Mountain Lions

When Mountain Lions Hunt, They Prey on the Weak

By HENRY FOUNTAIN
Published: November 16, 2009
Predators do not always play fair. Sometimes they choose their victims based on physical condition, preferring young, old, sick or injured prey.

Kevin Moloney for The New York Times

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That is the idea, although surprisingly it has not been tested much. But now researchers have found that one predator does, in fact, show a preference for less-than-fully-capable victims. The findings may have implications for the spread of chronic wasting disease among deer populations.
Working in the northern Front Range of Colorado, Caroline E. Krumm and Michael W. Miller of the state’s Division of Wildlife, and colleagues, sampled adult mule deer carcasses known to have been killed by mountain lions, testing them for chronic wasting disease, a degenerative neurological illness that is similar to mad cow disease.
They also sampled tissue from deer killed by hunters in the same area, to get an idea of the infection rate in the general population. Since the deer generally do not have obvious symptoms, hunter-killed deer would have close to a random chance of being infected.
As reported in Biology Letters, they found that the prevalence of infected deer among the mountain-lion-killed group was higher than among the hunter-killed group, suggesting that the big cats actively seek out infected prey.
Dr. Miller said the mountain lions might notice signs of illness that were too subtle for humans to see — slightly slower reaction times, for example.
He said there was no evidence so far that mountain lions were susceptible to the disease. But by consuming infected carcasses, the animals may be keeping infectious agents out of the environment, reducing transmission to healthy deer.



I think this disease is a way of nature controling the deer population and it allows for the growth of mountain lions. It lets the mountian lion population rise along with the deer population. This is natures population control.

Golf Balls: 'humanity's signature litter'

Golf balls: 'Humanity's signature litter'
By Christina Macfarlane, for CNN
cnnAuthor = "By Christina Macfarlane, for CNN";

iConcern is growing in some corners that golf-ball litter is a growing problem.

It takes 100 to 1,000 years for a golf ball to degrade
Golf balls are composed of a zinc rubber filling
UK lawmaker says golf balls are "humanities signature litter"
London, England (CNN) -- Research teams at the Danish Golf Union have discovered it takes between 100 to 1,000 years for a golf ball to decompose naturally. A startling fact when it is also estimated 300 million balls are lost or discarded in the United States alone, every year. It seems the simple plastic golf ball is increasingly becoming a major litter problem.
The scale of the dilemma was underlined recently in Scotland, where scientists -- who scoured the watery depths in a submarine hoping to discover evidence of the prehistoric Loch Ness monster -- were surprised to find hundreds of thousands of golf balls lining the bed of the loch.
It is thought tourists and locals have used the loch as an alternative driving range for many years. The footage shot by underwater robotics team SeaTrepid, can be seen below.
With an increasing number of golf balls discarded each year, the Danish Golf Association devised a number of tests to determine the environmental impact of golf balls on their surroundings.
From the moon to the bottom of Loch Ness, golf balls are humanity's signature litter--UK lawmaker Patrick Harvie
It was found that during decomposition, the golf balls dissolved to release a high quantity of heavy metals. Dangerous levels of zinc were found in the synthetic rubber filling used in solid core golf balls. When submerged in water, the zinc attached itself to the ground sediment and poisoned the surrounding flora and fauna.
Course manager for the Danish Golf Union, Torben Kastrup Petersen, said the scale of the problem is unknown: "There has been very little research on the environmental impact of golf balls, but it's safe to say the indicators are not good. We are planning to collaborate with environmentalists in America to conduct more tests to fully explore the extent of the problem."









GOLF Magazine
Local government ministers in Scotland have also complained about the level of golf ball littering. UK lawmaker Patrick Harvie told CNN: "From the moon to the bottom of Loch Ness, golf balls are humanity's signature litter in the most inaccessible locations."
And he's not wrong. On February 6, 1971, astronaut Alan Shepherd was filmed taking a swing with a six iron on the surface of the moon. According to Shepherd, the balls flew off in the distance and landed a few kilometers away. Although the balls were left for future golfers to discover, it is believed the extreme temperatures on the surface would have dissolved the balls many moons ago.
In many cases, removing a partially degraded ball from a lake or woodland area could result in further damage to the wildlife. So what is the solution? Harvie had this advice: "Keep your balls on the fairway or invest in a stock of biodegradable balls."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SPORT/11/04/littering.golf.balls/index.html

Even though Mr. Gessler put this on the hw calander, I felt like I had to do my current event on this, because I personally hate golf, and this is just another reason why. Anyway, I feel that we need to stop polluting the enviornment with these golf balls. They are killing local flora and fauna and its not necessary. We should at least be using them in golf ranges instead of just any old place. If people would like to do even better, then they should get biodegradable golf balls, and do their part to be sustainable.

China-U.S. Group Plans to Build Texas Wind Farm

China-U.S. Group Plans to Build Texas Wind Farm

By JOHN COLLINS RUDOLF
Published: October 29, 2009
A consortium of Chinese and American companies announced a joint venture on Thursday to build a 600-megawatt wind farm in West Texas, using turbines made in China.


Construction of the $1.5 billion wind farm will be financed largely by Chinese banks, with the help of loan guarantees and cash grants from the United States government.
“This wind farm project came about thanks to the openness of the United States for investments in the field of renewable energy,” said John S. Lin, chief operating officer of A-Power Energy Generation Systems, which is part of the consortium building the project.
The wind farm will be the first instance of a Chinese manufacturer exporting wind turbines to the United States, said Yang Yazhou, vice mayor of the city of Shenyang, where the wind turbines will be manufactured.
The farm, to be built on 36,000 acres in West Texas, will use 240 of its 2.5-megawatt turbines. Construction is scheduled to begin in March 2010, and the project is expected to create 300 temporary jobs and about 30 permanent jobs. Six hundred megawatts of wind power is enough to meet the electricity needs of between 135,000 and 180,000 American homes for a year.
Other partners include the U.S. Renewable Energy Group, an investment firm, and a wind-farm developer, Cielo Wind Power of Austin, Tex.



I think that this is a step forward, and that it is a good thing for the U.S. to do, however, I think that there needs to be a lot more of an effort. I think that the U.S. should also look for other methods of sustainable energy. I also like the fact that this wind farm is creating jobs. It is not only helping the enviornment, it is also helping the economy. I think that if we can find other methods to help the economy while being sustainable with energy that i think we can really be able to move forward in a good way.