Fierce weather eats treasured beaches

South-East Queensland is again bracing for flash flooding as another weather system batters the state's coast.

THE southeast's world-famous beaches could virtually disappear as more violent weather lashes the state.

Surfers Paradise beach has turned into a dangerous 3m cliff, while the Sunshine Coast's prized beaches could be stripped to their barest in almost 40 years this week as high tides, heavy rain and rising seas deliver yet another erosion blow.

There is more rock than sand along much of the Gold Coast's tourist strip, with long-time locals saying it is the worst they have seen the coastline since the 1974 floods.

Beaches from the Southport Spit to Miami remain closed, with huge sand cliffs creating dangerous drops, while access stairwells have been literally washed out to sea.

Council work crews have spent the past three days clearing debris off beaches but it is unlikely any will reopen for at least several days.

When the huge swells eventually subside, repair crews will attempt to replenish the beaches stripped of sand.

Surf Life Saving Queensland's Dave McLean said it appeared Sunshine Coast beaches were in for another pounding during the next three to four days.

It would be the third savage blow in just over a month.

"It's bad. There's no access for lifesavers and lifeguards, no way to get equipment down," he said.

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Fierce weather eats treasured beaches

Mt. SAC offers astronomy series for children, adults

Five different astronomy programs designed for children and adults will be offered in March at Mt. San Antonio College's Randall Planetarium.

The planetarium is on the Mt. SAC campus, 1100 N. Grand Ave. in Walnut.

The series kicks off with "One World, One Sky: Big Bird's Adventure," a program designed for preschoolers, according to a statement from the college. Sesame Street characters will help children and adults to learn about the Big Dipper, the North Star, the sun and the moon.

The program will be offered at 4 p.m.March 1 and March 15.

Those who attend "Star Tales" will get a lesson on the stars, constellations and planets and how to see them from home. The program will be offered at 6 and 7:30 p.m. March 1.

With the help of an astronomer and binoculars, those attending "Deep Space: Binocular Astronomy" will have a chance to examine star clusters, galaxies and nebulas. Binoculars will be provided, the statement said. The program will be offered at 6 and 7:30 p.m. March 2.

"Stars of The Pharaohs" takes audiences to ancient Egypt for a lesson on astronomical phenomena and Egyptians' use of science in telling time, the development of a calendar and engineering.

"Starts of The Pharaohs" will be shown at 6 and 7:30 p.m. March 15.

The Big Bang and the origins of the universe will be explored in "Wonders of the Universe." The program will be offered at 6 and 7:30 p.m. March 16.

Tickets for each program are $6 for general admission; $4 for

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Mt. SAC offers astronomy series for children, adults

"Hunting in Tabas" : Documentary about capture of US RQ 170 Drone by Revolutionary guard aerospace – Video


"Hunting in Tabas" : Documentary about capture of US RQ 170 Drone by Revolutionary guard aerospace
Commanders of Revolutionary Guard Sardar Hajizadeh and Sardar Salami tell story of capture of United states RQ 170 Drone in a documentary produced by Iranian television called #39; Hunting in Tabas " . Tabas is the name of a location in Iran in which United states C130 aircraft sent by president Jimmy Carter to rescue hostages in 1980 were collided and burned .

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"Hunting in Tabas" : Documentary about capture of US RQ 170 Drone by Revolutionary guard aerospace - Video

Learn Your Body: FREE Physiology Course – Video


Learn Your Body: FREE Physiology Course
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Student Nutrition Expo set to showcase food services at Loveland schools

The face of school nutrition across the country is changing, and on Tuesday, parents, students and community members are invited to see -- and taste -- what that means for the Thompson School District.

The district's first Student Nutrition Expo will be held at Mountain View High School and features more than two dozen booths as well as educational presentations and lunchroom samples.

"It's just a perfect time for our district to really embrace the changes that are being made in school nutritional standards," Allie Clarke, district nutrition services clerk, said.

The USDA has continued to roll out new national standards for school meals, starting last fall when calorie limits and weekly minimums of grains and meat were put in place. The new guidelines have also increased daily servings of fruits and vegetables and increased the variety of vegetables served in school lunchrooms each week.

But district officials like to think they've always been ahead of the curve when it comes to encouraging healthy eating habits. In the past decade or so, the district has eliminated fried foods such as french fries from its menus and has made a concerted effort to move away from processed foods.

Thompson School District Student Nutrition Expo

When: 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Where: Mountain View High School, 3500 Mountain Lion Drive.

"Nutrition services has been ahead of the game as far as implementing the standards," Kathy Schlepp, wellness coordinator, said. "They've done taste tastes and worked on getting students to give input."

The new grain standard is one that Clarke said has been in place in the district for years, and this school year cafeterias started using a new pasta that's more than half whole grains. Locally processed in Aurora, the new pasta is also part of nutritional services's initiative to bring in local partners.

