Where Does New York Draw the Line for Tribal Tobacco?

Indian tribes in upstate New York has begun to adopt an idea that has been around since the early 90s:  growing and selling their own tobacco, in part to evade paying tax for cigarettes.  This is a respectable move on the tribes part, but it seems difficult to draw the line at where it becomes harmful to the states tax revenue.  The perspective of the tribes is that they're simply doing what they need to do to avoid poverty and just be able to make a living.  I understand this and since these tribes are federally recognized and can sell items without tax, there does not seem to be a problem at first glance.  However, when digging deeper, it seems that this practice may become damaging to the states revenues.  Some tribes sell their cigarettes for around four dollars a pack, which is less than the tax alone when buying through a typical New York gas station or convenience store.  This loss of revenue could potentially be damaging and I think the role the government should play is something along the lines of what the Altria spokesman, David Sutton, said:  “All cigarettes sold to non-Native American New Yorkers need to be tax-paid — regardless of who manufactures them — or New York State will continue to lose legitimate and significant tax revenue, and law-abiding retailers will continue to be impacted by cigarette tax evasion.”  This makes sense and while it may seem like this fix is unnecessary or over-controlling, it seems to be the only option to prevent a significant loss in tax revenue in the future.  


Nytimes article: Link to article

Wisconsin Bill Would Allow Hunting of a Once-Rare Crane

In Wisconsin, a place where word of dwindling numbers of sandhill cranes set off elaborate conservation efforts decades ago, the birds — elegant, prehistoric-looking creatures that bugle hauntingly — are once more at the center of discussion among state leaders. This time, a member of the State Assembly wants to allow cranes to be hunted.

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Mike Siegel/The Seattle Times, via Associated Press

An estimated 72,000 sandhill cranes live along the migratory path that runs from Wisconsin to the Southeast.

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For some among the scores of volunteers who wake up before dawn on a chilly spring day each year to watch the skies for cranes as part of anAnnual Midwest Crane Count, organized by the Wisconsin-basedInternational Crane Foundation, the notion seems unthinkable.

But some farmers said they desperately need a reprieve from the cranes that, they complain, eat acres and acres of newly seeded cornfields. “The good thing is that there’s been a recovery here in the population of sandhill cranes,” said Paul Zimmerman, a lobbyist for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation. “But when it gets to be too much of a good thing, it’s a problem.”

While Wisconsin’s sandhill crane population dipped to low levels in the 1930s, partly because of hunting, these cranes seem now to be flourishing. More than 600,000 exist worldwide, said Kent Van Horn, a migratory game bird ecologist from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and an estimated 72,000 — more than double the estimate from a decade ago — live along the migratory path that runs from states like Wisconsin down to the Southeastern United States.

More than a dozen states, most of them in the West, already allow hunting of sandhill cranes. Even as Kentucky ended its first sandhill crane hunting season last month, more states were said to be weighing the idea. Some hunters described the sandhill crane as having a surprisingly rich flavor, akin, they said, to pork chops.

Still, in a place like Wisconsin, rich both in traditions of hunting and bird-watching, this is complicated territory. This is, after all, a state that battled for years over whether to hunt mourning doves (ultimately allowed) and that is already preparing for a fight over whether wolves, newly removed from endangered status in the region, should now be hunted.

Advocates of the crane hunting legislation, introduced on Wednesday by State Representative Joel Kleefisch, emphasized that it would allow officials to limit the number of cranes harvested and would require hunters to complete an education course. Officials from the International Crane Foundation said they were maintaining a neutral stance because the foundation views itself as a conservation group focused on scientific research about cranes and their ecosystems, not on politics.

But Peter Cannon, president of the Madison Audubon Society, said he feared that the extremely rare whooping crane might be mistaken for a sandhill crane during a hunt, and he said that farmers could use chemicals, distasteful to cranes, on corn.

My Take On This Article: Though this tugs at my heartstrings as an animal lover, there is simply no stop to hunting. Sure there are animals we want to stay on this planet because they're cool to look at and admire, but we've been hunting since before we even had a word for the very action itself. The issue of mistaken identity definitely raises some questions about the regulation and enforcement of this bill, which is why I was glad to see the education course which would be mandatory for a hunter to hunt a sandhill crane. 

300 Million Year Old "Pompeii of the Permian Period" Discovered in China

"A reconstruction of the 300-million-year-old peat-forming forest at a site near Wuda, China. (c) University of Pennsylvania"

An 11,000 square foot forest was found in China this week, one that had been buried in coal for nearly 300 million years.  What scientists are calling a "time capsule"  is a surprisingly well preserved area with now extinct species of trees and plants.  The 66-cm ash layer preserved these plants and topped trees.  Photos can be seen in the official PNAS report here.  I think it is amazing how well an ash layer can preserve plant life like it did here.  For 300 million years, the fossils held up very well.  Hopefully something good with come of these findings, I would love to learn more about our Earth during the time that the continental plates were still forming Pangaea.

ARTICLE: znescience - 300 million year old forest discovered under coal mine in China

UPDATE 2/23/2012 - As for laws this connects to, it's difficult to say.  The entire study is done outside of our country on the other side of the world.  So, if any laws come into play here, they are likely international laws or one of a foreign country's.
Most likely, this study does not conflict or reference any sort of law, since the nature of the study is studying ash fossils.

Extinct Human Genome Fully Recovered from Fossil

Last week, a team of scientists were able to structure an entire genome of an extinct Denisovan human from a fraction of a finger bone discovered in March 2010.  Denisova Hominin existed during the Paleolithic period.  The actual finger was carbon dated and is assumed to have come from a time around 40,000 BP.  The DNA sequence is so well-covered that it has "fewer errors than most genomes from present-day humans that have been determined to date".  With this data, cloning is entirely possible and the team behind these findings hope their findings will be used in such a way.  

It's hard to believe that all of this was possible with 10 milligrams of a finger bone fragment.  This is one of the most impressive articles I have read, and cannot wait to hear more about this throughout the year.  A paper describing the genome is to be published sometime this year, and should further explain this incredible finding.  

an artist's sketch of denisova hominin

This article goes hand in hand with a couple words from our coat of arms.  'Enlightenment' and 'Knowledge'.  These findings are key for us as a species to understand where we came from.  Evolution is becoming more and more understood as modern science continues to uncover biological secrets from our past.  

ARTICLE: PhysOrg: Entire genome of extinct human decoded from fossil  

Recycled Waste Water

More and more water-treatment plants are recycling waste water through the tap. Treated water is replacing ground water, such as in the greater San Diego area.

NASA's Biocapsule. Could this be the future of medicine?

The NASA Biocapsule is a very impressive solution to a great number of problems that astronauts may face while traveling the universe.  The simple, yet highly effective, capsule is relatively inexpensive and has scientists rethinking the future of medicine.  The possibility that these may be used on Earth within the next 10 years is very exciting.  What would have been science fiction only years ago is now a feasible solution to a number of different diseases and human health problems.  I would like to see this being used to treat people with diabetes, as stated in the article.  Who knows what other ailments may eventually be treated by these Biocapsules?  


ARTICLE:
Gizmodo: "The Miraculous NASA Breakthrough That Could Save Millions of Lives (UPDATED)"