ECOLOGY

WITH GLACIERS MELTING, MOUNTAINS ARE CRUMBLING

REUTERS - Hansruedi Burgener has welcomed up to 800 people a day --
twice the average number of visitors -- to his remote mountain hostel in
the Alps this summer. They all hope to watch a rock the size of two
Empire State Buildings collapse onto the canyon floor nearly 700 feet
below, as retreating glacier ice robs a cliff face on the eastern edge
of the Eiger Mountain of its main support. . .

Every few minutes or so, there is a surprisingly loud sound as a boulder
comes thundering down, sending a cloud of dust into the air. The sharp
crackle of smaller stones rolling down the cliff face is almost
continuous. The spectacle is a dramatic reminder that the Alps have been
hit hard by warming temperatures, and underscore warnings from
scientists that thawing permafrost -- the frozen soil that can glue
mountains together -- will cause more havoc in the future. Glaciers in
the Alps may have lost up to a tenth of their volume in the hot 2003
summer alone, researchers at Zurich university have said, and the ice
now only occupies between half and a third of its volume in 1850.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14227248/

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JELLYFISH PLAGUE ON EUROPEAN BEACHES

STEPHEN CASTLE, INDEPENDENT - A plague of jellyfish along Europe's
beaches has become the latest environmental hazard to be blamed on
global warming. Holidaymakers heading for Mediterranean beaches are
being warned to prepare for an unprecedented invasion of the
invertebrates whose sting can, in extreme cases, cause heart failure. .
. Jellyfish spend most of their lives in the open seas, because that is
where the water tends to be more saline and warmer. However, researchers
believe they approach beaches when water near the coast, which is
generally colder and less saline, stops acting as a barrier. That has
happened in many places as there is less freshwater entering the sea
from rivers because of the drought.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0808-02.htm

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OTHER NEWS
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PANTS MANUFACTURER MAY HAVE SOLVED PLUMBERS' CRACK

UPI - Fort Worth, Texas, pants manufacturer Williamson-Dickie has
announced plans for a line of jeans designed to prevent rear-end
exposure. The company said it will drop the waistband on its Dickies
work jeans by a few inches and add extra room in the seat of the pants,
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported Tuesday. . . The announcement has
been welcomed by many forced to bend over in their jobs, including
plumbers, a profession notorious for exposure problems. . . Ragsdale
said the issue does not create much discussion at the company. "We don't
talk about that too much anymore here," Ragsdale said. However, he said:
"If there's anything we can do to beautify America, we're in favor of
doing it."

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060808-015440-2913r

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CONTRACT DISPUTE LOCKS HUNDREDS OF CARS IN AUTOMATED GARAGE

WIRED - The robot that parks cars at the Garden Street Garage in
Hoboken, New Jersey, trapped hundreds of its wards last week for several
days. But it wasn't the technology car owners had to curse, it was the
terms of a software license. The garage is owned by the city; the
software, by Robotic Parking of Clearwater, Florida. In the course of a
contract dispute, the city of Hoboken had police escort the Robotic
employees from the premises just a few days before the contract between
both parties was set to expire. What the city didn't understand or
perhaps concern itself with, is that they sent the company packing with
its manuals and the intellectual property rights to the software that
made the giant robotic parking structure work.

The Hoboken garage is one of a handful of fully automated parking
structures that make more efficient use of space by eliminating ramps
and driving lanes, lifting and sliding automobiles into slots and
shuffling them as needed. If the robot shuts down, there is no practical
way to manually remove parked vehicles.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71554-0.html?tw=rss.index