Category Archives: Landmark

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Undergoes Heart Surgery

by Rosie53Xgftn Posted on November 26, 2014

Mother Jones

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is “resting comfortably” after undergoing a coronary catheterization procedure, a press release from the nation’s highest court announced Wednesday morning.

Ginsburg, who at 81 is the Supreme Court’s oldest member, is expected to be discharged in the next 48 hours. From the release:

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent a coronary catheterization procedure this morning at MedStar Heart & Vascular Institute at MedStar Washington Hospital Center to place a stent in her right coronary artery. The coronary blockage was discovered after Justice Ginsburg experienced discomfort during routine exercise last night and was taken to the hospital. She is resting comfortably and is expected to be discharged in the next 48 hours.

Ginsburg has pushed back against suggestions she step down while President Barack Obama is still in office. In an interview with Elle last September, she defended her resistance to such calls. “Anybody who thinks that if I step down, Obama could appoint someone like me, they’re misguided. As long as I can do the job full steam…. I think I’ll recognize when the time comes that I can’t any longer. But now I can.”

Link: 

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Undergoes Heart Surgery

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, Landmark, LG, ONA, Pines, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Undergoes Heart Surgery

These Stunning Photos Show China’s Daily Onslaught of Toxic Smog

by NCSEmelybnkz Posted on November 19, 2014

Mother Jones

During the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing, something remarkable happened, as it does every time the world’s news cameras train their sites on the Chinese capital: The toxic gray air turned blue. The state-run press even gave it a name: “APEC blue”.

Magic! Not exactly. In a push to impress (pretend?), the magic wand that Beijing authorities waved to banish the smog was in fact a massive bureaucratic effort that could only be pulled off in one-party-rule China. Ten thousand industrial plants were temporarily shuttered, and nearly 40,000 others limited operating hours. An army of 434,000 staff and officials from provinces surrounding Beijing were called up to inspect the plants and enforce the order, according to the South China Morning Post.

In China, extreme tactics like this are not uncommon. The skies for 2008’s Beijing Olympics were cleared in part using cloud-seeding, a process that involves lacing clouds with chemicals to increase precipitation. The country boasts “the world’s largest rainmaking force, with 6,902 cloud-seeding artillery guns, 7,034 launchers for chemical-bearing rockets, more than 50 planes and 47,700 employees,” according to the Washington Post.

But now that APEC is over, so is APEC blue. The smog is returning with a vengeance as cars clog the streets and production gets back online:

To get a real sense of just how bad the air is in Beijing most of the time, check out this extraordinary series of photos taken by one Beijing man, who has been waging something of a social media war against the city’s toxic air since the beginning of 2013. Zou Yi has been taking photos of the Beijing sky every day and uploading them to his personal Weibo account (the rough equivalent of Twitter). The result—which we first saw in Petapixel and which was also reported in That’s, a Beijing expat magazine—is frightening:

A toxic view. Zou Yi/Sina Weibo via Petapixel/That’s

The daily photos of the Beijing Television Station building are taken from Zou’s apartment. They include the date and Beijing’s Air Quality Index readings. Independent US readings of the smog taken from atop its Beijing embassy were reportedly censored during APEC.

The photo series has even been picked up by Chinese state-run press, in a further sign that the constraints around reporting the pollution problem in the media have been gradually loosening over the last few years. China Radio International’s website quoted Zou Yi as saying, “I hope the activity will cause more people to realize the significance of protecting the environment.”

According to environmental policy experts, China’s air crisis was a major driver behind the landmark US-China climate deal announced last week. Under the agreement, China’s greenhouse gas emissions would peak around 2030. China’s pollution—which is now a political headache for its leaders, not simply an environmental concern—has been central to its pursuit of alternative energy sources, including natural gas, that could wean China’s economy from dirty coal.

