Why I despise Mike Adams: Blaming Beau Biden’s cancer on chemotherapy and glyphosate [Respectful Insolence]

I’ve been following Mike Adams a long time, going back to 2007 and even before. It’s difficult to find anyone who can pack more pseudoscience, conspiracy mongering, and outright hateful bile into an article when he has a mind to do so. I’ve documented this tendency many times, so many times that, each time I write about one of his rants, I tell myself it’ll be the last time. But it never is, because Adams is so vile and I cannot abide the way he spits on the grave of people who died of cancer, people like Tony Snow, Patrick Swayze, Elizabeth Edwards, and Farrah Fawcett. Every time, his MO is the same. He claims that it wasn’t the cancer that killed, but rather the chemotherapy, to which he often adds a faux-plaintiff, regretful, “If only [insert name of dead celebrity] had used ‘natural treatments’ she would still be alive today.” Whenever he can, Adams likes to find a photo of the celebrity who died not long before death, when inevitably that celebrity would look emaciated (as Patrick Swayze did) and use for shock value to blame the celebrity’s condition on the chemotherapy, rather than the real cause, the cancer.

As I said, I haven’t written about one of these trademark screeds by Mike Adams in a while, and I wouldn’t have even written about this one were it not for the fact that Adams adds a new twist to his usual narrative. This time around, I’m referring to the recent death of Joseph “Beau” Biden, Vice President Joseph Biden’s son, who unfortunately died of a brain tumor at the very much too young age of 46:

In 2010, the younger Mr. Biden, known as Beau, had suffered what officials described as a mild stroke. Three years later, he was admitted to the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston after what White House officials described at the time as “an episode of disorientation and weakness.”

Officials said in 2013 that the doctors in Texas had removed a small lesion from his brain.

And:

Beau Biden, 46, a former Delaware attorney general, was found to have brain cancer in August 2013. He underwent surgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas in Houston, to remove a lesion. That was followed by radiation treatment and chemotherapy, and his doctor gave him a clean bill of health in November, officials said.

He suffered a recurrence of illness this spring and was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in May, officials said.

Although the family hasn’t announced exactly what kind of cancer Beau Biden had, the most likely candidate, based on his age and the clinical course of the cancer, is glioblastoma. Of course, we’ve discussed glioblastoma on this blog far too many times, usually in the context of discussing “cancer cure” testimonials of patients of Stanislaw Burzynski. It’s a nasty tumor that is very hard to remove completely with surgery, which is why it has a deadly propensity to recur after apparently successful treatment. Reading between the lines of the stories above, it sounds as though he was fotunate enough to have had his tumor detected when it was still small, so that it could be removed with surgery. As is often the case with glioblastoma (which is what, for purposes of discussion, I am assuming that Beau Biden likely had), it recurred within two years. Of course, it could be that Biden didn’t have a glioblastoma, but, whatever type of brain cancer he had, it killed him within two years of diagnosis.

Yes, glioblastomas (and other forms of brain cancer) are nasty tumors. They’re one of the kinds of tumors that, admittedly, medical science doesn’t do that well with. Despite our best efforts, they usually eventually kill the patient, sometimes quickly, sometimes not-so-quickly, with few long term survivors. None of this stops Mike Adams from proclaiming that Joe Biden’s son Beau was killed by chemotherapy and glyphosate. Yes, in addition to his usual schtick about how it was chemotherapy, rather than the cancer, that killed a cancer patient like Beau Biden, somehow, some way Adams managed to bring genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into his rant and blame Biden’s death on a combination of the two. After affecting a faux sympathy for Beau Biden, Joseph Biden, and the rest of the Biden family, even going so far as to offer them transparently insincere “condolences,” Adams then gets to his real topic:

Frustratingly, I believe that Beau Biden, like hundreds of thousands of other Americans each year, was killed by a combination of chemotherapy, radiation and glyphosate. “He was diagnosed with brain cancer in August 2013 and underwent surgery, radiation and chemotherapy,” reports Reuters. “After getting a ‘a clean bill of health’ in November of that year, his cancer recurred in the spring of 2015, the vice president’s office said.”

In other words, after being diagnosed with brain cancer, Beau underwent toxic chemotherapy — a treatment that causes permanent brain damage known as “chemo brain” — while enduring radiation treatment on top of that chemo. Oncologists who prescribe chemotherapy drugs earn massive profits from those drugs, all while failing to disclose their own conflicts of interest to their patients.

Unfortunately, chemotherapy kills far more people than it saves because its primary side effect is recurring cancer. Yes, chemotherapy causes cancer. And the ignorant oncologists who prescribe it actively encourage patients to avoid protecting their healthy cells with nutritional therapies such as medicinal mushrooms, anti-cancer foods and healthy oils such as cod liver oil. In fact, oncology as practiced today is a barbaric medical practice that quite literally kills people by the hundreds of thousands each year.

This is depressingly of a piece with the very first Mike Adams “masterpiece” that I deconstructed way back in 2007. it’s the same sort of lies that Adams has been spreading for years and years. Contrary to what Adams claims, chemotherapy does work. True, it works better against some cancers than others. In the case of glioblastoma, for instance, the effect on survival is modest at best. In someone young and healthy, like Beau Biden, it’s a reasonable option, particularly for resectable glioma. No one denies that chemotherapy can cause problems, in particular drugs used to treat brain cancers like temozolomide. These are known side effects, and many people who undergo chemotherapy and radiation therapy to the brain will suffer cognitive impairment as a result. However, those potential adverse effects have to be weighed against the benefit of maximizing one’s chance of survival against cancer.

So far, this is just a standard-issue Mike Adams. Predictably, it’s followed by “disappointment” that “there’s no mention of him receiving the benefit of any healing protocols that might boost immune function and fight cancer, such as vitamin D and vitamin C therapies, anti-cancer juicing protocols like Gerson Therapy, or even insulin-potentiated micro-dosing of chemotherapy agents that target cancer cells while mostly avoiding healthy ones.” In other words, there are no stories about Beau Biden pursuing cancer quackery, which is as it should be; that is, unless you’re Mike Adams. Of course, if Beau Biden had pursued those therapies, unfortunately he’d be just as dead, and that wouldn’t do for Adams’ propaganda. It’s better for Adams that Biden stuck to conventional treatments, so that he can falsely claim it was the chemotherapy that caused Biden’s tumor to come roaring back after a year and a half, which is, unfortunately well within the usual time frame when brain tumors recur if they’re going to recur.

Now here’s the twist. Adams starts speculating about what caused Biden’s brain tumor. Not surprisingly, he rapidly zeroes in on another one of his bogeymen, glyphosphate:

The other great crime of the for-profit cancer industry as practiced in Western medicine today is the utter unwillingness to honestly assess the environmental causes of cancer in the first place.

It’s an incredibly important question: What sort of environmental causes could lead to fatal brain cancer in an otherwise healthy 46-year-old man?

I believe a significant part of that answer is glyphosate, the cancer-causing herbicide chemical used alongside GMOs in corporate agriculture.

As even Scientific American has now acknowledged, glyphosate has been linked to cancer by the World Health Organization.

The announcement, published in The Lancet, establishes the likelihood of a causal link between glyphosate exposure and cancer. This paper is based on “…17 experts from 11 countries [who] met at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC; Lyon, France) to assess the carcinogenicity of the organophosphate pesticides tetrachlorvinphos, parathion, malathion, diazinon, and glyphosate.” You can read about it in more detail at this link at GMOevidence.com.

