Author Archives: Polly Browder

FISA Court Agrees to Publish Secret Decision

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Do you need more evidence that Edward Snowden has made a difference? A few days after Snowden’s disclosures, Yahoo filed a motion with the FISA court to declassify and publicly release its 2008 decision that forced Yahoo and others to turn over material to the NSA. Here’s what happened today:

Will this lead to any big policy changes? I don’t know. But it’s something. And it wouldn’t have happened without Snowden.

Original link:  

FISA Court Agrees to Publish Secret Decision

Posted in FF, GE, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , | Comments Off on FISA Court Agrees to Publish Secret Decision

Positive buzz: One bumblebee species makes a comeback

Positive buzz: One bumblebee species makes a comeback

USGS Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Laboratory

The Western bumblebee, or Bombus occidentalis.

A once-common bumblebee species that all but disappeared over the past 20 years has been glimpsed in Washington state for the first time since the mid-90s, getting local bee fans as excited as if they’d spotted Sasquatch. Though it doesn’t quite make up for the 50,000 bumblebees that met their demise in an Oregon parking lot last month, positive bee news is rare enough these days that we’ll take any excuse to celebrate.

The Western bumblebee, or Bombus occidentalis, an accomplished pollinator of greenhouse tomatoes and cranberries, is distinguishable by its “white butt,” says Will Peterman, a self-described “bee nerd” who caught the elusive insect on camera in a park north of Seattle.

The Seattle Times reports:

The first sighting in more than a decade came from Brier resident Megan O’Donald, who spotted one of the bees in her mother’s garden last summer and reported it to the Xerces Society [for Invertebrate Conservation.]. The insects returned this year, and O’Donald said she saw one Sunday on a goldenrod plant.

When Peterman heard about the earlier sightings, he decided to launch a bee-hunting expedition. Using Google Earth, he identified several patches of likely habitat — mostly small parks or unmown lots. At the fourth site on his list, he got lucky.

The colony, which is located underground, may be shutting down for the season. In late summer, after the broods are raised, the bees that will develop into the next season’s queens start gorging on nectar in preparation for their winter hibernation.

“Probably all we can do now is let the bees continue their cycle and go back next spring,” said UW biology instructor Evan Sugden, who joined the hunt on Sunday.

Sugden, Peterman, and other biologists and bee enthusiasts scoured the area where Peterman had snapped his photo, hoping to find a nest. No such luck, but they spotted a queen and got “scads more pictures,” according to Peterman, of what may be the only population of Western bumblebees in the state.

According to a 2012 study in Northwest Science, Bombus occidentalis and three other Bombus species, once prevalent from British Columbia to California, have experienced “dramatic declines in population abundance, geographic range and genetic diversity.” Experts theorize that their downfall relates to commercial bumblebee-breeding programs, some of which sold colonies to European tomato farmers. The Seattle Times explains:

Scientists at the University of California, Davis hypothesize that some of the bees shipped to Europe picked up a gut parasite called Nosema bombi. When infected queens were shipped back to the U.S., the infection could have spread quickly through bumblebee populations with no native immunity.

Bees are also vulnerable to a wide range of pesticides.

It could be that the bees seen last weekend actually have a resistance to N. bombi or whichever parasite may have destroyed Western bumblebee populations in the first place. Or maybe they just escaped the scourge somehow. Either way, the Xerces Society’s Rich Hatfield told The Seattle Times that this discovery presents an opportunity to conserve and even rebuild the population.

