Guest post by Dr. Melissa Betters Are you afraid of the deep, dark ocean? If so, you’re not alone. Thalassophobia (fear of deep water) seems…

The post  The Cost of Fear: How Perceptions of the Deep Sea Hurt Conservation first appeared on Deep Sea News.

It’ll go perfect with a tiny house. READ MORE...

Explores how the Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (IRISS) promotes the delivery of cost effective social services in Scotland that will support the achievement of positive outcomes for people accessing support. It identifies a number of principles that underpin the work of IRISS and suggests how these facilitate innovative evidence-informed practice. The approach to evidence-informed practice comprises four pillars of activity. The first pillar focuses on improving awareness and access to evidence and is exemplified by the Learning Exchange, the IRISS Insights series, and audio and video recording. The second pillar refers to strengthening the evidence base and is discussed in the context of work on self-directed support. Improving skills and confidence to use evidence forms the third pillar and is represented by work on data visualisation and peer support for self-evaluation. The final pillar is embedding evidence in organisations, through co-production, creating spaces to test and challenge evidence, and through the development of evidence-based products. Supporting people to share knowledge, learn from each other and to collectively produce new knowledge and solutions is an innovative approach but also one which should be cost-effective. Pre-print. Published in Evidence and Policy, 2014 (10)4 as Embedding research into practice through innovation and creativity: a case study from social services

I couldn’t believe my eyes as I wandered through IKEA’s soft toy section. There, perched among the bins was Hedwig from Harry Potter. It was then I realized I was staring at IKEA’s new SKOGSDUVA snowy owl hand puppet. The resemblance to Harry’s faithful feathered companion was uncanny. While it might not deliver Hogwarts acceptance letters, it certainly brought a touch of magic to my shopping trip. With its fluffy white feathers and expressive eyes, this soft, cuddly version of […]

The post This Must-Have IKEA Item Completes Your Kid’s Harry Potter Costume appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

The Housing NOW project addresses home insecurity in a variety of affordable, efficient and sustainable ways. Started by Blue Temple, an architecture design studio based in Myanmar, the structures are constructed using bamboo that is locally available and endlessly renewable.[...]

An alluring scent can restore unforgettable memories, evoke emotions, rejuvenate mood, and enhance one’s presence. Luxurious fragrances expressing your personality cost an extra penny. Out of curiosity, imagine why these exclusive perfumes are way more expensive. Premium perfumes are masterpieces of pleasant aromas, luxurious packaging, and exceptional quality. Dossier perfume is an exclusive scent inspired ... Read more

The post The Art of Fragrance: The Secrets Behind the High Cost of Exclusive Perfumes appeared first on Star Two.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is a medical treatment that involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized environment. This unique treatment method has shown effectiveness in healing various conditions, from complex wound healing to treating decompression sickness in divers. HBOT works on the principle of increasing oxygen concentration in the body, which can enhance the body’s ... Read more

The post How Much Does Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Cost? Price Tips appeared first on Star Two.

By Harold Hutchison Former Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf told CNN host Jim Acosta Tuesday that the incoming Trump administration would “initiate a pretty large program” to locate children the Biden-Harris administration lost track of. At least 85,000 children placed into the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) are unaccounted for, […]

The post Former Trump Official Reminds Jim Acosta Of ‘Over 330,000 Children’ Biden-Harris Admin Lost Track Of At Border appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

Jeannie Ambrose, one of about 1,000 affected patients, says the drug should be made available on the NHS

Trying to find the balance between pure engineering and entertainment has been a very difficult balancing act over the years in Formula 1, but many in the sport think we seeing the signs of change as the cost cap takes effect on track.

Honda and Alpine are fined by governing body the FIA after being found guilty of breaching Formula 1's cost-cap rules for engine manufacturers in 2023.

Donald Trump's proposed tariffs would hit the consumer tech sector, raising prices on US consumers' favorite gadgets, an October report found.

PORT LOUIS, Nov 10 - Mauritius was holding a parliamentary election on Sunday with Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth and his main rivals all promising to tackle a cost of living crisis in the Indian Ocean archipelago.

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Mainstream leftist media, along with the Democrats (The Party of the KKK), are trying their best..

How modular renewables can reduce the costs of relying on carbon capture Expert comment LToremark 10 October 2024

COP29 must raise countries’ ambitions to deploy vastly more low-cost modular renewable technologies to help meet the tripling of renewables target set at COP28 and reduce our reliance on expensive carbon capture systems.

The most important international climate conference is around the corner. COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan will be especially important because next year countries will submit their five-yearly national climate plans – or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – as set out under the Paris Agreement.

At COP28 in Dubai last year, the final text was heralded as a last-minute success as – somewhat surprisingly – it was the first ever COP to commit to ‘transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems in a just, orderly and equitable manner’. To support this, over 200 countries also committed to triple renewable capacity by 2030.

Under current NDCs, even if all countries achieve their most ambitious decarbonization plans, the world would still fall 30 per cent short of tripling renewable capacity by 2030. 

