Tag Archives: nevada

Map: The United States of Legal Weed

by JinaBrinkman Posted on November 5, 2014

Mother Jones

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

With marijuana now legal in four states and the District of Columbia, the movement to end the prohibition of pot continues to gain steam. Another five states are expected to introduce ballot measures to legalize recreational pot in 2016, including California, Massachusetts, and Nevada. And by the end of the following year, pot activists expect five more states will vote on legalization bills in their state legislatures. But that’s not all: six other states are looking at creating or expanding medical-marijuana programs, or are vastly scaling back penalties for small-time possession. With a slew of polls now showing that most Americans think pot should be taxed and regulated like alcohol, it’s probably only a matter of time before legalization sweeps the nation.

Jump to a state:

Reduced Penalties?
Medicinal
Recreational

var public_spreadsheet_url = “https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AoZrAejDG7xadGpDSmJLa2U2cHRWUmc1SC0wLXQ3YVE&output=html”;

var set_class = function(state, map, css_class)
var svg = jQuery(‘#’ + map + ‘ .’ + state);
svg.attr(‘class’).baseVal = state + ‘ ‘ + css_class;

var set_map_classes = function(data)
for (i = 0; i < data.length; i++)
var state = datai;
if (!state.postal)
continue;

var svg = jQuery(‘#’ + ‘penalties_map’ + ‘ .’ + state.postal);
if ( svg && svg.attr(‘class’) && svg.attr(‘class’).baseVal )
set_class(state.postal, ‘penalties_map’, datai.penalties_class);
set_class(state.postal, ‘rec_map’, datai.recreational_class);
set_class(state.postal, ‘medicinal_map’, datai.medicinal_class);
else
console.log(state.postal);
setTimeout(set_map_classes(data), 2000);
break;
return;

}
}

var makeTable = function(data)
var table = jQuery(‘#pot_table’);
var select = jQuery(‘#jump_to_state select’);
var empty_text = ‘Not at the moment’;
select.change(function()
window.location.hash = select.val() + ‘_row’;
return false;
);

for (i = 0; i < data.length; i++)
if (i === 10 ;
var state = datai;
var tr = jQuery(”);
select.append(” + state.state + ”);

//add state name
tr.append(
” +
state.state +
”
);

//add penalties
datai.penalties_class = ‘not_good’;
if (state.decrimstatus === ‘Possible’)
datai.penalties_class = ‘kinda_good’;
else if (state.decrimstatus === ‘Yes’)
datai.penalties_class = ‘good’;
else if (state.decrimstatus === ‘Harsh’)
datai.penalties_class = ‘harsh’;

tr.append(
‘

‘ +
(state.decrimdetails !== ” ? state.decrimdetails : empty_text) +
”
)

//add medicinal
datai.medicinal_class = ‘not_good’;
if (state.medicinalstatus === ‘Possible’)
datai.medicinal_class = ‘kinda_good’;
else if (state.medicinalstatus === ‘Yes’)
datai.medicinal_class = ‘good’;

tr.append(
‘

‘ +
(state.medicinaldetails !== ” ? state.medicinaldetails : empty_text) +
”
)

//add recreational
datai.recreational_class = ‘not_good’;
if (state.recstatus === ‘Possible’)
datai.recreational_class = ‘kinda_good’;
else if (state.recstatus === ‘Yes’)
datai.recreational_class = ‘good’;

console.log(state.recdetails);
console.log(state.recdetails.replace(/ /, ”) !== ”);
console.log(state.recdetails.replace(/ /, ”) !== ” ? state.recdetails : empty_text);
tr.append(
‘

‘ +
(state.recdetails.replace(/ /, ”) !== ” ? state.recdetails : empty_text) +
”
)

table.append(tr);
}
set_map_classes(data);

}

Tabletop.init(
key: public_spreadsheet_url, callback: makeTable, simpleSheet: true,
)

Source: Norml, Marijuana Policy Project, news reports.

View post:

Map: The United States of Legal Weed

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Map: The United States of Legal Weed

The California Drought May Mean More Earthquakes

by LKCWilliams Posted on May 15, 2014

Mother Jones

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

This story first appeared on the San Francisco Public Press website.

Depletion of groundwater in the San Joaquin Valley is having wide-ranging effects not just on the agricultural industry and the environment, but also on the very earth beneath our feet. Massive changes in groundwater levels in the southern Central Valley are changing the stresses on the San Andreas Fault, according to research published today.

Researchers have known for some time that human activity can be linked to localized seismic effects. In particular, much of the debate about fracking in California in the past few years has centered on evidence that the process of injecting large volumes of liquid underground can lubricate fault lines and increase local earthquake risk.

Now geophysicists in Washington, California and Nevada have gathered evidence that human activity can have much farther-reaching seismic consequences.

This research was spurred by the observation that the southern Sierra Nevadas and the Coastal Ranges are rising by 1 to 3 millimeters a year. Geologists have been observing this movement, which they call uplift, using a network of GPS sensors planted along these mountain ranges. They’ve batted around theories about why it might be happening, with no clear answer.

