Welcome! "The Evening Blues - Weekend Edition" is a casual community diary (published Saturday & Sunday, 8:00 PM Eastern) where we hang out, share and talk about news, music, photography and other things of interest to the community.
Just about anything goes, but attacks and pie fights are not welcome here. This is a community diary and a friendly, peaceful, supportive place for people to interact.
Everyone who wants to join in peaceful interaction is very welcome here.
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Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music is not so much about featuring an artist as it is about a frame of mind, I'll just call it Carry me home, Old Paint. Enjoy!
Tim O'Brien and the Two Oceans Trio - I Ride an Old Paint
Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
All things are bound together.
All things connect.
Chief Seattle, 1854
News and Opinion
When humans go extinct: How life will evolve after we’re gone
The sixth extinction could wipe out up to half of Earth's species. Michael Tennesen tells us what might happen next
The sixth mass extinction is nearly upon us. Species on Earth are dying out at a rate one thousand times greater than they were before humans began altering the environment. By the end of this century, scientists warn, anywhere from 20 to 50 percent of the species on Earth could be lost forever.
And among those who might not make it out the other side, says science writer Michael Tennesen, are humans.
It’s to be expected: No species lasts forever, and in our relatively short existence, humanity has done an impressively good job of undermining the forces necessary for our survival. But while we’re already taking a number of species out with us, Tennesen argues, nature is resilient: the end of man won’t necessarily mean the end of life itself. “Plants, animals, and microbes will survive, adapt, diversify, and proliferate,” he writes of life after man. “New plants will evolve to vanquish our monocultures of corn, wheat, and rice. With far fewer animals around, those species that survive the bottleneck of extinction will move into newly abandoned spaces. With little competition, they will thrive and rapidly evolve.”
We know that, he adds, because this sort of thing has happened in the past.
Poroshenko: 11 EU states struck deal with Ukraine to deliver weapons, including lethal
Ukraine has concluded deals with eleven countries of the EU on delivery of weapons, including lethal, President Petro Poroshenko told the country’s TV. He, however, didn’t mention which countries will provide ‘defensive aid’ to Kiev.
“The Head of State has informed that Ukraine had contracts with a series of the EU countries on the supply of armament, inter alia, lethal one. He has reminded that official embargo of the EU on the supply of weapons to Ukraine had been abolished,” said a statement on Poroshenko’s official website, citing his interview to the TV channel "1+1".
According to Poroshenko’s statement, he is confident that EU and USA will support Ukraine with weapons if needed.
"If there is a new round of aggression against Ukraine, I can surely say that we will immediately receive both lethal weaponry and new wave of sanctions against the aggressor. We will act firmly and in a coordinated manner.”
Russian central bank cuts key interest rate to help economy
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been out of public view for more than a week, is to meet on Monday with the president of Kyrgyzstan.
It is the second interest rate cut in as many months as the Central Bank reverses some of the sharp rate increases it made in December — when it hiked them from 10.5 percent to 17 percent — to support the then-collapsing ruble. Higher rates tend to bolster a currency but hurt the economy by making borrowing more expensive.
The Central Bank said in a statement Friday it cut the rate again because "the balance of risks has shifted in the direction of a more significant cooling of the economy." It said it was careful not to exacerbate inflation, which hit an annual rate of 16.7 percent in February.
The bank predicts Russia's economy will shrink by between 3.5 percent and 4 percent this year, while the Economic Development Ministry forecasts a 3 percent drop.
CIA Director Describes How the U.S. Outsources Terror Interrogations
Submitted by: NCTim
In rare remarks about a sensitive issue, the director of the CIA confirmed today that the U.S. government works with foreign intelligence agencies to capture and jointly interrogate suspected terrorists.
“There are places throughout the world where CIA has worked with other intelligence services and has been able to bring people into custody and engage in the debriefings of these individuals…through our liaison partners, and sometimes there are joint debriefings that take place as well,” said John Brennan, the CIA director, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
Brennan’s remarks confirm what journalists have long reported: that the Obama administration sometimes helps other countries do the dirty work of snatching and interrogating terror suspects–keeping the U.S. at arm’s length from operations that are ethically and legally dubious.
During a question-and-answer session, it was Fox News’ Megyn Kelley who questioned Brennan about “capturing terrorists.”
The Orwellian Re-Branding of “Mass Surveillance” as Merely “Bulk Collection”
Submitted by: NCTim
Just as the Bush administration and the U.S. media re-labelled “torture” with the Orwellian euphemism “enhanced interrogation techniques” to make it more palatable, the governments and media of the Five Eyes surveillance alliance are now attempting to re-brand “mass surveillance” as “bulk collection” in order to make it less menacing (and less illegal). In the past several weeks, this is the clearly coordinated theme that has arisen in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand as the last defense against the Snowden revelations, as those governments seek to further enhance their surveillance and detention powers under the guise of terrorism.
