Posts tagged computer
No more geeky hardware in the trash or go to jail
Jun 22nd
Many Electronics will be Prohibited from Trash Bins Starting July 1
The Electronic Recycling Jobs Act bans electronics from landfills
Boulder County, Colo. – Effective July 1, Boulder County residents can no longer place computers and many other types of electronics at the curb, or in waste bins, for collection and disposal. The Electronic Recycling Jobs Act, signed by Governor Hickenlooper in April of 2012, intends many benefits for the state including job creation through material recovery, diversion of hazardous material from landfills and reduction of energy and raw material resource demands from mining and manufacturing.
Banned devices include:
- television sets
- central processing units (CPUs)
- computer monitors
- peripherals
- printers
- fax machines
- laptops
- notebooks
- ultra books
- net books
- electronic tablets
- digital video disc players
- video cassette recorders
- video display devices with a screen greater than four inches
The law requires that consumers deliver their electronic equipment to collection facilities or collection events. Boulder County will no longer accept waste electronics at the Nederland or Allenspark transfer stations or county recycling drop off centers. Residents of Nederland and Allenspark can expect county-organized collection events on or around Labor Day weekend.
Electronic devices contain a number of hazardous elements that can migrate if disposed in a landfill, potentially contaminating groundwater and soil. Brokers and recyclers with an e-Steward or R2 certification have demonstrated that they meet specific environmental standards and safely manage used electronics. Residents of Boulder County can find a list of certified electronics recyclers and local collection events atwww.bouldercounty.org/env/recycle/pages/ewaste.aspx.
For more information, contact Jeff Callahan, Boulder County Resource Conservation Division at 720-564-2221 orjcallahan@bouldercounty.org.
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Boulder police investigating burglary; looking for three male suspects
Jun 4th
Boulder police are investigating a burglary which took place in the 1500 block of 11th St. around 2:05 a.m. on Monday, June 3, 2013.
Several roommates told police the suspects are three black males who had been invited to share cigarettes with one of the roommates, who was socializing with several friends on the home’s front patio. The roommate saw the males walking on the street smoking cigarettes, and invited them onto the patio. The males appeared to have left when the friends went inside.
However, one of the roommates, a 21-year-old female, told police that she woke up in her bedroom to one of the suspects massaging her and kissing her. She told the suspect to leave and he did.
Another roommate was awakened by a male who entered her room, and who claimed to be looking for his phone. The roommate told the male to leave, and he complied. Police don’t know if the same male entered both bedrooms.
The suspects stole a number of electronic and computer items. It also appears that they took spare vehicle keys and entered two of the roommate’s vehicles, which were parked outside.
Police are looking for the three suspects, who are described below.
Suspect #1: Light-skinned black male, 5’10” – 6’01” tall, mid-twenties with a muscular build. He was wearing a white shirt and blue jeans, and spoke with an “African” accent.
Suspect #2: Dark-skinned black male, 6’0” tall, mid-twenties with a “skinny” build. He was wearing a red hat, a red shirt and blue jeans, and spoke with an “African” accent.
Suspect #3: Dark-skinned black male, 6’02” tall, mid-twenties with a “skinny” build. He was wearing a dark-colored Rwanda soccer jersey. He had light facial hair and spoke with a slight “African” accent.
The case number is 13-7252. Detectives are following several leads in an effort to identify the men. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Chuck Heidel at 303-441-3339. Those who have information but wish to remain anonymous may contact the Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or 1-800-444-3776. Tips can also be submitted through the Crime Stoppers website at www.crimeshurt.com. Those submitting tips through Crime Stoppers that lead to the arrest and filing of charges on a suspect(s) may be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000 from Crime Stoppers.
