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 brought to you by guest VJ NCTim and features pedal steel guitarist Robert Randolph. Enjoy!
Robert Randolph & The Family Band - The March
The more I consider the condition of the white men, the more fixed becomes my opinion that, instead of gaining, they have lost much subjecting themselves to what they call the laws and regulations of civilized societies.
Tomochichi - Creek Chief
News and Opinion
The Evening Blues
We dig up what the MSM buries.
Contributors:
NCTim
enhydra lutris
dharmasyd
Islamic State claims full control of Iraq's Ramadi
Islamic State militants claimed full control of the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on Sunday in the biggest defeat for the Baghdad government since last summer.
In a statement, the group said it had seized tanks and killed "dozens of apostates", its description for members of the Iraqi security forces.
Ramadi is the capital of Iraq's western Anbar province, which is dominated by Sunni Muslims. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi signed off on the deployment of Shi'ite militias to attempt to seize back the area, a move he had previously resisted for fear of provoking a sectarian backlash.
Earlier, security sources said government forces evacuated a key military base after it came under attack by the insurgents, who had already taken one of the last districts still holding out.
U.S. rushing new weapons to Iraq as Islamic State advances in Ramadi
IRBIL, Iraq — The Islamic State on Friday took control of the provincial government center of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province, and appeared to be in control of most of the city in a major defeat for the Iraqi government.
Islamic State forces also appeared to be closing in on government positions in two other key locations in Anbar province, the towns of Baghdadi and Karmah, in a broad offensive that if successful would end the government presence in all of the province’s major population centers. The capture of Baghdadi also would cut the supply lines to the Iraqi garrison protecting the strategic Haditha Dam.
U.S. officials offered conflicting views of the events, with the State Department and the Pentagon at first downplaying the significance of what had taken place. But a later statement from the White House made clear that the situation was urgent and that the United States was rushing shipments of heavy weapons, ammunition and supplies to Iraq to deal with the Islamic State advance.
The new weapons shipments will include an unspecified number of shoulder-fired rockets especially useful in blasting car bombs, which the Islamic State used particularly effectively in its Ramadi offensive.
Who’s down with TPP?: Big business wins and democracy loses as both parties lie about free trade
Both parties line up to back a job-killing trade deal without even reading it. The hypocrisy is staggering
If you need further proof of your democracy’s ill health, the Senate provided plenty of it this week as it began debating whether to fast track President Obama’s much-beloved Trans Pacific Trade Partnership (TPP). By passing the bill Congress, would divest itself of its constitutional right to amend the agreement. On Thursday, the “world’s greatest deliberative body” signaled it will do just that. Debate will extend into the coming week — but make no mistake, in the Senate, the fix is in.
Acceptance or rejection of the agreement will be the most consequential decision Congress has made since greenlighting the Iraq war. Yet no member of the public has been allowed to read the document. Neither has any member of Congress, really. A copy lies in a locked room in the Capitol basement. There, relieved by security guards of any cell phones, cameras or recorders, members may read it but are not allowed to take any notes.
We gripe about legislators not reading bills, but doing so can be a colossal waste of time. Bills are often literally unreadable. To tell a member of Congress to sit under guard in an airless room perusing an impenetrable text insults not just that member but democracy itself. We shouldn’t castigate those who decline the invitation, just those who’d stop others from making changes to a treaty they haven’t read.
Few in or out of politics grasp the TPP’s epic scope. This is partly due to the secrecy in which it is shrouded but also to how both sides have framed the debate. At stake are rules governing a quarter of all world trade. These rules may well supplant those in other trade agreements and so affect nearly all global trade. But that’s not the all of it, not by a long shot. The first thing you need to know about the trade agreement is that it’s about so much more than trade.
‘Not aimed at third country’: Russia & China start joint drills at Mediterranean
Nine Russian and Chinese warships kicked off joint military exercises dubbed, ‘Sea Cooperation - 2015’ in the Mediterranean on Sunday, the Russian Defense ministry said.
