Friday, November 1, 2013

Major oyster reef rebuilding begins on Texas coast

A large excavator is silhouetted as it scoops up a load of limestone boulders from a barge in the gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. The huge boulders will be dropped into the water to help rebuild a reef that once filled some 400 acres and now barely exists. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)







A large excavator is silhouetted as it scoops up a load of limestone boulders from a barge in the gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. The huge boulders will be dropped into the water to help rebuild a reef that once filled some 400 acres and now barely exists. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)







A large excavator is drops a load of limestone boulders from a barge into the gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. The huge boulders are being put in place to help rebuild a reef that once filled some 400 acres and now barely exists. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)







A large excavator shovel dumps huge limestone boulders into the Gulf of Mexico to help rebuild an oyster reef off the Texas coast on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. The $5.4 million project will rebuild some 57 acres of reef, helping to revitalize the fragile Gulf marine ecosystem. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)







A conservationist shows a live oyster plucked from an existing reef in the Gulf of Mexico, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. Huge limestone boulders are being dropped into the water off the Texas coast in one of the largest oyster reef restoration projects in the United States. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)







A bird stands on an oyster shell strip atop an existing reef in the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. Conservationist have undertaken a $5.4 million project to rebuild some 57 acres of oyster reef. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)







(AP) — A deep sea oyster reef restoration being touted as the largest ever in the Gulf of Mexico began in an unlikely place: a quarry in landlocked Missouri.

That is where years of research, planning and precise engineering led Mark Dumesnil, an associate director of restoration for the Nature Conservancy in Texas, as he sought to restore what was once a nearly 500-acre oyster reef and is now no more than hard sand and shell remains, with not one oyster in sight.

And so, about seven years after Dumesnil was first tipped off by wildlife ecosystem experts that restoration of Half Moon Reef might be possible, 36 barges carrying 93,000 tons of Missouri limestone traveled for 12 days down the Mississippi River, arriving in the Gulf earlier this month. Scientists, engineers, researchers and laborers will spend some eight weeks dropping the boulders onto a 54-acre plot 8 feet underwater as part of a $5.4 million, two-phase project designed to revitalize a damaged ecosystem.

The project also will provide a robust natural barrier from hurricanes and teach scientists whether reefs can rebuild in drought conditions, becoming another mechanism for marine habitats to withstand devastating dry spells.

"This project is designed to be innovative and different," said Dumesnil, who has financial backing from a variety of agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Texas General Land Office.

Oysters filter 50 gallons of water daily. Each acre of reef the oysters cling to filters another 24 million gallons of water daily. Together, they are vital to a healthy marine ecosystem and to commercial fisheries because they are home, feeding and breeding grounds for hundreds and even thousands of other fish, shrimp, clams, crabs and other life. In Texas alone, the oyster industry is a nearly $30 million a year industry, according to state statistics.

Oyster reefs, however, have been severely damaged by overfishing and other causes during the last century. Nearly 50 percent of the reefs in the Gulf, and 85 percent of those globally, have disappeared, according to The Nature Conservancy.

In 1907, a survey of Matagorda Bay done by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries indicated Half Moon Reef covered 494 acres of seabed. Since then, however, a variety of factors led to a slow death, including the release in the 1920s of a major logjam in the Colorado River that allowed large amounts of freshwater to flow into the estuary about 10 years later, upsetting the delicate salinity levels that oysters need to thrive; rerouting in the 1940s of the intracoastal waterway, which released tons of sediments, and may have helped bury and kill oysters; commercial dredging of live and dead oyster shells between 1922 and 1983, often to build roads; and the damage from Hurricane Carla in 1961.

Oyster reef restoration has long been done along shorelines, successfully helping decrease erosion and protect sensitive coastal communities from tropical storms. Similar projects in deeper waters, including off the Virginia coast, have also been done, but generally on smaller scales and with flatter, less contoured materials and not typically limestone.

The idea behind this project, Dumesnil explained, and the reason boulders of varying sizes are being used, is to try to replicate as closely as possible a real reef, and to get the eventual growth of it to be vertical — as it would be if it were naturally occurring.

"If we were here 100 years ago ... we would see reef, oysters breaking the surface of the water. So you would see waves breaking on the oyster reef, it was that high, 6 to 7 feet high," said David Buzan, project manager for Atkins North America, a global engineering, design and project management consultancy firm. "Now, we're building a reef that's 3 feet high with the hopes that oysters will grow on it, colonize it and eventually return that oyster reef back to the height that it originally was 100 years ago."