Originally posted here:  

These Stunning Photos Show China’s Daily Onslaught of Toxic Smog

Posted in alo, alternative energy, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, Landmark, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, solar, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on These Stunning Photos Show China’s Daily Onslaught of Toxic Smog

Robert Frank’s Photos of America Still Feel As Poignant As They Did 60 Years Ago

by RochellBergman Posted on November 8, 2014

Mother Jones

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

On November 9, photographer Robert Frank turns 90. While turning 90 is worth celebrating, what’s even more impressive is that the work he created 60 years ago continues to resonate so strongly today. Frank’s photos of the postwar United States still feel incredibly fresh, even if they bear the weight of history—and even if their details (the clothes, the cars, the hairstyles) seem so dated.

By the time Frank’s now-landmark book The Americans hit US bookstore shelves in 1959, he turned his attention from photography to filmmaking. The negative reaction his debut book received didn’t exactly inspire Frank to keep shooting. Nevertheless, 10 years after it was first published, The Americans became a tour de force in photography, its influence growing exponentially over time.

New York City, 1951 Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, gift of Raymond B. Gary

For the most part, the work Frank made before and immediately after shooting The Americans has remain unseen. Recent curatorial work led by Sarah Greenough at the National Gallery of Art started to correct that. She and other curators printed and exhibited photos that didn’t make the cut for The Americans or that were otherwise shot around the same time period but not part of the project. Greenough’s massive and massively awesome Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans, published in 2009, went a long way to provide a fix to all who craved more Robert Frank. And most recently, the new book Robert Frank in America expands on the known photos that Frank shot during this time. In America proves to be an excellent companion to Greenough’s book, particularly for those who can’t seem to get enough Robert Frank. Or, if Looking In‘s almost 400 pages feels daunting, this book is a bit more digestible.

New York City, early 1950s Courtesy Cantor Center for Arts at Stanford University, gift of Bowen H. McCoy

Beaufort, South Carolina, 1955 Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, gift of Raymond B. Gary

With images largely culled from the impressive collection of Frank photographs at Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center, this new exhibit and catalog showcases 130 images. You’ll recognize 22 of them from The Americans; the rest, however, are more or less unknown photos shot by Frank in the 1950s. These photos stand up with the best of his work.

Iowa, 1956 Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, gift of Bowen H. McCoy

En route from New York to Washington, Club Car, 1954 Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, gift of Raymond B. Gary

Hollywood, 1958 Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, gift of Bowen H. McCoy

As an introduction to Frank’s images, Peter Galassi, former chief curator of photography at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, examines the photographer’s work from 1947 through the early ’60s. In his essay, Galassi shows Frank’s evolution as a photojournalist and puts his work in context with other photographers of the era, notably his protégé Ted Croner‘s blurry, energetic images of New York City at night, Alexey Brodovitch’s frenetic ballet photos, and Sid Grossman‘s photos of the gritty streets of New York. Thankfully, the essay avoids falling into the trap that too many catalog/photobook essays do: being overly academic, dense with critical-theory jargon. It’s smart but clear, full of well-presented (and well-illustrated) information.

The intro also includes a detailed map of Frank’s travels across the United States from the late ’40s through the early ’60s—before, during, and after his Guggenheim travels, when he shot the work for The Americans. The map provides corresponding location and date information to photos in the book. It’s a real treat for photo nerds.

The Americans famously has only 83 carefully edited and sequenced images. In America has 130 photos grouped together by subject. It’s a more obvious way of looking at the photos, but doesn’t diminish the overall greatness of the book.

Detroit, 1955 Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, gift of Bowen H. McCoy

Florida, 1958 Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, gift of Bowen H. McCoy

Lusk, Wyoming, 1956 Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, gift of Bowen H. McCoy

New York City, 1949 Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, lent by Peter Steil

As great as the photos are, the strength in this book particularly lies in the additional context it provides for Frank’s work, and for the work in The Americans. Seeing that he didn’t just one day pick up a Leica, hop in his car, drive around the United States, manically edit photos to produce The Americans is instructive, even with all we know about Frank today. Putting his evolution in context, as Galassi’s illustrated essay does, then diving into the exceptional photos makes this book (and exhibition) worthwhile. It’s a perfect way to celebrate Robert Frank’s 90th birthday.

