Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, December 23, 2014.
OND is a regular
community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Creation and early water-bearing of the OND concept came from our very own Magnifico - proper respect is due.
---
This diary is named for its "Hump Point" video: Christmas by The Who
News below Aunt Flossie's hairdo . . .
Please feel free to browse and add your own links, content or thoughts in the Comments section.
Any timestamps shown are relative to each publication.
---------------------------------------
|
|
Top News |
|
The Cost of US Wars Since 9/11: $1.6 Trillion
By Erika Eichelberger and AJ Vicens
|
. . .
The $1.6 trillion in war spending over that time span includes the cost of military operations, the training of security forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, weapons maintenance, base support, reconstruction, embassy maintenance, foreign aid, and veterans' medical care, as well as war-related intelligence operations not tracked by the Pentagon. . .
. . .
In the spending bill that Congress approved earlier this month, lawmakers doled out $73.7 billion for war-related activities in 2015—$2.3 billion more than President Barack Obama had requested. As Mother Jones' Dave Gilson reported last year, US military spending is on pace to taper far less dramatically in the wake of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars than it did after the end of the Vietnam War or the Cold War.
Other reports have estimated the cost of US wars since 9/11 to be far higher than $1.6 trillion. A report by Neta Crawford, a political science professor at Boston University, estimated the total cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—as well as post-2001 assistance to Pakistan—to be roughly $4.4 trillion. The CRS estimate is lower because it does not include additional costs including the lifetime price of health care for disabled veterans and interest on the national debt.
|
Top 500 companies' carbon emissions rise despite calls for cuts
By (Reuters via theguardian.com)
|
. . .
The top 500 firms by capitalisation accounted for 13.8% of world greenhouse gas emissions and 28% of gross domestic product in 2013, according to the report, drawn up by the information provider Thomson Reuters and BSD Consulting, a global sustainability consultancy.
“Almost all of us use products from these companies,” said Tim Nixon, Director of Sustainability at Thomson Reuters. “This is about transparency. We hope companies will look at the report and engage with their stakeholders to reduce emissions.“
. . .
John Moorhead, executive manager of BSD, noted that many of the top 500 companies, especially in finance, information technology or telecoms, had relatively low emissions.
But he said they could have a huge influence on emissions beyond their company’s borders in their choice of suppliers.
|
The Interview: Obama hails move to screen North Korea film
By (BBC)
|
US President Barack Obama has welcomed a decision by Sony to screen a comedy about North Korea in some US cinemas.
. . .
The film is expected to show in 200 mostly independent and art-house cinemas on Thursday. Hackers have threatened fresh attacks.
. . .
North Korea has denied that it was behind the cyber-attack on Sony. But it praised the attack and had long condemned The Interview, which depicts a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
. . .
The company has been through a lot in the last month, and has now backtracked on its decision to pull the film completely. As yet the big theatres have still not said when, or whether, they might screen the film.
Sony Pictures Entertainment has been hit hard - first by the embarrassment of personal emails being dumped online. But as the seriousness of the cyber-attack unfolded, it also became clear that the personal details of thousands of staff and former-employees had been stolen - opening the door to class-action lawsuits.
|
Strong neighborhood ties can help reduce gun violence
By (ScienceDaily)
|
The bonds that tie a neighborhood together can help shield community members from gun violence, according to new findings by Yale School of Medicine researchers in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program (RWJF CSP). The team presented their work Dec. 19 at the Institute of Medicine's Means of Violence workshop.
. . .
"Violence results in chronic community-level trauma and stress, and undermines health, capacity, and productivity in these neighborhoods," said lead author Emily Wang, M.D., assistant professor of internal medicine at Yale School of Medicine. "Police and government response to the problem has focused on the victim or the criminal. Our study focuses on empowering communities to combat the effects of living with chronic and persistent gun violence."
. . .
Wang said preliminary findings show that social cohesion, or the strength of bonds between neighbors, is inversely associated with exposure to gun violence, and that a multi-sector approach that includes community members is required to address and prevent gun violence.
. . .
Newhallville and West River community resilience team leaders are working with the Yale investigators to share data with their communities and request input about ways to strengthen neighborhood social ties. The team will partner with other organizations and city leadership to strategically implement community-member suggested input on ways to improve the neighborhoods.
|
|
|
|
International |
|
Heritage sites ravaged by Syria's war
By (Al Jazeera)
|
. . .
