Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009

Welcome to our first holiday issue of News by Nature. In ONews we have the most memorable Christmas that wasn't. In INews we have the obligatory holiday safety tips with a funny dog video, a primer on thrift shop shopping and that age-old Christmas tree dilemma: real or artificial? Cover Art: No fake trees for NBN. This snow pine sitting in our back yard is damn happy we didn't opt for an artificial tree in 2007. So is the white pine sitting 15 feet away and about 10 feet taller. That was from Christmas '05. In News by Nature today we cut and paste a bunch of links we hope help make your holiday a greener one. Most of us in the Northeast will have a white Christmas no matter which kind of tree or how much wrapping paper we do or don't use.

Monday, Dec. 21, 2009

In News by Nature today we look at the anticlimactic Copenhagen climate conference in ONews. In ENews scrubbing soot from the skies, and in INews an alternative to Cap and Trade which makes a lot more sense. So, don't expect to see it happen any time soon. In BNews the tide is coming in, way in, and it's not going out.Cover Art.

Just a normal construction zone on a normal road in a normal state? Look again. Not one SUV. Now look at the cars around you on the highway. The SUVs are gone. Just as the Arab oil embargo in 1973 got the U.S. driving VW Rabbit diesels, the $4 gas prices 18 months ago was something of a wake up call in this country. In the absence of any official action on climate change coming out of Copenhagen last week, we can gain solace from the fact that people are doing something about Global Warming on their own. No news is the news from Copenhagen. The news in News by Nature is people are doing something about global warming anyway.

News by Nature Friday, Dec. 18, 2009

As this photo suggests, even when it's real cold, solar energy warms things up. And things are warming up in the solar industry this winter. As recently as 2006 solar energy supplied less than one-tenth of one percent of the nation's power. A study out yesterday says that number could reach 15 percent in 10 years. But, the coal and oil industry aren't going to give up market share that easily. In ONews today, we have global warming scientists again saying the world's tide's are coming in a lot higher than expected while LA politicians shoot down a massive solar project in deference to less expensive coal. In ENews, we take the temperature on the nation's mixed record of supporting solar power. And just to mix things up a bit, in INews we have military spending big on small energy projects and Texas plant people doing likewise for an arguably ill-advised rooftop garden.

News by Nature, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009.

In ONews we look at all the strange plants and animals in the world today and will they be around tomorrow. In ENews we have the world's rarest animal being hunted when it shouldn't and New England's whitetail deer not being hunted when it should.

Cover Art: The New England Aquarium has three floors of natural wonders, like this leafy sea dragon found normally in Australian waters. When it comes to survival of the fittest, this poor fellow needs some exercise. It's a slow-swimming plankton feeder which depends on seaweed for protection. Collectors, pollution and predation have landed these regal animals on the endangered species list. How they get off that list in today's troubled environments is anyone's guess. Sadly, the more specialized the animal these days, the more likely we'll see it on similar lists in the very near future. They might even go the way of the Dodo. Rare animals that are here today. Will they be gone tomorrow? In NBN, today.

Click on the link, then search the subject out you want.

Monday, Dec. 14, 2009

News by Nature today has a few press releases that could release a few more facts. In UNews, MIT lays claim to producing the least expensive and polluting power plant if.... In INews Weyehaeuser says its lumber is good for global warming. We also have a magazine in search of itself and a green group in search of money, in the Mailbox.

Cover Art: Drive along some of the marshy lands in southern Georgia and you'll understand where Georgia Pacific lumber got its name. Pine trees like these, row upon row, straight as knitting needles are growing where palmetto and swamp used to grow, along with all those critters that normally grow in swamps. Rt. 27 in Southern Georgia has some 50 miles of tree farms like the one shown here. It's sad to see just how much former swamp land has been converted to this for the sake of building products. On the other hand, these look like fairly productive ecosystem. They are not as productive as swamps, but are they all bad? There have to be some birds living in those branch. In INews we look briefly at the good and bad behind tree farming.

Friday, Dec. 12, 2009

In News by Nature today: global warming should be a debate not a battle, in ONews. In ENews, a tony town taps a turtle to trample townhouse trouble. In INews: the old beach chair's worth big bucks, shipping and handling not included.

We don't know who to thank for this great art, but it sums up nicely the “debate” these days over global warming. It's more of a fight since the British scientists revealed to the world their objectivity on this subjects ranks well below Duke Energy's. Noticeably absent in this image is the bulk of the audience. One can only hope they are spending their time more wisely. Fashioning their opinions on this vital subject from sources more articulate than those who strap on gloves and come out swinging, like the scientists and some others discussed in NBN today. How to cool down the battle brewing over global warming, in ONews today.

Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2009

In News by Nature today we have sticky scientific Stimulus spending in ONews and biodegradable diapers, grease cars and free water in INews.

Cover Art: Today we stray off the reservation to examine questionable economic Stimulus plan allocations for energy efficiency projects. We've spoken often here about the Stimulus money going to pay for wastewater treatment plant up grades, paving and other projects you can see, feel and hopefully not smell. However, there are some really odd projects involving energy consumption in that Stimulus plan. So odd, we fear they could be fueling growing criticisms that the whole spending plan is flawed. This spending plan could catapult capital intensive technologies that would never see the light of day were it not for this seed money. At the same time, it's clear there's not enough money here to see these same projects take firm root. It's a huge gamble. Spending gobs of money on men in white coats, in NBN today. Credit BioJobBlog for the cartoon.

Monday, Dec. 7, 2009

In News by Nature today we have a potpourri of pollution problems. Discarded fishing gear in ENews, and discarded dish soap and those who drink it, in INews. There are a few other odds and ends, also in INews.

Cover Art: Here's the remnant of yet more litter found on Massachusetts' Plum Island near New Hampshire. The shallows offshore here make it a natural collection point for traps lost by recreational lobstermen unwilling to fish too far from shore. After any given storm, there are usually a couple traps beached here, which begs the question: are they bad for the surrounding waters, or possibly good. Multiply this trap by the miles and tons of fishing nets and gear lost to the elements across the globe and it's a question that gets harder to ignore. That's how a group in the Gulf of Maine got $200,000 to search out an answer in ENews today.

Friday, Dec. 4, 2009

News By Nature today has polarizing polls in ONews and harping on carp invading Lake Michigan in ENews. In INews we have eccentric Brits, is there any other kind? And selling solar power paperwork in the Mailbox.

Cover Art: This beautiful thing is actually an invasive species of carp on the verge of moving into Lake Michigan. We've talked here before about the futility of fighting invasive species, but the mobilization of a battalion of heavily armed Illinois environmental officers to stop this fish from reaching the lake might make sense. The jury is still out on the collateral damage these troops will do—we're talking nets, poison, shock treatment and noise pollution to slow the advance of this fish. However, this Asian carp sounds like a pretty nasty customer and stepping aside as it vacuums vital food sources the entire lake ecosystem depends on is, perhaps, inviting disaster. In NBN today: should nature be left to her own devices, even after man has muddled things up.

Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2009

Today in News by Nature we look at problematic public/private partnerships preventing pollution in ONews, Remember Bhopal! but don't do anything about it, in ENews. Green brokers, organic picture frames and a great gassy garbage guzzler in INews.

Cover Art: Welcome to our garbage issue. There's a reason we throw out garbage: we don't want to look at it. However, there are a lot of people who make a living from it and unfortunately, a lot of them shouldn't be. Worse still, they can augment their income considerably by co-opting government officials forced to do their duties according elected officials who do their duties according to the vagaries of our campaign finance laws. This is a glaring example of our environmental laws not getting the job done. Look into ONews today to see more subtle ways immoral folks corrupt our political system and our environment as they take out the trash.

Monday, Nov. 30, 2009

In News by Nature we have; seeing the light during a blackout in ONews, Warren Buffet is the proud defender of the nation's addictions in ENews and cheap people might save us all money in INews.

Cover Art: This wave-to-energy offshore power station is another great alternative energy idea going nowhere. Not for lack of genius or energy, but lack of money. These fellows built this thing out of University grants and little else. Despite weighing several tons, it floats in the water and is anchored to the ocean bottom. Waves make it rise up and down, turning gears that turn a generator. Simple, elegant and underfunded. It seems it pays better to invest in the old dirty forms of energy than the new, clear kinds. At least Warren Buffet thinks so. Today, we look at some of the corporate interests behind the energy industry and why they keep selling the stuff that's bad for the planet. In short, it works. For more detail look inside NBN today.

11.27.09

Today in News by Nature we walk down memory lane and take on recycling. In other words: we're rerunning columns from when even fewer people used to read NBN than the six friends now gleefully pointing the daily misspellings. In ONews we look at that most misunderstood of science side-dishes: raw data. In INews there's a reason kids get dirty and drinking recycled sewage in the Mailbox, pass the greywater please.

COVER ART This lesser yellow legs was was caught tip toeing around Plum Island in Massachusetts for a meal earlier this year. In NBN today, we recycle some old columns in a cheesy effort to get some real work done on next week's post-Thanksgiving offerings. We were going to run a picture of a bunch of plastic in the surf with clam shells and seaweed, but it gets a little old constantly complaining about the bad environmental happenings in the world when there is so much cool wildlife around. You don't have to look hard to see nature is doing just fine in so many corners of the world. And it helps every once in a while to see why we fight so hard to protect her.

Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009

In News by Nature today we look at using bad science to support sound theory in ONews. Using marginal marketing to support good ideas in INews and we have hard choices in earth-heating hysteria inBadNews.Cover Art: Sudden marsh dieback, pictured here, is a mysterious malady that some scientists aren't even sure exists. Others say it's a crisis. Kind of like global warming which, incidentally, is being offered up as one of myriad causes for marsh dieback. From increased forest fires to wild weather swings, there are all manner of indicators suggesting there are big changes afoot climatically speaking. But, there's nothing concrete to point to as proof of global warming. When it comes to the all important forecasting of future disaster that much of science is dedicated to doing, such vagaries can be maddening. The public skepticism  in the face of those vagaries even more so. It leads to frustrations that scientists charged with this forecasting can ill afford to indulge in. Sadly, they have been anyway, in NBN today.

Monday, Nov. 23, 2009

In News by Nature today, we look at bad bookkeeping and wasteful Stimulus spending in ONews. In INews we single out examples of same. In ENews we single out a senator who doesn't like sewage treatment plants. Who does?

We could certainly do with fewer signs like this. There's been a lot of hubbub recently over the bad bookkeeping and wasteful spending in the Stimulus plan. But take a look at what might be the most iconic of expenditures in the Stimulus plan: sewage treatment plants. $1.4 billion in Stimulus dollars are going to correct the problem that prompted this posting. If this is where the money is going, let's spend more. This picture pretty much says it all. Hundreds of millions in Stimulus dollars are being spent right now to clean up the nation's rivers. Unfortunately, we need to spend hundreds of billions.

Friday, Nov. 20, 2009

Today in News by Nature; time for Darwin to evolve in ONews. We look at the natural selection of pesticide-resistant plants in INews. UNews has tiny circuits holding huge promise for laptop and cell phone batteries, and just about everything else electronic.

Cover Art: This is what kids at MIT do for fun. We had the honor of being escorted around the campus this weekend and got to see how the nation's best and brightest wrangle their way through the work week. For reasons known only to them, some of these kids let off steam juggling under the Great Dome on MIT's Boston campus. We pay homage to MIT's juggling club in our cover art, and in News by Nature today we pay homage to academia and the sciences as a whole, starting with some of the science behind Darwin's theory of evolution in ONews.

Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009

News by Nature today despairs over global warming in ONews. We've got a few hot items in INews and a DBI database (dull but important) in the Mailbox. Enjoy, and as always, email favorable comments to comments@nbnpress.com. Heck, at this point, we'll take any comments, favorable or not.

Cover Art: Here's a Hummer/billboard advertising a lawn sprinkler business. It's the juxtaposition of a wasteful vehicle extolling the virtue of a manicured lawn that earn this mediocre image Page 1 honors today. Sometimes, it's all about attitude. Despair and arrogance are the attitudes in ONews today. Both are equally destructive and indulgent at this time in our planet's natural history. But sometimes, we just can't help ourselves. Apologies to the sprinkler biz. Hopefully, you can't make out the name. We don't want to single them out in a world that often embraces exactly what they are probably doing a very good job of installing. They must be doing a good job, Hummers aren't cheap. Yet.

Monday, Nov. 16, 2009

In News By Nature today we get caught up on catch shares in ONews. How green is your park, in ENews. Biodegradable bubblewrap in INews and Garden State hospital set state solar standard in the Mailbox.

Cover Art: At NBN we love fish. This quill back was just one of a dozen bottom fish caught on a three-hour outing out of Oregon last Spring. For an Atlantic fishermen, the Pacific is like Disney World: fish everywhere. The reason is something called catch shares: a rigid system of controlling commercial fishing that is going to be imposed on one of the nation's oldest commercial fishing ports next next year, Gloucester, MA, home of the Perfect Storm. Clouds are gathering again in Gloucester as fishermen fight catch shares hook, line and sinker, largely because the new system  is going to take a lot of the fun and romance out of commercial fishing. Catch shares and commercial fishing in ONews today.

Friday the 13th, Nov. 2009

In News by Nature today we have: oil lobbyists tilting at windmills in ONews, an odd objection to an ocean oyster operation in ENews, a damn good dam story in GNews and a pointless plan for carbon credits in the Mailbox.

