Is the Colorado River Damned? Op-Ed

Gary Wockner is director of the Save The Colorado River Campaign,?which provides funding for community river preservation organizations throughout the Colorado River basin. Wockner contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

More than 35 million people throughout the southwestern United States and northern Mexico depend on the Colorado River's water. In 30 years, that total number is likely to double.?

That's why so many call the Colorado the "lifeblood of the West."

But yesterday (April 17), American Rivers declared the Colorado River America's Most Endangered River, and climate change is a big part of the picture.

The warming, drying climate of the Southwest is hitting the river hard. We now know that drought is likely to be the new normal in the Colorado River basin ? scientists tell us that climate change could reduce the amount of water in the Colorado River ecosystem by 9 to 20 percent. Predictions of climate change and water usage draining the famed Lake Mead and Lake Powell dry are a small, but real, part of that picture.

This year is proving no exception. Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) now say that the April through July inflow into Lake Powell, the largest reservoir in the Upper Colorado Basin, will be a mere 2.7 million acre-feet ? the lowest amount since NOAA began issuing forecasts in 1979. Combined inflows from this year and last year's runoff seasons are likely to be the driest since Lake Powell began filling in behind the Glen Canyon Dam in September 1969.

Around the state of Colorado, communities are preparing for another year of epic drought. On May 1, 2013, Denver Water (which uses a lot of Colorado River water) and Colorado Parks and Wildlife will close Antero Reservoir in Park County, Colo., and drain the reservoir to save water. In Fort Collins, the Cache la Poudre River is running at historic lows and is still clogged with ash, soot and debris swept down from last year's historic forest fires. Fort Collins is now relying almost solely on the Colorado River for drinking water supplies.

Against that dire backdrop, cities and states throughout the Colorado basin unfortunately continue to bark up the wrong tree ? proposing dam, reservoir, pipeline and energy projects that would drain the last drops of the free-flowing Colorado River and its tributaries, instead of aggressively focusing on water conservation, efficiency and a rapid shift away from dirty energy projects.

Today, demand on the river's water exceeds supply, leaving the river so over-tapped that it no longer flows to the sea. A century of water management policies and practices that have promoted wasteful water use have put the river at a critical crossroads.

The good news is that the federal government has stepped up its efforts to address this endangered river, with a comprehensive study completed by the Department of the Interior in 2012. Now it's time for Congress to follow up with robust funding for water conservation programs throughout the basin, and especially for investments to increase the efficiency of water projects that are already built, as well as restoration funds for the river's critical habitats.

There is enough water in the river to sustain both human and natural communities, but only if it's used wisely. Gone are the days when we can build another dam or pipeline on the Colorado River and worry about its impacts later.? Today, there just isn't any more water left ? the river is endangered.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/colorado-river-damned-op-ed-210009332.html

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Chiropractic Management for Asthma Sufferers: Part 4 ? Healthy ...

By Dr. Donald A. Ozello DC

Las Vegas Informer

Creating new health habits helps asthma sufferers. Big and small changes can add up to a major difference in the reduction of severity and frequency of asthma symptoms. Valuable tools exist in combating asthma including regular chiropractic care, intelligent nutritional strategies and healthy lifestyle modifications.

In my four part series I explain how consistent chiropractic care can help asthma sufferers better manage their condition.

In part one, I provided fundamental information on asthma and chiropractic treatment. In part two, I discussed anatomical and physiological details on how chiropractic care helps those with asthma. In part three, I supplied nutritional tactics to reduce inflammation and better manage asthma symptoms. Part four contains health strategies to help asthma sufferers prevent and lessen the severity of attacks.

Chiropractic care, nutrition and lifestyle modifications are not cures for asthma. Chiropractic treatment may help decrease the severity and lessen the frequency of asthma symptoms by optimizing nerve flow and re-establishing proper skeletal motion. Healthy nutritional strategies may help reduce inflammation and decrease the intensity and occurrence of asthma attacks. The suggested lifestyle modifications are recommendations to help asthma sufferers reduce symptom intensity and incidence.

Exercise: The correct amount of exercise increases health, fitness and immunity. Find an exercise you enjoy and do it correctly and consistently. Find a second exercise that compliments the first exercise and execute it correctly and consistently.

Asthma attacks can be elicited by physical exertion and exercise. Increased oxygen demand during strenuous activity results in accelerated breathing rate and increased mouth inhalation. Air inhaled through the mouth is cooler and dryer than nasal air. The cooler, dryer air may cause asthma attacks. Exercising in colder temperature may increase the possibility of asthma symptoms.

