Most recent analysis of the Southern Hemisphere total ozone from the an instrument on board the NOAA polar orbiting satellite. In austral spring the analysis shows the “ozone hole” (values below 220 Dobson Units) over Antarctica and the Antarctic Ocean.
Credit: NOAA

NOAA, NSF OBSERVE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF OZONE HOLE ‘SUCCESS STORY’

August 22, 2006 — Twenty years ago this month, four teams of scientists from NOAA, NASA and two universities arrived in Antarctica seeking to determine the cause of a “hole” in the Antarctic ozone layer. Their efforts helped determine the chemical basis for the ozone loss and formed the scientific basis for the resulting international treaty phasing out the production of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which has led to a decline in ozone-depleting gases. …

The ozone layer is a thin, invisible layer of the Earth’s atmosphere about 15 miles thick. A British Antarctic Team first looked at results that showed a decline in stratospheric ozone over Antarctica in 1985, and doubted their findings. After rechecking their data and their instruments, they determined that there was a hole in the ozone. …

Theories about the cause included solar activity that affected the magnetic field, atmospheric motions and chemical reactions involving chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which had been used since the 1930s as refrigerants and propellants, such as aerosol sprays. … The work conducted by the Antarctic team in the 1986 field study was the first to show that a chemical reaction triggered by the CFCs was indeed the cause. Scientific papers have been published recently showing early signs of a leveling off of ozone loss, linked to the success of international agreements to control CFC emissions worldwide.

… the series introduces us to the inventive leaders and technologies
driving sustainable practices worldwide in the design of buildings where we
live, work, and play.

The first episode, “The Green Apple,” [ie: New York City] demonstrates
how the ubiquitous skyscraper can surprisingly be a model of environmental
responsibility. In the second episode, architect and activist Sergio
Palleroni continues his mission to provide design solutions to humanitarian
crisis regions. “The Green Machine” follows Mayor Richard M. Daley as he strives
to make Chicago “the greenest city in America.” The fourth episode takes
the notion of the three R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle) to grand proportions by
turning Boston’s “Big Dig” waste into spectacular residential design.
“China: from Red to Green?” depicts a country at its tipping point and finds a
sustainable solution in Steven Holl’s Beijing project. The final episode,
“Deeper Shades of Green,” presents some of the most remarkable visionaries who
are changing the face of architecture and environmentalism: Ken Yeang, Werner
Sobek and William McDonough. Check your local
listings to find out when these episodes will air on your PBS station.

Tags: Environment, Architecture,
Green,
Design,
Urban,
Cities,
PBS

When: Wednesday, August 9, 2006, 7 pm

Where: South Street Seaport, Melville Gallery (213 Water Street between Fulton & Beekman).

Who: Alan Burdick presents Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion

Description: Now as never before, exotic animals and plants are crossing the globe, borne on the swelling tide of human traffic to places where nature never intended them to be. As alien species jump from place to place and increasingly crowd native and endangered species of existence, biologists speak fearfully of “the homogenization of the world.” Never mind bulldozers and pesticides: the fastest-growing threat to biological diversity may be nature itself. Out of Eden is a dazzling, personal journey through this strange and shifting landscape. He follows world-class scientists – invasion biologists, “mix-o-ecologists” – and a global cast of alien species, to ask: What exactly is nature? What is natural? Book signing.

Info: Suggested donation $5. For more information call 212.748.8568.

Links:

• Via Science & the City
• South Street Seaport
• Alan Burdick

Favorite quote: “The act of sexual cannibalism in praying mantids is an example of extreme conflict between the sexes”:

In a paper in the August issue of The American Naturalist, Jonathan Lelito and William Brown (SUNY-Fredonia), study male risk-taking behavior in a praying mantis by altering the risk of cannibalism and observing changes in male behavior. They find that the males are able to assess the risk of cannibalism and become more cautious in the presence of particularly hungry females.

“We know that hungry females are more likely to cannibalize and a head-on orientation makes it easier for her to attack the male with her predatory front legs,” says Brown.