In a report published on Tuesday, the UN said 290 sites have been directly affected by fighting, of which 24 had been destroyed, 104 severely damaged, 85 moderately damaged and 77 possibly damaged.
. . .
Al-Madina souq, the largest covered historic market in the world, has been been seriously damaged.
. . .
The UN images also show serious damage to Palmyra, known for its spectacular Roman colonnade, with the Syrian army building a road that cuts through the necropolis, damaging several tombs.
. . .
In Dura-Europos, in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, the UN said looting at a site previously known as the "Pompeii of the desert" had been rendered "unrecognisable".
The Syrian conflict, which began as a peaceful uprising against Assad's rule more than three years ago, has become a bloody and protracted sectarian war killing more than 200,000 people.
|
Zimbabwe plan to sell elephants from Hwange defended
By (BBC)
|
Zimbabwe has defended plans to sell elephants for up to $40,000 (£26,000) each, saying it needs the money to run its biggest game reserve.
. . .
Geoffreys Matipano, conservation director at Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authorities, said the money raised could help meet the $2.3 million annual running costs of the Hwange National Park, Bloomberg news agency reports.
. . .
The money would also help fight poachers, Mr Matipano said.
. . .
"Why is Zimbabwe stealing from the future generation's natural resources? The baby elephants quite likely won't survive the trip and the only crime they have committed is being born in Zimbabwe," the ZCTF said in said in a statement.
|
China's Alibaba spent $160m fighting fake goods
By (BBC)
|
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba says it has spent more than $160m (£103m) fighting fake goods on its websites from the beginning of 2013 to November of this year.
. . .
Before its record-setting $25bn listing in New York, the world's largest e-commerce company had said in its IPO prospectus that counterfeits goods could hurt its ability to win customers, investors and US retail partners.
. . .
"Jack Ma [company's chairman] said yesterday - if e-commerce does well in China, that may have little to do with Alibaba Group, but if counterfeits in society are not tackled effectively, it has a lot to do with Alibaba Group."
. . .
China and Hong Kong accounted for 93% of the value of IP-infringing goods seized by US customs in the 2013 fiscal year, according to a government report.
|
|
|
|
USA Politics, Economy, Major Events |
|
Childhood in the US 'safer than in the 1970s'
By Sean Coughlan
|
Children and teenagers are less likely to be victims of violent crime, while risky behaviours like binge drinking and smoking cigarettes are in decline.
. . .
Researchers say the reduction in physical danger has followed a trend for young people to spend more time at home playing computer games or using laptops or mobile phones.
The rising health threat is now from so many children becoming overweight.
. . .
And over the past 20 years, teenagers have become less likely to smoke tobacco or to binge drink alcohol. In contrast, the use of illicit drugs, mostly cannabis, has remained more constant.
. . .
The study also suggests many big changes in family structure and beliefs took place between the mid-1970s and the late-1980s, while the past 20 years has shown a more stable picture.
|
Gay US blood donor ban 'should end'
By (BBC)
|
Gay and bisexual men should no longer be banned from donating blood in the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recommended.
The ban has been in place since the HIV/Aids epidemic in the mid-1980s.
. . .
It added: "The agency will take the necessary steps to recommend a change to the blood donor deferral period for men who have sex with men from indefinite deferral to one year since the last sexual contact."
. . .
"While this proposed change is certainly historic, it would still mean that countless gay and bisexual men will be turned away from blood banks simply because of who they are," said the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
|
|
Welcome to the "Hump Point" of this OND.
News can be sobering and engrossing - at this point in the diary, an offering of brief escapism:
Random notes related to this video:
. . .
At this point someone announced that there was a policeman in the reception complaining about someone's car being an obstruction, so Pete strolled out and was not seen again. Which left me with that well-known pantomime team of Moon and Entwistle. What were they doing over Christmas?
"I shall buy a copy of Mary's Boy Child, stay home and pick nuts out of me cavities," mourned John.
"I shall watch Walt Disney and buy a, new copy of the Hallelujah Chorus," breezed Mr Moon.
"My copy's a bit scratched," nodded John.
Did the two jolly satirists consider Christmas too commercial now?
"I agree with whatever Paul Jones said," announced John.
"I suppose I shall have to go out carol-singing again," moaned Keith.
Back to what's happening:
|
|
Environment and Greening |
|
Budget Bill Stealthily Affects Environment and Energy
By Josh Fischman
|
In last week’s pre-Christmas rush, the U.S. Congress slammed together the $1-trillion federal budget bill for 2015, just before funds ran out. But the bill wasn’t all about the money. Congress took advantage of the fiscal scramble to change rules about the environment and energy, which do not belong in appropriation bills. . .