“The active phase of the exercises will be held in the Mediterranean between May 17 and 21, about 10 warships from the Russian Navy and the People's Liberation Army Navy [of China] will be participating,” a statement from the Defense Ministry said.
The flagship of the Crimea-based Russian Black Sea Fleet, guided missile cruiser the ‘Moskva’, will be the headquarters for the drills, the statement added.
The goal of the Russia-China exercises “is to strengthen mutual understanding between the navies... regarding boosting stability, countering new challenges and threats at sea," Vice-Admiral Aleksandr Fedotenkov, a deputy commander of the Russian Navy, who is leading the exercises from the Russian side, said.
‘Bigger role’ for US in Minsk II accords: Are you sure, Ms. Nuland?
Submitted by: dharmasyd
One year into the Ukrainian crisis, Washington reveals a desire to jump on the bandwagon of the Minsk peace accords – brokered by France and Germany. Not bad news, after all, but when it comes from Victoria Nuland...
News that US Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Sochi to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and President Putin came as only a small surprise this week. In the wake of the most impressive Victory Day celebration ever across Russia, most experts agreed that the Russia people’s vigilance held a fairly massive sway over world public opinion afterwards. Western media was not oblivious to this either.
However much of a positive this trend may be, news that the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland and sidekick Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt are on the loose again tends to quell hopes of peace.
On Saturday Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland told reporters she (and the United States of America) wanted to play a more significant role in the Minsk accords upcoming. To be honest, everyone I mention this to seems to come down with the shivers, whether they’re from western or eastern Europe. Given the US bureaucrat’s past tenor, and her “F” bomb flubs the United States could NOT do worse in belaying either Russian or rebels’ fears.
Tens of Thousands Call for 'Okinawa Without US Bases'
'We have to remove the risks of exposing Okinawa to war again,' says 86-year-old island resident
Marking the third straight day of demonstrations, tens of thousands protested in Okinawa, Japan on Sunday against the presence and expansion of U.S. military bases on the island.
The massive rally "aimed to pressure Tokyo to halt building work for the military base that has continued despite vehement opposition from the local government in Okinawa," Al Jazeera reports.
Held in the Okinawa Cellular Stadium, which Stars and Stripes notes is "usually reserved for professional baseball teams, including Major League all-stars when they visit the island," the event was called 'Seventy Years After the End of WWII—Stop Construction of a New Military Base at Henoko.'
Okinawa is home to more than half of the 47,000 U.S. service personnel stationed in Japan as part of a defense alliance—a proportion many of the island's residents have for decades said is too high.
Syrian official says situation in Palmyra 'under control'
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A Syrian official said Sunday that the situation is "fully under control" in Palmyra despite breaches by Islamic State militants who pushed into the historic town a day earlier.
Syrian opposition activists also confirmed that militants withdrew from a government building and other areas they had seized Saturday in the northern part of the town as clashes continued.
Palmyra is home to one of the most famous UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Middle East, renowned for its Roman-era colonnades and 2,000-year-old ruins. The militants entered from the north and have not reached the ruins southwest of Palmyra.
Islamic State militants have destroyed and looted archaeological sites in Iraq and Syria. The group's advance on Palmyra has sparked alarm in the region and beyond.
Russia targets 'undesirable' foreign organisations
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Russia plans to introduce new powers to prosecute foreigners whose activities are seen as "undesirable" on national security grounds.
Russian MPs have backed a bill to ban "undesirable" foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or firms.
The draft leaves the definition of "undesirable" open to interpretation.
Under an existing 2012 law, foreign-funded Russian NGOs linked to politics must register as "foreign agents". The label has connotations of spying.
Here are 6 crazy things Israel has done to maintain racial purity
Submitted by: NCTim
Israel bills itself as the Middle East’s only democracy, but it is increasingly clear that this label depends a lot on how you define the Middle East, and how you define democracy. Perhaps the sharpest dissonance between the description of Israel as a liberal democracy and its actual policies is the drive for racial purity.
