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 features female blues guitarist and singer Rory Block. Enjoy!
Rory Block - Crossroads Blues
Note: We here at the Evening Blues Weekend Edition often step beyond the boundries of traditional blues music. Joe shikspack so adeptly covers the blues genre in his weekday series that we at the Weekend Edition would find most trad blues offerings we could serve up as being redundant. Therefore Joe, in magnanimous manner has allowed us to color outside of the lines and we appreciate and thank him for that. Almost all modern American music has it's roots in traditional blues music anyway, so ultimately we do not stray far from the mother language. As Muddy Waters sang:
The Blues Had a Baby and They Named It Rock and Roll, let us add to that list (jazz, country, bluegrass, ragtime, folk, gospel, soul, swing and rhythm and blues) and all subsets thereof. -- JtC
I know that robes, leggings, moccasins, bear claws, and so on are of little value to you, but we wish you have them and to preserve them in some conspicuous part of your lodge, so that when we are gone and the sod turned over our bones, if our children should visit this place, as we do now, they may see and recognize with pleasure the things of their fathers, and reflect on the times that are past.
Sharitarish - Pawnee
News and Opinion
The Evening Blues
We dig up what the MSM buries.
Contributors:
Funkygal
enhydra lutris
White Americans bigger terror threat than Islamic extremists
White Americans are the biggest terror threat in the United States, having killed more people in attacks than Muslims or any other group in the last 14 years, according to a new study.
The research, conducted by the New America Foundation, examined the 26 attacks on US soil defined as acts of terror since 9/11, and found that 19 of those attacks were committed by non-Muslims.
Since the September 11 atrocity, 48 people have been killed by extremists who are not Muslim, compared to 26 killed by people who claimed to be jihadists. The non-Muslim groups included right-wing, racist, and anti-government organizations.
However, the study found that radical Islamists were indicted more frequently than non-Muslim extremists and served longer sentences.
Expert: Obama ignored surge of rightwing extremism that inspired Charleston killer
Link Submitted by: Funkygal
As lead author of a suppressed 2009 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report on the rising threat of rightwing extremism, Daryl Johnson was not the least bit surprised by last week’s terrorist attack on the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
On the evening of 17 June, white supremacist Dylann Roof entered the Charleston, South Carolina, church and shot dead nine African Americans after they had welcomed him into their Bible study.
“Here we go again. That was my first thought. It reminded me of the Sikh temple shooting,” Johnson told The Electronic Intifada, referring to the August 2012 attack by a neo-Nazi in Wisconsin that killed six people.
Johnson, who spent 15 of his 24-year career in government studying rightwing extremism, made headlines in 2011 when he accused DHS of gutting his unit due to a conservative uproar against the 2009 report.
In wake of Charleston, Obama asked to launch attack on domestic extremists
WASHINGTON — The horrific mass shooting in Charleston, S.C., is raising questions about whether President Barack Obama is prepared to launch the kind of effort against extremist groups that the government launched against the Ku Klux Klan in an earlier era.
Tracking homegrown extremist groups was an emphasis after the 1993 Waco siege and the Oklahoma City bombing two years later. But after Sept. 11, 2001, the FBI has shifted its focus to international terrorism.
“The allocation of resources across different forms of terrorism has been skewed towards jihadi terrorism,” said Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks right-wing extremist groups. “The government has allowed the threat of other forms of terrorism to take a back seat.”
Like Ku Klux Klan lynchings of the past, the Charleston shooting appears designed to not just to kill individuals but to create terror among African-Americans.
Japan tests West’s boycott of Russia
Link Submitted by: enhydra lutris
The Russian diplomacy got a big boost on Wednesday when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a phone call to President Vladimir Putin. Abe took the initiative a day after Tokyo had sent out a cryptic signal that Russia’s participation in next year’s G7 summit (May 26-27), which Japan is hosting, “is undecided yet.”
The Kremlin readout said the two leaders “expressed their mutual desire to develop political, economic, humanitarian, and security cooperation”. They resolved to “prepare thoroughly” for a visit by Putin to Japan.
Abe has strong reasons to pick up the threads of Japan’s bilateral ties with Russia, which suffered through the past year after Tokyo closed ranks with the West and imposed sanctions against Russia. The fact of the matter is that as the Asia-Pacific is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, Japan is the odd man out, still without a peace treaty with Russia.
