Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, June 28, 2011.
OND is a regular
community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Creation and early water-bearing of the OND concept came from our very own Magnifico - proper respect is due.
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This diary is named for its "Hump Point" video: The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson
Please feel free to browse and add your own links, content or thoughts in the Comments section.
Any timestamps shown are relative to each publication.
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Top News |
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Sweating the Small Stuff: Early Adversity, Prior Depression Linked to High Sensitivity to Stress
By (ScienceDaily)
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We all know people who are able to roll with life's punches, while for others, every misfortune is a jab straight to the gut. Research examining this issue has found that although most people require significant adversity to become depressed -- the death of a loved one, say, or getting fired -- roughly 30 percent of people with first-time depression and 60 percent of people with a history of depression develop the disorder following relatively minor misfortunes. But no one knew why.
Now, a new study led by UCLA researchers suggests that people become depressed more easily following minor life stress in part because they have experienced early life adversity or prior depressive episodes, both of which may make people more sensitive to later life stress.
George Slavich, an assistant professor at the UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, and colleagues assessed individuals' experiences with early adversity, clinical depression and recent life stress. Slavich found that individuals who experienced an early parental loss or separation and people who had more lifetime episodes of depression became depressed following lower levels of life stress than those who didn't have these predisposing factors.
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An important question raised by these findings is how adversity early in life and prior experiences with depression promote increased sensitivity to stress. One possibility, the researchers say, is that people who experience early adversity or depression develop negative beliefs about themselves or the world -- beliefs that get activated in the face of subsequent life stress. Another possibility, which is not mutually exclusive, is that early adversity and depression influence biological systems that are involved in depression, perhaps by lowering the threshold at which depression-relevant processes like inflammation get triggered.
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NASA sets farewell space shuttle launch for July 8
By (RIA Novosti)
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NASA senior officials voted unanimously to set space shuttle Atlantis' launch date as July 8 after a day-long flight readiness review at the Kennedy space center in Florida on Tuesday.
Atlantis' 12-day mission to the International Space Station is the final flight of the 30-year Space Shuttle Program.
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Once the shuttle fleet is retired, Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft will take the bulk of crew rotation and cargo missions to the ISS until at least the middle of the decade. NASA is paying its Russian counterpart Roscosmos more than $1 billion for crew transport services over the next four years.
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For-Profit Hospices Keep Patients Longer, Push Costs Up
By Jordan Rau
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After a decade in which most new hospices were started by corporations, half of Medicare-certified hospices are now for-profits. Meanwhile, Medicare's hospice costs have increased from $2.9 billion in 2000 to $12 billion in 2009, making it one of the fastest growing segments of the government health care program for the elderly.
The increase isn't only because more people are using hospice. It's also because patients are staying in hospice longer before dying. And those long-stay patients are more likely to be cared for by for-profit companies than non-profits, studies show.
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In April, Medicare started making it harder for hospices to keep patients beyond six months. Hospices must send a doctor or nurse practitioner to check out the patient in person and attest they still meet Medicare's criteria for terminal illness.
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The case against for-profits isn't clear cut. Many are highly regarded, and some non-profits have long-stay patients as well. And for reasons of both marketing and circumstance, many for-profits have tended to have lots of patients with diseases such as Alzheimer's whose course is hard to predict.
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Obama: No Friend of Small Business?
By Gavin Aronsen
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Federal investigations dating back to 2003 suggest that billions of dollars in small business contracts have landed in the hands of big firms. In the 2010 fiscal year, according to the ASBL, those included AT&T, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, and John Deere, among many others. (Remember when Bechtel-Bettis got an $128 million "small business" contract for managing the Department of Energy's Pittsburgh Naval Reactors Office?)
Last year, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), who heads the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, predicted that increasing legitimate small business contracts by a single percent would create more than 100,000 new jobs for the fiscal year. The ASBL used her prediction to make one of its own: It believes that halting the flow of small business contracts to big businesses would create nearly 2 million jobs.
