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Devastating fungus ravages common banana crops
WASHINGTON — A fungus scientists have dubbed “the HIV of banana plantations” has ravaged huge crops of the cavendish variety — the only kind of banana available in American grocery stores.
The spread of the soil-borne fungus Tropical Race IV has ruined crops across China, the Philippines and Australia, and is expected to spread next to Central America, where American distributors get the fruit.
Two teams of scientists are trying to genetically engineer cavendish bananas that are resistant to the fungus.
There are thousands of kinds of bananas worldwide, but the Cavendish, discovered in a Chinese household garden by a nineteenth-century British Explorer, represents 99 percent of the international market, according to a New Yorker report.
Most other exported varieties won’t withstand the international trip or ripen too quickly.
The New Yorker reports in 2008 Americans ate 7.6 billion pounds of Cavendish bananas, which at 60 cents a pound are also very cheap.
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-06/can-fruit-be-saved
2010 hottest year in Canada on record
National temperatures exceeded average values by 3 C in 2010, the warmest since record-keeping began in Canada in 1948.
Photograph by: Michael Aporius, Edmonton Journal
Environment Canada has quietly released its climate report for 2010, confirming that it was the hottest year on Canadian record books.
National temperatures exceeded average values by a whopping 3 C, the warmest since record-keeping began in 1948, says the report, posted on the department’s website Monday.
“All of the country was above normal, with most of Nunavut and northern Quebec at least 4 C above normal,” says the report, that highlights 2010’s northern heat wave on its map in red.
“An area over southern Alberta and Saskatchewan was the only part of Canada Read more…
Nasa warns solar flares from ‘huge space storm’ will cause devastation
Solar Maximum is happening now between 2011 and 2013 as part of Solar Cycle 24. My question is, why is this not being reported in the major newspapers and news outlets in the United States?
National power grids could overheat and air travel severely disrupted while electronic items, navigation devices and major satellites could stop working after the Sun reaches its maximum power in a few years.
Senior space agency scientists believe the Earth will be hit with unprecedented levels of magnetic energy from solar flares after the Sun wakes “from a deep slumber” sometime around 2013, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
In a new warning, Nasa said the super storm would hit like “a bolt of lightning” and could cause catastrophic consequences for the world’s health, emergency services and national security unless precautions are taken.
Scientists believe it could damage everything from emergency services’ systems, hospital equipment, banking systems and air traffic control devices, through to “everyday” items such as home computers, iPods and Sat Navs.
Due to humans’ heavy reliance on electronic devices, which are sensitive to magnetic energy, the storm could leave a multi-billion pound damage bill and “potentially devastating” problems for governments.
“We know it is coming but we don’t know how bad it is going to be,” Dr Richard Fisher, the director of Nasa’s Heliophysics division, said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.
“It will disrupt communication devices such as satellites and car navigations, air travel, the banking system, our computers, everything that is electronic. It will cause major problems for Read more…
Get your Non Hybird Seeds While You Can
S. 510 was introduced in the 111th Congress, which has adjourned.
It has not yet been reintroduced…yet
S 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010, may be the most dangerous bill in the history of the US. It is to our food what the bailout was to our economy, only we can live without money.
“If accepted [S 510] would preclude the public’s right to grow, own, trade, transport, share, feed and eat each and every food that nature makes. It will become the most offensive authority against the cultivation, trade and consumption of food and agricultural products of one’s choice. It will be unconstitutional and contrary to natural law or, if you like, the will of God.” ~Dr. Shiv Chopra, Canada Health whistleblower
It is similar to what India faced with imposition of the salt tax during British rule, only S 510 extends control over all food in the US, violating the fundamental human right to food.
Monsanto says it has no interest in the bill and would not benefit from it, but Monsanto’s Michael Taylor who gave us rBGH and unregulated genetically modified (GM) organisms, appears to have designed it and is waiting as an appointed Food Czar to the FDA (a position unapproved by Congress) to administer the agency it would create — without judicial review — if it passes. S 510 would give Monsanto unlimited power over all US seed, food supplements, food and farming.
History
In the 1990s, Bill Clinton introduced HACCP (Hazardous Analysis Critical Control Points) purportedly to Read more…
Solar Wind to Reach Earth In Few Days, Spark Auroral Activity
A dark coronal hole at the Sun center was captured in extreme ultraviolet light by National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) solar dynamics observatory on Jan. 10.
NASA
A dark coronoal hole at the Sun center was captured in extreme ultraviolet light by National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) solar dynamics observatory. As the Sun continues to rotate, the high speed solar wind particles blowing from this hole will likely reach Earth in a few days and may spark some auroral activity.
Coronal holes are areas of the Sun’s surface that are the source of open magnetic field lines that head way out into space. They are also the source regions of the fast solar wind, which is characterized by a relatively steady speed of about 800 kilometers per second.
As the Sun continues to rotate, the high speed solar wind particles blowing from this hole will likely reach Earth in a few days and may spark some auroral activity, according to NASA.
Here, the solar dynamics observatory detected a giant solar filament that became unstable and erupted from the far side of the Sun. A filament is a large, bright feature extending outward from the Sun’s surface, often in a loop shape. Some filaments break apart and give rise to coronal mass ejections.