I’ve discussed the problems with the WHO classification of whether something is or is not a carcinogen before, particularly in the context of cell phone radiation, which was classified as 2B, possibly carcinogenic, even though the evidence used to come up with that was incredibly weak. In this case, apparently WHO classified glyphosate as 2A, probably carcinogenic. The Scientific American article linked to doesn’t really describe any good justification for this decision:

The IARC review notes that there is limited evidence for a link to cancer in humans. Although several studies have shown that people who work with the herbicide seem to be at increased risk of a cancer type called non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the report notes that a separate huge US study, the Agricultural Health Study, found no link to non-Hodgkin lymphomas. That study followed thousands of farmers and looked at whether they had increased risk of cancer.

But other evidence, including from animal studies, led the IARC to its ‘probably carcinogenic’ classification. Glyphosate has been linked to tumours in mice and rats — and there is also what the IARC classifies as ‘mechanistic evidence’, such as DNA damage to human cells from exposure to glyphosate.

And that, in a nutshell, is the big problem with the WHO’s classification scheme to rate the carcinogenicity of compounds and conflicts with a recent systematic review of the question, which found “no consistent pattern of positive associations indicating a causal relationship between total cancer (in adults or children) or any site-specific cancer and exposure to glyphosate” and the German Risk Agency report, which concludes that existing data (the same data used by the IARC) “do not show carcinogenic or mutagenic properties of glyphosate nor that glyphosate is toxic to fertility, reproduction or embryonal/fetal development in laboratory animals.” So is glyphosate carcinogenic or not? If it is, the evidence sure isn’t very strong, even the evidence used in the IARC review published in The Lancet Oncology, relying as it does on animal experiments and finding basically no convincing evidence in humans. Basically, the WHO is way, way conservative, taking the precautionary principle to ridiculous heights in the way the IARC assesses carcinogenicity. As my bood bud Skeptical Raptor reminds us, formaldehyde is listed as a Group 1 carcinogen (definitely carcinogenic to humans), and it’s everywhere, including fruit like apples. However, at the levels normally encountered in food (and vaccines) it’s harmless.

Of course, even if glyphosate were carcinogenic (which it appears not to be, at least not at a clinically significant level), there would be no way of knowing that it caused Beau Biden’s brain cancer. Even Mike Adams ends up having to equivocate and admit that. Unfortunately, he does so in the context of a particularly vicious attack on the grieving Joe Biden:

We can’t know for sure whether glyphosate gave Beau Biden brain cancer, but we do know for a fact that Joe Biden is another pro-Monsanto sellout of the Democratic party who supports the mass poisoning of America with cancer-causing chemicals as long as people like himself are kept in positions of political power. It’s a harsh statement, yes, but it’s also true: these are the people who enable the corporate poisoners whose toxic chemicals cause widespread cancer, suffering and death. They even sacrifice the safety of their own sons and daughters in exchange for a few million dollars of financial support during their campaigns. They seemingly value nothing other than money and power, and as a result they condemn us all to the mass poisoning of the for-profit cancer industry and the criminally-run corporate agriculture giants.

Stay classy, Mike. Stay classy.

Yes, there’s nothing like accusing the grieving father who just lost his son of having helped cause that cancer. Even if the claim is utterly unsupported BS, it’s still hurtful and shameful. Near the end of his little rant, Adams bolds a message of, “Shame on all you politicians in Washington,” when it is Adams who should be ashamed.

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1I4w6CM

I’ve been following Mike Adams a long time, going back to 2007 and even before. It’s difficult to find anyone who can pack more pseudoscience, conspiracy mongering, and outright hateful bile into an article when he has a mind to do so. I’ve documented this tendency many times, so many times that, each time I write about one of his rants, I tell myself it’ll be the last time. But it never is, because Adams is so vile and I cannot abide the way he spits on the grave of people who died of cancer, people like Tony Snow, Patrick Swayze, Elizabeth Edwards, and Farrah Fawcett. Every time, his MO is the same. He claims that it wasn’t the cancer that killed, but rather the chemotherapy, to which he often adds a faux-plaintiff, regretful, “If only [insert name of dead celebrity] had used ‘natural treatments’ she would still be alive today.” Whenever he can, Adams likes to find a photo of the celebrity who died not long before death, when inevitably that celebrity would look emaciated (as Patrick Swayze did) and use for shock value to blame the celebrity’s condition on the chemotherapy, rather than the real cause, the cancer.

As I said, I haven’t written about one of these trademark screeds by Mike Adams in a while, and I wouldn’t have even written about this one were it not for the fact that Adams adds a new twist to his usual narrative. This time around, I’m referring to the recent death of Joseph “Beau” Biden, Vice President Joseph Biden’s son, who unfortunately died of a brain tumor at the very much too young age of 46:

In 2010, the younger Mr. Biden, known as Beau, had suffered what officials described as a mild stroke. Three years later, he was admitted to the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston after what White House officials described at the time as “an episode of disorientation and weakness.”

Officials said in 2013 that the doctors in Texas had removed a small lesion from his brain.

And:

Beau Biden, 46, a former Delaware attorney general, was found to have brain cancer in August 2013. He underwent surgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas in Houston, to remove a lesion. That was followed by radiation treatment and chemotherapy, and his doctor gave him a clean bill of health in November, officials said.

He suffered a recurrence of illness this spring and was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in May, officials said.

Although the family hasn’t announced exactly what kind of cancer Beau Biden had, the most likely candidate, based on his age and the clinical course of the cancer, is glioblastoma. Of course, we’ve discussed glioblastoma on this blog far too many times, usually in the context of discussing “cancer cure” testimonials of patients of Stanislaw Burzynski. It’s a nasty tumor that is very hard to remove completely with surgery, which is why it has a deadly propensity to recur after apparently successful treatment. Reading between the lines of the stories above, it sounds as though he was fotunate enough to have had his tumor detected when it was still small, so that it could be removed with surgery. As is often the case with glioblastoma (which is what, for purposes of discussion, I am assuming that Beau Biden likely had), it recurred within two years. Of course, it could be that Biden didn’t have a glioblastoma, but, whatever type of brain cancer he had, it killed him within two years of diagnosis.

Yes, glioblastomas (and other forms of brain cancer) are nasty tumors. They’re one of the kinds of tumors that, admittedly, medical science doesn’t do that well with. Despite our best efforts, they usually eventually kill the patient, sometimes quickly, sometimes not-so-quickly, with few long term survivors. None of this stops Mike Adams from proclaiming that Joe Biden’s son Beau was killed by chemotherapy and glyphosate. Yes, in addition to his usual schtick about how it was chemotherapy, rather than the cancer, that killed a cancer patient like Beau Biden, somehow, some way Adams managed to bring genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into his rant and blame Biden’s death on a combination of the two. After affecting a faux sympathy for Beau Biden, Joseph Biden, and the rest of the Biden family, even going so far as to offer them transparently insincere “condolences,” Adams then gets to his real topic:

Frustratingly, I believe that Beau Biden, like hundreds of thousands of other Americans each year, was killed by a combination of chemotherapy, radiation and glyphosate. “He was diagnosed with brain cancer in August 2013 and underwent surgery, radiation and chemotherapy,” reports Reuters. “After getting a ‘a clean bill of health’ in November of that year, his cancer recurred in the spring of 2015, the vice president’s office said.”

In other words, after being diagnosed with brain cancer, Beau underwent toxic chemotherapy — a treatment that causes permanent brain damage known as “chemo brain” — while enduring radiation treatment on top of that chemo. Oncologists who prescribe chemotherapy drugs earn massive profits from those drugs, all while failing to disclose their own conflicts of interest to their patients.