"Ending this abuse would be a more effective economic stimulus than anything proposed by the Obama Administration to date," Chapman said in the statement.
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EPA edges closer to national coal plant cleanup
By Renee Schoof
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After years of delays and false starts under both Democratic and Republican administrations, the Environmental Protection Agency is close to finishing two measures to reduce pollution from coal-fired power plants.
Health experts say the pollution reductions will save thousands of lives every year by sparing people asthma attacks, heart attacks and other health problems. Coal-dependent power companies that face big bills for new equipment in response to the EPA rules are calling for more time, arguing that electric rates will rise, harming households and industries.
One of the rules, expected in final form as early as Wednesday, would force states in the eastern half of the country to reduce pollutants that travel hundreds of miles to create dangerously bad air days in other states. The other rule, due in November and the subject of much wrangling, will be the first national requirement to reduce mercury, lead, arsenic and other toxic pollutants from coal-fired power plants.
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While other industries have been required to make the same cleanups under federal law over the past 21 years, the power sector has gotten special consideration because of its importance to the economy. Coal-fired power plants today are the largest source of mercury, arsenic and other hazardous substances in air pollution.
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Google says delaying clean energy will cost the U.S. trillions
By Stephen Lacey
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Google released an analysis of the economic impact of clean energy innovation today, modeling a variety of long-term scenarios and their influence on GDP growth, energy costs, and greenhouse gases. They used McKinsey's Low Carbon Economics Tool, which provides models to assess the macroeconomic impact of climate and energy policies:
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But delaying this "innovation arms race" by as little as five years with inconsistent policy that slows private investment (a delay not unlikely in the U.S.) could result in $2.3-$3.2 trillion in unrealized GDP gains -- costing the U.S. over a million new jobs and preventing the reduction of up to 28 gigatons of CO2.
This study also highlights another important point: It will take far more than clean energy innovation to substantially reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The most optimistic Google models only enable electric vehicles, energy storage, and renewables to reduce U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions by 49 percent compared with 2005 levels. This study doesn't address some of the other core climate solutions like building efficiency, demand response, advanced materials, and agriculture.
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The bottom line is that innovation plus policy (mandates or a carbon price) "has the best overall outcome."
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Africa drought pushes Kenya and Somalia into pre-famine conditions
By (Reuters via Guardian UK)
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The worst drought in 60 years in the Horn of Africa has sparked a severe food crisis and high malnutrition rates, with parts of Kenya and Somalia experiencing pre-famine conditions, the United Nations has said.
More than 10 million people are now affected in drought-stricken areas of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda and the situation is deteriorating, it said.
"Two consecutive poor rainy seasons have resulted in one of the driest years since 1950/51 in many pastoral zones," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told a media briefing. "There is no likelihood of improvement until 2012".
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Drought and fighting are driving ever greater numbers of Somalis from their homeland, with more than 20,000 arriving in Kenya in just the past two weeks, the UN refuge agency UNHCR said on Friday. It voiced alarm at the dramatic rise, noting the average monthly outflow had been about 10,000 so far this year.
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International |
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China orders Ai Weiwei to pay $1.8m tax
By (AFP)
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Chinese authorities have ordered Ai Weiwei to pay more than $US1.9 million ($A1.81 million) in back taxes and fines, a close friend says, just days after the artist was freed on bail.
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Police have accused Ai of tax evasion and the government said he was freed because of his "good attitude" in admitting to the charges against him, his willingness to repay taxes he owes and on medical grounds. He has diabetes.
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The artist has in the past angered authorities with his involvement in a number of sensitive activist campaigns.
He probed the collapse of schools in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, looked into a Shanghai high-rise fire last November that killed dozens, and says police beat him when he tried to testify on behalf of another activist in 2009.
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U.N. extends peacekeeping mission in DRC
By (UPI)
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The U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was extended for another year, the U.N. Security Council said Tuesday.
