Aquaponics and Agroferstry News

below are some of the links I have been reading recently about aquaponics and agroforestry:

-John Robb: One Way to Make Aquaponics Easier

-SFGate: Aquaponics: Water plus fish poop grows plants (about the Aquafarm)

-IOL: Farming fish and plants side by side

-TimesFreePress: Aquaponics farms to be made in the Chattanooga region

-Resilience: Small Scale Aquaponics – From Fish Poop to Seafood Dinner

-Boulder County Business Report: Fresh fish: Bernsteins hooked on growing aquaponics business [about The Aquaponics Source]

-IBM's Smartplanet: Can aquaponics feed the German capital?

-Resilience.org: Small Scale Aquaponics – From Fish Poop to Seafood Dinner

-Resilience.org: Agroforestry: The Art of Farming With Trees

-WI Public Radio: Aquaponics Advocates Ramp Up Efforts To Raise Yellow Perch

-Gizmag: Aqualibrium uses fish to grow plants, and plants to grow fish

-MichTech: From Sustainability Demo to Fish Taco: Aquaponics at Michigan Tech

-USDA: Hooked on Aquaponics

-USDA: Agforesrty: USDA Reports to America [pdf]

-Thomson/Reuters Foundation: Agroforestry can transform rural economies - climate experts

-Treehugger: Aqualibrium Garden: modular aquaponics for growing food in apartments

-3P: How Aquaponics Makes Commercial Urban Agriculture Possible

-Inter-Faith Food Shuttle: Ef-FISH-ient Food: Mohan and Ben’s Aquaponics Adventure

-Sustainable Business Oregon: Aquaponics company launches hyper-local food in Bend -> about Volcano Veggies

-TheDay (CT): Stonington High graduate developing aquaponics farm -> about Fish Your Food, aquaponics in a shipping container

Science Of Interest

[Recent links of scientific interest, and by recent I mean since March, 2011]

-SciAm: Bison versus Mammoths: New Culprit in the Disappearance of North America's Giants

-NewSci: Vikings' crystal clear method of navigation

-NPR: New 'Giant' Species Of Crayfish Found In Tennessee Creek

-Wired: Shark Teeth Found Stuck in Ancient Ammonite Shell

-80Beats: Scientists Find First Evidence That Weather Affects Movement of Tectonic Plates

-SurprisingScience: Gigantic Plume Beneath Yellowstone Now Even More Gigantic

-The Rach 3 recordings page

-Wired: Gut-Bacteria Mapping Finds Three Global Varieties

-80Beats: Ancient Stone Structures Herded Gazelles to Mass Slaughter [like Lake Huron?]

-SciAm: How Science Stopped BP's Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

-Time: More Proof That Vikings Were First to America

...a small group of Icelanders — roughly 350 in total — carried a lineage known as C1, usually seen only in Asians and Native Americans.

-PhysOrg: New theory proposed to explain Pioneer probe gravitational anomaly

-Wired: Lava Lamp Action Helped Create Grand Canyon

-USGS: US Topo – A New National Map Series

-Dr. Jeff: America's Achilles' heel: the Mississippi River's Old River Control Structure

-Spacenews: U.S. Weather Satellites Saw Tornado Swarm Coming 5 Days Out

-TR: Atmosphere Above Japan Heated Rapidly Before M9 Earthquake

-Wired: Hot, Rocky Pancake Formed Hawaiian Islands

-Wired: Humans Could Have Geomagnetic Sight

-SciAm: The Behavioral Immune System

-EarthSky: Discovery of new force driving Earth’s tectonic plates

-BBC: Gravity satellite yields 'Potato Earth' view

-EarthSky: MIT discovery: A drug to cure nearly any virus

-SciAm: Solar System Likely Once Had Another Gas-Giant Planet

-Wired: Recent Human Evolution Detected in Quebec Town History

-Wired: Ozone Gas May Signal Coming Earthquakes

-EarthSky: Was a fifth gas giant ejected from our solar system?

