WASHINGTON – Methane is leaking into the atmosphere from unstable permafrost in the Arctic Ocean faster than scientists had thought and could worsen global warming, a study said Thursday.

From 2003 to 2008, an international research team led by University of Alaska-Fairbanks scientists Natalia Shakhova and Igor Semiletov surveyed the waters of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, which covers more than 772,200 square miles (two million square kilometers) of seafloor in the Arctic Ocean.

“This discovery reveals a large but overlooked source of methane gas escaping from permafrost underwater, rather than on land,” the study said.

“More widespread emissions could have dramatic effects on global warming in the future.”

Earlier studies in Siberia had focused on methane escaping from thawing permafrost on land.

Scientists learn red grouper operate as underwater architects

Coleman didn’t suspect initially that red grouper were capable of such engineering feats. Years ago, she was on a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration vessel in the Gulf of Mexico looking at images from a remotely operated camera and noticed the large holes on the sea floor.

“I was just sitting there, thinking, ‘Why are there holes?’ It came like a flash: The only thing it could be is red grouper,” she said.

Coleman and a few colleagues, including her husband, Christopher Koenig, a fellow FSU professor, and Margaret Miller, an ecologist at the NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center, tested her hypothesis. They trapped red grouper in a cage without a bottom; the fish dug out of it. The scientists placed black charcoal the size of sand grains on the sea floor to see whether the fish would move it; they scattered it everywhere.

“They started digging almost right away,” Coleman said of the fish, adding that it was almost as if the scientists had offended the grouper’s aesthetic sensibilities. “It was like, ‘I just cleaned this place.’ ”

By building complex, three-dimensional structures that expose the hard rock beneath the sand, Miller said, red grouper create an environment in which seaweed, coral and sponges can thrive. These communities then attract everything from cleaner fish to female grouper seeking a mate.

“It’s just a very cool ecological story,” Miller said. “They really have this tremendous ability in getting these diverse communities of organisms to exist in a place that otherwise wouldn’t be there.”

Decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott Case

In e-mails, lobbyists perceive ties between campaign cash, earmarks

“You don’t have to drink,” Innovative Concepts’ chief technology officer, Andrew Feldstein, shot back in an e-mail. “You just have to pay.”

“LOL,” responded the other officer.

The fundraiser was hosted by the PMA Group, a powerful lobbying firm whose unusual success in obtaining “earmarked” contracts from members of the military subcommittee was a key focus of a recent House ethics investigation.

Moran raked in $91,900 in campaign checks to his personal campaign and leadership PAC that day. He secured an $800,000 earmark for Innovative Concepts in the 2008 defense appropriations bill.

How to keep future John Yoos under control

Forty years ago, the Office of Legal Counsel was dominated by career lawyers. But by the time George W. Bush was elected, the office had only a handful of seasoned professionals, and all the leading positions were held by political appointees who, like Bybee and Yoo, were predisposed to support their president.

Given this political transformation, the exoneration of Bybee and Yoo creates a dangerous precedent. Consider the department’s discussion of the torture memo’s claim that the president, as commander in chief, can defy Congress’s statutory prohibition on torture and order the military or CIA to engage in any and all forms of abuse. The department concedes that Bybee and Yoo presented an “incomplete and one-sided” argument in support of this remarkable legal conclusion and that the next head of the OLC, Jack Goldsmith, found that this claim had “no foundation in prior OLC opinions, or in judicial decisions, or in any other source of law.”

The Obama administration stepped up its criticism Thursday of health insurers’ efforts to raise their rates, an attempt to harness public aggravation with the industry and rebuild momentum for broad changes to the nation’s health-care system.

Separately, Washington area residents holding individual health insurance policies said they have received notices that their premiums are increasing by as much as 40 percent.

At a news conference, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius cited half a dozen examples, from Maine to Washington state, in which insurers have sought large premium increases on people who buy coverage individually. In every case but one, state insurance regulators rejected all or part of the requested increases.