“It looks like there’s a big bullseye of uplift in the mountains surrounding the south Central Valley,” said Colin Amos, a geologist at Western Washington University in Bellingham.

Ten years of satellite data show that groundwater use in the Central Valley is outpacing its replenishment, a trend that is intensifying in the current drought. Amos wondered if the two things might be connected. “What if uplift in the mountains is a response to sucking water out of the ground?” Amos said.

Amos and his collaborators found something that goes deeper than that—something that could look to a paranoid environmentalist like a grand unified theory of California problems: drought, water use, and earthquake risk. “We found a link between what humans are doing on the ground and the rate of earthquakes,” Amos said. His data and model are published today in the international scientific journal Nature.

There are trends on two timescales. First, there’s a seasonal one. In the late summer and early fall, it rains less and people use more water. During this time, Amos’s group discovered, there is a corresponding peak in the height of the Coastal Ranges and the Sierra Nevada. There is also a long-term trend: Over time, as the groundwater is being depleted, these mountains are growing taller.

To picture how water can play a role in this, think of the Earth’s surface like a flexible sheet of plywood with a weight on it. “The upper portion of the earth is elastic, and the ground water is weighing it down like a brick,” Amos said. Removing groundwater is like lifting that brick. The earth’s crust literally flexes up. As it moves up, it pushes up the Sierra Nevadas and the Coastal Ranges.

The researchers also looked at how this movement might stress the San Andreas Fault, which runs parallel to the San Joaquin Valley. The San Andreas Fault runs roughly the length of the state, stretching from the Palm Desert in the south, up through San Francisco, and north nearly to Eureka. It marks where two of the Earth’s tectonic plates meet. Friction and stress are currently holding the plates locked in place.

When the balance shifts and the faults slip, it leads to tremendous earthquakes, including the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. And even decades after the smaller but still deadly Loma Prieta quake of 1989, Bay Area cities are still grappling with the need to brace billions of dollars worth of vulnerable infrastructure against the Big One. (Read more on San Francisco’s retrofitting efforts at sfpublicpress.org/earthquakes.)

Last year, researchers at the US Geological Survey estimated a 28 percent chance that an earthquake of at least magnitude-6.7 would hit the Bay Area within 10 years. But the ground could shift at any time, and the risk increases the longer the pressure builds in a fault.

Water’s Geologic Effects

If massive changes in groundwater are big enough to move mountains, might they also change stresses on the fault? Amos has calculated that yes, they can. Again looking at short-term and long-term trends, the researchers found that patterns of seasonal microseismicity—rashes of tiny earthquakes—track with yearly changes in water use.

And they suggest a major long-term change: destabilization of the San Andreas fault over time.

“Long-term withdrawal of water in the San Joaquin Valley is leading to a decrease of stress on the San Andreas fault, and this promotes earthquakes,” said Paul Lundgren, a geophysicist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Lundgren is familiar with the research but is not associated with the project.

Andrew Michael, a geophysicist at the United States Geological Survey in Menlo Park, who was also not involved with Amos’s research but has read the results, said that for now it gives scientists a fuller picture of how faults like the San Andreas work. But it is not that useful for predicting earthquake risk in the short term, he said.

This linkage between water and seismic effects is not a new idea, nor is it unique to California. In 2001 and 2003, researchers led by Kosuke Heki at Hokkaido University in Japan showed that variations in snow loads in that country’s mountains tracked with variations in seismic activity.

What is unique in the current research is the link to human activity. California’s groundwater depletion is certainly tied to the drought. But it is also driven by the state’s thirst for drinking water and irrigation, said James Famiglietti, an earth systems scientist at the University of California, Irvine.

Famiglietti directs the University of California Center for Hydrologic Modeling. The center now has about 10 years’ worth of detailed satellite data tracking groundwater depletion in California. From October 2003 to March 2010, the Sacramento and San Joaquin River basins lost nearly 31 cubic kilometers of fresh water. That’s almost the volume of Lake Mead. The latest data show that since the start of the current drought, the decline in groundwater storage has sharpened. From November 2011 through November 2013 alone, an additional 20 cubic kilometers have been depleted. And that does not yet include this year’s record-dry winter. (The center’s latest water advisory, from February, is available in a PDF.)

Geologists’ working assumption is that human activity is too insignificant to play any role in whether large quakes happen. But the new model shows that may not be true, Lundgren said.

That is not to say that this research can give us any fine-grained predictions about when the next big one will be. “Right now we’re considered overdue for an earthquake, but the statistics aren’t good enough that we have a clock,” he said. The time between major earthquakes, he explained, is like time spent going up an escalator where the top is not visible. What the new groundwater model shows, Lundgren said, is that human factors have put us another step or two closer to the next big quake.