This manipulative language distortion can be seen perfectly in yesterday’s white-washing report of GCHQ mass surveillance from the servile rubber-stamp calling itself “The Intelligence and Security Committee of the UK Parliament (ISC)”(see this great Guardian editorial this morning on what a “slumbering” joke that “oversight” body is). As Committee Member MP Hazel Blears explained yesterday (photo above), the Parliamentary Committee officially invoked this euphemism to justify the collection of billions of electronic communications events every day.
The Committee actually acknowledged for the first time (which Snowden documents long ago proved) that GCHQ maintains what it calls “Bulk Personal Datasets” that contain “millions of records,” and even said about pro-privacy witnesses who testified before it: “we recognise their concerns as to the intrusive nature of bulk collection.” That is the very definition of “mass surveillance,” yet the Committee simply re-labelled it “bulk collection,” purported to distinguish it from “mass surveillance,” and thus insist that it was all perfectly legal.
Iraqi Kurds allege chlorine gas attack by ISIL
Kurdish officials say remnants of a suicide blast on highway between Mosul and Syria showed presence of chlorine.
Kurdish authorities in Iraq say they have evidence that fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) used chlorine gas as a chemical weapon against their peshmerga forces.
The Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) said in a statement on Saturday that EU-certified laboratory tests showed that soil and clothing samples collected from the remnants of a suicide blast in northern Iraq in January had levels of chlorine that indicated the substance was used as a weapon.
The Kurdish allegation could not be independently confirmed.
The statement said that a lorry loaded with around 20 gas canisters exploded on a highway between the Iraqi city of Mosul and Syria, as Kurdish fighters were being deployed following an offensive against ISIL fighters.
Kurdish, Christian forces gain on IS in NE Syria battles
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
BEIRUT (AP) — Kurdish fighters and Christian militiamen are making gains against the Islamic State group in northeastern Syria, with intense clashes amid airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, an activist group and a Kurdish official said Saturday.
Nasser Haj Mansour, a defense official in Syria's Kurdish region, said the fighters captured the Christian village of Tal Maghas in Hassakeh province, which had been under the control of Islamic State militants. Haj Mansour and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the village was taken overnight.
They said airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, the first in the area in days, were targeting Islamic State positions near Tal Tamr village, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) west of Tal Maghas. The Observatory and Haj Mansour reported intense clashes near Tal Tamr on Saturday.
The U.S. military said in a statement Saturday that an airstrike against Islamic State militants near the city of Hasakeh struck one tactical unit and destroyed a fighting position.
There Are Now Fewer Young Religious Conservatives Than Ever – And Here’s Why
Submitted by: NCTim
The demographics in America are quickly changing – and this couldn’t be any more apparent than with the prediction that Caucasians are projected to be a minority by 2050. However, massive shifts aren’t just happening in ethnic backgrounds. According to new figures collected by the American Values Atlas, there is another rising minority: Christians. In fact, Christians are now the minority in 19 states.
This is partly because we’re becoming a more racially diverse country. Although the majority of Americans are still Christian, this demographic has become less white over the last several years. Another reason is that religious diversity is spreading at such a fast rate, and is predicted to become the majority in time. Now, over 20% of Americans do not subscribe to any religion – making it the largest (non)religious group in 13 states. According to information collected by the General Social Survey:
“When asked their “religious preference”, nearly one-in-four Americans now says “none.” Up until the 1990s, this group of so-called “nones” hovered in the single digits. The 2014 GSS showed that the so-called nones are 23 percent, three points up from 2012.
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How large is this group of nones? There are nearly as many Americans who claim no religion as there are Catholics (24 percent). If this growth continues, in a few years the largest “religion” in the U.S. may be no religion at all.”
Officials: US to keep higher level of troops in Afghanistan
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
The Obama administration is abandoning plans to cut the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan to 5,500 by year’s end, bowing to military leaders who want to keep more troops, including many into the 2016 fighting season, U.S. officials say.
While no final decision on numbers has been made, the officials said the administration is poised to slow withdrawal plans and probably will allow many of the 9,800 American troops to remain well into next year.
There also are discussions about keeping a steady number of counterterrorism troops into 2015, including options under which some would remain in the country or be nearby beyond 2016.
Currently, about 2,000 U.S. troops are conducting counterterrorism missions, and military leaders have argued that they will need to continue pursuing the remnants of al-Qaida and to monitor Islamic State militants looking to recruit in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan gave CIA money to al Qaeda for diplomat's ransom: NYT
Submitted by: NCTim
(Reuters) - About $1 million provided by the CIA to a secret Afghan government fund ended up in the hands of al Qaeda in 2010 when it was used to pay a ransom for an Afghan diplomat, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had at first been concerned about the payment, fearing the CIA knew about the money and had tainted it with poison, radiation or a tracking device, the Times said, and suggested it be converted to another currency.
