Welcome to KVMR - Music of the World. Voice of the Community. Nevada City, California

I spoke recently with Pilar Fox, Treasurer & Secretary of Banderas de Esperanza - Flags of Hope, the Mexican children's shelter where she is working.

Banderas de Esperanza is a non-profit organization that aids poverty level families living in Banderas Bay, Mexico. Click here to visit the Banderas de Esperanza web site.

Past Programs

Dreamwalk, 27 March 2008: Chumash Ethnobotany

On March 27, 2008, Skip Allen Smith and Alan Stahler spoke with Jan Timbrook, anthropologist and ethnobiologist with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, on Dreamwalk, about her new book, Chumash Ethnobotany, published by Heyday Books.

Click here to listen as Skip Allen Smith and Alan Stahler interview Jan Timbrook, author of Chumash Ethnobotany

Soundings, 01 January 2007: Cougars

On January 1, 2008, I spoke with Marc Benoff, professor emeritus (ecology and evolutionary biology) at the University of Colorado, and writer-photographer Cara Blessley Lowe, co-founder of the Cougar Fund, about their book, Listening to Cougar (University Press of Colorado).

Click here to listen with Alan Stahler and Listening to Cougar

To learn about the Cougar Fund, click here:

Soundings, 23 October 2007: A Field Guide to Butterflys

Alan visits with Arthur Shapiro, author of a "Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions" on UC Press, about how butterflies and moths evolve, mutate and populate new regions, and some of the obstacles imposed by civilization.

Click here to visit Art Shapiro's Butterfly web site.

Soundings with Alan Stahler, Tuesday, July, 03 2007
Ecological Models, with Nicholas Gotelli (UVM)
Our Solar System, with Roger Freedman (UCSB)

Part 1: A conversation with ecologist Prof. Nicholas J. Gotelli, of the University of Vermont, author of A Primer of Ecology, about making mathematical models of nature.

Part 2: A conversation with astronomer Prof. Roger Freedman, of the University of California at Santa Barbara, co-author of the textbook, Universe, about the solar system.

Click here to listen to the Jul. 3rd, 2007 Soundings program

Right click here to download to the Jul. 3rd, 2007 Soundings program

Helpful Links

Sequoia ForestKeeper

Protecting trees requires protecting their ecosystem. Even though giant sequoia are not being cut in Sequoia National Monument, the trees around them are. To learn more, visit the website of the Sequoia ForestKeeper.

Click here for more information about Sequoia ForestKeeper
and how you can help.

Project BudBurst

Project Budburst is inviting citizen-scientists to be part of an observing network to study the effects of changing climate on critters and plants.

Click here for more information about Project BudBurst
and how you can help.

Project FeederWatch

Project FeederWatch is a winter-long survey of birds that visit feeders at backyards, nature centers, community areas, and other locales in North America. Click here to learn about Project FeederWatch where citizen-scientist FeederWatchers from all over the country, monitor the birds coming to their feeders, periodically count the highest numbers of each species they see at their bird feeders from November through early April.

Nanoparticale Product List

Link to a list, compiled by the Wilson Center, of consumer products incorporating nanoparticles:
http://www.nanotechproject.org/

Link to the web page of the Fiji Crested Iguana Project: http://www.fijiancrestediguana.com/

Read the draft EIS on the New Horizons Mission to Pluto (and its plutonium-powered thermoelectric generator): pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/deis/draftEnvImpact.html

http://www.savebiogems.org/takeaction.asp The Bush administration has announced its intention to log roadless areas on public land. This affects almost 4 1/2 million acres in California alone ... and Governor Schwartzneggar, unfortunately, is acquiescing. Click on this link to send an e-mail to the governator, if you wish to express your concern.

Information from TriValley Cares on the proposed BioSafety Lab at Lawrence Livermore:
http://www.trivalleycares.org/praug03.asp

Latest press releases from JPL

Microwave News, covering research into the biological effects of electromagnetic fields: www.microwavenews.com

Congress.org lets you locate contact information for your state and federal legislators, as well as information about pending legislation.