More: 

The California Drought May Mean More Earthquakes

Posted in alo, Anchor, Eureka, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The California Drought May Mean More Earthquakes

Bullying Victims Are Twice as Likely to Bring a Weapon to School

by KellieBagot Posted on May 5, 2014

Mother Jones

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

A new study based on a survey of more than 15,000 American high school students found that victims of bullying are nearly twice as likely to carry guns and other weapons at school. An estimated 200,000 victims of bullying bring weapons to school over the course of a month, according to the authors’ analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control’s 2011 Youth Risk Surveillance System Survey. That’s a substantial portion of the estimated 750,000 high school students who bring weapons to school every month.

The study, presented yesterday at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies, found that 20 percent of participating students reported being victims of bullying, and that those teens were substantially more likely to carry weapons if they had experienced one or more “risk factors.” These included feeling unsafe at school, having property stolen or damaged, having been in a fight in the past year, or having been threatened or injured by a weapon. Among bullying victims experiencing all four of those factors, 72 percent had brought a weapon to school in the past month and 63 percent had carried a gun. Those victims were, according to the study’s authors, nearly 50 times more likely to carry a weapon in school as students who weren’t bullied.

For years, anti-bullying groups have drawn a connection between bullying and school shootings. The Department of Health and Human Services’s Stopbullying.gov website reports that the perpetrators of 12 of 15 school shootings in the 1990s had a history of being bullied. Witnesses of a 2013 shooting at Sparks Middle School in Nevada recall the 12-year-old shooter telling a group of students, “You guys ruined my life, so I’m going to ruin yours.”

However, focusing too much on bullying as a cause of school shootings may distract from other important factors, such as mental health and access to weapons. A Washington Post article last year summed up this critique: “We all want to find a simple motivation when children go to school intending to do harm, but the problem in blaming school shootings on ‘bullying’ is that it lets us off the hook too easily.”

Furthermore, there’s the question of correlation versus causation. The new study shows that students who are severely bullied are more likely to carry weapons, but it doesn’t show that students carry weapons because they have been bullied. It’s possible that carrying weapons precipitates rather than prevents conflict. The survey also didn’t ask if the students identified themselves as bullies, and since some students are both victims and bullies, one can’t assume that students are carrying weapons solely for protection.

Andrew Adesman, a co-author of the study and the chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York, recognizes these limitations. “We really don’t know the chronology here,” he explains. “We don’t know entirely whether the weapons carrying was purely defensive versus aggressive behavior.” But, he says, “Common sense suggests that kids who have weapons plan to use them if or when they need to.”

Adesman hopes that the study helps teachers identify students who may be carrying weapons. “If you can identify which kids are more severely victimized by these four risk factors—if a kid’s not coming to school and the teachers inquire and it turns out it’s because of safety concerns—that’s something that right there is one identifiable, possibly actionable red flag,” he says.

View article: 

Bullying Victims Are Twice as Likely to Bring a Weapon to School

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, Sterling, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Bullying Victims Are Twice as Likely to Bring a Weapon to School

Climate Change is Clear and Present Danger, Says Landmark US Report

by Myrna Posted on May 5, 2014

National Climate Assessment, to be launched at White House on Tuesday, says effects of climate change are now being felt. President Barack Obama wipes sweat from his head during a speech on climate change, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, at Georgetown University in Washington. Obama is proposing sweeping steps to limit heat-trapping pollution from coal-fired power plants and to boost renewable energy production on federal property. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Climate change has moved from distant threat to present-day danger and no American will be left unscathed, according to a landmark report due to be unveiled on Tuesday. The National Climate Assessment, a 1,300-page report compiled by 300 leading scientists and experts, is meant to be the definitive account of the effects of climate change on the US. It will be formally released at a White House event and is expected to drive the remaining two years of Barack Obama’s environmental agenda. The findings are expected to guide Obama as he rolls out the next and most ambitious phase of his climate change plan in June – a proposal to cut emissions from the current generation of power plants, America’s largest single source of carbon pollution. Read the full story at The Guardian. View original post here: Climate Change is Clear and Present Danger, Says Landmark US Report Related ArticlesSupreme Court’s Pollution Ruling “a Victory for Obama Administration’Virginia Oil Tanker Derailment: “The River Was On Fire”From Bundy To The Keystone XL

Link:  

Climate Change is Clear and Present Danger, Says Landmark US Report

Posted in Anker, Citadel, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, Landmark, Monterey, ONA, OXO, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Climate Change is Clear and Present Danger, Says Landmark US Report

