Reflection Eternal - Back Again

New album coming this fall. They are on tour this summer with the Rock the Bells tour. Merriweather Pavilion July 12.

Daily Show: Iranians Support the GOP

DC shoutout.

International Public Financing of Coal in a Carbon-Constrained World

I'll be presenting the research and data analysis methodology.

B.o.B & Bobby Ray - B.o.B vs. Bobby Ray [Mixtape]

Damn good week for mixtapes. Two of my favorite up and comers putting out tapes, both of which are amazing. I'd check out Satellite on this album. ATLien B.o.B (aka Bobby Ray) is back with his latest mixtape, B.o.B vs. Bobby Ray, which has him facing off with... himself. Features on this project include Bun B, Kanye West, Asher Roth, Playboy Tre, Killer Mike, T.I., Mickey Factz and more. The first half of the tape is all B.o.B, with Bobby Ray handling the latter half.




01. B.o.B � Intro
02. B.o.B � Patron & Swag Freestyle
03. B.o.B � One (feat. Big Kuntry & Mac Boney) (Produced by Fury)
04. B.o.B � My Sweet Baby (Produced by Fury)
05. B.o.B � Change Gonna Come (feat. Asher Roth & Charles Hamilton) (Produced by Fury)
06. B.o.B � Do You Have The Stamina (feat. Kanye West) (Produced by B.o.B)
07. B.o.B � I Am The Man (feat. OJ Da Juiceman & Bun B) (Produced by Fury)
08. B.o.B � Say What You Want (feat. Playboy Tre & Killer Mike) (Produced by Fury)
09. B.o.B � Voltage (feat. Playboy Tre & Mickey Factz) (Produced by B.o.B)
10. B.o.B � I�m That Nigga (feat. T.I.) (Produced by Fury)
11. B.o.B � Fly Like Me (Produced by Red Spyda)
12. Bobby Ray � Intermission
13. Bobby Ray � Satellite (Produced by Bobby Ray)
14. Bobby Ray � Wonderland (Produced by Bobby Ray & Eastsiders)
15. Bobby Ray � Mr. Bobby (Produced by Bobby Ray)
16. Bobby Ray � Trippin� (Produced by Bobby Ray)
17. Bobby Ray � Goodnite (Produced by Bobby Ray)
18. Bobby Ray � Camera (Produced by Big Toombs)
19. Bobby Ray � No Mans Land (Produced by Bobby Ray)
20. Bobby Ray � Put Me On (Produced by Bobby Ray)
21. Bobby Ray � Already There (Produced by Bobby Ray)
22. B.o.B & Bobby Ray � Outro

DOWNLOAD B.o.B vs. Bobby Ray [Mixtape]

Clipse - Kinda Like A Big Deal (feat. Kanye West)

The new album, Til The Casket Drops, set to drop in September.

Chicago Travel Update - No puns or quips, just an update

So I made it to Chicago. Upon arriving at O'Hare, I definitely let the flight attendants know I was displeased by providing them with a very snide:

"Just so you know, because of the hour an a half we sat at the gate in Albany AFTER you unloading the sick gentleman and you decided to let on 10 NEW passengers, the boat I was supposed to have been sailing on this morning had to leave the dock without me and the sailing regatta I am supposed to be in will start in five minutes. Thanks, your incompetence has really screwed me over."

Now don't get me wrong, I feel for the man who had the heart attack on the flight and his wife. I found out the next day that he did actually die in Albany, and I feel horrible for him, his wife, and his family. But how does it serve his memory for United to sit at the gate for another hour and half to find people to fill the few remaining seats on the plane, INCLUDING THE GOD DAMN SEAT WHERE A GUY JUST DIED FROM A FUCKING HEART ATTACK? I HAD SOMEWHERE TO BE! PEOPLE HAD CONNECTIONS TO MAKE! GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER AND REALIZE THAT OTHER PEOPLE WILL HAVE TO SCRAMBLE TO REARRANGE CONNECTIONS WHEN PEOPLE MISS THEIR CONNECTION BECAUSE YOU'RE ALLOWING NEW PEOPLE TO MAYBE AN UNSCHEDULED CONNECTION! GET THE CONNECTION?

