'What Doesn't Make the News - C(Lie)mate #3' Video Transcript - Suspicious0bserversCollective

http://www.suspicious0bserverscollective.org/1/post/2013/12/what-doesnt-make-the-news-cliemate-3-video-transcript.html

Catch Up!!!

'What Doesn't Make the News - C(Lie)mate #3' Video Transcript

(0:01) First the easy part: Latest IPCC Climate Report (Official UN Report) says that Man-Made Global Warming Confidence is at 95%, up from 90%. (0:11) You would be amazed at what doesn't make the news. CO2 Concentrations and Temperature have tracked closely over the last 300,000 years in a 'Perfect Correlation' until the Industrial Revolution.

(0:32) Both are going up, no doubt; but the correlation has been broken. Official Sunspot Numbers from the past 400 Years of Observation shows the Last Mini Ice Age took place during the Maunder Minimum. On the right 'Global Warming' is currently taking place during our 'Modern Maximum.'

(0:52) That's interesting…Let's get a little more complex…

(0:59) "A relatively localised small-amplitude solar influence on the upper atmosphere could have an important effect, via the nonlinear evolution of atmospheric dynamics, on critical atmospheric processes." -Lam, Chisham, Freeman (British Antarctic Survey) via IOP

(1:13) RE: Solar Energy (UV) "Even typical short term variations of 0.1% in incident irradiance exceed all other energy sources (such as natural radioactivity in Earth's core) combined." -Greg Kopp, Laboratory for Atmosphere and Space Physics, University of Colorado

(1:26) RE: Solar Energy (EUV) "…the Sun's output varies not by a minuscule 0.1%, but by whopping factors of 10 or more. This can strongly affect the chemistry and thermal structure of the upper atmosphere." - Dr. Tony Phillips, NASA Solar Physicist

(1:41) Keep that in mind…Earth's magnetic field is the electromagnetic interface with energy from space. It's our protector.

(1:54) 'Earth loses its magnetism' via the BBC: "Scientists have known for some time that the Earth's magnetic field is fading."

(2:01) 'Earth's Magnetic Field is Fading' from National Geographic News: "Earth's magnetic field is fading. Today it is about 10 percent weaker thank it was when German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss started keeping tabs on it in 1845, scientists say.

If the trend continues, the field may collapse altogether and then reverse. Compasses would point south instead of north."

(2:06) 'Magnetic Field Weakening in Stages, Old Ships' Logs Suggest' via National Geographic News: "Earth's Magnetic Field is weakening in staggered steps, a new analysis of centuries-old ships logs suggests. 

The finding could help scientists better understand the way Earth's magnetic poles reverse. The planet's magnetic field flips-north becomes south and vice versa-on average every 300,000 years."

(2:11) 'Giant Breach in Earth's Magnetic Field Discovered' by Dr. Tony Phillips: "NASA's five THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a breach in Earth's magnetic field ten times larger than anything previously thought to exist. Solar wind can flow in through the opening to 'load up' the magnetosphere for powerful geomagnetic storms. But the breach itself is not the biggest surprise. Researchers are even more amazed at the strange and unexpected way it forms, overturning long-held ideas of space physics."

(2:17) Is 400 Years of Earth's Magnetic Field via the 'Animation of secular variation in geomagnetic total intensity for the last 400 years' where the warm colors are strong and the cool colors are weak magnetics.

(2:40) "Earth's Inconstant Magnetic Field" - NASA Article:

-Earth's magnetic north pole is shifting 40 km/year; 2x speed over one half the time.
-Earth's magnetic field is 10% weaker than in the mid-19th century.
-Magnetic reversals come every 300k years; it has been 780k years since the last one.

(2:55) Review: While CO2 and Temperature break 100's of thousands of years of correlation, sunspots match very well AND our shield against the sun has been weakening.  (3:13) Here's where it gets tricky…'Leaked draft of climate report struggles with drop in warming' from FoxNews.com (3:22) 'Mark Steyn's Epic Rant: IPCC Confesses No Global Warming for 15 Years'

(3:30) 'As Its Global Warming Narrative Unravels, The IPCC Is In Damage Control Mode' via Forbes: "Struggling to keep a discredited global warming crisis afloat, United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chair Raj Pachauri this week denied the well-documented plateau in temperatures during the past 15-plus years."

(3:39) John Christy, Earth Systems Science Center/University of Alabama Huntsville

(3:46) "…predictions were on average three to four times what occurred in the real world. The closest was a Russian model that predicted a one-degree increase." -John Christy, Professor of Atmospheric Science with the University of Alabama Huntsville and Director at Earth System Science Center (Interview with CNSNews.com)

(3:59) You guys still awake? Good.

