National Renewable Energy Lab - NREL Study Shows 20 Percent Wind is Possible by 2024
News release: "Today, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) released the Eastern Wind Integration and Transmission Study (EWITS). This unprecedented two-and-a-half year technical study of future high-penetration wind scenarios was designed to analyze the economic, operational, and technical implications of shifting 20 percent or more of the Eastern Interconnection’s electrical load to wind energy by the year 2024."

UN Permanent Forum Origin and Development Report: State of the World's Indigenous Peoples, January 2010.
• "Indigenous peoples contribute extensibly to humanity's cultural diversity, enriching it with more than two thirds of its languages and an extraordinary amount of its traditional knowledge. There are over 370 million indigenous people in some 90 countries, living in all regions of the world. The situation of indigenous peoples in many parts of the world is critical today. Poverty rates are significantly higher among indigenous peoples compared to other groups. While they constitute 5 per cent of the world's population, they are 15 per cent of the world's poor. Most indicators of well-being show that indigenous peoples suffer disproportionately compared to non-indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples face systemic discrimination and exclusion from political and economic power; they continue to be over-represented among the poorest, the illiterate, the destitute; they are displaced by wars and environmental disasters; indigenous peoples are dispossessed of their ancestral lands and deprived of their resources for survival, both physical and cultural; they are even robbed of their very right to life. In more modern versions of market exploitation, indigenous peoples see their traditional knowledge and cultural expressions marketed and patented without their consent or participation."

DOJ OIG: Review of FBI's Use of Exigent Letters
A Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Use of Exigent Letters and Other Informal Requests for Telephone Records, January 2010, Unclassified, Redacted.

BLS Producer Price Indexes December 2009
Producer Price Index, January 20, 2010: "The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods moved up 0.2 percent in December, seasonally adjusted. This rise followed a 1.8-percent advance in November and a 0.3-percent increase in October. The index for finished goods less foods and energy was unchanged."

Thanks to solar panels, a geothermal heating and cooling system, and a gift of carbon-offset credits, Rangeview Library District’s new Anythink Brighton, Colorado, branch is believed to be the first carbon-positive library in the United States. The building, which opened in September, offsets 167,620 pounds of carbon dioxide—16% more than it is anticipated to use annually. Solar energy will save the library about $30,000 a year in energy costs. “For the 10 years it may take to see the return on investment, we’ll also be not emitting tons of carbon in the air,” Hansen said.
Other environmentally friendly features include:
Geothermal heating and cooling. A closed system of pipes carries fluid through the floors to wells 500 feet below the parking lot. While underground, the temperature of the fluid moderates to about 58 degrees Farenheit, year-round; when it’s pumping through the floors, it helps to cool the building in summer and heat it in winter, requiring about half the energy of blowing heated or cooled air.
Solatubes. These capture natural light outside, and deliver through reflective tubes to illuminate interior spaces, even if there is no window or skylight.
Lighting controls, including motion sensors and stepped ballasts to regulate the amount of artificial lighting needed.
South-facing facades. Windows receive direct light in winter, with awnings to provide shade during summer.
http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/news/12122009/new-colorado-facility-becomes-first-carbon-positive-library

Magic in the air
Hummingbirds take extraordinary to a whole new level. They are the smallest warm-blooded creatures on the planet, but they are also among the fastest. With wings that beat up to 200 times every second, they are among nature’s most accomplished athletes, the only birds able to hover, fly backwards, and even upside down. http://www.rapidshareindex.com/PBS-Nature-S28E05-Hummingbirds-Magic-in-the-Air-2010-_410140.html

A muse reader, after viewing pictures of library cats, gave me the book Dewey about a kitten found in a book drop on a cold January morning in the public library at Spencer, Iowa. The cat was rescued and cared for by the library staff, and grew to love sitting on laps, warm copiers, and in boxes and drawers. His routine included greeting the staff, keeping them company during breaks, and being carried limply over a person's left shoulder. Dewey's picture appeared in magazines, newsletters, books, and newspapers. http://www.americanprofile.com/article/3897.html
Iowa’s Dewey Readmore Books gives Dr. Seuss a run for the money, ranking as a national celebrity. The acting debut in Puss in Books landed him a spot as Mr. January in a national pin-up cat calendar plus a mention on nationally syndicated radio by broadcaster Paul Harvey, and as the subject of two book chapters—he has his own Library of Congress listing.
http://www.wesleyancollege.edu/Academics/Library/LibraryCat/tabid/184/Default.aspx
See a picture of Dewey here: http://www.neatorama.com/2009/04/30/an-interactive-map-of-library-cats/
"The Gathering: Of Time, of Land, of Many Hands", an outdoor mosaic sculpture, has Dewey sitting on pages of an open book, on the west wall of the sculpture (The Story of Spencer). Find him slightly to the left of center in the upper half of the scene.
http://spencercreates.com/liveculturehistory.htm
http://www.surfiowa.com/spencer/parkart/

Products that use corn
Adhesives (glues, pastes, mucilages, gums, etc.)
Aluminum
Antibiotics (penicillin)
Asbestos insulation
Aspirin
Automobiles (everything on wheels)
xxx- cylinder heads
xxx- ethanol - fuel & windshield washer fluid
xxx- spark plugs
xxx- synthetic rubber finishes
xxx- tires
Baby food
Batteries, dry cell
Beer
Breakfast cereals
Candies
Canned vegetables
Carbonated beverages
Cheese spreads
Chewing gum
Chocolate products
Coatings on wood, paper & metal
Colour carrier in paper & textile, printing
Corn chips
Corn meal
Cosmetics
C.M.A. (calcium magnesium acetate)
Crayon and chalk
Degradable plastics
Dessert powders
Dextrose (intravenous solutions, icing sugar)
Disposable diapers
Dyes
Edible oil
Ethyl and butyl alcohol
Explosives - firecrackers
Finished leather
Flour & grits
See the other half of the list at:
http://www.ontariocorn.org/classroom/products.html