starters began a number of months ago. George said it takes storage of the nuts in a cold place six to eight months in order for them to germinate. So they remained refrigerated until the weather began to warm a few weeks ago at which time he planted them in a tub and then waited and watched until little sprouts finally came up and growth began.
His goal has always been to plant enough so he could keep a few for himself and have enough left to give away to others interested in propagating the king-sized hickory nuts.
The plants have now grown into little trees four to six inches high and are ready to be planted in areas large enough to accommodate a tall tree which in a dozen or more years from now will yield hickory nuts.
George is ready to give them away to someone like him who wants to see the King Hickory Nut trees more plentiful in Meigs County.
Anyone interested in getting one of the dozen or so tree plants can leave their name and telephone number with his daughter, Susan Clark Dingess, at Clark’s Jewelry Store and George will get in touch with them. He has some specific instructions on how to handle the planting and care for the delicate plants so that they will survive.


I went in search of glacier lilies and was not disappointed :-) However, I was even more impressed by the displays of white heather and pink kalmia which were the most extensive I’ve ever seen.
I called out this hike through Wanderung and was accompanied by two intrepid first timers – both in terms of it being their first Wanderung hike, and it being their first trip to Garibaldi Lake. I think they got a bit more than they bargained for…
Our route followed that in 103 Hikes up to Outhouse Junction (where we were greeted by whisky jacks as usual). We then carried on and took the trail up towards Black Tusk for about 1.2 km where we found an unobstructed view of Mt Garibaldi and its namesake lake, as well as a nice little meadow of glacier lilies. This was our lunch spot.
I’ve never seen the water level in the lake as low as it is right now. Rubble Creek is usually a raging torrent as it drains the lake, but there’s no water in sight at the moment. Lots of exposed logs and (dried) muck. We cooled off our feet in the lake before heading back. Lesser Garibaldi Lake looked like a California reservoir. The Barrier put on a good display of rockfall, with one gully in particular hosting all the action.
The trail is in excellent shape. BC Parks is continuing its work on upgrading the trail and in the process have taken out one of the switchbacks near the 3-km mark. I think that was a mistake as that section is quite a bit steeper than the rest, but it cuts off a little bit of distance. We stopped and chatted with one of the workers and he seemed to be thoroughly enjoying his job. No snow and very little mud. The campgrounds look to be snow-free. I didn’t venture into the one at the lake but did see a number of tents, so camping is certainly possible.
Bugs were mostly OK, but were definitely hungry at Taylor Meadows. The chipmunks at the Barrier didn’t seem as bold as usual and only appeared after we tore into our granola bars. Maybe it was that sound or the smell of the food? Who knows. They were as cute as ever, and soon left us alone when they realized nothing was being offered.
Flowers: plenty :-) Queen’s Cup and bunchberry in the forest, several wintergreen species (pink, one-sided and a couple more I don’t know), rattlesnake plantain is just sprouting, a few late coralroot. At the treeline, lots of white heather, pink/red heather is just beginning its bloom. The most kalmia I’ve ever seen :-) alpine white marsh marigolds were common in wet areas, a few globeflower and western anemone (fewer than I expected), cinquefoil and subalpine buttercups were plentiful. The glacier lilies are sparse but locally abundant, especially in areas where the snow has recently melted or in seeps and near creeks. The peak bloom is probably past, but there are still plenty to go and admire :-) Sitka valerian is just starting, as are a few lupines. No paintbrush to be seen anywhere, only one or two arnica.
Distance: 24 km
Elevation gain: 1200 m
Photos on Flickr


SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Koreans were working intensively to protect crops, factory equipment and other assets from potential damage from days of heavy rainfall, state media said Tuesday, as outside observers worry any flooding could aggravate the country’s economic hardships amid its COVID-19 outbreak.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first elected leftist president, will take office in August with ambitious proposals to halt the record-high rates of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.
SAO PAULO (AP) — Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva laid out his campaign platform Tuesday, including a pledge for zero deforestation initiatives and appeals to moderates as seeks to unseat Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil's election in October.
PARIS (AP) — A Paris judge on Thursday ordered a mediation process to settle a legal dispute pitting environmental groups and representatives of Brazil's Indigenous community against a major French retailer accused of selling beef linked to deforestation and land grabs in the Amazon rainforest.
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden became concerned that his Brazilian counterpart was going to skip this week’s summit in Los Angeles, so he dispatched a close adviser to personally deliver the invitation to Jair Bolsonaro.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Peru has descended into one of the worst political crises in its history and protection of its Amazon rainforest is failing, according to a report published Thursday. Peru is home to the second-largest portion of the Amazon rainforest after Brazil.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican experts said Monday that 35% more monarch butterflies arrived this year to spend the winter in mountaintop forests, compared to the previous season.
Experts say the rise may reflect the butterflies’ ability to adapt to more extreme bouts of heat or drought by varying the date when they leave Mexico.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has signed a decree that he says will create a national carbon market to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Brazil ranks sixth in the world for climate pollution, according to Climate Watch .
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian environmental and Indigenous organizations, together with some companies, are urging the United States to come through with promised funding for forest protection and deal directly with people who live in the forest, have protected it and, they say, “are directly affected by the escalating deforestation.”
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Deforestation detected in the Brazilian Amazon broke all records for the month of April, and that followed similar new records set in January and February, reflecting a worrisome uptick in destruction in a state deep within the rainforest.
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe, Africa’s biggest tobacco grower and one of the world's top exporters of the nicotine leaf, has opened its selling season for the crop amid pledges to fight deforestation and child labor in response to pressure from rights groups, environmentalists and international buyers.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Detected deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon reached a record high for the month of February following a similar record the prior month.
Satellite alerts of deforestation in February corresponded to 199 square kilometers (77 square miles), the highest indicator for that month in seven years of record-keeping and 62% more than in the same month in 2021, according to preliminary data from the Brazilian space agency’s Deter monitoring system that were released on Friday.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Thousands of Brazilians gathered outside Congress on Wednesday to protest a set of bills they say threaten the Amazon rainforest by encouraging deforestation and industrial activity on protected Indigenous lands.
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Environmental groups say Romania has failed to tackle illegal logging and nature destruction in areas protected by European Union law, two years after Brussels warned the country to put an end to illicit deforestation.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — With clever Super Bowl ads, an irresistible fruit and apparently insatiable appetite from U.S. consumers, Mexico’s avocado producers have so far been able to separate avocados from the conflictive landscape that produces them — at least until a threat to a U.S.
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Environmental groups are expressing alarm about a sharp increase in fires in Colombia’s Amazon region that they blame on people clearing forest to make way for cattle ranches, coca fields and illegal roads.
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro and Environment Minister Joaquim Leite both knew the Amazon region's annual deforestation rate had surged before the U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, but kept results quiet to avoid hampering negotiations, according to three Cabinet ministers who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The area deforested in Brazil's Amazon reached a 15-year high after a 22% jump from the prior year, according to official data published Thursday.
The National Institute for Space Research’s Prodes monitoring system showed the Brazilian Amazon lost 13,235 square kilometers of rainforest in the 12-month reference period from Aug.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Wednesday pitched a new plan for the bloc's citizens to battle global deforestation from home, offering assurances that a sip of coffee or bite of chocolate will not have come at the cost of trees.
Here's a look at what The Conversation, a non-profit source of explanatory journalism from experts in academia, is offering today.
AP members may find The Conversation content on AP Newsroom or through AP webfeeds.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Detected deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rose for the second straight month compared to last year, ending a streak of encouraging data at a moment when the government has promised to curb illegal logging.
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — The Latest on the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow:
GLASGOW, Scotland — China and the United States have agreed to redouble efforts to fight climate change with “concrete actions,” in a joint statement announced Wednesday in climate talks in Glasgow.
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Powerful businesses are urging Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to give up the country's long-standing resistance on key issues at this year's U.N. climate talks, arguing that Brazil can't afford to pass up the chance to use its vast natural wealth in the fight against global warming.
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Deforestation has risen in Colombia since the country’s largest guerilla group signed a historic peace deal with the government five years ago and withdrew from remote areas of the country, a report by the International Crisis Group found.
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — World leaders promised to protect Earth's forests, cut methane emissions and help South Africa wean itself off coal at the U.N. climate summit Tuesday — part of a flurry of deals intended to avert catastrophic global warming.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil on Monday stepped up its commitment against greenhouse gas emissions, aiming to halve them by 2030 as compared to 2005 levels, while critics alleged the government is tinkering with data.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil's government will accelerate its timeline by two to three years to completely eliminate illegal deforestation, Vice President Hamilton Mourão told foreign press reporters on Monday.
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil's Vice President Hamilton Mourão said on Friday that a deployment of soldiers to the Amazon rainforest will end, just weeks before the global climate conference where the administration aims to show commitment to curbing illegal deforestation.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday vetoed a bill that would have required businesses selling certain products to the state to prove they're not contributing to tropical deforestation.
PARIS (AP) — Decrying the “predation” of his homeland, a Brazilian Indigenous leader is appealing to France’s president to use his global sway to fight the deforestation of the Amazon.
Ninawa, a leader of the Huni Kui people who uses just one name, delivered a letter on Saturday to the office of French President Emmanuel Macron.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro issued a defense of his administration at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, rebuffing criticism of its handling of the pandemic and touting recent data indicating less Amazon deforestation.
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Two journalists and an environmental activist have been beaten up by suspected illegal loggers in a forest in northeastern Romania while making a documentary about illicit deforestation, authorities said Friday.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon dropped for the second consecutive month in August compared to the same period in 2020, according to preliminary data released Friday by the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research.
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Preliminary government data released on Friday indicates annual deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon may have surpassed 10,000 square kilometers (3,861 square miles) for the third straight year, continuing a worrisome jump since President Jair Bolsonaro assumed office.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Severe drought and early data are raising concerns that this forest fire season in Brazil will see the same high levels of destruction recorded in the past two years, despite efforts to tamp down the blazes.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The season of Brazilian forest fires has begun, and early data plus severe drought is sparking concern that nationwide destruction in 2021 will stay at the high levels recorded in the past two years, despite efforts to tamp down the blazes.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Preliminary data from Brazil's government released on Friday showed Amazon deforestation in June fell from the prior month, counter to the trend seen in the period over the last several years.
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil's president is sending troops back to the Amazon to bolster policing against logging and other illegal land clearance, acting amid international criticism of a surge in deforestation and just two months after withdrawing a similar military mission.
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — President Jair Bolsonaro signed a decree Monday to dispatch Brazilian soldiers to the Amazon in a bid to curb surging deforestation, just two months after withdrawing troops from the region and days after his Environment Minister resigned.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian Environment Minister Ricardo Salles announced his resignation Wednesday, giving up his post amid sharp criticism of his tenure and two investigations into his actions involving allegedly illegal timber operations.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Preliminary government data released on Friday has raised concern that the coming dry season will see even more deforestation of Brazil’s Amazon than last year's surge of cutting.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Preliminary data released Friday signaled deforestation of Brazil’s Amazon in April was the highest for that month in at least five years, a report that comes two weeks after Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro said his government would dedicate more energy and resources toward curbing deforestation...
BERLIN (AP) — South America's Mercosur countries will address environmental concerns raised by the European Union that have stalled ratification of a free trade deal between the two trade blocs, Argentina's foreign minister said Monday.
SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday attacked U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden for saying the South American nation should suffer “significant economic consequences” if devastation of the Amazon rainforest continues...
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The overpass juts from a forest over a four-lane highway in a rural area outside Rio de Janeiro...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A conservation group has filed a petition seeking endangered species status for a subspecies of Alaska wolves...
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A group of mostly European investment firms has sent a joint letter to Brazilian ambassadors in their countries to express concern over rising Amazon deforestation.
Storebrand Asset Management, based in Norway, collected the signatures of 29 companies, which include Legal & General Investment Management Ltd, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management and NN Investment Partners.