From Bundy To The Keystone XL

by Myrna Posted on April 30, 2014

Where’s The Property Rights Outrage Here? Construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy has become something of a folk hero among the anti-government, pro-property rights crowd, thanks to his recent standoff with the federal Bureau of Land Management. Some landowners in the path of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline want to know where the support for them has been, since their private property will actually be taken away without their approval. Bundy and his supporters don’t recognize federal ownership of the land where his cattle have been grazing illegally for more than two decades. He refuses to pay grazing fees, arguing that he has “ancestral rights” to the land — an argument that a federal court has rejected, and which may not be historically accurate. The issue came to a head earlier this month after BLM officials seized hundreds of Bundy’s cattle, and armed right-wing and anti-government groups flocked to the desert for a standoff. BLM returned the cattle shortly thereafter, citing concerns about the safety of its employees and the public. Federal control of land has also flared lately in Texas, where state Attorney General Greg Abbott recently accused BLM of “hijacking private property rights” inupdating management plans for land bordering Oklahoma. But many of the pundits and talking heads who rallied behind Bundy (at leastbefore his racist outburst) are also advocating the Keystone XL pipeline – despite the ranchers and farmers up in arms about pipeline owner TransCanada Corp. trying to force its way onto their land. Read the rest at The Huffington Post. Visit link: From Bundy To The Keystone XL Related ArticlesIs Oil Money Turning the NRA Against Hunters?No, New York Times, Keystone XL Is Not A “Rounding Error”Germany’s Key to Clean Energy Is…This Coal Mine?

Source article:  

From Bundy To The Keystone XL

Posted in alo, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, Monterey, ONA, OXO, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on From Bundy To The Keystone XL

Which Bundy Said It: Cliven, Al, Ted, or McGeorge?

by JefferyDRJ Posted on April 24, 2014

Mother Jones

Cliven Bundy, everybody’s favorite Nevada land-fee delinquent, took it to another level this week by questioning whether black people were better off as slaves. Bundy insists his comments weren’t racist, just that he’s “wondering” if black people have traded traditional slavery for slavery to the US government, in the form of subsidies.

As Cliven Bundy’s words ricochet through the news cycle, it’s worth noting that he’s not the only Bundy who’s had some whack things to say in the annals of American history. Can you guess which Bundy uttered the truly…special…quotes below?

(function($)

function make_default_how_you_did_html(nCorrect, nQuestions)
var answersWord = nCorrect === 1 ? ‘answer’ : ‘answers’;
return ‘You got ‘ + nCorrect + ‘ ‘ +
‘correct ‘ + answersWord + ‘ out of ‘ + nQuestions + ‘ questions’;

function make_default_how_you_did_htmls(nQuestions)
var ret = [];
for (var i = 0; i <= nQuestions; i++)
ret.push(make_default_how_you_did_html(i, nQuestions));

return ret;
}

$.quiz = function(quiz_data, results_data, options)
var container_elem;
var self;
var cover;
var cheater_answer_tracking = [];
var answer_tracking = [];
var how_you_did_element;

var quiz =
defaulting_behavior_on : true,
defaulting_flag : ‘!default’,
container : ‘quiz_container’,
not_finished_html : undefined,
cheating : false,
possible_display_elements :

name : ‘backgroundimage’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slide) return ”;
return $(‘<div class=”‘ +
this.name +
‘” style=”background-image: url(” +
slidethis.name +
”); height: 100%; width: 100%;position:absolute;z-index: -1″>’
);
}
},

name : ‘topimage’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return $(
”
);
}
},

name : ‘topvideoembed’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
needs_aspect_ratio : true,
create_element : function(slide)
//check aspect ratio
if (!slide.topvideoembedaspectratio) return ”;
return $(” +
slidethis.name + ”
);
}
},

name : ‘title’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return $(‘

‘ +
slidethis.name + ”
);
}
},

name : ‘middleimage’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return $(
”
);
}
},

name : ‘middlevideoembed’,
needs_aspect_ratio : true,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
//check aspect ratio
if (!slide.middlevideoembedaspectratio) return ”;
return $(” +
slidethis.name + ”
);
}
},

name : ‘subhed’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return $(” +
slidethis.name +
”
);
}
},

name : ‘text’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return $(” +
slidethis.name +
”
);
}
},

name : ‘bottomimage’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return $(”
);
}
},

name : ‘bottomvideoembed’,
needs_aspect_ratio : true,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
//check aspect ratio
if (!slide.bottomvideoembedaspectratio) return ”;
return $(” +
slidethis.name + ”
);
}
}
],

init : function(quiz_data, results_data, options)
self = this;

if (options)
for ( var option in options )
selfoption = optionsoption;

}

if (typeof(quiz_data) === ‘string’)
// is a google spreadsheet.
// Will call init_data in a callback
self.load_from_google_spreadsheet(quiz_data);
else
if (!results_data)
results_data = make_default_how_you_did_htmls(quiz_data.length);

self.init_data(quiz_data, results_data);
}

return self;
},
init_data: function(quiz_data, results_data)
self.quiz_data = quiz_data;
self.results_data = results_data;

self.calculate_aspectratios(quiz_data);
self.create_cover();

for ( var i = 0; i < self.quiz_data.length; i++ )
self.append_question(i);

self.append_how_you_did_section();
self.update_how_you_did_element();
self.preload_answer_images();
},
append_how_you_did_section: function()
how_you_did_element = $(”);
cover.append(how_you_did_element);
,

load_from_google_spreadsheet: function(spreadsheet_id)
Tabletop.init(
key: spreadsheet_id,
callback: function(data)
var quiz_data = self.make_quiz_data_from_spreadsheet_data(data);
var results_data = self.make_results_data_from_spreadsheet_data(data, quiz_data);
self.init_data(quiz_data, results_data);