Claire Thompson is an editorial assistant at Grist.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Food

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Originally posted here: 

Positive buzz: One bumblebee species makes a comeback

Posted in Anchor, Dolphin, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Positive buzz: One bumblebee species makes a comeback

Snowden’s Tour of the World’s Least Press-Friendly Countries

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Last time we checked, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden had left Hong Kong with China’s blessing and was headed to Moscow, reportedly in transit to Cuba and finally, Ecuador. (He’s also expressed interest in getting to Iceland.) His current whereabouts are unknown. While we play “Where in the World Is Edward Snowden?,” here’s a quick look at the countries his odyssey has taken him to or may take him to, viewed through the lens of their relative records on press freedom, political liberties, and corruption, as determined by Reporters Without Borders, Freedom House, and Transparency International:

Country
Reporters Without Borders press freedom ranking (1=most free, 179=least)
Freedom House press freedom score (0=highest, 100=lowest)
Freedom House political rights/civil liberties ratings (1=highest, 7=lowest)
Transparency International corruption perceptions ranking (1=least corrupt, 174=most)

United States
32
18
1/1
19

Hong Kong
58
35

14

China
173
83
7/6
80

Russia
148
81
6/5
133

Cuba
171
92
7/6
58

Ecuador
119
61
3/3
118

Iceland
9
14
1/1
11

From: 

Snowden’s Tour of the World’s Least Press-Friendly Countries

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Snowden’s Tour of the World’s Least Press-Friendly Countries

Want to Know How Your Rep. Voted on Wall Street Regs? Check the Campaign Cash.

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow US banks to get out of new financial regulations by operating through their overseas arms. Financial reformers say this is dangerous because markets are global, and a bad bet made by a US bank operating in another country could easily affect banks in the US and cause the US economy to crash again. Bad for America, but good for banks that want to avoid tough new rules. Perhaps that’s why lawmakers who received more money from banks and the finance industry in recent years were more likely to vote in favor of the bill. House members who supported the bill received more than twice as much in contributions from the financial industry over the past two years as lawmakers who voted against it, according to a new analysis from the MapLight Foundation, an independent research group that tracks campaign finance.

Interest groups supporting the bill, including securities and investment companies, banks, and chambers of commerce, contributed an average of 102 percent more to House members who supported the bill than to those who voted no. Check it out:

Democratic House members who voted yes on the bill received 75 percent more money from from the financial services industry than Democrats who voted no.

In 2011 and 2012, groups that supported this bill gave five times more to House members than groups that opposed the bill did. The gap was even larger for donations to Democrats. Over those two years, House Democrats received less than $250,000 from interests that opposed this measure. During the same time period, groups in favor of allowing the banks to skirt regulation gave Dems 28 times as much—close to $7 million. Here’s what that looks like:

What’s remarkable is that some Democrats held firm. Although the bill passed the House last week by a vote of 301 to 124, most Democrats voted against it, which financial reformers say is a significant turn of events. “A majority of Democrats voted against a pro-Wall Street bill…even though it was co-sponsored by Democrats… that was heavily lobbied by Wall Street and everyone had predicted would win by a landslide,” Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform, told Mother Jones after the vote last week. “I’m pretty psyched.”

Source:  

Want to Know How Your Rep. Voted on Wall Street Regs? Check the Campaign Cash.

Posted in FF, GE, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Want to Know How Your Rep. Voted on Wall Street Regs? Check the Campaign Cash.

The Truth About Video Games and Gun Violence

Mother Jones

It was one of the most brutal video games imaginable—players used cars to murder people in broad daylight. Parents were outraged, and behavioral experts warned of real-world carnage. “In this game a player takes the first step to creating violence,” a psychologist from the National Safety Council told the New York Times. “And I shudder to think what will come next if this is encouraged. It’ll be pretty gory.”

To earn points, Death Race encouraged players to mow down pedestrians. Given that it was 1976, those pedestrians were little pixel-gremlins in a 2-D black-and-white universe that bore almost no recognizable likeness to real people.

Continue Reading »

More – 

The Truth About Video Games and Gun Violence

Posted in FF, GE, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Truth About Video Games and Gun Violence

North Carolina might ban Tesla’s business model

North Carolina might ban Tesla’s business model

Shutterstock

This guy wants to sell you a Tesla.

North Carolina lawmakers are rushing to protect the state’s car dealers from Tesla’s subversive direct-to-consumer business model.

Silicon Valley-based Tesla sells its all-electric roadsters and sedans online and over the phone. It seems to be doing a pretty good job of it so far. It doesn’t sell its cars on the concrete lots or in the sterile showrooms of car salesmen, who take commissions that hike prices. The company considers dealerships unnecessary.