(4:01) 'Global Warming "hiatus" puts climate change scientists on the spot' from the Los Angeles Times: "It's a climate puzzle that has vexed scientists for more than a decade and added fuel to the arguments of those who insist man-made global warming is a myth.

Since just before the start of the 21st century, the Earth's average global surface temperature has failed to rise despite soaring levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases and years of dire warnings from environmental advocates."

(4:09) 'What to Make of Warming Plateau' from The New York Times: "As unlikely as this may sound, we have lucked out in recent years when it comes to global warming.

The rise in the surface temperature of earth has been markedly slower over the last 15 years than in the 20 years before that. And that lull in warming has occurred even as greenhouse gases have accumulated in the atmosphere at a record pace."

(4:14) 'Has the U.N. Climate Panel Now Outlived Its Usefulness?' via By Fred Pearce: "Some scientists are saying the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is overly conservative and fails to mention some of the most worrisome possible scenarios. The panel, they contend, is no longer fulfilling its mission of informing policy makers of the risks of global warming."

(4:23) "S0, how do you account for the recent cooling?"

(4:28) Let's stick with what works. (4:31) 'The Sunspot Cycle' via NASA's Solar Physics Department: "In 1610, shortly after viewing the Sun with his new telescope, Galileo Galilei (or was it Thomas Harriot?) made the first European observations of Sunspots. Continuous daily observations were started at the Zurich Observatory in 1849 and earlier observations have been used to exited the records back to 1610." (4:38) Official Sunspot Numbers (Left) (4:49) North-South Solar Polar Fields in MicroTesla

(5:03) Solar Magnetics are Fading (it's NOT just Earth)...the Sun is ready to snooze.

(5:10) "There is no scientist alive who has seen a solar cycle as weak as this one." -A. Munoz-Jaramillo, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (The Wall Street Journal Interview)

(5:17) "I would say (the solar maximum) is the weakest in 200 years." -David Hathaway, Head of NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center (The Wall Street Journal Interview)

(5:25) "It is not just that there are fewer sunspots, but they are less active sunspots." -Karel Schrijver, Solar Physicist at Lockead Martin ATC (The Wall Street Journal Interview)

(5:33) "Solar activity is declining very fast at the moment, we estimate faster than at any time in the last 9300 years." -Mike Lockwood, Professor of Space Environmental Physics at Reading University, UK (NewScientist Interview)

(5:43) "If we extrapolate this trend into the future, sunspots could completely vanish around the year 2015." -Matt Penn, National Solar Observatory with Livingston, NSO

"The trend that (Penn) observed appears to be real." -David Hathaway, NASA Sunspot Expert

(6:01) (Even the few recent solar outbursts) "exhibited a fraction of the force of previous solar maximums." -Robert Lee Hotz, (The WSJ Interview) *That's what we track at this channel*

(6:11) "The Sun's current maximum activity period is very late and very weak, leading to speculation that the sunspot cycle itself could be shutting down or entering a dormant phase." -Craig DeForest of the American Astronomical Society

(6:24) "The solar wind isn't inflating the heliosphere as much as it used to, that means less shielding against cosmic rays." -David McComas, SWRI

(6:34) 'Sun's bizarre activity may trigger another ice age' from the Irish Times: "Latest data shows solar activity has been falling steadily since mid-1940's.

The Sun is acting bizarrely and scientists have no idea why. Solar activity is in gradual decline, a change from the norm which in the past triggered a 300-year-long mini ice age."

(6:41) The article is based on data at a conference headlined by NASA, among other organisations. It did not make the news in the USA. Low solar activity can affect the jet stream, causing terrible winters.

(6:54) "It all pints to PERHAPS another little ice age. It seems likely we are going to enter a period of very low solar activity and could mean we are in for very cold winters." -Ian Elliot, formerly of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (Emphasis via CAPS added by S0, because YouTube needs it).

(7:06) If the Sun drives this, we should see changes on other planets.

(7:19) 'The Fast Winds of Venus Are Getting Faster' published by the ESA on June 18th, 2013: "The most detailed record of cloud motion in the atmosphere of Venus chronicled by ESA's Venus Express has revealed that the planet's winds have steadily been getting faster over the last six years. Venus is well known for it's curious super-rotating atmosphere, which whips around the planet once very four Earth days."

(7:26) 'Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Warming, Scientist Says' via National Geographic News: "Simultaneous warming on Earth and Mars suggests that our planet's recent climate changes have a natural-and not a human induced-cause, according to on scientists controversial theory."