The newspaper said letters about the ransom payment were found in the 2011 raid by U.S. Navy SEALS who killed bin Laden at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The communications were submitted as evidence in the trial of Abid Naseer, who was convicted this month in New York of supporting terrorism and plotting to bomb a shopping center in Manchester, England.
The Times said Abdul Khaliq Farahi was the Afghan consul general in Peshawar, Pakistan, when he was kidnapped in 2008 and handed over to al Qaeda. He was released two years later after Afghanistan paid al Qaeda $5 million, a fifth of which was CIA money that came from an Afghan government fund that received monthly cash deliveries from the agency, the Times said.
Jindal targets GOP establishment: 'America doesn't need two liberal parties'
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal dismisses the idea of limiting the number of Republican primary debates as a push for a less-conservative GOP presidential candidate.
Submitted by: NCTim
Washington — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, lagging in early polls ranking potential Republican presidential candidates, criticized GOP officials for their plan to limit the number of primary debates, saying it targets conservatives.
Distressed by the damage party leaders felt the 20 Republican primary debates caused in 2012, the Republican National Committee has announced a plan to hold just nine debates in the upcoming presidential election cycle.
Speaking at a Monitor-hosted breakfast for reporters, Governor Jindal said there was this “idealistic belief that if we could just have fewer debates, if we could have a gentler, kinder nominating process that would be good for the party and good for the nominee.” He added that, “Well you know what, democracy is messy and the donors, the political leaders, the establishment, the pundits, they don’t get to pick our nominee.”
“A longer nominating process and a tougher nominating process didn’t seem to hurt then-Senator Obama when he was running against Senator Clinton,” he said.
The West's criminal culpability in Syria
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
The Guardian newspaper in the UK, in its trademark handwringing fashion, is this week marking the fourth anniversary of the Syrian conflict: 200,000 dead, 3.5 million refugees.
The Guardian should also commemorate three-and-a-half years of bloodshed, destruction, and misery inflicted upon Syria by the United States, the European Union, and the Gulf Cooperation Council - make that murder, war crimes, and collective punishment IMO - much of it enthusiastically endorsed by the Guardian and its media brethren.
Think I'm exaggerating? But first read the piece that I wrote in November 2011, when it was clear that the domestic uprising was headed for defeat and the West and GCC faced the crucial choice whether to let Assad cobble together some reconciliatory process … or try to bring him down with a foreign-supported insurrection.
We all know - or should know - what choice was made. And we should know - but probably don't know - the actual cost. Consider these numbers: 7,000 … and 193,000.
#StopC51: Protests Grow Against Expansive Canadian Surveillance Bill
Day of action set for 'every province across Canada' against so-called anti-terrorism bill
Canadian activists are taking part in a weekend of action against the controversial C-51 surveillance bill currently making its way through Parliament.
Supporters of the bill say it would protect the nation against terrorist attacks, but critics charge that it would give the government ever more expansive and invasive spying powers.
If passed, C-51 would giveup to 17 government agencies access to Canadian citizens' private information, including their financial status, medical history, and religious and political beliefs. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service would also be given the power to spy on Canadians and foreign nationals living in the country, while the Royal Canadian Mounted Police would be granted increased powers of preventive arrest.
Protests against C-51 are slated to take place in "every province across Canada," organizers said on Friday. Many of those actions will take place outside the offices of 13 conservative Ministers of Parliament who support the bill.
Sierra Leone VP Samuel Sam-Sumana 'goes into hiding'
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Sierra Leone's Vice-President Samuel Sam-Sumana has gone into hiding while he seeks political asylum at the US embassy in the capital, Freetown.
Mr Sam-Sumana told the BBC he and his wife fled their home after "a tip-off" that soldiers were surrounding it.
The move comes a week after his expulsion from the ruling party.
Two weeks ago, Mr Sam-Sumana said he was putting himself in quarantine for 21 days after one of his bodyguards died of the Ebola virus.
Ticking bombs: Iran, the GOP and Israel’s secret plan (for self-destruction)
It was a marriage made in heaven – or, more likely, in the other place – one that’s been waiting decades to be consummated, as in an old-fashioned soap opera whose sundered lovers pine for each other from afar but are kept apart by one plot device after another. The Republican Party and the ruling Israeli faction of Bibi Netanyahu and his Likud party have long played footsie under the table and passed mash notes back and forth, so the flowering of their forbidden love over the last two weeks is no big surprise. Just to jump way ahead, I’m arguing here that the secret key to this romance lies in the fact that both groups are doomed by history. Beneath their shared posture of arrogance and triumphalism – so maddening to their political opponents – lies a deep-seated, half-conscious awareness that the end is nigh. It’s like the medieval legend of Tristan and Iseult, except with ugly people.