Increasing your breathing capabilities strengthens your lungs. Swimming and underwater breathing exercises increases lung capacity and strengthens the ribcage muscles. Swimming and underwater breathing exercises are strenuous and may prove difficult for asthma sufferers at the onset. The long term benefit far outweighs the demanding beginning.

Be mindful to start and train at a level appropriate for you. Increase duration and intensity in small increments.

Carefully monitor your breathing before, during and after exercise to receive maximum benefit and to prevent exercise-induced asthma attacks. Build a stronger and healthier body with the proper amount of exercise. Help quell you asthma attacks with well-planned and well-executed exercise strategies.

Smoking: Smoke of any type makes breathing difficult. Cigarette, cigar and recreation drug smoke are powerful asthma triggers. Avoid smoking and smoke filled rooms at all costs.

The negative effects of breathing smoke-filled air are well-documented. Reduce your exposure to smoking-induced asthma by encouraging friends and family to quit smoking immediately. Prevent asthma attacks and symptoms by breathing clean, non-toxic air.

Air Quality: The quality of the air we breathe possesses a direct correlation to our health. Toxin filled air induces asthma attacks.

When moving into a new residence have your air ducts professionally cleaned. Build up of trapped particles from the previous owners or construction work may trigger asthma symptoms. Follow-up every few years to keep your home?s air quality healthy.

Change your air filters on a regular basis. This simple task makes a world of difference in keeping your household air clean. Quiet your asthma symptoms by breathing cleaner, fresher air.

Household Chemicals: Limit your exposure to chemicals to improve your health and decrease the severity and frequency of asthma symptoms. Exposure to powerful chemicals often triggers asthma attacks. Long term exposure to strong chemicals can permanently damage the lungs. Do everything possible to lower your contact with disease causing chemicals.

Use cleaning materials that are non-toxic to humans and pets. If a cleaning product provokes asthma or pre-asthma symptoms dispose of it immediately. Purchase organic or natural cleaning products and use them as directed.

Pets: Having dogs and cats as family members is a great experience. Follow several simple tips to make asthma sufferers lives with pets less troublesome.

Pet dander can trigger asthma. Pet dander is old, dead skin which has fallen off the animal. Pet dander can stick to hair, walls, furniture, bedding and clothes.

Here are suggestions to lower your exposure to pet dander. Bathe your animal often. Wash your hands after handling your animal. Wash the animal?s bedding, blankets and toys often. If the animal sleeps on your bed wash the bedding frequently. Have your house and air ducts professionally cleaned.? Sweep up or pick up any animal hair.

Pets are loveable creatures. Enjoy your pet and lessen your asthma symptoms by keeping the animal clean and keeping your home clean.

Immunity: Strengthen your immune system to combat asthma.

Eat a healthy diet filled with nutrients. Consume green leafy vegetables and vitamin C containing fruits.

Get out in the sun. Direct sunlight is the best source of vitamin D. Ten to fifteen minutes of sun during non-peak hours three to four times a week skyrockets your vitamin D levels. Boost your immunity with nature?s best tools: Healthy food and sunlight.

Stress and Anxiety: Calm yourself to better deal with stress and anxiety. Stress and anxiety are asthma initiators.

Improve your reaction to stressful situations to better control your asthma. Decrease anxiety to reduce the severity and occurrence of asthma attacks. Develop calming strategies to better cope with rough situations.

Yoga, meditation, visualization and breathing exercises calm the mind and body. Seek assistance from trained professionals to receive maximum benefit. Utilize relaxation techniques to lessen stress and anxiety. Minimize asthma symptoms by better handling stress and preventing anxiety.

Conclusion: Take control of your asthma. Live an active and healthy life through better asthma management.

Utilize regular chiropractic treatment to re-establish proper skeletal motion and optimize nerve flow. Chiropractic care places the body in a position to function at its highest capacity. Maximize your body?s healing and functional capabilities to move and breathe better.

Choose the healthiest foods for maximum benefit. Determine trigger foods and avoid them. Develop nutritional strategies that work for you and adhere to them. Feed your body the correct amounts of nutrients it needs to flourish and fight disease.

Develop healthy habits to combat asthma. Exercise, sunshine and air quality are vital to propel your health forward. Employ consistent cleaning patterns to cleanse the air you breathe. Exercise to strengthen your immune system and increase your breathing capabilities. Relax and enjoy life.

Asthma may be officially ?incurable? but it can be controlled. Receive regular chiropractic care, consume healthy foods and create healthy habits to live the life you desire and diminish the frequency and severity of asthma symptoms.

