Monday, January 6, 2014
CONTACT ME AT: manessmorrison2@yahoo.com


News For The Day


Polar vortex: What is it, and when is it going away? – NBC

By Erik Ortiz, Staff Writer, NBC News

Move over, haboob. See you next summer, heat dome. The weather phenomenon hogging all the attention now is "polar vortex."
Twenty-six states are under wind-chill warnings or watches, and the polar vortex is to blame, breaking loose from its North Pole confines and plunging the country in a deep, dangerous freeze. 
"Think of this as a polar hurricane," said NBC News' Al Roker. 
It isn't expected to linger for long but will leave a mark. Here's what you need to know:

So what exactly is a polar vortex?
A polar vortex is basically a great swirling pool of extremely cold air located tens of thousands of feet in the atmosphere, said Frank Giannasca, senior meteorologist with The Weather Channel.

Basically an arctic cyclone, it ordinarily spins counterclockwise around the north and south poles.
While it tends to dip over northeastern Canada, it’s catching everyone’s attention because it has moved southward over such a large population — as many as 140 million Americans are feeling the freeze.

Why has it traveled so far south?
There’s a variety of reasons why a chunk of cold air over Canada would break off our way.
Chiefly, warmer air builds up over areas such as Greenland or Alaska, and that air forces the colder, denser air southward.
Also, weather patterns can create the right conditions for the polar vortex to point south.
But in this case, “this very well just may be one of those anomalies where it forces itself southward,” Giannasca said.

Is this a rare phenomenon?
Yes, and no.
Through the course of a winter, the arctic air can get displaced southward, typically into the eastern U.S. But it is uncommon for such cold air to cover such a large part of the country, happening maybe once a decade or longer.

Amplifying this polar vortex are the extreme cold and brutal winds — sending places such as Fargo, N.D., at 32 below zero and Madison, Wis., at minus 21. Add the wind chill, and it will feel like minus 50s and 60s in some parts.
Could there be a polar vortex again this winter?

Forecasts show temperatures around the country as a whole will begin moderating by the end of the week — that means the 20s and 30s in the Plains and Midwest, while parts of the mid-Atlantic and Northeast could be in the 40s.
But, like any unpredictable weather phenomenon, whether or not this can happen again, “is hard to say,” Giannasca said.



Polar vortex
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A polar vortex (also known as a mignogno cyclone, Arctic cyclone, sub-polar cyclone, and a circumpolar whirl) is a persistent, large-scale cyclone located near one or both of a planet's geographical poles. On Earth, the polar vortices are located in the middle and upper troposphere and the stratosphere. They surround the polar highs and lie in the wake of the polar front. These cold-core low-pressure areas strengthen in the winter and weaken in the summer.[1] They usually span 1,000–2,000 kilometers (620–1,240 miles) in which the air is circulating in a counter-clockwise fashion (in the northern hemisphere). The reason for the rotation is the same as any other cyclone, the Coriolis effect.

The Arctic vortex has two centres, one near Baffin Island and the other over northeast Siberia.[2] In the southern hemisphere, it tends to be located near the edge of the Ross ice shelf near 160 west longitude.[3] When the polar vortex is strong, the Westerlies increase in strength. When the polar cyclone is weak, the general flow pattern across mid-latitudes buckles and significant cold outbreaks occur.[4] Ozone depletion occurs within the polar vortex, particularly over the Southern Hemisphere, which reaches a maximum in the spring.

Polar cyclones are climatological features which hover near the poles year-round. They are weaker during summer and strongest during winter. When the polar vortex is strong, the Westerlies increase in strength. When the polar cyclone is weak, the general flow pattern across mid-latitudes buckles and significant cold outbreaks occur. Extratropical cyclones which occlude and migrate into higher latitudes create cold-core lows within the polar vortex.[5] Volcanic eruptions in the tropics lead to a stronger polar vortex during the winter for as long as two years afterwards.[6] The strength and position of the cyclone shapes the flow pattern across the hemisphere of its influence. An index which is used in the northern hemisphere to gauge its magnitude is the Arctic oscillation.[7]

Climate change

Meanders of the northern hemisphere's jet stream developing (a, b) and finally detaching a "drop" of cold air (c). Orange: warmer masses of air; pink: jet stream.
In recent years observation based studies suggest a link between reduced snow cover, Arctic sea ice decline, evapotranspiration patterns, NAO anomalies or weather anomalies which are linked to the polar vortex and jet stream configuration, among other factors.[9][10][11][12] However, because these are considered short term observation (since a decade) there is considerable uncertainty in the conclusions, since in climatology observations stretch several decades to separate between natural variability and anthropogenic attribution, in order to determine climate trends.