Many people on both sides of this affair have long believed that their hearts beat as one and their destinies were joined; Fox News and the New York Post have been pimping for Netanyahu since the ’90s. But this love story has faced daunting obstacles. To the endless frustration of Netanyahu and his loyalists, most American Jews remain allied with the Democrats, and a large proportion are liberal or left-leaning Democrats. For generations the social-justice movements of American politics – the labor movement, the civil-rights movement, feminism, the LGBT struggle — have been closely allied with the Jewish intellectual tradition. If Noam Chomsky is an extreme example, he is certainly not an isolated one. Yes, it’s actually a longer and more tangled story than that, since the neoconservative movement also has Jewish roots stretching back to the Trotskyist left of the 1930s. We might get back to talking about the spectral force of Leo Strauss, dragging his chains through the corridors of American political life like Marley’s Ghost, but that’s way too big a tangent right now.
Then there’s the fact that the most enthusiastic supporters of Israeli expansionism on the American right include many people who believe that all Jews will go directly to hell and suffer eternal torment (following the reign of the Antichrist and the blowing of the trumpets and all that), unless they abandon their ancient tradition and embrace the heretical sect their ancestors specifically rejected 2,000 years ago. No doubt we can shave that reed a little finer, and observe that there are the people who really believe in that pre-millennial Rapture doctrine, who at least are not hypocrites, and then there are the shameless cynical bastards who manipulate such pseudo-Christian superstition – as they were taught by Leo Strauss! — in order to gain power. I’m sure true believers like Pat Boone and Mike Huckabee feel heartbroken about that aspect of the End of Days, and plan to look down from heaven on their slow-roasting Jewish friends with nothing but love and pity in their hearts.
Binyamin Netanyahu fights for political survival at Israeli general election
Netanyahu faces determined opposition and an electorate who seem ready to force a change
Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market has long been a stronghold of Likud, the rightwing party of Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu. It is a bustling place of stalls stacked with wet fish, spices, nuts and tubs of olives.
Last week Netanyahu visited the market’s lanes on an election campaign stop that was – bizarrely – unannounced even to the local media.
One market figure who greeted Netanyahu in the past was, however, absent from the tour this time: Yaron Tzidkiyahu, the market’s “pickle king”, who runs two deli stands.
A Likud party activist for 40 years, including as a member of its central committee, Tzidkiyahu had decided only a few days before that this year he was not voting for Netanyahu. This time he would vote for Netanyahu’s rightwing rival, Avigdor Lieberman.
With Israeli Elections Coming Up Next Week, Here’s Benjamin Netanyahu’s Top 12 Campaign Promises
Submitted by: NCTim
Next Tuesday, Israel heads to the polls and as of right now, it looks like the far right Likud Party is going to lose. Desperate to stave off the possibility of his beloved Israel moving away from vicious warmongering, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been refining his stump speech appealing to his base of blood thirsty lunatics…
I’ve summarized them:
1. Forcibly remove Palestinians from their homes and raze their neighborhoods in the name of peace
2. Build more illegal settlements on Palestinian land, blame Palestinian anger on “radical Islam.”
3. “Reluctantly” start another conflict pitting our precision laser guided missiles versus their crude rockets. Pretend Israel is actually in danger.
4. “Accidentally ” kill thousands of noncombatant civilians with precision laser guided missiles. Pretend this is a tragedy.
5. Blame civil unrest on anti-democratic radicals. Continue to censor opposition media.
Israel elections: Why we might see a Netanyahu-Herzog coalition government
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Jerusalem — Deeply divided and foul of mood, Israelis are headed toward what seems like a referendum on their long-serving, silver-tongued prime minister, the hard-line Benjamin Netanyahu.
But with so many of them having despaired of peace talks with the Palestinians, the focus is mostly on Netanyahu's personality, his expense scandals and the soaring cost of living.
And as no candidate is likely to win big in the wild jumble of Israel's political landscape, the outcome of the March 17 election could well be a joint government between Netanyahu and his moderate challenger Isaac Herzog. It's an irony, because the animosities are overwhelming.
Much has changed in the world since Netanyahu first became prime minister in 1996, but Israel remains stuck with the question of what to do with the highly strategic, biblically resonant, Palestinian-populated lands it captured almost a half-century ago.
Myanmar government bombs 'fall in China'
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Bombs dropped by Myanmar government forces fighting ethnic Kokang rebel troops have triggered forest fires and deaths on the Chinese side of the border with northern Myanmar, local sources said Wednesday.
A resident of the Chinese town of Nansan surnamed Tu said bombs dropped by the Myanmar army had fallen inside Chinese territory in the rugged and mountainous region on at least three occasions in recent days.
"We are in Nansan, and the bombs fell in Mengdui, around 40 kilometers [25 miles] from the border, on the Chinese side," Tu said in an interview on Wednesday. "The fighting has continued today, and quite a lot of people have died," he said. "We have been dealing with some dead bodies recently."
