Tag Archives: website

Chevron wants to fund science class. What could go wrong?

by MereditKraker Posted on November 25, 2014

Chevron wants to fund science class. What could go wrong?

By on 24 Nov 2014commentsShare

Chevron’s Fuel Your School program allows K-12 teachers in participating districts to request a chunk of petro-change to implement classroom projects, particularly in STEM subjects — science, technology, engineering, and math. In participating areas, the company contributes $1 toward projects and equipment for every fill-up of at least 30 liters (about 8 gallons) at a local Chevron station. That way, drivers can feel good about buying gasoline, and, in a horrifyingly ironic twist, kids can thank their elders for burning a fuel whose emissions are wrecking their future!

And what does Chevron get in return? A little air time with the kiddos! Check out the company’s propaganda video:

On its website, the megacorporation explains that it is interested in helping “prepare students for the growing number of technical jobs in the modern economy, including possible engineering positions at Chevron.” Ignoring the dubiousness of the “growing number of technical jobs” claim (have they heard of robots?), if Chevron is still hiring petroleum engineers by the time today’s elementary schoolers are looking for work, we’re probably fucked.

The good news? Teachers in Vancouver, B.C., say they want none of the dirty money. Last month, the North Vancouver and West Vancouver school districts both signed up for Fuel Your School, but many incensed teachers are opting out for moral reasons, according to North Shore News. 

“Even the name Fuel Your School, it’s about promoting the idea of an oil product,” said Martin Stuible, vice president of the North Vancouver Teachers’ Association. He also pointed out that accepting Chevron’s money excuses British Columbia’s government from some of its responsibility for funding education — and steers attention away from shortfalls in provincial funding.

Do we really want a company that continues to search for more oil when we’ve already found more than enough to fry us all to have any say in how science and math are taught to the generation charged with cleaning up the climate mess?

Big Oil already corrupts political outcomes with generous donations. To see that same fate befall educational outcomes would be heartbreaking.

Source:
Teachers put brakes on oil money for classrooms

, North Shore News.

Find this article interesting?

Donate now to support our work.Share

Please

enable JavaScript

to view the comments.

Get stories like this in your inbox

AdvertisementAdvertisement

See original article: 

Chevron wants to fund science class. What could go wrong?

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, organic, oven, solar, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Chevron wants to fund science class. What could go wrong?

Two Important Notes For Anyone Renewing Obamacare Coverage

by MaikSeibert Posted on November 15, 2014

Mother Jones

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

Today is the first day of the 2015 signup period for Obamacare. If you currently have coverage, you need to decide whether to keep the plan you have or shop around for a different one. Here are a couple of key things to keep in mind—whether you’re buying coverage for yourself or know friends who are:

As the New York Times points out today, it’s possible that the net price of your current coverage could go up substantially this year. Here’s why: the size of the federal subsidy depends on the price of your plan relative to other plans. If your plan was the cheapest on offer last year, it qualified for a maximum subsidy. But if other, cheaper plans are offered this year, and your plan is now, say, only the fourth cheapest, you’ll get a smaller subsidy. So even if your actual plan premium stays the same, your net cost could go up a lot.

This is, naturally, becoming a partisan attack point, but don’t ignore it just because the usual suspects are making hay with it. It’s a real issue that anyone buying insurance on a state or federal exchange should be aware of.

Bottom line: shop around. Don’t just hit the renew button without checking things out.
Andrew Sprung has been writing tirelessly about something called Cost Sharing Reduction. It’s not well known, but it could be important to you. Today, Sprung tells us that the new version of healthcare.gov has a pretty nice shoparound feature that allows you to enter some basic information and then provides a comparison of all plans in your area. I tried it myself, and sure enough, the “window shopping” feature works nicely and is easily accessible from the home page.

However, it doesn’t do a good job of steering you toward silver-level plans, which are the only ones eligible for Cost Sharing Reduction. For example, I shopped for a plan for a low-income family of three in Missouri, and the cost of the cheapest bronze plan was $0. The cost of the cheapest silver plan was $90 per month. That’s an extra $1,000 per year, and a lot of low-income families will naturally gravitate toward the cheaper plan, especially since it’s the first one they see.