-Wired: Multicellular Life Evolves in Laboratory

-PhysOrg: Anthropologists clarify link between Asians and early Native-Americans: A tiny mountainous region in southern Siberia may have been the genetic source of the earliest Native Americans, according to new research by a University of Pennsylvania-led team of anthropologists.

-WaPo: Radical theory of first Americans places Stone Age Europeans in Delmarva 20,000 years ago

-Smithsonian | Surprising Science: Clovis People Hunted Canada’s Camels

-EarthSky: Correlation between tornadoes and activity recorded by seismographs
[very interesting that seismographs picked up noise before the tornadoes formed]

-Atlantic: Superweeds: A Long-Predicted Problem for GM Crops Has Arrived

-PhysOrg: How religion promotes confidence about paternity [in other words, the world's major religions were founded to keep control of women's sexuality]

-PhysOrg: Research finds Stonehenge was monument marking unification of Britain

-Wired: Spectacularly Preserved Fossil Suggests Most Dinosaurs Were Feathered

-Discover/80Beats: Star Formation is Coming to a Close

-Wired: Top Scientific Discoveries of 2012

-Ars: No absolutes: How shifting plates completely remake the Earth

-SciAm: The Most Fascinating Human Evolution Discoveries of 2012

Recent Long And Interesting Reads

-Outside: The Workout that Time Forgot [about MovNat camp; or adventure playgrounds for adults]

-FoodInJars: A Field Guide to Jars

-CanadianBusiness: Decades later, a Cold War secret is revealed [backstory on the KH-9 satellites]

-NYTMagazine: How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body
[reminded me of a line from 'Born To Run' - “Forget yoga. Every runner I know who does yoga gets hurt.” Also, CNN did a segment on the article and interviewed a former classmate of mine]

-NYTMagazine: Carrie Brownstein Starter Kit
[not surprised that we are both KITH fans]

-Smithsonian: The Most Terrible Polar Exploration Ever: Douglas Mawson’s Antarctic Journey

-NYT: Spirit of a Racer in a Dog’s Blood

-GQ: The Gary Oldman Story That Almost Wasn't

related interview with Charlie Rose from 2/22/2012

-Wired: The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)

-Prospect: Wolves to the Slaughter
This applies to deer hunting in Michigan too:

What the elk-hunting industry wants... is hunting that requires no effort and little skill, a kind of vanity hunting.

-Outside: On the Trail of the White Horse | Searching for Caballo Blanco

-NYT: Caballo Blanco’s Last Run: The Micah True Story

-FC: The Lost Steve Jobs Tapes

-Smithsonian: Matt Groening Reveals the Location of the Real Springfield

-GQ: The Man Who Hacked Hollywood

-Crain's Chicago: Sears – where America shopped [the story of the decline of Sears]

-NYMag: Born This Way: The new weird science of hardwired political identity

-NYT: As Bison Return to Prairie, Some Rejoice, Others Worry

-TheAtlantic: How Vegetable Oils Replaced Animal Fats in the American Diet

-NaturalRunningCenter: Bill Bowerman, His Wife’s Waffle Iron, Nike’s Early Days and Birth of the Modern Running Shoe

-NYT: Finding the First Americans

-NakedCapitalsim: Malcolm Gladwell Unmasked: A Look Into the Life & Work of America’s Most Successful Propagandist [I've always found MG a good writer but a less than convincing theorist]

-Fortune: The truth about the Fast and Furious scandal

Irony abounds when it comes to the Fast and Furious scandal. But the ultimate irony is this: Republicans who support the National Rifle Association and its attempts to weaken gun laws are lambasting ATF agents for not seizing enough weapons—ones that, in this case, prosecutors deemed to be legal.

-Slate: Why YKK? The mysterious Japanese company behind the world’s best zippers.

-FastCoCreate: Wes Anderson Maps Out The Peculiar Genius Of "Moonrise Kingdom"

-VF: Investigation: Mitt Romney’s Offshore Accounts, Tax Loopholes, and Mysterious I.R.A.

