H ALIBUT HERALD

December 30, 2009

Aurora Borealis: Nature's Holiday Light Display

The mechanism that causes the aurora is more exotic sounding than the name. Essentially, it is the result of the
emission of photons, which happens when ionized nitrogen atoms regain an electron and excited oxygen and nitrogen
atoms return to a grounded state. All of this occurs about 50 miles above the surface of the earth, in the layer of the
atmosphere known as the ionosphere.
READ ON: http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2009/12/aurora-borealis-natures-holiday-light-display.php

A 'Blue Moon' for New Year's Eve

Anyone hoping for something special in 2010 will get started
on the right foot: a rare blue moon will grace the skies New
Year’s Eve, an event that happens only once every 19 years.

Blue moons aren’t really blue. They’re second full moons that
fall within a single calendar month. At 29.5 days, the lunar
cycle is slightly shorter than the typical month, which puts a
second full moon on a monthly calendar every 2.5 years.

The double full moon can occur in any month, except

February, which is too short. The last time it happened on New
Year’s Eve was in 1990. The next one won’t be until 2028.
READ ON: http://news.discovery.com/space/a-blue-moon-
for-new-years-eve.html
Famous San Francisco Sea Lions Abandon Their Pier 39 Post Curlew quest: Volunteers
in 35 Countries to Search
for a 'Lost' Bird Species

The blubbery sea lions at Pier 39, one of San Francisco’s smelliest and most famous tourist
attractions are gone. During the last week of November, they left the wooden docks on which
they’ve spent the last 20 years (no one knows why they came) and no one knows if they’ll be
coming back.

Just last month, Pier 39, famous in San Francisco for its sea lions and the throngs of tourists
they attract, was groaning under the weight of more than 1,500 of the animals. The record
number delighted tourists and baffled experts.
READ ON: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/disappearing-sea-lions/
http://news.discovery.com/animals/sea-lions-san-francisco.html

Cooking Up Luck for the New Year

In this week’s Recipes
for Health, Martha Rose
Shulman explores
traditional lucky foods
from around the world.
Like looking for a needle in an entire
In Italy, lentils and field of haystacks, volunteers and
raisins resemble coins scientists will fan out across Europe,
and swell when cooked, Africa and Asia this winter to try to find
and are usually a rare bird species that has not been
accompanied by pork, a seen in nearly a decade.
symbol of prosperity. In
Provence, the lucky dish The critically endangered, possibly
is chickpeas, while extinct, slender-billed curlew (Numenius
people in the American tenuirostris) was last observed in 2001.
South ring in the New Year with black-eyed peas. Even before that, it was rarely seen.
Only one curlew nest has ever been
Here are six recipes for cooking up some good luck for the New Year.
READ ON: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/cooking-up-luck-for-the-new- discovered, and that was in Siberia a
year/?src=twt&twt=nytimes century ago. The birds used to winter in
Morocco, but they last appeared there
in 1995.
All Londoners Will be Within a Mile of a Charging Station by READ ON:
2015 http://www.scientificamerican.com/bl
og/post.cfm?id=curlew-quest-
volunteers-in-35-count-2009-12-28

London mayor Boris Johnson launched a

new plan called the Electric Vehicle Delivery
Plan for London that will allow all Londoners
to be within one mile of an electric vehicle
charging station in five years.

The plan calls for the installation of 25,000

charging points at public, residential and
commercial spaces by 2015 in order to
encourage the addition of 100,000 EVs
READ ON: http://www.ecogeek.org/component/content/article/3023 within the city ASAP.
The Green Rich List: A special survey of how the world's MNN’s 2009 Photos of the Year
wealthiest people are turning into eco-pioneers

This first Sunday Times Green Rich List shows that the enthusiasm among
the world’s wealthiest for investments in areas as diverse as electric cars,
solar power and geothermal energy is unaffected by the recession. The list
is much longer than pictured here
READ ON:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/specials/article5816774.

7 Weird and Wacky Endangered Birds

It's hard to miss the
rhinoceros hornbill,
even in the wild:
Though this three-
foot tall bird weighs
only about 6
pounds, the brightly
colored bill makes it A photographic review of 2009.
stand out in any VIEW ALL:
environment. They http://www.mnn.com/technology/gadgets-
have long, thick, electronics/photos/mnns-2009-photos-of-the-year
curly eyelashes and
are one of the few
birds with Eco-photos of the week: Dec27-Jan2
eyelashes!

Only about 600

remain in Morocco,
Syria, and Turkey
combined. The bill,
while long, is more
flexible than
dangerous, and the
birds rarely fight
with each other--
though they do eat
everything from
snails and
scorpions to small
birds and lizards.
VIEW ALL & READ ON: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/12/7- VIEW ALL:
weird-and-wacky-endangered-birds.php http://www.mnn.com/technology/gadgets-
electronics/photos/eco-photos-of-the-week-dec-27-
jan-2
Events
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UVy7uUceXw
The VAHC meetings begin at
7:30 p.m. in the Aquatic Planet
classroom on the first Wednesday
of each month. Meet at the
Aquaquest reception entrance.
Talks generally get going around
8 p.m. after a hobby club Q & A
session. The talks/meetings are
free to attend, but if you find
yourself coming to quite a few, a
membership to the club is always
a great idea (a mere $20/year!)