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Bruce Jenner, who won gold as a decathlete in the 1976 Summer Games, has not publicly spoken about transitioning to a woman. His appearance has gradually become more traditionally feminine. A publicist for the 65-year-old Jenner would not comment about his mother's remarks. Nor would E! Entertainment on word that Jenner will appear in a reality series about his journey.

 

Flu Peak out in West Washington-East NO REPORT

Coke bets on 'premium milk' to boost decline in consumption
Everything you need to know about measles

For the Prickliest Patients, a Desert Doctor Makes House Calls

Hooray. We are working on leaving this blog and going home to bobshannon.org. Please give me some time and I will be redirecting you to the old home.....thanks for your months of patience.

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The USGS plays an important role in conducting research and developing information and tools to support communities in understanding, preparing for, and responding to the impacts of global change.  The budget includes an increase of $32 million above the FY 2015 enacted level for science to support climate resilience and adaptation.  Climate change requires the Nation to prepare for more intense drought, heatwaves, wildfire, flooding, and sea level rise.  These challenges are already impacting infrastructure, food and water supplies, and physical safety in communities across the Nation.  Understanding potential impacts to communities, ecosystems, water, plant and animal species, and other resources is crucial to federal, state, tribal, local, and international partners as they develop adaptive and resilient strategies in response to climate change.  The budget includes a $6.8 million increase in science for adaptation and resilience planning, an increase of $2.3 million for the USGS to provide interagency coordination of regional climate science activities across the Nation, an increase of $8.7 million to support biological carbon sequestration, and an increase of $11 million for the USGS to support the community resilience toolkit, which is a web-based clearinghouse of data, tools, shared applications, and best practices for resource managers, decision-makers, and the public.  

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2014 was the driest calendar year on record in California, and with dwindling water levels in reservoirs, the effects started to spread through the state’s farms and North America’s produce aisles. California is the leading producer of agricultural products in the United States, based on cash receipts for fruits, vegetables, nuts, dairy and meat products. But as a result of the drought, many growers received less than a tenth of their full water allotment from state surface water supplies. The deficit had to be made up by pumping trillions of gallons of groundwater for irrigation or by letting fields go fallow.

The statewide maps above and the closeup map below are based on data from the Landsat series of satellites (L5, L7, and L8) and from the MODIS instruments on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites. They show changes in crop cultivation and idle agricultural lands in California in August 2011 and August 2014. Brown pixels depict farms and orchards that have been left fallow, or “idled,” since January 1 in each year. Green pixels show plots where at least one crop was grown during the calendar year.

Note how little acreage was idle in the Central Valley in 2011, the most recent year with average or above average precipitation across the state. The most pronounced changes from 2011 to 2014 appear along the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. Also interesting are the idle fields at the north end of the Sacramento Valley, some of which are associated with water transfers from rice growers.

The data used to produce these maps were assembled and analyzed by a team led by Forrest Melton, California State University, Monterey Bay, and James Verdin of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Melton and colleagues processed the satellite data from the NASA Earth Exchange, while also making monthly ground surveys of the Central Valley to verify the satellite observations. The team essentially observes crop development every week on more than 200,000 fields in California’s Central Valley in order to provide partners at the California Department of Water Resources (CDWR) with near-real time assessments of increases in land idling during the drought.

“Accurate and timely information on idle acreage can be used to prioritize processing of water transfer requests,” said Melton. “It can also inform allocation of drought emergency relief funds to support food banks and social services for farm workers and their families in impacted counties.”