Unfortunately, chemotherapy kills far more people than it saves because its primary side effect is recurring cancer. Yes, chemotherapy causes cancer. And the ignorant oncologists who prescribe it actively encourage patients to avoid protecting their healthy cells with nutritional therapies such as medicinal mushrooms, anti-cancer foods and healthy oils such as cod liver oil. In fact, oncology as practiced today is a barbaric medical practice that quite literally kills people by the hundreds of thousands each year.

This is depressingly of a piece with the very first Mike Adams “masterpiece” that I deconstructed way back in 2007. it’s the same sort of lies that Adams has been spreading for years and years. Contrary to what Adams claims, chemotherapy does work. True, it works better against some cancers than others. In the case of glioblastoma, for instance, the effect on survival is modest at best. In someone young and healthy, like Beau Biden, it’s a reasonable option, particularly for resectable glioma. No one denies that chemotherapy can cause problems, in particular drugs used to treat brain cancers like temozolomide. These are known side effects, and many people who undergo chemotherapy and radiation therapy to the brain will suffer cognitive impairment as a result. However, those potential adverse effects have to be weighed against the benefit of maximizing one’s chance of survival against cancer.

So far, this is just a standard-issue Mike Adams. Predictably, it’s followed by “disappointment” that “there’s no mention of him receiving the benefit of any healing protocols that might boost immune function and fight cancer, such as vitamin D and vitamin C therapies, anti-cancer juicing protocols like Gerson Therapy, or even insulin-potentiated micro-dosing of chemotherapy agents that target cancer cells while mostly avoiding healthy ones.” In other words, there are no stories about Beau Biden pursuing cancer quackery, which is as it should be; that is, unless you’re Mike Adams. Of course, if Beau Biden had pursued those therapies, unfortunately he’d be just as dead, and that wouldn’t do for Adams’ propaganda. It’s better for Adams that Biden stuck to conventional treatments, so that he can falsely claim it was the chemotherapy that caused Biden’s tumor to come roaring back after a year and a half, which is, unfortunately well within the usual time frame when brain tumors recur if they’re going to recur.

Now here’s the twist. Adams starts speculating about what caused Biden’s brain tumor. Not surprisingly, he rapidly zeroes in on another one of his bogeymen, glyphosphate:

The other great crime of the for-profit cancer industry as practiced in Western medicine today is the utter unwillingness to honestly assess the environmental causes of cancer in the first place.

It’s an incredibly important question: What sort of environmental causes could lead to fatal brain cancer in an otherwise healthy 46-year-old man?

I believe a significant part of that answer is glyphosate, the cancer-causing herbicide chemical used alongside GMOs in corporate agriculture.

As even Scientific American has now acknowledged, glyphosate has been linked to cancer by the World Health Organization.

The announcement, published in The Lancet, establishes the likelihood of a causal link between glyphosate exposure and cancer. This paper is based on “…17 experts from 11 countries [who] met at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC; Lyon, France) to assess the carcinogenicity of the organophosphate pesticides tetrachlorvinphos, parathion, malathion, diazinon, and glyphosate.” You can read about it in more detail at this link at GMOevidence.com.

I’ve discussed the problems with the WHO classification of whether something is or is not a carcinogen before, particularly in the context of cell phone radiation, which was classified as 2B, possibly carcinogenic, even though the evidence used to come up with that was incredibly weak. In this case, apparently WHO classified glyphosate as 2A, probably carcinogenic. The Scientific American article linked to doesn’t really describe any good justification for this decision:

The IARC review notes that there is limited evidence for a link to cancer in humans. Although several studies have shown that people who work with the herbicide seem to be at increased risk of a cancer type called non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the report notes that a separate huge US study, the Agricultural Health Study, found no link to non-Hodgkin lymphomas. That study followed thousands of farmers and looked at whether they had increased risk of cancer.

But other evidence, including from animal studies, led the IARC to its ‘probably carcinogenic’ classification. Glyphosate has been linked to tumours in mice and rats — and there is also what the IARC classifies as ‘mechanistic evidence’, such as DNA damage to human cells from exposure to glyphosate.

And that, in a nutshell, is the big problem with the WHO’s classification scheme to rate the carcinogenicity of compounds and conflicts with a recent systematic review of the question, which found “no consistent pattern of positive associations indicating a causal relationship between total cancer (in adults or children) or any site-specific cancer and exposure to glyphosate” and the German Risk Agency report, which concludes that existing data (the same data used by the IARC) “do not show carcinogenic or mutagenic properties of glyphosate nor that glyphosate is toxic to fertility, reproduction or embryonal/fetal development in laboratory animals.” So is glyphosate carcinogenic or not? If it is, the evidence sure isn’t very strong, even the evidence used in the IARC review published in The Lancet Oncology, relying as it does on animal experiments and finding basically no convincing evidence in humans. Basically, the WHO is way, way conservative, taking the precautionary principle to ridiculous heights in the way the IARC assesses carcinogenicity. As my bood bud Skeptical Raptor reminds us, formaldehyde is listed as a Group 1 carcinogen (definitely carcinogenic to humans), and it’s everywhere, including fruit like apples. However, at the levels normally encountered in food (and vaccines) it’s harmless.

Of course, even if glyphosate were carcinogenic (which it appears not to be, at least not at a clinically significant level), there would be no way of knowing that it caused Beau Biden’s brain cancer. Even Mike Adams ends up having to equivocate and admit that. Unfortunately, he does so in the context of a particularly vicious attack on the grieving Joe Biden:

We can’t know for sure whether glyphosate gave Beau Biden brain cancer, but we do know for a fact that Joe Biden is another pro-Monsanto sellout of the Democratic party who supports the mass poisoning of America with cancer-causing chemicals as long as people like himself are kept in positions of political power. It’s a harsh statement, yes, but it’s also true: these are the people who enable the corporate poisoners whose toxic chemicals cause widespread cancer, suffering and death. They even sacrifice the safety of their own sons and daughters in exchange for a few million dollars of financial support during their campaigns. They seemingly value nothing other than money and power, and as a result they condemn us all to the mass poisoning of the for-profit cancer industry and the criminally-run corporate agriculture giants.

Stay classy, Mike. Stay classy.

Yes, there’s nothing like accusing the grieving father who just lost his son of having helped cause that cancer. Even if the claim is utterly unsupported BS, it’s still hurtful and shameful. Near the end of his little rant, Adams bolds a message of, “Shame on all you politicians in Washington,” when it is Adams who should be ashamed.

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1I4w6CM

Full Strawberry Moon on June 2

On June 2, 2015, watch for the full moon to group up with the planet Saturn and star Antares in the eastern sky at dusk and nightfall. As our Earth turns underneath the heavens tonight, look for this full moon, Saturn and Antares to move westward across the nighttime sky. The celestial threesome climbs highest up for the night around midnight, and sits low in the west at dawn June 3.

In North America, we commonly call the June full moon the Strawberry Moon.

This year’s Strawberry Moon turns precisely full on June 2, 2015 at 16:19 Universal time. Although the full moon comes at the same instant worldwide, the clock reading varies by time zone. At U.S. time zones, the moon turns precisely full at 12:19 p.m. EDT, 11:19 a.m. CDT, 10:19 a.m. MST and 9:19 a.m. PDT.

From North America, we can’t see the moon at the exact instant of full moon because it turns full during our daylight hours, when the moon is beneath the horizon and under our feet.

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Day and night sides of Earth at the instant of the June 2015 full moon (2015 June 2 at 16:19 Universal Time).

The moon will turn full at midday June 2 for eastern North America and western South America, at midnight (0 hours June 3) for western Australia and eastern Asia. The shadow line passing through Africa shows you where the moon turns full at sunset June 2, and the shadow line running across the Pacific Ocean shows you where the moon turns full at sunrise June 2 – or sunrise June 3 – depending on which side of the International Date Line you live.