The council adopted unanimously a resolution that "reaffirms that the protection of civilians must be given priority" by the peacekeeping mission, the non-government organization said in a release.
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The mission has nearly 20,000 uniformed personnel, including 17,000 blue helmet military personnel, more than 1,000 police officers and almost 1,000 international civilian staff, the United Nations said.
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Mary Portas meets Tesco boss to discuss Britain's struggling high street
By Julia Finch
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In the intervening six weeks retailer after retailer has reported a plunge in sales as already-fragile consumer confidence has taken a fresh dive. The past week has been the worst of the lot, with some of the best-known names on the high street about to pull down the shutters for the final time. The jobs of thousands of retail employees are on the line, most of them women, many of them in part-time positions which allow families to maintain a decent standard of living rather than barely scrape by. More than 10% of Britain's workforce is employed in the retail sector.
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But the crisis has been building for months, as nervous families have reined back their spending in the face of rising food and fuel prices, fear of unemployment, a moribund housing market and concerns about when interest rates will rise.
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The squeeze on families is substantial. The latest Asda income tracker survey, which tracks the amount of cash households have left after paying for necessities such as mortgage or rent, gas and electricity, food and transport, is at its lowest point since the survey started in 2007. Average families are now £60 worse off a month than they were 12 months ago and have just £165 a week to cover all the other costs of living, from fillings to furnishings.
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Top Jewish leader and close Netanyahu ally blasts PM for lack of diplomatic plan
By Barak Ravid
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World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder, who in the past was considered one of Benjamin Netanyahu's biggest donors and supporters, lashed out at the prime minister's diplomatic policy Monday night. . .
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Addressing the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians at a conference that was closed to journalists, Lauder said Israel must present a diplomatic plan in order to regain international support and block Palestinian efforts to obtain unilateral recognition for statehood from the UN in September.
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Lauder also criticized the conditions Netanyahu has set for talks, saying the only way Israel can escape its international isolation is to agree to begin negotiations without preconditions. The international community couldn't care less about Netanyahu's domestic political problems, he said.
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EU aid plan dies
By Syed Fazl-e-Haider
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The World Trade Organization has declined to give approval to European Union efforts to give trade concessions to Pakistan through a limited-period waiver of trading preferences on products in a package worth almost 900 million euros (US$1.28 billion).
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India along with Bangladesh were the main stumbling blocks to the proposal, although some EU member countries also reportedly raised concerns. In Pakistan, local critics also claimed Islamabad was at fault in not devoting more resources to winning the proposed concessions. The issue was handled badly by the Commerce Ministry, they said, claiming it is virtually being run by a secretary, while the ministry's WTO wing has been "abandoned" because it has no boss to deal with such issues.
The package, which had been scheduled to come into effect in January, sought duty-free access to Pakistan for 75 items which are at present subject to 8.86% tariffs. The delays have already defeated the purpose of providing immediate relief to Pakistan's flood-hit economy.
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IDF chief: Israel is prepared for challenges such as the Gaza flotilla
By (Haaretz)
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IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz warned Tuesday that the upcoming Gaza-bound flotilla is merely a provocation, but assured that the Israel Defense Forces is prepared for such a challenge.
"The hate flotilla is just another example of an attempt to delegitimize Israel through provocation," Gantz said during an IDF ceremony for reserve soldiers. "The IDF is prepared for such a challenge as well."
One of the ships taking part in the Gaza flotilla.
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On Monday, the Israeli cabinet ordered the IDF to be firm when stopping the Gaza flotilla, while operating with maximal restraint to avoid casualties.
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USA Politics, Economy, Major Events |
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Mass. to grade teachers on student scores
By (UPI)
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The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted Tuesday to evaluate teachers by their students' performance on statewide tests.
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Those put in the bottom two categories would have a year to improve enough to be evaluated as proficient or exemplary. Those who fail to do so could be fired.
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The Obama administration has made teacher evaluations a key part of its education policy.
