Earth

Scientists have invented a new material that is so lightweight it can sit atop a fluffy dandelion without crushing the little fuzzy seeds. It's so lightweight, Styrofoam is 100 times heavier. It is so lightweight, in fact, that the research team consisting of scientists at UC Irvine, HRL Laboratories and Caltech say in the peer-reviewed Nov. 18 issue of Science that it is the lightest material on Earth, and no one has asked them to run a correction yet. That's light! The material has been dubbed "ultralight metallic microlattice," and according to a news release sent out by UCI, it consists of 99.99% air thanks to its "microlattice" cellular architecture.

"They can pick up trash on the ground so the water won't be polluted." MITCHELL GRANDIA, 8 Costa Mesa "They can clean up the Earth because there's a lot of trash." MARCO TREJO, 8 Costa Mesa "We can pick up the cans and the bags ... so we have more dolphins." JESSICA BRAVO, 8 Costa Mesa "We can clean up the bags and wrappers so the wind doesn't blow it into the ocean." THUAN TRUONG, 8 Costa Mesa "If you see trash, pick it up so you don't pollute the water."

Let me fill Joseph N. Bell?s ?thimble? of scientific knowledge to overflowing with some real scientific facts (?Motives degrade debate,? Dec. 17). According to Bell, anyone who doesn?t fall in lock-step behind his chosen selection of ?scientists? is a global warming denier akin to a holocaust denier. What a crock! The Earth has been cooling for 10 years or so. The planet?s climate changes constantly ? always has, always will. There have been six ice ages in the last 2 million years, where the level of the seas has fallen 300 feet or more in the glacial period and then have risen 300 feet again in the inevitable warming period that always follows.

Alex Coolman As the skies to the east of Costa Mesa grow brown with smog and the waters to the west of Newport Beach are increasingly threatened with mysterious pollutants, Bob Parry worries about a passage in the Bible. Specifically, he worries about Psalm 24 , where it says "the earth is the lord's." It's a passage Parry thinks is too frequently ignored, not only by America's environmentally reckless society in general, but also by the religious communities who have a particular obligation to consider the relationship between faith and ecology.

Tariq Malik and Jack Schneider HUNTINGTON BEACH -- A man attempting to run around the world crossed paths with Newport Beach's Dave Kunst, the first man to walk the globe. Robert Garside, 33, of England, took a breather Friday in Huntington Beach as he made his way across North America. He hopes to become the first person to run across the world's seven continents. "It feels good to take the rest of the day off," said Garside, who over the last four years has run across Europe, Asia, Australia and South America, totaling about 30,000 miles.

Construction has begun on an eco-friendly church adjacent to Newport Beach's Big Canyon. The church held an official ground-breaking ceremony April 23, and crews have begun grading the future site of St. Mark Presbyterian Church's new sanctuary on San Joaquin Hills Road near MacArthur Boulevard. The church is the first of its kind to be sponsored by Audubon International, a group similar to the Audubon Society that encourages tree planting at new developments. Church officials plan to plant 530 trees on the site once slated to be an offramp for a ill-fated freeway proposed to run down MacArthur Boulevard.

Walt Disney was once known for producing beautiful nature films starring real animals instead of their cartoon counterparts. “Earth” is a welcome return to the grand documentary style he pioneered in the 1950s with “The Living Desert.” Modern cinematography and satellite images magnify the stunning visuals in this first-rate production. “Earth” begins with dazzling views of Earth from space. Starting near the North Pole, it focuses first on a family of polar bears living on the edge of the melting arctic ice cap. Moving south, the everyday lives of creatures great and small are revealed in fascinating detail all across the planet.

Q: The term "Mother Nature" is used a lot. We hear about Mother Nature's fury, Mother Nature's wrath or Mother Nature "throwing everything at us. " Isn't God in control of the weather? Where did Mother Nature come from and why the feminine angle? Curious minds want to know! — R., Dix Hills, NY, via my personal e-mail. (Hey, the guy is president of my synagogue!) A: I'm a bit embarrassed to say that all this talk originated with a margarine ad in the in which an actress dressed up as Mother Nature complained that "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!"

Forever Love~ A sailor never … he just sails away… No time on Earth is long enough to be with those we love or to prepare our hearts for goodbye~ March 19, 1946 - Christmas Morning 2012 Looking forward to hearing from you! Christine christinecarr@mac.com

With a black garbage bag in hand, second-grader Hayden Marshbank led the way at morning recess Friday for more than a dozen of her peers over the blacktop and onto the field in search of litter. Hayden not only leads, but founded Adams Elementary School's Trash Pick-Up Team, which goes out during recess in search of any trash their peers at the Costa Mesa campus might have left behind. "I did this because I thought it would help our Earth be more clean," the 7-year-old said.

