http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/45336

NRDC’s Plan to Reduce Power Plant Emissions

From: Gina-Marie Cheeseman, Triple Pundit, More from this Affiliate

Published December 12, 2012 08:40 AM

2.4 billion tons of carbon a year is emitted from generating power plants, a huge number (about 40% of the total emissions in the U.S) and a huge contributor to the pollution problem. This is why the “Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released a proposal to reduce power plant pollution by 26 percent by 2020 and 34 percent by 2025.” The plan rests with the EPA setting state-specific emission rates, and set the new carbon pollution standards under the Clean Air Act. The benefits of plan outweigh the cost by a whopping 15 times as much, with ‘the price tag in 2020 being $4 billion, and the benefits being $25 to 60 billion, which is six to 15 times greater than the costs.’ This plan is a great addition to help clean up existing plants as standards proposed in April 2012, to have plant emit a maximum of “1,000 pounds per megawatt hour (ibs/mWh)”, only applies to new plants. This plan is one that battles all plant emissions as a whole.

I think this is a great plan for the future. There really is a huge problem with pollution in our world and the sooner solutions are put into action, the sooner we can start cleaning up the planet we dirtied. It’s so important to take global warming seriously and I’m glad that new standard are being proposed and reported on to get the word out there. I want the world to be a healthier, cleaner earth again and I hope we can clean up fast enough.

sparkling wine

http://www.vancouversun.com/touch/life/food/wine-country/sparkling+Christmas/7702291/story.html?rel=882497

A sparkling Christmas

By Anthony Gismondi, Special to the Sun | December 14, 2012

Sparkling wine when compares to champagne, seems to come out on top, the bubbly drink is nearly indistinguishable and half the price. This style of wine seems to be the one that has improved the most over the past two decades, especially ones that go through the second fermentation process to achieve “the much-sought-after tiny bubbles in every authentic bottle of Champagne.” Cava, the commonly known worldwide term for Spanish sparkling wine, is made in the same way as champagne. “In Spain most cava is invariably a blend of macabeo, parellada and xarello grapes.” The nutty flavour with a “wiff of fresh fruit” is very desirable. Most of the finest sparkling wines use the French champagne method or “methode champenoise”. Wines from all over, whether it be the cava from Spain or sparkling wines from California, Australia, or Canada, have never been better.

I’ve never tried sparkling wine but it sounds to be really good. The artisans all over the world are really improving in this are and it seems to be a better deal that champagne as it’s half the price and tastes almost the same. It all stems from the French and their way o making champagne so a big thank you to them. I think is interesting that two different drinks, wine and champagne, can be made using the same method. The second fermentation process sounds important and it must take a lot of skills to figure out to do that. Whoever came up with sparkling wine is very intelligent and I’m happy to hear that lately it’s been getting better and better.

NHL`s lock-out

http://www.vancouversun.com/touch/sports/hockey/vancouver-canucks/Locked+NHLers+taste+what+they+missing/7723786/story.html?rel=831005

Locked-out NHLers get taste of what they’re missing during upbeat charity game

- By Chris Johnston, The Canadian Press | December 20, 2012

39 locked out players, including Steven Stamkos, got back to the ice in a charity game on Wednesday at the former Maple Leaf Gardens. The fans wore jerseys that have been out of use during the NHL lockout since June; represented teams included The Habs, Red Wings, Maple Leafs, Oilers, Bruins, Devils, Penguins, Flames and, naturally, a few Lightning jerseys emblazoned with “No. 91” and “Stamkos.” The players were thrilled to be back in the game, and while not all passes were perfect and “some guys were coming back to the bench huffing and puffing,” the love of the game was strong. All those involved in Wednesday’s game, fans and players, had a great time together; Players threw sticks over the glass in the warmup and fans threw hats and shirts onto the ice during stoppages in play.

“The Stamkos side came out on top of P.K. Subban’s team 14-10, but the only number anyone was concerned about afterwards was the $100,000 raised for the NHLPA’s Goals & Dreams Fund and RBC’s Play Hockey initiative.”