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Human Rights Defender Now Fights For U.S. Policy
By Carrie Johnson
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As a young teacher fighting all the way to the Supreme Court for Haitian refugees, and later, as the dean of Yale Law School, Harold Koh became one of the country's most prominent defenders of human rights.
But as the top lawyer at the Obama State Department, Koh has been defending a lot of things that surprise his friends, including U.S. involvement in Libya without the approval of Congress.
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Libya isn't the only area where Koh has staked out positions that are controversial among his former colleagues on the left. He has said the killing of Osama bin Laden by Navy Seals was well within the bounds of the law. And he has blessed the use of American drones that target people in Pakistan and Yemen.
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"In this day and age, some people love to play gotcha," Koh said. "And it's easier for them to do so. The longer I serve in government, I get questions of the following form: 'You're a hypocrite, aren't you?' "
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A Congressional Bailout for a Pharma Firm?
By Siddhartha Mahanta
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On Thursday, the House passed a John Conyers (D-Mich.)-authored amendment to the massive bipartisan overhaul of the nation's patent system. Technically, the measure pushes back when the clock starts ticking on patent expirations, making it easier for companies to secure the rights to the products they create. But in practice, it seems to have allowed one drug company to maintain its patent on a single drug.
Roll Call reports that in 2000, the Medicines Co. (MDCO) missed the deadline on extending its patent on a blood-thinning drug called AngioMax—by one day. That extension would've kept generic versions of the drug off the market until 2014; missing the deadline meant that generics could flood the market by as early as 2010, costing MDCO anywhere between $500 million to $1 billion in profits.
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Although the amendment does not obligate taxpayer funds be spent on a specific project, by virtue of its narrow scope it falls within the broad definition of an earmark and is a classic example of Congress taking pains to assist powerful interests, Taxpayers for Common Sense Vice President Steve Ellis said.
The language "really has no business in this bill," said Ellis, who called the amendment "almost a private law that helps one or two companies."
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Feds running a high-voltage gravy train for power transmission
By John Farrell
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Since 2007, FERC has had 45 requests for bonus incentives for transmission development -- authorized under the 2005 Energy Policy Act -- and has provided all or most of the requested incentives in more than 80 percent of the cases. With the bonuses, the average return on equity for utilities for their new transmission investments is nearly 13 percent. This high rate of return is a full 2.5 percentage points higher than the median utility return on equity [PDF], a value considered just and reasonable by state public service commissions in ordinary times. However, these rewards came during a time when unemployment doubled, the stock market tumbled, and most corporations were lucky to have any profit.
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The most likely outcome of FERC’s lavish program for transmission development is a significant increase in utility shareholder profits at the expense of ratepayers, with only marginal improvements in the amount of available transmission capacity for new centralized renewable energy projects. The program may actually decrease utility interest in expanding transmission capacity [Powerpoint], because offering them a higher ROE increases the total cost of new infrastructure, decreasing the demand for it and reducing investment.
Even as it overpays for new transmission, FERC is throwing money at an outdated model of the electricity grid. Renewable energy is available everywhere, and states and communities have seen the opportunities of tapping it locally. Sixteen states have recognized the benefits of distributed generation by adopting solar or distributed generation-specific mandates [Powerpoint]. Communities encourage distributed generation for the increased economic benefits from locally-owned and developed projects. While some new transmission infrastructure is inevitable as the grid transitions to majority renewable power, most communities are interested in tapping their local resources first.
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Welcome to the "Hump Point" of this OND.
News can be sobering and engrossing - at this point in the diary, an offering of brief escapism:
Random notes related to this video:
. . .
“I definitely think that there’s a bit of [a tendency for the arts to be passed down through generations],” Michaelson says. “If anything, it’s more of an acceptance. They allowed me to do whatever it was that I wanted to do. The temperament of an artist is very accepting and very supportive. I feel like that was probably the most helpful aspect of growing up.”
. . .