Israel insists on being the historic homeland for the world’s Jews, something few would disagree with. But it also insists on being a Jewish-majority country, at all costs. In order to maintain its Jewish majority, it must demonize non-Jews, particularly Muslims and Christian Arabs, as “demographic threats.”
Here are six crazy things the Israeli government or the Israeli people have done to maintain this racial makeup.
1. No-Sex Contracts: In 2003, an Israeli company importing Chinese workers required them to sign a contract agreeing not to marry or have sex with any Israelis. No legal action was taken against the company, as Israel has no laws protecting workers from such demands.
China rapidly upgrading nuclear arsenal with MIRVed missiles
China is fast refurbishing its arsenal of silo-based long-range ballistic missiles to carry multiple independently targetable warheads, defense experts say. The move comes decades after Beijing acquired the technology, indicating a strategy change.
It has been speculated on for years that the Chinese military is upgrading some of its bigger ICBMs with Multiple Independently-targeted Reentry Vehicle technology (MIRV), which allows a single missile to carry multiple warhead across the globe and deploy them to aim at individual targets.
The assessment was endorsed by the US government in the latest Pentagon report on Chinese military might, which marked Dongfeng-5 missiles, China’s large liquid-propellant rocket capable of reaching the US, as MIRV-capable. The same report said Dongfeng-41, smaller solid-propellant road-mobile ICBMs were “possibly capable of carrying MIRVs.”
According to The New York Times, as many as half of China’s 20 DF-5 missiles may have been upgraded by now. With a conservative estimate that each missile would carry three individual warheads, it increased the number of warheads that Beijing may fire at an enemy to 40, up from 20, the newspaper said, citing a number of defense experts.
China, India sign more than $22 billion in deals: Indian embassy
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
China and India signed 26 business deals worth more than $22 billion in areas including renewable energy, ports, financing and industrial parks, an Indian embassy official said on Saturday.
Namgya C. Khampa, of the Indian Embassy in Beijing, made the remarks at the end of a three-day visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during which he sought to boost economic ties and quell anxiety over a border dispute between the neighbors.
"The agreements have a bilateral commercial engagement in sectors like renewable energy, industrial parks, power, steel, logistics finance and media and entertainment," Khampa said.
At the same event, Modi encouraged Chinese companies to embrace opportunities in India in manufacturing, processing and infrastructure, announcing "now India is ready for business" with an improved regulatory environment.
Scuffles at trial of Greek extreme-right Golden Dawn party
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Lawyers representing Greece's extreme right-wing Golden Dawn party demanded a change of venue Friday for security reasons after party leaders and members on trial were threatened by suspected members of a leftist group being led to another courtroom.
Golden Dawn leader Nikos Michaloliakos and party lawmakers are among 69 defendants accused of running a criminal organization in the closely watched case held in a special courtroom in the country's largest prison, Korydallos.
A separate case against suspected members of the left-wing Nucleii of Fire group, which is accused of several bombings, is also being heard at the prison.
Nucleii suspects heading to their own courtroom managed to open the Golden Dawn courtroom door and threatened the defendants, trying to enter the room and throwing a bottle before police intervened.
Burundi's Nkurunziza warns of al-Shabab after coup fails
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza has said his country faces a specific threat from the Somali Islamist movement al-Shabab.
He was appearing in public in the capital Bujumbura for the first time since a failed coup bid against him was launched on Wednesday.
Mr Nkurunziza made no mention of the coup attempt, which came after weeks of sometimes violent protests against him.
On Saturday 18 people appeared in court on charges of helping the coup bid.
Boko Haram attacks Maiduguri, army repels but hundreds flee
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Hundreds of Boko Haram extremists tried to attack the biggest army base in northeast Nigeria overnight but met fierce resistance from soldiers who fired artillery throughout the night.
Booming cannon and whooshing rockets woke up people living around Giwa Barracks in Maiduguri, the northeast's biggest city. The ground shook as people prostrated themselves for evening prayers. Hundreds fled, though some were returning home on Thursday morning.
Many villagers were killed by shells that hit the outlying village of Kayamla, where the soldiers engaged hundreds of militants, according to Muhammad Gava, a hunter who is secretary of the self-defense Vigilante Group of Nigeria.