A light earthquake magnitude 4 (ml/mb) has struck on Tuesday, 220 km ESE of Nikol’skoye, Russia (137 miles). Global date and time of event UTC/GMT: 18/07/17 / 2017-07-18 07:32:56 / July 18, 2017 @ 7:32 am. Exact location of earthquake, longitude 168.9838 East, latitude 54.2325 North, depth = 10 km. The temblor was picked up at 18:32:56 / 6:32 pm (local time epicenter). Event ids that are associated to the earthquake: us20009z7e. Id of event: us20009z7e. The earthquake was roughly at a depth of 10 km (6 miles). A tsunami warning has not been issued (Does not indicate if a tsunami actually did or will exist).
Each year there are an estimated 13,000 light earthquakes in the world. Earthquakes 4.0 to 5.0 are often felt, but only causes minor damage. In the past 24 hours, there have been thirty-four, in the last 10 days thirty-four, in the past 30 days thirty-five and in the last 365 days fourty-six earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater that has occurred nearby.
How would you describe the shaking?
How did you respond? Did any furniture slide, topple over, or become displaced? Leave a comment or report about activity, shaking and damage at your home, city and country. The information in this article comes from the USGS Earthquake Notification Service. Read more about the earthquake, Seismometer information, Distances, Parameters, Date-Time, Location and details about this quake, detected near: 220 km ESE of Nikol’skoye, Russia.
Copyright © 2017 earthquakenewstoday.com All rights reserved.


Helminth Contamination of Selected Vegetables Irrigated with Water from River Kaduna, Kaduna, Nigeria
Low growing crops watered from rivers laden waste from man, animal, and industries are usually rich in micro-organisms which may persist during the growing season and serve as principal route for the transmission of many
diseases. Survey of Helminth parasites ova on selected vegetables irrigated with water from River Kaduna was carried out in November 2009-April 2010 (dry season). Six different vegetables (spinach, lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, garden egg, and carrots) were obtained directly from the farmers on five irrigated farms along the banks of River Kaduna. Each vegetable was washed in distilled water and then the sedimentation and zinc sulphate floatation methods were used. Of the 960 vegetable samples examined, Ascaris lumbricoides was observed in 109 (32.4%). Others were Strongyloides stercoralis, Trichuris trichiura and Ancyclostoma duodenale at the rate of 22.6%, 12.8% and 16.4% respectively. Bakin Ruwa (Rigasa) had the highest incidence rate (25.0%) while Rafin Guzza had the least (14.6%). The prevalence of helminth parasites was significantly higher in leafy vegetables especially those with broad petiole than in smooth surfaced vegetables (p<0.05). Since the provision of latrines alone may
not control parasitic infection if the concentrated human and animal excreta is used as fertilizer, attention should be paid to education, enlightenment campaigns and efficient waste management and disposal. There should be proper handling and washing of our food especially those eaten raw or partially cooked.
Keywords: Helminth, Irrigation, Vegetables, Kaduna.


This short video, the sixth in the National Academies Climate Change, Lines of Evidence series, explores the hypothesis that changes in solar energy output may be responsible for observed global surface temperature rise. Several lines of evidence, such as direct satellite observations, are reviewed.
This short video describes the Hestia project - a software tool and data model that provide visualizations of localized CO2 emissions from residential, commercial, and vehicle levels, as well as day versus night comparisons, in the city of Indianapolis.
This activity introduces students to visualization capabilities available through NASA's Earth Observatory, global map collection, NASA NEO and ImageJ. Using these tools, students build several animations of satellite data that illustrate carbon pathways through the Earth system.
This video, from ClimateCentral, features a team of scientists from the Northern Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling Project (NEEM), who study atmospheric air bubbles trapped in an ice core from a period in Greenland's ice sheet which began about 130,000 years ago and lasted about 10,000 years; a period known as the Eemian. The air bubbles from the ancient atmosphere - all aligned on the same time scale - reveal what happened with climate change over that period of time.
This video is about Greenland's ice sheet, accompanied by computer models of the same, to show how the ice is melting, where the meltwater is going, and what it is doing both on the surface and beneath the ice.
This is a multi-faceted activity that offers students a variety of opportunities to learn about permafrost through an important sink and source of greenhouse gas (methane), about which most students living in lower latitudes know little.
In this activity, students estimate the drop in sea level during glacial maxima, when ice and snow in high latitudes and altitudes resulted in lower sea levels. Students estimate the surface area of the world's oceans, use ice volume data to approximate how much sea levels dropped, and determine the sea-level rise that would occur if the remaining ice melted.
Key figure from the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report that shows changes in global average surface temperature, global average sea level, and Northern Hemisphere snow cover from as far back as 1850.


Published : 12/22/2014 14:10:55
Categories : Marijuana and cannabis Blog
It is highly crucial to maintain the pH level within specific limits when cultivating cannabis. All marijuana cultivators should monitor their soil or nutrient solution’s pH level and maintain it in optimum levels. This will decide how efficiently your plants can absorb nutrients. If the level of pH is not correct, many issues may crop up.
It Can Affect the Growth Rate
If the level of pH in the soil or nutrient solution is not in the optimum range, the rate of growth of your plants may stop or slow down. This is because your plants may not get the right supply of nutrients, thus ending up in nutrient deficiencies. If not treated, your yield may be decreased considerably and the final product’s quality will also be affected. In severe cases, the nutrient deficiencies can even destroy all your crops. So, it is vital to monitor the pH level for your plants’ overall health.
Nutrient Deficiency May Not be the Problem
When cultivators get to know about the nutrient deficiency, they tend to add more nutrients to the growing medium. However, the actual problem is not the lack of nutrients, but rather the inability of the plant to absorb the food at the inappropriate pH level. This in turn leads to build-up of nutrient sales, which further can worsen the problem as the plant roots will then face problem absorbing all nutrients and water.
Try the pH Testing Kit
For monitoring the level of pH in your growing medium, it is recommended to buy a pH testing kit to be used whenever you water the plants. This can help to closely observe the pH level and make the needed adjustments. This way, you can save money and time in the long run. Usually, marijuana grows best in a pH level in the range of 5.5 – 6.5 when it is cultivated hydroponically. For organic cultivation, pH level should be around 6.3.
So, remember that the right pH level is very much crucial to the health of your cannabis plants and their harvest. So, take the effort and time to ensure that it is always maintained at the right level, it will be easier to preserve consistent quality.


Despite the apocalyptic fears ginned up by the warmist cult, The UK Guardian reports
This year is set to be the coolest since 2000, according to a preliminary estimate of global average temperature that is due to be released next week....
But don't worry - the faithful are not moved. They cite long term trends, perhaps thinking that the discredited "hockey stick graph" hasn't been discredited. The fact is that historic data on temperature in the pre-satellite era depends on thermometers that usually are near human settlements, which have increased in temperature more than the areas remote from human activity.
And forget about sunspots. The Guardian article makes no mention of solar activity. If you don't acknowledge it, then it isn't real, apparently.
Hat tip: Jeff Walker


Palo Santo has been used for generations for energy cleansing. Burn Palo Santo to uplift your mood, set intentions, deepen your vibrations and improve your general well being. Relieve stress, get rid of unwanted negative energy around you. Great for yoga and meditation, or an alternative to traditional incense or mosquito repellent. Can be used both indoors and outdoors.
6-7 sticks of sustainably harvested Palo Santo smudging sticks from Ecuador in a unique novelty gift box.
Novelty gift for your smudging friends, unique and creative. Also a great motivational gift for someone who is quitting smoking!
Every purchase plants one tree in the dry tropical forest of Ecuador.