— CITY–
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Volcanic aerosols, not pollutants, tamped down recent Earth warming, says CU study
Mar 1st
The study results essentially exonerate Asia, including India and China, two countries that are estimated to have increased their industrial sulfur dioxide emissions by about 60 percent from 2000 to 2010 through coal burning, said lead study author Ryan Neely, who led the research as part of his CU-Boulder doctoral thesis. Small amounts of sulfur dioxide emissions from Earth’s surface eventually rise 12 to 20 miles into the stratospheric aerosol layer of the atmosphere, where chemical reactions create sulfuric acid and water particles that reflect sunlight back to space, cooling the planet.
Neely said previous observations suggest that increases in stratospheric aerosols since 2000 have counterbalanced as much as 25 percent of the warming scientists blame on human greenhouse gas emissions. “This new study indicates it is emissions from small to moderate volcanoes that have been slowing the warming of the planet,” said Neely, a researcher at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, a joint venture of CU-Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
A paper on the subject was published online in Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union. Co-authors include Professors Brian Toon and Jeffrey Thayer from CU-Boulder; Susan Solomon, a former NOAA scientist now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Jean Paul Vernier from NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.; Catherine Alvarez, Karen Rosenlof and John Daniel from NOAA; and Jason English, Michael Mills and Charles Bardeen from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder.
The new project was undertaken in part to resolve conflicting results of two recent studies on the origins of the sulfur dioxide in the stratosphere, including a 2009 study led by the late David Hoffman of NOAA indicating aerosol increases in the stratosphere may have come from rising emissions of sulfur dioxide from India and China. In contrast, a 2011 study led by Vernier — who also provided essential observation data for the new GRL study — showed moderate volcanic eruptions play a role in increasing particulates in the stratosphere, Neely said.
The new GRL study also builds on a 2011 study led by Solomon showing stratospheric aerosols offset about a quarter of the greenhouse effect warming on Earth during the past decade, said Neely, also a postdoctoral fellow in NCAR’s Advanced Study Program.
The new study relies on long-term measurements of changes in the stratospheric aerosol layer’s “optical depth,” which is a measure of transparency, said Neely. Since 2000, the optical depth in the stratospheric aerosol layer has increased by about 4 to 7 percent, meaning it is slightly more opaque now than in previous years.
“The biggest implication here is that scientists need to pay more attention to small and moderate volcanic eruptions when trying to understand changes in Earth’s climate,” said Toon of CU-Boulder’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. “But overall these eruptions are not going to counter the greenhouse effect. Emissions of volcanic gases go up and down, helping to cool or heat the planet, while greenhouse gas emissions from human activity just continue to go up.”
The key to the new results was the combined use of two sophisticated computer models, including the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model, or WACCM, Version 3, developed by NCAR and which is widely used around the world by scientists to study the atmosphere. The team coupled WACCM with a second model, the Community Aerosol and Radiation Model for Atmosphere, or CARMA, which allows researchers to calculate properties of specific aerosols and which has been under development by a team led by Toon for the past several decades.
Neely said the team used the Janus supercomputer on campus to conduct seven computer “runs,” each simulating 10 years of atmospheric activity tied to both coal-burning activities in Asia and to emissions by volcanoes around the world. Each run took about a week of computer time using 192 processors, allowing the team to separate coal-burning pollution in Asia from aerosol contributions from moderate, global volcanic eruptions. The project would have taken a single computer processor roughly 25 years to complete, said Neely.
The scientists said 10-year climate data sets like the one gathered for the new study are not long enough to determine climate change trends. “This paper addresses a question of immediate relevance to our understanding of the human impact on climate,” said Neely. “It should interest those examining the sources of decadal climate variability, the global impact of local pollution and the role of volcanoes.”
While small and moderate volcanoes mask some of the human-caused warming of the planet, larger volcanoes can have a much bigger effect, said Toon. When Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted in 1991, it emitted millions of tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere that cooled the Earth slightly for the next several years.
The research for the new study was funded in part through a NOAA/ ESRL-CIRES Graduate Fellowship to Neely. The National Science Foundation and NASA also provided funding for the research project. The Janus supercomputer is supported by NSF and CU-Boulder and is a joint effort of CU-Boulder, CU Denver and NCAR.
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