The Environmental Protection Agency got its budget, for instance, but with strings attached: although agriculture is a major source of atmospheric methane, the EPA now is prohibited from using its money to require farmers to report greenhouse gas emissions. And the agency cannot regulate farm ponds and irrigation ditches under the Clean Water Act.
In another example, the Department of Agriculture must speed up permits for companies making genetically modified organisms. And the feds must loan money to firms to build coal-fired power plants overseas. That requirement reverses a previous ban.
|
Tate ordered to reveal BP sponsorship details in case by environment activists
By Mark Brown
|
Tate has been ordered to give details of its BP sponsorship between 1990-2006, in a case brought by environmental campaigners.
. . .
The tribunal accepted evidence that “arts sponsorship can legitimately be understood as a means of maintaining BP’s ‘social licence’ to operate and of enhancing, maintaining or repairing BP’s brand.”
. . .
Tate and other arts organisations have faced sustained protests over oil company sponsorship – which includes, for example, the BP Portrait prize at the National Portrait Gallery – but have robustly defended the relationship.
. . .
Activists hope the ruling will give them more ammunition in their campaign against oil company sponsorship of the arts.
|
Bad news for wheat and eaters everywhere
By Fiona Harvey
|
Global wheat yields are likely to fall significantly as climate change takes hold, new research has shown.
. . .
Food price riots have been seen in several developing countries following sudden rises of less than 10 percent in food prices in recent years, demonstrating the vulnerability of the poor to grain prices. The global population is currently over 7 billion and is forecast to rise to at least 9 billion, and potentially up to 12 billion, by 2050, which will put more pressure on agricultural land and water sources.
. . .
The scientists behind Monday’s report, published as a letter in the peer-review journal Nature Climate Change, said: “Understanding how different climate factors interact and impact food production is essential when reaching decisions on how to adapt to the effects of climate change. Temperature changes alone are reported to have potentially large negative impacts on crop production, and hotspots — locations where plants suffer from high temperature stress — have been identified across the globe.”
Their research could be used to help identify adaptation strategies, potentially including genetic modification or improved plant breeding. “There are several adaptation options to counter the adverse effects of climate change on global wheat production — and for some regions this will be critical,” they said. “Ensemble crop modeling could be an important exploratory tool in breeding for identified genetic targets to extend grain filling, delay maturity [both of which increase the size of the crop] and improve heat tolerance in wheat cultivars and other cereals.”
|
|
|
|
Science and Health |
|
Molecular mechanism behind health benefits of dietary restriction identified
By (ScienceDaily)
|
A new study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers identifies a key molecular mechanism behind the health benefits of dietary restriction, or reduced food intake without malnutrition. Also known as calorie restriction, dietary restriction is best known for its ability to slow aging in laboratory animals. The findings here show that restricting two amino acids, methionine and cysteine, results in increased hydrogen sulfide (H2S) production and protection against ischemia reperfusion injury, damage to tissue that occurs following the interruption of blood flow as during organ transplantation and stroke. Increased H2S production upon dietary restriction was also associated with lifespan extension in worms, flies, and yeast.
. . .
Dietary restriction is a type of intervention that can include reduced overall food intake, decreased consumption of particular macronutrients such as protein, or intermittent bouts of fasting. It is known to have beneficial health effects, including protection from tissue injury and improved metabolism. It has also been shown to extend the lifespan of multiple model organisms, ranging from yeast to primates. The molecular explanations for these effects are not completely understood, but were thought to require protective antioxidant responses activated by the mild oxidative stress caused by dietary restriction itself.
. . .
"These findings give us a better understanding of how dietary interventions extend lifespan and protect against injury. More immediately, they could have important implications for what to eat and not to eat before a planned acute stress like surgery, when the risk of ischemic injury can be relatively high," said Hine.
|
We Found a New and Cheaper Way to Get to Mars
By Sarah Zhang
|
. . .
Instead of shooting for the location Mars will be in its orbit where the spacecraft will meet it, as is conventionally done with Hohmann transfers, a spacecraft is casually lobbed into a Mars-like orbit so that it flies ahead of the planet. Although launch and cruise costs remain the same, the big burn to slow down and hit the Martian bull's-eye—as in the Hohmann scenario—is done away with. For ballistic capture, the spacecraft cruises a bit slower than Mars itself as the planet runs its orbital lap around the sun. Mars eventually creeps up on the spacecraft, gravitationally snagging it into a planetary orbit.