Getting Involved

Protect The Giant Sequoias

Timber companies can't cut down the giant sequoias ... but they can cut other species of trees within the sequoia groves, altering the ecosystems necessary for the survival of the Big Trees.

Click here to reach the Sequoia Forest Keeper web site where you may sign a petition to put the groves under the protection of the National Park Service.

Firework Sanity

Is it really a good idea to continue selling fireworks in Grass Valley? Updates on issues relating to wildfire risk from fireworks and GV's current review of their fireworks ordinance can be found here:

Click here to read more about Firework Sanity

Yucca Mountain, Nuclear Waste Repository Update

The Department of Energy is slowly but surely making its way toward constructing a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, north of Las Vegas.

To read the latest draft environmental documents, and, if you wish click here to add your comments.

Item of Concern:
High-Intensity sonar to Endanger Whales

The Navy plans to illuminate the oceans with high-intensity sound, intense enough to endanger whales. Click here to go to the NRDC site at; http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/biogems_whales_0707, for a public form which will send your comment to the National Marine Fisheries Service permitting officer. For more information about the specifics of this issue, please click here to visit http://www.savebiogems.org/whales/.

Alan's Concerns: Desert Rock Power Plant

Click here to learn about the proposed Desert Rock Power Plant

Click here for the response from the San Juan Citizens Campaign

Alan's Concerns: Oaxaxa

Listeners are probably aware that I've been speaking periodically with Oaxacan anthopologist Rene Bustamante, and putting our conversations about the situation there over the air. It's important that the government(s) of Mexico realize that we're paying attention.

If you share my concerns, you can contact any or all of those below to let them know that "The whole world is watching."

Secretary of Government: Carlos Abascal:
SECRETARIO DE GOBERNACIÓN
FAX + 55 50 93 34 14,
cabascal @ segob.gov.mx
President Elect Felipe Calderon Hinojosa:
felipe @ felipe.org.mx

DR. JOSÉ LUIS SOBERANES
President of the National Commission on Human Rights
Presidente de la Comision Nacional de Derechos Humanos
FAX + 55 56 81 71 99,
correo @ cndh.gob.mx

DANIEL CABEZA DE VACA
PROCURADOR GENERAL DE LA REPÚBLICA
FAX: +55 53460908,
ofproc @ pgr.gob.mx
Lic. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz
Governor of the State of Oaxaxa
Gobernador del Estado de Oaxaca
Fax: 011 52 951 5020530
gobernador @ oaxaca.gob.mx

Vicente Fox Quesada
(Presidencia, Los Pinos)
Telephone:
011 52 (55) 2789 1100
011 52 (55) 18 7501 Atencion Ciudadana
Fax: (55) 52 77 23 76
vicente.fox.quesada @ presidencia.gob.mx

The National Academy of Sciences has a new web site with resources for anyone looking for an intelligent discussion of evolution. Click here to visit the National Academy's web site about evolution.

Concerned about the effects of High Intensity Sonars on whales and other marine life? Click here to contact NATO about the effects of its sonar on marine mammals.

Concerned about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Are we so poor that we've got to develop some of our last remaining wilderness? Click here to sign the petition to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Astronomy

Rings in Space, Supernova 1987a

Click here for a larger image.

Rings in space, painted by the explosion of supernova 1987a, the subject of a recent Soundings convesrsation with Roger Freedman
Photo credit: P. Challis Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Mariner 10's 1970s Mercury Flyby

A third of a century ago, Mariner 10 became the first spacecraft to fly by the planet Mercury. It saw a planet that seemed, on the surface, very much like the moon, but was also very different.

Original Caption Released with Image:

After passing on the darkside of the planet, Mariner 10 photographed the other, somewhat more illuminated hemisphere of Mercury. The north pole is at the top, two-thirds down from which is the equator....