The general assumption is that less snow cover and sea ice reflect less sunlight and therefore evaporation and transpiration increases, which in turn alters the pressure and temperature gradient of the polar vortex, causing it to weaken or collapse. This becomes apparent when the jet stream amplitude increases (Meanders) over the northern hemisphere, causing rossby waves to longer propagate to the south or north, which in turn transports warmer air to the north pole and polar air into lower latitudes. The jet stream amplitude increases with a weaker polar vortex, hence increases the chance for weather systems to become blocked.

A recent blocking event emerged when a high-pressure over Greenland steered Hurricane Sandy into the New Jersey coast.[13]


This term is new to me, but apparently not new to scientists. According to this article from Wikipedia, no direct link to climate change has been stated yet, as it is only about ten years old in its observation. Its effect is very real. We have had 40 and 30 degree daytime highs during the last week in North Florida. We have these cold periods every winter – they just don't last as long or come as often as up north. I'm okay because I kept my goose down coat when I moved down here. It adds a little excitement to my seasons, actually, which would be 70 degrees all the time without them. Only the citrus farmers are really stressed by our cold periods.




Young girl wearing suicide vest caught by Afghan police – NBC
By Akbar Shinwari and Henry Austin


KABUL, Afghanistan -- A young girl, no older than 10, was caught wearing a suicide vest by border police in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, an official told NBC News.
The “scared and cold” youngster told officers that her brother Zahir, a Taliban commander, had given her the explosive device and directed her towards a police checkpoint in the Khan Nasheen district of Helmand province, Hamidullah Siddiqi an Afghan border police official told NBC News.  

“She was crying and told border police that she was made obliged by her brother to do suicide attack on them,” he said, adding that investigators believe she is either nine or 10 years old.

The girl may not have been able to operate the detonator in any case, Siddiqi said.
Border police and officials are now investigating the case and have begun a search for the girl's brother, he added.



This is a new low for the Taliban. Was her brother overstepping his bounds in his action, or are the Taliban using young children in other cases as well? This will, hopefully, be investigated by some other news sources and reported soon. What can the Afghan people do about their control there? Are there any grass roots attempts to stop their actions? For the public to reject them would be the ideal situation. I do hope the government of Afghanistan will make a real effort to crush them. It seems to be tolerating them as a part of the politics there. Maybe the government is just too weak to effectively oppose them, in which case our presence there may be needed in the future.




Sex offender seeks admission to Kentucky bar to practice law – NBC
By Brett Barrouquere, The Associated Press


Guy Padraic Hamilton-Smith graduated in the top third of his law school class at the University of Kentucky, but the state Supreme Court blocked him from taking the bar exam because he is a registered sex offender.

This undated photo provided by Kentucky State Police shows Guy Padraic Hamilton-Smith, a University of Kentucky law school graduate battling to be allowed to take the bar exam.

In the first case of its kind in Kentucky, the court rejected Hamilton-Smith's bid and a move by the state Office of Bar Admissions to create and endorse a blanket rule that would have kept all registered sex offenders from gaining access to the bar.
"Rather, we believe the better course would be to allow any applicant for bar admission who is on the sex offender registry the opportunity to make his or her case on an individualized basis," Chief Justice John D. Minton wrote in the Dec. 19 opinion on Hamilton-Smith's case and the proposed rule.

Hamilton-Smith, who was convicted of a charge related to child pornography in 2007, has until Jan. 13 to ask the court to reconsider its decision. In an email, Hamilton-Smith referred Associated Press questions to his attorney, who said the reconsideration request will be filed.

Nationally, cases of felons seeking admission or re-admission to the bar are common. But situations of registered sex offenders attempting to do so appear to be rare. Beyond a recent rejection in Ohio and an ongoing case in Virginia, legal experts and those who work to rehabilitate sex offenders couldn't recall a similar situation arising in recent years.

But Shelley Stow of Reform Sex Offender Laws — a Massachusetts-based organization that seeks to ease restrictions on offenders and promote rehabilitation — said she wouldn't be surprised to see more cases out there. "It is so difficult for registrants to even get jobs and support themselves and function day to day, let alone pursue a law career," she said.