Cover Art: Ipswich clams are to seafood what the Mona Lisa is to art: a standard bearer. These folks here are digging Ipswich Clams from mud flats by the same name that put the fried clam on the menu map. These clams are also known as soft shell or piss clams, so-named for their brittle shells and propensity to shoot a fine stream of water out as you walk by at low tide. Constitutionally, that stream of water is not that far from the unfortunate name it provoked. The clam sucks in seawater, filters out the tiny particles of food and “pisses” out the rest. Not quite the metabolic workout mammals give their fluids, but it works wonders for marine water quality, the subject of a few more paragraphs than perhaps necessary on an embattled California oyster farm in ENews today.

Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009

Today in News by Nature we have: floating cities flouting ocean sewage dumping decency in ONews. Bad year for Yankee birds in ENews. Blue spotted salamander stops train in theMailbox.

Cover Art: In Onews today we look at ocean dumping and what's bad, and possibly good, about it. Shown here is the bad. All kinds of plastic swirling around in the ocean waters, attracting all kinds of marine life to it. It's getting to where a fish is at home in a disposable coffee cup as it is in a coral reef. As always, there is another side to this coin. With all the trash being tossed into our oceans, a lot of food gets thrown out. Is it possible the trash is making some marine life more robust? There are no studies we could find to answer the question, so we over-indulge in speculation and anecdote in NBN today. If we're not killing the oceans with all this trash, we're certainly transforming them. Yes, we added the soda can, sock and glove to this scene for visual impact purposes. Other parts of the beach are worse, with no help from NBN.

Monday, Nov. 9, 2009

Today in News by Nature we have: overkill to save the planet, in ONews. Kids get E-Car sales rolling in the Lovers' State, in GNews. Wind turbines cost plenty but save more, in INews and snow's a no-show atop Kilimanjaro in BNews.

No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. These were gas prices seen at pumps in NY this weekend. However, it's clear the comedian who got to this pump earlier was playing tricks. We post it here to introduce the notion in ONews today that a little overkill goes a long way when fighting for environmental causes. Certainly, we're not the first ones to suggest hiking gas prices might solve global warming. Certainly, prices like these are overkill. But when you've got amazingly powerful forces aligned against you, and the forces keeping gas prices low are amazingly powerful, you need overkill. Send gas prices north of $7 for a few years, and you will see sweeping environmental changes in this country. What are the chances that OPEC, Texas and Washington will let it happen? When taking on Goliaths, you need to bring something more than reason to the table. Zealotry, persistence and a little overkill are needed. Hopefully, some day, they won't be. Until then, a little over-the-top, helps the planet's bottom line in ONews today.

Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009

We're looking out for the little ones in News by Nature today. ONews has Massachusetts fairy shrimp not living in a gelded pond. In INews we have recycled sole and helping Miami's befuddled baby turtles. In ENews we have suddenly sacred sunrises.

Cover Art: This is a vernal pond. To most it's a swamp. To all manner of woodland wildlife each spring it's the boudoir, and these normally secretive creatures risk life and limb to get there. It's a natural phenomenon akin to an amphibian orgy that's usually overlooked by humans, or worse. In ONews today an “or worse” picture prompted a little photojournalism with vernal ponds. More and more across the country, folks are discovering these Disney Worlds of the deep woods. But these troubled ecosystems are not out of the forest yet. More effort is needed to get the word out about vernal ponds. Too many of these helpless little creatures' are seeing nuptial interruptus from human activity. Whether it's getting squashed under car tires while marching off to answer the call of the wild, or worse, seeing their habitat wiped out in the name of property values.

Monday, Nov. 2, 2009

News by Nature today delves into the politics of environmentalism. In ONews, we lobby for common sense, not common cause. In ENews we have unions, Greenpeace and esoteric ecological engagements, and Nestle is lobbying Congress in the Mailbox.

Cover Art: Who hasn't seen this. A plastic drink bottle washed up on the beach. New York is in the process of passing a deposit law on plastic bottles after fighting the plastic water bottle lobby in court for the past few years, California just shot a similar bill down. The bottle water lobby shelled out $3 million for lobbyists last year, their organization took in $5m in dues. All so these things can keep piling up on our beaches. One of a few politically charged issues in NBN today.

Friday, Oct. 30, 2009

In News by Nature today we have: how to live on the water right, in ONews. In INews, it's oil refinery tune-up time and stack-able recyclables. And in the Mailbox we're singing the juice box blues.

Cover Art: A moment of silence please for the McMansion, artfully depicted in this picture taken alongside Lake Cochichewick in North Andover, MA. The beauty of this house is it's apparently stalled in mid-construction for the second time. This house has been sitting incomplete on a prized waterfront parcel for about six years. Its first failed attempt left it sheathed in plywood, but otherwise open to the elements for nearly three years. Then someone else came along, adding another 1,500 square feet and a stone facade before giving up. This property is some of the priciest in Massachusetts, yet they can't get it finished and sold. Could it have anything to do with a change in sentiment regarding ostentatious homes on environmentally sensitive lots, such as we discuss in ONews today. Nah, probably just a financing problem.

Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

In News by Nature today we use a tragedy to make a point about enjoying the outdoors, in ONews. In ENews, prospects that NBN is setting national energy policy and in BNews, Aussies heading for high ground.

Cover Art: This is the woods on upper Mt. Killington in Vermont. It is startling to see just how dense the vegetation is. It's a rain forest. The vegetation envelopes you. You become part of it. All the sadder to see how barren the stretches, cleared for ski slopes. But anybody that has skied Killington loves Killington, even though it's killing a ton of vegetation to bring that amorous experience to you. What to do?

Monday, Oct. 26, 2009

News by Nature today has: push the greenbacks, not the polar bears, in ONews. Zealotry versus common sense inENews, and enjoy atrizine, you probably already are; in theMailbox. As always, email comments to comments@nbnpress.com

Cover Art: Come visit the beautiful Maldive Islands, while you still can. Google Earth images inside NBN today show that the Maldives sit in the middle of the Indian Ocean, in what have to be pristine waters. You couldn't pollute the Maldives if you tried, there is too much water washing over them. So, we found another way to ruin this jewel of nature, global warming. By the looks of this picture, this Maldive island will soon be a coral reef, if even the most optimistic global warming trends materialize. So, the head of the government there decided to have a government meeting underwater to send that message out across the world. In News by Nature today we question the wisdom of using such gimmicks to convey such serious messages when we have so many powerful arguments that too often go unused to help make the case for fighting global warming. Such gimmicks can only hurt the cause. We have to bring our A-game on this subject, when ever it's discussed.

Friday Oct. 23, 2009

Today in News by Nature it's: plastic, plastic everywhere in ONews. In theMailbox we have global warming getting a little help from swine flu and a great fish in the wrong lake. In ENews we have the NRDC bending your ear while picking your pocket.