Dr. Donald A. Ozello DC

Dr. Donald A. Ozello DC is the owner and treating doctor at Championship Chiropractic. 2595 S. Cimarron Rd, Suite #100, Las Vegas, NV 89117. ?His web address is?Championship Chiropractic. He can be contacted at (702) 286-9040 and?DrO@ChampionshipChiropractic.com.

Dr. Donald A. Ozello?s mission is to educate and inspire others to live healthier, fitter, more functional lives.

Dr. Donald A. Ozello DC proudly handles?Standard Process Supplements?and?Foot Levelers Orthotics.

Dr. Donald A. Ozello DC writes a weekly health, fitness, exercise and nutrition column for The Las Vegas Informer. His is published in?OnFitness Magazine,?Livestrong.com,?SpineUniverse.com?and?EHow.com.

Dr. Donald A. Ozello DC is an award-winning public speaker. He has spoken to numerous groups on the importance of health, fitness, exercise, ergonomics, nutrition and injury prevention.

Dr. Donald A. Ozello DC is a fitness enthusiast. Functional kettlebell training, bike riding and running are his favorite forms of exercise.

Before pursuing his career in Chiropractic, Dr. Donald A. Ozello DC served in the United States Navy aboard the USS Bremerton, SSN 698.

Source: http://sanantonio.informermg.com/2013/04/20/chiropractic-management-for-asthma-sufferers-part-4-healthy-habits/

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Russia's Caucasus: breeding ground for terror

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) ? Militants from Chechnya and other restive provinces in Russia's volatile North Caucasus have targeted Moscow and other areas with bombings and hostage-takings, but if it turns out that the suspects in the Boston bombings are linked to those insurgencies it would mark the first time the Russian conflict had spawned a major terror attack in the United States.

The suspects were identified by law enforcement officials and family members as Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, ethnic Chechens with ties to the Russian region. There was no immediate information of their links, if any, to any insurgent group.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a gun battle with police in Massachusetts overnight, officials said. His 19-year-old brother escaped.

Before moving to the United States, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lived briefly in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim republic that has become the epicenter of the Islamic insurgency that spilled over from Chechnya. On his page on the social networking site VKontakte, Tsarnaev said he attended School No. 1 from 1999 until 2001.

The principal of School No. 1 in Makhachkala, Irina Bandurina, told the AP that Tsarnaev left for the U.S. in March 2002.

The suspects' father, who lives in Makhachkala, told the AP his younger son was a second-year medical student and "a true angel."

This combination of photos provided on Friday, April 19, 2013 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, left, and the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, right, shows a suspect that officials have ... more? This combination of photos provided on Friday, April 19, 2013 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, left, and the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, right, shows a suspect that officials have identified as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, being sought by police in connection with Monday's Boston Marathon bombings. (AP Photo/FBI, BRIC) less?

The conflict in Chechnya began in 1994 as a separatist war, but quickly morphed into an Islamic insurgency dedicated to carving out an independent Islamic state in the Caucasus.

Russian troops withdrew from Chechnya in 1996 after the first Chechen war, leaving it de-facto independent and largely lawless, but then rolled back three years later following apartment building explosions in Moscow and other cities blamed on the rebels.

Chechnya has stabilized under the steely grip of Kremlin-backed local strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, a former rebel whose forces have been accused of massive rights abuses. But the Islamic insurgency has spread to neighboring provinces, with Dagestan, sandwiched between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea, becoming the epicenter of violence with militants launching daily attacks against police and other authorities.

Militants from Chechnya and neighboring provinces have carried out a long series of terror attacks in Russia, including a 2002 hostage-taking raid in a Moscow theater, in which 129 hostages died, a 2004 hostage-taking in a school in the southern city of Beslan that killed more than 330 people, and numerous bombings in Moscow and other cities.

The Obama administration placed Chechen warlord Doku Umarov on a list of terrorist leaders after he claimed responsibility for March 2010 double suicide bombings on Moscow's subway that killed 40 and a November 2009 train bombing that claimed 26 lives.

In recent years, however, militants in Chechnya, Dagestan and other neighboring provinces have largely refrained from attacks outside the Caucasus.

Russian officials and experts have claimed that rebels in Chechnya had close links with al-Qaida. They said that dozens of fighters from Arab countries trickled into Chechnya during the fighting there, while some Chechen militants have gone to fight in Afghanistan.

The U.S. has long urged Russia's government and separatist elements in Chechnya not aligned with al-Qaida or other terrorist organizations to seek a political settlement.

Washington provided aid to the area during the high points of fighting in the 1990s and in the early 2000s, and has demanded human rights accountability.