});
},
calculate_aspectratios: function(data)
for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++)
var row = datai;
for (var k = 0; k < row.possible_answers.length; k++)
var answer = row.possible_answersk;
self.find_aspectratio_for_each_type_of_video_embed(answer);

self.find_aspectratio_for_each_type_of_video_embed(row.question);
}
},

find_aspectratio_for_each_type_of_video_embed : function(slide)
for (var i = 0; i < self.possible_display_elements.length; i++ )
var display = self.possible_display_elementsi;
if ( display.needs_aspect_ratio && slidedisplay.name )
slidedisplay.name + ‘aspectratio’ =
self.find_aspectratio(slidedisplay.name);

}
},
find_aspectratio: function(videoembed)
var height = videoembed.match(/height=”d+”/);
if (!height
height = parseInt(height0.replace(/height=”/, ”).replace(/”/, ”), 10);

var width = videoembed.match(/width=”d+”/);
if (!width || !width0)
console.log(‘Your video embed code needs a width.’);
return ”;

width = parseInt(width0.replace(/width=”/, ”).replace(/”/, ”), 10);

return (height / width)*100;
},
pull_answer_value_from_spreadsheet : function(row, value, wrong_number, correct)
correct = correct ? ‘right’ : ‘wrong’;
if (rowcorrect + wrong_number + value && rowcorrect + wrong_number + value !== self.defaulting_flag)
return (rowcorrect + wrong_number + value);

if ((self.defaulting_behavior_on && rowcorrect + wrong_number + value !== self.defaulting_flag) ||
(!self.defaulting_behavior_on && rowcorrect + wrong_number + value === self.defaulting_flag)
)
return (rowcorrect + value && rowcorrect + value !== self.defaulting_flag ?
rowcorrect + value :
(row’answer’ + value && row’answer’ + value !== self.defaulting_flag ?
row’answer’ + value :
row’question’ + value
)
);
else
return ”;

},
get_possible_answers : function(row, is_correct)
var possible_answers = [];
var right_or_wrong = (is_correct ? ‘right’ : ‘wrong’);
if (rowright_or_wrong)
possible_answers.push(self.make_possible_answer(row, ”, is_correct));

for (var i = 0; i < 10; i++ )
if (rowright_or_wrong + i)
possible_answers.push(self.make_possible_answer(row, i, is_correct));

}
return possible_answers;
},
make_possible_answer: function(row, row_number, is_correct)
var right_or_wrong = (is_correct ? ‘right’ : ‘wrong’);
var answer =
answer: rowright_or_wrong + row_number,
correct: is_correct
;
for (var i = 0; i < self.possible_display_elements.length; i++ )
var display_element = self.possible_display_elementsi.name;
answerdisplay_element = self.pull_answer_value_from_spreadsheet(
row, display_element, row_number, is_correct
);

return answer;
},
make_quiz_data_from_spreadsheet_data: function(tabletop)
var i, j, sheetName, data;
var quiz = [];

// Find a sheet that _isn’t_ named “Results”.
for (sheetName in tabletop)
if (tabletop.hasOwnProperty(sheetName) && sheetName !== ‘Results’)
break;

}

data = tabletopsheetName.elements;

for (i = 0; i < data.length; i++)
var row = datai;
var possible_wrong_answers = self.get_possible_answers(row, false);
var possible_right_answers = self.get_possible_answers(row, true);

var right_answer_placement = [];
for (j = 0; j < possible_right_answers.length; j++)
right_answer_placement.push(
Math.round(Math.random() * possible_wrong_answers.length)
);

// IMPORTANT TO SORT THIS. rather than check if a value is in, we only check the first
right_answer_placement.sort();

var possible_answers= [];
var right_answers_placed = 0;
for (j = 0; j <= possible_wrong_answers.length; j++)
while (j === right_answer_placementright_answers_placed)
//push right answer
possible_answers.push(possible_right_answersright_answers_placed);
right_answers_placed++;

if (j === possible_wrong_answers.length)
continue;

possible_answers.push(possible_wrong_answersj);
}

var question =
question :
,
possible_answers : possible_answers,
rowNumber : row.rowNumber – 1
};
for (j = 0; j < self.possible_display_elements.length; j++)
var display_value = self.possible_display_elementsj.name;
question.questiondisplay_value = row’question’ + display_value;

quiz.push(question);
}
return quiz;
},
make_results_data_from_spreadsheet_data: function(tabletop, quiz_data)
var ret = make_default_how_you_did_htmls(quiz_data.length);

var data = tabletop’Results’ ? tabletop’Results’.elements : [];
for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++)
var index = datai.numberofrightanswers;
if (index) index = parseInt(index, 10);
if (!isNaN(index))
if (!retindex)
console.log(“Invalid number of correct answers: ” + index);
else
retindex = datai.html;