He said authorities in China had prevented the country's own tightly controlled media from reporting the incidents. "There is an information blackout on news from Nansan, so you won't read about this elsewhere," Tu said.
National security? China ready to slam door on foreign NGOs.
New law would allow Beijing to filter out foreign funding of groups that support free expression and civil society.
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Beijing — After years of operating in a precarious legal limbo, foreign non-governmental organizations in China are facing a moment of truth that could force many of them to close their doors.
The Chinese government is drafting a new foreign NGO law that is widely expected to make work more difficult, if not impossible, for many of the 6,000 overseas non-profits that operate here in a broad range of fields from education and the environment to HIV-Aids and legal education.
Under the new law, foreign non-profits would not be allowed to open more than one office, or to raise funds locally, or be allowed to fund projects deemed counter to what is being called “Chinese society’s moral customs," according to excerpts seen by The Christian Science Monitor of the still unpublished bill.
“It will be a new world if the law goes through as it is written now,” says Anthony Spires of the Center for Civil Society Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who has seen an early draft of the bill. “There will be a lot more layers of control and opportunities for the government to say no” to NGO projects.
Republicans float changes to food stamp funding
Submitted by: NCTim
Senate Republicans will put forward a budget proposal next week that will include major revisions to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), better known as food stamps, according to Republican lawmakers. In an article published Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told the Wall Street Journal that the proposed budget would change SNAP funding to more closely resemble a block grant model.
Currently, federal SNAP funding is designed to automatically increase or decrease based on the number of people enrolled in the program. For benefit programs that receive their funding through block grants, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the federal government provides each state with a lump sum and lets state governments decide how to allocate the money. These lump sums are a fixed amount and don’t change based on the number of beneficiaries.
In other words, if lawmakers alter SNAP so that it becomes funded through block grants, then states will have more flexibility to allocate benefits as they see fit. However, if a state experiences a sharp increase in applicants to the program, it will not receive an increase in funding to meet those needs.
“It’s just a better way to give flexibility on the ground, where people are at,” Graham told the Wall Street Journal. “The more you manage something far away, the more costly and less efficient it becomes.”
The Philippines and Vietnam Forge a Strategic Partnership
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
On January 30, the Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Albert del Rosario hosted his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Binh Minh in Manila for the inaugural meeting of the Joint Commission on Concluding a Strategic Partnership. According to a Joint Statement issued after the talks, the two ministers agreed “on the basis of amity, equality, mutual respect and cooperation… to elevate the level and intensity of bilateral exchanges between the two countries.”
The bulk of the Joint Statement focused on the South China Sea and expressed concern “over the ongoing massive land reclamation activities that pose threats to the peace and stability in the region as well as to the lives of many people across the various coastal states.” Del Rosario and Minh agreed that the “concerned Parties” should adhere to the ASEAN-China Declaration on Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, conclude a Code of Conduct, exercise restraint, and resolve disputes peacefully in accord with international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
It appears likely that a formal strategic partnership agreement could be reached this year. Del Rosario noted that the strategic partnership with Vietnam would be the Philippines’ third after the United States and Japan.
The Philippines and the U.S. became treaty allies in 1951. In 2011, the Philippines and Japan upgraded their bilateral ties to a strategic partnership. In late 2014, the Philippines and South Korea initiated discussions on a comprehensive strategic partnership.
This is what America would look like without gerrymandering
Submitted by: NCTim
We've written about gerrymandering here on Vox — we've described some of the worst examples, and potential reforms that might prevent it. But what would a world without gerrymandering look like? Check out the map above, in which each colored district has a roughly equal population, for a glimpse.
The map was created by the Center for Range Voting, which was founded by math PhD Warren Smith and engineer Jan Kok to float innovative election reform proposals. To make it, they used what they call the shortest splitline algorithm. Basically, they used the shortest possible line to cut a state into two halves with roughly equal populations. Then they did so again, and again, and again, until they had the proper number of overall districts.
The map above crosses state borders, which is, of course, impossible in our current system. (Though it does look nice that most of North Dakota and South Dakota will be represented by one representative, rather than each getting its own.)
But the site also features maps for each individual state. Check out the difference between today's ludicrously gerrymandered North Carolina House map — featuring twisting, snakelike districts that stretch across the state — and the Center's version:
As Cyclone Pam Devastates Vanuatu, Climate Experts Sound Alarm
Disaster 'driving painfully home the rising risks from extreme weather and climate change,' UN conference warns
As Cyclone Pam devastated the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, where resources are already strained under the effects of climate change, United Nations officials and the country's president on Saturday called for immediate action to prevent further disasters caused by global warming and extreme weather.
"I am speaking to you today with a heart that is so heavy. I do not really know what impact the cyclone has had on Vanuatu," the country's president, Baldwin Lonsdale, toldthe U.N. World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan. "I stand to appeal on behalf of the government and the people to give a helping hand in this disaster."