"Many of them (Boko Haram) were killed outside the trenches while some fled back," said another civilian fighter, Ibrahim Musa.
Macedonia divided: Corruption, armed rebellion splits nation
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Macedonia's short history of independence has been a troubled one — and its political turmoil appears to be getting worse.
The government in this Balkan nation of about 2 million people is reeling from a massive wiretap scandal and a gun battle between police and ethnic Albanian gunmen that left 18 dead in a border town a week ago. In a region with a long and bloody history of ethnic conflicts and political instability, the developments have caused consternation both domestically and abroad.
Months of accusations between rival politicians locked in a power struggle have plunged the country into one of its deepest political crises since Macedonia gained independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991.
Potential trouble looms again on Sunday, when the opposition plans an anti-government rally billed as the largest Macedonia has ever seen in the capital, Skopje. The protests are supposed to continue for days, and a rival pro-government protest has been called for Monday.
Macedonians in protest to demand government's resignation
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Tens of thousands of people have gathered in the center of the Macedonian capital Skopje to demand the resignation of conservative Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.
The Sunday protest follows the release of a massive cache of wiretapped conversations by the head of the opposition Social Democrats, Zoran Zaev. He claims that Gruevski was behind the mass wiretapping of more than 20,000 Macedonians.
The conversations purport to reveal corruption at the highest levels of government, including mismanagement of funds, spurious criminal prosecutions of opponents and even attempted cover-ups of killings.
Zaev said those conversations were leaked to him by "patriots" in the domestic intelligence service. He demands the formation of a caretaker government that will organize new elections.
Myanmar says it's not to blame for migrant crisis
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar refused to shoulder the blame for an escalating crisis involving thousands of persecuted Rohingya Muslims stranded at sea, and doubts whether it will attend a regional meeting in Thailand later this month to find an urgent solution on how to deal with the boats of refugees.
Boats filled with more than 2,000 desperate and hungry people have landed in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, and thousands more migrants are believed to be adrift at sea after a crackdown on human traffickers prompted captains and smugglers to abandon their human cargo.
All three countries have dispatched their navies to push boats away or execute a so-called "help-on" policy of giving the boats food and water — and pointing them to other countries.
The migrants are Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in predominantly-Buddhist Myanmar, and Bangladeshis looking for a better life abroad.
The Secret Life of Timothy McVeigh
Submitted by: NCTim
Southerners push new 'SEC primary' to raise Dixie’s presidential profile
Early presidential primaries in Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, and Texas – the so-called 'SEC primary' – could boost the South’s prominence in the 2016 election.
Submitted by: NCTim
ATLANTA — The emergence of a new powerhouse primary bloc in the South has already begun to affect the road to the White House, evident by an unusual sight: a phalanx of potential presidents already marching through Georgia.
The appearance of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz at the Georgia GOP Convention in Athens, Ga., on Friday, was indeed a rare treat. Candidates managed to pull $33 million of donations in 2012, according to Federal Election Commission statistics cited by the Associated Press. But presidential hopefuls rarely spend much time or money in the state, since the race usually shakes out by the time Georgians vote.
Yet next year, candidates coming out of the early primary elections in New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada, and South Carolina will have to immediately test their messages on voters in Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and Texas, states that make up the so-called “SEC primary” – a nod to the powerful Southern college sports conference – on March 1. Alabama and Arkansas could sign on, as well.
Most immediately, the move will help candidates like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a favorite of evangelicals, who called the new conference a “godsend.” The primary could shape up as a test of the candidates carrying momentum out of the first four primaries. Politico’s James Hohmann writes, “the test in the South will likely pit the winners of the first states against one another.”
Hillary Clinton personally took money from companies that sought to influence her
Submitted by: NCTim
Almost a decade ago, as Hillary Clinton ran for re-election to the Senate on her way to seeking the presidency for the first time, the New York Times reported on her unusually close relationship with Corning, Inc., an upstate glass titan. Clinton advanced the company's interests, racking up a big assist by getting China to ease a trade barrier. And the firm's mostly Republican executives opened up their wallets for her campaign.
During Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State, Corning lobbied the department on a variety of trade issues, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The company has donated between $100,000 and $250,000 to her family's foundation. And, last July, when it was clear that Clinton would again seek the presidency in 2016, Corning coughed up a $225,500 honorarium for Clinton to speak.
In the laundry-whirl of stories about Clinton buck-raking, it might be easy for that last part to get lost in the wash. But it's the part that matters most. The $225,500 speaking fee didn't go to help disease-stricken kids in an impoverished village on some long-forgotten patch of the planet. Nor did it go to a campaign account. It went to Hillary Clinton. Personally.
The latest episode in the Clinton money saga is different than the others because it involves the clear, direct personal enrichment of Hillary Clinton, presidential candidate, by people who have a lot of money at stake in the outcome of government decisions. Her federally required financial disclosure was released to media late Friday, a time government officials and political candidates have long reserved for dumping news they hope will have a short shelf life.
Both sides of the patent reform debate have been showering Hillary Clinton with cash
Submitted by: NCTim
On Friday night, Hillary Clinton revealed the names of the various companies and trade groups that have collectively given her millions of dollars in speaking fees since the beginning of 2014. Looking through the list, one thing that stood out to me was how many of the payments came from companies with a strong interest in the patent reform debate.
Over the last decade, the amount of patent litigation has skyrocketed. That has pitted major industries against one another. Companies that regularly find themselves on the receiving end of frivolous patent lawsuits, including high-tech companies and retail establishments, have lobbied for reforms to discourage litigation and get rid of low-quality patents. These efforts have been opposed by the companies that receive the most benefit from the patent system, including pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, and large manufacturers.
Overall, Clinton was paid speaking fees by about 50 companies and groups, receiving around $225,000 for a typical speech. Of those 50 organizations, at least five have a record of lobbying against reforms to the patent system, while three are in the pro-reform camp. Here's a breakdown.
FBI says plane hacker a threat to public safety
Did a well-known computer security researcher endanger public safety by hacking into aircraft control systems?
The FBI has asked a federal court in New York for a warrant to search the electronic devices it took from well-known computer security researcher Chris Roberts on April 17.
The bureau says Roberts "had the ability and willingness to use the equipment... to access the In Flight Entertainment [system]" and "that it would endanger public safety".
In February this year Roberts met with the FBI to discuss vulnerabilities with in-flight entertainment systems on Boeing 737-800, 737-900 and 757-200 aircraft along with Airbus A-320s.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal, which will feature the testimony of Mother Jones before the Commission on Industrial Relations.
Tune in at 2pm!
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Gay leader of Catholic Luxembourg marries partner
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
LUXEMBOURG (AP) — The prime minister of Luxembourg married his partner on Friday, a year after the tiny Roman Catholic nation approved a law allowing same-sex marriage.
Xavier Bettel did so five years after Iceland's prime minister married her partner in the first same-sex wedding of a ruling government leader in Europe.
"I wish for everybody to be as happy as I am, thank you to the Luxembourg people and to everyone, I do not make any distinctions, thank you," Bettel told a crowd of well wishers outside the capital's city hall.
Bettel at first said he wanted to have a very private wedding, but by Friday morning, he had already posted a picture of himself with Belgian partner Gauthier Destenay on his Twitter profile page. The official ceremony at Luxembourg City Hall was held late Friday afternoon.
'Hydrogels' boost ability of stem cells to restore eyesight and heal brains
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Toronto scientists and engineers have made a breakthrough in cell transplantation using a gel-like biomaterial that keeps cells alive and helps them integrate better into tissue. In two early lab trials, this has already shown to partially reverse blindness and help the brain recover from stroke.
Led by University of Toronto professors Molly Shoichet and Derek van der Kooy, together with Professor Cindi Morshead, the team encased stem cells in a "hydrogel" that boosted their healing abilities when transplanted into both the eye and the brain. These findings are part of an ongoing effort to develop new therapies to repair nerve damage caused by a disease or injury.