(7:33) Jupiter's Radio Emissions Have Changed: 'Now Broadcasting From Radio Jupiter' -Science20

(8:05) Saturn Spins 1% slower now: 'Scientists Find that Saturn's Rotation Period is a Puzzle' (8:11) 'Super Storm on Saturn' via NASA.gov (8:16) Saturn Storms come every 30 years [1 Saturn Year], and they last a few Earth months. This storm was 10 years early and lasted much longer, and, "scientists do not know why." "…the class of storm I discovered is a completely different storm." -Kunio Sayanagi, Hampton University

(7:42) 'Jupiter's New Red Spot' via NASA.gov. (7:49) 'Big Mystery: Jupiter Loses a Stripe' via NASA.gov: "In a development that has transformed the appearance of the solar system's largest planet, one of Jupiter's two main cloud belts has completely disappeared." This false-color infrared image, obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, shows clouds of large ammonia ice particles dredged up by a powerful storm in Saturn's N. Hemisphere.

Glad you did?!

~A.

Environment And Security | Red (Team) Analysis

https://www.redanalysis.org/category/sfw-issues-2/climate-change-security/

More than you think....
~A.

The 3D printer that can build a house in 24 hours - MSN Innovation UK

http://innovation.uk.msn.com/design/the-3d-printer-that-can-build-a-house-in-24-hours

The 3D printer that can build a house in 24 hours

Getty

The University of Southern California is testing a giant 3D printer that could be used to build a whole house in under 24 hours.

Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis has designed the giant robot that replaces construction workers with a nozzle on a gantry, this squirts out concrete and can quickly build a home according to a computer pattern. It is "basically scaling up 3D printing to the scale of building," says Khoshnevis. The technology, known as Contour Crafting, could revolutionise the construction industry.

The affordable home?

Contour Crafting could slash the cost of home-owning, making it possible for millions of displaced people to get on the property ladder. It could even be used in disaster relief areas to build emergency and replacement housing.  For example, after an event such as Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, which has displaced almost 600,000 people, Contour Crafting could be used to build replacement homes quickly.

It could be used to create high-quality shelter for people currently living in desperate conditions. "At the dawn of the 21st century [slums] are the condition of shelter for nearly one billion people in our world," says Khoshnevis, "These buildings are breeding grounds for disease a problem of conventional construction which is slow, labour intensive and inefficient."

As Khoshnevis points out, if you look around you pretty much everything is made automatically these days – "your shoes, your clothes, home appliances, your car. The only thing that is still built by hand are these buildings."

Contour Crafting

The robot automates the process of building a house from scratch

How does Contour Crafting work?

The Contour Crafting system is a robot that by automates age-old tools normally used by hand. These are wielded by a robotic gantry that builds a three-dimensional object.

"Ultimately it would work like this," says Brad Lemley from Discover Magazine. "On a cleared and leveled site, workers would lay down two rails a few feet further apart than the eventual building's width and a computer-controlled contour crafter would take over from there. A gantry-type crane with a hanging nozzle and a components-placing arm would travel along the rails. The nozzle would spit out concrete in layers to create hollow walls, and then fill in the walls with additional concrete… humans would hang doors and insert windows."

Contour Crafting

The robot carries a reservoir of ready made concrete

"It's a CAD/CAM solution," says Khoshnevis. The buildings are "designed on computer and built by a computer". Contour Crafting hopes to generate "entire neighbourhoods built at a fraction of the cost, in a fraction of the time, far more safely, and with architectural flexibility that is unprecedented."

The Contour Crafting solution also produces much stronger structures than traditional building methods. According to Contour Crafting the tested wall is a 10,000PSI (pounds per square inch) strength compared to an average of 3,000PSI for a regular wall.

Contour Crafting

A test wall built with the robotic arm

The system could potentially be used to build large office blocks and even tower blocks. "You can have multi-nozzle machines and even have the structure climb the building," says Khoshnevis. says Khoshnevis. This animation demonstrates how a home is built using the Contour Crafting technique.

Will all future buildings look the same?

One concern with contour crafted homes is that they'd all look the same. Mind-numbing duplication was a key criticism of the suburban estates from the 1950s, even though they also brought good-quality housing to millions of people. Would robot-made homes have the same problem, spitting out endless duplication of the same basic template?

They would not be as homogenous as the suburbs, says Khoshnevis, because "every [Contour Crafted] building can be different. They do not have to look like track houses because all you have to do is change a computer program" to get a completely different house.

Because the buildings are printed with a nozzle, they can also be far more creative than current constructions. "The walls can be curved" says Khoshnevis and "you can have very exotic architectural features without incurring additional costs."

Colour Crafting

A Contour Crafting robotic arm being tested at the research centre

Will builders be out of work?

