the wei

. . . scientists now say the planet itself is generating a constant, deep thrum of noise. No mere cacophony, but actually a kind of music, huge, swirling loops of sound, a song so strange you can’t really fathom it, so low it can’t be heard by human ears, chthonic roars churning from the very water and wind and rock themselves, countless notes of varying vibration creating all sorts of curious tonal phrases that bounce around the mountains and spin over the oceans and penetrate the tectonic plates and gurgle in the magma and careen off the clouds and smack into trees and bounce off your ribcage and spin over the surface of the planet in strange circular loops, “like dozens of lazy hurricanes,” as one writer put it.

. . . . Me, I like to think of the Earth as essentially a giant Tibetan singing bowl, flicked by the middle finger of God and set to a mesmerizing, low ring for about 10 billion years until the tone begins to fade and the vibration slows and eventually the sound completely disappears into nothingness and the birds are all, hey what the hell happened to the music? And God just shrugs and goes, well that was interesting.

More . . .

Moko the dolphin came to the rescue on Wednesday of a whale and her calf in New Zealand who were in danger of death. The pygmy sperm whales beached themselves several times while rescue personnel tried to find a way to guide them safely back out to sea.

“They kept getting disorientated and stranding again,” said Smith, who was among the rescuers. “They obviously couldn’t find their way back past (the sandbar) to the sea.”
Then along came Moko, who approached the whales and appeared to lead them as they swam 200 yards along the beach and through a channel out to the open sea.

“Moko just came flying through the water and pushed in between us and the whales,” Juanita Symes, another rescuer, told The Associated Press. “She got them to head toward the hill, where the channel is. It was an amazing experience.”

Anton van Helden, a marine mammals expert at New Zealand’s national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa, said the reports of Moko’s rescue were “fantastic” but believable because the dolphins have “a great capacity for altruistic activities.”

Jump to full AP article.

Bob Crosby is putting years of experience in mechanical engineering and appropriate technologies to good use. He’s going to build a wood-burning stove that helps fight global warming …

Crosby said his stove will produce heat while providing fuel for cars, fertilizer for gardens and electricity for its own bellows.

A key fact scientific fact makes this possible.

Wood itself doesn’t burn. When exposed to extreme heat, wood gives off biogas, which subsequently burns. While these two occurrences typically happen in conjunction, this doesn’t need to be the case.

“You can design a stove that will extract the gas for use and use it instead of natural gas. And you’re left with charcoal which you can plant in your soil and enhance the productivity of the soil,” Crosby said.

Jump to full article.

Paul Krugman writes

Now, why should Mr. Bush fear that insuring uninsured children would lead to a further “federalization” of health care, even though nothing like that is actually in either the Senate plan or the House plan? It’s not because he thinks the plans wouldn’t work. It’s because he’s afraid that they would. That is, he fears that voters, having seen how the government can help children, would ask why it can’t do the same for adults.

And there you have the core of Mr. Bush’s philosophy. He wants the public to believe that government is always the problem, never the solution. But it’s hard to convince people that government is always bad when they see it doing good things. So his philosophy says that the government must be prevented from solving problems, even if it can. In fact, the more good a proposed government program would do, the more fiercely it must be opposed.

This sounds like a caricature, but it isn’t. The truth is that this good-is-bad philosophy has always been at the core of Republican opposition to health care reform.

Jump to full New York Times op-ed piece

The family of a California teenager plan to sue her health insurer which refused to pay for a liver transplant until hours before and she died on Thursday night.  

Her family . . . will ask the Los Angeles district attorney to press murder or manslaughter charges against Cigna HealthCare, arguing that the firm “maliciously killed” Nataline Sarkisyan by its reluctance to pay for her treatment. Although she was fully insured and had a matching donor, Cigna refused to pay . . . . 

The company recently posted figures for its third-quarter performance this year, which showed profits up 22%. Next year it expects to earn an income of up to $1.2bn.

Jump to full Guardian article.

Aqua-dots, which were supposed to be the latest and greatest kid toy, are putting kids in coma and their lives at risk.

The toys were supposed to be made using 1,5-pentanediol, a nontoxic compound found in glue, but instead contained the harmful 1,4-butanediol, which is widely used in cleaners and plastics.
 
The Food and Drug Administration in 1999 declared the chemical a Class I Health Hazard, meaning it can cause life-threatening harm.
 
Both chemicals are manufactured in China and elsewhere, including by major multinational companies, and are also marketed over the Internet.  

It’s not clear why 1,4-butanediol was substituted, though there is a significant price difference. The Chinese online trading platform ChemNet China lists the price of 1,4-butanediol at between about $1,350-$2,800 per metric ton, while the price for 1,5-pentanediol is about $9,700 per metric ton.

Jump to full article

Indians are going to have a treat that as a USan, I would love to have, and really need too: a car which drives at speeds up to 135 mph, has a body designed with aerospace technology, costs only $8000 and causes absolutely no pollution. $2.00 fills up the CityCAT’s tanks and lets you drive for 185 miles. Yowzer!

What fuel do you fill the car up with? Air! “Impossible, you might say, but no,” Guy Negre, who heads Moteur Development International of France [the MDI Group] is a fuel specialist and he has discovered the method for allowing compressed air to entirely run this baby at speeds under 30 mph.

Outside of the city the CityCAT’s engines switch to fuel mode. Which fuel is needed then? Just take your pick. The CityCAT handles each of these well: gasoline, gas oil, bio diesel, gas, liquidized gas, ecological fuel, alcohol, etc. The CityCAT comfortably seats 6 people and conforms to over the road safety and driving standards and regulations.

How cool can you get?

Well, So, I’ll tell ya. Cool is another thing this car does with minimal energy outlay. The air conditioning system is boosted by recycling the compressed air which it expels. The air is cool and completely free of pollutants. Instead of exploding in the engine, fuel expands, so the engine is much quieter than a gasoline engine. The engine is lubricated by vegetable oil and need changing only once in 30,000 miles.

Is there more?

You betcha. Engines come in 2, 4 and 6 cylinder sizes. Vehicle models in development are MiniCATS for city-only driving with three seats, as well as pickup trucks, taxis and sectionable buses to which more sections can be added during peak traffic hours and removed at other times. MDI vehicle bodies receive safety reinforcement from their tubular construction.

Moteur Development International of France - the MDI Group, has signed an agreement with Tata Motors, India’s largest car auto maker, to begin production for the India marketplace. MDI is a family owned business headed by Guy Negre and is located near Nice. The company is currently looking for investors to assist with their development plans.