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Mother Jones
I slept 7 hours last night! That’s the first time this has happened in months. And that was even in addition to an hour or two of napping that I did yesterday afternoon.
This is my Easter present to myself.
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Mother Jones
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The so-called global warming “pause”—in essence, the contention that global warming has slowed down or even stopped over the past 15 years—drew dramatic media attention. Arguably, it derailed the entire rollout of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report back in late September.
All that….and yet a new study in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society suggests there might not have even been a global warming “pause” at all. Rather, the notion of a “pause” may just be the result of incomplete data: In particular, a lack of weather stations in the remote Arctic region. That gap is problematic because we know that Arctic amplification is occurring and global warming is moving particularly fast there. The dramatic new low in Arctic sea ice extent in the year 2012 put an exclamation point on that finding.
The new paper, by Kevin Cowtan of the University of York in the UK and Robert Way of the University of Ottawa, uses an array of techniques to show that the lack of Arctic coverage probably biases global temperature estimates, and particularly those from the Hadley Center in the UK, in a cool direction. Then the study use two approaches, including one drawing on data from satellites, to try to fill this well known gap in observational temperature data. The upshot is quite dramatic: as RealClimate.org points out, the new temperature trend over the past 15 years falls directly into line with the larger warming trend. The alleged global warming slowdown vanishes.
On the just released episode of the Inquiring Minds podcast (stream above), Penn State climate researcher Michael Mann commented on the new study and its significance. “We’ve known for some time that there’s a potential bias in some estimates of the global average temperature from not including some parts of the Arctic, where the data are sparse, but where we know most of the warming is taking place,” Mann explained. “And if you don’t sample that part of the Arctic, you’re underestimating the rate at which the globe is warming.”
The whole idea of a global warming pause is “really not supported by good science,” concludes Mann.
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Study: Recent Warming May Have Been Dramatically Underestimated
Mother Jones
Maeve Reston of the LA Times travels to Oklahoma to find out how Obamacare is doing in a deep red state:
The state attorney general is leading one of the last state challenges against the law in federal court. The state insurance commissioner issued a sharply worded warning to federally funded “navigators” who are helping people sign up for insurance. And frightening rumors about the law — uncountered by any positive spin — are dissuading some residents from considering it.
….States like California are spending millions to promote the law, but here it is difficult to find a trace of information about it beyond cable news….There are no billboards along the highways, no public service announcements on the radio. At a number of health clinics, there were no fliers last week about the law’s insurance marketplaces.
….In dozens of interviews here, many said they feared they would be forced to buy insurance they couldn’t afford. Some said they were told (erroneously) that insurance penalties would come out of their Social Security checks; others said they’d heard the law meant they’d soon have to travel several hundred miles to see a doctor.
….Leaders in the two consortiums that received federal money for a public education campaign in Oklahoma were still in the early phase of training as residents became eligible to sign up for insurance this week….”Around the first of the year,” he added, “maybe we’ll do some more speaking engagements, or hanging some signs, or maybe some advertisements on the radio.”
The anti-Obamacare troops are well funded. Above-board advertising campaigns fueled by Koch money are joined by shadier rumor-mill campaigns that no one wants to publicly take credit for. Deliberate misinformation is rampant. You won’t be able to see your doctor. The IRS will put a lien on your house. Old people will be denied care and left to die. All the money is going to undocumented immigrants. Part-time workers will lose their jobs. Doctors will be required to collect information about your guns. Microchips will be implanted in patients. Etc.
In the meantime, the pro-Obamacare troops, hobbled by their lack of enthusiasm for anything less than full single-payer national health care, have mostly left things in the hands of state and federal officials. These folks don’t yell or scream, and they don’t try to debunk crazy conspiracy theories. They have a more genteel approach, and in the long run it will probably work. In the meantime, though, the messaging war is a very one-sided fight indeed. In Oklahoma, it’s hardly even a fight at all.
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For years, cardboard has been a highly profitable export from the U.S. to China. New regulations could change the way America approaches recycling and trash disposal. Photo: morgueFile/bosela
For years, one of America’s biggest exports to China was trash. But now, Operation Green Fence could overhaul our current recycling and trash disposal efforts. The initiative, announced in February 2013, is an effort by Chinese environmental and customs officials to be more stringent about what imported waste will be allowed into the country.
China has been a prime market for recycled raw materials for several years, and the U.S. — as well as Europe, Japan and Hong Kong — has exported scrap materials to China. In fact, it’s a highly profitable export for the U.S., which netted $10.8 billion from metal and paper scrap in 2011. Cardboard boxes and other scrap paper are particularly valuable; China lacks the abundant forest resources enjoyed by the U.S., so the Asian nation buys our cardboard and other scrap paper, then combines it with their lower-grade recycled fibers to improve the quality of their packaging materials.