Early reports estimated that at least eight people died as one of the Pacific Ocean's most powerful storms ever ripped through Vanuatu on Friday and Saturday, with the death toll expected to rise in the coming days. Approximately 20 were reported injured. That figure is also likely to grow substantially, according to Tom Skirrow, country director for Save the Children.
Reuters reportsthat winds of up to 210 mph tore apart the tiny island, uprooting trees, yanking roofs off houses, and cutting off almost all electrical power, leaving behind little more than "a looming threat of hunger and thirst."
CIA money from secret fund ended up in hands of al-Qaida
Money used to pay a ransom for an Afghan diplomat reached al-Qaida in 2010, according to Afghan and Western officials, but CIA declined comment
About $1m provided by the CIA to a secret Afghan government fund ended up in the hands of al-Qaida in 2010 when it was used to pay a ransom for an Afghan diplomat, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden had at first been concerned about the payment, fearing the CIA knew about the money and had tainted it with poison, radiation or a tracking device, the Times said, and suggested it be converted to another currency.
The newspaper said letters about the ransom payment were found in the 2011 raid by US navy Seals, who killed bin Laden at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The communications were submitted as evidence in the trial of Abid Naseer, who was convicted this month in New York of supporting terrorism and plotting to bomb a shopping center in Manchester, England.
The Times said Abdul Khaliq Farahi was the Afghan consul general in Peshawar, Pakistan, when he was kidnapped in 2008 and handed over to al-Qaida. He was released two years later after Afghanistan paid al-Qaida $5m, a fifth of which was CIA money that came from an Afghan government fund that received monthly cash deliveries from the agency, the Times said.
Ancient statues destroyed by ISIS fake, real ones safe
The ancient statues that Islamic State militants smashed in Mosul last month have been proved to be exact replicas of precious artifacts of Iraqi heritage. The real masterpieces of antiquity are said to be in Baghdad.
“They were copies. The originals are all here,” Baghdad’s museum director told Germany’s Deutsche Welle.
The head of the antiquity department in Iraq’s cultural heritage authority, Fawzye al-Mahdi, also told the German broadcaster that “none” of the artifacts “were originals.”
This, experts say, explains why in a video that shows the destruction statues crumble so easily.
“The reason they crumble so easily is that they're made of plaster. You can see iron bars inside," Mark Altaweel of the Institute of Archaeology at University College, London said to Channel 4.
Fracking will ruin sacred, preserved sites in the ‘American cradle of civilization’ - lawsuit
A Navajo advocacy group has asked a federal judge to halt hydraulic fracking permits in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico, claiming that drilling threatens a historic UNESCO heritage site considered sacred by Navajo, Hopi and Pueblo peoples.
Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment and three other
groups have sued the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and US
Department of Interior, calling on a federal judge to vacate the
130 fracking permits issued by the BLM and enjoin fracking
activity in the Mancos Shale of the San Juan Basin until the BLM
adheres to the National Environmental Policy Act and the National
Historic Preservation Act,
according to Courthouse News.
The 4,600-square-mile San Juan Basin of New Mexico's Four Corners
region is home to Chaco Culture National
Historical Park, which includes the Anasazi ruins and other
archeological remains of structures that were among North
America's largest around 1,000 years ago.
Chaco and the surrounding areas, known as the “American
cradle of civilization,” are considered a UNESCO World Heritage
site. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization calls the area “remarkable for its monumental
public and ceremonial buildings and its distinctive architecture
– it has an ancient urban ceremonial centre that is unlike
anything constructed before or since.”
Only 1 year of water left in California, NASA scientist suggests rationing
NASA’s top water scientist says California only has about one year’s worth of water left in storage, and its groundwater – often used as a backup for reservoirs and other reserves – is rapidly depleting. He suggests immediately rationing water.
California just had the driest January since record-keeping began
in 1895, with groundwater and snowpack levels at all-time lows,
NASA scientist Jay Familglietti wrote in a column for the Los Angeles Times. He said the
state has been running out of water since before the current
years-long drought and storage levels have been falling since at
least 2002, according to NASA satellite data.
“California has no contingency plan for a persistent drought
like this one (let alone a 20-plus-year mega-drought), except,
apparently, staying in emergency mode and praying for rain,”
said Familglietti. “In short, we have no paddle to navigate
this crisis.”
A team of NASA scientists, using the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment
(GRACE) satellites, discovered that the state’s Sacramento
and San Joaquin river basins were 11 trillion gallons (41.6
trillion liters) below normal seasonal levels. The researchers
say that water levels have steadily dropped since the launch of
GRACE in 2002.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal, which will feature the stories of two Federal Judges from West Virginia: Judge Jackson who advised Mother Jones to stop her agitation and take up charity work, and Judge Dayton who called the association of Fannie Sellins with the United Mine Workers a disgrace to American Womanhood.
