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The breathtakingly rugged shores of Tonkin Park in Tofino. Photo courtesy: tripadvisor.ca
My heart is breaking. One of my two favourite places in British Columbia, Ucluelet and Tofino on Vancouver Island, are under attack. Most of the Vancouver Island coastline is pristine shore that stretches for mile after scenic mile. That is changing. We all know about the tsunami that wiped out the Japanese nuclear power plant and the debris that was washed into the ocean. That debris has been washing up on American shores for a while now and has just started hitting Tofino shores.
Here's the update so far.
Curtis Ebbesmeyer, left, and John Anderson, show fishing buoys from Japan (set loose by the tsunami in March), that washed ashore in Forks, Washington. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ HO - Jim Ingraham via Yahoo!News
The B.C. government says it will begin working with national and municipal officials this January to prepare for the massive wave of debris heading to Pacific Northwest shores because of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Meanwhile, residents in the B.C. coastal community of Tofino are bracing themselves for the sad arrival of detritus from the devastating disaster, even while they debate amongst themselves whether the ruins have already started reaching the shore.
Julianne McCaffrey, a spokeswoman for the Emergency Management B.C., part of the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, has confirmed the government is creating a Provincial Tsunami Debris Working Group.
She said the arrival of the debris, which some experts have argued covers an area the size of California, has raised some "complex jurisdictional issues," which the working group will clarify, so officials hope to identify key members by Jan. 6, 2012.
"In most cases, the federal government has authority in the water and immediate shorelines, and in most cases the local authority becomes the lead if the debris washes ashore in areas above the high tide line," McCaffrey said in an email to The Canadian Press.
"Occasionally, in the case of hazardous or human remains, it becomes provincial jurisdiction – which has not happened, so we cannot speak to hazards or issues that do not exist."
The provincial government's announcement comes as one U.S. expert confirms some flotsam, like 250-litre Japanese fishing buoys, has already landed on Pacific Northwest shores between Oregon and Alaska.
Computer models produced by the International Pacific Research Center at the University of Hawaii had predicted that by the end of September, the debris field was still about 483 kilometres northwest of the Midway Islands, but scientists confirmed in a December website posting that some objects, like the fishing floats, could have already arrived in Washington state.
Meantime, locals in Tofino, B.C., located on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, wonder whether or not flotsam — like plastic water bottles with Japanese writing, toothbrushes and even socks tied to the tsunami — has already arrived.
The massive flotsam field is tied to the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck Japan March 11, a double disaster that left as many as 21,000 people dead and washed millions of tonnes of debris into the Pacific ocean.
The tsunami also swamped the Fukushima nuclear-power plant, leading to fears that some of the debris could be contaminated by radioactive material.
Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer from Seattle, Wash., said he has confirmed that as many as six fishing buoys have washed ashore between mid-Oregon and Alaska and are tied to the Japanese tsunami.
Ebbesmeyer said he has sent photos of the buoys to a Japanese news wire service, which has passed the photos on to fishermen who have themselves consulted with locals.
He said those locals have identified the buoys as coming from oyster farms along the Japanese coast where the tsunami struck.
Ebbesmeyer said he has received a less-than-positive reaction to his warnings that some of the tsunami debris is already here.
"I just feel like Paul Revere riding around and no lights come on in the house because that's what's happening," he said.
Perry Schmunk, mayor of Tofino, B.C., said he has no doubt that some of the debris he found on a recent beach walk with his family is tied to the tsunami. He plans to introduce a resolution to council this January calling for support from more senior levels of government.
Schmunk said everything he has found has Japanese writing on it.
"The most alarming thing is in 10 minutes I saw more debris than I've seen in four years total," he said.
Schmunk said a town like Tofino is not equipped to deal with such a massive influx of flotsam, noting it doesn't have enough staff nor enough space in the local landfill.
"I am . . . of the opinion that we need to be prepared for the worst," he said. "Let's say hypothetically that debris field does stay intact and makes it all the way right to our shores, then we need to be able deal with it."