With Operation Green Fence, China has announced that it will be stricter in terms of what contaminants it allows in shipments. That means any shipment of recyclables that’s found to have even a single contaminant — such as a syringe or a stowaway rodent — could be turned away. During the first three months of the initiative, about 7,600 tons of material from the U.S. was rejected, according to the International Solid Waste Association. Since the campaign began, an estimated 800,000 tons of recyclable waste total has been rejected.
Industry experts fear that this new approach will lead to increased exporting costs, and there’s also plenty of concern as to what the U.S. will do with its waste if it can’t be sent to China. With a lack of recycling centers to take the goods, some of it could end up in landfills. Cities may be forced to take a hard look at what kind of recycling is offered and/or find a way to produce less contaminated waste.
Whether the initiative continues — it was originally announced as a 10-month program that would end in November — it’s clear that America has to rethink its current mind-set toward recycling and create solutions that are no longer dependent on sending trash abroad.
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Operation Green Fence Highlights Issues with U.S. Recycling Plan
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Munitorum: Plasma Guns – Games Workshop
Weapons crafted using almost forgotten technology from a lost age, the plasma gun fires bolts of superheated particles blazing with blinding light. While a shot from this weapon is able to burn through almost all kinds of armour, the plasma gun is also prone to catastrophic overheating that is quite capable of killing the user. About this Series: Weapons are […]
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Cat Sense – John Bradshaw
Cats have been popular household pets for thousands of years, and their numbers only continue to rise. Today there are three cats for every dog on the planet, and yet cats remain more mysterious, even to their most adoring owners. In Cat Sense , renowned anthrozoologist John Bradshaw takes us further into the mind of the domestic cat than ever before, using […]
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1, 2, 3 Sew – Ellen Luckett Baker
Now in ebook for the first time ever! Sewing is as easy as 1-2-3! In this creative teaching book, craft blogger Ellen Luckett Baker offers a wholly unique approach to sewing: she presents projects in groups of three, each building on the techniques used in the project before. Baker shows, for example, how to sew a glasses case, then build on those skills to […]
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How to Paint Citadel Miniatures: Sternguard Veterans – Games Workshop
Sternguard veterans deploy wherever the battleline is most vulnerable, facing down the most impossible odds with icy calm and precise bursts of bolter fire. They are the very image of what every Space Marine aspires to become, and the pinnacle of any Chapter’s fighting force. About this Guide: In this guide demonstrates how to paint Space Marine Sterngu […]
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Codex: Space Marines (eBook Edition) – Games Workshop
The Space Marines are the chosen warriors of the Emperor, and the greatest fighting force of the Imperium. Each Space Marine is a genetically enhanced super soldier, easily a match for a dozen lesser men, armed with the some of the deadliest weapons in the galaxy and encased in a formidable power armour. This Codex explores the formations and Chapters of the […]
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Index Astartes: Centurions – Games Workshop
Designed as siege breakers and for the close quarters of boarding actions, Centurions are heavy exo-armour suits used by specialist Space Marine formations. Incorporating either close range weapons like siege drills and heavy flamers or heavy weapons like lascannons and heavy bolters making each Centurion a formidable adversary. About this Series: The Adeptu […]
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Paracord Crafts – Leisure Arts
“Paracord Crafts” is multi-touch book for the lovers of handicrafts. Book has exciting projects for making beautiful bracelets. Book features interesting photo galleries, and informative notes to guide reader in making cobra stitch bracelets as well as six more styles of knots: Chain Sinnet, Stitched Solomon Bar, Raising the Bar, Trilobite, Switchback, and R […]
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How to Paint Citadel Miniatures: Space Marines – Games Workshop
The First Founding Space Marine Chapters are the foundation of the Adeptus Astartes, each one distinct with its own iconography, colours and markings. When they march to war the symbols of the Chapter strike fear into their foes, each one heavy with their valorous deeds. In this, our biggest painting guide to date, you will find extensive detail on how […]
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Space Marines Digital Collection – Games Workshop
The Space Marines are the superhuman warriors of humanity, fighting across the galaxy to hold back the Imperium’s endless tide of enemies. Few can stand against these peerless soldiers, and even a single company is often enough to change the fate of a world forever. This digital collection gathers together the brand new Codex: Space Marines, How to Paint Cit […]
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Warlords of the Dark Millenium: Sammael – Games Workshop
Sammael is the Grand Master of the Ravenwing and Leader of the Hunt, a peerless jetbike rider and veteran commander of hundreds of battles. Known for being bold, often to the point of recklessness, Sammael continually confounds his enemies with his changeable tactics and the expert raiding skills of his Ravenwing warriors. About this series: The galaxy burns […]
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Mother Jones
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Conservative desperation to revive the IRS “scandal,” which basically imploded in their laps weeks ago, continues apace. Steve Benen reports today that the latest is a scoop by the Daily Caller about a White House meeting with IRS chief counsel William Wilkins in 2012. The fact that this was trumpeted in the Caller is pretty much all you need to know about this supposedly nefarious meeting, but click the link if you want the (extremely boring) details of what really went on.