Tune in at 2pm!
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A map of all the underwater cables that connect the internet
Submitted by: NCTim
Cables lying on the seafloor bring the internet to the world. They transmit 99 percent of international data, make transoceanic communication possible in an instant, and serve as a loose proxy for the international trade that connects advanced economies.
Their importance and proliferation inspired Telegeography to make this vintage-inspired map of the cables that connect the internet. It depicts the 299 cables that are active, under construction, or will be funded by the end of this year.
In addition to seeing the cables, you'll find information about "latency" at the bottom of the map (how long it takes for information to transmit) and "lit capacity" in the corners (which shows how much traffic a system can send, usually measured in terabytes). You can browse a full zoomable version here.
The cables are so widely used, as opposed to satellite transmission, because they're so reliable and fast: with high speeds and backup routes available, they rarely fail. And that means they've become a key part of the global economy and the way the world connects.
SFPD probes racist, homophobic texts among officers
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
The San Francisco Police Department is investigating four of its own after dozens of racist and homophobic text messages sent between officers were disclosed in federal court documents Friday.
The texts were released in a motion filed by the U.S. attorney’s office to deny bail to former Sgt. Ian Furminger and detail “virulent” racism and homophobia, according to prosecutors. The texts implicate Furminger and four unnamed San Francisco police officers, according to court documents.
Furminger, 48, spent nearly two decades as a cop, most notably as a plainclothes officer working out of Mission Station before being convicted of corruption charges in February. He was sentenced to more than 40 months in prison.
After his conviction, Furminger told reporters that he had done nothing wrong and that his only regret was in not testifying during his trial. He is scheduled to report to prison April 3, but is seeking bail while he appeals the convictions.
Listen to the Gwich'in
In Alaska's debate over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, few ask its closest neighbors
Submitted by: NCTim
ARCTIC VILLAGE, Alaska — To understand the relationship between the indigenous Gwich’in who live in this village near the edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the massive caribou herd that migrates through their land, you might start in February with a ride on the back of Charlie Swaney’s old snowmobile.
Motor past his sled-dog yard and head along a trail that leads out of the village through the powdery snow. After 15 minutes, you’ll reach a wide frozen lake, and he’ll slow down, so as not to scare the animals. There might have been 50 caribou along the distant shoreline on a recent afternoon. This time of year, they dig through the snow with their shovel-shaped hooves, looking for lichen.
Swaney silences the engine, gets off, swings the rifle off his back and examines the line of animal shapes through his scope. Pop! The herd scatters, leaving one female down. Soon Swaney is kneeling next to it with his knife. Head comes off first. Then the skin, beginning with a gentle slit down the white belly. Gwich’in have been hunting caribou in this area for thousands of years.
“You got to respect the animal, because that’s how you eat,” Swaney says as he pulls hide from muscle. You don’t take too many, he says. What you don’t eat, you feed to the dogs, he says.
“Respect is the main thing.”
Giant sea creature hints at early arthropod evolution
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Newly discovered fossils of a giant, extinct sea creature show it had modified legs, gills on its back, and a filter system for feeding -- providing key evidence about the early evolution of arthropods.
The new animal, named Aegirocassis benmoulae in honor of its discoverer, Mohamed Ben Moula, attained a size of at least seven feet, ranking it among the biggest arthropods that ever lived. It was found in southeastern Morocco and dates back some 480 million years.
"Aegirocassis is a truly remarkable looking creature," said Yale University paleontologist Derek Briggs, co-author of a Nature paper describing the animal. "We were excited to discover that it shows features that have not been observed in older Cambrian anomalocaridids -- not one but two sets of swimming flaps along the trunk, representing a stage in the evolution of the two-branched limb, characteristic of modern arthropods such as shrimps."
Briggs is the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Geology and Geophysics at Yale and curator of invertebrate paleontology at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. First author Peter Van Roy, an associate research scientist at Yale, led the research; Allison Daley of the University of Oxford is co-author.
Ebola: at least 10 US citizens possibly exposed to be flown back from Africa
*CDC says individuals heading for Nebraska, Maryland or Atlanta
*Authorities say none have been found to have the disease
At least 10 US citizens possibly exposed to the deadly Ebola virus were being flown to the US from Africa for observation, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Saturday.
The individuals were set to be transported by non-commercial air transport, on their way to be housed near the University of Nebraska Medical Center, the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, or Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, the CDC said.
It said none of the individuals had been identified as having Ebola.
A US healthcare worker who tested positive for Ebola while in Sierra Leone arrived at the NIH on Friday and was in serious condition, the NIH said.
The Evening Greens
The Evening Greens Weekend Editor: enhydra lutris
Distemper Outbreak in Raccoons, 2014-2015
Beginning in early December 2014, Animal Control agencies in the South Bay area of Los Angeles began reporting an increase in raccoons with clinical signs of the disease Distemper. This disease is contagious to dogs. It can be prevented in dogs with vaccination and other steps.