Yet others in town are not entirely convinced flotsam from the tsunami has arrived.
Jean-Paul Froment, a local surf shop owner, said while the bottles he's seen have Chinese, not Japanese writing on them, the lumber he's found on local beaches has Japanese markings.
Froment said in the past month, more than 50 pieces of lumber with Japanese marking have washed ashore, far more than normal, and locals are talking about how much debris is arriving.
"It is originating from Japan. Again, how it got here, who knows," he said, noting it could be coming from boats, freighters or the tsunami.
Jeff Mikus, a commercial fisherman for more than 20 years, said he's definitely not convinced the flotsam is from the tsunami, saying he hasn't seen any more debris on the shores or in the water than normal.
"I think people are just looking more now because, you know, it's coming," he said. "People are more aware of it so they start seeing stuff on the beach and they think, 'oh, God,' and they see a little bit of, you know, some kind of Asian writing of some sort," he said.
Mikus said he regularly finds plastic floats, corks, water bottles and shampoo bottles, and added that most of the fishing gear he buys in B.C. is made in Japan and has Japanese markings on it.
Mikus also said people forget how many ships pass Vancouver Island and some of the debris could be coming from them.
"You'd think you'd see a lot of stuff that would have a lot more growth on it, algae and barnacles and whatnot after floating around in the ocean that long," he added. "The few pictures I've seen of stuff doesn't look like it's been in the water that long."
Mikus said he believes the bulk of the flotsam is still a long way away.
"There might be a massive cleanup going on here in a year or two."
Ebbesmeyer, too, said he's not yet convinced the flotsam that's washing ashore on Vancouver Island is from the tsunami.
"I saw pictures of that debris and I couldn't tell either," he said.
"It doesn't look like the debris I'm talking about. I'm talking about much larger debris, the size of 55 gallon drums, which has been positively identified. I couldn't identify that debris as being other than sort of local debris or debris from fishing vessels or perhaps debris from cruise ships."
He said he agrees with Tofino residents that the issue is very confusing.
Ebbesmeyer said he's concerned that some of the debris washing ashore on Pacific Northwest beaches could be contaminated by radioactive material, suggesting Tofino should have at least one Geiger counter to measure radioactivity.
He also said people should be respectful of what they find, which could also include human remains and sentimental objects, like pictures in wooden frames protected by plastics.
"It's not just trash," he said. "It's the lives of 20,000 loved ones and their families that's arriving. It's a crash scene. It's the scene of an immense jet airliner that's crashed, albeit late over here. You know. Be respectful. Treat it as a crash scene, a crime scene and go about it very, very carefully."
Photo courtesy: Wikipedia/CC BY 2.0
Brominated vegetable oil is patented as a flame retardant and it's banned in food all over Europe and Japan, but it's on the ingredient list of about 10 percent of sodas in the U.S. It's not in Coca-Cola, but is in Mountain Dew, Fanta Orange, and in some flavors of Powerade and Gatorade.
What brominated vegetable oil (BVO) does to soda is, Coca-Cola explains, "prevent the citrus flavoring oils from floating to the surface in beverages." The fruit flavors that are mixed into a drink would otherwise settle out. What BVO does when it's acting as a flame retardant is not much different: It slows down the chemical reactions that cause a fire.
The FDA established safety limits for the substance in the 1970s, but Environmental Health News reports about growing concerns that the limit was informed by reports put out by an industry group containing outdated and, as industry-generated information tends to be, less-than-comprehensive data.
EHN has the details:After a few extreme soda binges — not too far from what many gamers regularly consume – a few patients have needed medical attention for skin lesions, memory loss and nerve disorders, all symptoms of overexposure to bromine. Other studies suggest that BVO could be building up in human tissues, just like other brominated compounds such as flame retardants. In mouse studies, big doses caused reproductive and behavioral problems.