But the U.S. always backed the territorial integrity of Russia, never endorsing the separatists' desire for an independent state. And it has supported Russia's right to root out terrorism in the region.

In recent years, people from Chechnya have faced charges in several European countries.

In 2011, a Chechen-born man was sentenced in Denmark to 12 years in prison for preparing a letter bomb that exploded as he was assembling it in a Copenhagen hotel a year earlier.

Lors Doukayev, a then 25-year-old, one-legged resident of Belgium, was wounded when assembling the device, which is believed also to have been intended for the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which published controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. No one else was injured. The letter was filled with steel pellets and contained triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, which terrorists used in the bombs that killed 52 people in London in 2005.

Last month, Spain's Interior Ministry said French and Spanish police arrested three suspected Islamic extremists in an operation in and around Paris. A statement said the suspected activists were of Chechen origin and believed to be linked to an alleged terror cell dismantled last August in southern Spain. The cell was suspected of planning attacks in Spain and elsewhere in Europe.

Two suspects, Elsy Issakov and Mourad Idrissov, were arrested in Paris and a third, Ali Dokaev, was detained in the town of Noyon, northeast of the French capital. The arrests took place Feb. 26.

In August, two Russians arrested in the southwestern Spanish city of La Linea were charged with belonging to an unnamed terror organization and possession of explosives.

___

Isachenkov reported from Moscow. Bradley Klapper in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russias-caucasus-breeding-ground-terror-113721792.html

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Press Release: Carnegie Mellon Civil and Environmental Engineers ...

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Contact: Chriss Swaney / 412-268-5776 / swaney@andrew.cmu.edu

PITTSBURGH?A team of Carnegie Mellon University civil and environmental engineering faculty and students is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help assess the risk of dam failures nationwide. The recently released 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Infrastructure Report Card collectively gave the 84,000 U.S. dams a D grade.

"We are working to develop tools that will give engineers greater integration of the different sources of information they use to determine this risk," said Burcu Akinci, a professor of civil and environmental engineering (CEE) at Carnegie Mellon.

Akinci along with James H. Garrett, Jr., the Thomas Lord Professor and dean of CMU's College of Engineering are leading a research team that includes several professors who also are working on research in the IBM Smarter Infrastructure Lab - part of the Pennsylvania Smart Infrastructure Incubator - that supports the computational modeling and visualization aspects of this project. They include CEE Assistant Professor Mario Berges and CEE Assistant Research Professor Semiha Ergan.

"This research is extremely important as we work to maintain and monitor an aging infrastructure and as we work to test the important tools CMU researchers are developing for us," said Christopher J. Kelly, a civil engineer at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "The Corps owns 694 dams nationwide, over half of which have exceeded their 50-year service life."

Kelly said he hoped the research would help improve efficiency and cost. "Ultimately, we would like to have a virtual model that all our engineers can access and update over time," Kelly said.

"It's all about risk and we are looking to develop tools that will help assess how a dam behaves and identify any anomalies that may indicate future problems," Berges said. "The models and data analysis techniques we are developing will ultimately allow the Army Corps of Engineers to monitor multiple dams at once."

Ergan reports that this is the first time that this advanced systems infrastructure research has been applied to a dam. "We are working in developing integrated data models that enable advanced data visualization and analytics," Ergan said.

The CMU team is scheduled to present a series of proof of concept models later this summer to officials at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

###

Source: http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2013/april/april18_damsafety.html

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Why the background check ?victory? should taste like ashes to the GOP

Why the background check ?victory? should taste like ashes to the GOP.

National Journal: The outcome of Wednesday?s dramatic Senate vote on expanding background checks simultaneously demonstrated the difficult geography confronting gun control advocates in the Senate and the potentially daunting math facing gun rights proponents in the Electoral College.

On the one hand, the defeat showed how difficult it is for gun control advocates to reach the 60 vote threshold required to break a filibuster in an institution whose two-Senator per state apportionment magnifies the impact of small, heavily rural states where guns are interwoven into the culture.

On the other, the vote suggested that, after years in which gun control has been sublimated as a political issue, support for expanding background checks and possibly further steps has again become a political norm in almost all of the blue-leaning states that underpin the recent Democratic advantage in the race for the White House.

In other words, the demographics of the Senate are very, very different from the demographics of the nation. What Republicans can win in the Senate is not necessarily an indication of the mood of the nation. In fact, the popular opinion landscape is even worse for Republicans than you might assume, since even with the outsized power of smaller states, the soft-on-crime side lost the vote ? background checks would?ve passed with a 54 vote majority if it weren?t for the filibuster.

