EAST BAY EXPRESS– Fantasies of bicycling and walking between San Francisco and Oakland along the Bay Bridge are slowly inching their way toward reality. The Bay Bridge Bikeway Project, a joint venture between the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Caltrans, hopes to allow bicyclists and pedestrians to travel between the two cities along the full span of the bridge. If approved, … Read More
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC– A massive deep say coral die-off was discovered this week about 7 miles (11 kilometeres) southwest of the source of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, scientists announced Thursday. Large communities of several types of bottom-dwelling coral were found covered with a dark substance at depths of about 4,600 feet (1,400 meters) near the damaged Deepwater Horizon wellhead, … Read More
GUARDIAN– It is generally acknowledged that a warming world will harm the world’s forests. Higher temperatures mean water becomes more scarce, spelling death for plants – or perhaps not always. According to a study of ancient rainforests, trees may be hardier than previously thought. Carlos Jaramillo, a scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), examined pollen from ancient plants … Read More
REUTERS– The daily killings have become so normal they have almost ceased to shock. Unless Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, bucks all previous indicators and undergoes a dramatic security turnaround, the death toll from the drug war raging in the city since January 2008 will reach 6,000 people this month. That is more than all the dead … Read More
ALTERNET– For politicians, boosting college graduation rates has always been a fairly uncontroversial goal to support. The Obama administration is doing so, rather relentlessly, through a number of initiatives designed to better prepare students for college and support them once they get there. The assumptions are 1) that students who graduate from college have increased potential for economic mobility, and … Read More