Lelito and Brown thus varied female hunger and physical orientation in order to assess how male mantids respond to variation in the risk of cannibalism. They found that males responded to greater risk by slowing their approach, increasing courtship behavior, and mounting from a greater – and possibly safer – distance.

“This shows that male mantids actively assess variation in risk and change their behavior to reduce the chance of being cannibalized,” explains Brown. “Males are clearly not complicit, and the act of sexual cannibalism in praying mantids is an example of extreme conflict between the sexes.”

Citation: Jonathan P. Lelito and William D. Brown, “Complicity or conflict over sexual cannibalism? Male risk taking in the praying mantis Tenodera aridifolia sinensis.” The American Naturalist 167:263

I learned of this from SEED Magazine’s “I Can’t Believe It’s Science” feature.

Links:

• American Society of Naturalists
• SUNY Fredonia
• SEED Magazine

1826 watercolor by John James Audubon

Lasers, dark mysterious wilderness, extinct species … almost sounds like a sequel in a well-known series of movies in which dinosaurs eat people. But no, this is real science!

In June a research aircraft flew over delta regions of the lower Mississippi River to track possible areas of habitat suitable for the ivory-billed woodpecker [Campephilus principalis], one of the largest and most regal members of the woodpecker family. The project is supported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Scientists from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and the University of Maryland used NASA’s Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS) onboard the aircraft. The instrument uses lasers that send pulses of energy to the Earth’s surface. Photons of light from the lasers bounce off leaves, branches and the ground and reflect back to the instrument. By analyzing these returned signals, scientists receive a direct measurement of the height of the forest’s leaf covered tree tops, the ground level below and everything in between.

…

LVIS project researcher Ralph Dubayah, a professor in the University of Maryland’s Department of Geography [said]. “Lidar technology like LVIS measures the vertical structure of the trees and ground, setting it apart from other remote-sensing systems that provide detailed horizontal information that tells us little about whether a green patch of forest is short or tall, for example. When identifying habitats, the vertical structure of the vegetation is of paramount importance to many species, including a bird like the ivory-bill.”

Thematic map showing the survey area in the White River Wildlife Reserve.
Credit: NASA.

Satellite image of the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas. The White River, the focus of this summer’s survey, is at the left of the image.
Credit: NASA image by Robert Simmon, based on Landsat 7 data provided by the Global Land Cover Facility.
Image acquired December 23, 2001 from NASA’s Landsat 7 satellite

Links:

• Wikipedia
• Cornell Ornithology Lab
• Nature Conservancy
• NASA Earth Observatory

I picked up this story through the Birding News Feed. It was variously reported by

• MongaBay: NASA helps search for “exinct” woodpecker
• NewsWise: Researchers Use Laser Sensor in Search for Ivory-Bill
• PhysOrg: NASA Assists Search for Woodpecker Thought to be Extinct
• AScribe: University of Maryland and NASA Researchers Use Laser Sensor to Map Possible Habitat for Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

Sidebar: Why I hate ads on the Web. The following were all ads displayed on the various story items:

• Woodpecker Control: Helpful links for woodpecker control.
• Woodpecker Deterrent: The Attack Spider scares them away. Sound-activated, fast. It works!
• Get Rid of Woodpeckers: Wide Variety Woodpecker Deterrents Affordable Woodpecker Repellents

This is why there are no Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers, people: You’re scaring them all away!

On a more positive note, it seems that, after I’ve scared them all off, I could still buy one of my very own:

• Ivory Billed Woodpecker: Browse a huge selection now. Find exactly what you want today. [I just want one standard plumage male Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, please. Gift-wrapped.]

I’ve just reorganized the sidebar to this blog:
– Separated blog tools and links to their own section.
– Added ALL-CAPS headers to each section: EXPLORE (this blog), LINKS (resources) and NETWORK (Blog Rolls, back-links, and so on)
– Moved EXPLORE (this blog) to the top, just under the profile, followed by LINKS (resources).
– Added a del.icio.us tag “cloud” labelled Categories to the top of the EXPLORE section.
– Labelled the Technorati splot as “Search”.