But the bronze plan has both a deductible and an out-of-pocket cap of $12,600. The silver plan with CSR has a deductible of $2,000 and an out-of-pocket cap of $3,700. Unless you’re literally rolling the dice that you’re never going to see a doctor this year, you’re almost certain to be better off with the silver plan, even though the up-front monthly premium is a little higher.

Bottom line: shop around. The plan that looks cheapest often isn’t, and for low-income buyers a silver plan is often your best bet. For more, here’s the CSR page at healthcare.gov. And for even more, Sprung has details about shopping at the new site here and here.

I guess the bottom line is obvious by now: shop around. Even if you can navigate the website yourself, be careful. Not everything is obvious at first glance. And if you’re not comfortable doing it by yourself, don’t. Get help from an expert in your state. You have three months to sign up, so there’s no rush.

Original article – 

Two Important Notes For Anyone Renewing Obamacare Coverage

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Two Important Notes For Anyone Renewing Obamacare Coverage

Need a fracking supporter? Hire a homeless person.

by LashawnJudy Posted on September 16, 2014

That’s fracked up!

Need a fracking supporter? Hire a homeless person.

By

16 Sep 2014 5:32 PM

Share

Share

Need a fracking supporter? Hire a homeless person.

×

In bizarre energy industry news of the day, the North Carolina Energy Coalition seems to have brought in some homeless men to stand in as fracking supporters at a state hearing on developing fracking operations in the state.

The men were bussed 200 miles from Winston-Salem to Cullowhee, N.C., where the hearing took place, for the day.

From Asheville’s Citizen-Times:

“They were clueless,” said Bettie “Betsy” Ashby, a member of the Jackson County Coalition Against Fracking. “At least two of them I met definitely came from a homeless shelter. One of them even apologized to me and said, ‘I didn’t know they were trying to do this to me.’ One said, ‘I did it for the…’ and then he rubbed his fingers together like ‘for the money.’”

Several of the men were wearing turquoise shirts or hats that said “Shale Yes” on the front and “Energy Creates Jobs” and “N.C. Energy Coalition.com” on the back.

It’s not a new tactic: If you can’t find people who actually support your cause, just pay uninformed members of underprivileged groups to fake it!

What is the mission of the N.C. Energy Coalition, exactly? From the group’s website:

Our website will provide the facts about the offshore and onshore production processes, environmental issues and economic impacts with no political spin. The Coalition will not advocate on issues but instead, provide the facts to let the public, business community and elected officials decide for themselves.

The organization is also sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute.

Just this June, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed off on the legalization of fracking in the state. At the same time, the state also passed a bill that makes the disclosure of the ingredients in the chemical cocktail used in fracking punishable as a misdemeanor. (For what it’s worth, the originally proposed version of that bill would have made said disclosure a felony.)

I’d be interested, at the very least, to know if the N.C. Energy Coalition will help its paid protestors to get actual jobs at the state’s new fracking wells. Because that’s supposed to be the huge benefit of this “energy boom,” right? I guess a few bucks an hour and a bus ride to Cullowhee is a good place to start!

Source:
Did energy group bus homeless in to support fracking?

, Citizen-Times.

Find this article interesting?

Donate now to support our work.Share

Please

enable JavaScript

to view the comments.

Get stories like this in your inbox

AdvertisementAdvertisement

Jump to original – 

Need a fracking supporter? Hire a homeless person.

Posted in Anchor, Citizen, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, solar, solar panels, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Need a fracking supporter? Hire a homeless person.

Ex-George Washington University President Responds to Controversy Over His Sexual Assault Remarks

by JorjaAoqqssn Posted on August 28, 2014

Mother Jones

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

A former university president came under fire this week for the advice he gave on how to combat sexual assault on college campuses. On Tuesday, George Washington University President Emeritus Stephen Trachtenberg appeared on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show and said, “Without making the victims responsible for what happens, one of the groups that have to be trained not to drink in excess are women. They need to be in a position to punch the guys in the nose if they misbehave.” Critics pounced. Jezebel slammed his comments as “jaw-droppingly stupid,” and the website noted, “If this is the attitude freely and blithely expressed by a former University President, it’s no wonder that more than 75 schools are currently under investigation by the Department of Education for botching sexual assault investigations.”