}
}

return ret;
},
append_question : function(question_index)
var question_data = self.quiz_dataquestion_index;
var question_container = $(‘<li class=”question_container row-fluid question_’ +
question_index +
‘”>’
);
question_container.append( self.build_question_element_from_row(question_data) );
question_container.append( self.build_possible_answer_elements_from_row(question_data, question_index) );
container_elem.append(question_container);
,
build_question_element_from_row: function(row)
var question_container = $(”);
for (var i = 0; i < self.possible_display_elements.length; i++)
question_container.append(
self.possible_display_elementsi.create_element(row.question)
);

return question_container;
},
build_possible_answer_elements_from_row : function(question, question_index)
var answers_container = $(”);

function bindClick(question_index, answer_index, possible_answer)
possible_answer.bind(‘click’, function()
// was it the right answer?
var was_correct = self.quiz_dataquestion_index.possible_answersanswer_index.correct;

// Add correct classes to possible answers
answers_container.find(‘.selected’).removeClass(‘selected’);
$(this).addClass(‘selected’);
$(this).removeClass(‘possible_answer’);
answers_container
.find(‘.answer_’ + answer_index)
.addClass(
was_correct ? ‘correct_answer’ : ‘wrong_answer’
);

//track how many you got right the first time
cheater_answer_trackingquestion_index = was_correct;
if ( typeof(answer_trackingquestion_index) === ‘undefined’ )
answer_trackingquestion_index = was_correct;
cover.find(‘.question_’ + question_index).addClass(
‘first_guess_’ +
(was_correct ? ‘right’ : ‘wrong’)
);

self.update_how_you_did_element();

//show new slide
self.display_answer(self.quiz_dataquestion_index, question_index, self.quiz_dataquestion_index.possible_answersanswer_index);

// track that this was selected last
self.quiz_dataquestion_index.previously_selected = self.quiz_dataquestion_index.possible_answersanswer_index;
});
}

for (var i = 0; i < question.possible_answers.length; i++)
var answer_data = question.possible_answersi;
var possible_answer = $(” +
answer_data.answer +
”);
bindClick(question_index, i, possible_answer);
answers_container.append(possible_answer);
this.note_answer_images(answer_data);

return answers_container;
},
answer_images : {},
preload_answer_images: function()
for (var url in this.answer_images)
var img=new Image();
img.src=url;

},
note_answer_images: function(answer_data)
var image_elements = ‘backgroundimage’, ‘topimage’, ‘bottomimage’;
for (var i = 0; i < image_elements.length; i++)
if (!answer_data[image_elementsi]) continue;
this.answer_images[answer_data[image_elementsi]] = true;
}
self.possible_display_elementsi.name;
},
add_display_in_correct_place: function(container, place_in_display_elements, slide)
for ( var i = place_in_display_elements; i > 0; i– )
if (self.possible_display_elementsi – 1.finder(container).length )
self.possible_display_elementsi – 1.finder(container)
.after( self.possible_display_elementsplace_in_display_elements.create_element(slide) );
return;

}
container.prepend(
self.possible_display_elementsplace_in_display_elements.create_element(slide)
);
},
display_answer : function(question, question_index, answer)
var displayed_slide = question.previously_selected ?
question.previously_selected :
question.question;
var slide = container_elem.find(‘.question_’ + question_index + ‘ .question’);
slide.addClass(‘revealed_answer’);
for (var i = 0; i < self.possible_display_elements.length; i++)
var display_value = self.possible_display_elementsi.name;
if ( answerdisplay_value !== displayed_slidedisplay_value )
if ( !answerdisplay_value )
self.possible_display_elementsi.finder(slide).remove();
else if ( !displayed_slidedisplay_value )
self.add_display_in_correct_place(slide, i, answer);
else
self.possible_display_elementsi.finder(slide).replaceWith(
self.possible_display_elementsi.create_element( answer )
);

}
}
},

create_cover : function()
cover = $(‘#’ + self.container);
container_elem = $(”);
cover.append(container_elem);
container_elem.addClass(‘quiz_container’);
container_elem.css(‘padding’, ‘0px’);
,
update_how_you_did_element: function()
var right_answers = 0;
var user_answers = self.cheating ? cheater_answer_tracking : answer_tracking;
var unfinished = false;
for (var i = 0; i < self.quiz_data.length; i++)
if (typeof(answer_trackingi) === ‘undefined’)
unfinished = true;

if (user_answersi)
right_answers++;

}
var html;
if (unfinished && typeof(this.not_finished_html) !== ‘undefined’)
html = this.not_finished_html;
else
html = this.results_dataright_answers;

how_you_did_element.html(html);
}
};
return quiz.init(quiz_data, results_data, options);
};

$.fn.quiz = function(quiz_data, results_data, options)
if (!options) options = results_data; results_data = null;
if (!options) options = ; }
options.container = this.attr(‘id’);
this.quiz = $.quiz(quiz_data, results_data, options);
return this;
};
})(jQuery);

var quiz = jQuery(‘#quiz_container’).quiz(‘0AuHOPshyxQGGdF9CMUVJeFM2UkJDb0txOUNxemZ6U3c’);

Link: 

Which Bundy Said It: Cliven, Al, Ted, or McGeorge?

