Tuesday, October 14, 2014


News Clips For The Day


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/12/1335429/-Voter-suppression-is-un-American

DailyKos
Voter suppression is un-American
SUN OCT 12, 2014

It does seem a bit ridiculous, doesn't it? That we still have to fight for voting rights, fight against laws that seek to suppress the vote, laws that will have a disproportionate impact on those Americans who—had they been of voting age before 1965—would likely have been barred because of their race? Ridiculous is one word for it. Infuriating is another. These tactics violate everything for which our country is supposed to stand. As President Obama put it, "The idea that you’d purposely try to prevent people from voting? Un-American."

Republican-dominated states from Arkansas to North Carolina, from Texas to Ohio to Wisconsin have implemented various restrictions on voting that have been wending their way through the courts this fall. Just last week, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed North Carolina's law to stand—one that might well be the nation's most awful, although the court did, thankfully, put a temporary hold on Wisconsin's law—for this election cycle only—while it considers whether to take the case.

North Carolina's law severely limits the forms of identification that are acceptable for one to present in order to register to vote. How severely? An analysis of data from the state Board of Elections by Democracy North Carolina revealed that blacks, women, and Democrats are disproportionately likely to lack one of the acceptable forms of ID, while whites, men, and Republicans are disproportionately likely to possess one of them. Need I remind you that this new law was enacted by Republican Gov. Pat McCrory and a Republican-controlled legislature? The folks who sued to block the law noted "that it surgically eliminated the precise forms of registration and voting that had enabled significant expansion of African-Americans’ civic participation in North Carolina over the previous decade."

How about Ohio? In 2010 Republican John Kasich became governor, Jon Husted became secretary of state, and their party took over the legislature. They immediately set about undoing the measures implemented to ease the long lines at the polls that so embarrassed the Buckeye State in 2004, measures that ensured relatively smooth sailing on Election Day in 2008. What was their problem with what happened in Ohio in 2008? Barack Obama won, and those new laws helped him win by getting too many of the, ahem, "wrong" sort voting.

As Dale Ho—he runs the ACLU's voting rights project—explained, early voters had, before 2008, typically been middle class and wealthy people, as well as being older than average, because those were the folks who were more likely to know about the option to vote before Election Day. And for which party do people who fall into those categories disproportionately vote? Take a wild guess. But in 2008, Ho noted, "the script got flipped." And—all of a sudden—Republicans became desperate to limit early voting.

Blood boiling yet?  One way to fight back is to support Daily Kos-endorsed candidate Nina Turner in her battle to unseat Jon Husted and become Ohio's next Secretary of State. Please consider donating $3 to her campaign.

Voting by mail is convenient, easy, and defeats the best of the GOP's voter suppression efforts. Sign up here to check eligibility and vote by mail, then get your friends, family, and coworkers to sign up as well.

You are welcome to follow me beyond the fold if you'd like to get more worked up.

Republicans claim that these laws are necessary to prevent "voter fraud." Let's address that lie head on. Voter impersonation fraud—the only kind of fraud that voter ID laws can address—is negligible. Essentially, it doesn't exist. In a case that led to a Texas law being struck down last week by a federal judge, the evidence showed that, over 14 years, there were two (2) instances of in-person, voter impersonation fraud out of 62 million ballots cast. Loyola University Law School professor Justin Levitt found a grand total of 31 "credible incidents" (some of which may still end up being disproven) in which voter impersonation fraud was perpetrated, incidents that involve about 200 voters. This is out of over a billion votes cast in elections nationwide since 2000.

How about voter fraud more broadly? A five-year investigation conducted by the George W. Bush-era Department of Justice found a few dozen instances out of the hundreds of millions of votes in federal elections. As Kevin Drum wrote, "Voter fraud is literally less likely than being hit by lightning."

These voting restriction laws are not about fraud. They never have been. They are about winning. Florida Republicans were apparently open—to one another—about this. And sometimes they even slip up in public, as when Pennsylvania Republican Mike Turzai crowed that the laws on voting restrictions he helped pass as his party's state House leader would "allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania." Too bad that didn't work out for him, but the intent is clear nonetheless.