At COP29 in November, hosted by a petrostate, additional agreement is needed to operationalize the removal of fossil fuels from the global energy system and set the ambition for those crucial NDCs in 2025. Failing to do so means the opportunity to triple renewables by 2030 will slip away. But the actions of oil producing nations, international oil companies, their associated supply chains and networks of lobbyists have in recent years done their best to disrupt and slow down the energy transition and water down key negotiations during COPs and elsewhere. 

During the final days of COP28, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) sent private letters to its 13 members – including COP28 host the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – urging them to ‘proactively reject any text or formula that targets energy, i.e. fossil fuels, rather than emissions’. OPEC members own 80 per cent of global oil reserves.

Due to the startling decline in the cost of renewables and electric vehicles, fossil fuel producers are increasingly concerned. To fight back they are turning to carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies and carbon removal options, which would enable the continued burning of fossil fuels – and protect their assets and business models.

A key battle ground for oil and gas producers is the difference between abated and unabated fossil fuels.

Abatement is the process of capturing CO₂ as fossil fuels are burnt to prevent a proportion of those CO₂ emissions from entering the atmosphere, either by using that CO₂ in products or storing it in geological formations deep underground in near perpetuity, commonly referred to as CCS.

After COP28 there was optimism that the final agreement was significant and covered all fossil fuels without ambiguity around whether they are unabated or abated. 

But the definition of unabated has not actually been agreed within the COP process. During the 2021 COP26 summit, the Glasgow Climate Pact mentioned unabated in reference to coal. Could a gas power station capturing 51 per cent of the emitted CO₂ be considered abated?

And what about the so-called downstream emissions? Downstream emissions from cars, planes, tanker ships and diesel generators etc make up 50–80 per cent of the total emissions from oil – and there are no plans to attach mini-CCS systems to cars.

CCS and engineered carbon removals are also likely to be expensive. Analysis by the Oxford Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment has shown that high CCS pathways to net zero emissions in 2050 would cost at least $30 trillion more than a low CCS pathway with more renewables – roughly $1 trillion more per year.

The costs of CCS have also remained the same for the past 40 years, while the costs of renewables like solar, wind and lithium-ion batteries have dropped radically. Solar costs have declined by 90 per cent in the last decade. 

The rapid cost reductions of solar, wind and batteries are due to their modular nature. Around 70 billion solar cells will be manufactured this year, the majority in China. It is the repetitive modular manufacturing process that has led to rapid efficiency improvements and cost reductions. Each Tesla has around 7,000 lithium-ion battery cells, and the price of these modular batteries fell 14 per cent between 2022 and 2023 alone. 

The modular criteria can help define the technology winners of the future, technologies we should selectively support and accelerate over the coming years. 

While huge industrial power stations, oil rigs and refineries have their benefits, they are not modular in the same way. Their economy of scale is in the large size of each asset. CCS is bolted on to fossil fuel infrastructure but there are less than 50,000 fossil fuel producing assets globally. By contrast, there were 1.5 billion solar panels produced in 2022. The cost of deploying CCS is therefore unlikely to benefit from the rapid cost reductions of modular renewables. Nuclear even less so. There are 440 nuclear power stations in operation today, they take many years to build and remain hugely expensive. 

The Costs of Fuelling Humanitarian Aid Research paper sysadmin 7 December 2018

As humanitarian crises become more protracted and aid budgets face unprecedented scrutiny, agencies could save millions by switching from diesel and oil fuels to cleaner energy sources.

Download the accompanying toolkit

Most refugee and internal displacement camps are in remote locations, so humanitarian agencies consume large amounts of fuel on the transport of staff, equipment, and goods such as food and water.

Operations tend to rely on on-site electricity generation to power reception centres, clinics, schools, food storage, water-pumping and street lighting. Despite the essential role of energy in humanitarian action, and the UN’s stated commitment to carbon neutrality by 2020, there is no concerted effort to move away from fossil fuel to date.

Summary points

• Agencies are paying too much for the energy they consume. They are overwhelmingly dependent on oil fuel for electricity generation, even though renewable energy solutions are reducing costs for those deploying them in similar conditions. Well-below-optimum standards of efficiency in buildings, generator use and fleet management are also the norm.
• Agencies typically have few incentives to do things better. There is rarely motivation to conserve fuel, nor performance indicators for energy or fuel use. In addition, energy spending and use lacks transparency.
• Few agencies collect and report on energy use. Where numbers are available, they are usually partial and unverified. Energy costs are rarely transparent in budgets; and donors do not know how much is being spent.
• We estimate that around 5 per cent of humanitarian agencies’ expenditure goes on diesel, petrol and associated costs such as fixing generators. That would mean that the sector spent some $1.2 billion on polluting fuel in 2017.
• Based on current best-practice, the sector could save at least 10 per cent of fuel costs on ground transport, 37 per cent through behaviour change and more efficient technologies, and 60 per cent on generation – all using currently available, affordable and proven practice and technology changes.
• At current prices, this could mean operational savings of over $517 million a year for the humanitarian sector, roughly equal to 5 per cent of UNHCR’s funding gap for 2017.
• In Kenya, annual spending on diesel and petrol for the seven agencies surveyed was $6.7 million in 2017. Replacing gensets with solar systems could create significant savings due the costs of diesel, the likelihood of protracted camp situations, and the opportunities that off-grid solar would offer for extending electricity access to refugees and local populations in Garissa and Turkana counties.
• In Jordan, solar energy now powers the majority of camp facilities and many households. However, the use of grid electricity by humanitarian agencies’ large head offices in Amman remains high and expensive. Improving the energy efficiency of buildings is a priority for savings.
• In Burkina Faso’s Goudoubo camp, NGO offices are desperately short of power – they have no computers or air-conditioning. Investment in renewable forms of energy for this and other camp services such as street lighting and water pumping would enable better service provision, and could drive increased rural energy access among host populations across this area of the Sahel.