Conducted through the U of T's Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, their research was published in issue of Stem Cell Reports, the official scientific journal of the International Society for Stem Cell Research.
Stem cells hold great therapeutic promise because of their ability to turn into any cell type in the body, including their potential to generate replacement tissues and organs. While scientists are adept at growing stem cells in a lab dish, once these cells are on their own--transplanted into a desired spot in the body--they have trouble thriving. The new environment is complex and poorly understood, and implanted stem cells often die or don't integrate properly into the surrounding tissue.
The apocalypse is coming — is the human race even worth saving? Neal Stephenson ponders the big questions in “Seveneves”
In the SF master's new post-post-apocalyptic epic, humanity is reduced to eight women after the moon explodes
Every post-apocalyptic tale is a utopian dream in disguise, which makes our current cultural obsession with the theme — from TV series like “The Walking Dead” to literary fiction like “Station Eleven” — a little less mystifying. Or does it? Humanity could really make something of itself, these stories suggest, if only we could first clear all these people out of the way.
Neal Stephenson’s sweeping new science-fiction novel, “Seveneves,” is a post-post-apocalyptic yarn. Its first part recounts the desperate attempt to save humankind from an unimaginable catastrophe and the second is a knowing interrogation of just how difficult it is to leave our species’ past behind. In the book’s pivotal scene, eight women sit around a battered conference table in a former space station fastened to a clump of rock hurtling through space. They’re all that’s left of the human race; will they be able to keep it going? Is it even worth the try?
“Seveneves” begins with panache: “The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason,” goes its first sentence. Yet this is a matter-of-fact bravado, with all the hysteria scrubbed out of it. The usual fictional apocalypse these days is viewed from the perspective of Joe or Jane Average, some poor slob who barely understands what’s going on and who just wants to get back to his or her family. “Seveneves” is about the sort of people who, when the moon blows up, have to figure out what to do about it.
Stephenson’s main characters for this first section include Dubois “Doob” Harris, a black astrophysicist and media personality who bears no small resemblance to Neil deGrasse Tyson. (If the real moon actually did explode into seven large pieces, Tyson would surely be the man tasked with explaining it to us.) The other is Dinah MacQuarie, a punningly named miner’s daughter who runs a hoard of robots working on an asteroid attached to the International Space Station. In “Seveneves,” Doob goes on TV to inform the public that, since the lunar mass is still more or less the same, people needn’t fret so much about the tides. He also supplies the bigger fragments with kid-friendly nicknames like “Kidney Bean” and “Mr. Spinny.” (“It wouldn’t do to call them Nemesis or Thor or Grond.”)
Disappearing Lake Powell underlines drought crisis facing Colorado river
As water levels plummet to 45% in America’s second-largest reservoir, new islands appear – and fears grow for a waterway that serves 40 million people
The Colorado river and its tributaries took a hundred million years or two to carve the Glen Canyon out of the pink and scarlet sandstone which marks out the American southwest.
Its myriad gorges, sheer cliffs and towering spires remained a largely hidden secret. Prehistoric peoples farmed part of the canyon and Navajo Indian communities built camps close to the river, but few modern Americans ventured there besides explorers until the canyon disappeared under a man-made wonder, the vast Lake Powell, with the construction of Glen Canyon dam half a century ago.
Almost immediately, environmentalists and archaeologists mourned the loss. A final burst of exploration had turned up thousands of ancient ruins and drawn a belated focus on the canyon’s stunning natural architecture.
“Glen Canyon died in 1963,” wrote the renowned conservationist David Brower, who founded Friends of the Earth. “Neither you, nor I, nor anyone else knew it well enough to insist that at all costs it should endure. When we began to find out, it was too late.”
Nine killed in fight between bikers in Texas
Police in Waco, Texas, said on Sunday that gunfire at a local restaurant resulted in multiple deaths and injuries, and local media reported that nine people were killed in the fight which broke out between rival biker gangs.