Anyway, when I arrived in Chicago, it was raining. RAINING. I am emphasizing raining, because when we arrived the guy in baggage claim explained that they could not go near the plane because there was lightning on the radar. I know how to read radar, and I can read the skies pretty well. It was raining. Raining hard yes, but raining. I waited in baggage claim for TWO HOURS. The ground crew must have decided (like Newman in Seinfeld about delivering mail) that they don't work in the rain. )($(*&(_)*&$_(*&)*&*&$(*&(*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I filled out a baggage slip, and instructed them to deliver it to the yacht club where the boat was, and I would be. I left O'Hare, headed to the yacht club.

Sailing went well Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'll post separately on the regatta. However, I will comment that sailing would have been much better, IF I HAD MY MOTHERFUCKING BAG. I knew it had arrived in Chicago. The guy had it in his computer that it arrived on the plane with me. BUT THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS DIDN'T DELIVER IT TILL SUNDAY MORNING. THREE FUCKING DAYS. IN THE SAME GOD DAMN CITY! THEY DIDN'T EVEN TRY! THEY HAD MY NUMBER! THEY HAD THE ADDRESS!

!@)(*&!@)(&!@&)**)$%&!@)(*)!@(*!@&)!@$&(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Got my bag Sunday. Put on clean underwear. Changed my board shorts. Used my own shirts (thanks to the crew for letting me borrow theirs).

Flight home was uneventful.....

Going to write a few strongly worded emails to airlines shortly.

B-Real "Fire" feat. Damian 'Jr. Gong' Marley

Back in DC. Head is still spinning from this weekend in Chicago. Speaking of which, here is a new track by B-Real and Jr. Gong.

FRIDAY - JAM OF THE WEEK!

With Mr. Trey Lord struggling with the airline industry on his venture to the banks of Lake Michigan, I thought that I should throw a feel good/pick-me up tune to the masses. Behold is a throw-back mash-up that some genius Brit threw up on youtube a while back. MP3 download is also linked at the bottom of the post. This is a serious jam. Beware.



Download MP3 of the song here!

so this is how serial killers are born.

In Albany, it took them five minutes to unload the guy who had the heart attack. We sat on at the gate for an hour and a half for good measure. They let on ten more people. They added more fuel. They fucked me over AGAIN.
The starting sequence for the races started 15 minutes ago. I am waiting for my bag. When I get it, I will take the L to the yacht club and barter a ride out to the races.

I may never fly again.

Are you out there God? it's me. Trey. The Perfect Shit Storm Continues...

Should I be taking some kind of hint? What lessons should I be taking away from this experience. Maybe i'm being punked. Maybe I'll win the lottery tonight (definitely going to ticket). I consider myself a good person. I try not the lie. I don't cheat or steal. I volunteer and genuinely care about the well-being of others.

But Jesus Christ. How can this shit storm continue. I'm on the united flight a scrambled to get out of LGA to get to Chicago in time for the race, and a god damn passenger gets sick. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?

We are now in Albany to off load this guy, who probably shouldn't have been flying in the first place.

No idea how the times will work out. I can't think anymore. All I need to do is get there, get to the boat, be able to set the spinnaker, and catch the pole jaws on dip gybes.

Holy shit. I hate people. A pirates life for me.

And by pirate, I mean hermit.

The Perfect Storm of Incompetence

I can't stress to you enough how tired, frustrated, enraged, depressed, fed up, and indifferent I am about the travel industry, Passenger "Bill of Rights", Jet Blue, United, New York airports, and humanity.

The basic moral of this story, which I'll provide before I go on my rant, is only this:
MOVE TO THE WOODS AND BECOME A HERMIT! SHUN ALL HUMAN CONTACT, THROW AWAY YOUR IPODS, AND LIVE OFF OF THE LAND.

Yeah, so I was supposed to be flying from Washington Dulles Airport on a Jet Blue flight to JFK, then connecting to Chicago O'Hare. I had planned to arrive on time in Chicago at 10:30 PM and be picked up by the owner of the First 40.7 Mojo, and brought to the boat where I will be staying this weekend, and racing on for the Chicago NOOD. Call time at the boat for the whole crew is 7:30 AM, Friday June 19. The first gun is at 10 AM.