Toolkit

An accompanying toolkit, Powering Ahead: Improving How We Use and Account for Energy in Humanitarian Operations, provides practical guidance for humanitarian agencies that want to make energy cost savings and reduce their carbon and emissions footprint.

Costco voluntarily recalled 79,200 pounds of two types of its store-brand butter over the past month because their labels may not have said the products contain milk.

Costco voluntarily recalled 79,200 pounds of two types of its store-brand butter over the past month because their labels may not have said the products contain milk.

The fate of fictional Montana Gov. John Dutton -- played by Kevin Costner -- has finally been disclosed in the Season 5B premiere of "Yellowstone" that aired on Paramount Sunday night.

Kevin Costner says he didn't know about his "Yellowstone" character John Dutton's death until after the episode aired on Sunday.

A new study says that problems surrounding child-care hurt Georgia parents economically in many ways including in turned down promotions and having to cut back on work and school hours.

Researchers say burying wood could be a viable method to prevent carbon from reaching the atmosphere

This year, celebrants will likely be channeling characters from hit franchises like "Beetlejuice," "Inside Out" and "Deadpool"

A researcher studying the rise of extremism in Atlantic Canada warns Ku Klux Klan Halloween costumes are just one example of an insidious effort by far-right groups to normalize hateful attitudes.

Facing soaring food prices and an escalating housing crisis, Quebec student associations are urgently calling on the provincial government to fund internships required for post-secondary training.

Even as they fundraise for other community organizations, some legions across Canada are having trouble keeping their own lights on amid rising inflation and maintenance costs.

A young Toronto Maple Leafs fan has caught the attention of the NHL with his Halloween costume this year. With the help of his dad, Grayson Haire, of Trenton, Ont., will wear a 3D version of an Upper Deck MVP Auston Matthews hockey card.

Non-Profit Cooperative Assembled Virtual Team to Prove $1,000 Incubator Was Possible, Safe, and Reliable

Sharing Information Between Design and Production Eliminates Budget Overruns That Erode Customers’ Profits

COSMOS analysis predicts results to estimated 95 percent accuracy of final-stage testing, validating designs most likely to succeed under real-world conditions

Monorail and plant automation company uses SolidWorks software to work faster and smarter, and detect collisions earlier

Cutting days and weeks from design cycle gives Syncroness more time to focus on designing lightweight, high performance products

World-Class Sports Car Manufacturer Reduces Number of Prototypes by Half for Newly Redesigned, Hand-crafted D8 GTO

Government debt in France is mounting amid large budget deficits, leading to higher borrowing costs.

Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong are finding Christ's love.

Over twenty people have been killed in a landslide in Costa Rica, due to heavy rainfall in the Central American country. The disaster caused huge damage in both in the Pacific coast and in a suburb of the capital San José. Together with local churches, OM Costa Rica is organising help for families who lost their homes.

A group of Costa Ricans visit a local church in an indigenous region of the country and bring encouragement by serving.

OM Costa Rica is excited to celebrate a growing ministry. This year the team opened a second OM location in Perez Zeledon, an office responsible for the southern end of Costa Rica and local church partnerships in this region.

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). A few in OM’s history have experienced this and are honoured as modern-day martyrs.

"Every time we communicate, there is potential to inform and inspire others for mission. Shall we not then covenant to ‘tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’?" asks Greg Kernaghan.

It's unrealistic to expect anyone to invest totally dispassionately. But there are ways to transform risk, writes Hannes Viljoen.

The U.S. Department of Education awarded a $96,099 grant to Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Dunham Children’s Learning Center to help reduce fees for eligible students whose children are enrolled at the early childhood education facility in 2024-25.

Penn State Hazleton Associate Professor Joseph Ranalli developed a method to identify mislabeled equipment in solar plants by analyzing cloud motion, significantly reducing labor and costs for a large energy provider and enriching the educational experience for his engineering students by demonstrating real-world applications of data analysis. His collaboration with Principal Research Engineer Will Hobbs from Southern Co. has resulted in the publication of two articles and open-source software. 

Nathan Levenson of District Management Group discusses how school leaders can improve the quality of special education even as they manage its cost.

A broken van leads to a renewed partnerships and the opportunity for new projects.