Tag Archives: flickr

The Arctic Just Set Another Frightening Record

by Barney69Iujua Posted on March 30, 2015

Mother Jones

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

This story originally appeared on Slate and is republished here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Ever year around the end of February, after a long winter, Arctic ice reaches its maximum extent. This year that happened around Feb. 25, when it encompassed 14.54 million square kilometers of ice around the North Pole.

Sound like a lot? It’s not. Really, really not. This year’s maximum extent was the lowest on record.

Ice extent (area covered at least 15 percent by ice) for 2015 (solid blue line) compared with 2012 (dashed) and the average from 1981–2010 (black line). Diagram by the NSIDC

The plot above shows the situation. The solid line shows the average ice extent over the year (measured from 1981–2010) and the gray area represents a statistical measure of random fluctuations; anything inside the gray is more or less indistinguishable from the average (in other words, an excursion up or down inside the gray area could just be due to random chance).

The dashed line was the extent in 2012, when unusual conditions created the lowest minimum extent in recorded history. The solid blue line is 2015 so far. As you can see, it’s already reached maximum, and it’s well below average. It’s also outside the gray zone, meaning it’s statistically significant. It’s the earliest the peak has been reached as well. Both these facts point accusingly at global warming—more warmth, and shorter winters.

We have to be careful here, because individual records can be misleading. The trend is what’s important. However, the trend is very, very clear: Ice extent at the North Pole is decreasing rapidly over time. Note that this record low extent is about 1 percent lower than the previous record…which was last year.

Here’s a NASA video describing this year’s low maximum:

The implications of losing Arctic ice are profound. First, high latitudes are more affected by warming; the temperature trends in the extreme north are twice what they are at lower latitudes.

Melting ice does contribute to sea level rise, though not as much as melting glaciers on land. The bad news: Those glaciers are melting faster than ever. This has a second effect that may prove just as disastrous, too. All that fresh water dumped into the salty ocean changes the way the water circulates around the world. This circulation is one of the key ways warmth gets redistributed around the planet. Disrupting this cannot possibly be good news for us. You can read more about this at RealClimate, and climatologist Michael Mann discussed it in a recent interview.

At the other pole, Antarctic land ice is melting at a fantastic rate, and the slight increase in sea ice is not even coming close to making up for it. Deniers love to point at the sea ice, but that comes and goes every year and is roughly stable; the land ice is melting away at huge rates. Claiming global warming is wrong because Antarctic sea ice is increasing is like pointing toward a healing paper cut on your finger when your femoral artery has been punctured.

Arctic ice is like the fabled canary in a coal mine; it’s showing us very clearly what we’re in for. And what’s headed our way is a warmer planet, an even more disrupted climate, and a world of hurt if we do nothing about it.

Read article here: 

The Arctic Just Set Another Frightening Record

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Arctic Just Set Another Frightening Record

This GOP Congressman’s Solution to Homelessness Involves Getting Eaten By Wolves

by CarolNXGmes Posted on March 6, 2015

Mother Jones

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

Homelessness is a very serious problem. Nearly 600,000 Americans don’t have a home, including one in every 30 children. Recently, we’ve reported on some innovative solutions, including tiny houses and free, no-strings-attached apartments.

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) has a different idea. It involves wolves. Specifically, releasing grey wolves into the districts of 79 of his peers in Congress who had recently called for greater protections for the endangered species.

From the Washington Post:

“How many of you have got wolves in your district?” he asked. “None. None. Not one.”

“They haven’t got a damn wolf in their whole district,” Young continued. “I’d like to introduce them in your district. If I introduced them in your district, you wouldn’t have a homeless problem anymore.”

Wow.

If you’re unfamiliar with Don Young, he is renowned for his outlandish antics, mostly about animals, like that time he brandished an 18-inch walrus penis bone on the House floor or the time he called climate change the “biggest scam since Teapot Dome” (a major bribery scandal in the 1920s involving the Harding administration).