My flight at Dulles was delayed TWO hours on the runway because of weather problems in New York. The pilot came on the speaker several times during the delay to assure us that all flights out of JFK were delayed, and that they were monitoring the situations with our connections. He said that if they were at risk of anyone missing their connection, they would pull back to the gate to figure out an alternate route for that passenger. The two hours passed. He finally says that we'll be taking off soon, and that we'll be arriving at around 9 something, and that the closest flight for people was one to New Orleans, which was supposed to have taken off at 8:35 but was delayed allowing them a window of 15 minutes to get to their gate, which was two gates away from where we would pull in. I look at my ticket, which said that my flight would be leaving JFK at 8:30. Trusting them (HUGE MISTAKE), I assumed that my flight was also delayed, and that i would make the connection and eventually get to Chicago around midnight. I was wrong. I called the owner of the boat and informed him, that I would get in on the delayed flight at an estimated midnight. I was wrong.

When we arrived in NY, I went to look at the board, expecting to see a delayed box next to the Jet Blue flight to chicago. There was no chicago flight on the board. It was around 9 PM. I go to the counter and ask why it is not on the board. They inform me that the flight left ON MOTHERFUCKING TIME. Livid, I ask them how the flight crew could openly lie to passengers like that. I could have arranged other flights. I needed to be in NY. I didnt have time to fuck around with new connections. The next jet blue flight from JFK to Chicago left the next morning getting in at 11 am. The first gun would be at 10 am. Call time at the boat is 7:30 am. WHAT THE FUCK? HOW CAN A GOD DAMN COMPANY OPERATE LIKE THIS? I DON'T GIVE A FUCK IF IT IS TOO LATE TO CALL THE PLANE BACK! YOU PIECES OF RAT SHIT LIED WHILE I SAT IN MY GOD DAMN SEAT!

I expressed these sentiments in a much more controlled and constructive manner, though I was tempted to string the guy up by his jet blue lanyard. He apologized, and said he would look for other options.

That was the last flight to Chicago.

What about other NY airports? No flights going to Chicago from around here tonight.

What about cities near chicago? The closest you could get is Buffalo.

Can you find me a train? Let me look..........earliest train would get you there at 11 am.

Look, I need your help to find a solution here. Can you do anything? Well, there is a flight out of La Guardia on United that will get you there at 7:20 am.

Can you please book that for me? No, that is a United flight.

What does that mean? You have to buy a United ticket.

You mean, because of your company's incompetence, I have to buy ANOTHER ticket to get to where I was supposed to already be nearly 12 hours before? Yes sir, I cannot book the flight, I can only tell you that it exists.

(Stewardess from my flight walks up)

Excuse me ma'am, you were the stewardess on my flight from Dulles. Why did the captain say that no connections would be missed? I missed mine. HOW can you openly lie to passengers like that?

It wasn't me who said it, it was the captain.

I am not playing the semantics game. YOU are the face of the airline while I am on your plane. I don't see the captain. I see you. You see me. His voice might as well come out of you. YOU lied to me. YOU being the captain. YOU being the airline. YOU are going to make me late to my regatta. YOU need to fix this. I want to speak to a supervisor.

(Counter guy chimes back in) Sir, I am the supervisor.

Jesus Christ. Fine, I'll have to go solve this shit myself. You all are the worst god damn flight crew I have ever experienced, and I've flown on Ethiopian Air.

SO, I get on my computer and look to buy a United flight. I call them. They set me up with a $99 one way ticket from LGA to O'Hare for 6 am. Great. Now i just need to get my bag and head to LGA. Cabs there are only $30. Shuttle is less, but doesnt run after 10 pm or before 8 am. Whatever. I get the confirmation email from United. THEY BOOKED A JULY 19th FLIGHT. ()*^)()(*!@#*%^!@$&!@&*#^(*&

I get back on the phone with them. The June 19th flight is $304. Of course.

I book that flight.

I go to get my back from the baggage service people. They inform me that it will be put on the next Jet Blue flight to Chicago. I explain if I wanted that, I would also go on that flight, arriving at 11 am. I need my bag, and the contents of my bag, at 7:30 am.

They inform me that because of the weather and being undermanned, they cannot pull my bag. I inform them that they WILL pull my bag.

They do. It takes them two hours, but finally they do.

So now I'm in La Guardia. Sitting on my bag. The counters are closed. The stores are closed. I haven't eaten anything since lunch. I've had a small bottle of water and a diet coke. There are no benches to lay down on. There is a food court downstairs, but most of it is roped off and the part that isnt looks like a mall food court. I'm literally sitting on my bad, leaning up against a pillar, at the front of the united ticketing line typing.

&(*&()*&)(*^!@#^%!*%$&!@%!^@)(*!@&#)(*&!@#_!)

