Nature_and_Environment.59

Pigeons get lost near radio masts. New research shows that the prized birds, able to find their way from 700 miles away, get confused near radiation-emitting masts. Exposure also makes pigeons fly much lower than usual. Now pigeon fanciers are demanding curbs on the number of mobile phone masts to protect their birds. Research by the Swiss Bird Study Organisation. Sunday Mirror 18 June 2000 http://www.globalchange.com/radiationnews.htm

I go to German websites to keep up on my language skills, and they talk all the time about the dangers of using cell phones. Recently, the article of interest was about cell phones that are the most efficient and thus radiate less. Funny how American news hardly ever reports on this. FWIW. William Lynn

"Funny how American news hardly ever reports on this." Indeed. And yet... How many millions or billions of dollars does the cell phone/wireless industry spend on advertising in those media? Here's a source for some news, both local for New Mexicans and national/international. http://wireless-action.blogspot.com/

I recently read "The Journey Home" by Edward Abbey. Though he mainly wrote about the disappearing natural places of the West due to urbanization and suburban sprawl, his observations hold true for the whole country. I enjoyed his irreverent wit and humor as he chronicles the man made disasters man has brought about by so called progress. I respect him as a man who would have loved to leave the modern world behind to live in a more natural world. I think most of us too, would love to escape what Abbey called "Our cancerous industrialism".

Not certain where one could post this - but I'd like to establish a topic that deals with the Great Lakes Basin and those that wish to use the water to feed industrial, commercial and agricultural, residential needs. At present all condignees to the greatlakes international treaty agree that no water can leave the great lakes basin... so that if you do use the water for commercial or residential needs - sucha s drinking water it must fbe returned to the basin (ie the lakes). This is being challenged by some who are going to the Feds to override the states..So far it isn't flying --- but put NOTHING past the Bush administration.

It's no coincidence that the US/UK/Australia "coalition of the willing" partners are also the biggest users and wasters of petroleum products. It must be because their god commands them to "subdue" the earth (Genesis 1:28) Published on Wednesday, June 28, 2006 by the Los Angeles Times U.S. Emits Half of Car-Caused Greenhouse Gas, Study Says Americans drive more in vehicles with lower fuel standards, says an environmental group. by Janet Wilson American cars and pickup trucks are responsible for nearly half of the greenhouse gases emitted by automobiles globally, even though the nation's vehicles make up just 30% of the nearly 700 million cars in use, according to a new report by Environmental Defense. Cars in the U.S. are driven more miles, face lower fuel economy standards and use fuel with more carbon than many of those driven in other countries, the authors found. According to the report by the environmental group, due out today, U.S. cars and light trucks were driven 2.6 trillion miles in 2004, equal to driving back and forth to Pluto more than 470 times. http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2006/2006-10-23-02.asp Brits Most Guilty of Energy Wasting Habits LONDON, UK, October 23, 2006 (ENS) - Brits are the most wasteful people in Europe, according to a survey of the energy habits of 5,000 Europeans. A report today by the UK's Energy Saving Trust found Germans are the most efficient in their energy use, followed by the Spanish, but Brits top the European Energy Wasters' league. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061024/wl_nm/environment_australia_dc_1 Australians among world's top resource consumers By Rob Taylor CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australians soak up more scarce resources than almost any other nation and produce so much waste on average that their mark on the world's ecology exceeds China, the environmental group WWF said on Tuesday. "If the rest of the world led the kind of lifestyles we do here in Australia, we would require three-and-a-half planets to provide the resources we use and to absorb the waste," said Greg Bourne, WWF-Australia chief executive officer

As a New Cafe "special guest liaison" (see: {Volunteer}), I'm curious to know what participants in this forum might have to say about possible invitations. Who would you like to have invited as a "special guest"? Perhaps a favorite author or public official...?

. {Cafe_Improvements_and_Feedback.5.570}: James River Martin {rivertree} Sat, 21 Apr 2007 James {riverrat}, I've posted and read in {Nature_and_environment} since its inception, and my thoughts are (a) it is a socio-politically oriented forum, and should remain as such, and (b) it has always had a very low level of participation, and that is not likely to change until the Cafe draws a lot more participants. To elaborate on point (a), I don't think mixing together eco-social and eco-political talk under one roof with outdoors recreation makes very good sense for the Cafe. Outdoor recreation and eco- social/political concerns have in common, oftentimes, a love of nature and the outdoors, but this is about all of the overlap they have. I like the {Nature_and_Environment} forum as it is, and wouldn't want to alter it in any way other than to encourage more participants to gather and talk there. And it seems that there are plenty of people here who have expressed agreement with the notion that an outdoor recreation forum would be an enhancement to the Cafe.

If the same house were to be plunked down in different parts of the USA, where would it use the least energy? I've tried poking around the web, but I keep getting information on energy costs rather than usage. I also found plenty of information by region (like west vs midwest, etc.), but there's a big difference between Southern Ca. and NW Washington State when it comes to energy consumption in the west. Does anyone have this info, or know where I might find it online without spending hours in the effort?

It's an interesting question but I wonder if it isn't the wrong question. Are you trying to find a universally efficient home? The most efficient construction techniques will vary with climate and location. When it comes to energy usage it really is based on the number of people in the home. A large home can be built that has low energy usage if lived in by one person or a couple but has much higher usage if it is a family of 4 or more. So variable conditions are an important consideration when building a home.

