Tag Archives: cards

It Takes How Much Electricity to Power an NFL Game?

Mother Jones

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

Over the last few years, pro sports teams across the United States, often at the urging of environmentalist Allen Hershkowitz, have tried to go green.

Solar panels installed at Seattle’s CenturyLink Field in 2011 generate enough power for 95 homes. The Miami Heat have invested in efforts to reduce energy consumption at American Airlines Arena while cutting costs and combating the blistering heat. This year’s US Open Championship took place at Chambers Bay, a gravel mine turned public park that includes a world-class golf course planted with drought-resistant grass and irrigated with reused wastewater.

But what kind of impact can these efforts actually have? Here’s a look at pro sports’ environmental footprint and some recent attempts to shrink it:

Continued here:  

It Takes How Much Electricity to Power an NFL Game?

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, solar, solar panels, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on It Takes How Much Electricity to Power an NFL Game?

Quote of the Day: Secret Scheming Places of Tea Party Congressmen Revealed!

Mother Jones

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

From Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, on the tactics of tea partiers who are holding up the DHS funding bill over their increasingly pointless insistence that it include a provision repealing President Obama’s immigration program:

While conservative leaders are trying to move the ball up the field, these other members sit in exotic places like basements of Mexican restaurants and upper levels of House office buildings, seemingly unaware that they can’t advance conservatism by playing fantasy football with their voting cards.

Um, OK. Not exactly House of Cards, but OK.

Follow this link – 

Quote of the Day: Secret Scheming Places of Tea Party Congressmen Revealed!

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Quote of the Day: Secret Scheming Places of Tea Party Congressmen Revealed!

Look How Much Bigger Thanksgiving Turkeys Are Today Than in the 1930s

Mother Jones

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

Illustration by Chris Philpot

Thanksgiving turkeys are one of America’s oldest holiday traditions. But with their giant size, stooped frame, and limited mobility, today’s birds bear little resemblance to their early counterparts. So how did we end up with these modern megabirds? According to Suzanne McMillan, senior director of the farm animal welfare campaign of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, it wasn’t by accident.

Up until the the 1950s, turkeys found on Thanksgiving tables were essentially the same as their wild counterparts. But then, says McMillan, American poultry operations began to expand to meet Americans’ growing demand for meat. Turkey farmers began to selectively breed birds for both size and speed of growth—especially in the breast, the most popular cut among American diners. The birds grew so fast that their frames could not support their weight, and as a result, many turkeys were bowlegged and could no longer stand upright. The male turkeys, or toms, got so big—as heavy as 50 pounds—that they could no longer manage to transfer semen to hens. Today, reproduction happens almost exclusively through artificial insemination.

At around the same time, producers also began moving their operations indoors, where they could fit more birds and ensure that they developed uniformly, so turkeys’ feeding and care did not have to be individualized. In these close quarters, birds began to develop infections, like sores on their breasts and foot pads. To prevent these problems, and also to encourage growth, producers added low doses of antibiotics to the birds’ feed. Also because of space limitations, birds became aggressive and often resorted to cannibalism. In response, hatcheries began trimming birds’ beaks—known as debeaking—when they were a few days old.

If all of this makes turkey sound unappetizing, consider the latest development: As of October 20, turkey slaughter facilities were allowed to speed up their lines from 51 to 55 birds per minute—while also reducing the number of federal inspectors, as my colleague Tom Philpott has reported.

Consumer demand for cheap turkey has fueled these trends. The National Turkey Federation reports that turkey consumption has doubled over the last 30 years—today, the average American eats 16 pounds of turkey per year. Meanwhile, turkey prices haven’t increased much; in fact, this year turkey is cheaper than last year. Reuters reported that some grocery chains “use turkeys as ‘loss leaders’ to entice shoppers to buy other popular Thanksgiving foods.”

No wonder, then, that we end up trashing a lot of turkey:

By Jaeah Lee

If you don’t want to support turkey factory farms, McMillan says, look for birds that are certified through animal welfare programs. Grist has a good guide to picking a turkey with real humane bona fides here. A word of caution, though: This year, turkey giant Butterball says it has gone humane, but as Philpott reports, it so far hasn’t ditched many of the most cruel practices.

