I recently went to the grocer to buy oranges and they were $1.59 a pound. I realized that citrus takes a lot of water to produce juicy fruit and that the price per pound was about the cost of water.
So how are we doing at saving water?
In my neighborhood, lawns, trees, bushes, and other plant life is dying because watering twice a week isn't enough water. I hear people with dry coughs coughing everywhere I go as well, and I think it's because there is more dry dirt and dust in the air now that lawns are dying out.
The local water company is giving money back to people who get rid of thirsty lawns and plant drought tolerant plants instead, but instead I see people spending hundreds of dollars to cement in once grassy or garden areas.
Of course we must have water for drinking and water for agriculture, even more than we need water for bathing.
So sink bath between showers, shut the shower off when you are soaping or shampooing, and continue to save water.
12/27/14
12/25/14
12/21/14
11/22/14
FEMALE ORCA WHALES FOLLOWED BY A DRONE : SOME STARVED TO DEATH
TECH TIMES : DRONE STALKS KILLER WHALES AND HERE IS WHAT IT LEARNED full article....
Some of the whales appeared to be skeletal and some died at sea.
Some of the whales appeared to be skeletal and some died at sea.
11/18/14
SEA OTTER PUP WILL LEARN TO BE AN OTTER AT SHEDD AQUARIUM
Luckily this little otter has baby hair that allows it to float without much effort!
"Though stable, the orphaned otter will still need extra care and attention to ensure its transition is a success. Having been abandoned as a one-week-old pup, the baby otter must be essentially taught how to be an otter by the staff at Shedd. "It truly takes a village to rehabilitate a young sea otter. Our animal care team is teaching the pup how to be an otter," said Binder. "While the process is lengthy, our hands-on experience and long history rehabilitating sea otters allows us to use our expertise to work on saving this pup's life by providing her with a home and the care she needs." So far so good. The otter, which weighed roughly one pound when it was rescued -- tiny even for an otter pup -- is now over six pounds and is beginning to eat whole foods like shrimp and clams. She's grown to roughly 22 inches in length and is off the charts on the unofficial adorable scale."
"Though stable, the orphaned otter will still need extra care and attention to ensure its transition is a success. Having been abandoned as a one-week-old pup, the baby otter must be essentially taught how to be an otter by the staff at Shedd. "It truly takes a village to rehabilitate a young sea otter. Our animal care team is teaching the pup how to be an otter," said Binder. "While the process is lengthy, our hands-on experience and long history rehabilitating sea otters allows us to use our expertise to work on saving this pup's life by providing her with a home and the care she needs." So far so good. The otter, which weighed roughly one pound when it was rescued -- tiny even for an otter pup -- is now over six pounds and is beginning to eat whole foods like shrimp and clams. She's grown to roughly 22 inches in length and is off the charts on the unofficial adorable scale."
11/15/14
DOLPHINS ARE MAGNET SENSITIVE
SCIENCE DAILY - DOLPHINS ARE ATTRACTED TO MAGNETS
The article begins " Add dolphins to the list of magnetosensitive animals, French researchers say. Dolphins are indeed sensitive to magnetic stimuli, as they behave differently when swimming near magnetized objects. So says Dorothee Kremers and her colleagues at Ethos unit of the Université de Rennes in France, in a study in Springer's journal Naturwissenschaften -- The Science of Nature. Their research, conducted in the delphinarium of Planète Sauvage in France, provides experimental behavioral proof that these marine animals are magnetoreceptive..."
The article begins " Add dolphins to the list of magnetosensitive animals, French researchers say. Dolphins are indeed sensitive to magnetic stimuli, as they behave differently when swimming near magnetized objects. So says Dorothee Kremers and her colleagues at Ethos unit of the Université de Rennes in France, in a study in Springer's journal Naturwissenschaften -- The Science of Nature. Their research, conducted in the delphinarium of Planète Sauvage in France, provides experimental behavioral proof that these marine animals are magnetoreceptive..."
11/9/14
BEAKED WHALE DIVE CHAMPION - SATELLITE TAGS USED TO RECORD DIVES
BBC SCIENCE : BEAKED WHALE IS DIVE CHAMP by Jonathan Amos
EXCERPT:
"Satellite tags attached to these animals, swimming off the coast of California, recorded a dive to nearly 3km below the ocean surface, and one that lasted 137 minutes.
This performance exceeds that for any southern elephant seal, which is also known to be an extreme breath-holder.
The Cuvier's record-breaking dives are reported in the journal Plos One.