However, the moon appears full to the eye, and remains more or less opposite the sun, for a few days.

Technically speaking, we in North America see a waxing gibbous moon on the morning of June 2 and a waning gibbous moon on the evening of June 2. Even so, the moon will look plenty full all night long, in North America and around the world, as it lights up the nighttime from dusk till dawn!

Bottom line: At dusk and nightfall on June 2, 2015, look for the full moon – called the Strawberry Moon in North America – low in the southeast, not far from Saturn and Antares on the great dome of sky.

A planisphere is virtually indispensable tool for beginning stargazers. Order your EarthSky planisphere from our store.

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1AJmJWu

On June 2, 2015, watch for the full moon to group up with the planet Saturn and star Antares in the eastern sky at dusk and nightfall. As our Earth turns underneath the heavens tonight, look for this full moon, Saturn and Antares to move westward across the nighttime sky. The celestial threesome climbs highest up for the night around midnight, and sits low in the west at dawn June 3.

In North America, we commonly call the June full moon the Strawberry Moon.

This year’s Strawberry Moon turns precisely full on June 2, 2015 at 16:19 Universal time. Although the full moon comes at the same instant worldwide, the clock reading varies by time zone. At U.S. time zones, the moon turns precisely full at 12:19 p.m. EDT, 11:19 a.m. CDT, 10:19 a.m. MST and 9:19 a.m. PDT.

From North America, we can’t see the moon at the exact instant of full moon because it turns full during our daylight hours, when the moon is beneath the horizon and under our feet.

Enjoying EarthSky so far? Sign up for our free daily newsletter today!

Day and night sides of Earth at the instant of the June 2015 full moon (2015 June 2 at 16:19 Universal Time).

The moon will turn full at midday June 2 for eastern North America and western South America, at midnight (0 hours June 3) for western Australia and eastern Asia. The shadow line passing through Africa shows you where the moon turns full at sunset June 2, and the shadow line running across the Pacific Ocean shows you where the moon turns full at sunrise June 2 – or sunrise June 3 – depending on which side of the International Date Line you live.

However, the moon appears full to the eye, and remains more or less opposite the sun, for a few days.

Technically speaking, we in North America see a waxing gibbous moon on the morning of June 2 and a waning gibbous moon on the evening of June 2. Even so, the moon will look plenty full all night long, in North America and around the world, as it lights up the nighttime from dusk till dawn!

Bottom line: At dusk and nightfall on June 2, 2015, look for the full moon – called the Strawberry Moon in North America – low in the southeast, not far from Saturn and Antares on the great dome of sky.

A planisphere is virtually indispensable tool for beginning stargazers. Order your EarthSky planisphere from our store.

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1AJmJWu

June 2015 guide to the five visible planets

On June 1, the almost-full moon shines in the vicinity of the planet Saturn and the star Antares, the constellation Scorpius’ brightest star. Read more

See the planets! Best photos of moon passing Venus and Jupiter on May 19-23, 2015

Evening planets in June 2015

Brilliant Venus in west from dusk until mid-to-late evening

Fading Mars lost in the glare of the sun

Bright Jupiter from dusk until late evening

Saturn from nightfall until dawn

Morning planets in June 2015

Saturn from nightfall until dawn

Mercury at dawn, in second half of June

Brilliant Venus in west from dusk until mid-to-late evening. Venus – the brightest planet and third-brightest celestial luminary overall (after the sun and moon) – reaches its greatest elongation in the western sky on June 6, staying out for over three hours after sunset, as seen from around the world.

Throughout June 2015, brilliant Venus beams like a lighthouse as darkness falls! At mid-northern latitudes, Venus stays out quite late, possibly after your bedtime. Be sure to catch the wonderful presence of the moon in Venus’ vicinity for several days, starting on June 18 or June 19.

Venus – the brightest star-like object in all the heavens – totally predominates over the western sky as darkness falls. However, you can’t miss another brilliant beauty – the planet Jupiter – above Venus in the evening sky. These two dazzling worlds will come closer and closer together on the sky’s dome all month long. In fact, in late June and early July, Venus and Jupiter will stage their closest conjunction until August 27, 2016!

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Watch for the moon to swing by Jupiter on June 20 and Regulus on June 21. The green line depicts the ecliptic – the annual pathway of the sun through the constellations of the Zodiac. Read more

Fading Mars lost in the glare of the sun. Mars has lingered in our western twilight sky for many months, and it continues to fade in brightness, officially passing into the morning sky on June 14, 2015. Most likely, you won’t see Mars at all this month.

Bright Jupiter from dusk until late evening. Once you see Jupiter at dusk or nightfall, you won’t mistake it for anything else – except, possibly, brighter Venus, which shines lower down than Jupiter.

Jupiter shines more brilliantly than any star. It’s the second-brightest planet after Venus. In early June 2015, Venus sets in the west at mid-to-late evening, leaving the king planet Jupiter to rule over the evening sky for an hour or two after Venus sets. By the end of June 2015, the two planets will be in conjunction, or nearly so, and setting at about the same time. At mid-northern latitudes, Jupiter sets in the west about 3.5 hours after sunset in early June, and by the month’s end, Venus and Jupiter both set about 2.5 hours after the sun.

Watch the moon as it swings in the vicinity of Venus and Jupiter for several days, starting on June 18 or June 19.

If you have binoculars or a telescope, be sure to check out Jupiter’s four major moons, which look like pinpricks of light on or near the same plane. They are often called the Galilean moons to honor Galileo, who discovered these great Jovian moons in 1610. In their order from Jupiter, these moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

These moons circle Jupiter around the Jovian equator. In cycles of six years, we view Jupiter’s equator edge-on. So, in 2015, we get to view a number of mutual events involving Jupiter’s moons through a high-powered telescope. Click here or here or here for more details.

Click here for a Jupiter’s moons almanac, courtesy of Sky & Telescope.

On June 1, the almost-full moon shines in the vicinity of the planet Saturn and the star Antares, the constellation Scorpius’ brightest star. Read more

Saturn from nightfall until dawn. Around the world, the golden planet Saturn lords over the southeast or eastern sky at nightfall and stays out till dawn, or nearly so! The ringed planet goes westward across the sky during the nighttime hours, and is found in the southwest during the dark hour before dawn.

Watch for the almost-full and full moon to shine close to Saturn (and the star Antares) for several days, most notably on June 1 and June 2.

Binoculars don’t reveal Saturn’s gorgeous rings. For that, you need a small telescope.

Saturn’s rings are inclined somewhat more than 24^o from edge-on in June 2015, exhibiting their northern face. A few years from now, in October 2017, the rings will open most widely, displaying a maximum inclination of 27^o. As with so much in space (and on Earth), the appearance of Saturn’s rings from Earth is cyclical. In the year 2025, the rings will appear edge-on as seen from Earth. After that, we’ll begin to see the south side of Saturn’s rings, to increase to a maximum inclination of 27^o by May 2032.

It’ll take a lot of stellar acrobatics to star-hop to Mercury (and the star Antares) from mid-northern latitudes. Mercury will be much easier to see in the Southern Hemisphere or northern tropics. Read more

Mercury at dawn, in second half of June. Mercury is our solar system’s innermost planet and always stays near the sun in our sky. As seen from the Southern Hemisphere, Mercury will become visible in the morning sky around June 10 or so. Here, at mid-northern latitudes, we may not get our first glimpse of Mercury until June 22 or 23. Mercury reaches its greatest morning elongation from the sun on June 24.