The shootings took place at an eatery called Twin Peaks Sports Bar and Grill in a shopping area called the Central Texas Market Place area, the Waco Police Department said on its Facebook page.
No officers were injured in the incident, police said
Earth Wins Time as Land and Seas Absorb More Carbon
LONDON—Half of all the carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels remain in the atmosphere. The good news is that only half remain in the atmosphere, while the rest have been taken up by the living world and then absorbed into the land, and the ocean. That is, as carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have risen, so also has the planet’s capacity to soak up atmospheric carbon.
The implication is that what engineers call “positive feedback”—in which global warming triggers the release of yet more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to accelerate yet further warming—doesn’t seem to be at work yet.
The implication, too, is that the world’s governments still have time to launch determined programmes to sharply reduce fossil fuel use, and switch to wind, solar and other renewable energy sources before climate change disrupts the planet’s food security and exacts what could be a devastating toll on the biosphere.
But most climate scientists know all this anyway: the real significance of a new study in the journal Biogeosciences is that US and British scientists have narrowed some of the uncertainties in what climate scientists like to call the carbon budget: how much gets into the atmosphere, where it goes, and how long it stays.
The Evening Greens
The Evening Greens Weekend Editor: enhydra lutris
Get the sunscreen: Spain, Portugal bake in record heat wave
MADRID (AP) — Sunny Spain and Portugal are seeing record high temperatures for May, hitting levels normally only reached in mid-summer.
Up to 20 Spanish cities have been hit by scorching temperatures and several regional governments are worried about the effects the heat wave could have on crops, Spain's meteorological agency said Friday.
It said the eastern town of Xativa recorded 42.9 degrees Celsius (109.2 Fahrenheit) on Thursday, breaking a 2006 record of 40.1 degrees Celsius (104.2 Fahrenheit) set at Cordoba Airport.
Portugal also set a May record, with the southern city of Beja sizzling Wednesday in 40 degrees Celsius heat. Portugal's previous May high was 39.5 degrees Celsius (103.1 Fahrenheit) in 2011.
New study examines the air quality impacts of fracking wells
People living or working near active natural gas wells may be exposed to certain pollutants at higher levels than the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe for lifetime exposure, according to scientists from Oregon State University and the University of Cincinnati.
The researchers found that hydraulic fracturing – a technique for releasing natural gas from below-ground rock formations – emits pollutants known as PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), including some that are linked with increased risk of cancer and respiratory ailments.
“Air pollution from fracking operations may pose an under-recognized health hazard to people living near them,” said the study’s coauthor Kim Anderson, an environmental chemist with OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
The study, which appears in the journal Environmental Science & Technology’s online edition, is part of a larger project co-led by the University of Cincinnati’s Erin Haynes, OSU’s Anderson, her graduate student Blair Paulik and Laurel Kincl, director of OSU’s Environmental Health Science Center.
Closed Hayward dump will be transformed into solar farm
The quest to harvest the sun’s rays moved Wednesday into a Hayward garbage dump where federal and local officials announced plans to build a solar farm that will serve as a model for the nation on innovative ways to combat climate change.
The 19,000 solar panels planned for the closed-down West Winton Landfill will be the signature piece of an unusual four-county effort to equip nearly 200 public buildings — city halls, fire stations, medical facilities — with the solar energy equivalent of powering more than 5,000 homes.
“We can use this as a model for other agencies to do this across the country,” said Gina McCarthy, administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at a news conference held on the windswept grass and wetland area next to San Francisco Bay where the dump used to be. “There is lots more we can do. We know there are contaminated sites across the country. There are contaminated sites right here. We can bring these sites back in a positive way.”
The effort, known as the Regional Renewable Energy Procurement, is being touted as one of the largest and most innovative solar projects in the country. It involves 19 cities, sanitary districts, fire departments, recreation areas and UC Berkeley collaborating with the EPA to build a solar network on publicly owned property around the Bay Area.
How Rivers Regulate Global Carbon Cycle
Humans concerned about climate change are working to find ways of capturing excess carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and sequestering it in the Earth. But Nature has its own methods for the removal and long-term storage of carbon, including the world’s river systems, which transport decaying organic material and eroded rock from land to the ocean.