Cover Art. Somehow, bottled water has attained a clean-living sort of cashet in this country. Yet, there's nothing clean living about about the countless plastic water bottles washing up on our beaches. We're not going to start harping on Nestle's reckless pollution of the planet and why we should have a deposit on these plastic bottles. Suffice to point out that a case of these things here cost $3.99. That's 11.4 cents a bottle. Would it kill us to pay 21 cents a bottle. Presto! No more plastic bottle pollution. These things would be picked up before they hit the ground, if there was a 10 cent deposit on them. In ONews today we have a few images and a rehashing of the argument that plastic is becoming an integral part of the environment. We felt justified in revisiting it today because the pictures came out decently.

Wednesday Oct. 21, 2009

News by Nature today: In ONews we have wood stoves under fire in the take-nothing for Granite State, brown gold ain't Texas tea but it's making millionaires in ENews. A greenthumb for a green company in GNews, and fishy fish fingers in INews. This herring gull obliged an NBN photog snapping the surf at Massachusetts' Plum Island recently. This doesn't have too much to do with NBN content today, but it helps every once in a while to remember why we try to protect these creatures, so much at the mercy of how we treat this planet.  Even a simple gull can be beautiful when in its element. At the dump on Long Island they're called rats with wings.

Monday Oct. 19, 2009

News by Nature today; ONews talks about prairie dogs, the other oysters of the prairie. Organic underthings, and burning sewage in INews. A good overview on commercial fishing and government regulation in ENews and some questionable investment in whales and microphones in the Mailbox.

Cover Art: A moment of silence please for the demise of this monument to excess. This is a Ford F-250 parked at the supermarket. Alongside is my Jeep Cherokee, which some would say is an SUV. You could almost fit the Cherokee in the bed of the F-250. It says “Superduty” on the 25-square-foot chrome radiator grill. Superduty, at the supermarket? Who are they shopping for? The Portsmouth Navel Base? This truck have never seen any duty that could remotely be defined as super. There wasn't so much as carwash soap residue on this vehicle. The bed was immaculate. Who drives a car like this and why, if not to haul really heavy stuff around. About the only good thing is that there appears to be a lot fewer of them these days. At least at the supermarket. Nothing wrong with this thing down on the farm. BTW this image has nothing to do with today's NBN.

Friday Oct. 16, 2009

In News by Nature today: The already pointless Cap and Trade bill is being further diluted to where we think it should just be abandon: in ONews. Stimulus dollars doing the dirty work in ENews. Floating houses in INews and in BNews, Santa can trade in his sleigh in 10 years, maybe get himself Ho Ho Hummer.

Cover Art: This is a section of dying Spartina grass in Massachusetts' Great Marsh. It's possibly the victim of a poorly understood malady called Marsh Dieback. The cause of Marsh Dieback is uncertain, but one of the several theories, blames rising tides from global warming. If this is true, it's much worse than the other possible elements killing marsh grass all over the US. Rising tides could pose a whole-sale destruction of the nation's marshes. If we lose these marshes, we lose the primary driver for much of the world's marine environments. These are the nursery for most our fish and the first link of the marine food chain that feeds them, and eventually us. If we lose the marshes, it will take generations for them to grow back, if they do at all. It's one of those great global, unknowns about global warming that we attempt to discuss in NBN today.

Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009

News by Nature today has a whole lot of little things about the little things we can do to greatly improve our environment. In ONews we have a McNuggets wrap. Green batteries, leaf bags, and portable power plants in INews. In ENews we have Stimulus money doing the dirty work.

Cover Art: Here's a scene as common in the countryside as trees. Fast food litter. But is this stuff really so bad? It looks terrible but this waxed paper cup eventually degrades into organic elements—wax and paper—that are not necessarily bad for the environment. They might even be good. It's the esthetics that are so bothersome. McDonalds and other fast food restaurants get kudos in ONews today for switching over to almost entirely non-plastic food containers for their products. It's one of the little things corporations are doing to improve the environment that go unnoticed. And, as we don't very effectively surmise anywhere in today's issue of NBN. The little things add up in big ways.

Monday, Oct. 12, 2009

Today, in News by Nature. Bay State Congressman Barney Frank and a local reporter looking out for the fishermen in ENews, recycling utopia in ONews and big bucks for weird science in UNews. Lastly, here's a fun Outdoor Life slide show on a Great White shark study. They released the animal unharmed, not a common practice inside the pages of OL

Cover Art: This is a spring-balanced, reciprocating, open ocean kinetic-to-electric wave energy conversion device. Looking pass the train wreck of modifiers, this device turns waves into electricity and could offer a great power source for far off-shore. These folks were preparing this device to power a fish farm. However, these things could power homes, light houses, channel markers or drilling platforms, to name a very few applications. Today in ENews, we talk about energy efficiency in reverential tones. We were a little low on art that fits the spiritual theme, so we dredged up this scientific photo hoping to further the other half of the days' topic: conservation science may not save your soul, but it can make you feel pretty good about yourself.

Friday, Oct. 9, 2009

In News by Nature we have a hodge podge of items. In ONews, we have Bay State politicians bowing to unknown forces at the expense of endangered animals. The business opportunity of a lifetime in ENews, and the in Mailbox we have what we think is a really great alternative energy idea, if we could just make sense of the press release explaining it.

Cover Art: This is an aerial shot of the Dry Tortugas National Park. In ENews today we talk about the effort to recruit business interests out to the park. It's the definition of a deserted island, which is over-run by camera toting tourists shipped over from Key West for four hours each day. It's about 70 miles from the western end of Key West, in the center of the Gulf of Mexico. The place is a yin-yang kind of experience that could be a wonderful change of life for those who like people in moderation, but love nature in profusion.

Wednesday Oct. 7, 2009

In News by Nature today we discourse on biodiversity and its role in the Congo, Everglades mining and a New England dam removal project. We also have a cool little Mid-west orchid getting by with a little help from the beetles and biodiversity in caveman days.

Cover Art: This is a roseate tern chick, plucked from its nest on a rocky Massachusetts island, as easily as picking a pebble from the depressions its parents cleared in the forbidding landscape. The parents were plenty upset, but the chick was defenseless. You'd step on it, if you weren't real careful. Roseate terns are a threatened species, and their ability to fend off predators and find suitable nesting sites doubtless plays a big role in that. Such creatures are the first casualty in the erosion of biodiversity from the destruction of our surrounding environments. Today we look at biodiversity and how seemingly helpless creatures fight back on their own, if we give them a chance.

Monday, Oct 5,2009

Today in News by Nature we explore exploiting green for the greater good in ONews. Exploiting going green for the greater greed in INews. And the price we pay for going green and why we might want to pay more also in INews.

Cover Art: What price to pay for protecting the Great Outdoors? Would slapping Sun Visors on MountRushmore be such a bad idea if it helped pay for the park's upkeep.Perhaps not, in ONews today. Mount Rushmore is man made, it's notnatural. We wouldn't be spoiling natural beauty and certainly nothurting the environment. While this marketing ploy here may beunrealistic, why not use the visitor's centers in some of our parksas marketing opportunities that might help pay for their upkeep.Commercializing nature may sound like the worst idea in the world,but surveys discussed today in News by Nature suggests nature loversare the ideal audience for Madison Avenue. Why not take advantage?