Tokyo had pinned hopes on Putin’s leadership to resolve the dispute over the Kurile Islands, which are under Russian occupation and is a hugely emotive issue for the Japanese public. Japan has held out the promise that the resolution of the island dispute could unlock Japanese investments for Russia’s Far East and Siberia, which Moscow has been eagerly seeking.
Malaysian Pressure Forces MH17 Investigation to UN
Malaysia, frustrated by the refusal of the official international investigation-team to produce any clear evidence yet of whom to blame for the downing of the MH17 Malaysian airliner over the Ukrainian civil-war zone on 17 July 2014, has finally forced the team to request the UN to investigate. They’ve forced the original four nations on the team to accept UN adjudication of any final report. This will enable a court-proceeding to make the ultimate determination of guilt (upon which judgment penalties and compensation will be assessed), and this court-determination would inevitably allow whatever party is being blamed by the five-member official investigating team, to present its own evidence in the case, so that the court will make the ultimate determination — the official investigating team will not be performing that crucial judgmental function.
Malaysia was long prohibited from even participating in this investigational team, but on 5 November 2014, a deal was finally reached with the four nations that did comprise the team — four U.S. allies: Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, and (a suspect in possibly having downed the MH17) Ukraine itself (though it had lost none of its citizens in the disaster) — so, the next day, Malaysia’s New Straits Times headlined “Malaysia to join MH17 criminal probe team,” and reported that, “The prime minister said the country had been invited to play a bigger role in the recovery and investigation of the ill-fated aircraft, believed to have been downed by a missile over eastern Ukraine on July 17.” The Malaysian report went on then, pointedly, to note: “In July, the Dutch and Ukrainian authorities agreed that the bulk of the operations would be carried out by the Netherlands, with assistance from countries whose citizens were on board the flight. Malaysia had repeatedly asked to be part of the joint investigation team, currently comprising investigators from the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia and Ukraine.” Implicitly, that phrase “Malaysia had repeatedly asked to be part of the investigating team” said that Malaysia had consistently been refused membership until 5 November 2014. In fact, even by late November of 2014, Malaysia continued to be refused membership, and I headlined on November 30th, “Malaysia Becomes Angry About Exclusion from MH17 Investigation.” That refusal was especially outrageous because, like three of the four nations that already were on the team, Malaysia had lost (44) citizens from the downing. But in addition, Malaysia had lost the plane, from it. There was no excuse for the four pro-Western nations to exclude Malaysia, and for their limiting the investigating-team to only Ukraine (a key suspect in the downing) and three of its allies. And, between November and now, Malaysia has finally become so fed-up with the team’s continuing refusal to act, and to declare the culprit, so that the rest of the team finally consented to Malaysia’s demand to transfer the investigation over to the UN.
On 24 June 2015, Agence France Press, a mouthpiece for yet another Western nation (France), bannered, “Netherlands, Malaysia push for UN tribunal for MH17 culprits,” and Thailand’s Bangkock Post headlined this same story more honestly and directly, as “Malaysia demands UN court for MH17 shootdown,” but carried unchanged the anti-Russian-slanted AFP text. The anti-Russian-slanted AFP ‘news’ report said “It remains unclear, however, whether Russia would back the creation of the special tribunal” (something which they could also have said of the U.S., for example) and included a sub-head: “- Getting Russia on board -,” which section had only this brief and anonymously sourced reference to Russia: “The diplomat [unidentified] said the countries were mindful of the need to ‘avoid a Russian veto’ [as if a Russian veto would have been likelier than an American one, etc.].” That’s propaganda for a regime, not news-reporting for a democracy — it delivers the bias (to whip up support for war), along with its sugar-coated pro-regime facts.
60,000 military involved in E. Ukraine op – President Poroshenko
The number of government troops deployed in the conflict in eastern Ukraine has reached 60,000 troops, according to President Petro Poroshenko. The statement comes as the total of Ukrainian refugees has exceeded 900,000 people, according to UN.
"We are doing our best to ensure the security of our state. We have brought the number of our armed forces in the ATO zone to 60,000 servicemen today. There used to be no more than 30,000 in peak periods in the past," Poroshenko said in an interview with the Inter TV channel on Friday, as cited by the UNIAN news agency.
Ukrainian authorities have tried their best to provide units with new military equipment, to improve logistics and financial support, and to train soldiers to Western standards. Foreign military trainers are involved in the process, Poroshenko added.
On Thursday, the Ukrainian president signed amendments allowing the presence of foreign troops in Ukraine, as part of an international peacekeeping force. The law also has the provision to let the country have weapons of mass destruction stationed there.
