Alabama's Governer says to Pray for Rain

Really, the GOVERNOR OF ALABAMA wants you to pray for rain.

With the state's weather forecasters not delivering much-needed rain, Gov. Bob Riley on Thursday turned to a higher power. The governor issued a proclamation calling for a week of prayer for rain, beginning Saturday.

Riley encouraged Alabamians to pray "individually and in their houses of worship."

"Throughout our history, Alabamians have turned in prayer to God to humbly ask for his blessings and to hold us steady during times of difficulty," Riley said. "This drought is without question a time of great difficulty."

This proclamation comes days before an expected storm front with scattered showers in Alabama in the next couple days. Are we supposed to take this as proof that PRAYER WORKS?

So much for a separation between church and state....

New Blog - Home Greening

I'd like to take a moment to announce a new blog: Home Greening.

I have been thinking, recently, how Freelance Geek has changed from the techy, geeky, sci fi, and computer-related blog. It has been ever growing into the reporting of my environmental, green, organic & alternative energy interests.

As of today, my green side is now expressed on Home Greening, as I gather information to make my life, the lives of my family, our home, our community and our world a better, healthier place.

Freelance Geek will remain as my techy, geeky, consulting/business related blog.

Please drop over to Home Greening for the greener side of life.

Have a GREAT day!

NASA: Earth bends the fabric of Space-Time (just as Einstein said)

The much-debated theory of relativity is no longer debatable, according to exacting new research. Albert Einstein taught that due to his general theory of relativity, a massive body like Earth should bend the space-time fabric of the universe, causing it to curve and flex like a trampoline supporting a bowling ball.

NASA’s Gravity Probe B Relativity Mission shot into space about 3 years ago, with only one goal—to quantify Einstein’s predictions from Earth’s orbit. Earlier this year, at the meeting of the American Physics Society, principal investigator Francis Everitt of delivered the first results: Gravity Probe B has verified Einstein’s theory.

Another incredible discovery will be officially announced later this year. Not only did Einstein say that the universe curves around these massive bodies, he said they also “drag” space behind them, which creates a twist in the cosmic fabric. Everitt says his team will soon announce verification of this “frame dragging” effect, as well.

The experiment used four near-perfect spherical gyroscopes, each the size of a Ping-Pong ball, which formed the core of the experiment. These specific gyroscopes are the most perfectly spherical man-made objects in existence, as noted in the Guinness World Records. At the beginning of the experiment, the gyroscopes’ axes pointed to a distant star; as the spacecraft moved around Earth for nearly a year, the researchers carefully monitored the position of the axes.

Einstein’s theory predicts that the axes should shift by 0.0018 degree under the influence of Earth’s pull on space-time. After 18 months of data analysis, Everitt and his team used 18 months of data and concluded that the axial shift was a near perfect match of Einstein’s prediction. Everitt, a Stanford physicist who has spent more than 40 years on the project, says the results are quite sweet. “It’s really extraordinary to look at the output and see Einstein looking back, without any calculations or corrections,” he says. “This measurement is unprecedented in any test of general relativity.”

But was it worth it? The project cost $750 million and we all figured he was right beforehand. I mean, come on, it’s Einstein! At any rate, we now know for certain, and our near religious worship of the genius can continue undisturbed.

The project was first conceived way back in 1959, but was cancelled and restarted over seven times by NASA officials who wondered if the project was really worth the time and money.

No one can say for certain what the findings are worth in monetary terms, but for now Everitt and his colleagues get to bask in the light of being right. “You don’t get to do extremely worthwhile programs without fighting for them,” He adds.

Link

New Energy Bill passed the Senate

What a fantastic victory for our environment!

On Thursday, 21 June, the U.S. Senate passed an energy bill that would greatly improve the fuel economy of our nation's cars for the first time since 1975 -- cutting America's oil dependence and
global warming pollution in the process.

By a 65 to 27 vote, the Senate adopted a measure that would require cars, trucks and sport-utility vehicles to get 35 miles per gallon by 2020 -- compared with a paltry 25 miles per gallon today.

