Environmental problems in coastal ecosystems can sometimes be attributed to excess nutrients flowing from upstream watersheds into estuarine settings. This nutrient over-enrichment can result in toxic algal blooms, shellfish poisoning, coral reef destruction, and other harmful outcomes. All U.S. coasts show signs of nutrient over-enrichment, and scientists predict worsening problems in the years ahead. Clean Coastal Waters explains technical aspects of nutrient over-enrichment and proposes both immediate local action by coastal managers and a longer-term national strategy incorporating policy design, classification of affected sites, law and regulation, coordination, and communication. Highlighting the Gulf of Mexico's "Dead Zone," the Pfiesteria outbreak in a tributary of Chesapeake Bay, and other cases, the book explains how nutrients work in the environment, why nitrogen is important, how enrichment turns into over-enrichment, and why some environments are especially susceptible. Economic as well as ecological impacts are examined. In addressing abatement strategies, the committee discusses the importance of monitoring sites, developing useful models of over-enrichment, and setting water quality goals. The book also reviews voluntary programs, mandatory controls, tax incentives, and other policy options for reducing the flow of nutrients from agricultural operations and other sources.

Despite the flood of self-help guides and our current therapeutic culture, feelings of alienation and spiritual longing continue to grip modern society. In this book, Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn offers a fresh solution: a return to classic philosophy and the cultivation of an inner life. The ancient Roman philosopher Cicero wrote that philosophy is ars vitae, the art of living. Today, signs of stress and duress point to a full-fledged crisis for individuals and communities while current modes of making sense of our lives prove inadequate. Yet, in this time of alienation and spiritual longing, we can glimpse signs of a renewed interest in ancient approaches to the art of living. In this ambitious and timely book, Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn engages both general readers and scholars on the topic of well-being. She examines the reappearance of ancient philosophical thought in contemporary American culture, probing whether new stirrings of Gnosticism, Stoicism, Epicureanism, Cynicism, and Platonism present a true alternative to our current therapeutic culture of self-help and consumerism, which elevates the self’s needs and desires yet fails to deliver on its promises of happiness and healing. Do the ancient philosophies represent a counter-tradition to today’s culture, auguring a new cultural vibrancy, or do they merely solidify a modern way of life that has little use for inwardness—the cultivation of an inner life—stemming from those older traditions? Tracing the contours of this cultural resurgence and exploring a range of sources, from scholarship to self-help manuals, films, and other artifacts of popular culture, this book sees the different schools as organically interrelated and asks whether, taken together, they can point us in important new directions. Ars Vitae sounds a clarion call to take back philosophy as part of our everyday lives. It proposes a way to do so, sifting through the ruins of long-forgotten and recent history alike for any shards helpful in piecing together the coherence of a moral framework that allows us ways to move forward toward the life we want and need.

Combining Chinese Taoist astrology, Western zodiac astrology, and birth destiny cards to develop your innate talents and transform your negative traits • Includes charts to discover your Chinese animal year, your Western zodiac sun sign, your moon sign, and your birth destiny card as well as those of your friends, lovers, relatives, and colleagues • Provides insightful and accurate descriptions for each animal year, zodiac sun sign, and birth card as well as each year and sun sign combination and each sun and moon sign combination • Offers career suggestions based on your innate gifts and relationship advice on which animals, sign combos, and birth cards to seek out and which to avoid With your first breath of life, you take in the energy pattern radiated by the sun, moon, and stars at that moment in time and space. This internal energy pattern underlies your persona--your behavioral patterns, personality traits, and life’s path. Understanding these underlying patterns enables you to balance and transform your negative traits and highlight and develop your innate talents. Blending Eastern and Western astrological methods, Master Mantak Chia and William Wei explain how to identify the five key patterns of your internal energy persona based on the year, month, and day of your birth. Including charts to discover your Chinese animal year, your Western zodiac sun sign, your moon sign, and your birth destiny card, they explore how each of these astrological profiles interact to build your unique persona and provide profoundly accurate descriptions for each year and sun sign combination, each sun and moon sign combination, and each birth card. Each description also includes career recommendations to best utilize your innate gifts and relationship advice on which animals, sign combinations, and birth cards to seek out and which to avoid. Not only useful for personal insight and self-development, this new astrological approach can also be used to understand the underlying energetic personality patterns of your lovers, friends, relatives, and colleagues.

Using the Chesapeake Bay as a case study, Agriculture and Phosphorus Management discusses the impact and management of phosphorus in watersheds. Although urban and other sources contribute phosphorus to the Bay, the papers presented focus on how its role in agriculture impacts water quality. They review the new guidelines and legislation slated for implementation by 2002 directed towards sustainable nutrient management and strategies for implementing them. Phosphorus, an essential element for plant and animal growth, has long been recognized as necessary to eliminate deficiencies and to maintain profitable crop and livestock production. It can increase the biological productivity of surface waters by accelerating eutrophication. Human activities accelerate the rate of eutrophication - principally by increasing the rate at which phosphorus enters the aquatic system. Written by experts from a range of disciplines Agriculture and Phosphorus Management provides a deeper understanding of the diverse, dynamic, and complex factors controlling the impact of agricultural phosphorus management on production and water quality. Each contributor addresses the questions: what do we know, what do we still need to know, where are the major gaps in our knowledge, and how does the information relate to phosphorus management strategies in the Bay Watershed, and other watersheds? As a result this series of papers provides a unique collection of information of regional, national, and international significance and gives prioritized phosphorus management options for not only the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, but for watersheds around the world.

The federal government wastes your tax dollars worse than a drunken sailor on shore leave. The 1984 Grace Commission uncovered that the Department of Defense spent $640 for a toilet seat and $436 for a hammer. Twenty years later things weren't much better. In 2004, Congress spent a record-breaking $22.9 billion dollars of your money on 10,656 of their pork-barrel projects. The war on terror has a lot to do with the record $413 billion in deficit spending, but it's also the result of pork over the last 18 years the likes of: - $50 million for an indoor rain forest in Iowa - $102 million to study screwworms which were long ago eradicated from American soil - $273,000 to combat goth culture in Missouri - $2.2 million to renovate the North Pole (Lucky for Santa!) - $50,000 for a tattoo removal program in California - $1 million for ornamental fish research Funny in some instances and jaw-droppingly stupid and wasteful in others, The Pig Book proves one thing about Capitol Hill: pork is king!