Click here for more from NASA

Mariner 10's March 16, 1975 Mercury Flyby, click here for a larger image.
Click here for a larger image.

Photo credit: Image Credit: NASA/JPL

Cosmic Rain

This Tuesday, 8 May, I'll speak with Nigel Calder, co-author of The Chilling Stars, an exposition of the hypothesis that cosmic rays - not greenhouse gases - are the major drivers of climate change.

Cosmic rays are atomic nuclei, blasted out of exploding stars and accelerated by magnetic shocks to velocities close to the speed of light. When they hit Earth's atmosphere, they bust up atoms of air. Cloud droplets can form on those busted-up atoms (ions), and cool the Earth.

Some millions of years ago, galaxy M82 suffered a near-miss collision with galaxy M81. The gravitational disruption triggered a burst of star formation in M82, lighting it up with bright, new-born stars and spewing hydrogen gas (red) out of its core. Large, bright, new-born stars don't "live" very long - they tend to explode, the first step in the creation of cosmic rays.

M82 and M81 are fun targets when we're observing out at the old Nevada City airport.

The remains of a star that exploded 325 years ago. The colors show the energies of the x-rays coming out of the remnant - red are high energy, green higher, blue highest. In the blue areas, cosmic rays - atomic nuclei accelerated to nearly the speed of light - are being created.

Giant Cluster of Galaxies Bends, Breaks Images

Click here for a larger image.

The blue galaxies that seem to circle the galaxy cluster in the center are actually images of just one galaxy lying beyond the cluster. The distant galaxy's light, moving past the cluster, is re-directed toward our eyes as it travels through the space bent by the gravity of the cluster.
Image credit: W. N. Colley (U. Virgina & E. Turner (Princeton), J.A. Tyson (UC Davis), HST, NASA

Starbirth

Click here for a larger image.

Giant clouds of gas and dust collapse in on themselves, creating baby stars ... and baby planets.
Image Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI); D. Garnett (U. Arizona), J. Hester (ASU), J. Westphal (Caltech)

Stardeath

Click here for a larger image.

When a supergiant star runs out of fuel, it first collapses on itself, then explodes in a supernova.
Image Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Y.-H. Chu (UIUC), S. Kulkarni (Caltech), R. Rothschild (UCSD)

Spiral Galaxy

Click here for a larger image.

Billions of stars, moving together through space. But their gravity, calculated from the number of stars we see, is not enough to hold the galaxy together - the stars should fly apart. Something else must be holding them together - "dark matter," perhaps - matter that doesn't interact with light.
Image Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); N. Scoville (Caltech), T. Rector (NOAO)

Hyperion Closeup
Closeup of Saturn's moon Hyperion - click for a larger image
Click here for a larger image.

Saturn's moon Hyperion would float in water, if we could find a 150-mile-wide bathtub in which to float it. It seems to be made mostly of ice, with a little rock, and lots of empty space - an orbiting pile of rubble.

The "craters," with their dark centers, look a lot like the suncups found in springtime Sierran snowfields, when rocks, absorbing sunlight, melt holes into the snow.

Martian dust devil

Click here for more information and a link to a larger image.

As the desert floor is warmed by the sun, it heats the air above, which rises, and, swirling, creates a dust devil. The desert over which this dust devil swirls is on Mars. For a QuickTime movie of the dust devil click here.
Photo credit: Image Credit: NASA/JPL

First extra-solar planet to be directly imaged:

Click here for more information and a link to a larger image
Photo credit: ESO

Chemistry

Climate

An Anomaly Is Something Unusual

Click here to bring up a larger map of anomalous ocean temperatures -

yellow denotes regions that are warmer than usual; blue, colder. Notice the unusually cold water off the coasts of both North and South America, indicative of La Niña.

Cold water, and other effects of La Niña, stabilize the atmosphere, preventing air from rising, cooling, and (like blowing into a freezer) forming clouds - the sort of weather we've been having a lot of, this fall and winter.

