LiGHT POLLUTiON

While I was on the senior trip, I tried to relate something to my project in class. What I came up with was light pollution and how it affects the Earth. With Disney's many parks and attractions, there's no doubt about it that they use a lot of light in shows and to light up the park. Sure, it looks pretty when you see such beautiful colors and designs but no thinks about the impact lighting has on Earth. We are the very first humans living on this planet to create a lifestyle that is slowly destroying our connection with the sky. Have you ever seen the milky way or the big dipper? The mostly answer is no! Unless you are far out away from the city in the country you probably will not jsse them. In more urbanized places they can not be seen at all. Imagine watching your favorite movie in a well lit theater. The light completely overwhelms the movie and you quickly lose interest. Likewise, the beautiful nightly celestial show is easily destroyed by the improper use of streetlights and other outdoor lighting at night. It isn't that astronomers want all the lights turned off as much as they want to make streetlights and other lights do what they should do shine down on the ground. By properly shielding our streetlights and directing other lights downward, we can save two things, the night sky for all of us, and lots of money.

CONNIE CULP

This undated photo of Connie Culp, before the injury to her face would lead her to become the first face transplant patient in the United States. Culp spoke to the media at a news conference at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland on Tuesday, May 5, 2009. The 46-year-old mother of two lost most of the midsection of her face to a gunshot in 2004. The initial surgery by the Cleveland Clinic team took place in December 2008

This is a photo of Connie Culp, after an injury to her face, left, and then as she appears today. Culp is underwent the first face transplant surgery the United States at the Cleveland Clinic in December 2008. Culp spoke to the media at a news conference at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, on Tuesday, May 5, 2009. The 46-year-old mother of two lost most of the midsection of her face to a gunshot in 2004. Connie Culp, left, who underwent the first face transplant surgery in the U.S., is helped to the podium by her head surgeon, Dr. Maria Siemionow, right, and Pat Lock, a nurse with the transplant team, center, before speaking to the media at a news conference at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio on Tuesday, May 5, 2009. The 46-year-old mother of two lost most of the midsection of her face to a gunshot in 2004. The initial surgery by the Cleveland Clinic team took place in December 2008.

CLAYTON 'i-HOUSE' IS GIANT LEAP FROM TRAILER PARK

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – From its bamboo floors to its rooftop deck, Clayton Homes' new industrial-chic "i-house" is about as far removed from a mobile home as an iPod from a record player.Architects at the country's largest manufactured home company embraced the basic rectangular form of what began as housing on wheels and gave it a postmodern turn with a distinctive v-shaped roofline, energy efficiency and luxury appointments.Stylistically, the "i-house" might be more at home in the pages of a cutting-edge architectural magazine like Dwell — an inspirational source — than among the Cape Cods and ranchers in the suburbs.The layout of the long main "core" house and a separate box-shaped guestroom-office "flex room" resemble the letter "i" and its dot. Yet Clayton CEO and President Kevin Clayton said "i-house" stands for more than its footprint.With a nod to the iPod and iPhone, Clayton said, "We love what it represents. We are fans of Apple and all that they have done. But the 'I' stands for innovation, inspiration, intelligence and integration."Clayton's "i-house" was conceived as a moderately priced "plug and play" dwelling for environmentally conscious homebuyers. It went on sale nationwide Saturday with its presentation at the annual shareholders' meeting of investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire-Hathaway Inc. in Omaha, Neb."This innovative 'green' home, featuring solar panels and numerous other energy-saving products, is truly a home of the future," Buffett wrote his shareholders. "Estimated costs for electricity and heating total only about $1 per day when the home is sited in an area like Omaha."Maryville, Tenn.-based Clayton Homes, acquired by Berkshire-Hathaway in a $1.7 billion buyout in 2003, delivered 27,499 mobile or manufactured homes last year, a third of the industry total. Kevin Clayton thinks the "i-house" very quickly could represent more than 10 percent of its business."I think in 12 to 18 months it is possible," he told The Associated Press. "That is a lofty goal, but it is very possible. Retailers are saying they want the home on their lots tomorrow. I know the demand is there. How fast we capture it is really just determined by how affordable we can make it."Clayton Homes plans to price the "i-house" at $100 to $130 a square foot, depending on amenities and add-ons, such as additional bedrooms. A stick-built house with similar features could range from $200 to $300 a square foot to start, said Chris Nicely, Clayton marketing vice president.
The key cost difference is from the savings Clayton achieves by building homes in volume in green standardized factories with very little waste. Clayton has four plants in Oregon, Tennessee, California and New Mexico geared up for "i-house" production.A 1,000-square-foot prototype unveiled at a Clayton show in Knoxville a few months ago was priced at around $140,000. It came furnished, with a master bedroom, full bath, open kitchen and living room with Ikea cabinetry, two ground-level deck areas and a separate "flex room" with a second full bath and a second-story deck covered by a sail-like canopy."It does not look like your typical manufactured home," said Thayer Long with the Manufactured Housing Institute, a Washington-based group representing 370 manufactured and modular home-building companies.And shattering those mobile home stereotypes is a good thing, he said. "I think the 'i-house' is just more proof that the industry is capable of delivering homes that are highly customizable at an affordable price."The "i-house's" metal v-shaped roof — inspired by a gas-station awning — combines design with function. The roof provides a rain water catchment system for recycling, supports flush-mounted solar panels and vaults interior ceilings at each end to 10 1/2 feet for an added feeling of openness.The Energy Star-rated design features heavy insulation, six-inch thick exterior walls, cement board and corrugated metal siding, energy efficient appliances, a tankless water heater, dual-flush toilets and lots of "low-e" glazed windows.The company said the prototype at roughly 52,000 pounds may be the heaviest home it's ever built.The final product will come in different exterior colors and will allow buyers to design online, adding another bedroom to the core house, a second bedroom to the flex room or rearranging the footprint to resemble an "L" instead of an "I." "We thought of this a little like a kit of parts, where you have all these parts that can go together in different ways," said Andy Hutsell, one of the architects. Susan Connolly, a 60-year-old accountant who works from her conventional Knoxville home, hopes to be one of the first buyers. She's seen the prototype and has been talking to the company. "I have been interested in green construction and the environment in my own personal life," she said. "It is nice to have a group of people that have thought of everything. Where you don't have to shop around and go to different places ... to find the products you want." "I think it is smart. It is fresh. It is kind of hip for a new generation of green-thinking homebuyers," said Stacey Epperson, president and CEO of Frontier Housing, a Morehead, Ky.-based regional nonprofit group that supplies site-built homes and manufactured housing, including Clayton products, to low- and moderate-income homebuyers. "You know a lot of people don't see themselves living in manufactured (housing), but a lot of those people would see themselves living in an 'i-house.' I could live in an 'i-house,'" she said. "Are we repositioning to go after a new market?" Nicely said. "I would think we are maintaining our value to our existing market and expanding the market to include other buyers that previously wouldn't have considered our housing product." The company sees the "i-house" as a primary residence — three developers already have inquired about building mini-developments with them — that also could appeal to vacation home buyers. Brian McKinley, president of Atlantis Homes of Smyrna, Del., a manufactured-home dealer that sells Clayton and other brands, said the "i-house" resembles high-end custom homes he sees along the Delaware-Maryland shore. It represents a "new direction and an innovative application for what our industry can do," he said. "I think there is a market," McKinley said. "The challenge is to find that market and then will they visit this home at one of our traditional factory-built home centers. I think they (Clayton) want to find that out, too."