It was a stunning setback for the auto companies, who fought tooth and nail against an energy bill that will drag America out of our gas guzzling past and into a more energy efficient
future.

And what a historic moment for millions of us who have worked so hard -- for so many years -- to break the automakers' stranglehold on Washington for the sake of a healthier planet.

Thousands of you exemplified that can-do spirit yesterday when you received the emergency alert and swamped the Senate with phone calls in opposition to the automakers' latest amendment.

You spoke out for the vast majority of Americans who are sick and tired of our oil habit and the terrible price we pay for it.

And that's why the Senate, after decades of doing Big Auto's bidding, made a sudden U-turn last night.

What a difference five years makes! The last time we fought this battle, in 2002, the automakers barely broke a sweat. But since then, the American people have glimpsed an oil-dependent future of skyrocketing gas prices, catastrophic global warming and unending wars over fossil fuels.

America does not want to go there. You delivered that message to the Senate loud and clear, and the Senate heard you.

We still have to fight this battle all over again in the House before this fuel economy measure becomes law. And we'll be calling on you to make your voice heard in that chamber at the critical moment.

Judge taps the brakes on the RIAA

jcgam69 writes "A federal judge in New Mexico has put the brakes on the RIAA's lawsuit train, at least in the US District Court for New Mexico. The case in question is part of the RIAA's campaign against file-sharing on college campuses and names "Does 1-16," who allegedly engaged in copyright infringement using the University of New Mexico's network. In a ruling issued last month but disclosed today by file-sharing attorney Ray Beckerman, Judge Lorenzo F. Garcia denied the RIAA's motion to engage in discovery. This means that the RIAA will not be able to easily get subpoenas to obtain identifying information from the University."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Sometimes it just doesn't pay to go to Minneapolis

Bicyclist's account of getting tased by cops at Minneapolis St Paul international airport

Stephan Orsak is a professional violinist, and has performed under Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur and Seiji Ozawa. He is about to go to trial on six counts, including a Gross Misdemeanor of Obstructing Legal Process 'with force or violence or threat thereof,' after he was tased by a police officer who stopped him for riding a bike out of the airport.

I stated again, 'You are being rude to me and I want to speak to your supervisor'. Officer Wingate then said, 'Look, you're wasting our time. We were on a call to the Humphrey Terminal for a runaway teenage girl, and we would have been there by now.' I completely agreed that it was a waste of time for everybody. I noted that I was not being cited for any violation, nor told any statute that I had violated. I explained that I would follow the first and most reasonable, safety-wise, of the conflicting orders given to me, and then said 'I'm going to wish you both a good evening, and hope the rest of it goes better than this has gone.' I then got on my bike and began to leave.

I was instantly and with absolutely no verbal warning whatsoever attacked from behind and thrown to the ground. I received wounds to chin and arm. The impact put a new casing crack on my helmet. My glasses were thrown off by the impact and bounced several feet away. The bicycle continued to roll forwards a few feet, coming to a stop in the center of the road. (A gold van would later have to stop, because the bike was crumpled in the middle of the one lane road.) Officer Wingate then came up behind me and jerked me up into a standing position. I then heard him yell an order to Officer Bryant -- 'Shoot him!'. Officer Bryant then shot me with the taser. I fell uncontrolled to the pavement for the second time, experiencing the full force of a weapon that can only be considered barbaric.

More Info

Not On Our Watch

Founded by George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and Jerry Weintraub, Not On Our Watch aims to use the powerful voices of prominent artists to focus attention and resources on global humanitarian crises. The organization is working through established aid groups like the International Rescue Committee by supporting vital relief efforts on the ground.

The first initiative aims to help uprooted people in the Darfur region of Sudan. Not On Our Watch will support programs that treat the sick, prevent the spread of disease, shelter the displaced, enable children to heal and learn, teach new skills, promote human rights and offer protection to the most vulnerable.

To kick off the fundraising effort, Warner Brothers Studios, together with Vanity Fair and CineVegas, are hosting benefit screenings of the new film Ocean's Thirteen, which is produced by Weintraub and features Clooney, Pitt, Damon and Cheadle.