Erin Falcone is a research biologist with the Cascadia Research Collective in Washington State, US, which led the research project.
She told BBC News that beaked whales had very high levels of the myoglobin protein in their muscles, to the point where the tissues appeared almost black.
This functions like haemoglobin in the blood, allowing the whales to store much higher levels of oxygen, and thus breathe less frequently while remaining active."
EXCERPT:
"Satellite tags attached to these animals, swimming off the coast of California, recorded a dive to nearly 3km below the ocean surface, and one that lasted 137 minutes.
This performance exceeds that for any southern elephant seal, which is also known to be an extreme breath-holder.
The Cuvier's record-breaking dives are reported in the journal Plos One.
Erin Falcone is a research biologist with the Cascadia Research Collective in Washington State, US, which led the research project.
She told BBC News that beaked whales had very high levels of the myoglobin protein in their muscles, to the point where the tissues appeared almost black.
This functions like haemoglobin in the blood, allowing the whales to store much higher levels of oxygen, and thus breathe less frequently while remaining active."
11/7/14
COMING UP - SOME ARTICLES THAT INVOLVE THE LATEST AMAZING SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY
These days it's easy to bring up articles of interest on your cell phone or news feed. However, the articles I'm posting to are the ones I found the most interesting our of many. For the next couple weeks at least I'll be posting articles about sea life and the ocean that involve the latest amazing science technology.
11/5/14
MORE WAYS TO SAVE WATER! by SIREN! SIREN'S LINK TO SEA!
1) When you make tea and don't drink it all, use it to water plants.
2) Since coffee grounds are good fertilizer for acid loving plants, which includes geraniums, go ahead and pour undrunk coffee cold (without sugar or creamer or milk) to water plants.
3) Clean but for your hair? Consider brushing it, allowing the natural oils to accumulate an extra day, and wear a scarf over your hair, or braid it. For some this is a deliberate "bad hair day," but your hair and scalp sometimes need a day off from shampoos, conditioners, and all the rest.
4) Do less laundry or less often. If an item of clothing isn't smelly or truly dirty, consider airing it out and wearing it a second time before you put it into the laundry.
5) When hand washing dishes, be sure you aren't wasting water as you rinse. Soap dishes and set aside soaped up, then rinse a load all together. You do want all the soap off the dishes since you don't want to ingest it, but this method should use less water than rinsing items one at a time or letting the water run.
2) Since coffee grounds are good fertilizer for acid loving plants, which includes geraniums, go ahead and pour undrunk coffee cold (without sugar or creamer or milk) to water plants.
3) Clean but for your hair? Consider brushing it, allowing the natural oils to accumulate an extra day, and wear a scarf over your hair, or braid it. For some this is a deliberate "bad hair day," but your hair and scalp sometimes need a day off from shampoos, conditioners, and all the rest.
4) Do less laundry or less often. If an item of clothing isn't smelly or truly dirty, consider airing it out and wearing it a second time before you put it into the laundry.
5) When hand washing dishes, be sure you aren't wasting water as you rinse. Soap dishes and set aside soaped up, then rinse a load all together. You do want all the soap off the dishes since you don't want to ingest it, but this method should use less water than rinsing items one at a time or letting the water run.
10/8/14
35,000 WALRUS HAUL OUT ON SAND INSTEAD OF ICE IN ALASKA
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC - 35,000 WALRUS - GLOBAL WARMING - ALASKA
EXCERPT: Summer sea ice is retreating far north of the shallow continental shelf waters of the Chukchi Sea in U.S. and Russian waters, a condition that did not occur a decade ago," the USGS website says. "To keep up with their normal resting periods between feeding bouts to the seafloor, walruses have simply hauled out onto shore."
...
EXCERPT: Summer sea ice is retreating far north of the shallow continental shelf waters of the Chukchi Sea in U.S. and Russian waters, a condition that did not occur a decade ago," the USGS website says. "To keep up with their normal resting periods between feeding bouts to the seafloor, walruses have simply hauled out onto shore."
...
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which tracks the status of species worldwide, says there's not enough information about walrus population trends to say whether the species—which has three subspecies, the Atlantic, Pacific, and Laptev walrus—is in decline.
However, "climate change is expected to have negative consequences for Walruses, and particularly severe consequences for the Pacific subspecies," according to the IUCN website.
For one, calves are particularly at risk of disease and from stampedes. Upon a disturbance, whether that's a polar bear or a boat in the distance, walruses tend to rush to the water.
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