It clear the lockout has been tough on both fans and players alike. With the NHL locked for almost a hundred days, some players have not been on the ice as much as the others and work will have to be done to get back in shape for the game. With Christmas just around the corner I know a lot of people would think the best present would be if the lockout could end. It’s great that they’ve gotten the opportunity to play in a few charity games since the lockout but it’s clearly not the same. Hopefully some of the flimsiest reasons of all time to hold a lockout will eventually fall and we can get back to the game.

Chris Hadfield latest visitor of space station

http://www.vancouversun.com/touch/technology/space/Chris+Hadfield+first+Canadian+International+Space/7719890/story.html?rel=813152

Canada’s Chris Hadfield takes off for 5-month space station visit

-The Canadian Press | December 19, 2012

Chris Hadflield, 53-year-old space veteran, is embarking on his third space trip to become the first Canadian to command the International Space Station. His visit is set at 5-months at the giant orbiting space lab to which he is travelling on board a Russian Soyuz capsule. NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko are accompanying Hadfield to the station where “he will be involved with more than 130 experiments including Micro-flow, a Canadian blood-sampling experiment which he compared to hospital in a box.” The first Canadian to shuttle into outr space, Marc Garneau, wished Hadfield well: "That's an incredible accomplishment. He's an incredible guy."Garneau expresses a love and space and misses it but he’s got a lot on his plate down on earth where he’s running to become the federal party’s next leader. Hadfield previously went to space in November 1995 to visit the Russian Space Station Mir, and in April 2001 to visit the International Space Station, and make two preform two space walks. The launch pad, Gagarin’s Start, named after “Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin who blasted off in 1961 for the first human orbital space flight”, was where the team launched from this morning, marking a return to use of the pad.

Chris Hadfield seems to be very accomplished in space. It’s exciting when a first of something is carried out and he will always be marked the first Canadian to command the International Space Station. I imagine he is overjoyed to journey to space (again) –I would be. It sounds like an amazing experience up there and to achieve the title of “first” on his third mission must feel amazing. He must hold a lot of knowledge, as he will be conducting numerous experiments as well as command the station.

Watch out snowboarders !!

http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/news/story/2012/12/18/bc-cypress-missing-snowboarder.html

Missing snowboarder rescued on Vancouver’s North Shore

CBC News

Posted: Dec 18, 2012 9:27 AM ET

Last Updated: Dec 18, 2012 9:47 PM ET

Sebastien Boucher, 33, a snowboarder who was lost in Vancouver’s North Shore mountains for two full days, was contacted by the North Shore Rescue team shortly after 5.pm..While, although on Monday two teams searched intensively for Boucher, they were unable to find him. "We had some of our most experienced people on skis going into terrain and it was very, very difficult,” said Tim Jones, who is with the North Shore Rescue. Some fresh tracks were sprouted, which indicated he was on the move and a team was dropped by the tracks just before darkness. They had tried other ways of pinpointing Boucher’s location but the GPS signal was to weak to track due to the fact that he had turned it off to save the battery. Boucher was believed to have gone out of bounds in his snowboarding journey that started Sunday morning at Cypress Provincial Park in West Vancouver. He is said to have started on “Mount Strachan, within the Cypress Mountain ski boundary, when he went out of bounds toward the Montizambert Creek area.”

I’m so happy to hear that he was found. I think that even though Boucher wanted to save his phone battery, he should have turned it on shortly during the day to allow the team a chance to pinpoint his location with GPS an then turn it off again. Also the fact that he was on the move is encouraging. It suggests he knew the risks of snowboarding and how to keep himself warm and active, trying to reach home. It’s dangerous and anything can happen, especially when going out of bounds but I’m pleased to hear the effort to find him was immediate, strong, and obviously effective as they found him in time.