What the implications are for builders is, of course, a major concern. Building and construction has largely escaped the construction line automation of other industries and remains solid employment for millions worldwide. According to the International Labour Organisation construction employs nearly 110 million people worldwide and "plays a major role in combating the high levels of unemployment and in absorbing surplus labour from the rural areas."

That's a lot of people Contour Crafting could make redundant, which raises the question of whether the system could do more harm than good.

Contour Crafting

Instead of building the house workmen are used to maintain the machine

"There is concern about people being put out of construction jobs," says Khoshnevis but "the reality is that a lot of new jobs can be created in this sector as well." Khoshnevis reminds us that in 1900 almost 62% of all Americans were farmers, whereas today less than 1.5% of Americans are in agriculture, thanks to advanced in technology. "The same will be true in the case of construction." Khoshnevis argues that "Construction is a hazardous job" and points out that "it is more dangerous than mining and agriculture."it is more dangerous than mining and agriculture. It kills 10,000 people every year [and] because of all the different trade and managements structures, the process is pretty corruption prone. It is very costly and always over budget."

When will we see robotic builders?

But can the Contour Crafting robot move from its research lab environment and into the real world? "Khoshnevis is a prolific inventor," says Brad Lemley, "who emigrated from Iran in 1974 and holds patents in fields ranging from optics to robotics, [and] decided there had to be a better way while trowelling plaster cracks in his living room following the 1994 Northridge California earthquake."

"If you can build a wall, you can build a house," says Khoshnevis. But Contour Crafting was named one of the 25 best inventions in 2006 by the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the History Channel's Modern Marvels programme and is still being tested.

Contour Crafting

Recent developments have included new types of ceramics and construction materials.

Current research is being funded by Nasa along with the Cal-Earth institute. The future development for Contour Crafting is to investigate construction of modern civil structures, alongside the construction of structures on the moon. According to Contour Crafting these structures include landing pads, roads, hangers and radiation walls.

Nasa's Desert Research and Technology Studies (D-RATS) facility is investigating infrastructure elements in order to evaluate the feasibility of adapting and using the Contour Crafting technology for extraterrestrial application.

"This technology is like a rock that we have rolled to the top of a cliff," Khoshnevis told Discover Magazine, "just one little push and the idea will roll along on its own.

You might also like:
Best inventions for November
Flying mini robots clean up in design competition
Can technology save us from the storms?
Plastic fantastic: propylene found on Saturn moon
On Bing: more about 3D printers

Cool.
~A.

New bullet expands itself into four connected parts to kill better :-(

New bullet expands itself into four connected parts to kill better:

Earthquakes and the Solar System - YouTube

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=em-uploademail&v=iHQm1KdvMnw&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DiHQm1KdvMnw%26feature%3Dem-uploademail


~A.

Special Report: Lost hooves, dead cattle before Merck halted Zilmax sales | YUCK!

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/30/us-zilmax-merck-cattle-special-report-idUSBRE9BT0NV20131230

Special Report: Lost hooves, dead cattle before Merck halted Zilmax sales

(Reuters) - The U.S. beef industry's dependence on the muscle-building drug Zilmax began unraveling here, on a sweltering summer day, in the dusty cattle pens outside a Tyson Foods Inc slaughterhouse in southeastern Washington state.

As cattle trailers that had traveled up to four hours in 95-degree heat began to unload, 15 heifers and steers hobbled down the ramps on August 5, barely able to walk. The reason: The animals had lost their hooves, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture documents reviewed by Reuters. The documents show the 15 animals were destroyed.

The next day, the hottest day of the month, two more animals with missing hooves arrived by truck. Again, the animals were destroyed, the documents show.

The animals' feet were "basically coming apart," said Keith Belk, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University. Belk said he reviewed photos of the lame cattle, though he declined to say who showed them to him.

The 17 animals had a factor in common, according to an examination of U.S. government documents and interviews with people who had direct knowledge of the events. In the weeks before the cattle were shipped to Tyson's slaughterhouse, outside the city limits of Pasco, all had been fed Merck & Co Inc's profit-enhancing animal feed additive, Zilmax.

The day after the hoofless animals were euthanized on August 6, Tyson told its feedlot customers it would stop accepting Zilmax-fed cattle. After Reuters reported the existence of a videotape of apparently lame Zilmax-fed animals - shown by an official of meatpacking giant JBS USA LLC at a trade meeting in Colorado - Merck itself temporarily suspended sales of the drug in the U.S. and Canada. The rest of the nation's leading meatpackers soon followed Tyson, the largest U.S. meat processor.

Merck, in a statement to Reuters, stressed the safety of its product. It said the company investigates all reports of adverse reactions to its drugs, and did so after the deaths near Pasco.