Jump to original:  

Look How Much Bigger Thanksgiving Turkeys Are Today Than in the 1930s

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Look How Much Bigger Thanksgiving Turkeys Are Today Than in the 1930s

The Alternate Ending to "Titanic" Proves Once and for All That Rose Is a Monster

Mother Jones

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

Titanic is a deeply flawed film. The dialogue is atrocious. The characterizations are thin. The plot ain’t anything we haven’t seen before. Even the visuals—once heralded as revolutionary—look sort of pedestrian now. (Of course, that’s the trouble with being revolutionary. You look like everybody else that comes after you.) Still, I love it. It’s a jaunt. It’s a ride. It’s a song and a grand, immense emotional experience. It’s what Hollywood does best, really.

But for me, the most unforgivable bit of Titanic has always been the end. Refresher: We’re back in the framing device with the old lady and her granddaughter aboard Bill Paxton’s ship. It is revealed that the old lady has had the jewel the entire time and has really only come aboard the treasure hunting ship so that she can throw it off the bow and lay it to rest down with Jack. This is stupid. That jewel is worth a fortune! Throwing it into the ocean is like setting money on fire. Even if you don’t want to live in luxury because of some Titanic-related guilt, you should still sell the jewel and give the proceeds to some worthy cause: charity! Your children’s education! Whatever! Throwing the jewel in the water is an act of selfish self-aggrandizement that puts old lady Rose firmly in the inconsiderate jerk camp. (Youthful Rose has long been a resident.) Homeless people are going hungry because Rose wanted some meaningless moment with the sea.

So, I was eager to watch the newly unearthed “alternate ending.” (It was apparently an extra on a 2005 DVD release of the film but millennials don’t watch DVDs and the internet only now became aware of its existence.) Does she sell the diamond and go to Beverly Hills and have a Pretty Women moment? Maybe she funds some orphanage for Dickensian youth? Maybe she created a scholarship fund in Leonardo DiCaprio’s name and blah blah blah. She does none of those things. Instead, this ending actually makes it worse.

No longer is Rose solely responsible for this little act of wealth destruction, but she makes complicit Bill Paxton, a treasure hunter. Bill Paxton, who has convinced investors to fund his expedition to find this stupid diamond. Bill Paxton, who lives in the world as it exists and not some Technicolor fantasy. In the new ending, Paxton has the chance to stop her from throwing the thing overboard. She puts it in his hand. He holds it. He becomes ensorcelled by the romance and lets her toss it off the boat and into the sea while one of his shocked minions runs around like an extra with his head cut off.

Where does Bill Paxton go from here? After the stone sinks to the ocean floor, he looks to Rose’s granddaughter and hints that maybe they should date, but he’s going to have a rough go of it finding time to wine and dine her once his backers learn about what he’s done and hit him with a bill for many millions of dollars. Titanic 2 is a courtroom drama set around Bill Paxton’s bankruptcy hearing. Bill Paxton’s life is now ruined. Let’s go further. Rose’s granddaughter’s life is also ruined. Her granddaughter and Bill seemed to really be hitting it off at the end and one of the rules of Hollywood movies is that if two people are flirting and hitting it off at the end of a film then the audience can assume that they immediately get married after the credits roll and are happy for the rest of time and laugh together and eat brunch together and sip champagne and feed each other strawberries together and die within minutes of each other decades later in one another’s arms because a life without the other isn’t a life worth living. That future—that destiny, the right of every romance film character—is not in the cards for Rose’s granddaughter if Bill throws that jewel into the sea. Rose sacrifices her granddaughter’s future bliss for some stupid romantic nonsense.

Rose is a monster.

Continued: 

The Alternate Ending to "Titanic" Proves Once and for All That Rose Is a Monster

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Alternate Ending to "Titanic" Proves Once and for All That Rose Is a Monster

Ferguson Is 60 Percent Black. Virtually All Its Cops Are White.

Mother Jones

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

Black residents of Ferguson, Missouri, the working-class city in northern St. Louis county where an unarmed black teenager was shot dead by police officers on Saturday, say the town has been a “powder keg” of racial imbalance for decades. “They treat us like second class all the way down the line,” one black resident told the LA Times. A black city alderman said the ensuing protests are “a boiling over of tensions that had been going on for a long while.”

Here’s a by-the-numbers look at who lives in Ferguson, who’s in charge, who gets stopped by police, and more.

All icons courtesy of the Noun Project. Houses: Laurène Smith

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the number of black members of Ferguson’s school board.

Source – 

Ferguson Is 60 Percent Black. Virtually All Its Cops Are White.

Posted in Anchor, Badger, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Ferguson Is 60 Percent Black. Virtually All Its Cops Are White.

The Supreme Court Just Decided an Internet Case No One Understands

Mother Jones

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, handed over-the-air broadcasting giants—including ABC, NBC, and Disney—a big victory over Aereo, a tiny, internet-based startup. Aereo’s lawyers had warned the high court that a ruling against the company would sound a death knell for other Internet technology, such as cloud-based computing. But in all likelihood, the internet will be fine.