The limestone from Missouri was specifically chosen because it was the precise material, Dumesnil said, needed to guarantee it wouldn't sink into the seabed allowing the oysters to build vertically. Project designers also decided to build 32 rows of 650-foot reefs, deliberately leaving space between them. The hope is that as the spat — or oyster babies — stick to the boulders they will eventually fill in the gaps while growing the reef vertically.

"What we were wanting to do is build in as much diversity in the design of the project," Dumesnil said. "The more diverse a habitat is the more diverse and types and kinds and numbers of species will use that."

Coincidentally, the project is being launched as Texas struggles through years of drought, which has increased the salinity of Matagorda Bay and other estuaries as less freshwater from rivers flows into the Gulf. This is allowing scientists to study the effects this has on oyster reefs and learn whether they can grow in drought conditions, an issue of increasing concern for scientists who expect more frequent dry spells due to global warming, said Laura Huffman, the director of the Nature Conservancy in Texas.

"We want to test the conditions at their more extreme," Huffman said.

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Plushnick-Masti can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RamitMastiAP .

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-11-01-Oyster%20Reef%20Restoration/id-000446c0d7494aaabf5fa69775c0a0b1
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Children rescued after bus topples into Kan. creek


DOUGLASS, Kan. (AP) — Ten Kansas children and a school bus driver were pulled to safety from a fast-moving creek Thursday after the bus toppled into the water and landed half-submerged on its side.

The children, ages 13 and younger, clambered through a roof hatch to await rescue as the 60-year-old driver called 911 to report the accident in rural Butler County, Sheriff Kelly Herzet said.

Investigators were looking into how the accident happened, but County 911 director Chris Davis said the bus apparently went off a bridge that Douglass School District officials described as a low-water crossing.

Emergency personnel decided against using boats because of the swift current, instead reaching the bus on lines and putting the children and the driver in life jackets before pulling them to dry ground.

The accident happened around 4 p.m. outside Douglass, a town of about 1,700 residents southeast of Wichita.

The driver was taken to a hospital to be checked for hypothermia and one child was seen being placed in an ambulance, but the sheriff said all of the children were eventually turned over to their parents.

Logan Parker, a 12-year-old sixth-grader, said the bus "hit a couple of bumps and then we fell into the water."

"The driver was shaking and a lot of people were screaming and crying," said Logan, who was still wet more than two hours after the accident.

Some sections of roads in the area were still covered by water from recent heavy rain, and Herzet said the bus had driven into a submerged stretch of the road.

"The lesson here is not to drive through water," he said.

Herzet credited the older children with helping get the younger ones out of the bus to await rescue.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/children-rescued-bus-topples-kan-creek-010330857.html
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A Better, Staggered Muffin Pan That Packs In More Baked Goodness

A Better, Staggered Muffin Pan That Packs In More Baked Goodness

The creators of the revolutionary all-edges brownie pan have returned with another innovation for the world of baked goods. This time they want to improve how we make muffins with their Better Muffin Pan which features a staggered design—among other improvements—that maximizes the amount of baked treats you can squeeze in your oven, and minimizes the areas where you can spill batter.

Read more...


    






Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/4GlKZhoXOQQ/a-better-staggered-muffin-pan-that-packs-in-more-baked-1456009492
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US jobless claims fall for 3rd straight week


Washington (AFP) - US jobless claims fell for the third week in a row, as the impact of the government shutdown earlier in the month appeared to ease, Labor Department data showed Thursday.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell to 340,000 in the week ending October 26, a decrease of 10,000 from the prior week.

The figure was higher than expected as the labor market works through the disruption of the October 1-16 partial government shutdown that furloughed hundreds of thousands of federal workers, as well as technical problems that skewed the weekly data from some states.

Analysts on average had forecast new claims, a sign of the pace of layoffs, would fall to 335,000 last week.

"Claims are settling back down now that the federal government shutdown has passed and a bottleneck caused by a computer system upgrade in California delayed the processing of thousands of claims several weeks ago," said Marisa Di Natale of Moody's Analytics.

The four-week moving average, which helps to smooth week-over-week volatility, rose by 8,000 to 356,250. The average has moved higher for four weeks in a row.

According to data for the week ending October 19, claims from federal employees fell by 29,700 from the previous week.