Taliban threatens utility company in heat-stricken Karachi
Link Submitted by: enhydra lutris
ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Pakistani Taliban warned on Friday that it would target the country's main electrical company if it did not end power outages in the country's south — where an intense heat wave has killed 866 people in the past week.
In a statement released Friday, Mohammad Khurasani, a spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, also expressed his grief and condolences over the heat-related deaths in the southern port city of Karachi.
The chronic power cuts in the midst of a record heat wave have caused public protests in Karachi. The K-Electric company, in a statement, has blamed technical faults and surging demand for the power outages.
Khurasani's group has been fighting to overthrow the Pakistani government and install its own harsh brand of Islamic law.
Euro zone readies for Greek default after Tsipras referendum call
Greece's European partners shut the door on extending a credit lifeline to Athens, leaving it facing a default that could push it out of the euro after the leftist government rejected tough lender demands and put their bailout deal to a referendum.
Finance ministers of the other 18 countries sharing the euro met for the first time without Greece and flatly rejected its pleas to extend an expiring bailout until after the referendum on July 5 and setting the stage for Athens to default on a crucial IMF payment on Tuesday.
The 18 pledged to do whatever it takes to stabilize the common currency area and said they were in much better shape to do so than at the height of the euro zone crisis a few years ago. In a formal statement, they also implicitly urged Greece to impose capital controls to stabilize its banking system.
The rejection of an extension piled huge pressure on Greek banks, which depend on central bank support to remain afloat, with long lines forming in front of cash machines as people rushed to pull their money out while the banks were still operating normally.
Greece on the Edge: Bailout Extension Rejected, But Referendum Still On
Future of financial assistance deal now put to a popular vote as Tsipras says creditors' deal 'clearly violate the European rules'
Update:
The Eurogroup has refused to extend Greece's current bailout deal, which is set to expire on June 30, days before a referendum is set to take place on the financial aid package currently being negotiated.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras reportedly called European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande on Saturday to tell them, "Democracy is of the highest order in Greece and the referendum will take place regardless of the Euro group decision."
In a press conference on Saturday, Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said that a deal between Greece and its creditors could still be reached before Tuesday's expiration date. But he slammed the Eurogroup for rejecting Greece's request to extend the current bailout to give the country enough time to put the proposed deal to a popular vote.
"The refusal of the eurogroup today to endorse our request for an extension of this agreement for a few days, a couple of weeks, to allow the Greek people to vote on their proposals - even when there is a very high probability that Greeks will go against our recommendation and vote yes - will certainly damage the credibility of the eurogroup as a democratic union of partner member state," Varoufakis said. "I’m very much afraid that damage will be permanent."
This story is developing. Follow the Guardian's live updates here.
Greece debt crisis: Tsipras announces bailout referendum
Link Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Greece's prime minister has called a referendum on 5 July for voters to decide whether to accept a bailout deal offered by international creditors.
Alexis Tsipras made clear he was against the "unbearable" bailout plan.
Parliament is debating whether to ratify the vote, and some queues have been seen outside banks in Athens.
Eurozone finance ministers are meeting to discuss the crisis, and to decide whether to give Greece an extension of the bailout until after the vote.
South Africa police accused over Marikana mine deaths
Link Submitted by: enhydra lutris
A South African commission has recommended a criminal investigation into police over the deaths of 34 miners during a strike in 2012.
President Jacob Zuma said the inquiry concluded the police had a "defective plan" to end the strike at the Marikana mine and were wrong to proceed with it.
Police have always claimed self-defence over the shooting of the workers during a protest over wages.
Mr Zuma called it a "horrendous tragedy that has no place in a democracy".
‘Freedom Flotilla’: Activists set sail for Gaza to break Israel blockade
An international team of activists has set sail for the Gaza Strip, in a bid to break Israel's sea blockade with four boats. It comes five years after a similar attempt finished in bloodshed.
The so-called “Freedom Flotilla III” departed from various ports in Greece on Saturday. This is the third attempt to break the Palestinian blockade, which has lasted for nine years, according to a news release on the campaign’s official webpage.
READ MORE: ‘ICC credibility test’: Palestinians submit first war crimes evidence against Israel
“Our strong determination is to get to our destination despite [Netanyahu’s] threats to stop us," Arab Israeli lawmaker Basel Ghattas wrote on his Facebook page on Friday.
