1. Rep. Paul Ryan GOP Response Transcript: http://www.npr.org/2011/01/26/133227396/transcript-gop-response-from-rep-paul-ryan?ft=1&f=1014
2. Renewed Push to Give Obama an Internet "Kill Switch": http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20029302-501465.html
3. American Inventions: http://corporate.britannica.com/press/inventions.html
TREE RING INFO
Notes from Dr. Michael Stambaugh, Research Associate Professor, Dept of Forestry at Univ. of Missouri
What Tree Rings Tell Us / What to Look For
· Width of the ring is most obvious. If you have rings the size of your finger wide and all of a sudden you have one the width of a hair, visually you know something significant happened here. Once something significant happens to a tree, it has to live with that act for the rest of its life.
· Let’s say a tree is growing fast (wide rings), tree gets infected by a hurricane or a fire, but it doesn’t kill it but really hurts it, there will a small ring, can’t grow as well. Small rings until it fully recovers.
· No space between the rings – two parts to the ring.
· For example, conifers usually have light colored band and dark colored band. Light band is early wood – that’s formed early in the year. Growth starts to slow during summer and cells become smaller and thicker. That’s called latewood. Light + dark band = 1 year.
· In a conifer each ring = 1 yr (this isn’t the case for trees in the tropics)
· You could have wide earlywood and narrow latewood. That would mean it was drier late in the year
· Narrow earlywood and wide latewood = dry in the spring, wet in the summer
· Typically when trees are born, produce circular rings all the way around the entire stem. After an injury, tree may die around portions of the stem so the tree only grows now from portions that are alive. That produces curvatures. If there’s a wound, tree grows over that wound. If the tree doesn’t cover up that dead part of the tree, it will become hollow
Common Enemies to Tree Growth
***all of these conditions will look the same in tree rings – narrow width ring***
· Drought
· Massive wildfires – might leave some charcoal amongst the rings
· Insects
· People - pollution (Some of that evidence in US. See it a lot more in Europe)
· Extreme weather – hurricanes, flooding: could go both ways. If directly influences tree, all branches get blown off. Abruptly go from growth to very reduced growth. If tree growing and it doesn’t get injured after hurricanes, those trees now have new light, less competition grow faster.
Plane Turbulence
Mike Boyd, Boyd Group President (Aviation Consultant)
· Depends on turbulence. If you’re in severe turbulence, you really slow down because it’s less stress on airplane. That’s the kind of turbulence you need to get out of, try to avoid. Sometimes you don’t coming. Moderate turbulence – the planes are built to take some turbulence.