Travis at the FYC Event for Dune: Prophecy / with Olivia Williams, Emily Watson, Jordan Goldberg, Alison Schapker, Bojana Nikitovic and Tom Meyer.

IIAR webinar with IDC

Tom Meyer (LinkedIN) and Mathew Heath (LinkedIn, Twitter) will be giving IIAR members an exclusive overview of IDC with a deeper dive into some of the interesting areas such as partnering, marketing, customer experience and digital transformation.

When: 18th May Time: 1700 – 1800 BST Register HERE for Webinar To attend in person, central London, Register HERE

  This session will be moderated by…

Achtung Dork-Alarm 😁🙈

http://www.wkyc.com/story/news/local/cuyahoga-county/2014/10/17/cuyahoga-river-toxic-poison-chemicals-drinking-water/17449257/

Investigator | Radioactive chemicals discharged into Cuyahoga River

The Investigator Tom Meyer obtained letters that both the EPA and Cleveland city officials fired off to BASF.

Tom Meyer, WKYC-TV11:48 p.m. EDT October 17, 2014

The Investigator Tom Meyer obtained letters that both the EPA and Cleveland city officials fired off to BASF

(Photo: WKYC-TV)

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Channel 3 News has learned exclusively that toxic and radioactive chemicals are being discharged into the Cuyahoga River through a storm sewer and making their way out to Lake Erie.

"They're poisoning the river. It's as simple as that," said Jane Goodman,the executive director of the Cuyahoga River Community Action Plan.

Investigators from the Environmental Protection Agency tested water samples from October 2013 and found at least eight heavy metals including uranium, nickel and lead.

"I'm particularly concerned about uranium and nickel. They're radionnuclides, so they have radioactive qualities to them," said Julius Ciaccia, the man in charge of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.

The Investigator Tom Meyer obtained letters that both the EPA and Cleveland city officials fired off to BASF, a German-based chemical giant. The company used the site at 1000 Harvard Avenue as a storage facility and are now doing demoliton work at the site.

A spokesman for the company said it's cleaning up pre-existing contaminants from previous manufacturers including Harshaw Chemical,which has processed uranium products to support the government's early atomic weapons program.

While the EPA received the contamination results in January of this year, they didn't send letters to the company, the city and the sewer district until the second week of October alerting them of the contamination.

"Why did they wait so long," asked Ciaccia. Channel 3 news asked the EPA, but the agency failed to respond.

BASF says it was actually in July when they first heard from the EPA of the illicit discharge. The company said it began working with authorities to clean up the mess.

The EPA said the company violated the Clean Water Act by not having a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit. The BASF spokesman said the company was not aware that one was required.

"I don't know how you can own a property and not know what your responsibilities are," said Goodman.

The level of contamination isn't known, but in large quantities, Ciaccia said "it would be quite risky."

The EPA has ordered BASF to stop the discharge immediately, but, as of this week, the spokesman said the company is still trying to contain the chemicals.

"We're trying to bring the river back to life," said Goodman. "These irresponsible property owners are not only not doing their part to help the restoration but are actively ignoring activities that contribute to the degradation."

New Post has been published on http://laflecha.net/aprovechando-la-energia-del-sol-durante-el-dia-para-usarla-por-la-noche/

Aprovechando la energía del Sol durante el día para usarla por la noche

La energía solar ha sido utilizada como una alternativa limpia a los combustibles fósiles como el carbón y el petróleo, pero sólo podía ser aprovechada durante el día que es cuando los rayos del sol son más fuertes. Ahora los investigadores dirigidos por Tom Meyer en el centro de investigación de Fronteras de la Energía en la Universidad de Carolina del Norte, han construido un sistema que convierte la energía del Sol no en electricidad, sino en combustible de hidrógeno que se almacena para su uso posterior, permitiendo usar esta energía almacenada mucho después de la puesta de sol.

COMBUSTIBLES SOLARES

Los llamados combustibles solares como el hidrógeno, ofrecen una solución a la forma de almacenar energía durante la noche tomando un modelo de fotosíntesis natural. Estos hallazgos pueden proporcionar una última pieza importante de un rompecabezas para una nueva forma de almacenar la energía solar… podría ser un punto de inflexión para un futuro de energía solar.

Los paneles solares actuales aprovechan la energía del Sol para generar electricidad durante el día. Pero el problema con el sol es cuando cae la noche desaparece y con ello la capacidad de energía de nuestros hogares y automóviles. Si vemos la energía solar como oportunidad de ser una fuente limpia para alimentar todo el planeta, hay que ingeniárselas para darle a esa energía un uso nocturno, como en este caso.

IDEAS NUEVAS, SOLUCIONES NUEVAS

El nuevo sistema diseñado por Meyer y su equipo hace exactamente eso. El dispositivo es una célula fotoelectrosintética sensible, que realiza una fotosíntesis artificial que genera combustible de hidrógeno mediante el uso de la energía del sol para dividir el agua en sus componentes. Después de la escisión, el hidrógeno es captado y almacenado, mientras que el subproducto, oxígeno, se libera en el aire.

“Dividir el agua es extremadamente difícil de hacer. Necesitas coger cuatro electrones de dos moléculas de agua, transferirlos a otro lugar y hacer hidrógeno; y, una vez que se ha hecho eso, mantener el hidrógeno y el oxígeno separados. Cómo diseñar moléculas capaces de hacer eso es un gran desafío que hemos empezado a superar”, afirma Meyer.

El nuevo sistema de Meyer puede convertir la energía del sol en combustible sin necesitar casi ninguna energía externa para funcionar y no libera gases de efecto invernadero.

El próximo objetivo es utilizar el mismo enfoque para reducir el dióxido de carbono, un gas de efecto invernadero, con un combustible basado en carbono como el metanol.

Cuando hablas de alimentar un planeta con energía almacenada en baterías, no parece nada práctico. Resulta que la mejor forma de almacenar energía se encuentra en los enlaces químicos de las moléculas. Y eso es lo que hemos hecho, hemos encontrado una respuesta a través de la química, termina diciendo Meyer.

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Sacramento Bee's Exposé of "The Killing Agency"

Wildlife Services, formerly known as "Animal Damage Control," is the federal agency that uses tax dollars to shoot, trap, and poison coyotes, beavers, river otters, prairie dogs, mountain lions, black bears, wolverines, and wolves.  The agency's dangerous, ineffective methods produce deadly byproducts, lacing land with cyanide and killing pets and federally-protected species, wasting the tax dollars used to save them.  Biologists have issued calls to discontinue these practices.

Visit Predator Defense for links to the Sacramento Bee's three-part article on Wildlife Services, a Bee editorial calling for a "tight leash" on the agency, and the cartoon above (as well as a host of other coverage and a letter from the American Society of Mammalogists). 

At a time when the feds are looking to cut wasteful spending, this is a no brainer.