EHN explains that BVO was pulled from the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) list for flavor additives in 1970, "bounced back after studies from an industry group from 1971 to 1974 demonstrated a level of safety," at which point the Flavor Extract Manufacturers’ Association (which actually exists — not to be confused with the government agency FEMA) "petitioned the FDA to get BVO back in fruit-flavored beverages, this time as a stabilizer, which is its role today."
Today, more than 30 years (and much animal testing, including on pigs and beagles) later, the approval status for BVO is still listed as interim. EHN reports that changing that status would be expensive and quotes FDA spokesman Douglas Karas saying it "is not a public health priority for the agency at this time."
With BVO banned in so many countries, there are feasible alternatives. And that brings us to the unsurprising but disturbing note on which the EHN story ends:Wim Thielemans, a chemical engineer at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, said since the alternatives are already used in Europe "their performance must be acceptable, if not comparable, to the U.S.-used brominated systems." That means "the main driver for not replacing them may be cost," he said.
"It is a North American problem," Vetter added. "In the E.U.(European Union), BVO will never be permitted."
All photos courtesy: treehugger.com
In mid-November, the members of the Greenspeed club headed to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to put their Chevy pickup truck to the test. Stripped of all aesthetics, running on a '93 Dodge engine and burning an unorthodox fuel, it was there to challenge the land speed record for vegetable oil-powered vehicles: 109 mph. On its first run, it flew past that benchmark at 139 mph. On its second, it set the new bar even higher: 155 mph.
The journey to success was not a quick one. Dave Schenker founded the club at Boise State University with a group of undergraduates, with the intention of building the first super high-performance vehicle to successfully run on vegetable oil. He spent months raising the $125,000 from local sponsors to rebuild the old truck with the parts it would need to set a new record. He and the students spent much of the summer putting it together. They hoped to race in September, but couldn't get everything together in time.
The end goal was to prove that vegetable oil is a viable alternative to conventional gasoline and diesel. That's why Greenspeed went after the record with a used pickup truck and not a vehicle with the aerodynamics of a rocket and about the same level of practicality. Schenker wanted to "do something that everyone can relate to" said group member Seth Fueurborn.
But Greenspeed isn't happy with leaving things at 155 mph. The new goal is to refine the truck, putting on tires that can handle even higher speeds and installing a heat exchanger system so the vegetable oil can be heated to the necessary temperature inside the car rather than outside it. They're also going to focus a bit more on aesthetics, making the bare bones speed machine not only faster, but into something you could imagine passing you on the highway.
Curcumin, a natural substance used to make turmeric, a chief ingredient in curry sauces, has been shown to be effective in reducing cancerous tumors. (Photos.com)via theepochtimes.com
While researchers around the world continue searching for new and better treatments for various forms of cancer, they are also finding more evidence that simple changes in diet and lifestyle can, in many cases, prevent the disease.
The effects of smoking are well established, but many doctors now say bad eating habits, lack of exercise, obesity, and stressful living can also be big risk factors. One researcher thinks adding a little spice to your diet could also help.
In a research laboratory at Houston’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Clinic, Bharat Aggarwal has been studying the medicinal use of spices, like the turmeric he grew up eating in his native India.
“These spices have been used day in and day out as a meat preservative, and these spices are anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, anti-virus,” said Aggarwal.
Much of his research focuses on curcumin, a natural substance used to make turmeric, a chief ingredient in curry sauces, which has been shown to be effective in reducing cancerous tumors.
While some doctors scoffed at the notion of using a spice to treat cancer, Aggarwal persisted. And now, he says, other researchers are also showing good results.
“There were at least half a dozen clinical trials that appeared last year alone on curcumin, where as little as 100 milligrams is enough to down modulate all the inflammatory bio-markers in people. We are not talking about rats or mice or anything,” Aggarwal added.
But Aggarwal is the first to say that neither curcumin nor any other food provides a magic bullet to stop cancer. He advocates moderation in diet and lifestyle and the consumption of a variety of natural foods.
“There are 800 different kinds of food items out there — 800! An average American eats no more than 10, so variety is the name of the game,” Aggarwal said.
