Matt+H

3/31/09... Matt Achenbaum's article talks about the genetic modifying ofcrops to make them healthier and more valuable for our bodies. They added a peice of DNA called BT into corn, cotton and potatoes. This gets rid of conventioanl farming. Farming cxan now be done throguh less amounts of money and easier. However, as BT is being iuntroduced more and more to crops, it is also being introduced to insects. As insects are becoming more familiar with BT, the insects are begining to show signs of evolution into an immunity against BT. This could cause the use of BT as a pesticide to become useless.

HONOLULU (AP) — After a tsunami in the Indian Ocean killed hundreds of thousands of people in 2004, the American government moved to improve the nation’s tsunami warning systems. But some of the upgrades are temporary and have not been made to the highest standards. Bureaucracy has delayed others. Associated Press Most tsunamis that reach Hawaii are set off by earthquakes across the Pacific. Above, Hilo after a tidal wave in April 1946.  Charles McCreery, the director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, first thought the improvements, which began in 2005, would take about two and a half years. But Mr. McCreery now says the center’s efforts are only “more than halfway done.” The work includes moving some seismometers to better locations and acquiring permission from landowners to install monitors on their property. “We initially thought it wouldn’t take us this long,” Mr. McCreery said. “We were probably a little naïve.” The center has made progress, he said. Its capabilities, he said, “are hugely better today than they were just a few years ago.” Most of the major tsunamis that have reached [|Hawaii] were set off by earthquakes across the Pacific, like the one in April 1946 that flooded Hilo and killed 159 people. That wave was generated by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in the Aleutian Islands. After the Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed 230,000 people, Congress appropriated millions of dollars to improve the nation’s warning networks. Included in the project was $922,000 to upgrade seismic monitors in Hawaii so scientists at the warning center could better predict which earthquakes would generate deadly waves. The installation of broadband seismometers, which can read a large range of earthquake vibrations, was especially critical. Earthquakes release energy in a range of frequencies. The more frequencies scientists are able to measure, the better they can locate and measure earthquakes. Until 2005, the center had short period monitors, which read only limited earthquake frequencies. It had one high-quality broadband station at its Ewa Beach headquarters and some lower-quality broadband stations on the Big Island. The center has now installed nine broadband stations. But four are in seismically noisy areas, like the shore, where the rumbling of surf vibrates the ground. Others are near developed areas, where human activity may disrupt readings. “At least a couple of those stations are in locations that aren’t ideal, and we’re trying to relocate those,” Mr. McCreery said. Two monitors planned for state land are waiting for the federal government’s approval. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration must approve agreements that the center signs to borrow land needed for the seismic monitors. The process can take years. “The requirement to go through the N.O.A.A. real estate office for permitting has been a major impediment in establishing new field sites,” said an internal memorandum prepared by three geophysicists at the tsunami warning center.