Those songs that the people know are a sweet mixture of soft and quirky acoustic-based melodies and clever, extremely relatable lyrics about the little moments in life and love.
“I like to be really specific,” Michaelson explains. “I like to say a lot but in a small amount of words, usually. I feel like it makes it easy to understand – not in the talking down to people way – but in boiling things down to its essence to whatever is left. The essential thought of the phrase and the idea is presented. I like to be very specific and almost cartoony – like I’m painting this picture and you can see it in front of your face. I don’t like vague. I can’t work like that. I can listen to songs [where] I have no idea what they are talking about, but the melody is so great… But for my own writing, I need to be very, very sharp. Very specific. Very visual. That’s just the way that I like to write. I’m not doing it for the benefit of anybody else. I’m just doing it because it’s the way I write.”
Back to what's happening:
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Environment and Greening |
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Compressed-Air System Could Aid Wind Power
By Prachi Patel
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. . . technology could allow for a wider use of compressed-air storage, which in turn could make renewable energy more attractive, since it would allow wind power generated at night to be stored until daylight hours, when demand is higher. If it's successful, the technology could decrease the need to build natural gas plants to supply peak power demand.
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In conventional compressed-air storage, electricity is used to compress air, which is stored in underground caverns or aquifers. That air is then released to drive a turbine-generator to produce electricity when needed. Such storage costs roughly a tenth of what battery storage costs, but it isn't used much because in large part because it requires a location with underground storage space. SustainX's system eliminates this problem because it can efficiently use above-ground storage tanks rather than caverns.
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The company reduces costs by using pistons, rather than turbines, to generate electricity. Gas turbines can only generate electricity from a narrow range of air pressures. The pistons can operate at a larger range—and because air can be compressed more, the system can store more energy. What's more, the pistons operate well after the pressure in the tank has fallen too low to drive a turbine.
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Finding a role for everyone in the sustainability revolution
By David Roberts
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I met Focus the Nation's Garett Brennan at an event in Seattle a few months back and was favorably impressed, so it was nice to see Andy Revkin give him some space. FtN is trying to help people find their place in the clean energy revolution. They've divided their training program according to four roles: Innovators, Technicians, Storytellers, and Politicos. They train young people in whichever role they're best suited to, while helping them draw on the skills of others. . . .
I quite like this idea. I've always thought one problem with green activism is that the only way to support it is to be a green activist -- gather signatures, protest, send letters to Congress, and so on. That's all important work, but it's not for everybody. It narrows the pipeline through which young people are absorbed into the clean energy economy, and narrows the demographic as well.
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That's what will be needed to transform the economy: hundreds of thousands, nay, millions of culture-jammers, with all sorts of diverse roles in business, government, media, and art, all pushing their corners of the world toward sustainability. "Activism" alone is never going to cut it. Brennan sums it up well:
I don't have an answer on how American politics can get us from point A to point B on clean energy. The details are sticky, but what does make sense in that fog of uncertainty is aggressive investment in multiple solutions -- with young people being one of them -- centered on maximizing the chances for success. In a world without magic bullets, we have to invest in the skills that teach people basic social problem solving.
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Climate change side effect: overworked doctors?
By Jen Phillips
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A study published this week in science journal Climatic Change models how hospital admissions for things like diabetes, kidney stones, and suicide attempts will rise along with the temperature, something that's expected to happen as global warming increases the average yearly temperature and causes temperature swings. Those most at risk for climate-related hospital admittance (and resulting deaths) are the very young and the elderly, whose regulatory systems are less able to adapt to high temperatures. With a health-care system that is already taxed, such an increase could overwhelm small hospitals or those with limited resources.
. . . With temperatures projected to rise an average of 5 degrees in summer months, by 2059 this would mean hundreds of additional patients with heat-related renal and endocrine ailments in Milwaukee alone. Project that across the U.S., and that's a substantial increase in hospital traffic, and provider workloads, especially considering the aging Baby Boomer population.