Robert Frank in America is on display at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University until January 5, 2015. The accompanying 200-page exhibition catalog is published by Steidl.

View the original here: 

Robert Frank’s Photos of America Still Feel As Poignant As They Did 60 Years Ago

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, Landmark, LG, ONA, Radius, solar, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Robert Frank’s Photos of America Still Feel As Poignant As They Did 60 Years Ago

The ‘Super El Niño’ Forecast Fadeout

by Myrna Posted on November 7, 2014

Early-year warnings of a “super El Nino” are history. See the article here:   The ‘Super El Niño’ Forecast Fadeout ; ; ;

View original – 

The ‘Super El Niño’ Forecast Fadeout

Posted in alo, alternative energy, eco-friendly, Eureka, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, Landmark, Monterey, ONA, oven, Pines, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The ‘Super El Niño’ Forecast Fadeout

A Doctor-Parent Exchange Reveals a Dangerous Gap Between Fears and Facts on Ebola and Flu

by Myrna Posted on November 6, 2014

A parent presses a doctor to vaccinate a child against Ebola, while rejecting a flu shot. Visit site: A Doctor-Parent Exchange Reveals a Dangerous Gap Between Fears and Facts on Ebola and Flu ; ; ;

Source: 

A Doctor-Parent Exchange Reveals a Dangerous Gap Between Fears and Facts on Ebola and Flu

Posted in alo, alternative energy, eco-friendly, Eureka, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, Landmark, Monterey, ONA, oven, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on A Doctor-Parent Exchange Reveals a Dangerous Gap Between Fears and Facts on Ebola and Flu

Senate Now Has Enough Votes To Pass Keystone XL Pipeline Approval Bill

by Myrna Posted on November 5, 2014

McConnell finally has the chance he’s been waiting for. Gage Skidmore/Flickr WASHINGTON -– The new Senate Republican majority creates an opportunity for likely Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to force a vote on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline he’s been waiting years to hold. By The Huffington Post’s count, the new Senate will have at least 61 votes in favor of a measure forcing the pipeline’s approval — a filibuster-proof majority. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Tuesday in an appearance on MSNBC that passing a Keystone approval bill would be the second item on the Republican agenda, after a budget. “I actually think the president will sign the bill on the Keystone pipeline because I think the pressure — he’s going to be boxed in on that, and I think it’s going to happen,” Priebus said. To keep reading, click here. View original:  Senate Now Has Enough Votes To Pass Keystone XL Pipeline Approval Bill ; ; ;

Source:

Senate Now Has Enough Votes To Pass Keystone XL Pipeline Approval Bill

Posted in alo, eco-friendly, Eureka, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, Landmark, Monterey, ONA, oven, OXO, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Senate Now Has Enough Votes To Pass Keystone XL Pipeline Approval Bill