Friday Oct. 2, 2009


Todayin News by Nature we fillet herring fishermen in ONews, sample redcrabs and scallops laws in ENews and we've saved the whales in GNews,so lets eat them.


Here'sa boat load of herring about to come aboard. These little fellas live alife of futility. They pretty much die so that everything else in theoceanic world doesn't have to.Talk about pushing the definition of joiede vivre. In ONews today we discuss how dependent human, and many, morepersonable fish species, are dependent on these noble little footsoldiers in the war on world hunger. Every year government fishingexperts are proposing limits on the herring catch and every year peoplefight over them. This year, the battle is heating up, but there'slittle room for emotion in fisheries management. 

Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009


Today we take the magnifying glass to global warming and objectivity in ONews. We take a few cheap shots at the coal industry in ENews, and we have portable car washes in INews. Enjoy, and as always, email favorable comments to: comments@nbnpress.com.
Cover Art. A Snowy egret stalking prey may appear to have little to do with global warming, but in NBN today we look at all the other reasons for curbing our carbon footprints, and this bird is one of them. The marsh this bird calls home for half the year is being endangered by rising tides. And there is proof positive the tides are rising. Is it due to global warming? Who cares, the tides are rising and that's the point made in ONews today. We have to look at all issues in the global warming debate, but not necessarily through the global warming lens. And that means listening more carefully to arguments against global warming. It's the only way we can make meaningful decision on global warming that won't be reversed four or eight years down the road. Hopefully, the ONews piece makes more sense than this caption.

Monday Sept. 28, 2009

In News by Nature today we look at fertilizer and all the bad stuff that comes from getting all those green plants greener, in ONews. We also have strange species out of the Mekong Delta and Bay State Oyster farming in ENews. In INews we have folding electric bikes. Enjoy, and as always, email favorable comments to: .

Cover Art: Here's a small sample of the produce you can find at Wickham's Fruit Farm on Long Island's East End on any given summer day. In News By Nature today we gloss over some solutions for the problems farm fertilizers create for our waterways. It's a problem that seems to have become much more pronounced as waterfront development has become almost rampant in this country. With that development, comes something called hardening of the shorelines. Just like it sounds, hardening of our shores means more water running off the surface and less soaking into the ground. That water is carrying with it an awful lot of fertilizer we sprinkle on those hardened shorelines. Hence, the pressure on all fertilizer sources, but farms in particular, to clean up their acts. However, it will come at a cost and you're looking at part of the price. Don't know who the woman is. She just happened along. Believe it or not, those ratty looking tomatoes in front are heirloom tomatoes. They cost a fortune and really don't taste any better than the genetically honed varities behind them. 10.1 update. I've since been advised by a friend who knows food a little better than I that heirloom tomatoes are the greates thing to happen to nightshades since the invention of habeno cheese.

Friday Sept. 25, 2009

Today in News by Nature we look at wildlife management and taking a slightly less emotional view of protecting the not-so helpless little animals in ONews.

Cover Art: This pile of rock is actually the wash out of a dam that gave way along the Appalachian Trail in central Vermont, near Killington. Not a human dam. A beaver dam. A park ranger said that after the beavers had moved out of the pond, the dam they'd built that created the pond gave way for lack of maintenance. The road had to be closed to clear the debris which stretched for about 75 yards from this spot here. Anybody down stream during this washout would have been in serious trouble. In NBN today we discuss taking a more realistic approach to protecting the “helpless” animals that share our planet.

Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009

In News by Nature today we discuss acting locally to combat Global Warming and using a huge national gas tax as an example of same in ONews. In the Mailbox we look at how local life styles effect global warming and we laud a local reporter for taking on beach erosion in ENews. Enjoy, and as always, email favorable comments to comments@nbnpress.com.

Cover Art: Here's a Getty Image from a CNN story about Global Warming. It's a protester suggesting national leaders, in this case Australia's prime minister, have to wake up to the realities of global warming. Here's a wake up call: there are 174,000 blue-collar, full-time, permanent jobs related to coal in the U.S. alone. That's not to mention China which produces and consumes 60 percent more coal than the U.S. And what do these protestors suggest doing about all those people and the coal burning power plants? Nothing. They're protestors. They complain they don't offer solutions. These well meaning people need to set their sights, and their boundless creative energy, more on the local stage. In ONews today we look at the futility of fighting for international cooperation on Global Warming, without first getting such cooperation at home and in the home.

Monday, Sept. 21, 2009

In News By Nature today we have solar cell towers and alternative energy audits in INews and saving coral reefs for future generations to enjoy in ENews. Enjoy, and as always, please email comments to: comments@nbnpress.com

Cover Art. This array of communications antenna sit on top of Mount Killington in Vermont. This place is awash in wind, yet no sign of any wind turbines. It's hard to imagine how many thousands of folks depend on this antenna array for all manor of emergency, business and personal communications. I didn't look for the power lines, I was too busy taking in the amazing view. Presumably, there are power lines running up the mountain. In fact it might be interesting to send the folks we talk about in INews over there to do an energy audit. They must have generators every where. Still, there were no obvious signs of alternative energy installations anywhere. why not have the back-up energy source. It's a question we delve into a very little bit into in INews today.

Friday, Sept. 18, 2009

News by Nature has nanonews inUNews and plastic bacteria can eat in INews. Sorry for short changing you on content, we're hiking this weekend. Should have some good pictures of the fall leaves next week. Enjoy and, as always, email favorable comments to: comments@nbnpress.com.

Cover Art: Dulse is often called a marine delicacy. The stuff will make you ill the first time you eat it. Slightly nauseous the second time you eat it. A little bored the third time. Very bored the fourth time. Few people make it much further. Dulse is seaweed. Not the green papery stuff rolled into sushi. Dulse is more like leather that tastes somewhere between Limburger cheese and a Catholic communion host. Yet somehow, half the population of Grand Manan island in eastern Canada makes a living collecting, processing and packaging the stuff, which grows about knee- deep on every beach on the island. There's dulse salt and dulse powder. Dulse flakes and dulse jerky. Then there is just plain dulse. Every conceivable method of ingesting this stuff has been addressed by these island people who collect and hawk it. The sign may say Sea Vegetables, but inside is all dulse, all the time. What's it got to do with today's News by Nature? Not much. I'm hiking in the woods today and had to post something to keep my three readers, Dan, Chris and Jim, happy.

Wednesday Sept. 16, 2009 In News by Nature today we question Superfund sites that should have been, in ONews; more global warming in Badnews; and don't try this at home folks, cutting a whale free from fishing line in the Mailbox.