This was the perfect storm of incompetence.

Economist: Flying for ever - Solar-powered manned flight

Pretty damn cool if you ask me. The technology is clearly there, we just need the will to do shit.

Economist:

A new solar-powered aircraft attempts to fly around the world with zero emissions

WHEN an airliner takes off for a transatlantic flight it needs to carry some 80 tonnes of fuel, which accounts for around one-fifth of its weight. On really long flights, fuel can account for 40% of a plane’s take-off weight, so that around 20% of the fuel is used to carry the rest of the fuel. Each tonne of fuel burned also produces 3.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Yet inside a hanger at a Swiss airfield is the prototype of an aircraft (illustrated above) that does not use any fuel at all. The wings of this aircraft are almost as big as those of an airliner, but they are covered in a film of solar cells that convert sunlight into electricity to drive its engines.

Solar-powered aircraft have flown before. The pioneer was Paul MacCready, whose Gossamer Penguin made the first manned flight in 1980 in California, with his then 13-year-old son at the controls. A derivative, Solar Challenger, crossed the English Channel in 1981. But nothing like HB-SIA, as the Swiss aircraft is known, has ever taken to the air. If it works as expected, another version will be built and this will take off, climb to 10,000 metres and, by storing some of the electricity generated during the day, continue flying through the night. Its pilots, Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, plan to cross the Atlantic in it and later to fly it around the world.

The prototype will be unveiled on June 26th by Solar Impulse, a project the aviators run. Mr Piccard helped pilot Orbiter 3, the first balloon to fly non-stop around the world, and comes from a family of adventurers: his grandfather, Auguste, was the first to fly a balloon into the stratosphere and his father, Jacques, plunged to record depths in a bathyscaphe. Mr Borschberg is an engineer and fighter pilot.

Testing to the limit

Although he has flown HB-SIA in a simulator, Mr Borschberg says he will not really know how it performs until the first test flight later this year. The prototype pushes some technologies to their limits, especially in the trade-off between weight and performance. So, although it has a wingspan of 61 metres, HB-SIA has room only for a pilot. It weighs just 1,500 kilograms, making it five times lighter than a high-performance glider would be if made that big.

The complex skeleton of HB-SIA is constructed from carbon-fibre composites formed into honeycomb and sandwich structures. This is covered in plastic film. The film on the upper surfaces of the wings and the horizontal rear stabilisers is embedded with 12,000 photovoltaic cells. These are capable of converting sunlight into electricity with an efficiency of 22%. Cells with slightly better conversion rates are available, but they are heavier.

A quarter of the weight of HB-SIA is accounted for by its lithium-polymer batteries, which will power the four electrically driven propellers during the first test flights. As those flights become longer and higher, the aircraft will start to draw power from its solar cells. It will fly slowly, only at about 70kph in windless conditions. Its electric motors can produce a maximum of 9 kilowatts, or 12 horsepower—which is about the same as the Wright brothers had. With all four engines at full power, HB-SIA is only as powerful as a motor scooter. Yet with careful rationing of its stored energy, it should be possible to achieve the closest thing yet to perpetual manned flight—with man being the limiting factor because of the need to carry food and drink, and to remain awake for long periods.

If the prototype succeeds in flying through the night then the design of its successor will be finalised. This aircraft, HB-SIB, is intended to operate in stints of around five days and nights. If it succeeds in crossing the Atlantic, it will then try to circle the globe, following the Tropic of Cancer and landing on each continent.

This will involve some daring, with the aircraft spending all day climbing as its batteries are recharged and then descending slowly under power throughout the night to conserve energy. It means keeping a close eye on the weather and navigating around windy areas. The team has experimented with simulated flights using real-time meteorological data. Encountering a headwind at night is a worry. “It could make the night much longer and cause you to run out of energy before sunrise, which would be a disaster,” says Mr Borschberg. Success means a flight plan which ensures that “every morning you are in sunshine”.

A number of companies and groups are sponsoring Solar Impulse, including the International Air Transport Association (IATA). At its annual meeting in Kuala Lumpur this week, the trade group pledged to cap emissions from aviation in 2020. A solar-powered airliner is still a distant dream, but IATA knows that pushing the boundaries of technology will be necessary to help clean up air travel.