The Climate Lost Big-Time in Tuesday’s Election

by Myrna Posted on November 5, 2014

Climate deniers are officially in charge of Congress, and other bad news. Susan Santa Maria/Shutterstock Tuesday’s elections were a major defeat for those who want to take serious action against global warming. Environmentalists spent millions in an effort to defeat pro-fossil-fuel Republicans, but their efforts largely failed. Key Senate committees will now be controlled by climate deniers, and even in blue states, clean energy advocates suffered big setbacks. Here are some of last night’s most significant electoral blows in the battle against climate change—along with a couple small victories. The Senate’s environment committee will be run by the biggest climate denier in Congress. With a Republican majority in the Senate, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) will likely become chairman of the Environment and Public Works committee, which handles legislation on air pollution and the environment. Inhofe is an outspoken climate denier. Two years ago, he published a book titled, The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future. He’s also a big opponent of the Obama administration’s proposed rule to limit carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, describing it as the “definitive step in the administration’s war on fossil fuels.” There’s new life for the Keystone pipeline. The Republican-controlled House has already voted on more than one occasion to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, but with the Senate under Democratic control, that gesture has been little more than political theater. That will likely change now that Republicans have taken over the Senate. President Barack Obama could still veto any Keystone legislation that does pass, but as Grist explains, there’s “no guarantee” that he won’t seek to strike a deal with the GOP on the issue. Tom Steyer’s climate super PAC largely fell flat. Could a one-issue super PAC make climate an election-deciding issue? Not this time. California billionaire Tom Steyer put millions of his own money into the NextGen Climate PAC—and raised millions more—in an effort to elect pro-climate action candidates across the country. Much of the cash went to senate races in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan, and Colorado, and to gubernatorial races in Pennsylvania, Florida, and Maine. Out of those seven races, Democrats won only three. A Washington State carbon tax? Not so fast. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) wants to put a price on carbon. In April, Inslee formed a taskforce to propose some “market-based” ways to reduce greenhouse emissions. Their recommendations are due later this month, but Republicans, who control the state senate, are likely to stand in the way. Steyer’s super PAC threw down more than $1 million in an attempt to help climate friendly candidates legislative candidates in the state. Early returns suggest it may not have worked; as of last night the Washington senate was expected to remain in the GOP’s hands. Climate adaptation measures passed: The impacts of climate change are already obvious on America’s coastlines, where rising sea levels are combining with other factors to threaten human and animal habitats alike. But there was a bit of good news on Election Night. In Rhode Island, voters passed a measure to provide $3 million to communities for flood-prevention projects, like replacing pavement with vegetation that can more easily absorb storm water. Louisiana voters also passed a ballot measure that will ensure the state can’t redirect money set aside for building artificial reefs to help rebuild the Gulf’s disappearing coastline. Local fracking bans: Pro-fossil-fuel candidates triumphed across the country last night, but the election still presented an opportunity for some voters to take a stand against fracking in their communities. The town of Denton, Texas, which is already home to some 275 fracked wells, voted to ban the practice, becoming the first city in the state to do so. Bans also passed in Athens, Ohio, and in Mendocino and San Benito Counties in California. Four other ban proposed bans failed—three in Ohio and one in Santa Barbara County, Calif. See original article here:  The Climate Lost Big-Time in Tuesday’s Election ; ; ;

Read this article – 

The Climate Lost Big-Time in Tuesday’s Election

Posted in alo, Casio, eco-friendly, Eureka, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, Landmark, Monterey, ONA, oven, OXO, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Climate Lost Big-Time in Tuesday’s Election

Ruth "Baby" Ginsburg Is Absolutely Crushing Halloween This Year

by JackHutchins Posted on October 31, 2014

Mother Jones

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

For those in the need of any last minute Halloween inspiration, look no further than Ruth “Baby” Ginsburg, quite possibly the most adorable tribute to the badass Supreme Court Justice herself we’ve witnessed.

The perfectly oversized glasses! The dainty jabot. Just perfect.

Read original article:  

Ruth "Baby" Ginsburg Is Absolutely Crushing Halloween This Year

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, Landmark, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Ruth "Baby" Ginsburg Is Absolutely Crushing Halloween This Year

Climate Change Is Kicking the Insurance Industry’s Butt

by olikellopas Posted on October 22, 2014

Mother Jones

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

In the months after Hurricane Sandy, insurance companies spooked by rising seas dropped coastal policies in droves.

That could become an increasingly common story, according to the largest-ever survey of how insurance companies are dealing with climate change, released today. Global warming is increasing the risk of damage to lives and property from natural disasters beyond what many insurers are willing to shoulder. And most insurance companies aren’t taking adequate steps to change that trend, the survey found. That’s a problem even if you don’t live by the coast: When private insurers back out, the government is left to pick up much of the damage costs; already, the federal flood insurance program is one of the nation’s largest fiscal liabilities.

Ceres, an environmental nonprofit, evaluated the climate risk management policies of 330 large insurance companies operating in the United States. The results are worrying. Only nine companies, 3 percent of the total, earned the highest ranking.

The insurers that scored highly on the survey (including several of the world’s biggest, such as Munich Re, Swiss Re, and Prudential) were those that have adopted a broad range of climate-conscious products and services, such as rate pricing plans that account for potential climate impacts like storms and fires. Some insurers are also investing in high-end climate modeling software to better understand where their risks really are. Others offer environmentally friendly plans like mileage-based car insurance and encourage their customers to rebuild damaged homes using green technologies. And some insurance companies are making significant efforts to monitor and reduce their own carbon footprint.

