Getting spacey

When I first saw this, my mind immediately insterted 'Moon'... Not so fast, buck.

Enhanced Color Caloris

The sprawling Caloris basin on Mercury is one of the solar system's largest impact basins. Created during the early history of the solar system by the impact of a large asteroid-sized body, the basin spans about 1,500 kilometers and is seen in yellowish hues in this enhanced color mosaic. The image data is from the January 14th flyby of the MESSENGER spacecraft, captured with the MDIS instrument. Orange splotches around the basin's perimeter are now thought to be volcanic vents, new evidence that Mercury's smooth plains are indeed lava flows. Other discoveries at Mercury by NASA's MESSENGER mission include evidence that Mercury, like planet Earth, has a global magnetic field generated by a dynamo process in its large core, and that Mercury's surface has contracted significantly as its core cooled.

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More maps

You can count on Google to create a clean and usable product. They have done it again with a 'suite' of election options.

Keep up-to-date on the 2008 election with Google Maps

Browse through these political maps to learn about this year's race for the Presidency and show off your favorites by embedding them around the web for the world to see. Feeling ambitious? Design and create your own elections map with our getting started guide.

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A capsule quote:

“If we had started working on the solutions to this before it became a problem, back in the 70s when it was already clear where the use of oil was heading us, we would not be having this discussion today,” writes Cindy Prince of Portland, Oregon

This should be the motivating force behind everything we do. Want to fight a war? This one doesn't kill people.


Our Mission

The Apollo Alliance is a coalition of business, labor, environmental, and community leaders working to catalyze a clean energy revolution in America to reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign oil, cut the carbon emissions that are destabilizing our climate, and expand opportunities for American businesses and workers.

Inspired by the vision and technological achievements of the Apollo space program, we promote policies and initiatives to speed investment in clean energy technology and energy efficiency, put millions of Americans to work in a new generation of well-paid, green collar jobs, and make America a global leader in clean energy products and services.

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IMHO, the really good news is that this provides a vehicle for local implementation.

Apollo Across the Nation: States, Cities, and Campuses

The Apollo Alliance is moving policy and projects that advance clean energy and good jobs in your area. We are on the ground establishing local alliances of labor, environmental, community and business representatives. Check below for the most recent news on our efforts!

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From one of the best

Larry Sabato, UVA poly sci guy, called the 2006 election almost to THE seat so I pay attention to his work. This is his current Electoral College map:


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and the Zogby map:

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Surprising source

This energy proposal comes from one of the most notorious of all 'oilies', T. Boone Pickens. What he is proposing on a 'macro' scale can also be done on a 'friendlier' and more local basis.

We Are in a Crisis

Our dependence on foreign oil forms the intersection of the three most critical issues America currently faces: the economy, the environment and our national security.

There is a Solution

America is blessed with the world's greatest wind power corridor and abundant reserves of clean natural gas. The Pickens Plan will utilize these tremendous resources to build a bridge to the future — a blueprint to reduce foreign oil dependence by harnessing domestic energy alternatives and buying time for us to develop even greater new technologies.

The Plan calls for building new wind generation facilities that will produce 20% of our nation's electricity and allow us to use natural gas as a transportation fuel. The combination of these domestic energies can replace more than one-third of our foreign oil imports. And we can do it all in 10 years.

We Can Bring Change

On January 20th, 2009, a new President will take office. We’re organizing behind the Pickens Plan now to ensure our voices will be heard by the next administration. Together we can raise a call for change and set a new course for America’s energy future in the first hundred days of the new presidency — breaking the hammerlock of foreign oil and building a new domestic energy future for America with a focus on sustainability.

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Resisting the obvious odorifous crack

Some very important events are for the most part eluding public attention. In this case, there is a very large and precarious human population involved.

ENVIRONMENT: Global Fish Catches Vastly Underestimated
Fisheries catches in tropical island nations may be as much as 17 times higher than officially reported, according to a new study released Tuesday.
"The underreporting of fish catches is of such a magnitude it boggles the mind," said Daniel Pauly, a renowned fisheries expert at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

All of the 20 small Pacific island countries in the study underreported catches, mainly because they did not count the catch by small-scale local fishers. This is not unique -- even the U.S. does not report local and recreational fishing statistics, Pauly told IPS at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida Tuesday.

A different study also released Tuesday estimates that the unreported recreational fish catch in the Hawaiian Islands doubles the size of the official catch. It also concluded that 75 percent of reef fishes in the main Hawaiian Islands are depleted or in critical condition because of overfishing.

Pauly and other fish experts long suspected that many nations do not measure small-scale and recreational fisheries. The Sea Around Us Project located at UBC is the first attempt to reconstruct actual catches between 1950 and 2004.

"Even though small-scale fisheries feed many people in poor countries, their contribution goes unreported," Pauly said.
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Green thumb

Some things are simply counter-intuitive. Imagine not reacting in pure revulsion to a huge, sluggish caterpillars.

Q&A: Caterpillars on Tomatoes

Question: Help! I found several large caterpillars munching on my tomatoes. What should I do to get rid of them?

Answer: It sounds like you're seeing tomato hornworms, which can grow to an alarming size! Like most caterpillars, hornworms can be controlled by using Bt, Bacillis thuringiensis.However, since tomato hornworms can do a lot of damage in a short time, you may want to remove the ones you see by hand. Note: If you see a caterpillar with what looks like grains of rice all over it, relocate it elsewhere in the garden rather than killing it. It has been parasitized by a certain wasp laying its eggs on it. These small wasps are harmless to humans, but will help the hornworm population in check. (The parasitized hornworm will die anyway.)

Democratic float

Reports said the Dems far out-shined the GOPers parade effort.

Words, words, words

misprize \mis-PRYZ\ (transitive verb) -
1 : To hold in contempt.
2 : To undervalue.

peccant \PEK-unt\ (adjective) -
1 : Sinning; guilty of transgression.
2 : Violating a rule or a principle.

preternatural \pree-tuhr-NACH-uhr-uhl; -NACH-ruhl\ (adjective) -
1 : Existing outside of nature; differing from the natural; nonnatural.
2 : Surpassing the usual or normal; extraordinary; abnormal.
3 : Beyond or outside ordinary experience; inexplicable by ordinary means.

One of those 'wordy' pictures

There are times when reality takes on a glaringly sharp focus. This strikes me as one such moment. My apologies for not being able to offer a 'clean' pic. There are both pros and cons to Flash and in this instance the link will have to suffice.

Gas prices by county