"Daily Show" In Iran: Jason Jones Gets Access To Evil

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Jason Jones in Iran: Behind the Veil - Minarets of Menace
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

Larry David on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien

In case y'all missed it the other night, check out Larry David on the Tonight Show. Larry David is one of the most ridiculous and hilarious individuals alive. "Now that I think about it, I've never had an orgasm that I didn't regret". This is for all the Curb fans out there, peep it!

Naledge "Cool Relax" feat. Jay Electronica

This track appeared on the DJ Benzi x 10.Deep The New Deal mixtape, only this version has a Jay Electronica verse. The song is called "Cool Relax" and will appear on Naledge's upcoming Duck Down project, Chicago Picasso, dropping on June 30th.

Not too familiar with Naledge, but I will thoroughly inspect the album when it's out.

Naledge-cool relax feat. jay electronica by treylord

Trying something out...........Coal report is at the bottom of the page.

http://edf.org/article.cfm?contentID=9539

High Altitude Wind Turbines Could Completely Power NYC

This is one of the coolest damn things I have ever seen. Though I can foresee a number of problems (when the wind dies, lightning, tangling wires, air traffic, birds) but also many solutions (computer monitoring to recoil extensions during adverse weather, spacing properly, rerouting air traffic), this would be a major techonological breakthrough if only cities were able to get these projects going and zoned.

I think it is pretty common knowledge and makes basic sense that there is far more wind higher up in the sky than at ground level. This is why kites fly higher, blimps move faster in the sky, wind turbines are put up on the top of buildings or on towers, etc. Well, it turns out that, according to new research from the Carnegie Institution for Science and California State University, not only doeshigh altitude winds contain enough energy to meet the world’s global energy demand 100 times over, but they also determined that the best places to capture that wind are over population centers in East Asia and the eastern US. Which means New York City is a prime candidate for high altitude wind energy captured by tethered kite wind turbines.

Inhabitat:

Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology and Cristina Archer of California State University, Chico have created the first wind energy maps for high altitudes, and have assessed the potential wind energy density (kW/m²), which factors in both wind speed and air density. Their findings show that wind energy density is highest near populations centers, specifically over Japan and eastern China, the eastern coast of the United States, southern Australia, and north-eastern Africa. In those areas at high altitude, the average wind energy density is 10 kW/m² - compare that to the wind energy at ground level, which is, at best, 1 kW/m².

Ideally, the researchers say, “you would like to be up near the jet streams, around 30,000 feet,” where the “winds blow much more strongly and steadily than near-surface winds.” Jet streams winds are 10 times faster than surface winds making them that much steadier and reliable for renewable energy generation, despite their seasonal shift. A number of technologies have been proposed to capture this steady supply of wind, including tethered wind kites, which could generate up to 40 MW of power with current designs.

The Global Assessment of High-Altitude Wind Power also studied the wind resources of the world’s five largest cities - New York, Tokyo, Seoul, Sao Paulo and Mexico City. The cities located further north (New York, Tokyo, and Seoul) all had better high-altitude resources than Sao Paulo and Mexico City, which are located in tropical latitudes. The northernmost cities are all regularly affected by jet streams, and New York City has the highest wind energy density at 16 kW/m². Naturally though, the wind isn’t blowing constantly in the upper atmosphere and even in the best locations the wind doesn’t blow for 5% of the time. But even still, high-altitude winds could provide an amazing amount of power, if we can develop the wind turbine technology to capture it safely.

Other hip hop love ballads........Common

While on the topic, here are two joints by Common that are great love ballads. I'm a big fan of MCs who can put themselves out there and explain love and relationships beyond talking about a girl's ass.

Can ya'll think of other similar songs? Throw in a comment and I'll consider posting the song. Dedicate one if you want.

Common "The Light"


Common "Come Close" featuring Mary J. Blige

Common "Come Close"
Uploaded by classics007 - See the latest featured music videos.

Daily Throwback: Dead Prez "Mind Sex"

dead prez mind sex
Uploaded by iowaluder - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

I'm a big fan of this unexpected love song by Dead Prez. They are one of the illest groups to preach issues such as school systems, political persecution, nutrition, discipline, community leadership, and in this joint, the emotional connection necessary for love, something which should be established before you strap-on a condom and go to town.

I think a lot of people could listen to these lyrics and take to heart the sentiments expressed. This is a rare hip hop gem, and its lessons would solve a lot of relationship complications.