Prediction: Read more…
Report: heavy growth in biometrics
The research firm MarketsandMarkets has released a new study of the biometrics marketplace that projects a heavy growth rate over the next four years. Advances in Biometric Technologies and Market Analysis breaks down the various modes of biometrics such as fingerprint, iris and facial and by regions such as North America, Asia and Europe.
Specifically, the report projects a compound annual growth rate of 21.6% between 2010 and 2015 which would result in a marketplace worth over $11 billion.
While the mode projected to have the largest share of the marketplace in 2015 is still fingerprint biometrics with a 19% growth rate, iris, vein and facial biometrics are expected to close their respective gaps with growth rates of 27.5%, 25.4% and 24.2%. Majority of the reasoning the authors are using for the expected booms in the marketplace are due to growing concerns for national security and the need for ID programs to deal with such concerns
1180 new snowfall records set in the USA this past week
It’s been a very busy week for snow and also for lowest max temperature, thanks to our El Nino induced weather patterns, while the Pacific Northwest is seeing warmer conditions, the southeast and eastern US gets lots of snow thanks to the pattern.
click for interactive source
Haiti: A year after the quake, waiting to rebuild
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The man’s body lay face down, his white dress shirt shining like wax in the sun, as he was unearthed in the ruins of a Port-au-Prince restaurant a year after the earthquake.
The bodies still being found in the rubble are a sign of how far Haiti must go to recover from a disaster that left the capital in ruins and is estimated to have killed more than 230,000 people.
In the days after the Jan. 12, 2010 disaster, volunteers and hundreds of aid groups flocked in with food, water and first aid that saved countless lives. But the effort to rebuild has been dwarfed by the extent of the need and a lack of leadership — both in Haiti and internationally.
President Rene Preval did not speak publicly for days after the quake, and many observers have criticized him for not spearheading a coherent reconstruction effort, or making the hard policy decisions needed to rebuild.
Still, advocacy groups also blame the Haitian government’s weakness on an international community that is not keeping its pledge of support.
“The international community has not done enough to support good governance and effective leadership in Haiti,” the aid group Oxfam said in a recent report. “Aid agencies continue to bypass local and national authorities in the delivery of assistance, while donors are not coordinating their actions or adequately consulting the Haitian people.”
Street markets were soon up and running after the quake and Port-au-Prince’s traffic is worse than ever. On Tuesday, Preval, his wife and other officials lay flowers at symbolic black crosses marking a mass grave outside the capital where hundreds of thousands of earthquake victims are buried.
But from the barren hillside, the destruction is clearly visible. The slogan “build back better,” touted by former President Bill Clinton and others, remains an unfulfilled promise.
Less than 5 percent of the debris has been cleared, leaving enough to fill dump trucks parked bumper to bumper halfway around the world. In the broken building where the dead man was discovered last week, workers hired to clear rubble by hand found two other people’s Read more…
Empty Store Shelves Coming to America
The National Inflation Association today issued a warning to all Americans that empty store shelves will likely be coming to America as a result of government price controls during the upcoming hyperinflationary crisis. This morning, NIA released a video preview of what hyperinflation will look like in the U.S. This extremely important must see video is now available on NIA’s video page.
NIA’s six-minute video released today goes into detail about an event that took place just outside of Boston, Massachusetts in May of this year. This story was widely ignored by the nationwide mainstream media, but NIA believes it was one of the most important news events of the first half of 2010. Although this particular crisis in Boston was due to decaying infrastructure, NIA believes a currency crisis will lead to the same type of panic on a nationwide basis.
NIA hopes that this video serves as a wake-up call for Americans to take the necessary steps to prepare for hyperinflation and become educated about the U.S. economy. In Zimbabwe during hyperinflation, Zimbabweans were forced to transact in gold and silver. It’s only a matter of time before the U.S. dollar becomes worthless and the only Americans with wealth will be those who own Read more…
Snow in 49 states including Hawaii
The idea of 50 states with snow is so strange that the federal office that collects weather statistics doesn’t keep track of that number and can’t say whether it has ever happened. The office can’t even say whether 49 out of 50 has ever taken place before.
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – According to national news sources, it is snowing in 49 states across the country including Hawaii where snow has fallen atop Mauna Kea on the Big Island.
Florida is the only state without fresh snow.
This shot of the mountain was submitted by Adrel Vicente via our Connect Now photos on Jan. 8.
Submit your photos at Hawaiinewsnow.com
Snow present in 49 of the 50 U.S. states
After big snow and ice events in the Southeast, Plains, and Midwest this week, 49 out of the 50 states currently have snow on the ground – yes, even Hawaii, where snow falls in Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea all winter.
The only state that has avoided this icy blast is Florida. Does that make you want to go on a nice, warm vacation to the Sunshine State? You’re not alone.
Put another way, that means snow is present in 69.4 percent of the lower 48, which is more than double than December. This is extremely unusual, though it’s hard to put a date on when this last happened because records aren’t kept on this kind of event.
The National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center combines ground reports and images from satellites in space to determine how much of the country is covered in snow. That’s what you see in the image above. The images tell how deep and widespread the snow is, and that’s important not only for images like this one, but also for computer weather models, which use the data to generate accurate forecasts. Such forecasts were very useful in predicting this week’s winter storms.
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