Wichita Mountains Wilderness
For questions about or recommendations for planning your next visit to the Wichita Mountains Wilderness, you will need to contact the managing office listed below by phone or email.
Wichita Mountains NWR Visitor Center
32 Refuge Headquarters
Indiahoma, OK 73552
Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge


Shenzhen Vinco Soundproofing Materials Co.,Ltd is one of the best perforated acoustic panel manufacturers and suppliers in China, welcome to wholesale our customized perforated acoustic panel made in UK, and also welcome to check the price with us.
Perforated wood acoustic panel is a sound-absorbing material of MDF material with many holes on the back and surface,widely used in theater or other place need to reduce noise.
Perforated wood acoustic panel
Melamine, natural veneer, Firewood, painting, metal surface
Classic walnut,Sandalwood or other colors can customize
6mm/12mm/15mm/18mm or other thickness customized
B1 Glass or A1 Glass
Standard carton box(15-20 pieces in a carton
Product sound absorption theory:
The sound After passing through the sound hole, the sound vibrations caused by sound waves generated by friction, so the noise will be converted into heat energy dissipated, which played a noise reduction effect
● It has excellent noise absorbing properties
● Fireproof ,waterproof and good decoration
● Using specially treated high density board, to ensure that products of dust corrosion performance.
● Formaldehyde-free, environmentally friendly, no radiation
● Dust, insects, high density board
Details of material introduction:
Perforated Wooden sound-absorbing panels composition by the finish, the core material and sound-absorbing mat. The Core materials is 16mm or 18mm thick MDF plate .on the surface of core material have melamine veneer ,with thick sound absorption cloth mat on the back.we could offer other core materials as client requirement.
● Wood or melamine veneer have difference color is a natural phenomenon.
● When you installation before ,please pay attention on moisture


Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks at the launch of the company’s Bing AI search tool
JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images
Microsoft is hiring a project manager for nuclear technology as it looks to power its AI data centres with nuclear energy.The tech giant has invested heavily in AI, striking a $10 billion deal with OpenAI
Microsoft is exploring plans to use nuclear energy to power its AI data centres as it grapples with the huge amount of energy needed to run models like ChatGPT.
The company is hiring a “principal program manager for nuclear technology” to assess how nuclear energy could be used to power the data centres hosting AI models, according to a job listing posted on Thursday.
Initially reported by CNBC, it says the tech giant will be focusing on using microreactors and Small Modular Reactors, which are far cheaper to build and run than larger nuclear reactors, to “power the data centers that the Microsoft Cloud and AI reside on.”
AI models require a huge amount of computing power to run, with analysis finding ChatGPT could cost as much as $700,000 a day to operate due to its huge server costs. The job listing suggests that Microsoft sees nuclear energy as the way to meet this spiraling energy demand.
The tech giant reportedly struck a $10 billion deal with OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, part of which saw Microsoft provide the AI startup with the cloud services that enable the start-ups models to run.
It has also folded OpenAI’s technology into its Bing search engine, launching an AI-powered search tool earlier this year.
There has been growing concern over the environmental impact of generative AI’s massive energy use. Academic analysis has estimated that training GPT-3 produced more than 550 tons of carbon dioxide and required 3.5 million liters of water.
Microsoft recently pledged to accelerate efforts to power data centers with renewable energy and reduce emissions, and plans to make its business carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste by 2030.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.


Transportation & Lunch Included
Los Haitises National Park Tour from Punta Cana, Montana Redonda & Cano Hondo Day Trip.
Los Haitises National Park Tour from Punta Cana, Montana Redonda & Cano Hondo
Los Haitises National Park Tour from Punta Cana Day Trip. Starting from your hotel at Punta Cana or Bavaro. We will drive with our tour guide to Montana Redonda. Where you have time to take amazing Photos from one of the most impressive views in the Dominican Republic. After this first stop, we continue to visit Los Haitises National Park, some snacks and typicals drinks while we go around mangroves, caves and famous rocky islands like in Jurassic Park. After Visiting Los Haitises National Park Lunch is waiting for us in Caño Hondo. Were after local and gastronomic local lunch you must have time to swim in the unique Natural pools water comes from Los Haitises National Park.
After this experience, you will get Back to Punta Cana Community from where we pick you up.
- ክፍያዎች ተካትተዋል።
- Local Tour Guide in English or French
- የጀልባ ጉዞ
- ሞንታና ሬዶንዳ
- Caño Hondo
ማካተት እና ማግለያዎች
- Los Haitises Tour + Caves and Pictographs
- ሞንታና ሬዶንዳ
- Caño Hondo
- Hotels Pick Up in Punta Cana Areas.
- ሁሉም ግብሮች፣ ክፍያዎች እና የአያያዝ ክፍያዎች
- የአካባቢ ግብሮች
- ሁሉም እንቅስቃሴዎች
- የአካባቢ መመሪያ
- የአልኮል መጠጦች
መነሳት እና መመለስ
The traveler will get a meeting point after the Reservation Process. Tours start and Finish in your meeting points.
Los Haitises National Park Tour from Punta Cana, Montana Redonda & Cano Hondo.
ቲኬቶችዎን ያግኙ for visiting Los Haitises National Park Tour from Punta Cana. Full Day Trip. Starting from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Taking the transportation with our local tour guide to Visit Montana Redonda views, Los Haitises National park in Sabana de la Mar and Lunchtime in Caño Hondo.
The tour, organized by “Booking Adventures” starts at the meeting point set with the Tour Guide. Come with Booking Adventures and start checking some bird-filled mangroves, rolling hills of lush vegetation and caves of የሎስ ሄይቲስ ብሔራዊ ፓርክ. Visiting Island with birds around. In the nesting season, we can even see the Pelecanos chicks on the nests. Getting more inside of the Rocky Islands and visiting the Caves with pictographs and petrographs from the indigenous people.
Through the mangroves and Land at the open San Lorenzo Bay, Sabana de la Mar from where you can photograph the rugged forest landscape. Look to the water to spot Manatees, crustaceans, and dolphins.
The national park’s name comes from its original inhabitants, the Taino Indians. In their language “Haitises” translates to highlands or Hills, a reference to the coastline’s steep geological formations with Limestones. Aventure deeper into the park to explore caves such as the Cueva San Gabriel, Cueva de la Arena, እና Cueva de la Línea.
These Caves in the reserve were used as shelter by the Taino Indians and, later, by hiding pirates. Look for drawings by Indians that decorate some of the walls.
Also Montana Redonda (Round Mountain) in Miches, is an unforgettable place, being surrounded by the nature of the countryside, enjoy a panoramic view, where the reflection of the lagoons combine with the sunrise on the beach and sunset with the green of the mountains, clean air, and singing birds, peace, and tranquility that fills us wish to stay.
Plus Caño Hondo Amazing complex in a mountain top with breathtaking views to a bay full of nature and Samana bay at the bottom. It’s as if you were living in a rainforest paradise with a beautiful style and so relaxing and quiet. With access to the pools coming from a Natural River from Los Haitises National Park.
This Place is where we will have a typical lunch, If you are vegan no worries we also have food for you!
After Lunch, we get back to Punta Cana!!
In Case you will like this trip longer or Shorter just contact Us.
ምን ማምጣት አለቦት?
- የሚያጸድቁ እምቡጦች
- የፀሐይ ክሬም
- ምቹ ሱሪዎች
- ለጫካ የእግር ጉዞ ጫማዎች
- ጫማ ወደ ስፕሪንግ አካባቢዎች.
- የመዋኛ ልብስ
Hotel pick-up is offered for this tour. Select the Hotel Name and time up here. In case that your Hotel is not on the list please Contact Us.
ማስታወሻ: If you are booking within 24 hours of the tour/Excursion departure time, we can arrangements hotel pick-up. Once your purchase is complete, we will send you complete contact information (phone number, email address, etc.) for our local Tour guide to organize pick-up arrangements.
ተጨማሪ መረጃ ማረጋገጫ
- ትኬቶች ይህንን ጉብኝት ከከፈሉ በኋላ ደረሰኝ ናቸው። ክፍያውን በስልክዎ ላይ ማሳየት ይችላሉ።
- የስብሰባ ነጥብ ከቦታ ማስያዝ ሂደት በኋላ ይቀበላል።
- ልጆች ከትልቅ ሰው ጋር መያያዝ አለባቸው.
- በተሽከርካሪ ወንበር ተደራሽ አይደለም።
- ጨቅላ ሕፃናት በእቅፍ ላይ መቀመጥ አለባቸው
- የጀርባ ችግር ላለባቸው መንገደኞች አይመከርም
- ለነፍሰ ጡር ተጓዦች አይመከርም
- ምንም የልብ ችግሮች ወይም ሌሎች ከባድ የጤና ሁኔታዎች
- አብዛኞቹ ተጓዦች መሳተፍ ይችላሉ።
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours in advance of the start date of the experience. Funds will be lost if the reservation is canceled the same day of the trip.
Los Haitises National Park Video:
የቦታ ማስያዝ ጀብዱዎች
የአካባቢው ነዋሪዎች እና ዜግነት ያላቸው የጉብኝት መመሪያዎች እና የእንግዳ አገልግሎቶች
የተያዙ ቦታዎች፡ በዶም ውስጥ ጉብኝቶች እና ጉዞዎች። ሪፐብሊክ
ቴል / ዋትስአፕ +1-809-720-6035.
እኛ በዋትሳፕ የግል ጉብኝቶችን ማቀናበር እንችላለን፡- +1 (829) 318-9463.