BIPARTISANLY YOURS: COAKLEY WON THE HAND COUNTS

Diebold’s results are 51.42% for Brown, with 791,272 Republican votes counted by Diebold, vs. 47.61% for Coakley, with 732,633 Democratic votes counted by Diebold, for a spread of 3.81% favoring Brown.
LATE-REPORTED RESULTS
It’s always interesting to watch hand counts beat machine count results to the newspaper.
In the Massachusetts special senate election, results from six of 71 hand count locations were reported about 2 1/2 hours after the polls closed, with the remaining 65 hand count locations in right away. The slower hand count results represent 8.45% of all hand count locations.
These latecoming hand-counted results favored Coakley very heavily (she got 55.68% of these, earning 4,610 votes to Brown’s 42.9%, representing 3,552, a 12.78% margin) Whether the reports came to the media late or the media posted them late is unclear.

Read more at oped news or go right to black box voting.

http://www.blackboxvoting.org

Bev Harris is executive director of Black Box Voting, Inc. an advocacy group committed to restoring citizen oversight to elections.

Cruise ships still find a Haitian berth

Luxury liners are still docking at private beaches near Haiti’s devastated earthquake zone for holidaymakers to enjoy the water

Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines faced a difficult decision over whether to dock as per itinerary at Labadee Beach, Haiti after last week’s tragic quake. Photograph: Daniel Morel/AP

The Florida cruise company leases a picturesque wooded peninsula and its five pristine beaches from the government for passengers to “cut loose” with watersports, barbecues, and shopping for trinkets at a craft market before returning on board before dusk. Safety is guaranteed by armed guards at the gate.

To their credit, some of the cruise ships passengers were uncomfortable with their situation.  Read on:

The decision to go ahead with the visit has divided passengers. The ships carry some food aid, and the cruise line has pledged to donate all proceeds from the visit to help stricken Haitians. But many passengers will stay aboard when they dock; one said he was “sickened”.

“I just can’t see myself sunning on the beach, playing in the water, eating a barbecue, and enjoying a cocktail while [in Port-au-Prince] there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water,” one passenger wrote on the Cruise Critic internet forum.

“It was hard enough to sit and eat a picnic lunch at Labadee before the quake, knowing how many Haitians were starving,” said another. “I can’t imagine having to choke down a burger there now.”

The Underwear Bomber: More to the story. Kurt Haskell describes The Well Dressed Man and the Man in Orange.

Mr. Haskel reports that he and his wife were sitting on the floor in a crowed room playing cards when he witnessed the so called “sharp dressed man.” Haskel, who speaks carefully as an attorney, states that “While Mutallab was poorly dressed, his friend was dressed in an expensive suit”. He says the suited “Indian” man asked ticket agents whether a supposed “Sudanese refugee” (the terrorist, Mutallab) could board without a passport”. “The guy said, ‘He’s from Sudan and we do this all the time.’” Mr.. Haskel makes clear that this does not mean that Mutallab did not have a passport, only that the well dressed man attempted and evidently succeeded in getting him on a plane with out displaying a passport. Haskel has clarified that the Indian looking man could have been Pakistani or other, that he would not been able to discern nationality. Mr.. Haskel has confirmed that normal surveillance video would have been taken in this crowed departure area. This is the essence of Haskel’s testimony, until the flight landed in Detroit.

According to Haskell, upon landing the FBI prevented passengers from leaving the plane for 2 to 3 hours, and then they were moved to a crowded customs room. Haskel’s states that “During this time period, all of the passengers had their carry on bags with them. When the bomb sniffing dogs arrived, 1 dog found something in a carry on bag of a 30 ish Indian man. This is not the so called “Sharp Dressed” man. I will refer to this man as “The man in orange”. The man in orange, who stood some 20ft away from me the entire time until he was taken away, was immediately taken away to be searched and interrogated in a nearby room. At this time he was not handcuffed. When he emerged from the room, he was then handcuffed and taken away. At this time an FBI agent came up to the rest of the passengers and said the following (approximate quote) “You all are being moved to another area because this area is not safe. I am sure many of you saw what just happened (Referring to the man in orange) and are smart enough to read between the lines and figure it out.”

The story takes on importance when Haskel notes that “The FBI has, since we landed, insisted that only one man was arrested for the airliner attack (contradicting my account). However, several of my fellow passengers have come over the past few days, backed up my claim, and put pressure on FBI/Customs to tell the truth. Early today, I heard from two different reporters that a federal agency (FBI or Customs) was now admitting that another man has been held (and will be held indefinitely) since our flight landed for “immigration reasons.” Notice that this man was “being held” and not “arrested”, which was a cute semantic ploy by the FBI to stretch the truth and not lie.

Then, Customs agent Ron Smith went further, denying that the man arrested was on flight 253 at all.