The following day, Trachtenberg told the school newspaper, The GW Hatchet, that his remarks had been taken “out of context,” but he reiterated his main point: “What I’m saying is you want to have somebody you care about like your daughter, granddaughter or girlfriend to understand her limits because she will be less likely to be unable to fight off somebody who is attacking her.”

On Thursday, Mother Jones asked Trachtenberg to comment on the ongoing controversy, and he replied with a written statement. Regarding Jezebel, he said:

Jezebel has a world view that informs their prose. They are an advocate for an important cause and they take every opportunity to make their case. Sometimes in their enthusiasm they may get a little overheated. It’s hard to resist an apparent opportunity when you believe you are on the side of the angels.

In response to other questions—including why he chose to use the word “misbehave” to describe sexual assault—Trachtenberg said:

I chose that word because I was thinking and speaking quickly under time constraints on a radio show. Under different circumstances I might have used another perhaps stronger word. I am an educator. I believe in the power of education. I think that education about drinking and its effects on an individual can help protect that person from vulnerability. Knowledge makes one stronger. I also believe that having skills gives one power. If you know how to defend yourself you have strength that can be helpful in the event things turn physical. These two ideas are not meant to solve all problems. They are not blame shifters. They are what they are. Better to know things then not. No silver bullets here. We need to educate men too. Date rape is largely the responsibility of young men and alcohol and opportunity. We can address these issues as a community. Men and women and institutions together. Victims should do their best but they are victims and not to blame. My recommendation is to change the culture of the campus so that men and women protect and nurture each other as a family would. It will take work but it can be done.

Is this an apology? You be the judge.

Continue reading here:  

Ex-George Washington University President Responds to Controversy Over His Sexual Assault Remarks

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Ex-George Washington University President Responds to Controversy Over His Sexual Assault Remarks

WATCH: The NRA Recently Held Its Annual Meeting, And It Was Just as You’d Expect Fiore Cartoon

by ConsuelOmar Posted on May 2, 2014

Mother Jones

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

Mark Fiore is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and animator whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Examiner, and dozens of other publications. He is an active member of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, and has a website featuring his work.

More here – 

WATCH: The NRA Recently Held Its Annual Meeting, And It Was Just as You’d Expect Fiore Cartoon

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, Sterling, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on WATCH: The NRA Recently Held Its Annual Meeting, And It Was Just as You’d Expect Fiore Cartoon

WATCH: Cliven Bundy’s Anti-Government Beliefs, Animated Fiore Cartoon

by JuanBoettcher Posted on April 28, 2014

Mother Jones

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

Mark Fiore is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and animator whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Examiner, and dozens of other publications. He is an active member of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, and has a website featuring his work.

Link – 

WATCH: Cliven Bundy’s Anti-Government Beliefs, Animated Fiore Cartoon

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Sterling, Uncategorized, Venta, Vintage | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on WATCH: Cliven Bundy’s Anti-Government Beliefs, Animated Fiore Cartoon

WATCH: How Pundits’ Ukraine Talking Points Gloss Over the Real Issues Fiore Cartoon

by Gaberilla Eve Posted on March 6, 2014

Mother Jones

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

Mark Fiore is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and animator whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Examiner, and dozens of other publications. He is an active member of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, and has a website featuring his work.

Visit link:  

WATCH: How Pundits’ Ukraine Talking Points Gloss Over the Real Issues Fiore Cartoon

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, Keurig, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta, Vintage | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on WATCH: How Pundits’ Ukraine Talking Points Gloss Over the Real Issues Fiore Cartoon

Bitcoin Is a Fiat Currency, But That’s Not Its Big Problem

by Isela Harris Posted on February 25, 2014

Mother Jones

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

Mt. Gox, the biggest name in Bitcoin exchanges, has apparently suffered a huge, ongoing theft amounting to several hundred million dollars. Today, their website is shut down. All is chaos, and science fiction author Charles Stross doesn’t have much sympathy:

C’mon, folks. Mt. Gox was a trading card swap mart set up by an amateur coder and implemented in PHP!….I’ve written software that handled financial transactions for a dot-com startup—a payment service provider, now a subsidiary of Mastercard. Been there, got the scars.