A Young spokesperson told the Post that the comment was “purposely hyperbolic.”

Source:  

This GOP Congressman’s Solution to Homelessness Involves Getting Eaten By Wolves

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on This GOP Congressman’s Solution to Homelessness Involves Getting Eaten By Wolves

Top State Republican Sued For “Bigoted, Racist, and Sexist” Comments

by Abigail09R Posted on March 4, 2015

Mother Jones

The Georgia Republican Party, and its chair, John Padgett, have already been sued once in the past year over allegations of racial discrimination and racial slurs. Now, Padgett, his wife, and the company he owns are being sued again, on the grounds that they frequently engaged in “bigoted, racist and sexist commentary” about the employees who work there, a possible violation of the federal Civil Rights Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The latest suit was filed by Vanessa Dewberry, a former manager at Southeast Ambulance Inc., a company owned and operated by Padgett. Dewberry, who is black, was usually the only person of color in higher-level meetings, the suit notes. That meant she was privy to the allegedly questionable comments of the predominately white management. In February 2014, Dewberry decided to record a meeting. What she heard became the basis of her lawsuit:

Padgett, talking about a black employee: “He’s not a goddamn doctor…he’s a black tech that’s supposed to know better.”
Padgett and others (including his wife, Mary) engaged in a conversation making fun of a female employee. “She’s the one that looks like a boy,” Padgett said. A male speaker interjected, “Nobody around the office knows what to refer to it.” Mary Padgett responded: “What is she? Is she a—is she—it’s a—if she’s a she.” According to Dewberry, John Padgett found the exchange humorous, and laughed during at mentions of the employee as “it.”

“As shocking as this type of unlawful ridicule of SEA employees was,” the suit states, “Ms. Dewberry recognized that it was typical of SEA meetings and was not likely to stop without some intervention.” Dewberry complained to Padgett and company HR director Michelle Hayes directly after the meeting, but her lawyers say no action was taken to address the complaint. Less than a week later, Padgett fired her. Dewberry is suing not only for racial discrimination and wrongful termination, but also for wages—her suit also alleges she was not fully paid for her work.

Padgett’s alleged bad behavior extended to his work as chairman of the state GOP, too. The earlier suit, filed in July 2014 by Padgett’s ex-assistant, Qiana Keith, is still pending. Keith alleges that she endured consistent racial discrimination and racial slurs while working at the Georgia Republican Party, including being ordered not to park in front of the party offices. State party lawyers deny Keith’s claims; attempts to reach Padgett for comment were unsuccessful, and SEA declined to comment. Padgett is a longtime conservative activist in Georgia, and was elected as chair in 2013 on a platform of “fighting the liberal media” and “building a new majority” by promoting diversity, according to a campaign ad.

Source: 

Top State Republican Sued For “Bigoted, Racist, and Sexist” Comments

Posted in Anchor, bigo, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Top State Republican Sued For “Bigoted, Racist, and Sexist” Comments

Obama: Climate Change Is an "Urgent And Growing Threat" To National Security

by RogerCurry Posted on February 6, 2015

Mother Jones

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

President Barack Obama listed climate change alongside international terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, and infectious disease in a new national security strategy plan released today. The plan called climate change “an urgent and growing threat to our national security” and also called for the United States to diversify its energy sources to insulate the country from disruptions to foreign fossil fuel markets.

This isn’t the first time the Obama administration has singled out climate as a major national security risk: A Pentagon report in October said global warming has become a short-term priority for strategic military planning. But the issue gets much more airtime in today’s strategy than it did in the administration’s first, issued back in 2010, where it merited just a few passing references. Overall, the document is in line with the more aggressive climate message that has emerged this year from the White House. You can read it below:

DV.load(“//www.documentcloud.org/documents/1657160-document-gw-01.js”,
width: 630,
height: 800,
sidebar: false,
page: 18,
container: “#DV-viewer-1657160-document-gw-01”
);

Document Gw 01 (PDF)

Document Gw 01 (Text)