Those at northerly latitudes aren’t quite as lucky this month. Morning dawn comes sooner before sunrise during our Northern Hemisphere summer than it does in the Southern Hemisphere (where it’s winter), so Mercury is more deeply buried in the glare of the morning twilight at northerly latitudes. Try scanning with binoculars, if you’re in a northerly location.

At temperate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, this world actually rises before the onset of dawn from about June 14 to July 6, 2015. Look for Mercury over the sunrise point on the horizon as darkness first gives way to dawn. Click here to find out Mercury’s rising time in your sky, and for the time at which astronomical twilight begins.

Binoculars are always recommended to enhance sky views! Click here for recommended almanacs. They can help you know when Mercury rises in your sky.

Mercury will stay in the morning sky until July 23, 2015. Then it’ll pass into the evening sky, to give the Southern Hemisphere its most favorable apparition of Mercury for the year. Mercury will be in fine view for southerly latitudes from about mid-August to mid-September 2015. At northerly latitudes, this upcoming evening apparition of Mercury in August and September is about as unfavorable as it gets.

Distances of the planets from the sun

What do we mean by visible planet? By visible planet, we mean any solar system planet that is easily visible without an optical aid and that has been watched by our ancestors since time immemorial. In their outward order from the sun, the five visible planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. These planets are visible in our sky because their disks reflect sunlight, and these relatively nearby worlds tend to shine with a steadier light than the distant, twinkling stars. They tend to be bright! You can spot them, and come to know them as faithful friends, if you try.

Bottom line: Three of the five visible planets are exceptional in the evening sky throughout June 2015: Venus, Jupiter shine in the west first thing at dusk, and Saturn lords over the southeast sky as darkness falls. For the Southern Hemisphere, Mercury presents a good morning apparition in the east before sunrise, starting around June 10.

View larger.| Venus near the setting sun on November 18, 2014 by Helio de Carvalho Vital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He wrote, “I managed to capture Venus as it is starting its return to dusk, despite the fact that it is still at a mere 6.2° distance from the sun. The photos show it a few minutes before setting behind the northern side of the 1,021-meter high Tijuca Peak, located some 6.5 km away. It was deeply immersed in the intense glare of the sun, that would set some 13 minutes later.”

Lunar eclipse on the night of October 8, 2014. The object to the left is the planet Uranus! This beautiful photo is by Janey Wing Kenyon of Story, Wyoming.

Debra Fryar in Calobreves, Texas captured this photo of the moon and Jupiter on May 31, 2014. Jupiter was close to the twilight then.

With only a modest backyard telescope, you can easily see Jupiter’s four largest moons. Here they are through a 10″ (25 cm) Meade LX200 telescope. Image credit: Jan Sandberg

Jupiter was rivaling the streetlights, when Mohamed Laaifat Photographies captured this photo in Normandy, France. Visit his page on Facebook.

Venus by Danny Crocker-Jensen

These are called star trails. It’s a long-exposure photo, which shows you how Earth is turning under the stars. The brightest object here is Jupiter, which is the second-brightest planet, after Venus. This awesome photo by EarthSky Facebook friend Mohamed Laaifat in Normandy, France. Thank you, Mohamed.

View larger. | Mercury, Venus and Jupiter seen when evening fell in Hong Kong on June 1, 2013. Photo by EarthSky Facebook friend Matthew Chin. Awesome shot, Matthew!

Skywatcher, by Predrag Agatonovic.

Easily locate stars and constellations with EarthSky’s planisphere.

Don’t miss anything. Subscribe to EarthSky News by email

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/IJfHCr

On June 1, the almost-full moon shines in the vicinity of the planet Saturn and the star Antares, the constellation Scorpius’ brightest star. Read more

See the planets! Best photos of moon passing Venus and Jupiter on May 19-23, 2015

Evening planets in June 2015

Brilliant Venus in west from dusk until mid-to-late evening

Fading Mars lost in the glare of the sun

Bright Jupiter from dusk until late evening

Saturn from nightfall until dawn

Morning planets in June 2015

Saturn from nightfall until dawn

Mercury at dawn, in second half of June

Brilliant Venus in west from dusk until mid-to-late evening. Venus – the brightest planet and third-brightest celestial luminary overall (after the sun and moon) – reaches its greatest elongation in the western sky on June 6, staying out for over three hours after sunset, as seen from around the world.

Throughout June 2015, brilliant Venus beams like a lighthouse as darkness falls! At mid-northern latitudes, Venus stays out quite late, possibly after your bedtime. Be sure to catch the wonderful presence of the moon in Venus’ vicinity for several days, starting on June 18 or June 19.

Venus – the brightest star-like object in all the heavens – totally predominates over the western sky as darkness falls. However, you can’t miss another brilliant beauty – the planet Jupiter – above Venus in the evening sky. These two dazzling worlds will come closer and closer together on the sky’s dome all month long. In fact, in late June and early July, Venus and Jupiter will stage their closest conjunction until August 27, 2016!

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Watch for the moon to swing by Jupiter on June 20 and Regulus on June 21. The green line depicts the ecliptic – the annual pathway of the sun through the constellations of the Zodiac. Read more

Fading Mars lost in the glare of the sun. Mars has lingered in our western twilight sky for many months, and it continues to fade in brightness, officially passing into the morning sky on June 14, 2015. Most likely, you won’t see Mars at all this month.

Bright Jupiter from dusk until late evening. Once you see Jupiter at dusk or nightfall, you won’t mistake it for anything else – except, possibly, brighter Venus, which shines lower down than Jupiter.

Jupiter shines more brilliantly than any star. It’s the second-brightest planet after Venus. In early June 2015, Venus sets in the west at mid-to-late evening, leaving the king planet Jupiter to rule over the evening sky for an hour or two after Venus sets. By the end of June 2015, the two planets will be in conjunction, or nearly so, and setting at about the same time. At mid-northern latitudes, Jupiter sets in the west about 3.5 hours after sunset in early June, and by the month’s end, Venus and Jupiter both set about 2.5 hours after the sun.

Watch the moon as it swings in the vicinity of Venus and Jupiter for several days, starting on June 18 or June 19.

If you have binoculars or a telescope, be sure to check out Jupiter’s four major moons, which look like pinpricks of light on or near the same plane. They are often called the Galilean moons to honor Galileo, who discovered these great Jovian moons in 1610. In their order from Jupiter, these moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

These moons circle Jupiter around the Jovian equator. In cycles of six years, we view Jupiter’s equator edge-on. So, in 2015, we get to view a number of mutual events involving Jupiter’s moons through a high-powered telescope. Click here or here or here for more details.

Click here for a Jupiter’s moons almanac, courtesy of Sky & Telescope.

On June 1, the almost-full moon shines in the vicinity of the planet Saturn and the star Antares, the constellation Scorpius’ brightest star. Read more

Saturn from nightfall until dawn. Around the world, the golden planet Saturn lords over the southeast or eastern sky at nightfall and stays out till dawn, or nearly so! The ringed planet goes westward across the sky during the nighttime hours, and is found in the southwest during the dark hour before dawn.

Watch for the almost-full and full moon to shine close to Saturn (and the star Antares) for several days, most notably on June 1 and June 2.

Binoculars don’t reveal Saturn’s gorgeous rings. For that, you need a small telescope.

Saturn’s rings are inclined somewhat more than 24^o from edge-on in June 2015, exhibiting their northern face. A few years from now, in October 2017, the rings will open most widely, displaying a maximum inclination of 27^o. As with so much in space (and on Earth), the appearance of Saturn’s rings from Earth is cyclical. In the year 2025, the rings will appear edge-on as seen from Earth. After that, we’ll begin to see the south side of Saturn’s rings, to increase to a maximum inclination of 27^o by May 2032.