As comedian Lewis Black put it in this must-watch video on voter suppression: "Elected officials shouldn't get to choose—who gets to choose elected officials."

In reality, these voter suppression tactics reflect more than three decades of right-wing thinking on voting. They have always understood that increasing voter participation does not serve the partisan interests of Republicans. In 1980, right-wing guru Paul Weyrich said:

"I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."

We see this thinking revealed whenever right-wingers are being honest about voter participation. Fox News hosts had this to say the other day:

"Do we want them [young people] to vote if they don't know the issues?" Harris Faulkner asked Wednesday afternoon.

"No!" Lisa Kennedy Montgomery answered. "You absolutely don't!"

"Do you really want to motivate them to vote and be ignorant at the polls?" Faulkner continued.

And if you want to know what conservatives really think, just ask a tea partier. Judson Phillips is the president of Tea Party Nation (which is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center), and in 2010 he offered a stroll down history lane in order to argue for even more restrictions on the right to vote:

The Founding Fathers originally said, they put certain restrictions on who gets the right to vote. It wasn’t you were just a citizen and you got to vote. Some of the restrictions, you know, you obviously would not think about today. But one of those was you had to be a property owner. And that makes a lot of sense, because if you’re a property owner you actually have a vested stake in the community. If you’re not a property owner, you know, I’m sorry but property owners have a little bit more of a vested interest in the community than non-property owners.

And don't forget about Republicans' true base (as George W. Bush called them, the "have-mores")—people like billionaire Tom Perkins:
The Tom Perkins system is: You don't get to vote unless you pay a dollar of taxes...But what I really think is, it should be like a corporation. You pay a million dollars in taxes, you get a million votes. How's that?

Now the truth is coming out about the impact of these voting restriction laws. A recent study conducted by the nonpartisan Government Accounting Office (GAO) found that restrictive voter ID laws passed in Kansas and Tennessee were responsible for reducing voter turnout by about 2 percent in 2012—with turnout among blacks dropping a few percent more than among whites in both states—more than enough to swing a close election. The report compared turnout data in those two states to data in four other states (Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, and Maine) that had not changed their voting laws prior to that election.

Judge Nelva Gonzales, in her opinion striking down the Texas law mentioned above, noted: "There has been a clear and disturbing pattern of discrimination in the name of combatting voter fraud in Texas," and added that the evidence presented demonstrates that the law's supporters "were motivated, at the very least in part, because of and not merely in spite of the voter ID law’s detrimental effects on the African-American and Hispanic electorate." In other words, Republicans knew exactly what they were doing when they passed these laws.

Speaking historically, voter suppression is anything but un-American. Apple pie and Chevy have got nothing on it. But when we say that voter suppression is un-American, we are talking not about what we have been, but what we ought to be. Equality for all stands at the very core of our country's ideals, even though it took two centuries for our laws to get right with that principle. We have come a long way from the days when people had to bleed and die for the right to vote, but the voter suppression tactics that conservatives employ today seek, without question, to trample on that sacred and hard-won right.

Tea party types can wear all the Colonial-era costumes they want, but those who fight to ensure that every adult citizen can vote are the ones who truly represent America's founding values. We do what Martin Luther King Jr. did when he wrote that the Civil Rights movement would overcome because "the goal of America is freedom," and declared that his dream was "deeply rooted in the American dream." We do what Harvey Milk did when he proclaimed: "All men are created equal. Now matter how hard they try, they can never erase those words. That is what America is about." We do what Barbara Jordan did when she called for "an America as good as its promise." Those who would deny equality, who would deny democracy—they are the ones who are un-American. When we fight for equality and for democracy, we fight for America, and for all Americans.