Although the lights were dimmed and the studio soundless, a chair, front and center, bespoke a human presence. Taped to the wall, a sign declared that a set of ankle bells had recently gone missing. Before long, the pitter-patter of pint-sized feet filled the room as did sollukatu - rhythmic syllables corresponding to the sounds produced by musical instruments. Ramya Harishankar demonstrated immaculate body posture, hand gestures and expressions while clad in traditional Indian attire.

Originally, I had anticipated writing about Earth Day and the obligation that people of faith have to care for God's creation. After all, if we cannot be the prophetic voice and model an earth-conscious life, how can we possibly honor our God? And yet, the events of this week demand reflection. Eyes glued to the television, tears streaming down my face, a face that mirrors a nation of faces in mourning, I try to make sense of the senseless. I'm not a news junkie. I cannot do hour after hour of television.

Q: The term "Mother Nature" is used a lot. We hear about Mother Nature's fury, Mother Nature's wrath or Mother Nature "throwing everything at us. " Isn't God in control of the weather? Where did Mother Nature come from and why the feminine angle? Curious minds want to know! — R., Dix Hills, NY, via my personal e-mail. (Hey, the guy is president of my synagogue!) A: I'm a bit embarrassed to say that all this talk originated with a margarine ad in the in which an actress dressed up as Mother Nature complained that "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!"

Forever Love~ A sailor never … he just sails away… No time on Earth is long enough to be with those we love or to prepare our hearts for goodbye~ March 19, 1946 - Christmas Morning 2012 Looking forward to hearing from you! Christine christinecarr@mac.com

Vanis Buckholz walks into the OASIS Senior Center, waving hello and being greeted like the regular he is. But at 10 years old, Vanis' visit is strictly business. As founder and president and head picker of the Re "Cycle" er recycling business, Vanis stops at the OASIS center several times each week, picking up plastic water bottles and loading them into a bicycle trailer he recently received as a birthday gift. "I just think it's wonderful," said Celeste Jardine-Haug, director of the OASIS center.

Miles of coastal scrub-lined trails winding around the San Joaquin Marsh ponds were the perfect setting on Earth Day for some 30 hikers to take part in a community walk. The event was a partnership between the Irvine Ranch Water District, which owns the land, and the city of Irvine in observance of the national day. "We are one of the nation's leaders in stewardship," Mayor Sukhee Kang said before setting out on one of the twelve miles of trails on Saturday. "The preservation of 16,000 acres is a giant step and commitment to the environment," Kang continued as reference to the city's total acreage of preserved open space.

The human race has shown a remarkable capacity throughout history to ignore physical reality and embrace demonstrably false facts. When Galileo was bold enough to assert the sun rather than the earth was the center of the universe he was put under house arrest for the remainder of his life by religious authorities. Those unfortunate souls who claimed the earth was round and not flat risked being put to death. Once again our species is in denial about the reality of climate change.

Call it "Earth Day at the Bay. " The Newport Bay Conservancy will present the 22nd annual Earth Day at the Bay on Sunday. The event is located at the Peter and Mary Muth Interpretive Center within the Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve. This free ecological festival, "Preserving Nature for the Future," takes place from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Earth Day is a time for all of us to think about how we can protect our planet and preserve it for the future. There are many ways to do so: recycling, reusing, conserving resources, preventing pollution.

With a black garbage bag in hand, second-grader Hayden Marshbank led the way at morning recess Friday for more than a dozen of her peers over the blacktop and onto the field in search of litter. Hayden not only leads, but founded Adams Elementary School's Trash Pick-Up Team, which goes out during recess in search of any trash their peers at the Costa Mesa campus might have left behind. "I did this because I thought it would help our Earth be more clean," the 7-year-old said.

Scientists have invented a new material that is so lightweight it can sit atop a fluffy dandelion without crushing the little fuzzy seeds. It's so lightweight, Styrofoam is 100 times heavier. It is so lightweight, in fact, that the research team consisting of scientists at UC Irvine, HRL Laboratories and Caltech say in the peer-reviewed Nov. 18 issue of Science that it is the lightest material on Earth, and no one has asked them to run a correction yet. That's light! The material has been dubbed "ultralight metallic microlattice," and according to a news release sent out by UCI, it consists of 99.99% air thanks to its "microlattice" cellular architecture.