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta, Vintage | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Which Bundy Said It: Cliven, Al, Ted, or McGeorge?

Why Was the Right Caught Flat-Footed By Cliven Bundy’s Cranky Racism?

by Kelvin85Yxpqhdj Posted on April 24, 2014

Mother Jones

By now I assume you’ve all heard about Cliven Bundy’s remarks to the New York Times yesterday? In case you’ve been vacationing on Mars, here they are:

“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.

“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

I don’t have anything to add that (a) isn’t obvious and (b) hasn’t already been said by someone else, but I do share Paul Waldman’s reaction: “Is anyone surprised that Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who has become a Fox News hero because of his stand-off with the Bureau of Land Management, turns out to be a stone-cold racist?”

That’s a good question. Is anyone on the right surprised by this? (I think it’s safe to say that exactly zero lefties are surprised.) That’s not a rhetorical question on my part. Look: conservatives should never have rallied around Bundy in the first place, but if they’re even minimally self-aware about his particular niche in the conservative base, surely they should have seen something like this coming and kept their distance just out of sheer self-preservation. But apparently they didn’t. They didn’t have a clue that a guy like Bundy was almost certain to backfire on them eventually. They seem to have spent so long furiously denying so much as a shred of racial resentment anywhere in their base that they’ve drunk their own Kool-Aid.

On a tangential note, as near as I can tell Paul Ryan never embraced Bundy publicly. Does anyone know if that’s right? It’s one reason I think he could be a dangerous presidential candidate. Despite his “inner city” gaffe of a few weeks ago, he’s smarter about this stuff than most folks who have managed to stay on the right side of the tea party.

See the original post:  

Why Was the Right Caught Flat-Footed By Cliven Bundy’s Cranky Racism?

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta, Vintage | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Why Was the Right Caught Flat-Footed By Cliven Bundy’s Cranky Racism?

Cliven Bundy Exposes the Cravenness of the Modern Right

by w0ujpysd Posted on April 15, 2014

Mother Jones

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

Like a lot of people, Ed Kilgore is distressed at the outpouring of support on the right for Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy:

Call it “individualism” or “libertarianism” or whatever you want, but those who declare themselves a Republic of One and raise their own flags are in a very literal sense being unpatriotic.

That’s why I’m alarmed by the support in many conservative precincts for the Nevada scofflaws who have been exploiting public lands for private purposes and refuse to pay for the privilege because they choose not to “recognize” the authority of the United States. Totally aside from the double standards involved in expecting kid-glove treatment of one set of lawbreakers as opposed to poorer and perhaps darker criminal suspects, fans of the Bundys are encouraging those who claim a right to wage armed revolutionary war towards their obligations as Americans. It makes me really crazy when such people are described as “superpatriots.” Nothing could be more contrary to the truth.

The details of the Bundy case have gotten a lot of attention at conservative sites, but the details really don’t matter. Bundy has a baroque claim that the United States has no legal right to grazing land in Nevada; for over a decade, every court has summarily disagreed. It’s federal land whether Bundy likes it or not, and Bundy has refused for years to pay standard grazing fees—so a couple of weeks ago the feds finally decided to enforce the latest court order allowing them to confiscate Bundy’s cattle if he didn’t leave. The rest is just fluff, a bunch of paranoid conspiracy theorizing that led to last week’s armed standoff between federal agents and the vigilante army created by movement conservatives.

The fact that so many on the right are valorizing Bundy—or, at minimum, tiptoeing around his obvious nutbaggery—is a testament to the enduring power of Waco and Ruby Ridge among conservatives. The rest of us may barely remember them, but they’re totemic events on the right, fueling Glenn-Beckian fantasies of black helicopters and jackbooted federal thugs for more than two decades now. Mainstream conservatives have pandered to this stuff for years because it was convenient, and that’s brought them to where they are today: too scared to stand up to the vigilantes they created and speak the simple truth. They complain endlessly about President Obama’s “lawlessness,” but this is lawlessness. It’s appalling that so many of them aren’t merely afraid to plainly say so, but actively seem to be egging it on.

Visit site:

Cliven Bundy Exposes the Cravenness of the Modern Right

Posted in alo, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Cliven Bundy Exposes the Cravenness of the Modern Right

Solar Power: Let Me Decide or Buy Me Off?

by Harriet34F Posted on April 11, 2014

Solar Power: Let Me Decide or Buy Me Off?

Throughout the energy conversation we’ve been having with the Nuclear and Coal articles, several readers have commented about the inclusion of solar energy. Solar energy is sold to us as the end-all-be-all solution to our energy needs, and I find it hard not to argue against very specific aspects of that sales pitch. It’s clean, it’s renewable, it’s somewhat readily available, and it has little to no long-term impact. The Department of Energy claims that a 100 square mile solar panel field in Nevada can generate 800 gigawatts of power. That’s enough to power the entire United States.