Agreement reached to improve water quality (11/24)
Nearly one quarter of the nation’s housing and commercial development depend on onsite and septic wastewater treatment systems. When properly sited, designed, and maintained, these systems perform at a high level. But between 10 and 20 percent fail each year, posing a great threat to surface and groundwater, according to EPA. Malfunctioning systems are the second greatest threat to groundwater quality in the United States.


OLYMPIA — Washington House Democrats passed a bill Feb. 16 declaring climate change an “existential threat” and mandating a carbon-neutral state by 2050.
Also on Feb. 16, the House approved legislation to require some counties and cities to adopt land-use rules that would help the state achieve its carbon limits.
Both bills go to the Democratic-controlled Senate, where similar measures were introduced this session but failed to meet deadlines to be approved by committees.
House Bill 2311 would require Washington to cut carbon emissions to 45% below 1990 levels by 2030 and by 95% by 2050. Projects to store carbon would offset the remaining 5%, according to the bill. The legislation does not lay out a carbon-reduction plan, or outline penalties for exceeding the limits.
The bill would revise standards originally set in 2007 that called for the state to cut emissions by 25% by 2035 and 50% by 2050. Proponents of the bill say limits need to be readjusted to keep average temperatures from rising by 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels.
The bill passed on largely a party-line vote, 55-41, with no Republican voting yes. House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Brian Blake of Aberdeen was the only Democrat to vote no.
The revised limits would put Washington more in line with its West Coast neighbors. Oregon’s goal is to cut carbon emissions by 75% below 1990 levels by 2050. California’s goal is to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, but become carbon neutral by 2045.
House Bill 2427 adds combating climate change to the goals of the state’s Growth Management Act. The bill directs eight larger counties and the cities in those counties to use planning laws to reduce carbon emissions. The bill encourages other counties and cities to plan for climate change.
The bill originally applied to all counties. The bill also was amended to commission a study by Washington State University and the University of Washington on the effect on salmon of “urban heat islands.”
The amended bill won some Republican votes and passed 59-37.


In between the showers I managed to get out into the garden and saw this wasp which I’ve not seen before the closest Id I can get with my Solitary wasp field guide so I have sent the photos of to be ID’d …. update my ID was correct and has now been iRecorded to the national data base.
Mellinus arvensis – field digger-wasp
One of the commonest and most widespread solitary wasp species in Britain and Ireland. The wasp flies late in the year, and is active from late July to October in sandy places (such as heaths, dunes, waste places and even gardens). The wasp hunts for a range of large flies for stocking the larval brood cells.
Long and thin species, boldly marked with black and yellow
Thorax with yellow strip across front and a yellow spot at the rear
Two bold yellow bars across middle of abdomen
Flies in late summer and early autumn.
Nests in sandy soil, often in aggregations
Males much smaller and often feed on honeydew on leaves
Catches a wide range of flies as prey for its larvae
For more information please click BWARS


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Why choose our Bamboo Inkless Pen with Eraser?
- Made from eco-friendly bamboo and carbon fiber tip
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Chickens in the Garden
Chickens in the garden – not always a helpful statement. My girls have done a fair amount of damage when they’ve been able to get into a garden bed without permission. But I am here to tell you that your chickens can be your garden ally. So let’s talk about how chickens can help you in the garden
Chickens in the Garden – Pest Control
If you have a garden, you have bugs. As an organic gardener I am always looking for better means of pest control. There is really no better garden pest patrol than a chicken. Now I should say NEVER put your girls in an bed you are currently growing; they’ll more likely eat your garden goodies than any bugs. I like to put my girls in a bed right after harvest to eat up any bugs, slugs, etc. Chickens can scratch, dig out and eat the pests and the pest larvae making a safer bed for the next round of planting.
Chickens in the Garden – Aerator
One of the benefits of allowing your hens to get in an empty bed to eat bugs…they are going to till up the soil as they search. As they
scratch and pick they are loosening and adding oxygen back into the soil. This will save you time and probably your back in the process. They can also help to mix in your fresh compost as they work. It is a big win all around.
You’ll want to “contain” the hens to your garden bed. This can be done with fencing or a chicken tractor, depending on the size and shape of your beds. If you don’t have beds a tractor will probably work the best.
Chickens in the Garden – Fertilizer
Chickens poop…a lot. What better way to get rid of it than to let it help your garden? They can be mighty fertilizers in two ways. The first is, as they are working a bed they are pooping. This fresh poo gets mixed into the soil adding nitrogen right at the source. Some people find that chicken droppings are too “hot” for planting so you may want to let the bed rest for a bit if the girls are in there for awhile. I haven’t had an issue with free chicken poo in my garden beds. Secondly is adding coop clean-up to your compost bins. This a a great nutrition boost for your compost and later your garden. Compost with chicken waste is still a great source of nitrogen, but it is toned down a bit.
Chickens in the Garden – Compost Turner
I don’t know about you, but turning compost isn’t exactly my favorite job. But my chickens love it! The same way the scratch and peck
in a garden bed, they’ll do in a compost pile. This a a great way to get the compost turned, aerated! As they turn it, oxygen is added to the pile, helping it to break down faster. But beware, they’ll eat your worms too! I often have the girls work the compost into a bed right before I plant in it; just another way that your chickens can help you!
Sure, a chicken in the garden can be a pain; but if you plan it right they can be your best garden buddy. Whether they are eating bugs or turning your compost chickens in the garden are a great idea!
How are you using chickens in your garden? Leave me a comment below!


Every Spring at our local Watershed, the Snow Goose arrives by the thousands. The Watershed is one of their stop-off’s to rest and feed before heading out on their way. They will be here this year any time now. I plan to go see them again when they arrive. It’s a awesome site to see.
Here I took a shot of the Snow Geese all taking to the air at one time. The sound of them “talking” and the sound of all those wings in the air is a sight to behold. This photo was taken at the Middle Creek Wildlife Refuge.
Pentax K100D DSLR with a 28-210mm Telephoto Lens
Thanks for reading/commenting/following.


Centre for Urban and Regional Studies (YTK) is a department within Aalto University, Finland founded in 1968 as a national multidisciplinary centre for further education in urban and regional planning and urban studies. Over the years, YTK has developed an interdisciplinary research profile and functions related to post-graduate training, becoming the only interdisciplinary hub focusing on planning education and research in Finland.
AU Herning is part of Aarhus University in Denmark, and thus part of one of the leading universities in the Nordic countries, and also one of the top 100 universities worldwide. AU Herning is a unique educational institution offering study programmes in engineering, business economics, international communication as well as management at the same institution. AU Herning has a high focus on close interaction with the business community and on research and development.
The research within the Department of Energy and Environment at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden covers a wide field within the areas energy and environment/sustainable development, from a global perspective to industrial, building, and product scale. The research fields include:
- Energy technology and energy conversion, both experimentally and theoretically.
- Development, use and evaluation of methods and tools for analysis of technical systems, regarding both environmental/sustainable development and energy.
- Complex Systems, with theory and applications ranging from biochemical systems to social ones.
Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research
Inaugurated in 2004, the CSPR at Linkoping University in Sweden has rapidly established itself as a prominent reference point for studies related to climate science and policy research. The research is interdisciplinary and puts problems related to climate change in context with other measures for sustainable development, such as limiting environmental impact and responsible management of natural resources. CSPR is a joint venture between Linkoping University and SMHI. CSPR’s mission is to develop knowledge, templates and methods for climate research in Sweden and inter-nationally. In order to do this CSPR gathers researchers in the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities and in technology. The four key research areas of the centre are: vulnerability and adaptation, climate change and sustainable development, conditions for low-carbon energy, knowledge and communication.
SNF (Institute for Research in Economics and Business Administration) is a contract research institute in the NHH-group and was formally established in 1991. SNF is owned by the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH), the University of Bergen (UiB) and the Foundation SNF. SNF is one of the largest and most influential institutes in Norway when it comes to applied research in economics and business administration, and has developed strong connections to other research institutions in Norway and abroad.
NTNU as a partner consists of two teams; one at the Centre for Energy and Society, Dept. of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture and one at Department of Geography.
The Centre for Energy and Society (CES) was established as a research group at the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture in 2001. In 2009 the Centre was a main architect behind the establishing of CenSES, Centre for Sustainable Energy Studies. CenSES is a virtual research centre that emphasize studies and decision support that enable a new sustainable energy system. CenSES integrates insights from energy economy, energy systems analysis, political science, sociology, innovation studies and science and technology studies. Internationally, CES is one of the largest research groups in its field, studying social and cultural aspects of energy and sustainability from a social science and humanities perspective. Since 2007 the centre has had two projects on climate adaptation funded by the NORKLIMA programme and Norwegian Research council.
ProjectZero is the vision for turning Sonderborg/Denmark (500 km2, 77.000 people, 440.000 pigs, 250.000 hens etc) into a ZEROcarbon community before the end of 2029, based on sustainable growth and creating many new Green Jobs during the transformation. The job-creation/business dimension add BrightGreenBusiness as a surname to ProjectZero.
ProjectZero´s ZEROcarbon emissions will be achieved by improving energy efficiency in all sectors of society and business and converting current energy sources into green renewable sources (wind, geothermal, solar, biomass etc) based on the areas own sources. The ROAD to ZEROcarbon is documented in the ProjectZero masterplan, which has a major milestone in 2015, where carbon emissions will be reduced by 25% compared to baseline 2007.
SEI was set up in 1989 to take forward the fundamental insight of the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment: that global environment and development challenges must be addressed at the same time, as one. This is still not mainstream practice, but it is SEI’s guiding principle.
Over the past 20 years SEI has generated, synthesised and communicated knowledge for evidence-based policies that support sustainable development in the North and South. SEI’s role is to provide solutions to environment and development challenges through state-of-the-art interdisciplinary research, combined with on-the-ground capacity building.
The University of Iceland was established in 1911. The University is structured into 5 academic schools, and 25 faculties. The University of Iceland is the only university in Iceland offering undergraduate and graduate studies in all the main disciplines and its academics have received a great deal of international recognition for their scientific work such as in energy and climate change related research. Researchers at the University and members of the NORD-STAR team have led national assessments of mitigation and adaptation possibilities in Iceland. In addition to traditional disciplinary academic areas the University has international interdisciplinary graduate programmes such as a Environment and Natural Resources, run by NORD-STAR team member B. Davidsdottir.
UMEÅ University was founded in 1965 and is Sweden’s fifth oldest university. UMEÅ has a strong international and multicultural presence with students, teachers and researchers from all over the world. UMEÅ strives towards being one of Scandinavia and Europe’s best environments for education, research and community engagement that meets the challenges of an ever-increasing global society.