The Kentucky case brings up the question of how to treat someone who has admitted to criminal activity, wants to rehabilitate himself and serve others, but is still monitored by law enforcement, said Hamilton-Smith's attorney, Scott White, of Lexington.

"It's a highly stigmatized thing," White said.
Hamilton-Smith pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of matter portraying a sexual performance by a child in March 2007. He received a five-year prison sentence, which was suspended, and was required to register as a sex offender for 20 years — until 2027.

After disclosing the conviction and sex offender status on his applications, Chase Law School at Northern Kentucky University and Brandeis Law School at the University of Louisville both rejected him in 2008. But the University of Kentucky College of Law accepted him in 2008 and he graduated in 2011.

Hamilton-Smith later competed on the National Trial Team and National Moot Court Team, and he had a piece published in the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal through the University of California law school.

Since graduating in 2011, Hamilton-Smith has held a non-lawyer position for Baldani, Rowland and Richardson. The Lexington firm has filed letters in support of Hamilton-Smith taking the bar exam, White said. But Hamilton-Smith still has not been cleared by the Kentucky Office of Bar Admissions to take the exam that would allow him to practice law.

White called Hamilton-Smith "a classic sex addict."
"The classic example is somebody who just downloads buckets of pornography," White said. "In that download, there just happened to be child pornography."

In this case, Hamilton-Smith has gone through Sex Addicts Anonymous, despite a few admitted relapses with adult, but not child, pornography, White said.
White also said his client used law school as a redemptive and rehabilitative effort while owning up to his criminal conduct.

"He just hasn't let it define him," White said.
Elizabeth Feamster, director and general counsel for the Kentucky Office of Bar Admissions, did not return phone and email messages seeking comment from AP. But in court filings, Feamster cited the seriousness of the charge as well as Hamilton-Smith's acknowledgement of sexual addiction and "destructive and harmful behaviors when it comes to sex and sexuality." Also, law school students are warned early in their legal education that behavioral issues could exclude them from being admitted to the bar, Feamster wrote.

Hamilton-Smith "was aware that he might be allowed into this profession," Feamster wrote.

For the justices, the nature of the crime defines someone lacking in the "requisite character and fitness" to be admitted to the bar.
"Indeed, our certification could significantly mislead the public into believing that we vouch for (Hamilton-Smith's) good character," Minton wrote. "Consequently, a client's subsequent discovery of the registry listing could then justifiably lead him to question the value of this court's certification of the good character of those who are permitted to take the bar examination." 



The sexual abuse of children is one crime that I think should be punished fully, because sex offenders tend to relapse and offend again. This AA styled organization which he has joined is interesting, but I wonder if it is as effective as AA. AA controls an action, but not necessarily all thoughts of drinking, and in the case of a sex addict, it is all too easy for the person to download the pornography again. I wonder if the parole officer checks his computer as time goes by to see whether he has done that or not.

Of course, in this case the man said he didn't realize that there was any child pornography in the sites he downloaded, and wasn't intending to select it. I don't see a way for him to prove his innocence beyond the shadow of a doubt. If he was innocent, that is unfortunate, but in my personal opinion the intentional viewing of any pornography at all is a sign of a moral lapse. Sex is one area that is full of mental health issues. Ideally we should accept our gender, be interested in the opposite sex, never molest anyone against their wishes, and be able to keep the level of our sexual participation in a balanced pattern. Anything else causes scandals if it becomes known, and I think reduces our self-esteem in general. If this man is innocent, I am sorry for him, but I think the Bar Admissions office is doing the right thing in case he is guilty.





Self-driving cars popular by mid-century: study – NBC
Paul A. Eisenstein The Detroit Bureau


They’ve long been the stuff of science fiction, but a new study predicts that once they come to market in the near future, autonomous vehicles will rapidly become a very popular reality.

Nissan says it will be ready with multiple, commercially viable Autonomous Drive vehicles by 2020. A new study says self-driving cars will be a popular reality by mid-century.

The study, “Emerging Technologies: Autonomous Cars — Not If, But When,” predicts that by 2035, self-driving cars, or SDCs, will account for half the vehicles sold in North America. Worldwide sales will reach about 11.8 million, according to IHS Automotive, which prepared the report. By 2050, the consulting firm predicts, almost all vehicles will offer an autonomous mode.