Here’s a brief history of the case: Aereo, a small Brooklyn based start-up, operates thousands of tiny antennas that capture signals from public television broadcasts. It charges its customers about eight bucks a month to select programs and record and stream this content to their Internet devices via the cloud. It has been touted as the VCR of the future.

Continue Reading »

See original article: 

The Supreme Court Just Decided an Internet Case No One Understands

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Oster, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Supreme Court Just Decided an Internet Case No One Understands

The Clinton Memos: Advice on How Hillary Should Talk to a Single-Payer Advocate

Mother Jones

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

The Bill Clinton presidential library on Friday released thousands of pages of documents from the Clinton presidency, including a batch of nearly 300 pages related to the health care reform effort led by Hillary Clinton. This series of memos from 1993 offers a fascinating inside-baseball account of the White House’s legislative strategy for passing health insurance reform. Anyone who has watched House of Cards would recognize the techniques (though there are no murders) presented in these memos: composing files on the past and current health care positions of every member of the House and Senate, setting up a health care “university” to educate lawmakers on key policy components, mounting a “massive public communications campaign,” and coaxing—that is, ego-stroking—of individual lawmakers.

Much of this coaxing was to be done by the first lady. One memo noted that Rep. John Dingell, the powerful chair of the energy and commerce committee, was pessimistic about enacting comprehensive reform. “The best way to get Chairman Dingell back on board…is to make him feel that we need him (as we do),” an aide advised Hillary Clinton. Rep. Jack Brooks, who headed the House judiciary committee, was interested in limiting the antitrust exemption for the insurance industry. (“What he wants to hear is that you are aware of his legislation and that you and the President would like nothing less than to undercut his efforts in any way.”) New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who had recently taken over the Senate finance committee, also was “nervous,” believing that “health care reform will be complex, controversial, and potentially expensive.” So Hillary was advised to focus on Sens. George Mitchell and Jay Rockefeller, other Democrats on the committee, who “have the potential to actually (although not visually) run the Committee on this issue.” One memo noted the “desire” of several moderate Republicans to work with the White House, but it reported that these members “fear about how it will be perceived by the rest of Republicans.” Prior to a meeting with several GOP senators, who were expected to complain about the lack of White House outreach, Hillary Clinton was advised to quickly push “for movement to ‘this is all water under a bridge’ language.” Another memo called for establishing a “time sensitive Mrs. Clinton thank you note system following important (does not have to be all) meetings with Members.” A memo laying out the grand political strategy for the Clintons’ health care reform project described an “essential” component: “Keep the health care industry divided, both in terms of whether they support or oppose us, and in terms of keeping them from ganging up on any single part of the overall package.”

One intriguing memo to Hillary Clinton prepping her for a meeting with Rep. Jim McDermott, a Washington Democrat who was a fierce advocate of a single-payer system. Though Clinton’s reps had been telling progressive groups and unions in private meetings that she believed a single-payer health insurance program made sense, she and her aides had ruled it out for her health care initiative (due to the political opposition such a proposal would draw) and had opted for a much more complicated overhaul based on a requirement that employers provide health insurance through HMOs. Still, as this memo noted, Clinton couldn’t afford to tick off the single-payer crusaders: “Cultivating a good and close relationship with the Congressman is becoming more and more important to us. Our House target list is filled with single-payer advocates, many of whom will look to him for a sign-off. Therefore, as difficult as it probably will be, we need to keep him happy and on our side.” The memo reported that at a recent meeting of House Democrats, McDermott had spoken “at some length about how the single payer system was so much easier to describe than the plan he thought the Administration would be proposing” and suggested that McDermott had a rather elevated view of his own role in the ongoing health care reform debate.

This was the “suggested approach” Clinton was to take with McDermott:

As with all Members, and particularly Congressman McDermott, the goal at this meeting is to make him feel we are listening to him and desirous of his guidance. In this vein, you should consider throwing anything he throws at you as a complication right back at him with a question. Then, if you have concerns about his suggested approach, you can address it with him directly. (This way, you don’t allow him the opportunity to pick apart anything before you have had a chance to hear and analyze his alternatives).

And Chris Jennings, the White House aide providing this advice, proposed a little trick for Hillary Clinton to pull:

Lastly, as staged and as presumptuous as this is, I might suggest that you consider throwing out all of the staff at the end of the meeting to hold a five minute private meeting with him. This will signal to him the closeness of your relationship with him, and the value you place on his confidential advice. (The subject could be on virtually anything.)