-ProPublica: Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Voter ID Laws

-Reuters Special Report: How Washington went soft on childhood obesity

-The Daily Traveler Interview with Alton Brown: Alton Brown on Flying, Airplane Food, and Why Frosting Is Definitely Not a Gel  and  Alton Brown on the Importance of Slow Travel and Staticky Radio

-AdWeek: 'Good Eats' Host Gives Adweek the Dish on His Media Habits

-Smithsonian: Why Are Jim Thorpe’s Olympic Records Still Not Recognized?

-Wired: Biophysicist Opens Genomic Black Box, Finds Ramen Noodles

-Prospect UK: Why are languages so different—and disorderly?

-RS: Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital

-Zagat: Alton Brown on Next Iron Chef: Redemption, How Food TV Has Changed and More

-FP: The Nudgy State: How five governments are using behavioral economics to encourage citizens to do the right thing

-NYT: Snow Fall: The Avalanches at Tunnel Creek [beautiful use of HTML5 too]

-Atlantic: When the Nerds Go Marching In: How a dream team of engineers from Facebook, Twitter, and Google built the software that drove Barack Obama's reelection

Beer Today

Some craft beer news->

-NPR: Canning Factories On Wheels Rev Up The Beer 'Canvolution'

-"Craft Beer" and "Gastropub" added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary

-BeerAdvocate: Number of US brewers reaches 125-year high with 2,126 open and 1,252 in planning

-NPR: Home Brew Petitioners To POTUS: Release The Beer Recipe and SF Weekly: Sign a Petition to Release the White House Honey Ale Recipe

Bio News

Some recent news about putting biology to work in areas I get excited about. Biofuels (specifically biobutanol) and aquaponics (aquaculture + hydroponics).

(Biofuels)
DesMoinesRegister: Ethanol plants may shift to biobutanol

GCC: Study finds biomass-to-liquids fuels could be economically competitive at current price levels

SciAm: First Dedicated Biorefinery Could Wean Hawaii Off Imported Oil

Record-Eagle: Teacher to launch biodiesel fuel plant

(Aquaponics)
UpNorthLive: Grand Traverse Academy Starts Aquaponics

HuffPost: A Tour Of Chicago's Amazing Vertical Farm

The Plant is a fish hatchery, hydroponic garden, commercial kitchen, and brewery for both beer and kombucha tea. Perhaps best of all, the waste from one part of farm serves as raw material for another, making it a net-zero energy system...

 The Plant (official site)

Hoping This Science News Is Unrelated

Wired: Mystery Fossils Link Fungi to Ancient Mass Extinction

SciAm: Mystery Goo in Alaska Is Made of Fungal Spores

2010 Status Update

The CSMonitor has their Top 5 overlooked stories of 2010

1. Stuxnet
2. TARP is cheaper than expected
3. Common school standards
4. Rise of natural gas
5. Twilight of the desktop

I agree with all of these; they nail it.

IBM has released their list of five innovations for the next five years: IBM Reveals Five Innovations That Will Change Our Lives in the Next Five Years

* You'll beam up your friends in 3-D
* Batteries will breathe air to power our devices
* You won't need to be a scientist to save the planet
* Your commute will be personalized
* Computers will help energize your city

These are so general and sound a lot like a 'Popular Science' magazine cover article from the 1960's. I have no idea what IBM is thinking here other than trying to get some attention via a press release.