This is the GenCorp property in Lawrence, MA. It's not a Superfund site, but you could argue it should be. This is the site circa 1992, image compliments of Google Earth. There are 22 manufacturing buildings in this picture that are not with us today. However, their spirit lives on. They drained waste water into something called a raceway, that is ground-zero for on-going clean-up efforts at this site that are running deep into eight figures. The land was cleared in part to make way for a series of highway ramps, parks and public walkways that are being called the Gateway Project, a sort of new entrance to a revitalized Lawrence.

Here is the GenCorp property as it looks today. The horizontal stubby, blackish lines in the center right of the photo, are excavations along either side of the raceway. This environmental cleanup started with the excavations on either side of the raceway, ground-zero for the clean-up. Now, the clean-up is focused on sucking water out of the ground surrounding the raceway, hoping to draw the pollution soaked into surrounding soil out with the water. It may seem like a futile effort, given how polluted the entire region is. But a worker at this site yesterday said they are about 75 percent finished with the clean-up, whatever that means. The place will never be completely clean, because the pollution was so heavy, it's soaked into the bedrock below the soil and can't be removed.

Monday Sept. 14, 2009 In News by Nature today we get into gentleman forest farming in ONews, fish farming in ENews, and “fixing” the homeless cat problem in GNews.

Cover Art: Shown here is an area near Maine's Mount Katahdin that was clear-cut for pulp timber in 2005. Forest management is on the chopping block today. Demand for lumber and pulp timber is falling. So is the number of trees being felled to meet that demand. Enormous tracks of idled forests once mined to supply both these industries are being sold off to private owners now in need of forestry lessons. These owners are often hiring others to do the forestry for them. The demise of the older logging operations have left an enormous hole in the state and local economies. As we discuss in ONews today, private purchase of those idled forests have in some cases made that hole bigger.A lot of the parcels being purchased include clear-cut areas such as this, or other areas in various stages of regrowth. A challange for any fledgling forester. It brings up the question of what's best now for the forest, what's best for the people leaving near them, and what's best for the people who own these enromous tracks of land and those who are buying them up. When a century-old timber industry dries up and tiny towns are in danger of dying with them, you end up with some difficult questions.

There might be answer in these forests. This the Appalachian Trail in the northwest corner of Massachusetts. These woods are of intense scientific interest because they are some of the nation's oldest secondary growth forests. Over 100 years ago, this area was clear-cut, in an even less environmentally sensitive way than the Maine mountains above. But they've been allowed to grow back relatively undisturbed. Could they have benefited from some of the forestry practices now being used in the now private forests in Maine? Or is it best to just let nature take it's course.

Friday, Sept. 11, 2009

In News By Nature today we have strange biodiesel brewings in ENews, more money for marshes in GoodNews; whales need a break, for safety's sake in UNews, and no seal of approval for these pinnipeds in the Mailbox.

Cover Art: In the mailbox today we have the thorny issue of when does cute become calamity. The growing number of seals off New England is being blamed for closing some of the nation's most popular swimming holes because of sharks. Sharks like to eat seals, and people who like to eat often look like seals when they go swimming. All kidding aside, it's perhaps a more poignant example of a problem growing worse across the country. A resurgent mountain lion population is making jogging an extreme sport out west. Bears are turning up in Bay State suburbs, mating moose are mashing motorist along New England thruways and wild turkeys are turning back roads into obstacle courses everywhere. Wildlife is great as long as there isn't too much of it.

Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009

As promised weeks earlier in News by Nature, today we fillet commercial fishing and an ongoing overhaul of the industry called catch shares. We attempt to put them in some sort of perspective in ONews, we look at their implementation inENews and why they are being implemented in the Mailbox.

Cover Art, these commercial fishermen off Grand Manan island in New Brunswick practice an ancient approach to their industry. They use fixed nets called weirs set in the water to catch schools of herring as they swim by. This is a technique passed down from the Indians. It works by corralling schools of herring just offshore into nets that are drawn shut when it comes time to load them unto boats. They've been doing it on Grand Manan for centuries and the fish populations never seem the worse for the weir. Unfortunately, that's not the case for pretty much every other commercial fishing operation south of Grand Manan. Particularly bottom fish, those that are slowest growing and most desired, like cod and halibut. These fish seem to be caught in a vicious cycle of regulations that tighten as their numbers dwindle. The fish caught here are processed, cooked and canned the same day they are caught. Why people don't eat more of these is a mystery. They are delicious and very good for you. Yet they do no apparent harm to the waters off New Brunswick.

Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2009

Yes, NBN didn't publish Labor Day, so we've got something short to make up for it today. More specifically, we have plastic swim suits coming up short in ONews, battery bunny blues gets a charge from rechargeables in INews and Honeymooner sewer worker Ed Norton gets his day in the sun in the Mailbox.

Cover Art: Once again we beat the drum about the omnipresence of plastic. This PVC case carried a phone that quite likely weighed less than the plastic you see here. Not only did it take a razor knife and about 15 minutes of carving to get the phone out of this plastic prison, but now there is one more very durable piece of polymer in the world. Some well meaning folks have taken to recycling this stuff into clothing. In ONews today we examine why that may not be such a good idea and propose an idea of our own that might better curb this proliferation of plastics. Note the phone in the background right. 

Friday Sept. 9, 2009

In News by Nature today we have mercury, mercury every where in ENews, Passions flare over global warming in BadNews and showing fish a little respect in the Mailbox.

Cover art: Yes, another picture of someone holding a fish. In this case it's a haddock, one of the best tasting fish in the Atlantic. The fishermen is me. We're gracing Page 1 because in the mailbox today we discuss fishermen with idiot grins holding up their catch for all to admire. We raise the indelicate question of who should be admired more the fish or the man holding it. In this case it was the haddock that was admired. After the picture was taken it was immediately put on ice and taken home for dinner. That's not always the case.

Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2009.

In News by Nature today, we have manatees and mission creep in ENews, it's dust for the kids in INews, and paving the road to Perdition in the Mailbox.

Monday, Aug. 31, 2009
Today, News by Nature focuses on public relations and going green, greedy or going nowhere. Along those lines we have Happy Jack in his Hummer in ONews, and Earth Hour's not ready for prime time in BNews. We also have extreme recycling and getting off the grid in INews. Enjoy, and as always, email favorable comments to comments@nbnpress.com.

Cover Art: Unbeknownst to much of the salt marsh loving world, there are places where salt grass is harvested for hay, as these folks are doing. In fact, salt marshes were once common grazing lands for cattle, like these lands outside Newburyport, MA. It's supposed to be superior to regular hay because it has fewer weeds. Harvest operations such as these can't be too bad for the marsh. These acres have been harvested for hay for centuries and they still appear healthy enough. However, the state now frowns upon the practice and these folks are only allowed to do it, because they've been doing it all along. If they stop, harvest season is over on the salt marsh. For good.