Ghattas is a member of the team of around 70 people, including former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki and Spanish MEP Ana Maria Miranda Paza. Their journey is the result of “the joint work of campaigns from Spain, Sweden, Norway, Greece, Canada, Italy, the United States, and many other countries,” spokesperson for the global Freedom Flotilla Coalition, Loukas Stamellos, told the Common Dreams news website.
China moves controversial oil rig back towards Vietnam coast
Link Submitted by: enhydra lutris
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has moved an oil rig at the center of last year's violent dispute with Vietnam closer to Vietnam's coast in the disputed South China Sea, just weeks ahead of the first visit by a chief of Vietnam's Communist Party to Washington.
The move, announced by China's maritime safety authorities, comes soon after the country indicated it was close to setting up new outposts in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia, as it nears completion of land reclamation in the South China Sea.
China claims most of the potentially energy-rich South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims.
China's deployment of the rig last year in what Vietnam called its exclusive economic zone and on its continental shelf, about 120 nautical miles off its coast, led to the worst breakdown in relations since a brief border war in 1979.
Activists: IS fighters kill 200 civilians in Syrian town
Link Submitted by: enhydra lutris
BEIRUT (AP) — Islamic State fighters who launched a surprise attack on a Syrian border town massacred more than 200 civilians, including women and children, before they were killed or driven out by Kurdish forces, activists said on Saturday.
Kurdish activist Mustafa Bali, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Kurdish official Idris Naasan put at 40-50 the number of elite IS fighters killed in the two days of fighting since the militants sneaked into the town of Kobani before dawn on Thursday.
Clashes, however, continued to the south and west of the predominantly Kurdish town on the Turkish border on Saturday, they said, although the fighting in the south quietened down by nightfall.
Naasan said 23 of the city's Kurdish defenders were killed in the fighting, but the Observatory put the number at 16. The discrepancy could not immediately be reconciled, but conflicting casualty figures are common in the aftermath of major fighting.
Federal Documents Debunk Baltimore ‘Gang Threat’ Narrative
Link Submitted by: Funkygal
Self-described “FOIA terrorist” Jason Leopold of Vice (6/24/15) has released devastating documents about the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI’s analysis of a “threat” released by Baltimore police to media on April 27. The police had claimed that local “gangs” had gotten together and conspired to “take out cops”; this “credible threat,” used to justify an aggressive crackdown on protests against police violence, was reported on at the time from everyone from local news to national outlets like CBS News (4/27/15):
As the funeral for Freddie Gray, the man who suffered a fatal spinal injury in police custody, was held Monday, the Baltimore Police Department announced they had received information about a “credible threat” against the lives of its officers.
In a press release, the department states that “members of various gangs including the Black Guerilla Family, Bloods, and Crips have entered into a partnership to ‘take out’ law enforcement officers.” The statement advises local agencies to “take appropriate precautions to ensure the safety of their officers.”
No Child Left Un-Mined? Student Privacy at Risk in the Age of Big Data
On Facebook, it’s the season where parents are posting pictures of K-12 graduations, including moppets in tiny mortarboards. But unlike a generation ago, today’s smallest graduates are amassing a big data trail. Just as medical and government files have been digitized — some to be anonymized and sold; all susceptible to breaches — student data has entered the realm of the valuable and the vulnerable. Parents are paying attention. A recent study by the company The Learning Curve found that while 71 percent of parents believe technology has improved their child’s education, 79 percent were concerned about the privacy and security of their child’s data, and 75 percent worried about advertiser access to that data.
The fear is that the multi-billion-dollar education technology (or “ed-tech”) industry that seeks to individualize learning and reduce drop-out rates could also pose a threat to privacy, as a rush to commercialize student data could leave children tagged for life with indicators based on their childhood performance.
“What if potential employers can buy the data about you growing up and in school?” asks mathematician Cathy O’Neil, who’s finishing a book on big data and blogs at mathbabe.org. In some of the educational tracking systems, which literally log a child’s progress on software keystroke by keystroke, “We’re giving a persistence score as young as age 7 —that is, how easily do you give up or do you keep trying? Once you track this and attach this to [a child’s] name, the persistence score will be there somewhere.” O’Neil worries that just as credit scores are now being used in hiring decisions, predictive analytics based on educational metrics may be applied in unintended ways.