"Though the federal government is open, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has delayed its planned release of the October jobs numbers by one week, until November 8. It is difficult to judge what that number might be from claims since they were distorted during October," Di Natale said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-jobless-claims-fall-3rd-straight-week-133459637.html
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Gaga, Macklemore, Kendrick Lamar to hit AMA stage

FILE - In a Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013 file photo, Lady Gaga arrives for a presentation of her upcoming new album "Artpop" at a fan event at the Berghain club in Berlin. Dick Clark productions announced Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013 that Lady Gaga, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Kendrick Lamar and Luke Bryan will perform at the American Music Awards on Nov. 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)







FILE - In a Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013 file photo, Lady Gaga arrives for a presentation of her upcoming new album "Artpop" at a fan event at the Berghain club in Berlin. Dick Clark productions announced Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013 that Lady Gaga, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Kendrick Lamar and Luke Bryan will perform at the American Music Awards on Nov. 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)







NEW YORK (AP) — Hold your applause: Lady Gaga will perform at the American Music Awards next month.

Dick clark productions announced Thursday that Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Kendrick Lamar and Luke Bryan will also hit the stage for the Nov. 24 awards show in Los Angeles.

Previously announced performers include Miley Cyrus, One Direction, Imagine Dragons and Florida Georgia Line.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis lead with six nominations, including artist, new artist and single of the year for "Thrift Shop." Taylor Swift and Justin Timberlake have five nominations each, while Robin Thicke, Rihanna and Florida Georgia Line have four each. Bruno Mars and Imagine Dragons are both up for three awards.

The AMAs will air on ABC from the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live.

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Online:

http://abc.go.com/shows/american-music-awards

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-10-31-Music-American%20Music%20Awards/id-31b4d9351cae4e00853b92cb48ba9a1d
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Google debuts new wireless charging pad with support for Nexus 5 and 7

Last year, Google unveiled a new wireless charging pad alongside the Nexus 4 and Nexus 10, and the company has taken advantage of 2013 to come up with another one. This new charging pad has been announced in tandem with the Nexus 5, and will include support for it and the Nexus 7. It's supposed to ...


Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/yWXFgcH4uXc/
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Feds post food allergy guidelines for schools

In this Oct. 10, 2013 photo, an epinephrine auto-injector is shown that Tyler Edwards, 12, of Hendersonville, Tenn., carries with him because of his allergies. Only 27 states require or allow epinephrine, a drug used to treat anaphylactic shock, to be available in schools. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)







In this Oct. 10, 2013 photo, an epinephrine auto-injector is shown that Tyler Edwards, 12, of Hendersonville, Tenn., carries with him because of his allergies. Only 27 states require or allow epinephrine, a drug used to treat anaphylactic shock, to be available in schools. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)







(AP) — The federal government is issuing its first guidelines to schools on how to protect children with food allergies.

The voluntary guidelines call on schools to take such steps as restricting nuts, shellfish or other foods that can cause allergic reactions, and make sure emergency allergy medicine — like EpiPens — are available.

About 15 states — and numerous individual schools or school districts — already have policies of their own. "The need is here" for a more comprehensive, standardized way for schools to deal with this issue, said Dr. Wayne Giles, who oversaw development of the advice for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Food allergies are a growing concern. A recent CDC survey estimated that about 1 in 20 U.S. children have food allergies — a 50 percent increase from the late 1990s. Experts aren't sure why cases are rising.

Many food allergies are mild and something children grow out of. But severe cases may cause anaphylactic shock or even death from eating, say, a peanut.

The guidelines released Wednesday were required by a 2011 federal law.

Peanuts, tree nuts, milk and shellfish are among the food that most often most trigger reactions. But experts say more than 170 foods are known to cause reactions.

The new advice call for schools to do such things as:

—Identify children with food allergies.

—Have a plan to prevent exposures and manage any reactions.

—Train teachers or others how to use medicines like epinephrine injectors, or have medical staff to do the job.

—Plan parties or field trips free of foods that might cause a reaction; and designate someone to carry epinephrine.

—Make sure classroom activities are inclusive.

For example, don't use Peanut M&M's in a counting lesson, said John Lehr, chief executive of an advocacy group that worked on the guidelines, Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE).

Carolyn Duff, president of the National Association of School Nurses, which worked on the guidelines, said many schools may not have policies on food allergies. "And if they do, maybe the policies aren't really comprehensive," she said.

U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, a New York Democrat who worked on the law that led to the guidelines, said in a statement that they are a big step toward giving parents "the confidence that their children will stay safe and healthy at school."

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Online:

CDC guidelines: http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/foodallergies/

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2013-10-30-Food%20Allergies-Schools/id-33b7262cc9064170a81e124296422e61
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