Its time for some mind sex, we aint got to take our clothes off yet
We can burn the incense, and just chat
Relax, I got the good vibrations
Before we make love lets have a good conversation

Shouts to Ms.A

Camp Lo "Summer Love"

Been waiting on the new Camp Lo album for a while, but since I know "Lumdi" and this new joint "Summer Love" will be on it, I doubt it will disappoint.

So far, I'm feeling the love this summer. You?

Camp Lo Summer Love by treylord

Download Camp Lo "Summer Love"

Van Jones - Green 'Czar' Pushes Jobs, Community-Building

Van Jones has been on a crusade to, in his words, "green the ghetto" by killing two birds with one stone: reducing poverty and saving the environment.

Recently appointed as President Obama's special adviser for green jobs, enterprise and innovation, Jones now has an opportunity to implement his vision. Check out his book, The Green Collar Economy on my reading list to the left.

Listen to NPR Interview.

NPR:

Van Jones has been on a crusade to, in his words, "green the ghetto" by killing two birds with one stone: reducing poverty and saving the environment.

Recently appointed as President Obama's special adviser for green jobs, enterprise and innovation, Jones now has an opportunity to implement his vision.

"I've been accused of being the green jobs czar — I consider myself to be the green jobs handyman," Jones tells NPR's Renee Montagne. "We've got about $40 billion in the recovery package that is targeted toward renewable energy, green-job training, energy efficiency, and part of my job is to help to coordinate getting all that money out into the economy, making jobs for people."

Jones, who is author of The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, describes green jobs as "a blue-collar job that's been upgraded or up-skilled to better respect the environment."

"So you think about an electrician who now knows how to deal with solar panels or a plumber who can deal with solar hot water," he explains. "You want to think about jobs that are good for an individual's wealth — in other words they pay well, but they're also good for the community and the planet's health."

These new jobs, Jones says, help break the age-old war between people "who said either you can do well economically for our children, but then sacrifice our grandchildren ecologically, or we can look out for our grandchildren ecologically, but we have to hurt our kids economically by not growing the economy."

It also helps in the conversation about what green means to include "green for your pocket" in the discussion, he says.

"When you think about green, you often think about people who have a lot of money and who can afford a certain lifestyle," Jones says. "But really what the green economy represents is a massive opportunity for new work, new wealth and better health for all Americans."

In response to criticism that many of the Obama administration's proposed shovel-ready projects could hurt the environment, Jones says the efforts are focused primarily on jobs that make our buildings more efficient.

"We have millions of buildings across the country that are wasting energy," he says.

Government Study Warns of Climate Change Effects in the US

Greenwire:

Climate change already is affecting the United States, changing everything from weather patterns to wildlife migrations, according to a report from 13 federal agencies and the White House.

Global warming will become more severe in coming years, affecting the nation's farms, forests, coastlines, floodplains, natural resources, transportation and public health, according to the report to be released today by the U.S. Global Change Research Program.

The study blames climate change for droughts in the Southwest and more intense heat waves in the Northeast, as well as eroding ocean coastlines caused by melting Arctic ice.

"What we would want to have people take away is that climate change is happening now, and it's actually beginning to affect our lives," said Thomas R. Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a principal author of the report. "It's not just happening in the Arctic regions, but it's beginning to show up in our own backyards."

The program is required under a 1990 law to report every decade on natural and human-caused effects on the environment. The current report was begun during the tenure of former President George W. Bush and builds off findings from the commission's 2000 report.

Full report.

Lupe Fiasco - Shining Down (Feat. Matthew Santos)

With all the rumors surrounding his retirement and the double disc, hip-hop fans have been starving for new material. This is the first single from the new album Lasers.

The track is hottt.

Lupe fiasco-shining down feat. matthew santos by treylord

Download Lupe Fiasco - Shining Down (Feat. Matthew Santos)

Beyoncé Knowles - Ego (Remix) (feat. Kanye West)

Self-explanatory Kanye.

Mos Def Proposes a Battle vs. Jay Z's crew

Watch this clip with Angie Martinez and hear Mos explain the scenario himself. With all the ego in hip-hop this is fairly unrealistic, but I'd LOVE to see this go down.

Mortal kombat of Emcees.

Mos Def
Blackthought
MF Doom
Jay Electronica
Nas

vs.

Jay Z
?
?
?
?

I'd take Mos's crew anyday of the week. Put money on this. Put this on ESPN.