Such worries came to the fore last week when educational services giant Pearson announced that they were selling the company PowerSchool, which tracks student performance, to a private equity firm for $350 million. The company was started independently; sold to Apple; then to Pearson; and now to Vista Equity Partners. Each owner in turn has to decide how to manage the records of some 15 million students across the globe, according to Pearson. The company did not sign an initiative called the Student Privacy Pledge, whose signatories promise not to sell student information or behaviorally target advertising (151 other companies including Google have signed the non-binding pledge).
New police tech has cops scanning license plates to trace criminals
A little-noticed surveillance technology equips police vehicles with infrared cameras that can record car license plate numbers then log the data for tracking outstanding warrants, suspended licenses and stolen vehicles.
However, the latest crime-fighting tool comes with little-to-no regulation for invasion of privacy.
To give an idea of the power of the technology, called the Data Driver Approach to Crime and Traffic Safety (DDACTs), within the space of two months Denver police vacuumed up 835,000 license plate images leading to 17,000 hits for warrants, stolen vehicles and other things law enforcement searched for.
The license plate readers are three high-resolution digital cameras mounted on a police vehicle for all-round surveillance. The cameras capture license plate images, including information such as date, time and location, and feed them to a laptop with GPS within the vehicle. Using data that is updated every four hours from federal, state and local databases, police can match the plate numbers for wanted vehicles, fugitive warrants, suspended or revoked drivers’ license and stolen cars.
What Happens When Oligarchs and Vigilantes Take Over Public Safety in a Big City
In Detroit, safety is a privilege enjoyed by the white and wealthy.
Highland Park is a tiny 3-square-mile municipality located within Detroit. Extremely dangerous, blighted, and 94% black, Highland Park is a concentrated example of the conditions in Detroit’s poorest neighborhoods—what some call the “Detroit of Detroit.”
In late 2011, the impoverished little municipality was so deep in debt to its public electric company, DTE Energy, that the local government was forced to decommission all streetlights on its residential streets. Not only did DTE cut the power to street lights in Highland Park, it sent out workers to physically dig up and remove nearly 1,000 light-poles from the neighborhood. Highland Parkers now live in permanent, debt-induced darkness.
Six miles away, in Detroit’s rapidly gentrifying downtown area, DTE Energy runs a very different public policy. The same company that repossessed 1,000 streetlights from Highland Park, condemning its residents to permanent darkness, has recently launched a pro-bono security program in the increasingly white area.
On its own dime, DTE operates a public “bait car” program. It buys and sets booby-trap cars out on the downtown streets, outfitted with up to 18 hidden cameras, to lure and ultimately deter potential car theft. A partnership with downtown police assures that cops will be on the scene within 90 seconds of when the bait car is entered.
Coverage worries persist amid relief over health care ruling
Link Submitted by: enhydra lutris
CHICAGO (AP) — Throughout the country, relief was the dominant emotion among consumers who get help from the government to lower their health insurance costs following Thursday's Supreme Court ruling upholding the subsidies underpinning President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
Many consumers expressed somewhat conflicting views: They were happy their monthly premiums would continue to be affordable but exasperated by the coverage the policies purchased on the new health care exchanges provide.
"I don't particularly care for Obama. I didn't vote for him," said Salt Lake City resident Paige Preece, whose subsidy allows her to buy insurance for $137 a month. "But, honestly, if it weren't for this, I would be absolutely lost."
The court's 6-3 ruling upheld the federal financial assistance to millions of low- and middle-income Americans to help pay for insurance premiums regardless of where they live. An estimated 6.4 million people in the 34 states that used the federal health care exchange were at risk of losing the subsidies because their home states did not set up their own insurance exchanges.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal, which will feature a report from the first day of the Founding Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World!
Tune in at 2pm!
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The dystopian lake filled by the world’s tech lust
Link Submitted by: Funkygal
From where I'm standing, the city-sized Baogang Steel and Rare Earth complex dominates the horizon, its endless cooling towers and chimneys reaching up into grey, washed-out sky. Between it and me, stretching into the distance, lies an artificial lake filled with a black, barely-liquid, toxic sludge.
Dozens of pipes line the shore, churning out a torrent of thick, black, chemical waste from the refineries that surround the lake. The smell of sulphur and the roar of the pipes invades my senses. It feels like hell on Earth.
Welcome to Baotou, the largest industrial city in Inner Mongolia. I'm here with a group of architects and designers called the Unknown Fields Division, and this is the final stop on a three-week-long journey up the global supply chain, tracing back the route consumer goods take from China to our shops and homes, via container ships and factories.