The International Rescue Committee has been a lifeline to people impacted by violent conflict in Sudan for 26 years and currently provides vital aid to more than 700,000 people in dire need of help in the Darfur region.

The new organization Not On Our Watch, founded by George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and Jerry Weintraub, announced a donation today of $2.75 million to the International Rescue Committee to support the group's humanitarian aid programs in the Darfur region.

"The International Rescue Committee is at the forefront of providing lifesaving humanitarian assistance in Darfur," says Clooney, who visited IRC programs in Sudan and Chad last year.

Clooney was speaking in Chicago today, where Not On Our Watch announced the gift ahead of a benefit premiere of Ocean's Thirteen. The fundraiser caps a series of benefits, hosted by Warner Brothers Studios, Vanity Fair and CineVegas, aimed at raising funds for Darfur relief efforts.

"The Darfur crisis is not going away and hundreds of thousands of people continue to rely on our aid programs for survival," says George Rupp, president of the IRC. "These funds will help the IRC to treat the sick, provide clean water, prevent outbreaks of disease, deliver emergency shelter supplies, expand healing and learning programs for children and increase protection for the most vulnerable."

Not On Our Watch was launched last month and aims to use the influence and reach of prominent artists to spotlight underreported violent conflicts and atrocities around the world and raise funding for needed humanitarian assistance.

"Celebrities such as these have a unique ability to turn the world's attention to forsaken emergencies, access those who can effect change and generate significant resources to address critical humanitarian needs," says Rupp. "We are grateful for their dedication and goodwill and are committed to using the funding to aid some of the world's most desperate people."

For more information visit http://www.theIRC.org and
http://www.notonourwatchproject.org

Green IT: Why it matters

There's an environmental storm about to hit the technology industry. Information and communication technology accounts for 2 percent of global CO2 emissions, according to Gartner. That's the equivalent of the airline industry.

The big question: What are technology executives going to do about it?

For starters, get more efficient. Gartner analyst Simon Mingay says the bright side is that there are so many inefficiencies in IT that there's a lot of low-hanging fruit to bring down CO2 emissions.

However, regulators, product vendors, IT managers and businesses have to be on the same page, said Mingay at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo.

In either case, CIOs have to prepare for another issue to worry about–carbon emission caps. If an enterprise is subject to carbon emission caps or involved with a carbon trading scheme it's highly likely that the CIO is going to be asked to cap power use pronto.

"Whether you believe in climate change or not, you have to prepare for that reality," says Mingay. "There's a mistaken belief that IT organizations will be able to continue to consume the power they do today."

Mingay says it's very plausible that CIOs will have to cut IT power consumption. It's also possible that environmental groups could start targeting heavy technology users. "The question is not why should you bother, but what are the risks if you do nothing," says Mingay. Gartner is projecting that by 2010, 50 percent of IT organizations will declare an environmental policy.

CIO goals should be to start a debate about an environmental policy, define a strategy, measure CO2 emissions and create procurement guidelines to improve your company's environmental standing.

source: ZDNet

OLPC is the greenest laptop

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program is moving ahead with orders from Nigeria, and strong interest in the machines from Uruguay, Nigeria, Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, Thailand, and Libya. The computers are destined to be the possessions of the kids, not the schools so the kids will have an incentive to take care of them.

The specs for this small laptop are impressive, the first models, the OLPC XO-1 will have:

• 700 Mhz AMD x86 processor (They went to Intel first, but Intel dropped the ball by not responding fast enough. AMD ended up with the contract.)
  
• 256 M Ram
  
• 1G flash memory provides instant on and very long battery life. Your typical hard drive sucks a lot of power.
  
• 3 USB Ports
  
• Inbuilt Video
  
• Wifi mesh network (kids can collaborate, text message etc.)
  
• Rugged (survives drops that would kill an ordinary computer. No hard drive to crash.)
  
• Stereo sound with 2 audio output jacks
  
• Dual mode display for indoor and outdoor viewing (sunlight readable)
  
• Highest resolution in dots per inch than any laptop they know of
  
• Extreme low power: 2W Nominal. (A well-nourished person can generate 15-20W with the “pencil-yellow hand crank”. They’ve got it so you can get 10 minutes of use out of 1 minute of cranking.)
  