"Several third-party experts were brought in to evaluate the situation, review the data and identify potential causes for the hoof issue," Merck's statement said. "The findings from the investigation showed that the hoof loss was not due to the fact these animals had received Zilmax."

Merck declined to identify the names of the third-party investigators or provide more detail on the research findings.

After temporarily halting Zilmax sales, Merck continues to state Zilmax is safe when used as directed, with no welfare concerns discovered in 30 research studies since the product was introduced in the United States in 2007. In addition, Merck said, the company is planning more field evaluations of Zilmax, using "a well-designed collection and analysis of data by third-party industry experts." A "prominent" epidemiologist and veterinarian will oversee the work, Merck said.

Tyson Foods spokesman Gary Mickelson said his company doesn't know exactly what happened to the small group of cattle that were destroyed at the plant near Pasco. Some animal health experts have told Tyson the use of Zilmax is a possible cause, he said.

Tyson had seen some cattle mobility issues in the past, but "the issues at Pasco this summer were more severe" than the company had seen before, Mickelson said.

QUESTIONS ARISE

Scientists say they have yet to determine whether Zilmax causes ailments so severe that cattle must be euthanized. One theory is that the federally approved feed additive may compound the effects of common feedlot nutritional disorders such as acidosis, which can affect animals that consume too much starch (primarily grain) or sugar in a short period of time. Heat and animal genetics, too, may be factors.

Regardless, the episode at the Tyson plant - which hasn't been publicly disclosed until now - is coming to light at a time of growing concern over risks to animal and human health posed by the increased use of pharmaceuticals in food production. Livestock pharmaceuticals use is expanding as part of the push to produce more meat at lower cost.

Earlier this month, in an effort to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria that threatens human health, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rolled out new policies to phase out the use of antibiotics that make cows, pigs and chickens plumper. The FDA has said that meat produced from cattle fed with Zilmax is safe for human consumption.

The cases of hoofless cattle also raise ethical questions about whether the drive by modern agriculture to produce greater volumes of food, as cheaply as possible, is coming at the cost of animal welfare.

Of the more than 30 million beef cattle slaughtered in the U.S. annually, most move smoothly through a mechanized system that is among the most efficient in the world.

Reports that Zilmax causes lameness in some animals have raised concerns about the tradeoffs associated with a drug that adds up to 33 pounds of marketable meat to a 1,300-pound steer and has helped some feedlots stay in business at a time of punishing industry consolidation.

Livestock nutritionists, veterinarians and cattle researchers told Reuters that cattle losing hooves would be in great pain. Animals that have lost their hooves may take tentative steps, as if walking on glass, they said. Even when prodded, they sometimes refuse to rise back to their feet.

Livestock researcher Temple Grandin, who has pioneered humane slaughterhouse practices as a consultant to major beef processors, said it would be like a person having their toe nails yanked off.

"It would hurt a whole lot," said Grandin, who said she has not witnessed any of the incidents of Zilmax-fed cattle with lost hooves.

When animals delivered to slaughterhouses are unable to walk on their own, Agriculture Department regulations require such "downer" cattle be destroyed and their meat prevented from reaching consumers.

Federal law requires Merck to report all animal deaths, as well as any other adverse reactions, in connection with use of its products. A review of reports submitted by Merck and others to the FDA shows at least 285 cattle have died unexpectedly or been destroyed in the United States after being fed Zilmax since the drug was introduced in 2007. The FDA reports specify the ailments that led to the unexpected deaths, but do not consistently state whether the animals expired on their own or were euthanized.

According to the reports, reviewed by Reuters through a Freedom of Information Act request, at least 75 animals lost hooves and were euthanized after being fed Zilmax over the past two years. The reports show pneumonia was a factor in the death of 94 Zilmax-fed cattle. And a build-up of gas in bovine stomachs, referred to as bloat, was listed as a cause in 41 cases of cattle fed Zilmax.

Of the 285 animals that died, 113 were fed either an animal-based antibiotic, or another medication to boost weight, or both, in conjunction with Zilmax.

PREPARING FOR A RETURN

Some veterinarians and animal experts say there is no proof Zilmax was the chief cause of any cattle deaths.

"My assessment is that I do not see data supporting the concerns today, at least the data that I have reviewed and been aware of," said University of Nebraska-Lincoln animal science professor Galen Erickson, in response to questions from Reuters about Zilmax's safety.

But some previously staunch supporters of Merck's innovative growth drug are beginning to question the product's safety record.

"Maybe we found the point where we pushed the cattle just so hard in the sake of making a buck that we exceeded the biological limits of the cattle," said Abe Turgeon, a prominent livestock nutritionist, who had previously recommended Zilmax to some customers.