Officials at Nissan recently promised to put their first autonomous vehicles into production by 2020, and a number of other makers have since made similar announcements. The IHS report notes that the first generation of these vehicles will actually require a human co-pilot to sit at the ready in case the technology develops a problem – much like an aircraft autopilot. But it anticipates truly independent, self-driving vehicles requiring no human involvement will begin to be offered by 2030.
The study predicts that as the technology improves, demand will increase.

Not everyone is so confident. In fact, there’s an ongoing debate about where autonomous vehicles will first come to market. Andy Palmer, the Nissan Motor Co. global product czar, recently cautioned that because of the litigious nature of the American market, manufacturers “might” have to steer clear of the U.S. unless legislators take steps to protect the industry from a flood of frivolous lawsuits.
The irony, proponents say, is that autonomous vehicles could yield massive reductions in collisions, injuries and highway fatalities.

"As the market share of SDCs on the highway grows, overall accident rates will decline steadily," said Egil Juliussen, principal analyst for autonomous driver-assisted systems, who co-authored the IHS study. "Traffic congestion and air pollution per car should also decline, because SDCs can be programmed to be more efficient in their driving patterns."

There are, of course, other issues to overcome if the IHS forecast is to prove accurate. Even proponents of the technology acknowledge they will have to make major improvements in software programming to handle all the various challenges a human motorist might face on the road. Sensors and computing systems must become not only more powerful but also more robust. And there’s even the issue of cyber-security, especially as future SDCs will likely tie into vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-roadway communications networks to track traffic, weather and construction.

Though Nissan’s Palmer told TheDetroitBureau.com the goal is to make autonomous technology “affordable,” the new study cautions that autonomous vehicles will likely carry a $7,000 to $10,000 premium over similar, but conventionally operated, products in 2025. But it also anticipates the cost penalty will dip to $5,000 by 2030 and just $3,000 by 2035, taking advantage of the same sorts of economies of scale that have driven down prices of consumer electronic goods such as TVs and smartphones.



This sounds to me like one of those really bad ideas that scientists and technicians occasionally come up with. When I think of the number of hazards I see on the road every time I take the wheel, the idea of a self-driving car seems ridiculous. If they all required the co-pilot to override the automatic system, it would be better. I can see how some drivers are so aggressive and reckless that a very good self-driving car would be an improvement, but in general I hope it doesn't come about. We have enough problems without something like that. We can't even get full adults to stop texting while driving. What will be the place of individual responsibility in such a situation?



­ In Fast-Changing China, Reality Can Overtake Fiction – NPR
by Frank Langfitt
­
One of the challenges of writing about China is the country moves fast — sometimes faster than the publishing business. Take Enigma of China, the latest detective novel by Chinese-American author Qiu Xiaolong.

In one scene, Qiu's main character, Inspector Chen, sits in a Shanghai restaurant scanning a hotel where government agents are holding a corrupt official in secret detention.

Recently, Qiu took me on a tour of the book's real-life settings, including the site of that eatery.
"It's a restaurant with a red lantern, so it's lovely," recalls Qiu, returning to the spot. "But now, I cannot find even any trace of it."
That's because the government knocked it down and replaced it with a tiny park.
"By the time the book comes out, the restaurant is definitely gone," says Qiu, standing on a street corner next to one of the city's elevated highways. "So, you see, it's hard to write about Shanghai nowadays."

Enigma is Qiu's eighth Inspector Chen novel. The books are set in his hometown of Shanghai, but few people here have ever read them. Because the plot of Enigma focuses so closely on corruption inside the Communist Party, Qiu says Chinese censors would never have accepted it.

Qiu grew up here during the Cultural Revolution, which ran from 1966 to 1976. He moved to St. Louis in the late 1980s.

Fiction Ripped From Social Media
Even though he's now 14 time zones behind Shanghai, he stays current by reading news and surprisingly free-wheeling discussions on China's Internet.
That's where Qiu found the plot for the new book.
"It's a real story," he says.

The story begins with a public official, who gives a talk on the need to continue to support China's sky-high housing prices. It's a policy that benefits the government, but punishes and angers most ordinary Chinese, including netizens, China's citizen army of micro-bloggers.