Frank Underwood could do no better. But making nice with single-payer advocates—and winning over many of them—was not sufficient. Not enough Democratic senators got behind the Clintons’ plan—”Anyone who thinks the Clinton health care plan can work in the real world as presently written isn’t living in it,” Moynihan declared—and the initiative crashed and burned. But perhaps Hillary learned a lesson or two about working with parochially minded members of the House and Senate that she later could apply during her time as a senator—and that may come in handy should she ever again be working in the White House.

Here’s the document:

DV.load(“//www.documentcloud.org/documents/1032085-hillary-clinton-talks-to-a-single-payer-advocate.js”,
width: 630,
height: 820,
sidebar: false,
container: “#DV-viewer-1032085-hillary-clinton-talks-to-a-single-payer-advocate”
);

Hillary Clinton Talks to a Single-Payer Advocate (PDF)

Hillary Clinton Talks to a Single-Payer Advocate (Text)

Visit site – 

The Clinton Memos: Advice on How Hillary Should Talk to a Single-Payer Advocate

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Clinton Memos: Advice on How Hillary Should Talk to a Single-Payer Advocate

Actress Ellen Page Comes Out As Gay: "Happy Valentine’s Day. I Love You."

Mother Jones

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

Oscar-nominated actress and self-described “tiny Canadian” Ellen Page (Inception, The East, Juno) came out as a gay woman on Valentine’s Day.

She made the announcement in a moving speech delivered at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s inaugural Time to Thrive conference in Las Vegas. You can watch the 26-year-old actress’s remarks above. Here is an excerpt:

I’m inspired to be in this room because every single one of you is here for the same reason. You’re here because you’ve adopted as a core motivation the simple fact that this world would be a whole lot better if we just made an effort to be less horrible to one another. If we took just 5 minutes to recognize each other’s beauty, instead of attacking each other for our differences. That’s not hard. It’s really an easier and better way to live. And ultimately, it saves lives.

Then again, it’s not easy at all. It can be the hardest thing, because loving other people starts with loving ourselves and accepting ourselves. I know many of you have struggled with this. I draw upon your strength and your support, and have, in ways you will never know.

I’m here today because I am gay. And because…maybe I can make a difference. To help others have an easier and more hopeful time. Regardless, for me, I feel a personal obligation and a social responsibility.

I also do it selfishly, because I am tired of hiding and I am tired of lying by omission. I suffered for years because I was scared to be out. My spirit suffered, my mental health suffered and my relationships suffered. And I’m standing here today, with all of you, on the other side of that pain. I am young, yes, but what I have learned is that love, the beauty of it, the joy of it and yes, even the pain of it, is the most incredible gift to give and to receive as a human being. And we deserve to experience love fully, equally, without shame and without compromise.

There are too many kids out there suffering from bullying, rejection, or simply being mistreated because of who they are. Too many dropouts. Too much abuse. Too many homeless. Too many suicides. You can change that and you are changing it.

But you never needed me to tell you that. That’s why this was a little bit weird. The only thing I can really say is…what I have been building up to for the past 5 minutes. Thank you. Thank you for inspiring me. Thank you for giving me hope, and please keep changing the world for people like me.

Happy Valentine’s Day. I love you.

After her speech, Page received the following show of support from House of Cards star Kate Mara:

(As flagged by TheWrap, Page satirized lesbian rumors about her in a 2008 Saturday Night Live sketch.)

Page is set to star alongside Julianne Moore and Zach Galifianakis in Freeheld, an upcoming drama based on the true story of the late Laurel Hester, a terminally ill New Jersey police lieutenant who fought a long battle to pass on pension benefits to her female domestic partner. Page, a proud feminist, has long been a supporter of marriage equality and LGBT rights. She is also passionate about climate action, reproductive rights, and raising awareness about human rights abuses in Burma. Here’s a video for the US Campaign for Burma from 2008, in which she declares, “Hitler is alive in Burma”:

View original: 

Actress Ellen Page Comes Out As Gay: "Happy Valentine’s Day. I Love You."

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Actress Ellen Page Comes Out As Gay: "Happy Valentine’s Day. I Love You."