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Science and Health |
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Not so bird-brained: Clever crows recognise faces
By Richard Ingham
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. . . researchers donned the rubber mask of a caveman before trapping, banding and releasing seven crows.
Thereafter, researchers wore either this "dangerous" mask or a neutral one -- that of former US vice president Dick Cheney -- and observed, as they walked along the college paths, how the flock of crows reacted.
The "crow magnon" mask prompted the birds into a collective response to a threat. They cawed and screeched, angrily flapped their wings and flicked their tail to warn of the danger, a behaviour called scolding.
But the Cheney mask elicited no response.
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Obesity Is a Killer in Nonsmoking Women
By (ScienceDaily)
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Obesity is an important contributor to premature death in women who have never smoked, especially among women in low income groups, finds research published online in the British Medical Journal.
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Dr Gruer argues that the results have important implications. Although lifelong smoking is clearly responsible for much higher mortality rates, obesity, and especially severe obesity, has probably been an important contributor to premature mortality in populations like this for some time. He adds that where obesity is more common in disadvantaged groups it may contribute to health inequalities and increase the burden on local health and social services.
On a positive note, the authors conclude that women who never smoke and are not obese have relatively low mortality rates regardless of their social position.
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Long-term benefits of breast screening
By (UPI)
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A three-decade study involving 130,000 women shows mammography screening resulted in fewer deaths from breast cancer, British researchers say.
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"Breast cancer can take many years to develop so to tell if screening is effective, we need to see how women fair in the long-term," Duffy says in a statement. "In this study, we've continued to monitor women for nearly three decades and we've found that the longer we look, the more lives are saved."
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"For every 1,000 to 1,500 mammograms, one breast cancer death is prevented," Duffy says. "Unfortunately, we cannot know for certain who will and who won't develop breast cancer. But if you take part in screening and you are diagnosed with breast cancer at an early stage, the chances that it will be successfully treated are very good."
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Technology |
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Cybercrime Surveys Aren't Telling Us What We Need to Know
By Erica Naone
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For years, government officials, news articles, and security companies have warned about the dangers and impact of cybercrime. Patrick Peterson, chief security researcher at Cisco, has estimated that losses totaled $560 million in 2009. Killian Strauss of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has estimated them at $100 billion annually. And in March 2009, Edward Amoroso, AT&T's chief security officer, submitted written testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation estimating that cybercrime was bringing in illicit revenues of approximately $1 trillion a year.
To some researchers, those wildly different numbers suggest that current methods for calculating cybercrime losses are so poor we actually have no idea how bad the problem is. And without good data, they say, there's no way to fight it intelligently.
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Herley embarked on a study of the methods used to calculate these numbers and found them severely wanting. Most of the statistics come from surveys in which respondents are asked to report whether they've been victims of a crime and how much they lost. "Surveys are hard," Herley says. His research revealed a number of reasons why surveys about cybercrime are particularly hard.
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This Is Google Changing All of Information Sharing
By Mat Honan
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Google announced a new social sharing project today called Google+. It's among the company's most ambitious ventures to date, up there with Gmail, Android, Chrome and, yes, Search. It represents Google's very future. It's going to be huge.
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. . .
That overall strategy will begin now, with the announcement of the two centerpieces of Google+. But even this moment—revealed in a blog post that marks the first limited "field tests" outside the company—will be muted, because it marks just one more milestone in a long slog to remake Google into something more "people centric."
. . .
As Tim Carmody points out on Twitter, "Google doesn't actually care about social. Google cares about identity. Social (such as it is) is a means to an end." And: "Not accidental that social, identity, apps, & browser are all linked. This is Google's play to control the whole stack like Apple does."
. . .
Google wants to get to know you, and help you to get to know yourself. It wants to be the go-to place where you show who you are and what you care about to your friends, your family, your coworkers and the entire world. It wants to be the key you use to unlock the Web and the internet as a whole, the passageway through which all your interactions flow. Today is a big step in that direction.