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Student Nutrition Expo set to showcase food services at Loveland schools

Mark Simpson – Brewmaster of Dockside Brewing Company – Food Talks Vol 6 – Video


Mark Simpson - Brewmaster of Dockside Brewing Company - Food Talks Vol 6
Mark Simpson - Brewmaster of Dockside Brewing Company Founder of Artisan Food and Beverage Group Inc Mark Simpson is the Winemaker and Brewmaster at Artisan Food and Beverage Group Inc. which he founded. Mark has decades of experience in brewing and winemaking. He has had a keen interest in fermentation since graduating from the UBC Microbiology program in 1982. He started his career with Molson Breweries, working with their core brands, as well as brewing international brands under license such as: Lowenbrau, Coors and Kirin and a ten year stint as Brewmaster for Granville Island Brewing Company. Mark wears many hats, he is currently Brewmaster of Dockside Brewing Company and produces his own line of super-premium BC wines under his own Siren #39;s Call label. Mark is one of the few Certified Cicerones in Canada and has a keen interest in beer culture and food pairing for beer. -Speaker bios courtesy of Vancouver Foodster and foodtalks.ca Food Talks is an evening of expert speakers from the Vancouver Food community. To hear more speakers from Food Talks please visit http or foodtalks.ca Food Talks Volume 6 was held in Vancouver BC Canada on February 12th 2013. Presented by Richard Wolak, http vancouverfoodster.com As featured on http Presented by Foodtalks.ca and http Videography by Geoff Peters of Birds in the House Productions birdsinthehouse.com Filmed at the Dockside Lounge, Granville Island, 1253 Johnston Street, Vancouver BC Canada http://www.docksidevancouver.com Closing ...

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Here is a video on how to prepare everything you need for making bacterial cultures. Lists of things that you need: -gloves and a mask -petry dishes -cooking agar (or microbiology agar -if you have) -sterilized swab sticks check out my homemade bacterial cultures: http://www.youtube.com

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Mark Simpson Brewmaster of Dockside Brewing Company in Vancouver – Food Talks Vol6 – Video


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Mark Simpson - Brewmaster of Dockside Brewing Company Founder of Artisan Food and Beverage Group Inc Mark Simpson is the Winemaker and Brewmaster at Artisan Food and Beverage Group Inc. which he founded. Mark has decades of experience in brewing and winemaking. He has had a keen interest in fermentation since graduating from the UBC Microbiology program in 1982. He started his career with Molson Breweries, working with their core brands, as well as brewing international brands under license such as: Lowenbrau, Coors and Kirin and a ten year stint as Brewmaster for Granville Island Brewing Company. Mark wears many hats, he is currently Brewmaster of Dockside Brewing Company and produces his own line of super-premium BC wines under his own Siren #39;s Call label. Mark is one of the few Certified Cicerones in Canada and has a keen interest in beer culture and food pairing for beer. Find Mark on twitter @marcusteleman twitter.com foodtalks.ca Food Talks is a series of social gatherings and talks featuring experts from the food community in Vancouver BC Canada Presented by http For more videos from Food Talks please visit foodtalks.ca Hosted by Richard Wolak http twitter.com Video filmed by Geoff Peters of birdsinthehouse.com

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Scientists identify key factor that controls ocean nitrogen availability

Oceanic oxygen minimum zones. Depicted is the oxygen concentration at 300 meter water depth. Around 30- 50% of global marine N-loss takes place in these areas, which represent only ca. 0.1% of the ocean s volume. Credit: Image is modified after World Ocean Atlas 2009 nodc.noaa.gov

(Phys.org)During an expedition to the South Pacific Ocean, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, along with their colleagues from the GEOMAR and Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel, discovered that organic matter derived from decaying algae regulates nitrogen loss from the Ocean's oxygen minimum zones. They published their discovery in the renowned scientific journal Nature Geoscience.

One of the central aims of today's marine research is to better predict the response of our Ocean to global warming and human activity in general. Understanding of the oceanic nitrogen cycle is of key importance in this effort as nitrogen is the limiting nutrient for life in the Ocean. Its bio-available form (so-called fixed nitrogen, such as ammonium) is produced biologically from nitrogen gas by bacteria or is transported to the ocean as dust or river run-off. However, due to the activity of marine microorganisms growing in virtually oxygen free conditions, this fixed nitrogen is rapidly converted back to nitrogen gas, which escapes from the Ocean to the atmosphere. There are two processes, which are mainly responsible for this nitrogen loss: denitrification and anammox (anaerobic oxidation of ammonium with nitrite), both performed by anaerobic bacteria.

Up to 40% of global oceanic nitrogen loss occurs in so-called oxygen minimum zones (OMZ), which are areas with low to non-measurable oxygen concentrations. "The eastern tropical South Pacific OMZ is one of the largest OMZs in the world," explains Tim Kalvelage from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, the first author of this study. "We assumed that if we could identify and constrain the parameters that regulate N loss from this OMZ, we could better predict the N loss from all OMZs, and possibly from the Ocean, as well." Professor Andreas Oschlies of GEOMAR Kiel and speaker of the Collaborative Research Centre SFB 754 adds: "This research is fundamental for improving our current biogeochemical models that, so far, cannot reliably reproduce the patterns of N loss that we measure."