That is the same approach being taken by Atlanta chef Hans Rueffert, who demonstrated his salad-making skills at a recent Cancer Survivorship Conference in Houston.
Rueffert is a big believer in using fresh ingredients and borrowing from every type of cuisine.
“I think any good chef is constantly learning about different cultures, different cuisines, and you sort of take the best of each one,” Rueffert explained.
But Rueffert is especially interested in healthy eating because he, too, is a cancer survivor, having lost his stomach and part of his esophagus to the disease. He acknowledges the irony, but he says that also gives his message more impact.
“I know what radiation is like. I know what chemo is like. I know what surgeries are like. So when I am up there and talking about how these foods benefit you, I am not reading from some book. … I have lived that,” Rueffert said.
Bharat Aggarwal thinks investigating the chemicals in foods and spices will do more to prevent cancer than expensive research on genetic links.
“These genes are going to be with us no matter what, so we are not going to be able to fix those, but that is where all the money is going,” Aggarwal said.
Aggarwal notes that spices like curcumin have long been known to promote health. “The natural compound is working very well, and it has been used for thousands of years, and it is very inexpensive,” Aggarwal added.
Expense is an important consideration as the United States faces budgetary struggles and an aging population of baby boomers who are going to need more medical care in the years ahead.
Children playing outside in the sunshine. Photo courtesy: theepochtimes.com
Parents now have another reason to shoo their kids outdoors to play, along with making sure they get enough fresh air and exercise. In a study, Australian researchers found evidence that children who spent the most time outdoors were the least likely to suffer from myopia, also called nearsightedness or shortsightedness.
“Our evidence suggests that the key factor is being outdoors, and that it does not matter if that time is spent in having a picnic or in playing sport,” Dr. Kathryn A. Rose told Reuters Health. “Both will protect a child’s eyes from growing excessively, which is the major cause of myopia.”
Myopia has become increasingly common in recent decades, with more than 80 percent of people in some highly-educated groups being nearsighted, Rose of the University of Sydney and her colleagues point out in the journal Ophthalmology. Work that requires a person to focus on something close up — reading, for example — has been proposed to cause nearsightedness, they add.
To investigate how viewing activities at various distances might influence myopia risk, the researchers looked at 1,765 6-year-olds and 2,367 12-year-olds participating in the Sydney Myopia Study. Just 1.5 percent of the 6-year-olds were myopic, but 12.8 percent of the older children were. Both age groups spent about 2.3 hours outside each day, on average.
Time spent outside had no significant relationship to myopia prevalence among the younger children, nor did the amount of close work they did.
But among the 12-year-olds, those who spent more than 2.8 hours outside every day were less likely to be myopic than their peers who spent more of their time indoors. Children who spent less than 1.6 hours outdoors every day and more than 3.1 hours in near-work activity had double to triple the likelihood of being nearsighted, compared to kids who spent the most time outside and the least time in close-up work.
“We have not yet established why being outside is protective,” Rose said. “But a likely candidate is the high levels of light experienced outside compared to inside. Studies in animals suggest that retinal dopamine is released in response to light, and dopamine is known to be able to block eye growth.” Myopia is caused when the eyeball grows too long.
The researcher offers the following advice to parents: “Try to ensure that your children spend time outside because we have evidence that the more time they spend outdoors, the less likely they are to develop myopia. This is true, even if they are also doing a lot of close work such as reading and studying.”
Watching 'SpongeBob' adversely affected kids concentration, learning, and problem-solving. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images) via theepochtimes.com
Four-year-olds’ ability to concentrate, learn, and solve problems slows after watching fast-paced cartoons, according to a new study.
Young children have difficulty learning immediately after watching fast-paced television cartoons full of images and activities that are not possible in real life, according to a new study.
It’s what some people are calling the “SpongeBob effect.” SpongeBob SquarePants is a cartoon character whose surreal and improbable undersea adventures are watched by children around the world.
University of Virginia researchers wanted to find out whether watching “SpongeBob” affected kids’ ability to learn immediately after seeing the show.