And that rubs the powerful North Carolina Automobile Dealers Association the wrong way.

The association wants a piece of the Tesla pie, and it’s accustomed to getting its way. State law already bars anybody other than a licensed dealer from selling more than four motor vehicles in a year.

The association has backed Senate Bill 327, sponsored by state Sen. Tom Apodaca (R), which would broaden the scope of that protectionist law to also cover internet and telephone sales.

From the Raleigh News & Observer:

The whole misunderstanding would go away, the dealers say, if Tesla sold its cars through licensed dealerships. [Tesla Business Development Vice President Diarmuid] O’Connell countered, in essence, that displaying a Tesla in a showroom of subcompacts and SUVs would be akin to selling Dom Perignon in the food court at the local mall.

Oh, snap.

But it’s not Tesla per se that worries the dealers. It’s the precedent. The prospect threatens the livelihood of North Carolina’s 7,000 licensed dealers, who invest millions in building big lots and showrooms to efficiently move product, say supporters of the bill.

“We care about the franchise system,” said Robert Glaser, president of the N.C. Automobile Dealers Association. “The whole point of the retail system is to protect the consumer.”

The local dealer is the customer’s point of contact on malfunctions, defects and recalls, Glaser said. Automakers are designers, manufacturers and wholesalers that remain largely invisible to the car buyers, he said.

“You tell me they’re gonna support the little leagues and the YMCA?” Glaser asked, directing his glance at the Tesla contingent milling about a few feet away in the legislative building.

Oh, snap back atcha, out-of-town tech company.

The North Carolina Senate’s Commerce Committee unanimously approved the legislation last week. Apparently, not a single committee member saw a problem with passing a law that would force a company to incorporate an old-fashioned and costly middleman into its business model.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

tweets

, posts articles to

Facebook

, and

blogs about ecology

. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants:

johnupton@gmail.com

.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

,

Climate & Energy

,

Living

,

Politics

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Link to original: 

North Carolina might ban Tesla’s business model

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, Pines, Safer, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on North Carolina might ban Tesla’s business model

Monster ice sheets destroy homes, terrorize residents

Monster ice sheets destroy homes, terrorize residents

Melting glaciers might have been the farthest thing from some lakeshore-dwelling Minnesotans’ and Manitobans’ minds these past few days.

Twitter user Jill Coubrough, @coubroughCBC

A home destroyed by an ice surge in Manitoba, Canada.

Fast-growing sheets of ice, marching steadily forward as if out of a horror film, destroyed homes near Dauphin Lake in Manitoba, Canada, and caused damage along the southeastern shores of Lake Mille Lacs in Minnesota. They rose from melting lakes and were blown by powerful winds up foreshores into yards and homes.

Amateur video of the advancing ice was captured Saturday by anxious residents in Minnesota and posted to YouTube:

The ice sheet on Lake Mille Lacs reportedly covered 10 miles of shoreline and reached 30 feet in height in some places before its advance was thwarted by a change in the weather.

The combination of strong winds and thawing spring weather triggered the unusual outbreak. “The lake started to break up, so we started to see open spots develop, and then we had strong northwesterly winds that blew that ice onshore,” Dean Melde, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Duluth, Minn., told Grist. “You keep bringing more water and waves and whatnot, and it just keeps pushing and piling and it just keeps moving inland.”

That bad dream paled when compared with the nightmare just north of the North Star State in Canada’s Manitoba province. An emergency was declared in the rural municipality of Ochre Beach after a similar phenomenon destroyed or seriously damaged 27 homes. It’s believed that nobody was injured, though none of the homes were insured against such a freak weather event. “You can’t buy insurance coverage for ice,” Dennis Stykalo, whose home was wrecked, told CBC News. From that news report:

Myles Haverluck was outside barbecuing when he noticed something was wrong. He said he could hear a big roar as he saw the wave of ice coming.

“By the time we went around the front the cabin, next door was moving 10 feet off its foundation,” he told CBC News.