“North Carolina's law severely limits the forms of identification that are acceptable for one to present in order to register to vote. How severely? An analysis of data from the state Board of Elections by Democracy North Carolina revealed that blacks, women, and Democrats are disproportionately likely to lack one of the acceptable forms of ID, while whites, men, and Republicans are disproportionately likely to possess one of them.... These tactics violate everything for which our country is supposed to stand. As President Obama put it, 'The idea that you’d purposely try to prevent people from voting? Un-American.'.... We see this thinking revealed whenever right-wingers are being honest about voter participation. Fox News hosts had this to say the other day: 'Do we want them [young people] to vote if they don't know the issues?' Harris Faulkner asked Wednesday afternoon. 'No!' Lisa Kennedy Montgomery answered. 'You absolutely don't!' 'Do you really want to motivate them to vote and be ignorant at the polls?' Faulkner continued..... And don't forget about Republicans' true base (as George W. Bush called them, the 'have-mores')—people like billionaire Tom Perkins: The Tom Perkins system is: You don't get to vote unless you pay a dollar of taxes...But what I really think is, it should be like a corporation. You pay a million dollars in taxes, you get a million votes. How's that?”

I went to the Internet for information on exactly what kind of ID is allowed in NC and found several sites. The best one and the simplest is http://voteridnc.com/. It is set up with links showing how to get a state ID card from the DMV even if the voter doesn't drive. The regular non-driver ID costs $10.00, but a cost free acceptable ID requires two of a list of documents, which I think most working minority voters will have – original social security card, drivers license, certified birth certificate and a W2 form showing full name and SSN are probably the easiest. The original SS card and the W2 may not have the full name including the middle name on it. A certified birth certificate may require a small fee. ID must reflect any name changes, so if the voter has married since her ID was issued she will have to get an updated one. It's not impossible, but it is time consuming, requires close attention to the instructions and may cost some money.

Democrats trying to win against Republicans in these states need to infiltrate the minority communities one on one and help them if necessary to read and follow the instructions for getting documents. If we were to form community meetings, maybe with the aid of the League of Women Voters, the outreach to unregistered voters could be maximized. If voters vote by mail they don't have to present ID, of course, but they have to do it well ahead of time because there is a delay in validating those ballots, and if by chance the voter is not registered with a correct full name and address the ballot may not be counted. I got my mail-in ballot by mail about three weeks ago, but I will simply go down to the polling place and do it in person. Republicans are using tactics that are infuriating and unethical, but they are legal until the Supreme Court receives test cases and declares them unconstitutional.

The statement that anyone who votes should pay at least one dollar in taxes would eliminate anyone who didn't work during the last year. The man even went on to say that if the voter paid a million dollars in taxes he should get to vote a million times. That's ridiculous, of course, and was probably said as a joke, but it does reveal the train of thought among some if not all Republicans. Democrats need to work harder to mobilize their vote, and especially we need to see to it that everybody of voting age is registered and has their required voter ID. Those people who are felons but who have been out of prison long enough to qualify for restored voting rights, could use help about writing the letter or whatever is required for that.





http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/10/1335669/-Germany-offers-free-college-tuition-to-U-S-and-international-students?detail=email

Germany offers free college tuition to U.S. and international students
FRI OCT 10, 2014 AT 08:15 AM PDT

All German universities are now free to Americans and all other international students. The last German state to charge tuition at its universities struck down the fees this week.

Why are they offering such a generous plan?

In explaining why Germany made this move, Dorothee Stapelfeldt, a Hamburg senator, called tuition fees "unjust" and added that "they discourage young people who do not have a traditional academic family background from taking up study. It is a core task of politics to ensure that young women and men can study with a high quality standard free of charge in Germany."

The perks don't end at free tuition:

Even before Germany abolished college tuition for all students, the price was a steal. Typically semester fees were around $630. What's more, German students receive many perks including discounts for food, clothing and events, as well as inexpensive or even free transportation.

Considering the average student loan debt in the U.S. is $29,400, a lot of U.S. high school students would do well to start learning German.




“Dorothee Stapelfeldt, a Hamburg senator, called tuition fees 'unjust' and added that 'they discourage young people who do not have a traditional academic family background from taking up study.'... What's more, German students receive many perks including discounts for food, clothing and events, as well as inexpensive or even free transportation. Considering the average student loan debt in the U.S. is $29,400, a lot of U.S. high school students would do well to start learning German.”