To find out, a group of 4-year-old children watched either a short video of “SpongeBob” or a slower-paced and more realistic animated show called “Caillou.”
A third group of children spent time drawing instead of watching television.
Afterward, explains researcher Angeline Lillard, they all took standardized tests designed to measure their ability to concentrate, learn, and solve problems — what psychologists call “executive function.”
“And what we found is that children who had been in the “SpongeBob” group were performing only about half as well as the other children. So they were at about 50 percent capacity.”
The 4-year-olds in this study are at a critical age when the prefrontal cortex is still developing. That is the part of the brain where problem-solving and related functions are located.
Lillard says one reason why a show like “SpongeBob SquarePants” might affect learning is its combination of speed and content.
“It’s fast-paced and it’s fantastical. So the child is needing to process all this new stuff really, really fast, and it’s difficult to process since it doesn’t really happen in real life.”
Lillard cautions that her study looked only at how young children learned immediately after watching the TV shows, so she cannot say whether watching these kinds of programs have a permanent effect on learning.
“But I would say that parents might want to think about when children watch such shows and perhaps how frequently they watch them as well because they are certainly compromised immediately afterwards.”
Lillard’s study is published in the journal Pediatrics.
There are some things we, as humans, do without thinking of the possible consequences of our actions. I have gathered a few no-nos; and, the reason they are more dangerous than you think.
1. Releasing helium-filled balloons. Releasing helium-filled balloons has become a very popular way of sending love and greetings to departed love ones. While those persons releasing the balloons feel a great sense of joy and comfort as they watch the balloons ascend toward the heavens, they are unaware of the havoc these balloons can cause. High-flying balloons have become entangled in low-flying airplanes' propellers and other moving parts causing great damage and injury to both plane and occupants. But, the damage is not limited to while the balloons are in the air. Eventually, they land and can become a danger to wildlife. Wild birds and animals can eat or become entangled in deflated, possibly damaged balloons. Animals that eat part of these balloons or become entrapped in the broken parts of them or the remaining string usually die a prolonged death.
2. Using a garburator: Garburators are wonderful ways to get rid of those pesky, disgusting food particles that always end up in your dishwater. However, this food leaves the sink and immediately enters the local wastewater system. The food may be ground so small you can barely see it; but, the nutrients it contains are only added to soup of treated wastewater. When this wastewater is released back into nature, it can be so full of added nutrients that it causes seaweed and algae to grow at a more rapid rate than normal. This can result in algal blooms that effectively kill the oxygen, fish and all other living creatures in their paths. Please empty your sink strainers into the garbage not the garburator.
3. Using plastic bags: Plastic bags are a definite hazard to wildlife. The handles of the bags are especially dangerous. Nosy wildlife, always on the lookout for food, can get their heads through the handles trapping the bag around their neck. In their panic to remove this monster from their neck, they can run around blindly leaving themselves open to injury or death. Again, there is the possibility of death through ingestion of parts or all of the bag. Please change to reusable bags; and, pick up and safely dispose of any plastic bags you might see outside.
4. Disposing of out-dated prescription medicines down the toilet: This may seem like a safe way to get rid of old and possibly dangerous medications; but, it is not. It has been proven that home tap water can contain small traces of medications the local water authority could not filter out. In other words, you could be getting small doses of things like heart medication or antidepressants with your sparkling glass of water. Keep in mind pharmacists accept all out-dated or unwanted medicines and dispose of them safely at absolutely no charge to the client.
5. Wash spills of oil, gasoline, pesticides, fertilizers and the like down the sewer storm drain: Most people do not realize that many sewer storm drains lead directly to fish habitat. There is absolutely no purification of the water from storm drains whatsoever before it hits the fish habitat. Obviously, if too much of these hazardous wastes are flushed into waters leading to aquatic ecosystems, these habitats could become dead of all life. It takes a little longer; but, please clean up spills of this sort in an environmentally-protective manner.
london's pleasure gardens/promo image
London's 2012 Olympics are taking part in the east end of the city. One of the goals, and benefits, of the Games is the regeneration of this dingy, post-industrial, poor area: Housing, infrastructure, and new parks are now under development.