You may not have heard of Baotou, but the mines and factories here help to keep our modern lives ticking. It is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of “rare earth” minerals. These elements can be found in everything from magnets in wind turbines and electric car motors, to the electronic guts of smartphones and flatscreen TVs. In 2009 China produced 95% of the world's supply of these elements, and it's estimated that the Bayan Obo mines just north of Baotou contain 70% of the world's reserves. But, as we would discover, at what cost?
Jack Ma’s online bank lifts off
Link Submitted by: enhydra lutris
If anyone can get the Chinese to use Internet banking it’s probably Alibaba.
Ant Financial Services Group, the financial affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, launched on Thursday, MYbank, an Internet bank run entirely on the cloud.
MYbank says it’s focused on helping the “little guy,” the entrepreneurs of small businesses. It plans to issue loans up to 5 million yuan to small and micro enterprises, entrepreneurs and individual consumers.
“Answering to the needs of those who have limited access to financial services in China is our mission,” said Eric Jing, Mybank executive chairman, in a written statement. “MYbank is here to give affordable loans for small and micro enterprises, and we are here to provide banking services, not for the rich, but for the little guys.”
Compound in magnolia may combat head and neck cancers
Link Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Magnolias are prized for their large, colorful, fragrant flowers. Does the attractive, showy tree also harbor a potent cancer fighter?
Yes, according to a growing number of studies, including one from VA and the University of Alabama at Birmingham that is now online in the journal Oncotarget.
The study focused on squamous cell head and neck cancers, a scourge among those who use tobacco and alcohol. According to the National Cancer Institute, at least 3 in 4 head and neck cancers are caused by the use of tobacco and alcohol. The cancers have only a 50 percent survival rate, killing some 20,000 Americans each year.
Enter honokiol--chemical formula C18H18O2. As one of the major active compounds in magnolia extract, the phytochemical has been used for centuries in traditional Chinese and Japanese medicine to treat anxiety and other conditions. More recently, scientists have been discovering that the compound, found in magnolia bark, is a wily and versatile adversary of cancer. It seems to exploit many biochemical pathways to shrink tumors of various types, or to keep them from growing in the first place.
18 Foods You Don't Need to Buy Organic
Buying organic helps keep pesticides out of your diet, but it can also keep money out of your wallet.
Link Submitted by: Funkygal
In 2013, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) tested 3,015 produce samples and found that almost two-thirds contained pesticide residues. The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy group for human health and the environment, calculated that USDA tests found a total 165 different pesticides on thousands of fruit and vegetables in the 2013 sampling.
While these findings might increase your desire to always choose organic over conventionally grown produce, in fact, there are many traditionally grown fruits and vegetables that are fine to include in a pesticide-free diet. Of course, there are foods that you should always buy organic, like apples, peaches and nectarines — nearly 100 percent of these fruits have tested positive for at least one pesticide residue. The EWG has produced the Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce, which includes the "Dirty Dozen" and "Clean Fifteen" lists to help you decide what to buy organic and what's okay to buy non-organic.
Why do some types of produce have more pesticide than others? Richard Wiles, senior vice president of policy for the Environmental Working Group says, “If you eat something like a pineapple or sweet corn, they have a protection defense because of the outer layer of skin. Not the same for strawberries and berries.”
There are many reasons to buy organic: USDA organic certification covers all aspects of a farming operation, from seed sources (the USDA prohibits GMOs in organics, for example) and soil conditions to crop health and pest management. Economics plays a role: While GMO giants like Monsanto have a huge share of the seed market, there are smaller distributors that sell conventional non-GMO seeds, such as corn. For small-scale farmers, this is often more affordable than the GMO variety.
Are killer whales persons?: The more we learn about orcas, the more our assumption of innate superiority looks like a presumption
They have big brains, complex social structures, rich emotional lives -- how can we still hold them captive?
Can an animal be a person?
That is the essence of the challenge the killer whales pose to humans, especially those humans who hold them captive. But it is also a larger challenge to all of us, especially if we endeavor to take our role as stewards of the world in which we live seriously. It is a strange and alien concept in a world dominated by Western thought, in which humans have historically been regarded as exceptional beings apart from nature and in which all nonhuman occupants of the world are considered animals, at best property and at worst vermin, the extermination of which is required for the sake of human well-beings.
“Right now, there is no one besides a human who is a person,” says dolphin scientist and ethicist Lori Marino. “They’re all property, no matter how complex they are, no matter how much we love them. They have no inherent rights of their own.”