As a part of the German National Research Foundation (DFG) funded SFB 754 a series of expeditions onboard of the research ship Meteor in 2008/2009 were specifically dedicated to collect samples from the South Pacific OMZ. Further analyses and measurements followed in the laboratories of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research and Institute for General Microbiology in Kiel. The results provide a detailed overview of nutrient distributions, rates of N loss processes and abundances and identity of bacteria in the South Pacific OMZ. Furthermore, models were employed to calculate the amount of algal biomass that is exported from the surface to the deeper OMZ waters. This large-scale study resulted in the so far most comprehensive nitrogen budget for an oceanic OMZ. The results were surprising: "We saw that the rates of nitrogen loss, mainly due to anammox, strongly correlated with the export of organic matter," explains Tim Kalvelage. "This was unexpected because anammox bacteria do not grow on organic matter but use ammonium and CO2." The scientists found out that the N-rich organic matter most likely serves as a key source of ammonium for the anammox reaction.

Professor Marcel Kuypers concludes: "Our results will help to more realistically estimate the short- and long-term impacts of human-induced ocean de-oxygenation and changing productivity on nitrogen cycling in the OMZs, as well as the rest of the Ocean. This is critical to estimate how much CO2 can be taken up by the Ocean in the future."

More information: Nitrogen cycling driven by organic matter export in the South Pacific oxygen minimum zone, Tim Kalvelage, Gaute Lavik, Phyllis Lam, Sergio Contreras, Lionel Arteaga, Carolin R. Lscher, Andreas Oschlies, Aurlien Paulmier, Lothar Stramma and Marcel M. M. Kuypers, Nature Geoscience (2013) doi:10.1038/NGEO1739

Journal reference: Nature Geoscience

Provided by Max Planck Society

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Scientists identify key factor that controls ocean nitrogen availability

How the Ocean loses nitrogen: Scientists identify key factor that controls nitrogen availability in the Ocean

Feb. 24, 2013 During an expedition to the South Pacific Ocean, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, along with their colleagues from the GEOMAR and Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel, discovered that organic matter derived from decaying algae regulates nitrogen loss from the Ocean's oxygen minimum zones.

They published their discovery in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience.

One of the central aims of today's marine research is to better predict the response of our Ocean to global warming and human activity in general. Understanding of the oceanic nitrogen cycle is of key importance in this effort as nitrogen is the limiting nutrient for life in the Ocean. Its bio-available form (so-called fixed nitrogen, such as ammonium) is produced biologically from nitrogen gas by bacteria or is transported to the ocean as dust or river run-off. However, due to the activity of marine microorganisms growing in virtually oxygen free conditions, this fixed nitrogen is rapidly converted back to nitrogen gas, which escapes from the Ocean to the atmosphere. There are two processes, which are mainly responsible for this nitrogen loss: denitrification and anammox (anaerobic oxidation of ammonium with nitrite), both performed by anaerobic bacteria.

Up to 40% of global oceanic nitrogen loss occurs in so-called oxygen minimum zones (OMZ), which are areas with low to non-measurable oxygen concentrations. "The eastern tropical South Pacific OMZ is one of the largest OMZs in the world," explains Tim Kalvelage from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, the first author of this study. "We assumed that if we could identify and constrain the parameters that regulate N loss from this OMZ, we could better predict the N loss from all OMZs, and possibly from the Ocean, as well." Professor Andreas Oschlies of GEOMAR Kiel and speaker of the Collaborative Research Centre SFB 754 adds: "This research is fundamental for improving our current biogeochemical models that, so far, cannot reliably reproduce the patterns of N loss that we measure."

As a part of the German National Research Foundation (DFG) funded SFB 754 a series of expeditions onboard of the research ship Meteor in 2008/2009 were specifically dedicated to collect samples from the South Pacific OMZ. Further analyses and measurements followed in the laboratories of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research and Institute for General Microbiology in Kiel. The results provide a detailed overview of nutrient distributions, rates of N loss processes and abundances and identity of bacteria in the South Pacific OMZ. Furthermore, models were employed to calculate the amount of algal biomass that is exported from the surface to the deeper OMZ waters. This large-scale study resulted in the so far most comprehensive nitrogen budget for an oceanic OMZ. The results were surprising: "We saw that the rates of nitrogen loss, mainly due to anammox, strongly correlated with the export of organic matter," explains Tim Kalvelage. "This was unexpected because anammox bacteria do not grow on organic matter but use ammonium and CO2." The scientists found out that the N-rich organic matter most likely serves as a key source of ammonium for the anammox reaction.

Professor Marcel Kuypers concludes: "Our results will help to more realistically estimate the short- and long-term impacts of human-induced ocean de-oxygenation and changing productivity on nitrogen cycling in the OMZs, as well as the rest of the Ocean. This is critical to estimate how much CO2 can be taken up by the Ocean in the future."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Max-Planck-Institut fr marine Mikrobiologie, via AlphaGalileo.

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How the Ocean loses nitrogen: Scientists identify key factor that controls nitrogen availability in the Ocean