Project Noah is a tool to explore and document wildlife and a platform to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere.
Medium sized bird with very long tail feathers. Mostly black/blue with yellow neck and chest.
Subtropical bush veld.
Thank you for the ID Ashley!
Lat: -22.96, Long: 30.80
Spotted on Mar 25, 2014 Submitted on Apr 26, 2014


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The waste monitor od orbisk is a fully automatic food waste monitor, that gives the ability to reduce food waste by up to 50%. Orbisk provides the plug-and-play installation of the food waste monitor in the kitchen. The monitor is ready for immediate use. From day one, you will be registering all of the food waste in the kitchen automatically. No training is required, and it won't cost the staff any extra time. The food waste monitor has a camera with AI technology that automatically recognises which products are being thrown away. An online report gives you insight into your food waste. You can see per week, day or ingredient how much you are throwing out and how you can prevent this. In the data, you can see exactly when the waste occurs, and why. This way, you can optimise your supply, the purchasing process or your menu, based on data. This not only saves money, but you also prevent a lot of unnecessary food waste.
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Docket No. QF17-454-006
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) today reversed a split decision in a September 2020 order denying Broadview Solar LLC’s application for certification as a qualifying facility (QF) under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA). The Commission reinstated its longstanding “send-out” analysis, which determines a facility’s power production capacity based on the electricity that it can actually deliver to the interconnecting electric utility.
“Today’s order restores a common-sense understanding that QF status should turn on the power production capacity of a facility as a whole, not the capacity of any individual component part,” FERC Chairman Rich Glick said. “The primary benefit of QF status afforded under PURPA is the right to sell power to a chosen utility, so the amount of power that a QF can actually transmit to the utility should be the touchstone of our analysis.”
Broadview’s facility involves a coupled array of solar panels with a gross capacity of 160 MW of direct current (DC) electricity and a 50 MW battery energy storage system. The maximum output of the project’s 20 invertors, which convert the DC electricity into alternating current, means that only 80 MW can be produced and transmitted to the interconnection with NorthWestern Corporation’s transmission system.
This case provided the Commission the first occasion to interpret how PURPA’s limitation on a facility’s “power production capacity” applies to a facility such as Broadview’s, which has a large array of solar PV cells but is physically incapable of producing more than 80 MW of power for delivery to the purchasing utility. In setting aside the prior order, FERC concluded that it erred by departing from PURPA, its own regulations and precedent.


In It’s Getting Hot in Here, Healthyish assistant editor (and aspiring low-waste disciple) Aliza Abarbanel walks us through one thing we can do each month to adapt our lifestyles and pantries for a pre-apocalyptic world. Up next: Finding the type of climate activism that fits your priorities.
Up to this point, I've focused this climate column on changing my lifestyle—tracking my trash and composting my coffee grounds. These actions have felt empowering, but they haven’t exactly felt influential. (Remembering to bring my own reusable produce bags is manageable; getting the U.S. to rejoin the Paris Agreement, less so.)
But between the increasingly dire climate studies, the ongoing global climate strikes, and the all-consuming Democratic primary, which carries remarkable weight for the future of American climate policy, I’ve been wanting to do more. And I’m not alone. There finally seems to be a sense of collective urgency around environmental issues. According to the Environmental Voter Project, 14 percent of registered voters list “addressing climate change and protecting the environment” as their top priority, up from an estimated 2–6 percent in the 2016 presidential election. (Okay, 14 percent is not exactly an overwhelming majority, but I’ll call it progress.) The 2016 general election presidential debates went by without a single question on climate policy, but this year, both CNN and MSNBC held climate town halls with democratic candidates. Just yesterday, a climate journalist moderated a presidential debate for the first time.
“This moment feels like no moment I’ve really experienced before in my time as an organizer, as an activist, as a community member, as a mother,” says Eva Hernandez-Simmons, deputy national program director for the Sierra Club, a grassroots environmental organization with over 3.8 million members. “This is the year we really need folks to come together and build the power that’s essential for creating systemic change.”
So, for this month’s climate challenge, I decided to look beyond personal choices and toward collective action, a.k.a working alongside others to make change via protests, strikes, and political campaigns. If quitting plastic straws changes the way we as individuals interact with the earth’s resources, collective action works to create large-scale change. There are hundreds of organizations doing this work, making the landscape difficult to navigate without a compass. So I decided to make one.
We can’t stop climate change with tote bags and reusable straws alone. We need to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions fast, build up renewable energy systems, and support climate refugees—which requires new laws and national initiatives. The world, and the United States specifically, is far from making the structural changes needed to meet this crisis. But we’re in an election year, which climate action organizations are using as an opportunity to push everyone from prospective city councilors to presidential hopefuls to prioritize climate change.
There are countless ways to advocate for the climate issues that matter most to you, from helping set up a local composting program to knocking doors for climate-focused candidates. There’s a lot to consider, so this month we’re finding a way to get involved that works for our values and our schedules.