“Then we heard these cracks, and we went inside the house and the ice had come through the windows of the kitchen and living room” Haverluck continued.

Even in an age of melting glaciers, it seems that ice is still capable of packing a serious punch.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

tweets

, posts articles to

Facebook

, and

blogs about ecology

. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants:

johnupton@gmail.com

.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Climate & Energy

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Original post:  

Monster ice sheets destroy homes, terrorize residents

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, Pines, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Monster ice sheets destroy homes, terrorize residents

Uranium mining is coming soon to the Grand Canyon area

Uranium mining is coming soon to the Grand Canyon area

Paul Fundenburg

So much for that ban on uranium mining near the Grand Canyon that Obama imposed early last year. The U.S. Forest Service just went ahead and gave a Canadian company approval to begin mining for uranium a mere six miles from the Grand Canyon National Park’s South Rim entrance, which nearly 5 million people visit every year.

Canadian company Energy Fuels Resources says its rights to mine the area, granted in 1986, should be grandfathered in, and the Forest Service concurred. In response, three environmental groups and the local Havusupai Tribe filed suit in March against the feds. They say the 1986 environmental impact review that originally gave the mine clearance needs to be updated. From The Arizona Republic:

Opponents say newer studies indicate pathways for trouble. One study, conducted in preparation for an old development plan at Tusayan, found that groundwater pumping at that Grand Canyon gateway sucked water from the vicinity of the mine. Another, by the U.S. Geological Survey, included models based on known subsurface geology funneling water toward Havasu Springs.

The Forest Service had no way of knowing these things before the 1986 approval, Northern Arizona University hydrogeologist Abe Springer said.

“Nobody ever asked the question” back then, he said.

A spokesperson for the mining company argues, naturally, that the review is still adequate, and calls the old Canyon Mine, now set to reopen in 2015, “tiny.” But Roger Clark, director of Grand Canyon Trust, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, compares the area — which will be stripped of vegetation — to the size of a Walmart parking lot, and tells The Guardian about other contamination concerns:

Clark argues that uranium’s radioactive properties only become dangerous once it is brought up out of the ground and exposed to air and water. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, such properties include radon gas, a substance that was not regulated when the government conducted its initial study of the mine in 1986. The lawsuit contends that radon and other chemicals could pollute the area.

The mine is located on a site sacred to the Havusupai and other tribes, including the Hopi, Zuni, and Navajo. The Navajo are still fighting for a comprehensive cleanup of the hundreds of abandoned uranium mines scattered across their reservation, mines blamed for decades of health problems and deaths among residents unknowingly exposed to radioactivity.

Those mines, crucial in the Cold War years to the government’s nuclear weapons program, closed as the demand for, and price of, uranium dropped steeply in the 1990s. The Canyon Mine never became fully operational before its owners decided to cut their losses. But with the value of uranium soaring, the Guardian reports that …

… companies are moving to reopen old claims. Observers say the outcome of the lawsuit is important, because it could serve as a bellwether for how future attempts to re-open old uranium mining claims in the area will go. There are over 3,000 mines in the Grand Canyon area that hold such claims.

As much as we despise bottled water, you might think about bringing some on your next trip to the Grand Canyon.

Claire Thompson is an editorial assistant at Grist.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

,

Climate & Energy

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

View this article – 

Uranium mining is coming soon to the Grand Canyon area

Posted in Anchor, ATTRA, FF, G & F, GE, ONA, Pines, solar, solar power, Springer, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Uranium mining is coming soon to the Grand Canyon area

Are We Feeding Negative Energy to the Earth?