Now, let’s collectively pull our head out of the clouds and talk about the ugly side of the situation …
The national average for electricity runs at about 12.6 cents per kilowatt hour, and the average house uses about 1,000 kilowatt hours per month. Before taxes, regulatory, and administrative fees that makes for a $126.00 per month electric bill. You wake up, and decide that you are going green. You hop in your Prius and buzz down to “Solar Panels R US”, and buy your run-of-of-the-mill solar panel kit. After 10 panels, 10 brackets to mount them, and a power inverter, you’ve officially got everything you need to create a whopping 345kwh of energy. Price tag? A mere $8,300 for the BASIC hardware, which is on the low end; installation not included. Now you’ve got a roof full of solar panels that produce 345kwh of energy, or an average energy savings of $43.47 dollars a month …

At that rate, assuming you get 100% potential from your solar panel array, it will take you 15 years to break even on your investment, at the very minimum, based on national averages. Imagine what the break-even on the 100 square mile theoretical “Panel Land” would be.

“Okay, it’s pricey … but what about the ‘Large Scale’ solar industry?” Solar energy is twice as expensive as natural gas energy. It’s 67% more expensive than wind produced power, for that matter. The national average for solar energy is over 80 cents per kilowatt hour after factoring in all the associated costs. Now that doesn’t sound so bright …

Expenses aside, the solar power contribution to the current power grid tripled from 2012 to 2013. A staggering 29% of all new energy installations in 2013 were solar power related. So if it’s more expensive, and still grew, who footed that bill?
You did.The government provides extensive solar energy subsidies, as high as 96 cents per kilowatt hour. Those subsidies come directly from our tax dollars. For every single tax dollar spent on natural gas subsidies, $1,200 dollars were spent on solar subsidies. In 2010 solar energy subsides were $775.64 dollars per megawatt of solar energy added to the power grid. That adds up to about 37 billion dollars a year. To put it in perspective, that’s enough money to build six modern nuclear power plants.

So we just cut the subsidy right?

earth911

View original – 

Solar Power: Let Me Decide or Buy Me Off?

Posted in alo, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, Omega, ONA, solar, solar panels, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Solar Power: Let Me Decide or Buy Me Off?

Religious Right Fears the GOP Can’t Handle a National Convention in Las Vegas

by Diana A. Kincaid Posted on April 11, 2014

Mother Jones

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

Religious conservatives are urging the GOP to scratch Sin City off its list of potential locations for the 2016 Republican National Convention, the Dallas Morning News reports. According to the paper, advocates are concerned that Las Vegas’ reputation as a gambling and prostitution haven will discourage conservatives from attending the event and that the city is a “trap waiting to ensnare” convention attendees.

“The GOP is supposedly interested in reaching out to conservatives and evangelicals. Maybe that’s just a front, but if they really mean it this is not the way to do it,” James Dobson, founder of Family Talk, a Christian radio show that broadcasts across the United States, told the paper. “Even though Vegas has tried to shore itself up and call itself family-friendly, it’s still a metaphor for decadence. There’s still 64 pages of escort services in the yellow pages.”

Dobson, along with leaders of the American Family Association, Eagle Forum, the Traditional Values Coalition, and Family-PAC sent a letter to Republican chairman Reince Priebus warning him to choose another destination.

Las Vegas is considered a frontrunner for the 2016 convention. Other cities under consideration are Dallas, Denver, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Kansas City, Missouri. The Nevada city has never hosted a national political convention for either Democrats or Republicans, but it’s been aggressively courting the GOP. The city’s promotional video for the convention does not feature any gambling. Instead, it emphasizes Las Vegas’ hotels, sunshine, rock climbing, proximity to the Hoover Dam, NASCAR, places of worship, and the “growing Asian population.” The video pans to Disney’s logo.

Las Vegas has a strong lobbying campaign behind it. The team includes casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who spent over $98 million on GOP candidates in 2012, resort businessman Stephen Wynn, and Washington political strategists, according to the New York Times. Andrea Lafferty, president of the Traditional Values Coalition, told The Dallas Morning News that while she supports Adelson, she fears that with all of the escorts and prostitutes available in the Las Vegas area, she “can see all the setups that are going to take place.”

Erick Erickson, editor-in-chief of the conservative blog RedState.com, also expressed concern about the GOP choosing Las Vegas. “Good Christian delegates getting drunk, gambling, stuffing dollar bills in strippers’ g-strings, etc. will be the toast of not just MSNBC, but the front page of the New York Times, ABC, CBS, NBC, the Huffington Post, and more.” he wrote. Not to mention, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) might wake up with a tiger in his bathroom.

Source: 

Religious Right Fears the GOP Can’t Handle a National Convention in Las Vegas

Posted in alo, Anchor, Casio, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Oster, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Religious Right Fears the GOP Can’t Handle a National Convention in Las Vegas