Cover Art: Danny was neither hurricane, nor tropical storm, but he still managed to wear down the beach at Newburyport, MA. Look at the water level at the left of the jetty and on the right. Then look at the sandbags built up along the bluff, also to the left of this jetty. Once again, man's effort to control natural forces backfires. It might have been as wise to spend the money spent putting these sand bags into place, tearing out the jetty instead.

However, the beach lost in this photo is about to be replenished with dredge material taken from the Merrimack River about a mile to the north. It too, is protected by two enormous jetties. Unlike the jetty pictured here, these stone structures are vital if boats want to keep coming into and out of the Merrimack River. Sometimes it's wise to fool with Mother Nature. Still,for centuries this country declared war on the poor girl. These jetties are, more often than not a bad idea, and they've been built up and down the Atlantic Coast.

Friday Aug., 29, 2009

In News By Nature today we take a different view of whale watching in ENews, vilify green undergarments in INews, ponder inanimate icthyoids in UNews and green things to do on the briny blue in the Mailbox.

Cover Art: Whale Watching has become big business all over the country. In ENews there's a neat discussion on how the business has improved in one New England town, just because of a change in fishing regulations. It's another example of how interdependent marine animals and plants are. Make life better for one species and it immediately improves the lot of another. Anyone lucky enough to have been in a small boat really close to these leviathans knows, the whale watchers are also being watched by the whales.

News By Nature Aug. 26, 2009.

We have: raising the white flag on invasives in ONews, fruit of the vine and work of chemists' hands in the Emailbox, jousting journalists in ENews, ocean scallops and bay oysters in GNews and UNH's beetles bash in UNews.

Cover Art: In this issue, we attack invasives, those plants and animals imported from afar taking over American landscapes and waterways because there is nothing here that eats or kills them. Here is a picture taken from the Plum Island Turnpike in Newburyport, MA. There are four different invasive plants here: purple loosestrife, phragmite, Japanese knotweed, and, almost invisible, are the brown skeletons of last year's giant hogweed. In fact, invasives have been around so long they make up the bulk of this and some other environments in this country. So, we ask the question: Is it time to give up on invasives and just let nature find a way to control these things? Or is there another strategy. That's the question we explore in ONews and elsewhere today.

Aug. 24, 2009

News By Nature has Solar Cell Phones in INews, Warm Water Worries Weather Watchers in BNews and, Love that Dirty Water in the Emailbox.

Cover Art. Mega Yachts. Four of them, parked at the Village docks in Greenport, NY over the past weekend. Let's play with the numbers here. Is it unreasonable to think these are the most inefficient modes of transportation in the world? What mileage do you suppose the one in the front gets? It paced off at well over 100-feet long. So, maybe it gets, 30 possibly, 40 gallons per mile? All to move the balding, overweight guy who appeared to own the thing, from port to port where folks with cameras can stroke his ego and reassure him of his overall worth in the world. If NBN sounds a little bitter here, we are, dammit. We were going to buy one, but our accountant said we couldn't write it off. Something's unfair about that. Still, they are beautiful boats, if inexcusably wasteful. Just because you have the money doesn't mean you get to waste natural resources precious to the whole planet.

Friday, Aug. 21, 2009 Same old cover art, but inside we've got the Bay State joining the Garden State pushing for more solar power in INews, artificial viruses in UNews and Indians screwed up the planet too, in the Emailbox. As always email favorable comments to comments@nbnpress.com 

Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009

In News By Nature today we have those damn dams in ONews, the Bay State's Ocean policy in ENews, and a Virginia construction company's clean-up crews in INews. Enjoy, and as always, email favorable comments to comments@nbnpress.com.

Cover Art. This week in ONews we go into the issue of dams and the environmental challenges behind removing them. Pictured here is the grand daddy of them all, the Hoover Dam. However, there are 75,000 dams in the country and almost all of them are miniscule, in both size, economic and environmental impact compared to the Hoover. They are slowly being torn out, but it's like pulling teeth, largely because of the environmental challenges involved. There's a lot of pollution stacked up behind these walls in the sediments that accumulate at the base.

Monday, Aug. 17,2009

Actually it's early Tuesday. News By Nature has algae blooms and 9/11 conspiracy theories in ONews; Drill, Baby, Drill in ENews, tagging tiny tuna in UNews, recycling iPhones in GNews and Robinson Crusoe in INews. As always, email your favorable comments to: comments@nbnpress.com. Yes, we will put you on our mailing list unless you ask otherwise

Cover art: This picture has nothing to do with the content of Aug. 17 News by Nature, but it's included to show some of the amazing things nature can do when left to her own devices. This is a protected Island in southern New England that's hosting about 1,500 nesting pairs of common terns and endangered Roseate Terns on 1 acre of island. This is heaven for these birds because there are no predators or humans, which is why we're not identifying its location here. The young are in open nests on the ground and there are so many of them you have to be very careful you don't step on them. The defenseless young reply on very aggressive parents who peck at your head and defecate with startling accuracy and deliberation. They try to hit you, it's not just by chance. And they succeed, handsomely.

Friday, Aug. 14, 2009News by Nature has a suspect New Hampshire Superfund site in ONews, Stimulus funding for sewer systems in ENews, global warming fatigue in BadNews, and some odds and ends in the Emailbox

Cover art: No, this is not plumbing for some Cape Cod septic system, a subject covered in ENews today. This is plumbing delivering prime bottled water, comin' to ya straight from Maine. Yes, this is Poland Spring plumbing. This eight-inch pipe is pulling crystal-clear water from the ground near Poland Maine. The state says it's ok and apparently the EPA doesn't object either. Yet, Poland Spring a.k.a. Nestle, is getting very wealthy pulling this stuff out of Maine, with no mineral or other tax attached, and pumping it into millions of plastic bottles clogging landfills across the country. That's what we touch on today. Powerful interests thwarting environmental regulations enforced by agencies and officlas that, we argue, are a little too susceptible to corrupting influences. 

Wednesday Aug. 12, 2009
Today we do the math on a Virginia coal-fired power plant in ONews, we've got shiny new species and tired old tigers in ENews; INews is full of gas (ethanol), Hawaiian trash and Freegans and there 's a little good news in BadNews. As always email favorable comments to: comments@nbnpress.com

Cover Art: When you live in parts of the country that look like this section of the Virginia Appalachian Trail, it's probably hard to take all the dire scientific warnings about the environment and global warming too seriously. But along the coast, where 80 percent of the earth's population lives, it's a little easier to see what's going wrong. Today, we look at the pros and cons of a coal powered plant being proposed in Virginia and try to understand why some folks may think it's a good idea. Odds-on favorite Virginians love it. Lots of jobs and reliable power for a state badly in need of both.