It’ll take a lot of stellar acrobatics to star-hop to Mercury (and the star Antares) from mid-northern latitudes. Mercury will be much easier to see in the Southern Hemisphere or northern tropics. Read more

Mercury at dawn, in second half of June. Mercury is our solar system’s innermost planet and always stays near the sun in our sky. As seen from the Southern Hemisphere, Mercury will become visible in the morning sky around June 10 or so. Here, at mid-northern latitudes, we may not get our first glimpse of Mercury until June 22 or 23. Mercury reaches its greatest morning elongation from the sun on June 24.

Those at northerly latitudes aren’t quite as lucky this month. Morning dawn comes sooner before sunrise during our Northern Hemisphere summer than it does in the Southern Hemisphere (where it’s winter), so Mercury is more deeply buried in the glare of the morning twilight at northerly latitudes. Try scanning with binoculars, if you’re in a northerly location.

At temperate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, this world actually rises before the onset of dawn from about June 14 to July 6, 2015. Look for Mercury over the sunrise point on the horizon as darkness first gives way to dawn. Click here to find out Mercury’s rising time in your sky, and for the time at which astronomical twilight begins.

Binoculars are always recommended to enhance sky views! Click here for recommended almanacs. They can help you know when Mercury rises in your sky.

Mercury will stay in the morning sky until July 23, 2015. Then it’ll pass into the evening sky, to give the Southern Hemisphere its most favorable apparition of Mercury for the year. Mercury will be in fine view for southerly latitudes from about mid-August to mid-September 2015. At northerly latitudes, this upcoming evening apparition of Mercury in August and September is about as unfavorable as it gets.

Distances of the planets from the sun

What do we mean by visible planet? By visible planet, we mean any solar system planet that is easily visible without an optical aid and that has been watched by our ancestors since time immemorial. In their outward order from the sun, the five visible planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. These planets are visible in our sky because their disks reflect sunlight, and these relatively nearby worlds tend to shine with a steadier light than the distant, twinkling stars. They tend to be bright! You can spot them, and come to know them as faithful friends, if you try.

Bottom line: Three of the five visible planets are exceptional in the evening sky throughout June 2015: Venus, Jupiter shine in the west first thing at dusk, and Saturn lords over the southeast sky as darkness falls. For the Southern Hemisphere, Mercury presents a good morning apparition in the east before sunrise, starting around June 10.

View larger.| Venus near the setting sun on November 18, 2014 by Helio de Carvalho Vital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He wrote, “I managed to capture Venus as it is starting its return to dusk, despite the fact that it is still at a mere 6.2° distance from the sun. The photos show it a few minutes before setting behind the northern side of the 1,021-meter high Tijuca Peak, located some 6.5 km away. It was deeply immersed in the intense glare of the sun, that would set some 13 minutes later.”

Lunar eclipse on the night of October 8, 2014. The object to the left is the planet Uranus! This beautiful photo is by Janey Wing Kenyon of Story, Wyoming.

Debra Fryar in Calobreves, Texas captured this photo of the moon and Jupiter on May 31, 2014. Jupiter was close to the twilight then.

With only a modest backyard telescope, you can easily see Jupiter’s four largest moons. Here they are through a 10″ (25 cm) Meade LX200 telescope. Image credit: Jan Sandberg

Jupiter was rivaling the streetlights, when Mohamed Laaifat Photographies captured this photo in Normandy, France. Visit his page on Facebook.

Venus by Danny Crocker-Jensen

These are called star trails. It’s a long-exposure photo, which shows you how Earth is turning under the stars. The brightest object here is Jupiter, which is the second-brightest planet, after Venus. This awesome photo by EarthSky Facebook friend Mohamed Laaifat in Normandy, France. Thank you, Mohamed.

View larger. | Mercury, Venus and Jupiter seen when evening fell in Hong Kong on June 1, 2013. Photo by EarthSky Facebook friend Matthew Chin. Awesome shot, Matthew!

Skywatcher, by Predrag Agatonovic.

Easily locate stars and constellations with EarthSky’s planisphere.

Don’t miss anything. Subscribe to EarthSky News by email

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/IJfHCr

Bernie Sanders Essay [Greg Laden's Blog]

Bernie Sanders’ famous essay is below. I will reserve comment but I’d like your opinion on it. I will say that the press is handling this rather badly, at least at present, taking quotes with zero context, not addressing the meaning of the essay as a whole. Sanders says it was poorly written. Is it?

Man and Woman

by Bernie Sanders

Mid-February, 1972

A man goes home and masturbates his typical fantasy. A woman on her knees, a woman tied up, a woman abused.

A woman enjoys intercourse with her man – as she fantasizes being raped by 3 men simultaneously.

The man and woman get dressed up on Sunday – and go to Church, or maybe to their “revolutionary” political meeting.

Have you ever looked at the Stag Man, Hero, Tough magazines on the shelf of your local bookstore? DO you know why the newspapers with the articles like “Girl 12 raped by 14 men” sell so well?

Women, for their own preservation, are trying to pull themselves together. And it’s necessary for all of humanity that they do so. Slavishness on one hand breeds pigness on the other hand. Pigness on one hand breeds slavishness on the other. Men and women – both are losers. Women adapt themselves to fill the needs of men, and men adapt themselves to fill the needs of women. In the beginning there were strong men who killed the animals and brought home the food – and the dependent women who cooked it. No more! Only the roles remain – waiting to be shaken off. There are no “human” oppressors. Oppressors have lost their humanity. On one hand “slavishness,” on the other hand “pigness.” Six of one, half dozen of the other. Who wins?

Many women seem to be walking a tightrope now. Their qualities of love, openness, and gentleness were too deeply enmeshed with qualities of dependency, subservience, and masochism. How do you love – without being dependent? How do you be gentle – without being subservient? How do you maintain a relationship without giving up your identity and without getting strung out? How do you reach out and give your heart to your lover, but maintain the soul which is you?

And Men. Men are in pain too. They are thinking, wondering. What is it they want from a woman? Are they at fault? Are they perpetrating this man-woman situation? Are they oppressors?

The man is bitter.

“You lied to me,” he said. (She did).

“You said they loved me, that you wanted me, that you needed me. Those are your words.” (They are).

“But in reality,” he said. “If you ever loved me, or wanted me, or needed me. (all of which I’m not certain was ever true), you also hated me. You hated me – just as you have hated every man in your entire life, but you didn’t have the guts to tell me that. You hated me before you ever saw me, even though I was not your father, or your teacher, or your sex friend when you were 13 years old, or your husband. You hated me not because of who I am, or what I was to you, but because I am a man. You did not deal with me as a person – as me. You lived a lie with me, used me and played games with me – and that’s a piggy thing to do.”

And she said, “You wanted me not as a woman, or a lover, or a friend, but as a submissive woman, or submissive friend, or submissive lover; and right now where my head is I balk at even the slightest suspicion of that kind of demand.

And she said, “You’re full of ___.”

And they never made love together (which they had each liked to do more than anything) or never saw each other one more time.

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1FmasD2

Bernie Sanders’ famous essay is below. I will reserve comment but I’d like your opinion on it. I will say that the press is handling this rather badly, at least at present, taking quotes with zero context, not addressing the meaning of the essay as a whole. Sanders says it was poorly written. Is it?

Man and Woman

by Bernie Sanders

Mid-February, 1972

A man goes home and masturbates his typical fantasy. A woman on her knees, a woman tied up, a woman abused.