While river transport of carbon to the ocean is not on a scale that will bail humans out of our CO2 problem, we don’t actually know how much carbon the world’s rivers routinely flush into the ocean – an important piece of the global carbon cycle.
But in a study published May 14 in the journal Nature, scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) calculated the first direct estimate of how much and in what form organic carbon is exported to the ocean by rivers. The estimate will help modelers predict how the carbon export from global rivers may shift as Earth’s climate changes.
“The world’s rivers act as Earth’s circulatory system, flushing carbon from land to the ocean and helping reduce the amount that returns to the atmosphere in the form of heat-trapping carbon dioxide,” said lead author and geochemist Valier Galy. “Some of that carbon—‘new’ carbon—is from decomposed plant and soil material that is washed into the river and then out to sea. But some of it comes from carbon that has long been stored in the environment in the form of rocks— ‘old’ carbon—that have been eroded by weather and the force of the river.”
Rulings require feds to consider carbon impact of coal mines
DENVER (AP) — Beset by power plant closures, growing regulatory scrutiny and proposed changes in how they pay royalties, coal mines are facing a new obstacle — a review of how coal extracted and burned will impact the air and global warming.
Under a series of rulings by U.S. judges in Denver over the last year, federal agencies that approve mining projects have been told to take into account coal's indirect environmental impact along with traditional concerns about mine dust and equipment emissions.
The immediate effects of the rulings appear limited to a single mine in northwestern Colorado that could lose its permit if a new environmental review isn't completed within four months. But industry representatives fear the rulings, if allowed to stand, could set an example for other judges to follow and eventually threaten the mines that make up the backbone of an industry already facing uncertainty.
Two of the rulings involving Colorado mines, from U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson, say greenhouse gas emissions need to be considered in environmental reviews. A similar case threatens to block production at another mine, in the coal-rich Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming. Another federal judge also recently ruled that a mine on the Navajo Nation must consider the effects of burning coal before expanding.
Ecuador breaks Guinness reforestation record
Ecuador broke the world record for reforestation Saturday, as thousands of people pitched in to plant 647,250 trees in a single day, President Rafael Correa said.
"I have just been informed that we have broken the Guinness record for reforestation," the president said in his weekly address.
He said several different species were planted and that the reforestation efforts took place all over Ecuador, which boasts varied geography from its Pacific coast, high Andean peaks and low Amazon basin.
Environment Minister Lorena Tapia said on Twitter that 44,883 people planted the trees on more than 2,000 hectares of land.
The record, set just last year, apparently was taken from a group in the Philippines, Guinness said.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
America Is Losing Religion: Why More and More Women Are Embracing Non-Belief
NYPD Officers Attempt to Arrest 14-Year-Old Girl- Community Doesn’t Allow It
AUDIO: Robert Scheer: On Civil Liberties, the NSA Is a Latter-Day King George
c99p: Money, Wealth and Human Existence
Don Quijones: “The Global Trade Corporatocracy Slams into Local Resistance”
How to Get Money out of Politics - Give your Money to Nobody
Our Approaching Tet Moment
Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones warns: a nation that crushes her producers goes over the breakers.
Transgender students and eating disorders
A Little Night Music
Robert Randolph & The Family Band - Squeeze
Robert Randolph & The Family Band - Who Do You Love?
Higher Ground by The Clark Sisters
The Word - I'll Fly Away
Robert Randolph & the Family Band - If I Had My Way
Robert Randolph & The Family Band - Amped Up
Robert Randolph & The Family Band - Run For Your Life
Robert Randolph & The Family Band - Ain't Nothing Wrong With That
Robert Randolph & The Family Band - Calypso
Robert Randolph and the Family Band - Ted's Jam
Robert Randolph And The Family Band - Good Times
Soulive and Robert Randolph - Crosstown Traffic
Robert Randolph & the Family Band - Jesus Is Just Alright
The Word - New Word Order
Robert Randolph & The Family Band - Electric Church