A crucial detail is that the spacecraft will no longer need hundreds of pounds of extra fuel to brake as it approaches Mars. Twenty-five percent fuel means less weight, which means a smaller and cheaper rocket to boost the whole thing into space. Or, alternatively, more stuff in the payload.
. . .
But it also has a downside. The journey will take longer, adding several months to the already six-month haul. For human space travelers, that would take a toll that is both physical (radiation exposure) and mental (cabin fever).
|
Smartphone use 'changing our brains'
By Michelle Roberts
|
. . .
Smartphone users had more attuned fingers and thumbs, based on their EEG readings.
. . .
The researchers say their findings, published in the journal Current Biology, make sense given that the brain is malleable and can be moulded by experience.
For example, in violinists, the brain area representing the fingers that play the instrument is larger than in non-musicians.
The researchers suspect the same is true with smartphones - repeated use sculpts the brain.
|
|
|
|
Technology |
|
Schneier on Sony Hack: It's not terrorism or war. We don't know North Korea did it.
By Xeni Jardin
|
"Sony's reaction has all the markings of a company without any sort of coherent plan," writes Bruce Schneier. "Near as I can tell, every Sony executive is in full panic mode." . .
[W]e don't know these attacks were sanctioned by the North Korean government. The US government has made statements linking the attacks to North Korea, but hasn't officially blamed the government, nor have officials provided any evidence of the linkage. We've known about North Korea's cyberattack capabilities long before this attack, but it might not be the government at all. This wouldn't be the first time a nationalistic cyberattack was launched without government sanction. We have lots of examples of these sorts of attacks being conducted by regular hackers with nationalistic pride. Kids playing politics, I call them. This may be that, and it could also be a random hacker who just has it out for Sony.
Remember, the hackers didn't start talking about The Interview until the press did. Maybe the NSA has some secret information pinning this attack on the North Korean government, but unless the agency comes forward with the evidence, we should remain skeptical. We don't know who did this, and we may never find out. I personally think it is a disgruntled ex-employee, but I don't have any more evidence than anyone else does.
|
Ebooks at night won’t help you sleep tight, US study finds
By Alison Flood
|
Reading a light-emitting ebook before bed is bad for your health, according to a new US study. It warned that use of the devices affected both sleep at night and alertness the following morning.
. . .
In the paper the researchers write: “The use of light-emitting electronic devices for reading, communication, and entertainment has greatly increased recently. We found that the use of these devices before bedtime prolongs the time it takes to fall asleep, delays the circadian clock, suppresses levels of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin, reduces the amount and delays the timing of REM sleep and reduces alertness the following morning. Use of light-emitting devices immediately before bedtime also increases alertness at that time, which may lead users to delay bedtime at home.”
. . .
Phillips noted that previous research has found that most readers prefer print, but when reading performance such as accuracy and speed is compared, some screens have shown higher levels. “This may explain why the highest takeup for digital reading is of genre fiction – linear reading often at some pace,” Phillips explains. “Also, when you reach the end of the second part of a gripping trilogy, you can simply download the next part and carry on reading through the night.” He points to other benefits of ebooks, including the option to adjust type size and contrast on a back-lit screen, and that ereading may appeal to those who don’t want to disrupt a partner who wants to sleep.
“But other types of book should be more contemplative reads,” he says, noting that in his book Turning the Page, he writes: “If books in digital form enable us to read faster, this may not necessarily be a good thing. To relax, to engage in deep thought are not encouraged by rushing through at speed. Just as we have a movement for slow food – in reaction to fast food – we should be advocating slow books – read aloud to children, broadcast on the radio, or taken at a leisurely pace in whatever format.”
|
|
|
|
Cultural |
|
Violent cops suffocate the street life they claim to protect
By Ben Adler
|
Here is how Patrick Lynch, head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the largest union of NYPD officers, responded on Saturday from outside the hospital where the slain officers were taken: “There’s blood on many hands tonight — those that incited violence on the street under the guise of protests, that tried to tear down what New York City police officers did every day. That blood on the hands starts on the steps of City Hall, in the office of the mayor.” When Mayor Bill de Blasio showed up at the hospital, cops there turned their backs on him.
. . .