Original post:

Obama: Climate Change Is an "Urgent And Growing Threat" To National Security

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Obama: Climate Change Is an "Urgent And Growing Threat" To National Security

Mitt Romney Won’t Run for President in 2016

by IngeborOIK Posted on January 30, 2015

Mother Jones

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

It’s official: Mitt Romney will not seek the presidency for a third time. After some news outlets reported he would announce a run on a call with donors this morning, a statement leaked in which Romney said, “I’ve decided it is best to give other leaders in the Party the opportunity to become our next nominee.” Here’s a look back at what Mitt 3.0 could have been, as well as some highlights from 2012.

He was going to run as a liberal.

He had plans to be a born-again climate hawk.

He was going to face some resistance from the Kochs.

He had a new private equity conflict-of-interest problem.

We were deprived the chance to revisit the controversy over Romney’s lengthy history of outsourcing.

Also, this little problem:

Thanks for the memories, Mitt:

Original article – 

Mitt Romney Won’t Run for President in 2016

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Mitt Romney Won’t Run for President in 2016

Yup. A Climate Change Denier Will Oversee NASA. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

by Myrna Posted on January 20, 2015

And another one will oversee NOAA. Gage Skidmore/Flickr So, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was just named to be the chairman of the Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness as Republicans take over the Senate. This subcommittee (which used to be just Space and Science but was recently renamed) is in charge of oversight of, among other things, NASA. This is not a good thing. Just how bad it is will be determined. Before I rip into this, I want to be as fair as possible here: Poking around the Web, I don’t see any statements from Cruz that I’d consider directly antithetical to NASA’s efforts specifically to explore space. For example, in 2013 he wanted to reduce NASA’s budget, but that was more so that it would comply with the caps set by the Budget Control Act. In fact, he made a statement saying, “Proceeding with an authorization while pretending that the existing law is something other than what it is, is not the most effective way to protect the priority that space exploration and manned exploration should have.” That’s at least superficially heartening. But that’s not to say he doesn’t pose a clear danger: Cruz is a staunch denier of global warming. In 2014, he said this in an CNN interview: The last 15 years, there has been no recorded warming. Contrary to all the theories that—that they are expounding, there should have been warming over the last 15 years. It hasn’t happened. Read the rest at Slate. See original: Yup. A Climate Change Denier Will Oversee NASA. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? ; ; ;

Link:

Yup. A Climate Change Denier Will Oversee NASA. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Posted in ALPHA, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, growing marijuana, horticulture, LAI, Monterey, ONA, OXO, Pines, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Yup. A Climate Change Denier Will Oversee NASA. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Kentucky Makes It Almost Impossible for Felons to Vote. Rand Paul Wants to Change That.

by StefanieMercado Posted on January 14, 2015

Mother Jones

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

Sen. Rand Paul began the new year by lobbying for one of his favorite causes: criminal-justice reform. Last week, Paul issued a press release urging the Kentucky Legislature to act on a bill that would let state voters decide whether or not to create a path back to voting rights for nonviolent felons who have completed their sentences. “Restoring voting rights for those who have repaid their debt to society is simply the right thing to do,” Paul said in the release.

In 2014, the Democratic-controlled Kentucky House approved a bill that would put a constitutional amendment on ballots in the fall—if voters approved the measure, it would have automatically restored the voting rights of nonviolent felons who have served their time. But the Republican-controlled Senate passed a substitute that proposed several tough restrictions, including a mandatory five-year waiting period after prison before felons could reapply to vote. The two chambers couldn’t agree, and the issue has stalled. Paul, who favors the less-restrictive House bill, is trying to give the issue CPR. (His office declined to comment for this article.)

Kentucky has some of the harshest restrictions on felon voting rights in the country: Felons who wish to get their voting rights back—regardless of offense—must submit a request directly to the governor, who has the sole authority to approve or deny them. Most states offer some type of path to reenfranchisement. For example, in Washington state, all felons who have completed their sentences, probation, and/or parole are allowed to reregister to vote.

According Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, a political, social, and economic advocacy group, only three states—Florida, Iowa, and Virginia—have paths to reenfranchisement that are as difficult as Kentucky’s. In a state with roughly 3.1 million registered voters, more than 180,000 Kentucky ex-felons do not have the right to vote, and they come overwhelmingly from low-income and minority communities. Not surprisingly, studies have found that felony disenfranchisement disproportionately benefits Republicans.

This isn’t the first time that Paul has pushed to ease restrictions on felons’ voting rights. In 2013, speaking to a predominantly minority audience in Kentucky, Paul said, “I am in favor of letting felons get their rights back, the right to vote…Second Amendment rights, all your rights to come back.” This was not an especially popular stance within the GOP back then. A year earlier, Rick Santorum attacked Mitt Romney over his opposition to felon enfranchisement.

Stephen Voss, a state politics expert at the University of Kentucky, says he doesn’t think Paul holds enough sway in Kentucky to move reform through the statehouse. But with this issue, Paul has the chance to bolster his unorthodox approach to criminal-justice policy ahead of the 2016 primaries. “Paul is very interested in expanding the Republican coalition to include voters that have been difficult to reach in the past, but he clearly wants to do it within the bounds of small government ideology,” Voss says. “This issue of treatment of people who have served out sentences is a prime opportunity.”

Enfranchising felons may not be good for GOP electoral prospects, but Paul might not be alone among Republican 2016 contenders in the reform camp. Jeb Bush restored voting rights for over 150,000 ex-felons while governor of Florida, and Gov. Bobby Jindal signed a bill in 2008 making it easier for Louisiana felons to earn their voting rights back. “If Paul gets in trouble with Republicans, I doubt it’ll be on this issue,” Voss says. He suggests other Republicans might join Paul in what he calls a viable way of improving the GOP’s perception among minorities. “It’s not a small number of Republicans that appreciate the benefit of expanding their constituency.”

Read More: 

Kentucky Makes It Almost Impossible for Felons to Vote. Rand Paul Wants to Change That.

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Kentucky Makes It Almost Impossible for Felons to Vote. Rand Paul Wants to Change That.

President Obama Acted Unilaterally on Immigration and the Right Is Predictably Outraged

by KathlenFromm Posted on November 21, 2014

Mother Jones

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

President Barack Obama, who has issued fewer executive orders than any president since Grover Cleveland, issued a set of directives this week to protect 5 million undocumented residents from deportation. The new executive actions will allow undocumented parents of US citizens to stay in the country, and allow children who were brought to the United States by their parents to apply for employment visas. It also, according to various Republican critics, cements Obama’s status as a dictator, a king, an emperor, and maybe even a maniac bent on ethnic cleansing:

Obama is a king. “The president acts like he’s a king,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said. “He ignores the Constitution. He arrogantly says, ‘If Congress will not act, then I must.’ These are not the words of a great leader. These are the words that sound more like the exclamations of an autocrat.”

This will lead to anarchy. “The country’s going to go nuts, because they’re going to see it as a move outside the authority of the president, and it’s going to be a very serious situation,” retiring Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) told USA Today. “You’re going to see—hopefully not—but you could see instances of anarchy. … You could see violence.”

He could go to jail. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) told Slate that the president might be committing a felony: “At some point, you have to evaluate whether the president’s conduct aids or abets, encourages, or entices foreigners to unlawfully cross into the United States of America. That has a five-year in-jail penalty associated with it.”

Is ethnic cleansing next? When asked by a talk-radio called on Thursday if the new executive actions would lead to “ethnic cleansing,” Kansas Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach said it just might:

What protects us in America from any kind of ethnic cleansing is the rule of law, of course. And the rule of law used to be unassailable, used to be taken for granted in America. And now, of course, we have a President who disregards the law when it suits his interests. And, so, you know, while I normally would answer that by saying, ‘Steve, of course we have the rule of law, that could never happen in America,’ I wonder what could happen. I still don’t think it’s going to happen in America, but I have to admit, that things are, things are strange and they’re happening.