• Adjustable ear antennae give it 2-3x range for picking up wifi.
  
• Sugar user interface (you should check this out, very abstract looking)
  
• Wide range of alternative power inputs
• “Greenest laptop by factor of ten” (1/2 size, 1/2 weight, 1/3 part count, RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive) compliant, no Hg, Cd, Pb, etc.)
  
• Fedora Linux, Windows XP ready (which is convenient as Microsoft just announced that they’d be selling versions of the Windows OS for $3 in select developing countries.)

First thoughts are that the amount of memory seems tiny and 1Gig storage... even tinier, but the OS is very efficient and I can remember being impressed by a lot less not so long ago. Besides, with the price of 1Gb, 2Gb, and larger USB flash drives coming down, additional storage shoudl not be a problem.

Other benefits: no bloatware (that heinous stuff that you never want that ships on your brand new laptop and takes up space/processor power), no capslock (because who uses it anyway), AND peer to peer everything ('bout time!)

Tech support may be the Achilles heel of the project. Not much has been said of the OLPC tech support. In areas where there is little or no communications infrastructure this could be a concern.

more info: OLPC

WiTricity - broadcast power at long last

Researchers at MIT led by Prof. Marin Soljacic have accomplished what Nikola Tesla envisioned over a century ago - the efficient wireless transmission of electricity. Dubbed 'WiTricity' (for Wireless Elecricity) by its inventors, it is the first wireless transmission of power to improve on the efficiency of radiant electromagnetic devices, which send energy indiscriminately in every direction, while not requiring direct line-of-sight like lasers.

WiTricity works on the principle of magnetic coupled resonance. The MIT team built matching copper coils to precise specifications, so that when power was applied to one coil, it produces a magnetic frequency - in the MHz range, since you wanted to know - which causes the other coil to vibrate up to 7ft (over 2 meters) away. Meanwhile, other elctromagnetic fields, such as those surrounding computers, cell phones, and human beings, remain largely unaffected.

The scientists were able to light up a 60-watt bulb that had "no physical connection" with the power-generating appliance. "It was quite exciting," Soljacic said. The process is "very reproducible," he added. "We can just go to the lab and do it whenever we want."

Aside from the implications in clutter management (who wouldn't want to get rid of that tangle of wires behind the desk? Ugh!) there's a green component, too - imagine a world without the need for batteries and their weight, inefficiency, short life span and toxic chemicals. Current battery technologies are around 80-90% efficient at best, losing energy through heat and self-discharge; WiTricity is currently capable of about half that, but for a proof of concept that's pretty darn good. The group envisions a product which could supplant batteries in cell phones, Roombas, laptops, and other household items which require frequent charging.

source: MIT News Office

Explosion in Nairobi: 1 dead, injures over 30

One person has been confirmed dead and several seriously injured following an explosion at the city centre in Nairobi this morning.

The explosion went off shortly after 0800 (0500 GMT) at the City Gate Restaurant near the Ambassadeur Hotel between Tom Mboya Street and Moi Avenue.

Shop windows nearby were shattered and the area has now been cordoned off as anti-terrorist police with sniffer dogs comb the scene for further explosives.

After the blast, people just started screaming and running all over Johnson Nyaga, eyewitness

The spot is usually busy with huge traffic as morning commuters change buses and rush to work. A junction outside the restaurant is one of the key picking and dropping points for buses in the city.

A local media photojournalist, William Oeri, reported seeing at least two body parts and a ripped off leg at the scene.

“Personal items are strewn all over the place,” he said.

Robert Maritim said he had been having his shoes shined near the blast and believed the dead man was a street sweeper.

Kenyatta National Hospital confirmed receiving 31 victims of the blast, six of them with serious injuries, being reported as in critical condition.

Security teams rushed to the area and cordoned off the scene as others searched the debris for evidence.

Some witnesses have claimed that the blast was triggered by a man who seemed to have been waiting for a bus.