What’s especially audacious about the police unions’ extreme reaction is that Garner’s death was hardly an isolated incident. In just the last few months, other videos have shown NYPD officers taking a man’s money in a playground and pepper spraying him and his sister when they ask for it back; violently attacking street fair merchants for not dispersing quickly; and punching a teenage robbery suspect who was already being restrained. Last month, an officer in a Brooklyn housing project was patrolling the stairwell with his gun drawn when he shot an unarmed, innocent resident and killed him. (The officer says it was an accident.) An audio recording from 2011 released in 2012 famously captured a Latino teenager being searched and verbally abused by cops for literally just walking down the street.
. . .
In fact, de Blasio’s policies have not sided with anyone against the cops. In a move that disappointed many of his liberal supporters, de Blasio appointed Bill Bratton as New York’s police commissioner. Bratton is an originator of the Broken Windows approach who first helmed the NYPD under Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
. . .
But this is not the New York of the Giuliani days. The white bastions of deep Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island have seen steady out-migration to the suburbs, with their populations being replaced by immigrants from the Caribbean, Latin America, and Asia. Meanwhile, young liberal professionals cram into Manhattan and interior Brooklyn and Queens. They have no memory of the bad old days of high crime that reactionaries like Republican mayoral nominee Joe Lhota have invoked. The city’s population has become less white, and the whites more liberal.
In deference to the cops’ hysteria, de Blasio suggested Monday that all protests against police brutality should be put on hold until after the slain officers’ funerals. But if, after taking a pause, de Blasio confronts the police unions’ despicable leadership, the coalition of racial minorities and white liberals that elected him will support him.
|
How the U.S. Military Turned Santa Claus Into a Cold War Icon
By Matt Novak
|
You've probably heard the story by now: On Christmas Eve 1955, a young boy in Colorado Springs dialed a Sears-sponsored hotline that let kids talk with Santa Claus. But instead of reaching Santa, he was connected to the red phone at CONAD, the military command center charged with patrolling the skies for any nuclear missiles coming from the Soviet Union. The local newspaper had mistakenly printed the wrong number.
. . .
Yes, Colonel Shoup got a call at CONAD that turned out to be a wrong number. But it wasn't on Christmas Eve and there was no misprint in the newspaper, even though Snopes claims there was. It was just some kid who happened to get his numbers mixed up. And as for Colonel Shoup's reaction? It was more like the kind of reaction you'd expect from a military officer in charge of ordering a strike that had the potential to end life on Earth as we know it. Which is to say, Shoup was not amused. And he wasn't inundated with calls throughout the night that his men had to take.
. . .
Over the next six decades the origin story evolved. In some official versions it's a boy who first calls the number. In others, it's a girl. Sometimes there's acknowledgement that the first caller just lucked upon the wrong number. But more commonly here in the 21st century, it's reported as a "misprint" in the Colorado Springs Gazette.
. . .
The media blitz continued into the 1980s and didn't let up after the end of the Cold War. In fact, NORAD's Santa Tracker found new life in a cool new technology called the web. In 1997 the Santa tracking efforts moved online, opening up myriad possibilities for interactivity. NORAD partnered with America Online, with a company called Analytical Graphics supplying the cutting edge CG images that amazed kids who could get enough of this newfangled technology called the internet. Just don't forget to install your Shockwave Flash player.
. . .
But the official NORAD Santa Tracker program has actually gotten some heat in recent years over the militarization of a story aimed at children. Last year NORAD released a rather alarming video showing fighter jets escorting Santa. Even the 1970s commercials didn't show Santa side-by-side with war machines, even if that was explicitly the message.
|
Turks celebrate Father Christmas as local hero
By Mark Lowen
|
. . .
Turkey does not officially celebrate Christmas but in Demre "Noel Baba" is still embraced as a local hero
. . .
Born to wealthy parents, he was known for his good deeds, immortalised in legends told for generations.
. . .
He was canonised soon after his death, and the St Nicholas Church now lies in the centre of Demre. Pilgrims come every year from across the world to venerate him during a packed December service.
. . .
"Then in the New York of the 1800s, they were looking for ways to create nostalgic traditions and they turned to Nicholas as a way of establishing a connection with culture," says Prof Adam English of Campbell University in North Carolina, author of The Saint who would be Santa.
"And they reintroduced him no longer as a Christian bishop but as an elf of sorts, something mischievous. Then with the famous poem The Night Before Christmas and the illustrations of cartoonists, we have the image of Santa Claus."
|
|
Meteor Blades is known to offer an enlightening Evening Open Diary - you might consider checking that out tonight if you haven't already. |