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Bocas del Toro Islands Real Estate – Isla Cristobal Waterfront Living – Video

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Bocas del Toro Islands Real Estate - Isla Cristobal Waterfront Living
For more information on Bocas del Toro real estate, contact Jason Will with Panama Source Real Estate at 011-507-6640-5560 or my U.S. line at 251-583-9728. You can also shoot me an email to...

By: Jason Will

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Bocas del Toro Islands Real Estate - Isla Cristobal Waterfront Living - Video

Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation reactivated on 9545 kiloHertz – Video

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Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation reactivated on 9545 kiloHertz
Was surprised to find that the SIBC had reactivated 9545 kiloHertz. Here #39;s an announcement by the lady DJ giving program notes followed by a station identification and mention of 9545 kHz...

By: Laurel Highlands

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Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation reactivated on 9545 kiloHertz - Video

Relaxing Saxophone Music – Tropical Islands Resort – Instrumental Background Chill-Out 4K – Video

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Relaxing Saxophone Music - Tropical Islands Resort - Instrumental Background Chill-Out 4K
Relaxing Saxophone - Music for Dreaming, Relaxing Sleeping.. Tropical Islands Resort - Germany Official Website: http://www.Holiday4free.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/holiday4free...

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Relaxing Saxophone Music - Tropical Islands Resort - Instrumental Background Chill-Out 4K - Video

Paint the Town White–and Green

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Urban heat islands are not inevitable, but the product of dark roofs, black pavement, and loss of vegetation. A cool communities approach would lower air-conditioning use and make the air healthier.

Hot spots in Washington show up as red areas in this satellite image. The presence of such heat islands increases energy use and raises smog levels. The largest red patch is at the site of a convention center. The coolest areas (green) are those covered by grass and trees.

On a summer afternoon, central Los Angeles registers temperatures typically 5F higher than the surrounding suburban and rural areas. Hot roofs and pavements, baked by the sun, warm the air blowing over them. The resulting urban heat island causes discomfort, hikes air-conditioning bills, and accelerates the formation of smog.

Heat islands are found in many large cities, including Chicago, Washington, and (as the Olympic athletes and fans can attest) Atlanta. The effect is particularly well recognized in cities that quote two airport temperatures on the weather report. Thus Chicago-Midway airport is typically a few degrees hotter than suburban OHare, and the same difference applies between Washington National airport and Dulles.

Contrary to popular opinion, heat islands do not arise mainly from heat leaking out of cars, buildings, and factories. In summertime, such anthropogenic heat gain accounts for a mere 1 percent of the heat islands excess temperature. (The fraction rises in the winter to about 10 percent, when heat does leak out of buildings.) Rather, dark horizontal surfaces absorb most of the sunlight falling on them. Consequently, dark surfaces run hotter than light ones. The choice of dark colors has caused the problem; we propose that wiser choices can reverse it.

We are now paying dearly for this extra heat. One sixth of the electricity consumed in the United States goes to cool buildings, at an annual power cost of $40 billion. Moreover, a 5F heat island greatly raises the rate at which pollutants-nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds emanating from cars and smokestacks -cook into ozone, a highly oxidizing and irritating gas that is the main ingredient of smog. In Los Angeles, for example, ozone rises from an acceptable concentration at 70F to unacceptable at 90F. The Los Angeles heat island raises ozone levels 10-15 percent and contributes to millions of dollars in medical expenses. (In winter, we have plenty of smog precursors but, because it is cool, little smog.)

Fortunately, we can go a long way toward dissipating urban heat islands with modest measures. One solution is to use lighter colors for roofs and pavement. The other is to plant lots of trees, which have a two-fold benefit. First, they provide cooling shade. Second, trees, like most plants, soak up groundwater. The water then evapotranspires from the leaves, thus cooling the leaves and, indirectly, the surrounding air. A single properly watered tree can evapotranspirate 40 gallons of water in a day-offsetting the heat equivalent to that produced by one hundred 100-watt lamps, burning eight hours per day.

Increases in temperature do not have to follow from an influx of population. The Los Angeles basin in 1880 was still relatively barren, and yearly highs ran about 102F. Then settlers introduced irrigation, the fruit trees cooled the air, and, within 50 years, summer temperatures dropped 5F. But as Los Angeles began to urbanize in the 1940s, cool orchards gave way to hot roofs and asphalt pavements. Over the next 50 years, summer highs climbed back to their 1880 values-and are still rising at 1F per decade, with no end in sight.

But with white roofs, concrete-colored pavements, and about 10 million new shade trees, Los Angeles could be cooler than the semidesert that surrounds it, instead of hotter. Such measures would be in keeping with approaches that have been taken for centuries. As civilization developed in warm climates, humans learned to whitewash their dwellings. Even today, building owners in hot cities like Haifa and Tel Aviv are required to whitewash their roofs each spring, after the rains stop.

In the United States, dwellings tended to be built with white roofs through the 1960s. Then, as air conditioning became widespread, cheap, and taken for granted, priorities shifted. It became popular to use darker roofing shingles, which more resembled wooden shingles and better concealed dirt and mold. The colored granules on typical white shingles made today are coated with only one-sixth as much white pigment as in the 1960s. Under the summer sun, modern shingles become 20F hotter than the old-style ones.