AFP: German firms eye huge African solar project

It's always great to hear about big renewable energy investments by the private sector. It offers hope for the future. I read a report recently that estimated that a great deal (dont remember statistics) of the power in Europe could be supplied by solar thermal plants in the Sahara like this one.

Potential problems include:

-New colonialization of developing countries by global corporations.

-Risk perception in attracting investment is one, even though from an insurance perspective North Africa is less risky than other areas of the world consistently receiving investments in the energy projects.

-Regulatory hurdles in North Africa are another. In the region most energy projects have a significant degree of state involvement, which undoubtedly adds a layer of complexity and hassle.

-Perhaps the biggest challenge is actually getting the electricity back to Europe, though not from a technical perspective. Speaking last March in Copenhagen, Anthony Patt of the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis pointed out that Europe's electricity distribution system is really a collection of 27 different systems. Until these are more fully integrated, distributing the Sahara's electricity could be difficult.

AFP:

German firms plan to club together next month to turn into reality a dream to generate electricity for Europe in the deserts of north Africa using solar power, a newspaper report said Tuesday.
The 20 or so firms will form on July 13 a consortium that aims to attract an enormous 400 billion euros (560 billion dollars) in investment in the project, known as Desertec, the Suedeutsche Zeitung daily reported.
It wants to place solar power installations in several countries in the region, provided they are politically stable, the paper said, quoting Torsten Jeworek, a board member of insurance giant and consortium head Munich Re.
He also said that he was "very optimistic" that other countries including Italy and Spain would join, and that there had been "positive signals" from North America as well.
"We want to create an initiative that will put on the table concrete implementation plans in the next two or three years," Jeworek said. "Technologically, the project is practicable."
He added that Desertec could provide around 15 percent of Europe's electricity needs. The Suedeutsche Zeitung said that the first electricity could begin flowing to Europe in 10 years.
A spokeswoman for German engineering giant Siemens, which the paper said would be a member of the consortium, told AFP that Desertec was a "very exciting project."
If fully realised, the project could generate 100 gigawatts of electricity, the equivalent of 100 power plants, the Siemens spokeswoman added.

WP: East Coast May Feel Rise in Sea Levels the Most

This is close to home.

WP:

Sea levels could rise faster along the U.S. East Coast than in any other densely populated part of the world, new research shows, as changes in ice caps and ocean currents push water toward a shoreline inlaid with cities, resort boardwalks and gem-rare habitats.

Three studies this year, including one out last month, have made newly worrisome forecasts about life along the Atlantic over the next century. While the rest of the world might see seven to 23 inches of sea-level rise by 2100, the studies show this region might get that and more -- 17 to 25 inches more -- for a total increase that would submerge a beach chair.

Might.

Scientists say the information comes from computer models, which could be wrong. And the mid-Atlantic region's ample high ground means it will probably never be as vulnerable as Louisiana and Florida.

But some are already sketching a new vision for the East Coast, as a region under siege by the ocean. In the coming decades, they say, it will probably be necessary to spend heavily to defend some waterside places -- and to make hard choices about where to let the sea win.

"There will probably be some very difficult decisions that have to be made," said Rob Thieler, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey. "Are there places where we should simply retreat because the cost of holding the line is unacceptably high?"

On Thursday, the governors of coastal states from New York to Virginia released an agreement on Atlantic Ocean issues, including the need to prepare for sea-level rise. The governors pledged to identify places and facilities most vulnerable to high water, including port areas, parts of the power grid and other infrastructure.

Researchers say rising seas are one of the most tangible consequences of a changing climate. They rise because they are warming, expanding in volume like a highway bridge on a summer day. And they rise because they are filling up, fed by melting ice.


In the 20th century, global seas rose about 0.07 inches per year -- a steady climb up tide gauges, even as the world debated the existence and the science of climate change.

"It doesn't matter who's causing global warming. Sea-level rise is something we can measure," said Rob Young, a geosciences professor at Western Carolina University. "You can't argue that sea level isn't rising."

And it has been rising faster in the mid-Atlantic because the land here is sinking.

Understanding this phenomenon requires thinking of the Earth as an enormous balloon. Push down in one spot on the ball's surface and surrounding areas are raised up. Glaciers did this to Earth's surface during the last ice age: they pressed down on northern North America and areas to the south tilted up, like the other end of a seesaw. Today, thousands of years after the glaciers retreated, the seesaw is tipping back the other way, and the region from New York to North Carolina is falling about six inches per century.

