A model for bioenergy feedstock/vegetable double-cropping systems
Urbana IL (SPX) May 12, 2015 -
Much attention has been given to dedicated, perennial bioenergy crops to meet the revised Renewable Fuel Standard mandating production of 36 billion gallons of biofuel by the year 2022. Even so, concern remains over the impending need to convert as much as 30 million acres of U.S. crop land, which would include food crops, to land for perennial energy crops in order to meet that demand.
Re ...
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World's biggest hurricane simulator aims to improve forecasts
Miami (AFP) May 6, 2015 -
The world's largest hurricane simulator is now complete and experts hope it will improve forecasters' ability to predict how strong a storm will get, which has been a key weak spot for science until now.
The $15 million wind and wave machine at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science resembles a giant aquarium tank, without the fish.
When lead scienti ...
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One killed, 30 hurt as 'tornado' hits north Germany
Berlin (AFP) May 6, 2015 -
One man was killed and more than 30 people injured when a tornado and violent storms hit northern Germany, ripping tiles off roofs, downing trees and overturning cars, emergency services said Wednesday.
Worst hit was the town of Buetzow near the northern port of Rostock, where bricks lay scattered in the streets after flying debris had badly injured one person and hurt dozens of others late ...
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More than 200,000 road deaths a year in China: WHO
Beijing (AFP) May 6, 2015 -
More than 200,000 people are killed on China's notoriously dangerous roads every year, the World Health Organisation said Wednesday - at least four times official government statistics.
Writing in the government-published China Daily newspaper, the WHO's representative in the country Bernhard Schwartlaender said the estimated deaths were "entirely preventable".
"In China, over 10,000 ch ...
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A century on, Lebanon rediscovers deadly famine
Beirut (AFP) May 5, 2015 -
Lebanon is rediscovering a century-old tragedy that most had forgotten - a devastating famine, caused by blockades and a locust infestation, that killed a third of its population.
From 1915 to 1918, in the midst of World War I and before modern-day Lebanon existed, between 150,000 and 200,000 people died of malnutrition and disease, according to estimates by historians.
Those who surviv ...
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Quake-hit Nepal villagers take aid into their own hands
Barpak, Nepal (AFP) May 6, 2015 -
Even as they mourn their dead, the quake-hit villagers of Barpak high in the Nepal Himalayas must make a difficult and dangerous hours-long trek into the valley for tents and supplies.
More than a week after a deadly earthquake flattened their village, many survivors in this small mountain community still lack adequate shelter from the cold and rain.
Although the army has begun airliftin ...
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Nepal tragedy takes toll even on cremation overseers
Kathmandu (AFP) May 6, 2015 -
As veteran cremation worker Khadga Adhikari placed a handful of uncooked rice and a coin on the chest of yet another young victim of Nepal's earthquake, his own heart was filled with sadness.
"I don't remember much about most people I cremate," said Adhikari, who has spent 30 years preparing funeral pyres. "But when you are handling the body of a child, it hurts deeply. It's not their time t ...
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