I'd look at weather and climate information. An area that has an average yearly temperature range between 30 degrees and 75 degrees F would likely be the least energy user.

International Day against Electromagnetic Pollution The 24th June is the international day against electromagnetic pollution. Electromagnetic pollution is a continuous exposure to electromagnetic fields generated mainly by high-voltage power lines and electric power substations, but also by mobile telephony aerials, radio links, and telecommunication systems (Wifi, Wimax). >>> continued >>> http://www.ecologistasenaccion.org/spip.php?article8516

Results from another photography contest by eggheads <g> "http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dn16497-international-wildbird-competition?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news" Shooting beauty: Prize-winning photos of birds The winning images of the International Wildbird Photographer 2008 Award were announced this week. They include gentoo penguins, a graceful whooper swan in midflight, and the inside of the huge bill of a dalmatian pelican. [ The competition was organised by Bird Watching and Warehouse Express. ] BTW, don't search for "Men smell of cheese and women of onions"

i'm posting this in multiple forums in an attempt to make the many forum hosts aware of what's going on at the cafe management/board level. board secretary carlos {salsero} has involved himself in a forum-specific matter being heard by the PR WG, and is threatening to take board action to overturn a longstanding forum-specific ban on a participant and to de-host one (or more?) of the forum's hosts. this is a significant development since, up until now, hosts have been given much latitude to run their forums the way they believe is in the best interests of the forum and its participants. grievances were once heard by the ombudsman or PR WG, but now it appears that carlos is changing that protocol in favor of direct board involvement and oversight. given this new development in cafe protocol and what appears to be complete abandonment of the "federated model" that carlos promised to adhere to, i felt it was important to inform all the hosts of the cafe that they will apparently be subject to the board's approval of any and all actions they may take, and could possibly be de-hosted based on the whim or caprice of carlos. those who wish to learn more about this can read the entire thread at {WorkGroup-PR.26.1-}

{Cafe_Improvements_and_Feedback.14.2524}: Jean Destry {destry} Sat, 14 May 2011 20:44:15 EST (HTML) As a member of the New Cafe, I am calling for a members' meeting for the reason of a members' recall of board secretary {salsero}, iaw Washington State laws. This meeting is to take place in {Currents} on 28 May, 2011, at 09:00 PDT. A topic will be created prior to and specifically for the meeting. Should new topic creation be turned off, the meeting will take place in {Currents.3236}. Should that topic be unavailable, I will locate another public forum. Admins, please post this in banner form so that all members are notified.

This is an informal survey to get an idea of how the participants in the New Cafe view the purpose and/or vision of your experience on this website. I am posting this in every active forum to give the participants a chance to voice their opinions for the next two weeks. Afterwards, I will post a summary of the results in the board forum. 1. Do you view the New Cafe as a charity, a social club or something else? 2. At present, the current bylaws state that the only members of The New Cafe, Inc. are the Directors on the Board and that all others who post in the forums are participants. Would you like the bylaws to change the membership rules? If yes, do you want all who join New Cafe to be members(which might require real names to be given in a list to the state we are incorporated in) and have voting rights or would you prefer a tiered membership with those who donate either time or money to have the privilege of membership(with the same rights and responsibilities as stated above) along with participants only who can continue to post in the forums, but opt out of the membership? 3. Would you like the Board of Directors to appoint or hire a GM to handle managing the New Cafe website, or hold elections for all of the WorkGroup Chairs to be considered a multi-headed GM, or have the Board of Directors take care of managing the New Cafe website?

To answer the questions in the survey, you can either email me your answers to musefan2001@yahoo.com or if you feel comfortable, you can post your answers within this topic and I will make copies to put together a summary to post within the Board forum(without any usernames) after August 16th. Thank you!

FYI, cafe participants--everyone who posts here should be concerned about this. things get heated in discussions around here sometimes and there ARE people who will do this sort of stuff to you when they get mad. << {Board.9.4566} board members-- i don't know if you're reading in the jane woodward/liz costello topic, but if you haven't, there's a specific part of it that i believe deserves your attention and should be placed on the agenda for discussion. starting with {71.214-}, steve deering appears to be stating cafe policy about malicious acts made in real life involving cafe participants. what he's saying is that the cafe WILL NOT TAKE ANY ACTION against participants who act out maliciously in real life against other cafe participants. steve states that the ONLY actions that will result are those that come about as a result of local law enforcement action, ie, the police (or similar) must be called. so, for instance, according to this board member, one cafe participant may track down/call/email another participant's wife/husband, and tell them all sorts of things in order to maliciously fuck with them in their real life. or find a picture of their kid online and post it at a porn site. and no action will be taken by cafe management against a cafe participant who does something like this. obviously, examples abound of actions that would be not technically illegal or extremely difficult to prosecute yet would be extremely effective in messing up someone's life (or, at the very least, intimidating someone by insinuating that one would do this). is this really the cafe's policy on these sort of malicious actions? this deserves clarification. please add this item to your agenda. thanks>> do you want the cafe to be a place where you can feel free to speak your mind without having to worry that the person you're disagreeing with might go crazy and mess with your real, offline life AND STILL BE ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE HERE? please get involved. go to the {board} forum and let the board members know your feelings about this cafe policy!

Nature_and_Environment.59
miscellaneous

Nature_and_Environment.59

miscellaneous