Researchers are finding that climate change could bring new bad luck by untracking a system of ocean currents that performs the astounding feat of keeping the sea here below the average sea level.

They say it works like this: Warm water from the south Atlantic flows north along the coast, cools off and sinks. That sinking happens on such a vast scale that the Atlantic's surface is lower here, a depression in the ocean 28 inches deep. But two new studies have shown that climate change could make northern waters warmer and could dump a disruptive flood of fresh water from melting glaciers in Greenland.

"You're getting less sinking, because [fresh water] is less heavy, it doesn't sink as much. That kind of slows down this whole conveyor- belt thing," said Gerald Meehl, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado whose study of this phenomenon came out last week.

"You'd get an additional one or two feet over this global sea-level rise" along parts of the coast, Meehl said, an effect that would be strongest in the Northeast.

Another study last month found a threat from a Texas-size ice sheet in Antarctica. If it broke off and melted, the shift of mass from pole to ocean would change both Earth's gravitational field and its rotation.

The result? Still more water would slosh to the U.S. Atlantic Coast, along with the Pacific Coast. But in this case, it would probably not happen for centuries.

Scientists concede that these predictions could be flawed or flat wrong.

Even if they are right, New York still isn't in the same danger as New Orleans. Even a yard of sea-level rise, they say, would not put any major East Coast cities underwater. But higher waters would mean bigger storm surges, a greater chance of flooding on rivers such as the Potomac or the Patapsco in Baltimore.

It could be a much bigger problem for barrier islands and marshes, which are typically just a few inches above the water. Even before the recent research forecast accelerating rise, Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge -- a rare, vast marsh on Maryland's Eastern Shore -- was predicted to become mainly open water by 2030.

So some researchers have already begun thinking about how to defend the coast. Professors at the State University of New York at Stony Brook have suggested building barriers that might pop up during big storms and seal off the city's water like a bathtub. The fishing port of New Bedford, Mass., has had such a "hurricane barrier" since the 1960s.

In the Washington region, Environmental Protection Agency official James G. Titus said, Hains Point, along the Southwest Waterfront, and K Street NW in Georgetown might have to be elevated. Sections of the waterfront Fells Point neighborhood in Baltimore might also need to be jacked up.

And, Titus said, rural areas along the water might have to be abandoned. On Maryland's Eastern Shore, for instance, rising seas could eat up large sections of marshy Dorchester County.

A more uncertain fate awaits such places as Assateague Island, a celebrated nature preserve, or the Maryland and Delaware beach resorts. They sit on barrier islands, just a few feet above the water.

"If these sea-level-rise numbers . . . come to pass, then I think it's pretty much a certainty" that these resorts would be abandoned, said Young, of Western Carolina University. "We're going to be spending so much money protecting metropolitan areas that it's hard to imagine we'd have enough left over to protect resort communities."

For now, that idea is almost too big to think about for resort-town mayors.

In Dewey Beach, Del., Mayor Dell Tush said the town had been staggered by the $12,000-per-house cost of elevating just a few homes that are too close to the water.

"The town basically has no plans, you know, for doing anything" to prepare for rising seas, Tush said. To raise all the town's houses "would be cost-prohibitive, it really would."

The threat is more tangible at Joey's Pizza and Pasta on Long Beach Island, N.J., another narrow, built-up barrier island. There, rain can bring Little Egg Harbor within a few feet of the door; a high tide and a good storm can put water in the dining room.

"You can't fight it. People say 'Sandbag the doors.' No, it comes in everywhere," said manager Tom Kowal. The restaurant makes light of its situation with a sign that says "Occasional Waterfront Dining." But Kowal said he is worried about what's coming.

"Ten inches higher than sea level right now? I'm underwater."

Zion I - "Country Baked Yams" Ft. Devin The Dude

Great track. I love the jazzy flows, and video game sounding back track. Recommendations from Mark A. of the "Working Title - When Fish Ride Bicycles" crew.

Cormac - "Space Rhyme Continuum" Sampler (4 FREE SONGS)

Here is a free sampler of Cormac's upcoming album "Space Rhyme Continuum." He is an up-and-coming MC out of LA, and has some serious talent. Keep your eyes and ears open for this cat - he's on the move.

Download HERE.

Thanks to my boy K-Sull for the heads up on this one.