It has been four long decades since NASA has sent an officially-designated life detection mission into space. The confused results of the Viking missions to Mars in the mid 1970s were so controversial and contradictory that scientists — or the agency at least — concluded that the knowledge needed to convincingly search for extraterrestrial life wasn’t available yet.
But now, a panel of scientists and engineers brought together by NASA has studied a proposal to send a lander to Jupiter’s moon Europa and, among other tasks, return to the effort of life-detection.
In their recommendation, in fact, the NASA-appointed Science Definition Team said that the primary goal of the mission would be “to search for evidence of life on Europa.”
The other goals are to assess the habitability of Europa by directly analyzing material from the surface, and to characterize the surface and subsurface to support future robotic exploration of Europa and its ocean.
Scientists agree that the evidence is quite strong that Europa, which is slightly smaller than Earth’s moon, has a global saltwater ocean beneath its deep ice crust, and that it contains twice as much water as exists on Earth.
For the ocean to be liquid there must be substantial sources of heat — from tidal heating based on the shape of its orbits, or from heat emanating from radioactive decay and entering the ocean through hydrothermal vents. All could potentially provide an environment where life could emerge and survive.
Kevin Hand of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a specialist in icy worlds and is deputy project scientist for the Europa project. He was one of the co-chairs of the Science Definition Team (SDT) and he said the group was ever mindful of the complicated history of the Viking missions. He said that some people called Viking a “failure” because it did not clearly identify life, but he described that view as “entirely unscientific.”
“It would be misguided to set out to ‘find life’,” he told me. “The real objective is to test an hypothesis – one we have that if you bring together the conditions for life as we know them, then they might come together and life can inhabit the environment.
“As far as we can tell, Europa has the water, the elements and the energy needed to create a habitable world. If the origin of life involves some relatively easy processes, then it just might be there on Europa.”
The conclusions of the SDT team, which is made is up of dozens of scientists and engineers, will set the stage for further review, rather than for immediate action. The report goes to NASA, where it is assessed in relation to other compelling and competing missions. Both the Congress and White House can and do weigh in
If it is approved, the Europa lander mission would be a companion to the already funded Europa multiple flyby mission scheduled to launch in the 2020s. While that spacecraft, the Europa Clipper, would have some capacity to determine whether or not the icy moon is habitable, a lander would be needed to search for actual signs of life.
A mission to Europa was a top priority of the 2010 Decadal Review, a synthesis of potential projects in various disciplines that is reviewed by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences.
Its recommendations from the Decadal Review are generally followed by NASA. It remains unclear whether the Europa lander is a natural follow-on to the Europa Clipper or a new initiative to be judged on its own. But the project does have strong support — last year Rep. John Culberson (R-Tex.) pushed a bill through Congress making it illegal to not send a lander to Europa.
Although there are many hurdles to clear for the Europa lander, the SDT report is nonetheless a rather momentous event since it strongly recommends a life-detection mission. So I thought it was worthwhile to include the entire preface of the team’s conclusions.
“The Europa Lander Science Definition Team Report presents the integrated results of an intensive science and engineering team effort to develop and optimize a mission concept that would follow the Europa Multiple Flyby Mission and conduct the first in situ search for evidence of life on another world since the Viking spacecraft on Mars in the 1970s.
The Europa Lander mission would be a pathfinder for characterizing the biological potential of Europa’s ocean through direct study of any chemical, geological, and possibly biological, signatures as expressed on, and just below, the surface of Europa. The search for signs of life on Europa’s surface requires an analytical payload that performs quantitative organic analysis on five samples acquired from at least 10 cm beneath the surface, with supporting context imaging observations.
This mission would significantly advance our understanding of Europa as an ocean world, even in the absence of any definitive signs of life, and would provide the foundation for the future robotic exploration of Europa.”
(Here is the full Europa lander SDT report.)
What’s more, images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2012 suggest that Europa may be spitting out water in plumes that those clearly detected on Saturn’s moon, Enceladus.
“If a plume was identified during a flyby, you better believe that we would do all we could to land somewhere close to it. The goal is to get as near as possible to the water coming out from under the crust because that’s how we’ll best learn whether that water has complex organic molecules, nitrogen compounds needed for life and possibly life itself.”
If the lander project does get the green light in the months (or years) ahead, NASA would then put out a call to propose instruments that could search for the various chemical building blocks and manifestations life, as well morphological signs that life once was present. The search for life, in other words, would involve checking the boxes of building blocks or known molecular signs of possible life as they are found (or not found.)
This is quite a different approach from that used during the Viking missions.
Famously, the so-called “Labelled Release” experiments on both Viking 1 and Viking 2 met the criteria for having detected life as set out by NASA scientists before the mission began. Those criteria involved the detection of metabolism, the chemical processes that occur within a living organism in order to maintain life. A detection would imply the presence of life right on the harsh, irradiated Martian surface.
In the LR experiment, a drop of very dilute aqueous nutrient solution was dropped into a sample collected of Martian soil. The nutrients (seven molecules that were products of the Miller-Urey experiment) were tagged with radioactive carbon 14 and the air above the soil was monitored for the evolution of radioactive CO2 gas. The presence of the gas was interpreted as evidence that microorganisms in the soil had metabolized one or more of the nutrients.
The LR was followed with a control experiment, and the results consistently met the criteria for having detected “life.” Two other biology experiments on Viking, however, came up negative, including the one considered most conclusive — that no carbon-based organic material was detected in the soil, except for one interpreted as contamination from Earth.
Subsequent Mars missions have strongly suggested that those organics interpreted as contamination were, in fact, organics interacting with perchlorate molecules now known to be common on the Martian surface. But despite this revision, the Mars science community remains broadly skeptical of the Labelled Release results, arguing that the CO2 could have been produced without biology. That, however, has not stopped LR principal investigator Gilbert Levin, and some others, from arguing now for forty years that the experiment did find life, creating a controversy that NASA has long struggled with.
Hand said that in hindsight, “we can see that it didn’t make sense to look for metabolism until we knew a lot more. We need to follow the water, follow the carbon, follow the nitrogen, follow the complex molecules, and if all of that succeeds then we look for a living, breathing creature.”
One of the inspirations for the hypothesis that Europa might harbor life under and within its ice is the recognition that frozen Antarctica also is home to microbial life. The most significant laboratory is Lake Vostok, an enormous collection of water beneath more than two miles of Antarctic ice.
Researchers have determined that microbial life exists miles down through the ice. The distribution is small — something like 100 cells per milliliter of melted ice — but researchers have been trying for years to drill down into the lake and determine if the lake itself is home to more abundant life. The research has been done primarily by Russian scientists and engineers, and has been slowed by the harsh conditions and innumerable technical problems.
But as a proof of concept, Hand said, Lake Vostok and other subglacial lakes in Antarctica show that life can survive in freezing conditions. He said the science teams recommended that any life detection instrument that might go to Europa be able to identify life in the very low concentrations found at Vostok.
Tori Hoehler, a research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, is a specialist in microbial life in low energy environments (like Vostok and perhaps Europa,) and he is also a member of the Europa lander science definition team.
“Our present understanding of Europa suggests that it is habitable, but it is more difficult to constrain how abundant or productive a Europan biosphere — should one exist — might be. For that reason, a conservative approach is to look to some of Earth’s most sparsely populated ecosystems when setting measurement targets for the lander.”
But however low that abundance might be, the detection of anything with characteristics of life on Europa would be a huge advance for science.


This study addresses the challenges of sustainable and efficient agricultural practices in the face of climate change and the destruction of agricultural lands by presenting the development of a novel plant growth LED based on Sm3+ and Tm3+ co-doped luminescent glasses with color-converting properties that emit blue and red light, resulting in an increased rate of photosynthesis and density of photosynthetically active radiation reaching the harvesting pigments. The developed LED exhibits photoluminescence (PL) peak positions ranging from 454 to 648 nm, with a spectral coverage of 50% and 39% of the absorption regions of chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b, respectively, resulting in an impressive 56% photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY). Furthermore, the developed plant growth LED demonstrates robust performance, remaining unaffected by temperature cycles and extended operation periods. Using Romaine lettuce cultivated under identical conditions, a comparative study between the developed LED and commercially available plant growth LED is conducted, with the designed LED showing significant improvements in plant growth characteristics, including increased plant height, weight, number of leaves, and enhanced levels of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and carotenoid content, while the root diameter is reduced, and the shoot-to-root ratio is diminished in comparison to the commercially available plant growth LED. The paper also compares the performance of Sm3+ and Tm3+ co-doped luminescent glass-based plant growth LED with other reported plant growth LED designs using different luminescent materials, exploring the impact of PLQY, PL position, and plant growing conditions. The results suggest that the developed LED system offers a more efficient and sustainable way of lighting for indoor horticulture and has significant implications for meeting the increasing food demands of the growing world population.


Please note: The planetarium will be closed for maintenance February 26-28.
When you can’t find something you know should be there, it makes you a little crazy, right? Well, that’s exactly how two groups of researchers must feel. After looking for plastid genomes in different organisms, they can’t find the DNA—it’s gone missing.
Plastids are organelles found in the cells of plants and algae. The Scientist describes chloroplasts—a type of plastid—as “small structures that were once free-living bacteria and retain their own DNA.” Plastids are instrumental in photosynthesis, but also are found in plants that don’t photosynthesize, as in the various parasitic species that are found scattered throughout the plant kingdom. According to Wikipedia, plastids also “possess a double-stranded DNA molecule.” But in the cases below, maybe “should possess” would be a better description.
Filipino researchers looked at plastids in the very stinky Rafflesia lagascae, a parasitic plant that doesn’t photosynthesize, but rather mooches its food off of another plant, a vine in the grape family. Through sequencing Rafflesia, the team discovered that while parts of plastid genes existed, the genome was non-existent. And the scientists believe that many of the fragment plastid genes came from the host plant.
At the same time, a team of Canadian researchers examined four alga species in the Polytomella genus, sequencing their DNA. These algae don’t photosynthesize either, instead living off of food in their freshwater habitat. Again, no plastid genome; in fact, no plastid genes were found at all.
What’s the big deal? According to Rappler.com, “These two studies are challenging some of the basic ideas of plant life.” ScienceShot asks, “When is a plant no longer a plant?”
We asked the Academy’s Peter Fritsch about the non-findings. “Much of the plastid DNA’s genome in normal plants is made up of genes for photosynthesis, but parasitic plants no longer need these genes. Also, the close association of the parasite and host can lead to the loss of key genes in the parasite because they can rely on the host for these functions. For both of these reasons, the plastid DNA’s of parasitic plants are typically much smaller than those in photosynthetic plants and the genes that remain are often highly altered and nonfunctional. This is an example of evolutionary reduction—examples in animals are the degeneration of eyes in many cave-dwelling organisms, and the vestigial hind limbs in whales. In Rafflesia and Polymella, it appears that extreme evolutionary reduction has resulted in the complete elimination of DNA from their plastids.
“As to whether these plants are no longer plants—it might seem as though, because they don’t photosynthesize like all the other plants, they shouldn’t be considered plants anymore. This isn’t really the case though, because they still have many other key features that place them solidly in the plant kingdom. For example, Rafflesia still has flowers with organs homologous to those of other flowers (although highly modified in this case), and regions of their DNA outside of the plastid clearly show their strong phylogenetic relations with other flowering plants, namely those in the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae).”
Image: Steve Cornish


Institute gives ND poor grade
Eva Binda | Thursday, March 1, 2007
With top athletic programs and consistent academic rankings annually in the nation’s Top 20, Notre Dame is not used to receiving failing grades.
However, when the Sustainable Endowment Institute released its annual College Sustainability Report Card covering environmental and endowment practices, Notre Dame received a D-minus – the lowest grade given in the survey. Other institutions that received low grades included the University of Chicago, which received a D-plus and University of Southern California, which received a D.
The Report Card “grades 100 colleges by looking at college greening practices and endowment policies,”according to the organization’s Web site. The grading is on an A to F scale and takes into account 26 indicators, ranging from green building initiatives to endowment investment policies. These 100 colleges represent the largest endowments of colleges across the country.
The highest grade attained in the report card was an A-minus, which Harvard University, Stanford University, Dartmouth College and Williams College all received.
Notre Dame received a failing grade in the categories of Administration, Climate Change, Green Building and Endowment Transparency. Its highest grade of a “C” was received in Investment Priorities. Notre Dame also received a “D” in the categories of Shareholder Engagement and Food & Recycling, with its recycling program being cited as a “good effort.”
“As far as can be determined, the University of Notre Dame has not made any public attempts to approach the issue of campus sustainability,” the report card said.
However, the report card did report that there is a research center for alternative energies on campus.
Darcia Narvaez, an associate professor of psychology who is involved with environmental issues on campus, believes the University is working on sustainability, but does not publicize it enough.
“We’re doing more than most campuses, but we just don’t tell anybody,” Narvaez said.
Some on campus are not surprised by Notre Dame’s low grade and believe more can be done.
Narvaez is also a former Executive Fellow in the Dean of Arts and Letters’ office.
“I anticipated it because I think Notre Dame has been dragging its feet on these issues,” said Andy Weigert, a sociology professor and Fellow at the Institute for International Peace Studies.
Weigert also believes “more could be done academically in terms of teaching.” He would like to see an environmental studies major or minor within the College of Arts and Letters.
However, Weigert said many initiatives are underway to make the campus more sustainable and eco-friendly.
Last year, Narvaez created an Arts and Letters Environmental Task Force . The task force released a call-to-action entitled “Our Environment in Crisis,” a document that discussed the University’s environmental responsibilities.
“We need to respond to the environmental crisis, especially as a Catholic university,” Narvaez said.
Another group formed to find solutions to the University’s environmental issues – the Energy and Environmental Issues Committee. According to its Web site, it was created to “broaden energy and environmental awareness, report on Notre Dame green initiatives and advise University leadership on eco-friendly opportunities.”
In addition to these initiatives, Narvaez would like to see everyone on campus, from staff to faculty to students, get into a more environmental mindset.
“I’d like everybody on campus to have a sustainability mindset in everything they’re doing,” she said. “They should think about what’s good for the environment, human health, society, the globe.”
Weigert, who has taught at Notre Dame since the late 1960’s, said it’s important that students are mobilized on the issue.
“If the students got on board, they could have great influence on this issue … I’ve seen students influence become very strong,” he said. “You need a salient issue. Maybe if students could get mobilized, that would move the administration.”


