Gizmorama
March 21, 2011
------------------------------------------------------------
You don't have to be Irish to watch!
The Best of Riverdance DVD at a Discounted Price
http://pd.gophercentral.com/u/1674/c/186/a/474
------------------------------------------------------------
Good Morning,
Exciting news coming out of Europe this past week as the
ESA collectively decides to extend ISS operations 5 years
past its schedule. Funding from all participating European
nations has outlined the hold up, but the money is now
committed. Check out all the details in the third article.
Until Next Time,
Erin
Questions? Comments? Email me at: mailto:gizmo@gophercentral.com
Email your comments
P.S. You can discuss this issue or any other topic in the new
Gizmorama forum. Check it out here...
http://gizmorama.gophercentral.com
------------------------------------------------------------
New method extracts oil from tar sands
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - U.S. researchers say they've come up
with an environmentally friendly way of extracting oil from
tar sands, a method that can also help in cleaning oil spills.
Scientists at Penn State say the method uses ionic liquids to
separate heavy, viscous oil from sand, a university release
reported Wednesday. Tar sands, also known as bituminous sands
or oil sands, represent about two-thirds of the world's esti-
mated oil reserves, but extracting the petroleum causes en-
vironmental damage. Part of that damage comes from contami-
nated wastewater used in current separation processes, which
can seep into and pollute groundwater. The Penn State separ-
ation method uses very little energy and water, the resear-
chers say, instead using ionic liquids -- salt in a liquid
state -- that are recycled and reused. The separation takes
place at room temperature without the generation of waste
process water, they say. "Essentially, all of the bitumen is
recovered in a very clean form, without any contamination
from the ionic liquids," Paul Painter, Penn State professor
of polymer said. "Because the bitumen, solvents and sand/clay
mixture separate into three distinct phases, each can be
removed separately and the solvent can be reused." The pro-
cess can also be used to extract oil and tar from beach sand
after oil spills such as the Deepwater Horizon disaster in
the Gulf of Mexico last year. Unlike other methods of clean-
up, the Penn State process completely removes the hydro-
carbons, and the cleaned sand can be returned to the beach
instead of being sent to landfills, the researchers said.
'Supermoon' could bring high tides
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - U.S. scientists say a phenomenon
called an "exteme supermoon" could create abnormally high
tides as the moon makes its closest approach to Earth in 18
years. Experts say the moon will appear 10 to 15 percent
larger than normal and could create high tides from Friday
through Sunday that might bring beach erosion and minor
shoreline flooding, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported
Thursday. "The tides are definitely going to be higher, not
only in Florida, but worldwide," astronomer Arnold Pearlstein
said. When it rises on Saturday at sunset will be the best
time to view it and the moon should look "huge and orangey,"
Pearlstein said. Some believe the supermoon is a foretelling
of global chaos including earthquakes and hurricanes, but
Pearlstein doesn't buy that. Still, he said, "It's going to
be interesting to see if there will be more wolves howling at
the moon."
Europe agrees to space station extension
PARIS - Europe has formally endorsed the extension of oper-
ations at the International Space Station until 2020 and put
the required financing in place, officials said. Member
states of the European Space Agency made the decision at a
two-day meeting of the European Space Agency at ESA head-
quarters in Paris, the BBC reported Thursday. Europe is an 8
percent partner in the ISS project with the United States,
Russia, Japan and Canada. "This is the formal acceptance from
the member states that the space station will last until 2020
and will be supported financially; and that is really excel-
lent news," ESA space station manager Bernardo Patti said.
All five ISS participants said last year they wanted to see
the platform continue flying beyond 2015, but Europe had
until now struggled to obtain an agreement on funding from
its member states. The 10 ESA nations that subscribe to the
station project approved a further $770 million sum to sup-
plement the $1.9 billion funding package approved in 2008.
Scientist: Moving species could save them
YORK, England - A radical program of "assisted colonization"
could save species endangered by climate change, a U.K. re-
searcher says, proposing Britain as one destination. Chris
Thomas, a professor of conservation biology at the University
of York, says the strategy is applicable across the world. He
suggests Britain as a potential haven for species such as the
Iberian lynx, the Spanish Imperial Eagle, the Pyrenean Desman
and the Provence Chalkhill Blue butterfly, a university re-
lease said Thursday. Each species should be considered care-
fully to judge the balance between the potential benefits of
helping to save a species from extinction and any impact on
existing species within the United Kingdom, he said. Moving
endangered species is the only viable option to maintain some
climate-endangered species in the wild, he said. "Expanding
the dispersal of endangered species may represent the most
effective climate change adaptation strategy available to
conservationists to reduce extinction rates across the
globe," Thomas said. Current guidelines on releases into the
wild for conservation call for the release of a species only
into an area where it used to occur, a re-introduction rather
than introduction. A more radical policy is required if
humanity wishes to minimize the number of species that become
extinct, Thomas said. "We need to develop a long 'shopping
list' of potential translocations and, where possible, put
in place monitoring of extant populations to help identify
when action is needed," he said. "The later we leave it, the
harder and more expensive translocations will become."
------------------------------------------------------------
Check out Viral Videos on the Net at EVTV1.com
http://www.evtv1.com/
EVTV1.com