In no order these are my musings for 2011:

• the decline of Microsoft will accelerate
• the popularity of Android devices will peak
• Facebook will attempt to replace the OS
• Apple will NOT release a television but will make apps available on AppleTV
• peak oil will be accepted as having happened and an oil production plateau will become conventional wisdom
• the future of energy research will be concentrated in bio-butanol, oil from algae, and technology that replicates photosynthesis by combing CO2 and sunlight to produce energy
• people will stop talking about ethanol and the hydrogen economy
• Ford's reputation will surpass Toyota's
• wok cooking will be the big food trend in 2011
• Verlander and Bonderman will have amazing years leading to a Tigers vs Phillies World Series
• cancellations of cable TV and landline telephone subscriptions will increase logarithmically; providers will lose money until the figure out it is a packet based world and customers will pay for those packets
• continuing research will indicate things thought to be good aren't necessarily always a good thing; things like marriage, mortgages, running shoes, pillows, drugs/vitamins, the suburbs, college
• the phrase "climate chaos" will replace "climate change"
• wingnuts will get even nuttier
• Twitter and the Tea Party will both be replaced by the "new thing" in communications and politics respectively, pleasing many people
• the economy will get stuck between oil prices and stock prices - as one goes up the other goes down leading to stagflation until a non-carbon based energy breakthrough is reached which will break the cycle
• there will NOT be an Arrested Development movie
• alien life will be acknowledged/discovered and the response will be the same as if someone told you Liberace was gay ("and so....??")
• political parties begin talking about an economics which includes social costs

So those last two are more about my wishes than actual predictions. Oh well.

Science!

Some recent science news of interest.

Wired: Dying Moon May Have Spawned Saturn’s Rings

SciAm: Blood from Stone: How Fossils Can Preserve Soft Tissue

TR: Spacecraft Saw ULF Radio Emissions over Haiti before January Quake

TR: Elegant New Theory Explains Origin Of Asteroid Belt

How Is This Not News? - Peak Production Was 70 Mb/d

From the IEA via TO: Projection: Peak Oil Happened in 2006

"Crude oil production will more or less stabilize around 68-69 Mb/d (millions of barrels per day) towards 2020, but will never return to the record level of 70Mb/d it achieved in 2006."

Best Caption Ever

Drakozoon kalumon, the primordial blob reconstructed by scientists, looks almost nothing like this Xavier University sports mascot.

Via the CSMonitor: Scientists recreate ancient mysterious blob

Omnibus

A week off from Google Reader and still not caught up. Some reads that I found interesting:

-Open Heat Map

-when people say "they want their country back" and mean how the USA was in the 1950's what they are unknowingly pining for is less income inequality.
Atl: The Rich Are Getting Much Richer, but Don't Blame Taxes


-Grist: Creating 625,000 jobs and saving $64 billion through energy efficiency

-FS: How increased immigration would help fix the economy

Statistical analysis of state-level data shows that immigrants expand the economy’s productive capacity by stimulating investment and promoting specialization. This produces efficiency gains and boosts income per worker

-FC: E.T. For Real: Cells From Red Rain Can Reproduce, May Be From "Out There"

-MSNBC: Greenspan, in switch, now favors higher taxes

-CSM: Glaciers, known for erosion, can help mountains grow

-3QD: Winner-Take-All Politics

"The Republicans, according to Hacker and Pierson, by marrying populist rhetoric to elite action, have been able to stitch together a constituency that includes moderate income supporters – Christian conservatives, tea partyers, and elite-wary blue-collar workers – while pursuing policies catering almost exclusively to business and moneyed elites."

-Never promise crazy a baby. NDTV: Mistresses, wives of trapped Chilean miners clash over cash

-PhysOrg: Egyptian papyrus found in ancient Irish bog

-TheWeek: 6 global warming skeptics who changed their minds [and me circa 2000]

Fox News, The White House, Apple, Verizon, And Strategy

Much hubbub has been made lately about the spats between Fox News and the White House and Verizon/Motorola and Apple/AT&T.

See:
-Droid Does: Verizon Launches Anti-iPhone Ad for Motorola Droid
-Verizon Tweaks AT&T With "There's A Map For That" Commercial
-The Battle Between the White House and Fox News

All of the analysis has been wrong.

Have these commentators never had an ex they wanted to get back or teach a lesson to? Ask a guy who was dumped by his hot girlfriend how he reacted then look at Verizon/Motorola or The White House for comparison. It is the same reaction. These spats and battles are strategy. They aren't trying to break things up completely; they're trying to hook back up by teaching a lesson that they don't need them. No, it is not rational but then people aren't either.