For sheer entertainment value, though, a friend passes along the fun and games on Fox last night:
So Greta Van Susteren has on an unfortunate Virginia organic farmer — not coincidentally, I’m sure, an attractive young blonde — who says she was audited by the IRS because of her affiliation with the Tea Party!
Under mild questioning, she admits that most of her apparently many disputes are in fact with the county government. Despite the headline and her flat assertion, she provided zero testimony or explanation for how her IRS problem might have anything to do with the Tea Party.
Never mind. One of her many accusations of outrageous government harassment is that the county fined her for having a birthday party for eight little girls on her farm! Oh, the horror! How could such a thing possibly be?
A birthday party! Tyranny has run amok. However, what millions of Fox watchers will never learn is that her dispute is actually over her refusal to pay for a $150 permit if she wants to use her farm for commerical activities (hosting events, selling other people’s craft items) that it’s not zoned for (i.e., growing and selling food). The county also wants to make sure that she has parking and bathrooms on the site. That’s it. But it doesn’t matter. Another urban legend on the right has been born, and it will now live forever.
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Conservatives Are Digging Very, Very Deep to Keep IRS "Scandal" Alive
Mother Jones
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What was Edward Snowden’s job when he worked for Booz Hamilton as a contractor to the NSA? Most of us have been under the impression that he was a systems administrator or network administrator. The initial Guardian story described him as a “former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton.” The same story mentioned him talking about things that were comprehensible only to his “fellow communication specialists.” The Washington Post described him as a “tech specialist” and quoted several sources who were baffled that someone with his background had access to all the documents he had released.
But in the video interview that introduced him to the world, he actually said that he was an “infrastructure analyst” who had previously worked for the CIA as a systems administrator and telecommunications systems officer. Today, the New York Times tells us that this job title is more revealing than it seems:
It is a title that officials have carefully avoided mentioning, perhaps for fear of inviting questions about the agency’s aggressive tactics: an infrastructure analyst at the N.S.A., like a burglar casing an apartment building, looks for new ways to break into Internet and telephone traffic around the world.
….A secret presidential directive on cyberactivities unveiled by Mr. Snowden — discussing the primary new task of the N.S.A. and its military counterpart, Cyber Command — makes clear that when the agency’s technicians probe for vulnerabilities to collect intelligence, they also study foreign communications and computer systems to identify potential targets for a future cyberwar.
Infrastructure analysts like Mr. Snowden, in other words, are not just looking for electronic back doors into Chinese computers or Iranian mobile networks to steal secrets. They have a new double purpose: building a target list in case American leaders in a future conflict want to wipe out the computers’ hard drives or shut down the phone system.
Stuart Staniford has suspected from the start that this might have been Snowden’s role. He wrote this three weeks ago:
I speculate that it is going to turn out that Snowden was an electronic intruder on the government payroll. Profiles describe him as secretive, fascinated with computers, and with knowledge of things like Tor (a peer-to-peer network for maintaining anonymity for computer communications). His last job was working at an NSA network threat detection center, suggesting knowledge of computer security. He had previously worked for the CIA, including overseas, suggesting a cyber-offense role….He may have had a lot of access — it’s very common for people working in computer threat detection to have access to platforms that see everything going on in the networks in order to look for potential threats.
I asked Glenn Greenwald via Twitter if Snowden had described his job in more detail during their interviews. He replied: “Sort of – he’s been depicted as far more primitive and lower-level than he really was.” I’m not sure precisely what that means, but it was all I got.
The fuzziness surrounding this is frustrating. I’d certainly like to know more about what Snowden did for the NSA. Did he work on network security? Was he a threat analyst of some kind? Did he actively search out vulnerabilities in other networks that NSA could exploit? Did he do this only at Booz Hamilton, or did he have basically the same job previously when he worked directly for the NSA? Exactly how much does he know about the NSA programs he’s been revealing to the world?
This whole affair gives me an odd vibe. For reasons I can’t figure out, I feel like everyone is holding back information. Obviously the government is, but it sure seems as if the journalists reporting this story have also declined to tell us everything they know. Maybe there’s good reason for this. But I wish I knew what it was.
And on a related note, I’d still like to know what’s on those other 37 PRISM slides. Or, at the very least, I’d like to know why I can’t know. The Washington Post published four of them a few days ago, and they revealed some pretty interesting information, including the number of targets of the PRISM program and the fact that PRISM allows a certain amount of real-time surveillance. I certainly don’t see anything on those slides that couldn’t have been released weeks ago. What’s more, Snowden apparently thought the entire set of slides should be revealed to the world. I’d like to know what changed his mind.
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