15 April - Underground Energy

MNN
1.
FBI opens online vault, revealing UFO, Roswell files
2.
12 worst cars for the environment in 2011
3.
How to buy a great used bicycle
4.
Panel that works in the dark puts solar on fast track to ubiquity
5.
Infographic: United States of the Environment
6.
 amazing auroras seen on Earth ... and beyond
7.
Great online grocery coupons for April 2011
8.
Quayle Hodek: A young CEO running with the wind
9.
Electrical device plugs directly into trees for power
10. When it comes to energy consumption, 'homegrown' (cannabis) isn't green

New image is worth 1,235 potential alien planets 
The illustration shows all of Kepler's candidate planets — which await confirmation by follow-up observations — crossing the face of their host stars. This provides scale, and it's also a nod to Kepler's planet-hunting strategy: The spacecraft detects alien worlds by measuring the telltale dips in a star's brightness that occur during these planetary "transits.


elements
Residents Rally Against Natural Gas Storage Proposal 

( New articles added in 'Energy' { not so natural gas }, Uranium ( Elliott Lake mining town information suppression about health risks and deaths : a WHO article on DU ) Note most 'fracking' info is in the 'Water' file. Indexing suggestions to make that clearer might be helpful. )


High Levels of Flame Retardants in U.S. Kids 
Children in California have high levels of flame-retardant chemicals in their bodies, and they appear to be exposed to these chemicals through household dust and food
Mexican-American children, whose mothers emigrated from Mexico before they were born, had blood levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) that were seven times higher than children of the same age who were born and grew up in Mexico.

“The only levels that we’ve seen in the literature that are higher than the California children blood levels are children living on a hazardous waste site in Nicaragua.because California children’s PBDE levels were higher than those of their mothers, the chemicals don’t appear to be coming from the mothers’ breast milk, as previous studies have shown.

More likely sources of exposure for American children, she thinks, are household dust and food.
“The chemical essentially just evaporates and comes out of your household furniture and your household plastics and so it’s actually dust exposure to children that’s causing these high levels,” says David Andrews, PhD, a chemist and senior scientist with the nonprofit Environmental Working Group in Washington, D.C.

 In the mid-1970s, California created one of the highest standards for furniture flammability in the country. As a result, millions of pounds of flame retardant chemicals have been used in furniture foam, clothing, upholstery, electronics, and in the insulation for electrical wires.

Even though standards in other states aren’t as strict, product manufactures often conform to California’s flammability standards so their products can be sold there.

As a result, studies have shown that Americans have levels of PBDEs in the bodies that are 20 times higher than levels in Europeans. Government health surveys have found that some of the highest blood levels of PBDEs in California residents.

PBDEs have become so pervasive that a 2010 study documented their presence in butter.

Damages ordered for Japan victims
The Japanese government on Friday intervened on behalf of victims of the nuclear radiation crisis and ordered the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi plant to pay them “provisional compensation” towards a final settlement of damages.

Shortly after the multi-reactor plant was ravaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the government advised an immediate evacuation of the residents of a 20-km. stretch around the atomic power station. However, as the nuclear radiation crisis deepened, the government ordered the voluntary evacuation of people residing in contiguous areas within a radius of another 10 km. around the plant.

The preliminary compensation was decided upon, amid prolonged efforts to “stabilise” the Daiichi plant. However, a roadmap for the total resolution of the nuclear radiation crisis was not yet drawn up by the experts, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano at a press conference in Tokyo on Friday. He also indicated that the future of this evacuation zone might eventually be decided within the larger framework redesigning all the quake-and-tsunami-hit areas.