Yes, Fox News is awful and the iPhone's hotness cannot be debated. But that is not the point. Because Verizon still wants the iPhone on their network. And I bet Obama would grant Fox News' Chris Wallace an interview.

In the end, these fights are like a guy trying to get his hot girlfriend back so I will not be surprised when Fox News gets an exclusive interview with Obama and Verizon gets an Apple device.

If only the pundits listened to Jawbreaker and paid attention to 'Bad Scene, Everyone's Fault'

I ran into this guy I knew
But hadn't seen in years.
We went into the neon kitchen and stole a couple beers.
He said his girl had dumped him
But there was another guy.
He said that he still liked her.
All I could say was,
"Why, why, oh why, oh why,
Why is it always like this?
Either you're too mean, or you're too nice."
He said, "I even cooked her breakfast."
So we went into the living room.
Someone was blasting Zeppelin.
It sounded good.
I felt ashamed.
I knew every drum fill.
Anyway, there she sat,
Totally kissing this guy.
They looked good, I mean like in love.
Then I remembered my friend.
He said, "How could you do this?
You said that you needed your space.
He's wearing the shirt that I gave you."
Then she said, "Why, why, oh why, oh why,
Why are you always like this?
If I'm having fun then it's breaking your heart.
Besides, you said I could have it."

The Flying Spaghetti Monster Attacks Wind Turbine?

Telegraph: Wind turbine destroyed after 'octopus UFO' seen in sky

Newspapers For Obama

Amazingly, the UK's Financial Times: Obama is the better choice

In our view, it is enough to be confident that Mr Obama is the right choice.

At the outset, we were not so confident. Mr Obama is inexperienced. His policies are a blend of good, not so good and downright bad. Since the election will strengthen Democratic control of Congress, a case can be made for returning a Republican to the White House: divided government has a better record in the United States than government united under either party.

So this ought to have been a close call. With a week remaining before the election, we cannot feel that it is.

Mr Obama fought a much better campaign. Campaigning is not the same as governing, and the presidency should not be a prize for giving the best speeches, devising the best television advertisements, shaking the most hands and kissing the most babies.

Nonetheless, a campaign is a test of leadership. Mr Obama ran his superbly; Mr McCain’s has often looked a shambles. After eight years of George W. Bush, the steady competence of the Obama operation commands respect.

Nor should one disdain Mr Obama’s way with a crowd. Good presidents engage the country’s attention; great ones inspire. Mr McCain, on form, is an adequate speaker but no more. Mr Obama, on form, is as fine a political orator as the country has heard in decades. Put to the right purposes, this is no mere decoration but a priceless asset.

NYT: Barack Obama for President

Mr. Obama has met challenge after challenge, growing as a leader and putting real flesh on his early promises of hope and change. He has shown a cool head and sound judgment. We believe he has the will and the ability to forge the broad political consensus that is essential to finding solutions to this nation’s problems.

In the same time, Senator John McCain of Arizona has retreated farther and farther to the fringe of American politics, running a campaign on partisan division, class warfare and even hints of racism. His policies and worldview are mired in the past. His choice of a running mate so evidently unfit for the office was a final act of opportunism and bad judgment that eclipsed the accomplishments of 26 years in Congress.

Given the particularly ugly nature of Mr. McCain’s campaign, the urge to choose on the basis of raw emotion is strong. But there is a greater value in looking closely at the facts of life in America today and at the prescriptions the candidates offer. The differences are profound.

Mr. McCain offers more of the Republican every-man-for-himself ideology, now lying in shards on Wall Street and in Americans’ bank accounts. Mr. Obama has another vision of government’s role and responsibilities.

In his convention speech in Denver, Mr. Obama said, “Government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves: protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology.”

Since the financial crisis, he has correctly identified the abject failure of government regulation that has brought the markets to the brink of collapse.