Silence in a Garden
Silence in a garden doesn’t mean to hear ‘no sound’
Silence in a garden ….means humans… that bow down
To lovely sounds of nature, birds and bees and heavenly breeze
Gently flowing through the standing people, we call “trees”
Silence in the garden helps us feel the truest light
Streaming down upon us in the morning, noon and night
Silence in the garden keeps perspective for our day
And sends us special fragrance and a place to go and pray
Silence in the garden draws us near to precious earth
Given to us fully to nurture and rehearse the time that we will leave this place….our earth’s journey is upon us
Silence in the garden is a lesson and a promise.
A tribute to nature and gardeners all over the world!
- 30 May, 2008
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The Aurora Norwegian landscape photographer Terje Sorgjerd spent one week around Kirkenes and the Norway-Russia border, in Celsius temperature, to make this magnificent time-lapse video of the Aurora Borealis.
TSOphotography spent a week capturing one of the biggest aurora borealis shows in recent years. Shot in and around Kirkenes and Pas National Park bordering Russia, at 70 degree north and 30 degrees east. Temperatures around Celsius.
Another wondrous video from the talented Norwegian landscape photographer Terje Sørgjerd, TSO Photography, entitled "The Aurora." The song is Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard's, Now We Are Free (Maximus Mix)
Light up the night in Iceland: The Aurora Borealis appears in a complete spectrum of colours, from light pinks, reds and greens to the yellows, blues and violets seen here on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula.
Here's a fantastic photo from Antarctica by Stefan Christmann, showing a colony of Emperor penguins and their chicks under the light of the aurora australis, sparked into high-gear by recent flare activity from the Sun.


BOONTON — The Rockaway Valley Garden Club will be holding a Tourne Wildflower Trail Photo Exhibit at the Boonton Township Municipal Building. The Boonton Township Municipal Building is located at 155 Powerville Road and the exhibit is open weekdays from February 4 to February 15. A special opening reception will be held from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Monday, February 4.
The exhibit is open and is free to all. The exhibit titled “Connect with Nature” features photographs by local photographers taken on the Wildflower Trail.
The Wildflower Trail in the Tourne Morris County Park, Boonton Township, was established in 1961 and created and maintained by The Rockaway Valley Garden Club (RVGC) which has members from several Morris County towns including Boonton, Boonton Township, Denville, Mountain Lakes and Parsippany. The trail encompasses several habitats: dry and moist hillsides, stream banks, swamps and wetlands. It is home to a variety of native woodland plants, which bloom throughout the seasons. Since 1998, a deer fence installed by the Morris County Park Commission has protected these fragile plants. RVGC volunteers plant new native flora each year and label them as they maintain the trails and remove invasive species and poison ivy. An informative kiosk, also maintained by the RVGC, welcomes visitors at the gate.
The Club offers guided tours of the Trail to school groups, scout troops, other garden clubs and community organizations as well as interested members of the community.
Information about the Trail and the Garden Club will be available at the Photo Exhibit


1.2 Methods of detection and attribution of observed changes
In the TAR (Mitchell et al., 2001), detection of climate change is the process of demonstrating that an observed change is significantly different (in a statistical sense) from what can be explained by natural variability. The detection of a change, however, does not necessarily imply that its causes are understood. Similarly, attribution of climate change to anthropogenic causes involves statistical analysis and the assessment of multiple lines of evidence to demonstrate, within a pre-specified margin of error, that the observed changes are (1) unlikely to be due entirely to natural internal climate variability; (2) consistent with estimated or modelled responses to the given combination of anthropogenic and natural forcing; and (3) not consistent with alternative, physically plausible explanations of recent climate change.
Extending detection and attribution analysis to observed changes in natural and managed systems is more complex. Detection and attribution of observed changes and responses in systems to anthropogenic forcing is usually a two-stage process (IPCC, 2003). First, the observed changes in a system must be demonstrated to be associated with an observed regional climate change within a specified degree of confidence. Second, a measurable portion of the observed regional climate change, or the associated observed change in the system, must be attributed to anthropogenic causes with a similar degree of confidence.
Joint attribution involves both attribution of observed changes to regional climate change and attribution of a measurable proportion of either regional climate change or the associated observed changes in the system to anthropogenic causes, beyond natural variability. This process involves statistically linking climate change simulations from climate models with the observed responses in the natural or managed system. Confidence in joint attribution statements must be lower than the confidence in either of the individual attribution steps alone, due to the combination of two separate statistical assessments.


As the country’s forest cover continues to face the worst wrath from plunders, the largest remaining block of natural tropical forest along the Albertine valley (Bugoma forest) which is known for preserving wildlife migratory corridors has been given away to pave way for sugar growing. In a lease agreement between Bunyoro Kingdom and Hoima Sugar limited, over twenty-one square miles of Bugoma central forest reserve are in the hands of the sugar company. The agreement partly reads that the sugar company will develop the forested land in form of growing sugar cane.
Amidst resistance from environmentalists and surrounding communities, the country’s environmental watchdog; National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) issued an environmental impact assessment permit (ESIA) allowing the sugar company to go ahead and use the forestland for sugar growing. The authority went ahead and issued a certificate of approval to Hoima Sugar Company authorizing it to embark on destroying the forest.
According to the August 14th 2020 ESIA certificate issued by NEMA, the environmental watchdog permits Hoima Sugar Company limited to use twenty-one square miles of the forest Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom leased to the Sugar Company against the will of the surrounding communities, most Ugandans and National Forestry Authority which is the chief custodian of all natural forests in Uganda. National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) has set not only a bad but also a grave precedent by giving a go-ahead to the sugar company to deplete part of the forest.
It is very unfortunate that we are losing our natural heritages/ resources under such kind of circumstances even when those mandated to protect them are in bed with the plunderers. This level of degeneration that we are experiencing in our dear and only country is worrying and calls for immediate fixing if we are to protect the beauty and uniqueness of Uganda.
Despite Bugoma Central Forest Reserve being the latest on the hit list, Kiwula central forest reserve in Kayunga district is equally under attack from a certain businessman by the names of Badru Semuga who claims that he owns 1,152 acres of the forest and has a title deed. Amidst repeated calls from National Forestry Authority to Mr. Semuga to halt activities on the forested land, Semuga didn’t heed to these calls issued to him. Imaramagambo forest in Rukungiri district was heavily depleted during Covid-19 imposed lockdown. This trend and culture of destroying what was naturally given to us should be condemned and immediately be brought to an end. In 2011, 7100 hectares of Mabira forest were given away to farm sugarcane. This precedent has since trickled down to Bugoma Forest Reserve, once again clearing some 6,000 hectares of the forest to plant sugarcane.
It should be noted that the loss of forests in Uganda has had adverse effects, which include but not limited to loss of biodiversity where over 260 species of trees in the forest will eventually vanish. The increase in temperatures, which has led to food insecurity and eruption of diseases, are attributed to loss of forests in the country.
At the Centre for Energy Governance (CEG), we have noted that weak implementation of national policies and laws has been exhibited by National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) and other government agencies, throughout this whole Bugoma Forest saga.
The environmental laws in Uganda also have grey areas that have been exploited due to their nature of being unclear. NEMA exploits such loop holes, for instance in NEMA’s press release that was on 24/08/2020, they cite the presence of a grassland that sits on 2,393.8483 hectares of the 6,0000 hectares given to the Hoima Sugar Limited. According to NEMA, the loss of grassland in favour of cultivating a sugar plantation is a loss they justify, took and are ready to defend. This leaves Uganda’s forested land vulnerable and at the mercy of God.