Latoya Brookins

on

Texas Closer to Banning Animal Gas Chambers

7 minutes ago

customize your newsletter

causes & news
animal welfare
global warming
environment & wildlife
human rights
women’s rights
news
submit news story
healthy living
food & recipes
health & wellness
healthy home
family life
true beauty
pets
shopping
take action
browse petitions
create a petition
daily action
volunteer
jobfinder
click to donate
community & sharing
people
groups
singles
photos
blogs
polls
ecards
my care2
my account
my groups
my page
my friends
my petitionsite
my messages
join care2
about us
advertise
partnerships
careers
press
contact us
terms of service
privacy
subscription center
help
rss feeds

Copyright © 2013 Care2.com, inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved

healthy living
food
health
love + sex
nature
pets
spirit
home
life
family
green
do good
all recipes
appetizers & snacks
basics
desserts
drinks
eating for health
entrees
green kitchen tips
raw
side dishes
soups & salads
vegan
vegetarian
videos
ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES
AYURVEDA
CONDITIONS
DIET & NUTRITION
FITNESS
GENERAL HEALTH
HEALTHY AGING
Mental Wellness
MEN’S HEALTH
NATURAL REMEDIES
WOMEN’S HEALTH
VIDEOS
dating
friendship
relationships
sex
videos
environment
lawns & gardens
natural pest control
outdoor activities
wildlife
videos
Adoptable Pets
Animal Rights
Behavior & Communication
Cats
Dogs
Everyday Pet Care
Humor & Inspiration
Less Common Pets
Pet Health
Cute Pet Photos
Safety
Wildlife
Remedies and Treatments
Videos
Biorhythms
Deepak Chopra’s Tips
Exercises
Global Healing
Guidance
Inspiration
Peace
Self-Help
Spirituality & Technology
Videos
home
life
family
beauty
green
do good
crafts & designs
news
videos
conscious consumer
blogs
astrology
my favorites
my Care2 main
my account
my butterfly rewards
my click to donate
my eCards
my friends
my groups
my kudos
my messages
my news
my page
my petitionsite
my photos
my sharebook
my subscriptions

Link:  

Are We Feeding Negative Energy to the Earth?

Posted in FF, GE, ONA, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Are We Feeding Negative Energy to the Earth?

The Features Of Organic Baby Clothes

There is need to accord the children the best care. This is no news to the parents who have discovered and fully loved the use of organic baby clothes. The children get the best care when adorned with these garments. Every other parent wants their child to have a piece of this very fine cotton garment worn by their little ones.

Most of the garments that people wear today are made of materials that have undergone chemical processes. Some of the materials themselves are actually made from the mixture of compounds and chemicals. This would be harmful to the skin of a little child because their skins are so very delicate.

The material used to make these garments for the little ones is usually very fine cotton. The cotton has been grown in very natural conditions and no chemicals have been used on the plants. Moreover, the processing of the garments is free of harmful chemicals or substances that can harm the skin of the delicate skin of the toddlers. The attires hence become amazingly soft and comfy for them.

The use of these types of natural materials to make the attires for children is not by accident. It has been observed that a baby will at times be very active and this will definitely call upon the use of strong garments. The crawling and the roughness of toddlers cannot comfortably be handled by any other material other than this. The material is also known to be very durable and thus all the money spent on them.

These garments constructed of these materials can be used on ultimately any part of the body. They are very versatile and can be used for footwear, head, tops, shorts, underwear and so on. The applicability of this material is so ideal that one can clad a child from head to toe with it. They also come with different colors and can retain their original state for years.

Most of the manufacturers of these toddler garments use very specific machines for the job and more interestingly most of the work is by the hand. This means that a garment will have very personalized attention that it deserves. In retrospect, the use of hand to make most of the garments means that they are very strong and therefore durable. They can withstand any type of playtime that the toddler indulges in.

The manufacturing of these pure natural clothing is a long process rather than one that starts at the processing plant. The farmer has to produce the right cotton and the factory has to use the right procedure. The working conditions in most of these factories are way above average or at least in comparison with the contemporary garment factory.

Every other baby deserves the best clad. A parent will undoubtedly do everything to give them this. In order to give the baby the very best in life, there is no doubt that organic baby clothes plays a key role in granting them the same. The toddler will be all smiles because of the comfort and pride that such attire will accord them.

Polly Browder is a full-time mom and part-time nanny. For more information about the advantages of organic baby clothing, visit www.organicbabywearhouse.com.

Posted in organic | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on The Features Of Organic Baby Clothes