Times person of the year ...

http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/news/story/2012/12/19/time-magazine-obama-person-year.html

Obama named Time’s Person of the Year

The Associated Press

-posted Dec 19, 2012 9:34 AM ET – last updated: Dec 19, 2012 10:49 AM

The Person of the Year award is given out by time magazine to a “person or thing that has most influenced the culture and the news during the past pear for good or for ill”. This has been given out to a number of people in the past, including Ben Bernanke (The Federal Reserve chairman, Bono, Predident George W. Bush, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook founder and CEO), Mala Yousafzai (Pakistani teenager shot in the head for advocating girls’ education), Mohamed Morsi (Egyptian president), FabiolaGainnati (Italian physicist), and Time Cook (Apple CEO).

Now the honour is given to the current US President, Barack Obama who is, according to time editor Rick Stengel, “both the symbol and in some ways the architect of this new America”. The new America he is referring to is the one currently in the “midst of historic cultural and demographic changes”. When Obama had an interview with Time, he stated that his re-election “may have been more satisfying a win that 2008”.

I understand that the re-election is a very satisfying win because of the pace of change and the economic situation. I think its good that Obama was not seen entirely as the cause for this slow pace and that his hopes are still carried in others hearts. I really hope that laws are put in place about guns and that the change he has been looking for shows itself in some major ways soon.  The person of the year award is given to someone who affected the nation, regardless if it was in a good or bad way, and I think that Obama has helped America in a good way and will continue to do so while he’s in office, hopefully just more swiftly.

Does america needs more gun

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/light-newtown-shooting-reaction-seems-carry-more-guns-164420952.html

America’s reaction to gun violence? More guns

By Matthew Coutts | Daily Brew – Tue, 18 Dec, 2012

In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, gun advocates seem to be pouncing on the opportunity to present their views, no matter how twisted they may come across. They are warning the public not to “politicize the issue by calling for gun control” and stating that more guns is the way to avoid violence. “In the words of John McClane: Yippiekai yay.” Several school superintendents have been sent emails by Oregon State Rep. Dennis Richardson who led the front on gun advocacy as an answer to gun violence. He believes that if schools allowed teachers to carry guns or have a gun locked in their classrooms, that situations like this could be avoided. I think what he fails to realize is that teachers could become the shooters, children could get their hands on guns, and anyone in he school at the time could steal those guns and then we have another massacred on our hands. It makes little sense to say having more guns will stop people from using gun for violent means, this “resounding response to gun violence appears to trend against the obvious”. Another Rep, this time od Texas, agrees with Richardson, telling fox news that “principal Dawn Hochsprung would not have died in vain if she had a shotgun locked up in her office.” The gun advocates seem to be blinded to the obvious, that the prevalence of guns is the cause of violence. In countries, such as Canada, where “gun violence is exponentially lower, gun control is a reality”. This is something America seems to not realize and refuses to embrace safety through control, not fear. The gunman’s mother owned five registered guns, and at least three were taken by her son and used to kill her and carry out the shootings at Sandy Hook. The mother had “taught her children to shoot so they would be prepared for the coming of social chaos”, while the guns seemed to be cause. It seems unnecessary to me to have citizens in possession of assault rifles and shotguns and weapons that are clearly not necessary for anything other that a kind of warzone, certainly not for hunting or even for defending. Gun advocates remind me of an old saying, “to fight fire with fire”. The are just adding sticks to the fire, not water to put it out and with this growing fear and growing violence, I sincerely hope that some gun control laws are put into action to put an end to this mentality and these tragedies. 

the great maple syrup heist

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/18m-quebec-maple-syrup-heist-leads-arrests-163402068.html

$18M Quebec maple syrup height leads to arrests

CBC – 17 hours ago(Dec 18)

Last summer there was a massive maple syrup theft in Quebec and 3 people were arrested, they are facing the charges in court today. The thieves, “Richard Vallieres, 34, of Loretteville and Avik Caron, 39, of Saint-Wenceslas, along with a third person arrested without a warrant face charges of theft, conspiracy, handing stolen goods, and fraud.” They got away with “9,600 barrels of maple syrup”, worth about “$18 million” from a warehouse about 95km from Quebec City. The warehouse stored 3.4 million litres of bulk maple syrup, which belonged to the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers. About 1000 barrels were seized from S.K. Export Inc in Kedgwick, N.B., by authorities in October. Police say they interrogated over 300 people in the investigation and are still looking for 5 other people connected with the theft.