Merck Animal Health, the unit that markets the additive, said proper use of Zilmax "does not affect the safety or well-being of cattle." Moving beyond the 30 studies it cited at the time it suspended Zilmax sales, Merck in August launched an audit of how the product was being used in the field, created an advisory board to review management practices in the feedlot and animal nutrition industries, and provided new funds for field research on Zilmax-fed cattle.

Today, the company has said it plans to reintroduce Zilmax, but noted it is too soon to know when sales to U.S. and Canadian customers may resume.

Merck has begun approaching cattle nutritionists, livestock academics and other professionals who influence opinion in an effort to gain industry insight and win support for the return of the drug, according to several people who have met with the company.

The FDA regulates livestock feed additives sold in the United States, and is charged with intervening when a pharmaceutical product it has approved causes harm when used as directed.

The agency said it has taken no action related to Zilmax. When asked for comment about the adverse-event reports filed by Merck, an FDA spokeswoman in a statement said the agency "has not reached any conclusions on the safety of Zilmax but the agency is continuing to receive and evaluate data. As part of this process, the agency is always interested in new information."

The Merck suspension of Zilmax sales is voluntary, and at this point the company could return Zilmax to the market without seeking permission from the FDA.

PROFIT ON THE PLATE

Zilmax is a medicated feed supplement for beef cattle that belongs to a class of drugs known as beta-agonists, which are also used in humans to ease asthma symptoms. Zilmax, with its active ingredient zilpaterol hydrochloride, is a federally approved weight-gaining supplement. It is added to cattle feed in the weeks before slaughter to add extra pounds of profit-producing meat.

Zilmax was worth nearly $160 million in annual sales in the United States and Canada last year, and was a steady cash generator for Merck's animal health business, which has about $3.3 billion in global sales.

The additive served as a go-to solution for a troubled cattle industry, as one-fifth of the nation's feedlots went out of business over the last decade. With cattle herds in sharp decline, Zilmax worked along with improved animal genetics and feed to produce more meat with fewer animals.

The United States produced nearly 26 billion pounds of beef from a herd of 91 million cattle in 2012, according to USDA data. In 1975, when the nation's cattle herd hit a peak of 135 million head, the industry produced nearly 24 billion pounds of beef.

Last month, beef cattle walking into a U.S. packing plant on average weighed a record 1,346 pounds — up more than 20 percent in the last two decades.

Merck's Zilmax quickly developed a loyal customer base. Its popularity spread even to the show circuit, where ranchers' children today can win prizes exceeding $100,000 for raising big-girth bovines.

ADVERSE EVENTS

Tyson and rival beef processor Cargill Inc have told Reuters they will not accept Zilmax-fed cattle until Merck can provide a scientific vetting of Zilmax's safety to animals and the companies are confident any animal welfare issues are resolved. (Cargill says it didn't see the cattle lameness problems cited by JBS and Tyson.)

Both companies, too, have cited concerns about China and other nations that have barred the importation of meat produced from Zilmax-fed cattle. They fear that if such meat is accidentally sent to these countries, it could hurt their export businesses.

FDA records based on 59 adverse event reports filed since 2008 by Merck and Intervet Inc - the original developer of Zilmax before Merck acquired the firm in 2009 - chronicle incidents of Zilmax-fed cattle experiencing stomach ulcers, brain lesions and blindness. Merck also has reported incidents of Zilmax-fed animals showing signs of lethargy, bloody noses, respiratory problems and heart failure.

In September 2011, an unidentified veterinarian at an Oregon feedlot reported "unusual hoof loss in cattle being fed Zilmax," according to one adverse event report reviewed by Reuters.

In August this year, Merck reported an additional five episodes involving 66 cattle in Oregon and Idaho that lost their hooves after a Zilmax feeding regimen. In some cases, a consulting veterinarian also cited high ambient temperature and a cement-and-rebar floor that may have exacerbated the hoof damage.

Also in August, one Nebraska cattle producer, who is not named in the FDA documents, reported he had more dead cattle when he used Zilmax than when he didn't, according to the documents.

A Reuters review of data kept by the U.S. Agriculture Department show that euthanizations of cattle have risen substantially since Zilmax came on the market.

In the two years after Zilmax was introduced, the number of beef steers and heifers euthanized prior to slaughter at U.S. packing plants rose nearly 175 percent from previous levels. The number of euthanized steers and heifers has ranged between 1,600 and 2,300 cattle each year since then. That new plateau is well above the average of 670 a year in the four years before Zilmax came on the market in 2007.