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Paint the Town White--and Green

Obesity in Pacific islands 'a colonial legacy' of settlers trying to civilize the locals

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Scientists have known for some time that Pacific islanders are more prone to obesity than people in other nations. Now a new study led by the University of Oxford has examined why islanders on Nauru and in the Cook Islands in the Pacific have the highest levels and fastest rates of obesity increase in the world. On both the islands, between 1980 and 2008 the increase in the average body mass index was four times higher than the global average. The paper, published in the journal Public Health Nutrition, provides a novel theory for why obesity levels are so high there. It suggests that social changes, introduced when the islands were under colonial rule, have significantly contributed to unhealthy dietary habits.

The Cook Islands were taken as a British protectorate in 1888, and became New Zealand's first South Pacific Island colony in 1901 until political independence in 1965. Meanwhile, the tiny Pacific island of Nauru is a former German and British colony whose Administration was led by Australia until 1968. Anthropologists Dr Amy McLennan and Professor Stanley Ulijaszek at the University of Oxford scoured existing academic literature and archive documents about the islands from libraries in Australia, Nauru and the UK. They also interviewed people on the the islands and lived there themselves for a short time to observe daily life first-hand.

Their research paper shows that historical materials and memories reveal the extent to which the colonial settlers changed the lives of the islanders. It quotes colonial letters describing how the settlers taught 'proper' food habits as part of their attempt to 'civilise' the islanders. The paper says this is one reason why islanders lost many of their traditional food growing and food preparation skills. This was also when the islanders' dependency on imported food began. Food began to be prepared in line with 'colonial conceptions of socially-proper behaviours and health diets', says the paper. It suggests that the social changes happened very quickly because of the islands being small and populated by close-knit communities. Given food preparation and eating is usually a communal process there, the particularly strong social ties between the islanders could be one reason why obesity levels have risen so quickly in recent times, says the research.

When islanders started to depend on imported food, traditional skills in fishing or food preparation were lost, says the paper. In their place came an increase in energy-dense, nutrient-poor food products. Islanders were taught to fry their fish rather than eat is raw as they had done before colonial rule. Colonial initiatives, such as mining or cash-crops, meant that land historically used for food gathering became inaccessible or infertile, says the paper. It adds that pollution from colonial shipping lines and industry degraded reefs, a former rich food source.

The study says another reason for the islanders 'disproportionately' importing more food has been the rapidly growing populations on the islands. Again the paper argues that colonial leaders played a part in changing the culture, encouraging large families after previous population declines due to outbreaks of infectious diseases in the late 1800s and early 1990s.

Lead author Dr Amy McLennan said: 'Under colonial rule, much changed in how food was sourced, grown and prepared and the social change was swift. What happened to the land also changed as colonial agriculture and mining industries expanded. There was an increase in family size meaning food was increasingly imported. The good news is that if obesity is tackled across the whole community not just amongst people labelled as 'obese' -- dietary habits could change quickly again. Lessons learned from the experiences of these smaller nations could also help us to think in new ways about social change and obesity in larger societies.'

Professor Stanley Ulijaszek said: 'Previous attempts to explain the disproportionately high rates of obesity in these and other island nations have tended to focus on the geographical isolation of islands and the risk of food shortages. Theories have suggested that islanders are genetically predisposed to putting on weight, but we believe this does not explain why obesity has emerged so rapidly on these islands. Interventions that tap into the naturally occurring social networks on the islands provide a new, and we believe more effective, way of tackling obesity.'

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The above story is based on materials provided by University of Oxford. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Obesity in Pacific islands 'a colonial legacy' of settlers trying to civilize the locals

Conservationists Spar With Fishermen Over Worlds Largest Marine Monument

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President Obamas proposal in June to expand a marine sanctuary around seven U.S.-controlled islands and atolls in the central Pacific Ocean drew immediate praise from scientists and conservationists, but has since sparked opposition from representatives of the tuna industry, including fishermen in Hawaii who say it would threaten their livelihood.

The tuna fishermen oppose the plan because commercial fishing is prohibited in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, which would increase from nearly 83,000 square miles to nearly 755,000 square miles (215,000 square kilometers to nearly 2 million square kilometers) under the plan Obama announced.

No other country is restricting fishing in its own waters to this extent, says Kitty Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, which manages fisheries in the Pacific.

But conservationists argue that the proposed expansion would have minimal impact on the industry, saying fishermen haul little tuna from those areas.

Even if those places are made off-limits, the fishermen won't lose that percent of their catch because they will be able to fish in other areas, says Jack Kittinger, the director of Conservation Internationals Hawaii office.

Although the public comment period ended August 15, Obama administration officials have met over the past few weeks with conservationists and fishing representatives to work out the details of what would be the worlds largest protected natural area. A final ruling could come any day, although administration officials declined to discuss their decision process.

President George W. Bush first designated the monument in February 2009, protecting an area that extended out to 50 nautical miles around seven uninhabited islands and atolls: Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll in the northern Line Islands, Wake Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Howland Island, and Baker Island.

On June 17, Obama proposed extending the monument to include the entire 200-nautical-mile U.S. exclusive economic zone around those areas.

MAGGIE SMITH, NG STAFF. SOURCES: U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE; USGS; MARINE CONSERVATION INSTITUTE

"I'm using my authority as president to protect some of our nation's most pristine marine monuments, just like we do on land," Obama had said at the time.

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Conservationists Spar With Fishermen Over Worlds Largest Marine Monument


  1. Islands