People will steal just bout anything they can get their hands on these days, including maple syrup. I’m surprised by how much its worth and the fact that they were able to steal 9,600 barrels of it. It’s good that they were caught but there are still a suspected 5 other people who were Not found. I really hope the police can find them as a theft on such a major scale, with a third of the maple syrup still missing leaves a lot of possibilities left. Like those people getting away with it and no one should be allowed to get away with a crime, they should be faced with it and deal with the consequences. I also hope they recover the last of the maple syrup and perhaps money made.

elementary shooting shock

     
  http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/gunman-behavior-shootings-indicates-planning-control-former-fbi-180620270.html

Gunman’s behaviour indicates planning and control: Ex-FBI profiler

By Jason Sickles, Yahoo! | The Lookout – 14 hours ago(Dec 17 2012)

New insight into gunman, Adam Lanza of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Connecticut earlier this week. While yes, he was reported to have a mental illness, as it seems necessary to have some kind of disturbance to be able to carry out such horrific acts, it does not mean he simply snapped and was unaware of his actions. As police investigate, evidence to suggest planning, intent, and awareness of the wrongness has arisen. Lanza, who was said to be a gifted with computers, smashed “his computer’s hard drives with a hammer or scwerdriver”, after killing his mother in her sleep. "I have not seen a case with callousness of this extreme," O'Toole(FBI) said of Lanza's shooting rampage. "It's off the charts." Lanza killed his mother, smashed his computers to destroy any insight into who he is, and then proceeded to load up on ammunition and venture to the elementary school he once attended on Friday. The 20-year-old massacred 20 first graders and 6 adults and is said, by police, to have “sprayed hundreds of bullets inside the school and had considerably more left over to use”. His behavior demonstrates that was Not out of touch with reality and had a plan to achieve maximum lethality.

"If you pick older people you are going to have some blowback," O'Toole said. "He didn't want people to interfere. When people take security measures like that, you know what you are doing is wrong."

Although the truth cannot be proved 100% I agree, based on the new evidence, that Lanza was aware of his actions. To target small children, vulnerable and unable to fight back, shows his need for control and no interference with his plans. I do believe he had a mental disturbance of some kind but that he was aware. I don’t believe he simply snapped one day and went on a killing spree. While he did snap and was obviously in some sort of manic state of un-wellness, it seems like he planned for everything, even destroying his computers so insight cannot be found after he’s gone. A story like this one makes me wish there were better laws, and better help for disturbed people. 

French psychiatrist

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/french-psychiatrist-sentenced-patient-commits-murder-192855747.html

(French psychiatrist sentenced after patient commits murder)

Reuters-12 hours ago

French psychiatrist, Daniele Canaralli(58) was handed a one-year prison sentence and ordered to pay 8,500 euros to the victims children, in the first case of its kind in France. The psychiatrist’s patient of four years, a Joel Gaillard, “hacked to death 80-year-old Germain Trabuc with an axe in March 2004”. He was found guilty of manslaughter on Tuesday and Canarelli was said to have “committed a grave error by failing to recognize the public danger” he patient posed. Canarelli refused to heed to the suggestions of her colleagues to place Gaillard in a “specialized medical unit or refer him to a medical team”. He had already been committed forcibly to a secure hospital several times for several dangerous accounts and yet he had the opportunity to commit this horrific murder. Due to his mental state he “was not held responsible for his actions and was freed under medical supervision” while the blame for this incident was placed on the psychiatrist, as they are responsible for their patients and for determining the risk they pose to society.

I think the sentence could have been more extreme for Canarelli but considering it’s the first case of its kind in France, it is understandable. Perhaps in the future if other occurrences take place, licences will be under review. Something like this should not have happened and I agree that psychiatrists need to be very careful and aware of their patients; making good judgements on the threat they pose. Hearing of this story has made me consider mental illness further and I hope that this neglect does not persist. Her patient was clearly very unwell, had a record of dangerous incidents, and yet room was allowed for this murder to take place. It is a tragedy for all those involved.