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Half of American Adults Under 30 Don’t Even Bother With Landline Phones
By Adrian Covert
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The FCC wireless communication report is out and what does it tell us? People under 30 hate landline phones. In fact, 51% of adults between 25-29 pledge complete loyalty to their cellphones. |
Google Search Results Now Show Identity of Creators
By Mat Honan
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. . .
Two weeks ago Google announced a new authorship markup designed to let creators claim their content online, and link it back to their Google profile. Today that data starts showing up in search results. Certain results will display an author's picture and name (from their Google Profile) next to their content on the Google Search results page. This is yet more proof that Google is going hard after identity. It's a whole new arms race.
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Fancy that - a computer bag which keeps the machine powered up
By Martin Wainwright
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Next time you meet someone who says that Britain's textile industry is dead, please direct them to Bolton. Already noted for its pioneering auxetic bandages, which remarkably grow thicker when you stretch them, the local university has now invented a cloth which produces its own power.
The flexible fibre uses two forms of electric generator, slimmed down to such an extent that it can be woven into conventional fabrics used for anything from clothing or computer/phone-carriers to the sails of yachts. Its power production comes from minute photovoltaic cells, miniatures of the kind you get in solar panels, and their counterparts, piezoelectric fibres which generate electricity from movement.
In commercial production, the material has a fascinating range of potential uses: a light in handbags to stop, or at least shorten, that interminable fumbling for wallet or keys; a computer bag which keeps the machine powered up; sails on a schooner which provide electricity as well as catching the wind.
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Cultural |
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Baseball myths face scientific tests
By (UPI)
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Some cherished baseball notions -- a corked bat hits the ball further, baseballs today are livelier than in the past -- have been tested in a U.S. college lab.
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And the findings?
A corked bat -- like the one Sammy Sosa was caught using in 2003 -- doesn't make the ball come off it any faster.
And modern baseballs, compared to balls of the 1970s, have the identical ability to bounce.
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A New Generation of 'Dreamers' Goes Public
By Corey Dade
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Citizenship for illegal immigrants has been a cause championed mostly by politicians and other advocates facing no personal threat of deportation.
But a prominent journalist's recent disclosure that he's an illegal resident has highlighted a growing number of activists "coming out" as illegal, effectively sending a pointed message to authorities: Come and get me.
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This so-called DREAMers movement has gained wide attention for engaging a new generation of young immigrants who have grown up in America and would have been granted legal status under the legislation. Despite the bill's failure, organizers say thousands of young people continue to "come out," fueling an expansion of grass-roots efforts in multiple cities and making legislative pushes on the state level.
The Chicago-based Immigration Youth Justice League, one of the nation's earliest and most active DREAMer groups, was heavily involved in the successful passage last week of the Illinois DREAM Act, which establishes a scholarship fund and other tools to help children of illegal immigrants attend college. And in North Carolina, an effort to require parents to disclose their children's status to school officials recently failed in part because of the work of the North Carolina Dream Team, co-founded by Martinez.
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Dutch Parliament Passes Ritual Slaughter Ban
By (AP via NPR)
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The Dutch Parliament has passed a bill banning the slaughter of livestock without stunning it first, removing an exemption that has allowed Jews and Muslims to butcher animals according to their centuries-old dietary rules.
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If the Netherlands outlaws procedures that make meat kosher for Jews or halal for Muslims, it will be the second country after New Zealand to do so in recent years. It will join Switzerland and the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, whose bans are mostly traceable to pre-World War II anti-Semitism.
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Lawmaker Marianne Thieme of the Party for the Animals — the world's first animal-rights party to win seats in a national parliament — welcomed the approval of the bill that she had first introduced in 2008 and said she was now prepared to defend it in the Senate.
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"The Dutch Jewish community is small and the Jewish kosher meat consumption is smaller still, but the impact on our community is deep and large," said a committee of rabbis pleading with parliament not to pass the law in an open letter Tuesday.
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OND Calendar!