Click here to read more about
Distemper.
Between August 2014 and February 2015 a total of 101 cases were documented across the southern area of Los Angeles County. See map at right. Cases of dead or injured raccoons in the area are also shown.
Click here for a pdf version of the map.
Invasive Carp Look for Love in all the Right Places
If you’re looking for love and there are ten bars in town, your chance of meeting someone is 10 per cent. In a town with only one bar, your odds are 100 per cent.
The same thing happens in nature and is called landmarking. Butterflies and other species find mates by gathering at easily identifiable locations such as the tallest tree or mountain.
When invasive species like Asian carp engage in this highly efficient mating practice, the results can be disastrous, says Kim Cuddington, an ecology professor in the Faculty of Science at the University of Waterloo. “For species like Asian carp, precautionary measures have to be extraordinary to prevent their establishment in the Great Lakes,” says Cuddington.
Landmarking affects endangered and invasive species
In a recent paper published in the journal Theoretical Ecology, Cuddington demonstrates how landmarking works and how it should play a key role in the way we approach population control – for both conserving endangered species and controlling invasive ones.
What Lake Tahoe tells us about a changing climate
A recently published study on how natural and man-made sources of nitrogen are recycled through the Lake Tahoe ecosystem provides new information on how global change may affect the iconic blue lake.
“High-elevation lakes, such as Lake Tahoe, are sentinels of climate change,” said Lihini Aluwihare, associate professor of geosciences at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) at UC San Diego and co-author of the study. “Small changes in the lake's chemistry can have big impacts on the entire ecosystem.”
Lake Tahoe's nitrogen concentration is one of several factors that helps maintain its crystal clear waters. To keep Tahoe blue in the future, the researchers say it's important to keep a close eye on the nitrogen balance in the ecosystem over time.
“The things we do, as humans, affect change in nature. We know the Lake's foodweb is changing due to warming and nitrogen inputs. Our marine and aquatic ecosystems across the globe face many of the same environmental stressors. What we've learned about how aquatic foodwebs recycle nitrogen in Lake Tahoe may be applicable to the clear waters near Hawai‘i,” said Stuart Goldberg, lead author of the study and post-doctoral researcher at the Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (Goldberg was a post-doctoral researcher at Scripps Oceanography during this research).
Baby Tortoises Born On Galapagos Island For The First Time In A Century
For the first time in more than one hundred years, researchers have found newborn baby tortoises on the tiny Galapagos island of Pinzón. It's a major win for a population that has struggled after being nearly decimated by human impact.
"We found ten tiny, newly hatched saddleback tortoises on the island early last month," wrote a trio of researchers in the January 15th issue of the journal Nature. "There could be many more, because their size and camouflage makes them hard to spot. Our discovery indicates that the giant tortoise is once again able to reproduce on its own in the wild."
Whalers and invasive rats devastated the species when they arrived aboard ships in the 17th and 18th centuries; the rats then spent more than a century preying on the island's hatchlings, according to the Galapagos Conservancy.
The tiny turtle find validates more than 50 years of conservation efforts, which have included growing hatchlings in captivity until they are large enough to be released without falling prey to rats, as well as a push to eradicate the rodents. The arid island was finally declared rat-free in 2012.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Where’s Putin? Don’t ask the White House
Netanyahu sounds alarm as final Israeli polls give edge to Herzog
What Happens to the Stock Market if the U.S. Follows the World into Recession?
How Did Jesus get to be So Hot? The Fascinating History of (Wildly Unrealistic) Depictions of the Savior
Johann Hari & Naomi Klein: Does Capitalism Drive Drug Addiction?
The Erasure of US History Starts in Texas
US Intel Vets Oppose Brennan's CIA Plan
A Blueprint for Ending War
Hellraisers Journal: "I carry the need of the weary world to the crushed and despondent throng."
Health Related Science News (crossposted from caucus99percent)
Gaius Publius: Astroturf “Progressive” Support for the TPP – Meet “270 Solutions”
Navy considers transgender personnel
A Little Night Music
Roy Rogers - Don't Fence Me In
Don Edwards - Cattle Call
Paul Davis - Ride 'em Cowboy
Ed Bruce - The Last Cowboy Song
Marshall Tucker - Searchin For A Rainbow
Cowboy Jim Garling - Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie
Marty Robbins - Cool Water
Eddy Arnold - Faithful
David Bromberg - Whoopie Ti Yi Yo
Gene Autry - Back in the Saddle Again
Gene Autry - Ghost Riders in the Sky
Amazing Rythym Aces - King of the Cowboys
Eddy Arnold - Tumblin' Tumbleweeds
Marty Robbins - The Streets Of Laredo
Frankie Laine - Rawhide
Roy Rogers - Happy Trails