A woman enjoys intercourse with her man – as she fantasizes being raped by 3 men simultaneously.

The man and woman get dressed up on Sunday – and go to Church, or maybe to their “revolutionary” political meeting.

Have you ever looked at the Stag Man, Hero, Tough magazines on the shelf of your local bookstore? DO you know why the newspapers with the articles like “Girl 12 raped by 14 men” sell so well?

Women, for their own preservation, are trying to pull themselves together. And it’s necessary for all of humanity that they do so. Slavishness on one hand breeds pigness on the other hand. Pigness on one hand breeds slavishness on the other. Men and women – both are losers. Women adapt themselves to fill the needs of men, and men adapt themselves to fill the needs of women. In the beginning there were strong men who killed the animals and brought home the food – and the dependent women who cooked it. No more! Only the roles remain – waiting to be shaken off. There are no “human” oppressors. Oppressors have lost their humanity. On one hand “slavishness,” on the other hand “pigness.” Six of one, half dozen of the other. Who wins?

Many women seem to be walking a tightrope now. Their qualities of love, openness, and gentleness were too deeply enmeshed with qualities of dependency, subservience, and masochism. How do you love – without being dependent? How do you be gentle – without being subservient? How do you maintain a relationship without giving up your identity and without getting strung out? How do you reach out and give your heart to your lover, but maintain the soul which is you?

And Men. Men are in pain too. They are thinking, wondering. What is it they want from a woman? Are they at fault? Are they perpetrating this man-woman situation? Are they oppressors?

The man is bitter.

“You lied to me,” he said. (She did).

“You said they loved me, that you wanted me, that you needed me. Those are your words.” (They are).

“But in reality,” he said. “If you ever loved me, or wanted me, or needed me. (all of which I’m not certain was ever true), you also hated me. You hated me – just as you have hated every man in your entire life, but you didn’t have the guts to tell me that. You hated me before you ever saw me, even though I was not your father, or your teacher, or your sex friend when you were 13 years old, or your husband. You hated me not because of who I am, or what I was to you, but because I am a man. You did not deal with me as a person – as me. You lived a lie with me, used me and played games with me – and that’s a piggy thing to do.”

And she said, “You wanted me not as a woman, or a lover, or a friend, but as a submissive woman, or submissive friend, or submissive lover; and right now where my head is I balk at even the slightest suspicion of that kind of demand.

And she said, “You’re full of ___.”

And they never made love together (which they had each liked to do more than anything) or never saw each other one more time.

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1FmasD2

Mostly Mute Monday: Sunsets from Space (Synopsis) [Starts With A Bang]

“Lost — yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever.” –Horace Mann

The beauty of a sunset (or sunrise) is rare and unique, happening but once a day for those of us on Earth. But aboard a spacecraft like the ISS, these are sights that happen sixteen times a day.

Image credit: NASA / Karen Nyberg / ISS Expedition 36/37.

And while we’re used to dramatic, slow sunsets where it takes between two and three minutes simply for the Sun’s disk to drop below the horizon, it takes mere seconds for the Sun to go from a barely-visible red glow to a brilliant, blinding white. In the space of a few breaths, the entire thing is over, a sight that only around 500 people have ever experienced firsthand.

Images credit: NASA Earth Observatory / STS-107 / Space Shuttle Columbia; stitching by E. Siegel. (Astronaut photographs STS107-E-05072,STS107-E-05075, and STS107-E-05080.)

Come get the story of sunsets (and sunrises) in space on Mostly Mute Monday!

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1EOgpZ7

“Lost — yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever.” –Horace Mann

The beauty of a sunset (or sunrise) is rare and unique, happening but once a day for those of us on Earth. But aboard a spacecraft like the ISS, these are sights that happen sixteen times a day.

Image credit: NASA / Karen Nyberg / ISS Expedition 36/37.

And while we’re used to dramatic, slow sunsets where it takes between two and three minutes simply for the Sun’s disk to drop below the horizon, it takes mere seconds for the Sun to go from a barely-visible red glow to a brilliant, blinding white. In the space of a few breaths, the entire thing is over, a sight that only around 500 people have ever experienced firsthand.

Images credit: NASA Earth Observatory / STS-107 / Space Shuttle Columbia; stitching by E. Siegel. (Astronaut photographs STS107-E-05072,STS107-E-05075, and STS107-E-05080.)

Come get the story of sunsets (and sunrises) in space on Mostly Mute Monday!

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1EOgpZ7

Indoor Air Quality in Schools – Concerns and Need for Low-Cost Solutions

By Richard Corsi

University of Texas at Austin Research Team Goes Back to High School. From left to right: Associate Professor Atila Novoselac, Researcher Sarah Wu, Professor Kerry Kinney, Professor Richard Corsi, and Research Engineer Neil Crain.

I am excited to be directing a new multi-year U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Science to Achieve Results (STAR) grant related to Healthy Schools titled, Healthy High School PRIDE (Partnership in Research on InDoor Environments). My team is focusing on high schools, a relatively under-studied school environment with numerous data gaps.

Evidence has mounted regarding the contributions of poor indoor air quality and inadequate classroom ventilation toward student illnesses, absenteeism, and decreases in academic performance. Teachers are also affected, with higher rates of work-related upper-respiratory problems compared to the rest of the working population. Importantly, this problem has not been improving and there is a growing base of literature that suggests that we are failing our children in an environment that is critical to both their health and future success.

Our team  will complete detailed studies of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system performance and air flow characteristics in classrooms, a topic of great importance with respect to student health, comfort, and performance, and one that is often oversimplified. We will characterize HVAC system performance and increase knowledge of how HVAC operation affects pollutant migration through both occupied and hidden spaces of buildings that can be sources of pollution.

Most homeowners, businesses, and school districts dispose of their used HVAC filters in the trash bin and they are ultimately buried in landfills.  Our team sees them as valuable biological samplers.  We will collect used HVAC filters from high schools and perform analyses to characterize microorganisms that were in classroom air.

My students and I have been exploring oxygen-containing compounds that I hypothesize are in-part responsible for upper airway irritations that can distract students in classroom environments. These compounds are often overlooked in studies of indoor air quality in schools, and their abundance and sources will be central to our study of high schools.

Most school districts have budget constraints that preclude an ability to significantly improve indoor environmental conditions in classrooms.  I am excited that our team will also test low-cost engineering solutions to indoor environmental quality issues in participating schools.   Our findings should be of value to both participating schools, and hopefully school districts across the country.

Our research will also be a learning experience. High school students will complete workshops related to indoor environmental quality and team-based projects on indoor air quality at the University of Texas at Austin.  And Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) teachers at our participating high schools will use our study as examples for discussions in their classrooms related to indoor environmental science and engineering, and data analysis and visualization methods.

It actually feels great to be going back to high school!

About the Author: Richard L. Corsi is the E.C.H. Bantel Professor for Professional Practice and Chair of the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.  He teaches courses related to fluid mechanics and indoor air quality, and has completed extensive research related to the sources, chemistry, and passive control of indoor air pollution.

from The EPA Blog http://ift.tt/1AFJL0M

By Richard Corsi

University of Texas at Austin Research Team Goes Back to High School. From left to right: Associate Professor Atila Novoselac, Researcher Sarah Wu, Professor Kerry Kinney, Professor Richard Corsi, and Research Engineer Neil Crain.

I am excited to be directing a new multi-year U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Science to Achieve Results (STAR) grant related to Healthy Schools titled, Healthy High School PRIDE (Partnership in Research on InDoor Environments). My team is focusing on high schools, a relatively under-studied school environment with numerous data gaps.