Please let me know what you think of the new tools and organization. In particular, let me know of any categories you would find useful. I’ve only just started tagging the entries, so it’s going to take me a while to catch up. Trying to find an entry you read on this blog? What keywords would you search by? Those would make good categories for me to add to the “cloud”.

We’re prepping for record heat this week. Wednesday, our local forecast is for the actual temperature to hit 102F. The apparent temperature – the temperature humidity index, or THI – will reach 114F. No chance of rain until Thursday, and then, only minimal unless we’re lucky enough to catch a thunderstorm. No real relief until Friday, when the high is predicted to be back in the 80s.

For the next two days, at least, I’ll be packing a water bottle in my bag and leaving early and coming home late from my air-conditioned office in Manhattan. Today, I’m waiting for it to cool down this evening before I go out and water the garden. Beyond that, the garden will have to fend for itself. It will be too hot to water.

Yesterday afternoon and evening I was in the East and West Village in Manhattan. I was having some fun with my camera phone (phone camera? floor wax? dessert topping? dating myself?).

On East 11th Street (I think) in the West Village (Greenwich Village) was this lush and perfect container garden on the front steps of a townhouse. The photo cannot do it justice. I would have to do some major retouching to recreate the total effect and the subtely of the colors and shades. To get an idea, the steps were not in the sun when I took this picture. The chartreuse sweet potato vine is washed out because my phonecam (ah, that’s it!) can’t capture the full dynamic range from dark to light. I hope I can get back with my real camera to share it with all of you.

Nothing to be proud of, but I just got my first spam comment.

When I frst started this blog, I had full shields on: word verification *and* comment moderation. I’ve been experimenting with running with them disabled. I disabled moderation because I like the immediacy of people being able to leave their own comments without having to get me involved to “accept” their comments. I disabled the word verification because it’s not accessible: vision-impaired readers will find it difficult or impossible to read or view the CAPTCHA graphic.

The first problem I had was finding where the spam comment was placed. The email notification I get from blogger doesn’t tell me to which blog entry the comment was added.

The second problem was figuring out how to delete the wretched thing. I found an old post in one of the blogger help groups which suggested that, if I select “Post Comment” I would have the opportunity to delete any comment. That worked, and I was able to delete it permanently.

A long-standing problem is that all of the icons I would usually see – edit, delete, and so on – on the blog entry page are missing. I suspect it’s a template problem. I may have to re-generate my template to ge back the correct URLs for the icons, then edit the template to add back my changes.

I’ve put back the CAPTCHA word verification for now. I don’t know if that or the moderation is better, but clearly I need to keep some protections in place.

As if I didn’t have enough to distract me online, I just discovered BlogThings. It’s all those mini-assessments of questionable validity we see everywhere. Questions like:

• What flower are you? (Daisy. Whatever.)
• What’s your EQ, your Emotional Intelligence Quotient? (107. Disappointingly low.)
• How abnormal are you? (28%. Whew!)
• How cynical are you? (40%. Too low.)
• How open-minded are you? (36%. That’s more like it.)
• What age will you die? (I don’t want to know …)
• What animal were you in a past life? (Now this one is definitely invalid. No questions, just my birthdate!
• How boyish or girlish are you? (50/50. BIG surprise!)
• What’s your dosha? (Kapha: “Calm and grounded, you are not prone to mood swings or anger. However, once you do get angry, it takes a lot to cool you down …” It goes on. Except the part about being “not prone to anger”, this one was pretty on the mark! Okay, I have no idea what a “dosha” is …)

And so on. The list page has 280 entries and suggests that you still might not find what you’re looking for. Here’s my favorite, “What should you major in?” Right on the money:

Your Scholastic Strength Is Developing Ideas

You can take a spark of inspiration and turn it into a full fledged concept. You are talented at brainstorming, visualizing, organizing, and independent thinking. You should major in: Natural sciences Computer science Creative writing Math Architecture Journalism

What Should You Major In?