Solio Classic Universal Hybrid Charger

A tiny fraction of the energy emitted by the sun is enough to power your needs many times over. Harness that energy quickly and effectively with Solio Solar Chargers. The Solio charger is a solar powered energy source that can power all of your electronic devices from cell phones to iPods to GPS systems. The sleek, ultra modern design is also compact and lightweight making it great for any travel use.

Provides an emergency power source when away from power outlets to keep you going anywhere

Works with multiple gadgets, including mobile phones, Bluetooth headsets, smartphones/PDAs, MP3 players, portable gaming devices, digital cameras, GPS and more. Convenient compact, lightweight design is perfect for travel or emergency use. All Solio chargers are made from Reusable and recyclable materials to help you give back to the environment even after you are done using your charger.

Solio has been designed to harness the sun’s energy, shortening the process of transforming it into electricity by using photovoltaic cells (PVs). PVs convert sunlight into electricity that can be used immediately. The process is clean, fast, noiseless, and—thanks to Solio—easily portable. Here’s how it works. Light from the sun hits the solar cells, exciting electrons within the cell. Some of them break free, and are channeled through a conductive metal strip to create an electric current. This current can either be stored in a battery or used directly in the form of electricity. The stronger the sunlight and the more rays that hit the cell, the more electricity is generated. Solio features a fan-blade design that allows it to achieve maximum solar area when in use. Just spread out the blades, expose them to direct sunlight either out of doors or affixed to a window, and get ready to take your power on the road.

Charging Solio's internal battery takes 8-10 hours of direct sunlight. Solio will charge your device at the same rate as your conventional charger. Using the included wall adapter, solio will fully charge in approximately 4 hours. A fully charged Solio will completely charge an average cell phone at least twice.

When charging a cell phone directly from the sun, 60 minutes of sunlight will provide approximately 25 minutes of talk time and ten hours of standby time. When charging an iPod directly from the sun, one hour of sunlight will provide about one hour of play time. Solio can store energy for up to one year.

Solio Classic Universal Hybrid Charger

Climate Change Reducing Ocean's Carbon Dioxide Uptake, New Analysis Shows: ENN

As one of the planet's largest single carbon absorbers, the ocean takes up roughly one-third of all human carbon emissions, reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide and its associated global changes.

But whether the ocean can continue mopping up human-produced carbon at the same rate is still up in the air. Previous studies on the topic have yielded conflicting results, says University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professor Galen McKinley.
In a new analysis published online July 10 in Nature Geoscience, McKinley and her colleagues identify a likely source of many of those inconsistencies and provide some of the first observational evidence that climate change is negatively impacting the ocean carbon sink.

"The ocean is taking up less carbon because of the warming caused by the carbon in the atmosphere," says McKinley, an assistant professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences and a member of the Center for Climatic Research in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.

The analysis differs from previous studies in its scope across both time and space. One of the biggest challenges in asking how climate is affecting the ocean is simply a lack of data, McKinley says, with available information clustered along shipping lanes and other areas where scientists can take advantage of existing boat traffic. With a dearth of other sampling sites, many studies have simply extrapolated trends from limited areas to broader swaths of the ocean.

McKinley and colleagues at UW-Madison, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, and the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris expanded their analysis by combining existing data from a range of years (1981-2009), methodologies, and locations spanning most of the North Atlantic into a single time series for each of three large regions called gyres, defined by distinct physical and biological characteristics.

They found a high degree of natural variability that often masked longer-term patterns of change and could explain why previous conclusions have disagreed. They discovered that apparent trends in ocean carbon uptake are highly dependent on exactly when and where you look -- on the 10- to 15-year time scale, even overlapping time intervals sometimes suggested opposite effects.

"Because the ocean is so variable, we need at least 25 years' worth of data to really see the effect of carbon accumulation in the atmosphere," she says. "This is a big issue in many branches of climate science -- what is natural variability, and what is climate change?"

Working with nearly three decades of data, the researchers were able to cut through the variability and identify underlying trends in the surface CO2 throughout the North Atlantic.

During the past three decades, increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide have largely been matched by corresponding increases in dissolved carbon dioxide in the seawater. The gases equilibrate across the air-water interface, influenced by how much carbon is in the atmosphere and the ocean and how much carbon dioxide the water is able to hold as determined by its water chemistry.