Newsflash: you don?t get to filibuster the 2016 elections. They?re walking into a clear loser here.

This morning, I wrote that Republicans would ?be wise to ask themselves how many of these sorts of ?victories? their party can actually survive.? The electoral math is one more reason why they should slow down, take a deep breath, and consider whether this kind of ?winning? is actually worth all the self-inflicted damage.

Source: http://quickhits.tumblr.com/post/48297793214/why-the-background-check-victory-should-taste

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Lab Research Finds Some Stress is Healthy | Psych Central News

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on April 18, 2013

Stress is a tight-wire act. Not enough stress can lead to boredom, depression and inactivity while too much stress can cause anxiety and mental and physical health problems.

New research on rats shows how the right amount of acute stress tweaks the brain and improves performance and health.

?You always think about stress as a really bad thing, but it?s not,? said Dr. Daniela Kaufer, associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley.?Some amounts of stress are good to push you just to the level of optimal alertness, behavioral and cognitive performance.?

New research by Kaufer and UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow Elizabeth Kirby, Ph.D.,?has uncovered exactly how acute stress ? short-lived, not chronic ? primes the brain for improved performance.

In studies on rats, they found that significant, but brief stressful events caused stem cells in their brains to proliferate into new nerve cells that, when mature two weeks later, improved the rats? mental performance.

?I think intermittent stressful events are probably what keeps the brain more alert, and you perform better when you are alert,? she said.

Study results are published online the open access online journal eLife.

Experts say the new findings reinforce the notion that stress hormones help an animal adapt and manage future situations.

Kaufer is especially interested in how both acute and chronic stress affects memory. Knowing that the brain?s hippocampus is critical to memory, she and her colleagues focused on the effects of stress on neural stem cells in the hippocampus of the adult rat brain.

Neural stem cells are a sort of generic or progenitor brain cell that, depending on chemical triggers, can mature into neurons, astrocytes or other cells in the brain.

The hippocampus is one of only two areas in the brain that generate new brain cells in adults, and is highly sensitive to glucocorticoid stress hormones, Kaufer said.

Prior research has demonstrated that chronic stress elevates levels of glucocorticoid stress hormones. These hormones, in turn, suppresses the production of new neurons in the hippocampus, impairing memory.

This is in addition to the effect that chronically elevated levels of stress hormones have on the entire body, such as increasing the risk of chronic obesity, heart disease and depression.

Less is known about the effects of acute stress, Kaufer said, and studies have been conflicting.

In an effort to clear up the confusion, Kirby subjected rats to what, to them, is acute but short-lived stress ? immobilization in their cages for a few hours.

This led to stress hormone (corticosterone) levels as high as those from chronic stress, though for only a few hours. The stress doubled the proliferation of new brain cells in the hippocampus, specifically in the dorsal dentate gyrus.

Kirby discovered that the stressed rats performed better on a memory test two weeks after the stressful event, but not two days after the event.

Using special cell labeling techniques, the researchers established that the new nerve cells triggered by the acute stress were the same ones involved in learning new tasks two weeks later.

?In terms of survival, the nerve cell proliferation doesn?t help you immediately after the stress, because it takes time for the cells to become mature, functioning neurons,? Kaufer said.

?But in the natural environment, where acute stress happens on a regular basis, it will keep the animal more alert, more attuned to the environment and to what actually is a threat or not a threat.?

They also found that nerve cell growth after acute stress was triggered by the release of a protein, fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2), by astrocytes ? brain cells formerly thought of as support cells, but that now appear to play a more critical role in regulating neurons.

Kaufer noted that exposure to acute, intense stress can sometimes be harmful, leading, for example, to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Further research could help to identify the factors that determine whether a response to stress is good or bad.

?I think the ultimate message is an optimistic one,? she concluded. ?Stress can be something that makes you better, but it is a question of how much, how long and how you interpret or perceive it.?

Source: UC Berkeley

APA Reference
Nauert PhD, R. (2013). Lab Research Finds Some Stress is Healthy. Psych Central. Retrieved on April 19, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/04/18/lab-research-finds-some-stress-is-healthy/53855.html

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Source: http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/04/18/lab-research-finds-some-stress-is-healthy/53855.html

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Rethinking Netflix's Design

Design firm YOUi Labs believes that Netflix needs to completely rethink the way it handles its UI if it wants to stay ahead of competition like Redbox. Here's their imagination at work on what a new Netflix would look like on the iPad. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/v9nzfnP9hgE/rethinking-netflixs-design

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