However, the report finds that one major way insurance companies are adjusting to climate change is by not insuring properties that are threatened by it, said Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, a lead author of the report.

“As a regulator, it’s very bad to see markets being abandoned because of the threat that exists,” he said.

Certainly the threat is real. Globally, average annual weather-related losses have increased more than tenfold in the last several decades, from $10 billion per year in the period 1974-1983 to $131 billion in 2004-2013, according to the report. The insurance industry is not keeping pace: The proportion of those damages that are insured is steadily declining:

Tim McDonnell

Continue Reading »

Source: 

Climate Change Is Kicking the Insurance Industry’s Butt

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, Landmark, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Climate Change Is Kicking the Insurance Industry’s Butt

Judge Rips Alabama for Hiring a Discredited Abortion Foe

by panisylvia Posted on October 21, 2014

Mother Jones

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

Vincent Rue, a marriage therapist best known for his discredited theories about how abortion causes mental illness, has made hundreds of thousands of dollars assembling legal teams to defend extreme anti-abortion bills. But lately, the states that hire him have been getting a raw deal.

On Monday, US District Judge Myron H. Thompson skewered Alabama for involving Rue in the defense of a law that requires abortion providers to obtain admitting privileges with a local hospital. Thompson struck down the law, which had threatened to close three of Alabama’s five abortion clinics. Notably, Thompson disregarded two arguments made by John M. Thorp, an OB-GYN at the University of North Carolina Hospital and one of Rue’s go-to expert witnesses: that complications arise from abortion more often than is reported in official statistics, and that admitting privileges are necessary to good patient care. Both claims have been key for states defending these sorts of abortion restrictions.

This is the second time this year that a federal judge has dismissed evidence brought by Rue’s favored expert witnesses. In September, a Texas judge ruling on an anti-abortion bill that would close all but six of the state’s clinics raked the state’s attorneys across the coals for bringing on Rue—and hiding his involvement.

Rue was thoroughly discredited as an abortion expert long before Alabama hired him. When he testified in two landmark abortion cases in the 1990s, judges disregarded his testimony for being personally biased and lacking expertise. Mainstream medical organizations have rejected Rue’s research on a supposed mental illness caused by abortion, “post-abortive syndrome.”

In Alabama, Rue recruited expert witnesses for the state and in one case wrote the entirety of the report the state’s witnesses submitted to the court. Rue didn’t testify. But the state paid him $82,890 for his work. It paid the two witnesses that Thompson called out in his opinion, Thorp and James C. Anderson, a Virginia emergency room physician, $40,174.75 and $76,279.20, respectively. Thorp, Rue, and Anderson did not reply to requests for comment.

Thorp based his testimony on a study he wrote for a pay-to-publish journal. (Traditional academic journals do not charge authors for printing their work.) He misplaced decimal points in his report to the court compiling abortion complication rates. When challenged about his methodology on cross-examination, Thorp told the court to “knock a point off” his estimate of complication rates.

At trial, Anderson admitted that Rue had written a report to the court that Anderson signed. Anderson also said that Rue provided most of the research for a second report Anderson wrote. Anderson further testified that he didn’t know courts had disregarded Rue’s testimony. Thompson was incredulous.

“You say you don’t know his employment or any organizations that he belongs to,” the judge asked Anderson. “Why do you trust him?”

In his Monday ruling, Thompson tried to guess at the answer: “Either Anderson has extremely impaired judgment; he lied to the court as to his familiarity with Rue; or he is so biased against abortion that he would endorse any opinion that supports increased regulation on abortion providers. Any of these explanations severely undermines Anderson’s credibility as an expert witness.”

Read the article – 

Judge Rips Alabama for Hiring a Discredited Abortion Foe

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, Landmark, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Judge Rips Alabama for Hiring a Discredited Abortion Foe