Evidence has mounted regarding the contributions of poor indoor air quality and inadequate classroom ventilation toward student illnesses, absenteeism, and decreases in academic performance. Teachers are also affected, with higher rates of work-related upper-respiratory problems compared to the rest of the working population. Importantly, this problem has not been improving and there is a growing base of literature that suggests that we are failing our children in an environment that is critical to both their health and future success.

Our team  will complete detailed studies of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system performance and air flow characteristics in classrooms, a topic of great importance with respect to student health, comfort, and performance, and one that is often oversimplified. We will characterize HVAC system performance and increase knowledge of how HVAC operation affects pollutant migration through both occupied and hidden spaces of buildings that can be sources of pollution.

Most homeowners, businesses, and school districts dispose of their used HVAC filters in the trash bin and they are ultimately buried in landfills.  Our team sees them as valuable biological samplers.  We will collect used HVAC filters from high schools and perform analyses to characterize microorganisms that were in classroom air.

My students and I have been exploring oxygen-containing compounds that I hypothesize are in-part responsible for upper airway irritations that can distract students in classroom environments. These compounds are often overlooked in studies of indoor air quality in schools, and their abundance and sources will be central to our study of high schools.

Most school districts have budget constraints that preclude an ability to significantly improve indoor environmental conditions in classrooms.  I am excited that our team will also test low-cost engineering solutions to indoor environmental quality issues in participating schools.   Our findings should be of value to both participating schools, and hopefully school districts across the country.

Our research will also be a learning experience. High school students will complete workshops related to indoor environmental quality and team-based projects on indoor air quality at the University of Texas at Austin.  And Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) teachers at our participating high schools will use our study as examples for discussions in their classrooms related to indoor environmental science and engineering, and data analysis and visualization methods.

It actually feels great to be going back to high school!

About the Author: Richard L. Corsi is the E.C.H. Bantel Professor for Professional Practice and Chair of the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.  He teaches courses related to fluid mechanics and indoor air quality, and has completed extensive research related to the sources, chemistry, and passive control of indoor air pollution.

from The EPA Blog http://ift.tt/1AFJL0M

How An EPA Grant Transformed Our Lives and Environment

Many employers in Wisconsin can’t find applicants with the right skills and credentials to fill job openings. We refer to this as a skills mismatch – there are jobs available but those who are unemployed don’t have the industry certifications, licenses and credentials to qualify. We’ve engineered the Great Lakes Community Conservation Corps (Great Lakes CCC) using the EPA’s Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training grant program to position our training participants for career and college readiness. We believe individuals from under-represented populations can work in sectors related to environmental remediation while simultaneously ascending to positions of leadership where post-secondary education will be a prerequisite. .

In our Great Lakes CCC program, we start with public-private partnerships that give participants high-level science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) experiences which translate into bona fide occupational credentials. We emphasize disaster planning and preparedness inherent in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration hazardous waste courses and co-enroll our trainees into the AmeriCorps national service program where they also earn college scholarships. Individuals who previously thought post-secondary education was unattainable suddenly find themselves with scholarships they can use for tuition over the next several years.

For example, we put together a cross-sector partnership that utilizes bird species to detect contaminated sediments that impair the water quality of Lake Michigan estuaries. Under the leadership of the U.S. Geological Service, our training participants are in the process of monitoring tree swallow populations for the presence of contaminants that may be bio-accumulating in the species. When contaminants are identified, our training participants transition from the lab to the field to learn alongside remediation contractors who are responsible for the dredging and restoration operations.

Our training participants are individuals who face barriers to employment, and many of them have struggled to get an education or to find work. We’ve found that high-demand, portable, national credentials – the premise of EPA’s environmental job training grant program – are the solution to long-term employment for our trainees. The combination of multiple industry certifications creates new career opportunities. For instance, a commercial driver’s license overlaid with hazardous waste training positions them for occupations in great demand by trucking companies located between Milwaukee and Chicago. We believe everyone is employable – our multi-faceted credentialing approach has resulted in an average 80 percent placement rate and we anticipate sector partnerships and placement outcomes will climb further as we continue to fine tune our training.

About the author: Chris Litzau serves as the President of the Great Lakes Community Conservation Corps (Great Lakes CCC), a regional job training and education program for disadvantaged individuals in southeastern Wisconsin. He is a tireless advocate for preparing young adults from under-resourced communities with national, portable credentials and skills necessary to achieve careers in emerging technologies. He has a strong interest in transitioning job training participants into the water sector. As the former Executive Director for 12 years at the Milwaukee Community Service Corps–an urban youth corps program that engages young adults aged 18 to 23 in community service and public infrastructure development projects—he assembled a team that included the U.S. EPA, Wisconsin DNR and CH2M HILL to pioneer the “Milwaukee Model” as an initiative to place brownfield job training participants in marine environments to assist in the clean-up of contaminated sediments from the Great Lakes and its tributaries.  

from The EPA Blog http://ift.tt/1AFJKKp

Many employers in Wisconsin can’t find applicants with the right skills and credentials to fill job openings. We refer to this as a skills mismatch – there are jobs available but those who are unemployed don’t have the industry certifications, licenses and credentials to qualify. We’ve engineered the Great Lakes Community Conservation Corps (Great Lakes CCC) using the EPA’s Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training grant program to position our training participants for career and college readiness. We believe individuals from under-represented populations can work in sectors related to environmental remediation while simultaneously ascending to positions of leadership where post-secondary education will be a prerequisite. .

In our Great Lakes CCC program, we start with public-private partnerships that give participants high-level science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) experiences which translate into bona fide occupational credentials. We emphasize disaster planning and preparedness inherent in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration hazardous waste courses and co-enroll our trainees into the AmeriCorps national service program where they also earn college scholarships. Individuals who previously thought post-secondary education was unattainable suddenly find themselves with scholarships they can use for tuition over the next several years.

For example, we put together a cross-sector partnership that utilizes bird species to detect contaminated sediments that impair the water quality of Lake Michigan estuaries. Under the leadership of the U.S. Geological Service, our training participants are in the process of monitoring tree swallow populations for the presence of contaminants that may be bio-accumulating in the species. When contaminants are identified, our training participants transition from the lab to the field to learn alongside remediation contractors who are responsible for the dredging and restoration operations.

Our training participants are individuals who face barriers to employment, and many of them have struggled to get an education or to find work. We’ve found that high-demand, portable, national credentials – the premise of EPA’s environmental job training grant program – are the solution to long-term employment for our trainees. The combination of multiple industry certifications creates new career opportunities. For instance, a commercial driver’s license overlaid with hazardous waste training positions them for occupations in great demand by trucking companies located between Milwaukee and Chicago. We believe everyone is employable – our multi-faceted credentialing approach has resulted in an average 80 percent placement rate and we anticipate sector partnerships and placement outcomes will climb further as we continue to fine tune our training.

About the author: Chris Litzau serves as the President of the Great Lakes Community Conservation Corps (Great Lakes CCC), a regional job training and education program for disadvantaged individuals in southeastern Wisconsin. He is a tireless advocate for preparing young adults from under-resourced communities with national, portable credentials and skills necessary to achieve careers in emerging technologies. He has a strong interest in transitioning job training participants into the water sector. As the former Executive Director for 12 years at the Milwaukee Community Service Corps–an urban youth corps program that engages young adults aged 18 to 23 in community service and public infrastructure development projects—he assembled a team that included the U.S. EPA, Wisconsin DNR and CH2M HILL to pioneer the “Milwaukee Model” as an initiative to place brownfield job training participants in marine environments to assist in the clean-up of contaminated sediments from the Great Lakes and its tributaries.  

from The EPA Blog http://ift.tt/1AFJKKp