Monday, Aug. 10, 2009 News by Nature has bad signs in ONews, Cash for Clunkers and Cap and Trade in ENews, no fish but plenty of regulations, in GNews, power pavement in INews, more BNews on global warming and coral reefs in the Mailbox. And, as always, email favorable comments to comments@nbnpress.com

8.5.09

Today ONews has protecting eagles and plovers, but at what price? Similar theme for whales in ENews along with plastic baby bottles and conservation advice. A little BNews about global warming, a little GNews about benthic biodiversity. We've got algae in Inews and a Texas gas station doing the right thing in the Big Horn State. Enjoy and, as always, email favorable comments to comments@nbnpress.com

Cover Art This is the entrance to the Plum Island National Wildlife Refuge in Northeastern Massachusetts. Behind these signs stretches nine miles of wide open nature preserve on the Atlantic ocean, closed to people for three beautiful months in late spring and early summer. Volunteers are trained each year to help enforce the closure, but there is little they can do about the skunks, raccoon and fox eating the baby plovers. What Price Conservation? In NBN today.

Thursday, July 30, 2009
The Aberjona River of cinematic “Civil Action” fame is back in ONews along with some perspective on the real environmental stewards in many towns. Bottled water in ENews. breaking nano news in UNews and silver linings in sewage in GNews

The Gulf of Mexico as seen from the unfinished window of Fort Jefferson on Dry Tortuga. This  is the proverbial deserted island which Bugs Bunny and company always seemed stranded on. It's a stunning spit of sand with a handful of camping spots that redefine "roughing it." No water or power, just 360-degrees of electrifying views, fantastic snorkeling and fishing that you can only dream about, right from shore. The National Parks Service just announced that some of the camping spaces will be closed to accommodate dredging at Dry Tortuga.

July 28, 2009 News by Nature has sports hypocrisies in ONews, lead Paint and ink cartridges in ENews, great garbage in INews and water power for Miami air conditioners in UNews. Enjoy, and as always email comments to comments@nbnpress.com. Yes I will put you on the mailing list. Unless you say otherwise. And, no. No one has emailed me yet. You can also find NBN on Twitter.

Cover Art. Yes, another fish photo, included here to illustrate a point. I caught this beautiful cod 30 miles or so off northeast Massachusetts. Got it on ice immediately, bled it and missed taking the boat pool by half a pound. This should be some great food. However, the fillet was riddled with worms. The fish that took the boat pool, caught, it's worth noting, by a friend of the fellow doing the weighing, was filleted and thrown out. The meat was discolored and the friendly mate unceremoniously kicked it into a pile of trash, bleach and soap accumulating by his feet as the boat was washed down by the other deck hands. All the above ended up overboard. Why catch these fish if we're just going to take pictures then throw them away? This fish, with the worms carefully removed, was transformed into about two dozen fish cakes. They're delicious. Lest anyone think that disgusting, if you like sword fish you, too, have eaten parasitic worms.  

July, 24, 2009, in News by Nature: Hugging trees ain't enough, you've got to be the tree, in ONews, INews has biodegradable batteries that work, ENews has not-too Native Americans selling tainted clams and how they got that way: the clams not the indians. And we've got good news and we've got bad news. Enjoy and as always emails us at comments@nbnpress.com Oh Yeah, we've got Kansas sinkholes in the Emailbox

Cover Art: Another shot from New Jersey. These are Brown Pelicans swooping around Barnegat Bay. These are southern birds, but it looks like they're moving to Jersey. Is this an indication of global warming, as some on the fishing boat I shared suggested when I took this picture? They said the birds have been turning up a lot more lately. Not according to Audubon, which says after nesting, these southern birds range as far north as British Columbia. I guess the existence of Pelican Island in Barnegat Bay suggests the birds have been around Jersey for a while, if not so much recently.

July 22, 2009 News By Nature has solar flower-power in ENews, sturgeon and radio hosts in ONews, a GW update, rags to riches in INews and starving a Texas river to feed a nuke in Emailbox. In INews we have breathing welding gas and pet cleaning products. Enjoy, and as always, email comments to comments@nbnpress.com.

July, 15, 2009, News by Nature today has trash trackers, one college's crazy glue, another's swtich-aroo, fish kills from fertilizer, and Lou Gerhig's disease. Email comments to comments@nbnpress.com

Cover Art: In our new, very unopinionated, opinion page we discuss Drill, Baby, Drill and recent remarks by Sarah Palin and Mike Hukabee. Are we tilting at windmills to think the age of the power plant is coming to a close? Or is the high-powered pursuit of dwindling fossil fuels going to win the day? These windmills g5race the top of moutnains in Searsburg, Vt. There are 11 of them and they power 1,500 homes.

July 14, 2009 News By Nature has gray areas for green groups, tiger farming and American chestnuts.Today,

Tuesday, July, 7 2009, News by Nature has non-point-source pollution.What's that? Click on the link and find out. NBN is also introducing aGlobal Warming page. This page will carry only stories dedicated to therate of global warming. As always, email comments to comments@nbnpress.com. Yes we will put you on our mailing list unless you say otherwise. Hurry now and be the first on our mailing list!

July, 7, 2009 Cover Art This picture should get your attention. It's a stargazer, a bottom dweller that can shock it's prey into a meal which this obviously slow moving fellow can then eat at its leisure. No,this is not some obscure African river delta, It's Barnegat Bay on the Jersey shore. The picture is posted here to make a point. We fished this bay hard for many hours and pulled up a few short fluke and a stargazer. The backround is where the bay empties into the Atlantic. Massive amounts of water move through this spot. The place should have been crawling with fish. And it's not like we were using Cheetos for bait. Squid with a spearing chaser. I was tempted to eat this stuff. Yet we didn't take one fish home. What is going on? I completely forgot this guys name. He caught it.

Today, June 29, 2009, News by Nature has filching Flippers,luxurious libraries and a decent counter point to global warming. 

June 24, 2009 News by Nature has algae, incinerators, ichthyoids, and the Jersey Turnpike.

Welcome to News By Nature, June 22, 2009 today we have another OutdoorLife photo spread in the eMailbox, anti-environmentalism in the name of patriotism in INews and solar streetlight in ENews. Enjoy and feel free to criticize at comments@nbnpress.com. We're still working on setting up a comments section in the website. Until then all we can do is email.

Today, June, 18, 2009 News By Nature is tilting at windmills on Page 1, bemoaning the sad fate of the Atlantic salmon in eNews and we dabble in federal funding for sewage treatment plants in the Emailbox. As always mail comments to comments@nbnpress.com. Who am I kidding I haven't gotten a comment yet.

June 17, 2009 News by Nature has holistic theorists on how fast the polar ice caps are melting in sciNews, US fishermen not catching their fair share on Page 1 , superfund sites in INews and phantom traffic jams in UNews. Enjoy and as always email comments to comments@nbnpress.com

June 8, 2009  News By Nature has companies doing good and bad in the name of green in the Emailbox and federal regulations gone bad on Page 1. We've got making silk purses out of plastic bottles and a depressing piece about global warming in ENews, and As always, email me if you want to add your two cents.