Energy

New International Radioactivity Symbol
The skull-and-crossbones has long been used as an "alert symbol" to warn of chemical toxicity. Similarly, a trefoil design was adopted in the twentieth century as an alert symbol for radioactivity.

A third symbol, incorporating both of the older two, has recently been adopted by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) to alert people to extremely high levels of radioactivity ... and the need to put some distance between yourself and the source as quickly as possible.

Environment

Our Changing World: Data Made Visible

Measuring the thickness of the dust by how much light it absorbs as it blows off the Chinese interior, across the Pacific and over the west coast: Red shows where the dust is thickest, yellow a bit thinner, green the thinnest.

Dust cloud 1, April 4-10, click for a larger .pdf image

Dust cloud 2, April 13-16, click for a larger .pdf image

Radiation Health: The Healthy from the Start Campaign

When calculating permissible doses to protect the public from radiation, the government uses a "Reference Man," defined as a Caucasian male who is 20 to 30 years old, weighs 154 pounds, is five feet seven inches tall, and is "Western European or North American in habitat and custom."

Click here to listen to
Alan Stahler's interview with Dr. Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D.

Right click here to download
Alan Stahler's interview with Dr. Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D.

Click here to learn about "Healthy from the Start" – the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research’s Campaign to Include Women, Children, and Future Generationsin Environmental Health Standards.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FIRES OF 2007

Satellite images of the October 2007 fires in southern California:
Click here for a larger image.

Photo Credit: NASA, MODIS Rapid Response Team at GSFC. Further information: http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/

NORWAY ALGAE BLOOM

Algae bloom, fed by nutrient-rich runoff, off the coast of Norway.
Click here for a larger image.

Algae bloom, fed by nutrient-rich runoff, off the coast of Norway.
First step in making petroleum ... If the algae die, and fall to the bottom, and are buried before they rot, and get cooked and squeezed ... this might be a good place to drill in a few hundred million years.

Photo Credit: NASA, MODIS Rapid Response Team at GSFC. Further information: http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Geology

Earthquake "colors"

The "colors" of radar waves of the Hector Mine quake in California’s Mojave Desert.

We can calculate the thickness of a soap bubble by looking at what colors make it through its skin.

We can measure the motions along an earthquake fault (here, the motion due to the Hector Mine quake in California’s Mojave Desert) by studying the "colors" of radar waves that reflect off the surface.

2004 Jones Tract Levee "Blue-Sky" Failure

2004 Jones Tract Levee "Blue-Sky" failure - inundated barn

Agriculture in and along the San Joaquin Valley depends, to a great extent, on water shipped from the north state via the California Aqueduct. Before water can enter the aqueduct, however, it must traverse the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, guided by the Delta's ancient levee system. While many worry about how the levee system might respond to an earthquake, the system could collapse all by itself. These are images of the aftermath of the 2004 Jones Tract levee failure - a "blue-sky" levee collapse that occurred on a bright, sun-shiny summer's day.

2004 Jones Tract Levee "Blue-Sky" failure on levee road

Life Sciences

The Great Backyard Bird Count

Interested in participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count, 16-19 February or if you're just interested in seeing some great bird images click here.

Pronghorn
The Pronghorn antelope

The pronghorn is the fastest mammal on the North American continent. At noon on Tuesday, 9 May, I'll be speaking with Prof. John Byers, Ph.D. (University of Idaho), author of Built For Speed.

AMBULOCETUS
Ambulocetus ("Walking Whale")

Ambulocetus ("Walking Whale") lived along the edge of the sea some 45 million years ago - a "non-missing link" in the evolutionary path that led to today's whales.

Painting by Carl Buell. Used by permission.

Physics

Apollo 15 Drops the Hammer

Drop a hammer and a feather and they race to the ground. The hammer beats the feather ... on Earth, where air resistance slows the feather. On the airless moon, we get a different result. Click here to see the experiment performed during the 1971 Apollo 15 mission.

Skywatch

Space Technology






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