"It was a very loud explosion. I thought it was a tyre burst but it was louder than that," Lang'at Justice, a 20-year-old student who witnessed the explosion, told Reuters near the chaotic scene.

According to the BBC, al-Qaeda is claiming responsibility for the attack, however this claim was not reported in either the local reports nor by the Aljazeera network. A senior policeman said that it is suspected that the attacker may have been a suicide bomber, but that has not been confirmed.

The blast came after weeks of violence by a criminal society called the Mungiki, which beheads its enemies. At least 30 people were killed by police last week in raids on a Nairobi slum which is a stronghold of the gang. Some speculate that this may have been an attack in response to recent raids.

At home when far from home

My home page is google....

My home page now has become, Google, Kenya

Feels like home.....

Serenity in Africa

This morning, on Movie Magic 2 (Africa), Serenity came on....

Captain Malcolm Reynolds and his crew of the transport shuttle Serenity are hired to protect teenage girl River Tam from the Operative, a mysterious agent of the Alliance. Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres. (2005) Joss Whedon

SHINY!

Why we should drive higher MPG cars

The Energy Department says that vehicles emit about 25 percent of our
country's carbon dioxide, and that if you drive a 25 mpg car instead of
a 20 mpg car, you cut carbon dioxide emissions by 17 tons per year.

Great apes 'facing climate peril'

source: BBC

Climate change may be putting great ape species at risk

Great apes are facing an "inevitable crisis" arising from climate change, a leading conservationist has warned.

Dr Richard Leakey said that growing pressure to switch from fossil fuels to biofuels could result in further destruction of the animals' habitats.

The chair of WildlifeDirect called for immediate action and proposed financial incentives to save forests from destruction as one possible solution.

He said: "Climate change will undoubtedly impact everything we know."

The great apes - gorillas, chimps, bonobos and orangutans - are already under threat from habitat destruction, poaching, logging and disease.

The Great Apes Survival Project (Grasp), a United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) initiative, has warned that great apes are at risk of imminent extinction unless drastic action is taken.

Palm oils

In advance of a talk at the UK's Royal Geographical Society, Dr Leakey told journalists that climate threats now had to be added to the mix.

The former director of the Kenyan Wildlife Service said: "I am concerned about the pressures on the land as a result of changes to the climate, but also the pressures on the land in terms of people's reaction to climate change and the shift away from fossil fuels to biofuels."

The great apes: Status check In pictures

He said that "great swathes" of forest had already been destroyed in South Asia to make way for palm oil plantations, and this had had a dramatic impact on orangutans, which currently number 50,000.

Palm oil is used in vegetable oil, soaps, shampoos, industrial substances, but it has also been proposed as an alternative to fossil fuel.

Dr Leakey said the growing pressure to turn to biofuels such as palm oil could place the great apes' habitat in further peril.

He added: "People shrug their shoulders and say what are poor countries to do if they cannot exploit their natural resources, and I can understand this, but it is not sustainable the way it is going."

There is also evidence that deforestation would further drive climate change itself by raising the amount of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, Dr Leakey said.

New incentives

Dr Leakey suggested "biodiversity credits" could be a possible solution.

"Being paid for not cutting down indigenous forests and getting credit for that is a further step that builds on the idea of getting paid for planting new forests," he explained.

"It does seem that we cannot stop development, but it does also seem that perhaps we can stop development where critical species are threatened, and perhaps there could be a price added to that."

Dr Leakey is a prominent conservationist in Kenya

He said that there could be creative ways to solve the problems that climate change could bring, but added that it was crucial that action was taken now.

Dr Leakey told journalists: "Could the great apes go because of climate change? Yes. Possibly not within our lifetime, but what about in 100 or 200 years?

"Climate change is measurable and is happening at rate that is almost unprecedented from what we know in previous history, and the implications for biodiversity are there for all to see."

Richard Leakey is a palaeo-anthropologist, responsible for extensive fossil finds related to human evolution, and renowned Kenyan conservationist. His parents, Louis and Mary Leakey, were prominent palaeontologists, finding and excavating key sites around Africa.

Profile: Dr Richard Leakey