Yet the more we learn about dolphins in general, and killer whales in particular, the more that our assumption of innate superiority looks like a presumption. Orcas, with their big brains, complex social structures, mysterious communications, and mind-boggling sixth sense, by their very existence, challenge the long-standing belief that human beings are the planet’s only intelligent occupants. Social life for killer whales, as we have seen, is deeper and more omnipresent than it is for humans; their identities are defined by their families and tribal connections; and their empathy is powerful enough to extend to other species. If orcas have established empathy as a distinctive evolutionary advantage, it might behoove a human race awash in war and psychopathy to pay attention.
Think it's cool Facebook can auto-tag you in pics? So does the government
Our own government, as well as police and intelligence agencies around the world, will likely mine facial recognition data or create their own databases
State-of-the-art facial recognition technology, which had been the stuff of hypothetical privacy nightmares for years, is becoming a startling reality. It is increasingly being deployed all around the United States by giant tech companies, shady advertisers and the FBI – with few if any rules to stop it.
In recent weeks, both Facebook and Google launched facial recognition to mine the photos on your phone, with both impressive and disturbing results. Facebook’s Moments app can recognize you even if you cover your face. Google Photos can identify grown adults from decades-old childhood pictures.
Some people might find it neat when it’s only restricted to photos on their phone. But advertisers, security companies and just plain creepy authority figures have also set up their own systems at music festivals, sporting events and even some churches to monitor attendees, which is bound to disturb even those who don’t give a second thought to issues like the NSA’s mass surveillance programs.
Making matters worse, advertisers have apparently indicated that they have no intention of restricting their technology whatsoever. Their refusal caused ninemajor civil liberties groups to pull out of talks with the advertisers that were aimed to come to an agreement on how companies could institute voluntary protections for the people whose faceprints will inevitably be vacuumed up into their databases. As the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Jennifer Lynch wrote, “After 16 months of active engagement in the process, we decided this week it was no longer an effective use of our resources to continue in a process where companies wouldn’t even agree to the most modest measures to protect privacy.”
The Republican War on Vegetables
Experts say to cut down on meat for the sake of our health and the environment. Republicans react like 3-year-olds.
New recommendations released earlier this year by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC), an independent group of doctors and nutritionists, say we should cut down on meat for the sake of our health and the environment. In response, congressional Republicans are throwing a temper tantrum.
But because “you can’t make us eat more fruits and vegetables” sounds kind of petulant, they’re pretending their objections are all about the science.
The report, which informs the Dietary Guidelines for Americans that are updated every five years, found that “a diet higher in plant-based foods, such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds, and lower in calories and animal-based foods is more health promoting and is associated with less environmental impact than is the current U.S. diet.” This is the first time the sustainability of our dietary choices has been taken into consideration by the DGAC; according to the report, it is “essential to ensure a healthy food supply will be available for future generations.”
Yet the move has predictably been met with hostility, particularly on the part of the meat industry, which accused the recommendations of being “flawed” and “nonsensical.”
The Evening Greens
The Evening Greens Weekend Editor: enhydra lutris
Good news for reefs: how corals could survive a warming planet
New genetics research shows how cold-water corals can increase their resilience to global warming at a pace that could match climate change.
As concern grows over the threat coral reefs face from pollution, destructive fishing practices, and especially climate change and ocean acidification, a research team has found that heat-tolerant corals pass along that tolerance to corals adapted to cooler waters.
One of the key questions regarding heat tolerance is the extent to which it is genetically inherited or whether the corals build an ability to endure heat stress through repeated exposure, a process analogous to hardening tomato plants.
If the trait is inherited, it could provide a mechanism for what the team dubs "genetic rescue," in which natural crossbreeding between warmer- and cooler-water corals gives the cool-water variants the genetic tools they need to cope with rising ocean temperatures, at least for a while.
Modeling studies suggest that even a modest ability to adapt could have a significant impact on the longevity of reefs, notes Mikhail Matz, a marine geneticist at the University of Texas at Austin and one of two senior authors of a research paper reporting the crossbreeding results in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
Chemists devise technology that could transform solar energy storage
The materials in most of today's residential rooftop solar panels can store energy from the sun for only a few microseconds at a time. A new technology developed by chemists at UCLA is capable of storing solar energy for up to several weeks -- an advance that could change the way scientists think about designing solar cells.
The findings are published June 19 in the journal Science.