A photo of the official shows up in a newspaper with a very expensive pack of cigarettes on the table where he's sitting. Netizens conclude, as they do about so many Chinese officials, that this one is corrupt. They send the photo ricocheting around Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter, and the official is sacked.
"This entire scenario is taken from Weibo," says Qiu, an owlish, soft-spoken man of 60. "This shows people's effort on the Internet to fight corruption. Weibo can really tell you about what's changing in people's minds."

In the novel, government investigators detain the official in a hotel, where he dies in what appears to be a suicide. It falls to Inspector Chen to solve the case, which his superiors want buried.

Deaths in detention are not uncommon here. In April, investigators drowned a Communist Party member in an icy tub of water while trying to force him to confess to a corrupt land deal.

Tina Kanagaratnam runs the Shanghai International Literary Festival, where she has featured Qiu's novels. She says his books show how Chinese people think and how the country's authoritarian system has shaped ordinary lives like Inspector Chen's. When Chen was young, he wanted to be a poet, but the government assigned him to the police department.

Chen still writes poetry, quite successfully, but like many Chinese who lived through Communism's darkest days, Chen wonders what might have been.
"There are so many people in China who had dreams, who wanted to be something," says Kanagaratnam at a café in Shanghai's art-deco Peace Hotel. "But because they were assigned something else, they couldn't do that."

Returning Home To Contrast And Contradiction
Qiu grew up in a small house in the heart of Shanghai. It lies along an alley where neighbors chop vegetables and stir food in sizzling woks in open-air stalls.
His colonial-era home is filled with old, carved furniture and feels like a museum piece. A rickety ladder leads to a crawl space with a skylight where Qiu used to write.

"When I lived here, I used to work up in the attic," says Qiu. "These are my old, old books. This is the first time I've come back home for this trip."
Actually, Qiu hasn't slept here in years, but he can't bear to part with the place. He stays at a hotel, because the house has few modern comforts. Although it's just a short drive from Shanghai's towering skyline, home to some of the world's tallest buildings, Qiu's house still has no plumbing.

Qiu pulls back a curtain to reveal a big wooden box, a chamber pot. This is how people in tens of thousands of Shanghai homes still relieve themselves at night.
Qiu loves the city with its old European villas, grassy parks and tree-lined streets, but juxtapositions like this make him pause.

"You talk about mixed feelings about the city," says Qiu, his usual sunny demeanor growing serious. "People live just like this. They still use a chamber pot. No choice."

The Shanghai of Qiu's novels is — like the city itself — a fast-changing landscape, one filled with contrast where a poet-detective tries to solve crimes, often against all odds, and remain true to himself.


I read a lot of mystery novels. I'll try to look up this author in my public library to get one of his books. If fiction is not censored, it can be a good way to learn things about a place or time which show how life is actually lived.

The use of chamber pots mentioned here reminds me of the old Thomas home place where my great aunt lived out her life in rural Piedmont North Carolina. Though the county offered to electrify her house in the 1950's she opted out, continuing to use kerosene lamps, and going out to the well to bring in bucketfuls of water rather than having running water. The house itself is old, going back into the 1800's. It has the kitchen in a separate little building with a covered walk between that and the main house like many very old houses, and has one large room with two very small bedrooms to the side. A second cousin owns the house now. The county was interested in keeping it on a list of historical buildings. I don't know if they did that, or not. It was a really peaceful and interesting place for us to visit when I was young, and one of my fondest childhood memories.





Man who slapped toddler on plane gets 8 months – CBS
By Crimesider Staff CBS/AP

ATLANTA - Joe Hundley, an Idaho man who pleaded guilty to slapping a crying toddler on an Atlanta-bound flight, was sentenced to eight months in federal prison Monday.

Hundley pleaded guilty in October after reaching a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.
Prosecutors say Hundley also used a racial slur to refer to the 19-month-old boy, who's black, and hit him under the eye as the flight from Minneapolis descended to the Atlanta airport last February.

Prosecutors had recommended six months in prison. The judge said he imposed a higher sentence in part because of Hundley's criminal history, which includes a prior assault.

Hundley's lawyer objected to the deviation from the recommendation in the plea agreement and said after the hearing that she believes the sentence is disproportionate.



People who fail to curb their urges to hit others, especially smaller and weaker others, should be prepared to spend time in jail. Everybody gets angry, but we have to stop short of physical abuse or we won't be welcome in a civilized society. The man's picture in the article showed an angry old frowning grouch. Maybe 8 months will teach him a lesson. This child was under two years old and still a baby. Babies cry.