EPA OIG: EPA Needs to Improve Its Efforts to Reduce Air Emissions at U.S. Ports
EPA Needs to Improve Its Efforts to Reduce Air Emissions at U.S. Ports, [Report PDF - 86pp] [At a Glance PDF] "While EPA has issued air emissions regulations for most port sources, EPA’s actions to address air emissions from large oceangoing vessels in U.S. ports have not yet achieved the goals for protecting human health. The Clean Air Act (CAA) provides EPA with the authority to regulate emissions from oceangoing vessel engines when these emissions cause significant harm to human health. For over 14 years, EPA has acknowledged that human health has been significantly harmed by emissions from these sources. Thus far, EPA has only regulated nitrogen oxides emissions from U.S.-flagged vessels. EPA has chosen to defer taking a position on whether it has authority to regulate emissions from foreign-flagged vessels, although these vessels account for about 90 percent of all U.S. port calls. However, after many years, EPA’s efforts with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) have the potential to significantly reduce these emissions. In October 2008 the IMO adopted new international standards for oceangoing vessel engines and fuels. Still, EPA must work to establish Emissions Control Areas for U.S. ports if significant emissions reductions are to be realized from oceangoing vessels."

Earth Hour on March 28 a success
More than 200 buildings in Chicago pledged to go dark in the city, including shops along the Magnificent Mile. The Smithsonian Castle, World Bank, National Cathedral and Howard University were among several buildings that went dark for an hour in the nation's capital. In the Chilean capital of Santiago, lights were turned off at banks, the city's communications tower and several government buildings, including the Presidential Palace where President Michelle Bachelet hosted a dinner for U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. The two leaders and dozens of guests dinned at candlelight. In Mexico City, the city government and business owners turned off all "nonessential" lights at more than 100 buildings, including 31 city buildings and monuments and 17 hotels. In San Francisco, some of the city's best-known landmarks went dark, including Coit Tower, the TransAmerica building and the Golden Gate Bridge. Los Angeles dimmed the lights at the Griffith Observatory, the Santa Monica Ferris wheel, City Hall and other area landmarks.
A DJ led a crowd at a dimmed-down dance party outside downtown's L.A. Live entertainment complex. Organizers said nearly 1,000 people were at the event.
In the Chicago suburb of Blue Island, Eli Rodriguez, 41, owner of a Mexican restaurant called Tenochtitlan switched off not only the lights but also the television, which was playing a NCAA tournament basketball game. "Everybody was happy I did it," Rodriguez said. "They support this. They understood." But after a few seconds, he turned the game back on and kept the lights dim.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/WireStory?id=7199654&page=2

Would California really ban black cars to fight global warming? A rumor to that effect raised hackles on the blogosphere last week. Even conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh weighed in, urging listeners to rush out and buy a black car before they were pulled from the market. But while a state agency was indeed mulling the relationship between automobile color and greenhouse gases, the rumored ban on black wasn't actually true. "It's completely fallacious," said Stanley Young, a spokesman for the state's Air Resources Board, the agency supposedly behind the ban. "At no time was it mentioned, contemplated or proposed that we would ban or restrict any color."
The supposed ban on black was widely, and mostly incorrectly, reported. The Washington Post ran an item from TechCrunch on its Web site under the headline, "California May Ban Black Cars." Autoline Daily, a Detroit-based podcast, told listeners, "You're not going to believe this story" and "You just can't make this stuff up."
The news even crossed the ocean, where a blogger from the Telegraph in London detailed the brouhaha, concluding that the rumor was bogus. http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12013592?source=most_emailed

More than a dozen students at the Mundelein High School near Chicago have committed to going without something different each month, borrowing a page from author Henry David Thoreau, who famously withdrew to Walden Pond for two years "to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what [nature] had to teach." The Mundelein teens' project began in November, when they gave up sugar and eating at chain restaurants. A television blackout followed in December, and January's challenge was to forgo using sheets of new paper. They pledged in February to avoid buying anything that might end up in a landfill. The next challenges are the boldest yet: a March without cell phones and an April without the Internet.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/green/chi-simple-lifemar07,0,4684513.story

First lady Michelle Obama recently helped break ground on an organic vegetable garden on the White House lawn--a garden Roger Doiron proposed in an online contest seeking ideas for change. Doiron is founding director of Kitchen Gardeners International, a nonprofit organization connecting 10,000 gardeners worldwide. The White House garden will be about 1,100 square feet and planted with spring vegetables, Doiron said. The crops will be used in the White House kitchen with the overflow going to Washington, D.C., food pantries and homeless shelters. http://www.keepmecurrent.com/Community/story.cfm?storyID=64345

John Adams planted a garden to feed his family; President Woodrow Wilson had sheep grazing on the White House lawn, while his wife, Edith, planted vegetables with which she hoped to inspire students to grow food in their schools and communities. More famously, and recently, Eleanor Roosevelt grew a vegetable garden on White House grounds, and can take partial credit for the fact that by the end of the World War II, 40% of the country’s produce was being grown in the gardens of average American citizens. http://www.examiner.com/x-4370-NY-Green-Living-Examiner~y2009m3d21-THE-WHITE-HOUSE-GARDEN-AND-THE-POWER-OF-SYMBOLISM

Roman Numerals
M=1000 | D=500 | C=100 | L=50 | X=10 | V=5 | I=1
The letters (roman numerals) are arranged from left to right with each letter decreasing in value as you go "down the line." The totals are derived through adding the numerical equivalent of all the letters.
Therefore . . .
MDCLXVI = 1000 + 500 + 100 + 50 + 10 + 5 + 1 = 1666.
Today, the convention is to use the largest possible numeral within a sequence. Therefore, 15 is XV and not VVV or XIIIII. Although Roman numerals generally read from left to right in descending order, this leads to some extremely long sequences! (99 would be LXXXXVIIII.) Be aware . . . only I, X, and C can be used this way. V, L, and D cannot. And, M cannot because it is the largest Roman numeral available! Also, only a single smaller number can be placed to the left of a larger number. 8 cannot be written XIIX as it would be ambiguous and could be interpreted as 11 + 9 = 20 instead of 10 - 2 + 10 = 18. The subtracted number can be no less than a 10th of the value of the number from which it is being subtracted. So, an X can be placed to the left of a C or an L but not to the left of an M or a D. Each power of ten is dealt with separately. So, 49 is XLIX and not IL See date conversion chart for the 19th and 20th centuries at: http://www.weplan.com/romannumeral.htm

Test Google as a converter: Search “convert (year of your choice) to roman numerals”—this example uses 1492. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=convert+1492+to+roman+numerals&aq=f&oq