But the researchers found that rising temperatures are slowing the carbon absorption across a large portion of the subtropical North Atlantic. Warmer water cannot hold as much carbon dioxide, so the ocean's carbon capacity is decreasing as it warms.

In watching for effects of increasing atmospheric carbon on the ocean's uptake, many people have looked for indications that the carbon content of the ocean is rising faster than that of the atmosphere, McKinley says. However, their new results show that the ocean sink could be weakening even without that visible sign.

"More likely what we're going to see is that the ocean will keep its equilibration but it doesn't have to take up as much carbon to do it because it's getting warmer at the same time," she says. "We are already seeing this in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre, and this is some of the first evidence for climate damping the ocean's ability to take up carbon from the atmosphere."

She stresses the need to improve available datasets and expand this type of analysis to other oceans, which are relatively less-studied than the North Atlantic, to continue to refine carbon uptake trends in different ocean regions. This information will be critical for decision-making, since any decrease in ocean uptake may require greater human efforts to control carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

McKinley's work on the project was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Natural Relief for Bug Bites and Poison Ivy

By Mao Shing Ni, L.Ac., D.O.M., PhD

All summer long, the elements give you reasons to itch and scratch. When the bee stings, the mosquito bites or the poison ivy comes creeping, try these all-natural remedies for a quick anti-itch fix.

Relief from Poison Ivy and Its Troublesome Siblings:

Poisons oak, ivy and sumac all contain an oily chemical known as urushiol, which irritates your skin and can produce a severe allergic reaction. While up to 30 percent of people are immune to these urushiol-induced allergies, those of us who are not so lucky can experience serious discomfort when we come in contact with this plant – including itching, redness, oozing skin and severe burning pain where the plant touched your skin.

A neighbor friend of mine, on a forest hike, blew his nose into a leaf: a poison ivy leaf. When I saw him that evening, he had welts and a rash covering his entire face and hands. Worse than the unbearable itch, he couldn’t even breathe from his nose because it was swollen shut. I immediately pulled up a couple of dandelion plants from my backyard and put them into a blender with honey and the gel scraped from an aloe leaf. After smearing the poultice all over his face, I sent him home with dandelions to make into a tea. By the next morning, his itching and rash were 75 percent better!

Here are more natural ways to soothe poison ivy:
1. Wash the contact area thoroughly. Because urushiol is an oily substance, water alone will not remove it; be sure to scrub with soap and water.

2. Crush dandelion greens. Apply to effected area as poultice, changing every hour. You can also put these into a blender with aloe gel and honey to make a smoother poultice.

3. Scrape aloe gel directly from the plant and apply generously to the affected area. This can lessen the symptoms of burning, itching and pain.

4. Mash plantain leaves and apply as poultice, changing every hour to relieve itching.

5. Chickweed root, magnolia flower, chrysanthemum flower and kudzu root are part of a traditional Chinese formula, which is used to reduce the allergic and inflammatory responses.

Take the Itch Out of Insect Bites

It’s humans versus bugs and, unfortunately, we are on the losing side most of the time. Though the bug bite itself is rarely painful, the body’s reaction can cause pain, itching, redness and swelling. In some cases, a serious allergic reaction called anaphylactic shock occurs, which can involve breathing difficulties and requires immediate medical attention.

Natural ways to soothe itchy bites:

1. Prevention is the easiest way to avoid dealing with insect bites. Avoid the toxic chemicals found in commercial insect repellents. Use natural alternatives, including oils made from lemongrass, citronella, eucalyptus, wintergreen, lavender and turmeric.

2. Once bitten, remove the stinger, if there is one, and clean area with water. Use an ice pack for temporary relief of severe itching and swelling.

3. Be as cool as a cucumber. Place cucumber skins on top of the bites to sooth the itching and irritation. You can also cut 2-inch round slices from a fresh eggplant and place on top of bite to draw out toxins and sooth the irritation.

4. Apply honey to a bug bite to sooth the skin. Because honey is a natural antibiotic, it can also help prevent infections.

5. Apply a blend of essential oils of eucalyptus, winter green and peppermint or tea tree oil to bites every 2 to 3 hours to relieve itching and aid healing.