May 8, 1998
by Ellie Walradth
UW-RF News Bureau
The UW-River Falls soil judging team earned first place at the National Soil Judging Contest April 18 in Platteville. This is the fifth time the team has claimed the national title in the past seven years.
The team competed against 100 students from 13 two- and four-year institutions. Judging soil involves identifying, interpreting and classifying soil properties.
"The trophy isn't important. It's the learning and teaching that matters," says team advisor and plant and earth science Professor Larry Meyers. "The trophy means they learned more than everybody else."
At the competition students used a scorecard to evaluate four sites, five feet deep. They were allowed 50 minutes per site. Students identified soil layers, determined existing amounts of sand and clay in the soil, expressed the color, and then interpreted how these properties would affect land use. Students were required to determine such things as the land's slope, erosion class, surface runoff, septic tank absorption and suitability for roadfill material.
This year's team included Andrew Lucht, a junior broad area agriculture major from Antigo; Krishona Bjork, a senior agronomy major from Colfax; Tony
Roder, a junior soil science major from Elk Mound; T.J. Kennedy, a junior soil science major from Antigo; Jason Schwartz, a junior agronomy major from Preston, Minn.; Chris Bartlett, a junior conservation major from Luck; and Brad Sieler, a senior soil science major from Wisconsin Dells.
In individual honors, Kennedy took first place, Bjork placed third, Bartlett earned fourth and Roder earned seventh.
Meyers says the competition is a lot of fun for students, yet it is a very grueling event. He attributes the team's success to them being well-trained.
"It's like signing up to take four one-hour exams in a row on a Saturday morning," says Meyers. "In the classroom, I'm very demanding-you can't make mistakes when evaluating soils. The more students know (going to the competition), the more fun it is."
Team member Tony Roder would agree, believing the win is a reflection of the education the team has received at UW-RF. Roder also says the competition provides students with the opportunity to meet those they may be working with in the field one day.
Before the competition, the team spent two full days practicing in the field. They had the opportunity to observe soils in the Platteville area, which has been untouched by glacier activity.
Being held at a different location in the country every year, the competition allows students to see a variety of soil types. Since there are 15,000 identified soils in the United States, the team has never encountered the same soil
twice, and, according to Meyers, that's what makes it interesting.
"When you go to a competition like this, you never loose-the contest is an excuse to go look at different soils," says Meyers. "It's the best teaching I do."
Purdue University finished second and UW-Stevens Point finished third at the competition. The contest was sponsored by the National Association of Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture.
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Latur district has received 66.09 millimetres of rainfall in the last 24 hours
An NDRF team, a helicopter and boats were deployed on Tuesday to rescue people stranded in barrages, villages and on the banks of a river in Latur in Maharashtra as heavy rains lashed the district through the day.
While 25 out of 40 people stranded on the banks of Manjara river at Sarsa village have been rescued using boats, efforts were on to get the rest 15 to safety, an official said.
He added that three people stranded on a river basin in Digol Deshmukh area in Renapur tehsil have been rescued.
Three employees of the state Irrigation Department were stuck in the Ghansargaon village barrage, and a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team as well as a helicopter have been brought in to help local personnel with the rescue effort, said District Disaster Management Officer Sakeb Usmani.
Officials said six out 10 tehsils and 30 out of 60 revenue mandals in Latur have received heavy rains, leading to flooding of streams and rivulets, resulting in authorities having to release 70,845.30 cusecs (cubic foot per second) of water into Manjara river after opening 18 gates of a dam in Dhanegaon in Keh tehsil.
Latur district has received 66.09 millimetres of rainfall in the last 24 hours, with the downpour being particularly severe, along with thunderstorms, in Latur, Udgir, Ahmedpur, Chakur, Jalkoat and Ausa tehsils, leaving many villages disconnected, officials said.
Several of these revenue mandals have received over 65 mm of rainfall during this period, they said, adding that total rainfall in Latur district this monsoon has now touched 906 mm, which is almost 109% of the annual average.
Tandulja and Murud revenue mandals received the highest, 127.8 mm, rainfall, followed by 103 mm in Tondar and 101.3 in Chakur, they added.
The India Meteorological Department has warned of heavy rains over the next two days as well.
Source: Read Full Article


Mount Kailash energy co. pvt ltd has started the construction of Thapa Khola hydro electric project at Tukuche village of Mustang District in western development region of Nepal. Thapa Khola Hydropower Project is a run of river type project with an installed capacity of 11,200 kW. The general layout of the proposed project comprises of a diversion weir with a gated undersluice, side intake, Gravel trap, Settling basin, Headpond ,Headrace pipe, Tunnel, Surge tank, Surface penstock and a Surface powerhouse located on right bank of Thapa Khola in Tukuche village of Mustang District. The side intake diverts water through the approach canal to the surface settling basin, where silt particles up to 0.2 mm are settled down and flushed out. The headrace pipe and a short tunnel conveys water to the surge tank, and finally to the powerhouse through surface penstock. The powerhouse accommodates two units of generating equipment. The tailrace canal finally releases water back to the Thapa khola.
Tukuche bazaar is the nearest settlement to the project area which is connected to the Beni-Mustang road. The project area is about 355 km from Kathmandu including 287 km black topped road up to Beni in Myangdi district and 68 km earthen road from Beni to the project area in Mustang district.
Main features of power plant:
•Diversion weir with concrete cutoff and one sluice bay.
•Surface settling basin.
•983 long headrace pipe of 1.4 m in diameter.
•Inverted D shaped headrace tunnel of 2.0 m in diameter and 809 m long.
•Surface surge tank.
•504 m long 1.25 m diameter mild steel penstock.
•Surface powerhouse of 27.2 m X 14.5 m and 14.7 m.
•18 m long RCC box culvert tailrace


Gardening: Tips for winter prep
Ready for winter? A lot depends on what kind of winter it will be
Compost fallen leaves, or mow over them to feed your lawn.
Tips for winter prep are common fodder for gardeners and homeowners. But what is really worth doing?
Keeping trees and shrubs alive
Planting and watering correctly are keys to survival. The woody plants (trees or shrubs, evergreen or deciduous) that you planted in the past two seasons are the most vulnerable to damage and dying from winter’s threats. When autumn is dry, it is important to provide water—deeply, where the roots are—before the ground freezes. (If you’re reading this before the deep freeze, and the ground has been dry for weeks, then add several buckets of water per tree.)
Mulch right. Mulch (usually shredded bark, wood chips, shredded leaves, pine needles, or straw) helps gardens in three ways:
• It blocks some weeds (although some weeds will blow in and grow on top of the mulch).
• It holds moisture in the soil and keeps wind from drying out the soil or blowing it away.
• It protects plant roots from extreme fluctuations in soil temperature. (Extreme thawing and freezing patterns can create cracks in the soil, letting air in to dry out the roots. The pattern also causes some plants to heave out of the soil.) In winter, mulch on top of the roots of vulnerable plants with about three inches of material after the ground freezes.
Be careful with mulch, though.
• Mulch can prevent needed water from reaching plant roots. This is why we advise everyone to mulch after the ground freezes. Three inches of mulch spread over plant roots can absorb lots of autumn rainfall that never gets to the needy roots underground.
• Mulch that is mounded around a tree trunk or the base of shrubs—called volcano mulching—is destructive. Bark and the tops of roots—the root flare—must be exposed to air or rot will follow. Keep mulch several inches from the base of wood plants.
• Mulch can prevent desirable plants from seeding themselves. If you want more cosmos or bronze fennel next year, don’t spread thick mulch.
• Mulch can provide cover and nesting sites for rodents—another reason not to spread it close to the tree trunks or before the freeze. A good practice is to gather bags of chopped leaves, evergreen boughs, or bark mulch, and keep them near the garden to spread on a freezing morning in early winter or late fall.
Consider mulch a choice, not a requirement and, when you use it, do so with knowledge about when and where. If you live where snow falls thickly and remains in place, mulch is less needed. Generally, American landscapes are known for the widespread use of mulches, while in England (the inspiration for much of our gardening) and other countries, it is normal to keep soil open between the plants. The gardener simply cultivates the soil lightly and removes weeds.
Special attention for special plants
If you care for your mother’s tea rose, or you have big-leaf hydrangeas you’re hoping will finally bloom, you might make a special effort to mound mulch over them. Supply companies sell “rose cones” that let you pile pine needles or shredded leaves over the graft or crown. Or you can make your own wire cage. The mulch may keep the rose’s graft from cracking or the hydrangea buds on the old wood from dying.
Your choice: baby the vulnerable ones, or apply tough love and see which ones survive in the real world of WNY, with what kind of protection.
Quick tips for winter prep
Arborist wood chips provide the best protection and enrichment, but there are many other types.
Repellants are effective unless deer are starving. Special plants should have deer fencing.
Despite their hardy appearance, evergreens are very susceptible to wind damage and should be protected.
Protect old-fashioned mophead hydrangeas with bags of leaves or shrub covers.


Louis-Martin Pilote, NCC, guest contributor Peatlands are wetlands composed of plant residues accumulated over thousands of years. Although they are widespread in the Quebec landscape, they remain unknown to a large part of the population. However they provide us with many essential ecological services, such as water filtration and flood control. They are also valuable […]
Just 30 centimetres long, Richardson’s ground squirrels survive the cold Canadian winters by escaping underground.
Dan Kraus, Nature Conservancy of Canada, guest contributor People living in the Northern Hemisphere have brought trees and boughs into their homes during the winter for thousands of years. The evergreens that we decorate with during Christmas can represent a celebration of holidays and a reminder that spring will come again. I’m a Christmas tree […]
Samanta Hoffmann, Nature Conservancy of Canada Seaweeds, a type of macro-algae (a group that includes benthic [attached to the bottom] marine algae that are typically visible to the naked eye), provide hope for a more sustainable future, through healthier food, renewable energy and fewer plastics. Over the last few years, not only have scientists developed […]
by Dan Kraus, guest contributor Before you read any further, stop and think about a fish migrating up a river. Chances are that fish is a salmon and that river is in BC. There’s good reason that salmon in BC have come to symbolize fish migration. The return of millions of sockeye, Coho, chum, Chinook and […]