The new design is inspired by the way that plants generate energy through photosynthesis.
'Biology does a very good job of creating energy from sunlight,' said Sarah Tolbert, a UCLA professor of chemistry and one of the senior authors of the research. 'Plants do this through photosynthesis with extremely high efficiency.'
Beware the Giant Toxic Algae Bloom
Humans and animals on the west coast should take care when near the water. One of thelargest algae blooms of all timeis producing dangerous toxins which now stretch from California to Alaska. The neurotoxin being released by the bloom is called domoic acid, and it can cause a series of problems for any mammal that comes into contact with it.
Here is how it spreads: algae from the bloom finds a home in shellfish and smaller fish such as anchovies and sardines. Those creatures can then transfer the toxin to sea lions, birds, dolphins and various other creatures. In California, the toxin is being held responsible for large number of sea lion deaths, strandings and malnourished cubs.
Shellfish harvests, crabbing and fisheries have nearly ground to a halt as oceanographers seek to understand how this bloom became so enormous.
NOAA Oceanographer Vera Trainer called the levels “scary” and told reporters in Seattle that, “We’re seeing effects on marine ecosystem we haven’t seen before.” She went on to say that unlike normal algae blooms, this one is not dissipating, but rather sticking around near the shore.
Beijing growing explosively, impacting weather and climate
A new study by scientists using data from NASA's QuikScat satellite has demonstrated a novel technique to quantify urban growth based on observed changes in physical infrastructure. The researchers used the technique to study the rapid urban growth in Beijing, China, finding that its physical area quadrupled between 2000 and 2009.
A team led by Mark Jacobson of Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, and Son Nghiem of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, used data from QuikScat to measure the extent of infrastructure changes, such as new buildings and roads, in China's capital. They then quantified how urban growth has changed Beijing's wind patterns and pollution, using a computer model of climate and air quality developed by Jacobson.
New infrastructure alone -- the buildings and roads themselves, not including additional pollution created by the new city dwellers and their vehicles -- created a ring of impacts around the older parts of Beijing. The impacts included increasing winter temperatures by about 5 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit (3 to 4 degrees Celsius) and reducing wind speed by about 2 to 7 mph (1 to 3 meters per second), making the city air more stagnant.
"Buildings slow down winds just by blocking the air, and also by creating friction," Jacobson explained. "You have higher temperatures because covering the soil reduces evaporation, which is a cooling process." Roads and roofs heat up more during the day than soil or vegetation would because they are drier. The heat and more stagnant air create a cascade of consequences, such as increased ground-level ozone pollution.
Report: Oil from Santa Barbara spill spread to Redondo Beach
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A petroleum pipeline company said Friday that oil from a Santa Barbara, California, spill spread more than 100 miles to Los Angeles County beaches.
Plains All American Pipeline said that oil from its pipeline was found as far away as Redondo Beach.
The Houston-based company and state officials said earlier in the week that oil from the May 19 spill had reached Manhattan Beach, two miles north of Redondo.
Federal regulators and prosecutors are investigating the spill of up to 101,000 gallons of crude oil along the scenic shore. The reports confirm suspicions that the pipe was the source of tar that washed ashore in Los Angeles about a week after the spill.
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Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
How Our Press and Politicians Are Being Played by Islamic State
Renewable Energy Redoubles Its Global Reach
Socialism Means Abolishing the Distinction Between Bosses and Employees
The More They Dig, the More They Find: DDT Cleanup Continues for Mid-Michigan Town
Hellraisers Journal: Harvest Worker Murdered in Kansas Was "Jungle Poet." A. W. O. Issues Demands
The OPOL Report: America's Messed-up Sh*t edition UPDATED x 3
Update Greece: now into uncharted waters
June 5 was World Environment Day
A Little Night Music
Rory Block - Terraplane Blues
Rory Block - Shake 'Em On Down
Rory Block - Come In My Kitchen
Rory Block - Mississippi Man
Rory Block - Hellhound On My Trail
Rory Block - Gone Woman Blues
Rory Block ~ Got To Shine
Rory Block - Walking Blues
Rory Block - Richland Woman Blues
Rory Block - Stagolee
Rory Block - Downhearted Blues
Rory Block - Strong and Lasting Kind
Rory Block - Peavine Blues
Rory Block - Road To Mexico
Rory Block - 32-20 Blues
Rory Block ~ Canned Heat
Rory Block - Rowdy Blues
Rory Block - Big Road Blues