Anchorage Daily News: Obama for president

Gov. Palin's nomination clearly alters the landscape for Alaskans as we survey this race for the presidency -- but it does not overwhelm all other judgment. The election, after all is said and done, is not about Sarah Palin, and our sober view is that her running mate, Sen. John McCain, is the wrong choice for president at this critical time for our nation.

Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, brings far more promise to the office. In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand. The same cannot be said of Sen. McCain.

The Chicago Tribune: Barack Obama for president
Quite a remarkable endorsement; some excerpts:

Many Americans say they're uneasy about Obama. He's pretty new to them.

We can provide some assurance. We have known Obama since he entered politics a dozen years ago. We have watched him, worked with him, argued with him as he rose from an effective state senator to an inspiring U.S. senator to the Democratic Party's nominee for president.

We have tremendous confidence in his intellectual rigor, his moral compass and his ability to make sound, thoughtful, careful decisions. He is ready.

The change that Obama talks about so much is not simply a change in this policy or that one. It is not fundamentally about lobbyists or Washington insiders. Obama envisions a change in the way we deal with one another in politics and government. His opponents may say this is empty, abstract rhetoric. In fact, it is hard to imagine how we are going to deal with the grave domestic and foreign crises we face without an end to the savagery and a return to civility in politics.

This endorsement makes some history for the Chicago Tribune. This is the first time the newspaper has endorsed the Democratic Party's nominee for president...

...We do, though, think Obama would govern as much more of a pragmatic centrist than many people expect.

We know first-hand that Obama seeks out and listens carefully and respectfully to people who disagree with him. He builds consensus. He was most effective in the Illinois legislature when he worked with Republicans on welfare, ethics and criminal justice reform.

He worked to expand the number of charter schools in Illinois--not popular with some Democratic constituencies.

He took up ethics reform in the U.S. Senate--not popular with Washington politicians.

His economic policy team is peppered with advisers who support free trade. He has been called a "University of Chicago Democrat"--a reference to the famed free-market Chicago school of economics, which puts faith in markets.

Obama is deeply grounded in the best aspirations of this country, and we need to return to those aspirations. He has had the character and the will to achieve great things despite the obstacles that he faced as an unprivileged black man in the U.S.

He has risen with his honor, grace and civility intact. He has the intelligence to understand the grave economic and national security risks that face us, to listen to good advice and make careful decisions.

When Obama said at the 2004 Democratic Convention that we weren't a nation of red states and blue states, he spoke of union the way Abraham Lincoln did.

It may have seemed audacious for Obama to start his campaign in Springfield, invoking Lincoln. We think, given the opportunity to hold this nation's most powerful office, he will prove it wasn't so audacious after all. We are proud to add Barack Obama's name to Lincoln's in the list of people the Tribune has endorsed for president of the United States.

Editor & Publisher compiles a complete list: Tally Of Newspaper Endorsements -- Obama Widens Lead to 231-102

Obama's lopsided margin, including most of the major papers that have decided so far, is in stark contrast to John Kerry barely edging George W. Bush in endorsements in 2004 by 213 to 205. Obama, with 231, has already easily topped Kerry's number with many more yet to be tallied.

At least 46 papers have now switched to Obama from Bush in 2004, with just four flipping to McCain (see separate story on our site). In addition, several top papers that went for Bush in 2004 have now chosen not to endorse this year, the latest being the Indianapolis Star in key swing state Indiana.

The Chicago Tribune endorsed Obama--the first Democrat that it has backed in its long history. Three of the top five dailies in deep red state Texas switched from Bush to Obama this time.

And if you have ever wondered if newspaper endorsements mattered: Yes, Newspaper Endorsements Matter…

Links To Other Stories Getting Overlooked

MSNBC - In hard times, tent cities rise across the country

MoJo - Meet the Religious Right Duo Behind "Obama Waffles"

AP - John McCain either doesn't want to meet Spain's prime minister any time soon or isn't quite sure who he is