SUN SPOTS

Could the Sun play a greater role in recent climate change than has been believed? Climatologists had dismissed the idea and some solar scientists have been reticent about it because of its connections with those who those who deny climate change. But now the speculation has grown louder because of what is happening to our Sun. No living scientist has seen it behave this way. There are no sunspots. The disappearance of sunspots happens every few years, but this time it’s gone on far longer than anyone expected and there is no sign of the Sun waking up. "This is the lowest we’ve ever seen. We thought we'd be out of it by now, but we're not," says Marc Hairston of the University of Texas. And it’s not just the sunspots that are causing concern. There is also the so called solar wind streams of particles the Sun pours outthat is at its weakest since records began. In addition, the Sun's magnetic axis is tilted to an unusual degree. "This is the quietest Sun we’ve seen in almost a century," says NASA solar scientist David Hathaway. But this is not just a scientific curiosity. It could affect everyone on Earth and force what for many is the unthinkable: a reappraisal of the science behind recent global warming. Our Sun is the primary force of the Earth's climate system, driving atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns. It lies behind every aspect of the Earth’s climate and is, of course, a key component of the greenhouse effect. But there is another factor to be considered. When the Sun has gone quiet like this before, it coincided with the earth cooling slightly and there is speculation that a similar thing could happen now. If so, it could alter all our predictions of climate change, and show that our understanding of climate change might not be anywhere near as good as we thought.

MAJOR POTENTIAL CO2 STORAGE IN THE NORTH SEA

The North Sea could store the carbon dioxide from all Europe's power stations for hundreds of years, the results of major research to be unveiled today will reveal. Porous rocks beneath the seabed of the North Sea and disused oil and gas fields could provide storage for millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide. The research, by Edinburgh University, is likely to herald the startof a major new industry for Scotland, using the North Sea to lead the way in efforts to store the greenhouse gas emission from power plants.It will bring the possibility of compressed emissions being transported from power plants across Europe to underground stores beneath the North Sea using the network of pipes already in place for the oil and gas industry one step closer. It will be the first time it has been shown the porous rocks known as saline aquifers beneath the seabed have the potential to store mass quantities of ."We will be able to conclusively say we can store it in saline aquifers for hundreds of years," a source told The Scotsman."This will be a huge opportunity for Scotland. It could create a huge new industry for Scotland." Professor Stuart Haszeldine, a world expert in carbon capture and storage at Edinburgh University, has been leading the eagerly-awaited research into the potential of the North Sea to store the greenhouse gas.

SUPREME COURT LETS SHELL OFF THE HOOK iN POLLUTiON CLEANUP

California will pay more and companies pay less to clean up a polluted San Joaquin Valley site under a closely watched Supreme Court decision Monday. Capping an excruciatingly long legal battle, the court by an 8-1 margin limited the liability of two major railroads for chemical spills in the Kern County town of Arvin. The court also absolved Shell of liability for the Arvin site, in a ruling could help restrict corporate liability in other future pollution cases as well. "It's a hugely significant case," said Baker & Botts' attorney Daniel Steinway, who wrote a legal brief on behalf of the National Association of Manufacturers and other business groups. "It will have enormous financial consequences for industry."

WHAT'S NEW

EYE JEWERLY

Eric Klarenbeek has created eye jewels that hang from your contact lenses. It’s not supposed to affect your eyesight, but what happens if it gets caught in something? This is one trend I will not be partipaicing in and I’m sure most people will agree with me.

GLOW iN THE DARK TATTOOS

Have you always wanted a tattoo but were afraid of what your boss will say? With glow in the dark tattoos you can cover yourself in body art and no one will be the wiser, unless they see you with the lights out. The new technique uses black light reactive ink, which is reactive to UV light. As a result, these tattoos only glow in black light. However, you will still surprise your next date when in the black light you start to shine.