….You can’t do this shit on an amateur basis and not get burned….Datacash grew from a tiny seed (about 30 credit card transactions in our first three months) to something that was handling around 20,000 transactions per server per day when I left in early 2000, following 30% compound growth per month for an extended period; the early codebase was retired as rapidly as was feasible, the company had penetration testers, an in-house crypto specialist, and coding standards with test harnesses and QA well before it was handling 10% of MtGox’s turnover … and still shit happened. From what I’ve read, I’m not convinced that MtGox ever understood what financial security entails. But the fault isn’t theirs alone. The real fault lies with Bitcoin itself.

A real currency with a fiscal policy and the backing of a state that could raise loans would be able to ride out this insult. It’d be extraordinarily painful, but it wouldn’t devastate the currency in perpetuity. But Bitcoin doesn’t have a fiscal policy: it wears a gimp suit and a ball gag, padlocked into permanent deflation and with the rate of issue of new “notes” governed by the law of algorithmic complexity.

Personally, I consider Bitcoin useful in one narrow way: it forces people to think about what a fiat currency really is. Bitcoin, after all, is the ultimate fiat currency: just a bunch of ones and zeroes on a computer with no intrinsic value. But so are all currencies. The difference is that it’s more obvious with Bitcoin because the entire enterprise is actively marketed as nothing more than algorithmically-created data. It’s one of their big selling points.

So that forces you to think about what the ultimate value of a Bitcoin can be. And if there isn’t any, then why do dollars and yen have value? Why do IOUs passed around in prison camps have value? Or babysitting chits? Once you figure out what ultimately underlies the value of these various fiat currencies, you’ve taken a big step toward understanding why some currencies are better than others and why playing games with the debt ceiling is so stupid.

View original post here – 

Bitcoin Is a Fiat Currency, But That’s Not Its Big Problem

Posted in alo, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Bitcoin Is a Fiat Currency, But That’s Not Its Big Problem

WATCH: Is Obamacare Really a Job Killer? Fiore Cartoon

by AurelioSowell Posted on February 13, 2014

Mother Jones

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

Mark Fiore is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and animator whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Examiner, and dozens of other publications. He is an active member of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, and has a website featuring his work.

Link:  

WATCH: Is Obamacare Really a Job Killer? Fiore Cartoon

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on WATCH: Is Obamacare Really a Job Killer? Fiore Cartoon

Chart of the Day: An Awful Lot of People Think Obamacare is Hurting Them

by Dave Max Posted on January 30, 2014

Mother Jones

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

Kaiser has released its monthly tracking poll on Obamacare, and there’s really no way to put lip gloss on this pig. Public perception of the law has been worsening for the past nine months, and it gapped out sharply after the rollout debacle in October. There’s now a 16-point delta between unfavorable and favorable views of the law, 50-34 percent. With the exception of one or two monthly anomolies that are probably polling artifacts, this is by far the worst it’s been since the law was passed.

You can see the effect this has in the chart on the right: 27 percent now say that Obamacare has “negatively affected” someone in their family. That’s crazy. Even if you subtract the baseline of 18-19 percent who have been saying this all along, that’s an increase of nearly ten points over the course of 2013. Unless you take an absurdly expansive view of “affected,” this is all but impossible. Obamacare simply doesn’t have that kind of reach.

But we’ve been though a recent period in which every co-pay increase, every premium increase, and every narrowing of benefits has been blamed on Obamacare. These things have happened every year like clockwork for the past couple of decades, but this year it was convenient to blame them on Obamacare. Combine that with the PR disaster from the website rollout, and a whole lot of people now believe that Obamacare is hurting them.

Unfortunately, this is fertile ground for Republicans. If they really have the discipline to avoid shooting themselves in the foot this year over idiotic confrontations with the president, running their midterm campaign solely on opposition to Obamacare might be a winner.

Original post: 

Chart of the Day: An Awful Lot of People Think Obamacare is Hurting Them

Posted in alo, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Chart of the Day: An Awful Lot of People Think Obamacare is Hurting Them