The newest park to be announced is the Pleasure Gardens. Derelict docks will be transformed into a 60,000 square meter waterfront park with wild and formal gardens, restaurants, cafes, art and cultural activities.
It's all part of the 2012 Olympic celebrations. Because of its location, close to the ExCel centre where the awards ceremonies will be taking place, 40,000 people a day are expected to pass through the area. During the Games it will be a cultural destination with non-stop entertainment for families, locals and tourists.
london's pleasure gardens/promo image
A festive atmosphere will be created with bands, outdoor acrobats, artwork and sculpture gardens. The east end of London, because of low rents, has a huge artistic community which is cutting edge, community-based and very sophisticated.
There will also be the wild meadows -- wild flowers, sweet peas, and blackberries that have been left to grow for the past fifty years on the docks.
One organizer said: "What that site gives you is a real journey from being inside a stark industrial city, to suddenly being in the country. There's a real sense of travelling to different landscapes."
The brownfield site was chosen for development as part of the Meanwhile London competition. It is hoped that the short-term development of the park into a thriving centre will serve as a magnet to attract new buildings and kick-start the regeneration of this area.
london's pleasure gardens/promo image
Pleasure Gardens were a Victorian creation. They were "summertime places where people from all walks of life could come together to listen to music, admire paintings, stroll, drink, flirt and immerse themselves in the culture that defined the vibrant period."
Between 1851 and 1884 there was one located at the very spot of the new one, called the Royal Victoria Gardens.
Touching wine glasses dates back to a custom when medieval hosts were worried their drinks might have been poisoned. They not only touched glasses; but, a small amount of wine was exchanged and everyone took their first drink together.
Humans have a lot of body parts; but, hair is the only part that continually grows, falls out, and regenerates itself. Human hair grows at a rate of about 1/2 inch per month.
The purple finch is a lovely bird; but, it isn't really purple in colour. The very bright, showy parts of the bird are actually crimson.
The potato originated in the Andes Mountains of South America and was introduced to Europe by the Spanish conquistadors in the mid-6th century. They were sent around Europe as exotic gifts from the Spanish court.
Methane bubbles trapped in Arctic ice. Photo courtesy: Yahoo!News
Russian scientists have discovered hundreds of plumes of methane gas, some 1,000 meters in diameter, bubbling to the surface of the Arctic Ocean. Scientists are concerned that as the Arctic Shelf recedes, the unprecedented levels of gas released could greatly accelerate global climate change.
Igor Semiletov of the Russian Academy of Sciences tells the UK's Independent that the plumes of methane, a gas 20 times as harmful as carbon dioxide, have shocked scientists who have been studying the region for decades. "Earlier we found torch-like structures like this but they were only tens of meters in diameter," he said. "This is the first time that we've found continuous, powerful and impressive seeping structures, more than 1,000 metres in diameter. It's amazing."
Semiletov said that while his research team has discovered more than 100 plumes, they estimate there to be "thousands" over the wider area, extending from the Russian mainland to the East Siberian Arctic Shelf.
"In a very small area, less than 10,000 square miles, we have counted more than 100 fountains, or torch-like structures, bubbling through the water column and injected directly into the atmosphere from the seabed," Semiletov said. "We carried out checks at about 115 stationary points and discovered methane fields of a fantastic scale — I think on a scale not seen before. Some plumes were a kilometer or more wide and the emissions went directly into the atmosphere — the concentration was a hundred times higher than normal."
The breathtakingly rugged shores of Tonkin Park in Tofino. Photo courtesy: tripadvisor.ca
Curtis Ebbesmeyer, left, and John Anderson, show fishing buoys from Japan (set loose by the tsunami in March), that washed ashore in Forks, Washington. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ HO - Jim Ingraham via Yahoo!News
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