The government data does not, though, draw a link between Zilmax or any other possible factors and the increase in euthanized cattle at meatpacking plants.

The number of euthanized cattle and the other reports of cattle dying is also quite small relative to the more than 30 million cattle slaughtered each year. It is small enough that it likely hasn't raised significant red flags with the FDA, said David Acheson, the agency's former Associate Commissioner for Food.

"I suspect that that's not going to trigger them to do much," Acheson said.

DEATH IN THE HEAT

Tyson's plant, about 14 miles southeast of Pasco, is an integrated modern-day packing operation, stretching the length of several football fields. Five days a week, more than 1,300 workers arrive and walk past security guards toward a mechanical rumble emanating from the plant's gunmetal gray walls.

Tyson acquired the operation, one of its smaller plants, in 2001. It processes roughly 2,000 cattle a day, according to workers and local residents. Tyson would not comment on the number.

Washington state lies in the Pacific Northwest, with its soaring mountains and chilly rain. But the eastern flatlands around Pasco more closely resemble the Southwest's desert - and sometimes share its soaring summer temperatures.

To guard against the heat, Tyson has provided cover or shade for some holding pens at the plant. Overhead sprinkler systems help cool the cattle, too.

But 2013 saw one of the hottest summers in a quarter century, with at least three heat waves in which temperatures in the area topped 100 degrees, according to National Climatic Data Center. Temperatures were spiking on many of the dates when a total of 37 cattle were euthanized this summer due to lameness associated with Zilmax.

According to USDA documents and people knowledgeable about the events, some of the animals were shipped from Beef Northwest of North Powder, Oregon.

On August 5, of 17 cattle that were euthanized at Tyson's plant, the USDA inspector who condemned the animals noted that 15 had "lost toes." Two were destroyed for other reasons. The inspector identified at least one of the animals in the group that was put down as a heifer originating from Nyssa, Oregon.

Beef Northwest operates a feedlot in Nyssa. Animals making the trip to Pasco would have stood in a trailer for four hours on a 95-degree day as it traveled to Tyson's plant.

John Wilson, managing partner of Beef Northwest, confirmed that his company was using a Zilmax feed regimen this summer. About 40 of Beef Northwest's animals "developed lameness after arriving at a packing plant in two incidents in July and August of this year," he said. Wilson declined to identify the slaughterhouse and would not confirm the animals were destroyed.

Wilson said Beef Northwest had never faced lameness problems with its Zilmax-fed animals before this summer. While Beef Northwest was dispensing Zilmax, Wilson said, the company strictly followed Merck's dosage and other instructions.

Beef Northwest says it frequently conducted internal and third-party audits to ensure employees were not over-feeding Zilmax to the animals.

"In our cases, dosages were not an issue, never an issue," Wilson said in a phone interview. "I'd like to think that we were on the upper edge of the industry as far as heavy oversight of all of our protocols."

BELIEVERS AND NON-BELIEVERS

As feed-grain prices soared amid strong demand among livestock and ethanol producers in recent years, and with drought ravaging the U.S. crop belt, Zilmax seemed like an attractive solution. Some feedlot owners nicknamed it "Vitamin Z."

"We couldn't find feed cheap enough to make any money" on raising cattle, said Turgeon, the cattle nutritionist who works with Beef Northwest.

Many clients had adopted another beta-agonist - Optaflexx, made by Eli Lilly and Co's Elanco Animal Health unit. Elanco is Merck's biggest rival in the animal health business.

The two products use different active ingredients: Optaflexx is based on ractopamine, while Zilmax uses zilpaterol. But Zilmax added more weight to cattle than Optaflexx did, say industry nutritionists and feedlot owners. That perceived advantage helped Zilmax gain market share and sales faster than Optaflexx in recent years, say industry experts.

Turgeon had heard from his customers about lameness problems associated with Zilmax, and a colleague this summer showed him photos of animals with hooves peeling off, he said. Reuters has not seen any photos of cattle with missing hooves.

Merck is now trying to win the industry back. At a closed-door session of an Academy of Veterinary Consultants conference in Denver on December 5, some 300 cattle veterinarians sparred over Zilmax.

During the debate, they broke into informal camps of "believers" who think Zilmax hurts cattle, and "disbelievers" who discount its negative effects, according to Larry Moczygemba, president of the academy.

The veterinarians debated the effects of Zilmax and other beta-agonist drugs, Moczygemba said, without reaching a conclusion. Merck employees stayed in the room, mostly remaining silent.

"Few, if any, think this is just a beta-agonist problem all on its own," Moczygemba said. "But our role as vets puts animal well being first."