City in Russia Unable to Kick Asbestos Habit

green4us

Kids Puzzle Fun #1 – Lovatts Crosswords & Puzzles

Junior puzzlers will enjoy hours of quality entertainment with the first issue of Kids Puzzle Fun! This interactive book features ‘Magic Touch’ drawing tools, allowing kids to solve the puzzles by using their finger as a pen. Magic Touch unites the tactile feel of a printed book with a superior digital format, resulting in a more natural, intuitive experienc […]

iTunes Store
Apocalypse (Digital Collection) – Games Workshop

The greatest heroes of the age lead battalions of troops and tanks against the foe. Super-heavy war machines dominate the conflict like gods of battle as bombardments rain from the skies. This is war on a whole new level. Apocalypse is a new way of playing games of Warhammer 40,000. Allowing you to field as many miniatures as you like, in any combinati […]

iTunes Store
Apocalypse – Games Workshop

The greatest heroes of the age lead battalions of troops and tanks against the foe. Super-heavy war machines dominate the conflict like gods of battle as bombardments rain from the skies. This is war on a whole new level. Apocalypse is a new way of playing games of Warhammer 40,000. Allowing you to field as many miniatures as you like, in any combinati […]

iTunes Store
How to Raise the Perfect Dog – Cesar Millan & Melissa Jo Peltier

From the bestselling author and star of National Geographic Channel’s Dog Whisperer , the only resource you’ll need for raising a happy, healthy dog. For the millions of people every year who consider bringing a puppy into their lives–as well as those who have already brought a dog home–Cesar Millan, the preeminent dog behavior expert, says, “Yes, […]

iTunes Store
Farsight Enclaves – A Codex: Tau Empire Supplement – Games Workshop

Commander Farsight was once hailed by every Tau caste as a genius warrior-leader without compare. As his career blazed a bloody path across the Damocles Gulf and back again, O’Shovah split away from the Tau Empire, doggedly pursuing the Orks that had killed so many of his Fire caste comrades. It was the first overt sign of a rebellion that was to change the […]

iTunes Store
Apocalypse: Strategic Asset Cards – Games Workshop

Apocalypse: Strategic Asset Cards A cunning commander always has a trick or two up his sleeve, and now you can too with this collection of Strategic Asset Cards for games of Apocalypse. Incorporating all of the Strategic Asset Cards from the Warhammer 40,000: Apocalypse rulebook into digital form these can be referenced easily and quickly on your digital dev […]

iTunes Store
Following Atticus – Tom Ryan

After a close friend died of cancer, middle-aged, overweight, acrophobic newspaperman Tom Ryan decided to pay tribute to her in a most unorthodox manner. Ryan and his friend, miniature schnauzer Atticus M. Finch, would attempt to climb all forty-eight of New Hampshire’s four thousand- foot peaks twice in one winter while raising money for charity. It wa […]

iTunes Store
Warlords of the Dark Millennium: Ezekiel – Games Workshop

Ezekiel is the chief Librarian of the Dark Angels Space Marines; keeper of their most closely guarded secrets and ancient lore. As bearer of the Book of Salvation Ezekiel is an inspiration to his battle-brothers in combat, the powerful Librarian and sacred relic steadying them before the foe. About this Series: The galaxy burns with the fires of countless wa […]

iTunes Store
Warhammer 40,000: The Rules – Games Workshop

There is no time for peace. No respite. No forgiveness. There is only WAR. In the nightmare future of the 41st Millennium, Mankind teeters upon the brink of destruction. The galaxy-spanning Imperium of Man is beset on all sides by ravening aliens and threatened from within by Warp-spawned entities and heretical plots. Only the strength of the immortal […]

iTunes Store
Index Astartes: Librarians – Games Workshop

Librarians are the lore keepers and psykers of the Adeptus Astartes, recording the Chapters long and glorious histories. Each Librarian is a formidable foe, able to call upon the power of Warp to smite the enemies of the Imperium with righteous fire and furious anger. About this Series: The Adeptus Astartes are genetically engineered warriors, created by the […]

iTunes Store

View original post here:

City in Russia Unable to Kick Asbestos Habit

Posted in Bunn, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, Monterey, ONA, PUR, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on City in Russia Unable to Kick Asbestos Habit

Dot Earth Blog: Global Warming Trend and Variations Charted by Cello

A cellist conveys climate change in a musical composition. Visit site:   Dot Earth Blog: Global Warming Trend and Variations Charted by Cello ; ;Related ArticlesListening Post: Obama Seeks New U.S. Role in Climate DebateGlobal Warming Trend and Variations Charted by CelloDot Earth Blog: Seeking More Presidential Action, Less Rhetoric, on Warming ;

More: 

Dot Earth Blog: Global Warming Trend and Variations Charted by Cello

Posted in eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, Monterey, ONA, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Dot Earth Blog: Global Warming Trend and Variations Charted by Cello