Kobach is hardly a fringe figure. He was the architect of the self-deportation strategy at the core some of the nation’s harshest immigration laws.

See the original article here – 

President Obama Acted Unilaterally on Immigration and the Right Is Predictably Outraged

Posted in alo, Anchor, Citizen, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on President Obama Acted Unilaterally on Immigration and the Right Is Predictably Outraged

We Spent Millions so Afghans Could Film Live Sports With Headless Goat Carcasses—And Screwed It Up

by HunterWVCO Posted on October 24, 2014

Mother Jones

In August 2011, the State Department purchased broadcast trucks for Afghan TV stations, for $3.6 million (206 million Afghanis), to help them tape live sporting events, like “buzkashi, soccer, cricket, and other sports.” (Buzkashi, Afghanistan’s national sport, translates to “goat grabbing” where horse-mounted players drag a headless goat carcass towards opposing goals.)

But no one has been able to watch any goat carcasses filmed by those trucks in the past two years, because those trucks didn’t show up until late July. And now, they’re sitting around under tarps, unused—because the State Department could cancel the contract whenever it wants.

A scene from Buzkashi Boys depicting men playing buzkashi. Buzkashi Boys

John Spoko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), sent Secretary of State John Kerry a letter demanding an explanation for the delayed TV trucks on Friday.

According to the letter, in addition to the late delivery, the price of the television trucks “more than tripled” since the original order date. And, one of the trucks “was damaged in transit.” As of September, the trucks are still sitting under tarps as the SIGAR staff waits for the State Department to accept delivery.

Spoko claims that, because the trucks were delivered so late, the State Department may elect to end the contract and take the trucks back. After the late delivery, the tripled unit cost and several contract modifications, Spoko is wary of how aboveboard this deal really is: “If this information is accurate, it suggests that something is seriously wrong with the way this contract was managed.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that SIGAR had “teamed up” with State to purchase the trucks. SIGAR is investigating the arrangement. It was not involved in it.

Read the article: 

We Spent Millions so Afghans Could Film Live Sports With Headless Goat Carcasses—And Screwed It Up

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on We Spent Millions so Afghans Could Film Live Sports With Headless Goat Carcasses—And Screwed It Up

These 7 Geek Icons Have Had Enough of #Gamergate. Here’s How They’re Fighting Back.

by AdelaidLoyau Posted on October 18, 2014

Mother Jones

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

As the conflict known as #Gamergate continues roiling the internet, some #Gamergaters have been surprised to find that their geek idols aren’t exactly on their side. Take, for example, science fiction author William Gibson, coiner of the term “cyberspace,” who retweeted this on Tuesday:

“Fuck. Fuck. Fucking hell,” an 8chan user wrote on the site’s GamerGate message board after reading through Gibson’s Twitter feed. “I have been waiting for his new book forever but now I dont even want to buy it…I feel devastated.”

Dozens of irate gamers responded with the names of other fallen heroes who’ve “betrayed” them by criticizing macho video game culture. Here’s a sampling of the offending tweets:

From screenwriter and director Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Avengers):

From comedian Patton Oswalt:

From actor and filmmaker Seth Rogen (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up):

(Adam Baldwin has been one of #Gamergate’s most outspoken supporters.)

From actress Felicia Day (The Guild):

From computer game designer Tim Schafer (LucasArts, Double Fine Productions):

From animator Mariel Cartwright (Skullgirls):

Lamented another 8chan user, with no apparent irony: “Unfortunately even misinformed people can put out their opinion on whatever they want, and they’ve got a large platform to do it with via the internet.”

Source article – 

These 7 Geek Icons Have Had Enough of #Gamergate. Here’s How They’re Fighting Back.

Posted in Anchor, Cyber, Everyone, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on These 7 Geek Icons Have Had Enough of #Gamergate. Here’s How They’re Fighting Back.