(Reporting By P.J. Huffstutter in Pasco, Washington, and Chicago, and Tom Polansek in North Powder, Oregon, and Chicago.; Additional reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Pasco, Brian Grow in Atlanta and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles.; Edited by David Greising and Martin Howell.)

~A.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131219142138.htm

New Salt Compounds Challenge the Foundation of Chemistry

The paper, titled "Unexpected stable stoichiometries of sodium chlorides," documents his predictions about, and experiments in, compressing sodium chloride -- rock salt -- to form new compounds. These compounds validate his methodology for predicting the properties of objects -- a methodology now used worldwide for computational material discovery -- and hold the promise of novel materials and applications.

"I think this work is the beginning of a revolution in chemistry," Oganov says. "We found, at low pressures achievable in the lab, perfectly stable compounds that contradict the classical rules of chemistry. If you apply the rather modest pressure of 200,000 atmospheres -- for comparison purposes, the pressure at the center of the Earth is 3.6 million atmospheres -- everything we know from chemistry textbooks falls apart."

Standard chemistry textbooks say that sodium and chlorine have very different electronegativities, and thus must form an ionic compound with a well-defined composition. Sodium's charge is +1, chlorine's charge is -1; sodium will give away an electron, chlorine wants to take an electron. According to chemistry texts and common sense, the only possible combination of these atoms in a compound is 1:1 -- rock salt, or NaCl.

"We found crazy compounds that violate textbook rules -- NaCl3, NaCl7, Na3Cl2, Na2Cl, and Na3Cl," says Weiwei Zhang, the lead author and visiting scholar at the Oganov lab and Stony Brook's Center for Materials by Design, directed by Oganov. "These compounds are thermodynamically stable and, once made, remain indefinitely; nothing will make them fall apart. Classical chemistry forbids their very existence. Classical chemistry also says atoms try to fulfill the octet rule -- elements gain or lose electrons to attain an electron configuration of the nearest noble gas, with complete outer electron shells that make them very stable. Well, here that rule is not satisfied."

This opens all kinds of possibilities. Oganov posited that, if you mix NaCl with metallic sodium, compress in a diamond anvil cell, and heat, you will get sodium-rich compounds like Na3Cl. He likewise theorized that, if you take NaCl, mix it with pure chlorine, and compress and heat, you will get chlorine-rich compounds such as NaCl3. This is exactly what was seen in the experiments, which were performed by the team of Alexander F. Goncharov of Carnegie Institution of Washington, confirming Oganov's predictions. "When you change the theoretical underpinnings of chemistry, that's a big deal," Goncharov says. "But what it also means is that we can make new materials with exotic properties."

Among the compounds Oganov and his team created are two-dimensional metals, where electricity is conducted along the layers of the structure. "One of these materials -- Na3Cl -- has a fascinating structure," he says. "It is [composed of] layers of NaCl and layers of pure sodium. The NaCl layers act as insulators; the pure sodium layers conduct electricity. Systems with two-dimensional electrical conductivity have attracted a lot of interest."

Like much of science, Oganov's pursuit began with curiosity -- and obstinacy.

"For a long time, this idea was haunting me -- when a chemistry textbook says that a certain compound is impossible, what does it really mean, impossible? Because I can, on the computer, place atoms in certain positions and in certain proportions. Then I can compute the energy. 'Impossible' really means that the energy is going to be high. So how high is it going to be? And is there any way to bring that energy down, and make these compounds stable?"

To Oganov, impossible didn't mean something absolute. "The rules of chemistry are not like mathematical theorems, which cannot be broken," he says. "The rules of chemistry can be broken, because impossible only means 'softly' impossible! You just need to find conditions where these rules no longer hold."

Oganov's team harnessed their own energy to bring the research to fruition. "We have a fantastic team," he says. "The theoretical work was done here at Stony Brook; the experimental work took place at the Geophysical Laboratory in the Carnegie Institution of Washington."

Additionally, Oganov's team utilized the NSF-funded Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) by running USPEX code -- the world-leading code for crystal structure prediction -- on Stampede, a supercomputer at the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas at Austin. USPEX was developed by Oganov's lab and he estimates over 1,500 researchers use it worldwide.

His discovery may have application in the planetary sciences, where high-pressure phenomena abound. It may explain results of other experiments, where researchers compressed materials and got puzzling results. His computational methodology and structure-prediction algorithms will help researchers predict material combinations and structures that exhibit desired properties and levels of stability.

"We have learned an important lesson -- that even in well-defined systems, like sodium chloride, you can find totally new chemistry, and totally new and very exciting materials," Oganov says. "It's like discovering a new continent; now we need to map the land. Current rules cannot cope with this new chemistry. We need to invent something that will."

it aint over til its over….

~A.