This change in German universities is a great opportunity for some American students who might not be able to pay for full tuition at an American college. The problem is that American high schools are dropping German from their curriculum. Parents should be aware that learning a foreign language and learning to play a musical instrument both increase the IQ scores of their children, so that is yet another reason to put pressure on the school board to keep German and French, even though many students consider Spanish to be more useful in the US. From having taken both Spanish and German I can vouch for the fact that the brain gets much more exercise learning German. Besides, I wouldn't be surprised to see a number of American graduates leaving for a German college now that they are free. Who wouldn't like to spend their college years in Europe?

See the oregonlive article below on the decline of German in high school curricula.


http://www.oregonlive.com/tigard/index.ssf/2012/03/as_german_language_programs_di.html

As German language programs disappear from schools, Tigard High's German Club fights for classes
By Sally Ho, The Oregonian
March 14, 2012

Photograph: BEAVERTON, OREGON - March 8, 2012 - Second grader Luke Miller, right, shushes his classmates while Alexander Streck, left, prepares to demonstrate a magic trick in German at the German American School in Beaverton. Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian

German language classes are disappearing from schools, and it hasn't gone unnoticed.

A group of local students are fighting to keep their program, while educators nationwide and in Germany are keeping a self-interested eye on the U.S. Trend.

Supporters of the language program say wiping out the once-ubiquitous high school course is short-sighted. With the world's third-largest economy, Germany commands a high profile as a global economic pillar.

Many metro-area high schools have cut courses and some districts have cut the program entirely, according to data from the Oregon Department of Education. Beaverton, Hillsboro and Gresham-Barlow have all seen dwindled enrollment.

Educators say students are often choosing Spanish because it's widely spoken.

Staffing is also a factor. Though many schools have multiple Spanish teachers, most German language programs are taught by a single person. The American Association of Teachers of German estimates there are 12,000 German language teachers in the country, down 8 to 10 percent in the last decade.

Bucking the trend is Portland Public Schools. Although Wilson High has lost students, the schools who still offer it --Lincoln, Madison and Cleveland have seen numbers rise.

Cleveland High's vice principal, Kevin Taylor, attributes higher enrollment numbers to an extra section of the course offered this year. Wilson High planned to cut German classes but a $20,000 donation from the German American Society in September saved them.

Still, districts such as Lake Oswego, North Clackamas and soon Tigard-Tualatin, have or are wiping out the foreign language entirely from their high school offerings.

German fades at Tigard

In 2009, administrators cited low enrollment numbers and budget cuts when they decided to eliminate German at Tigard High. The phase-out process started this year, when the school no longer offered a first-year German class. The program at Tualatin High was already eliminated six years ago.

The 30 students in the German Club at Tigard High have taken the issue to the board, asking for a chance to bring back the program by advertising it to incoming freshmen. They have collected support letters from professors at Harvard, Stanford and the University of Oregon. In a one-day petition drive, they also got 400 student signatures.

Lauren Chan, 18, acknowledged that students choose Spanish for its usability in America, but called it "limiting" on a global platform.

"I hope the district can understand: What they're doing is lessening our horizons and limiting us," said Chan, a German Club member and student body president. "German is not a language that is fading out. We're causing it. We're choosing to not study a language that is popular."

Mickey Toft, the school's associate principal for curriculum, said the cut was a business decision based on trends and lack of student interest.

"We don't want to cut anything but we don't have enough funding to offer everything we want to," Toft said. It would be imprudent to keep such a program despite its value to supporters, he added.

"If you bring it back, what will you cut?" he said.

Saving programs

In contrast, the German American School of Portland is thriving, with more than 90 percent of students completing the program through fifth grade, according to principal Blake Peters.  

The German-language immersion school is one of seven in North America accredited by the German federal government. Based in Beaverton, the school also offers German language classes for adults.

Some students of the school are native Germans or of German heritage, but the majority of the 165 students have no ties to the language or culture. Most parents enrolling their kids want a language immersion program, Peters said, and choose the school for its academic rigor.

"Finally, the U.S. is waking up that language learning is more than a 9th grade elective," he said.

Last fall, Peters was a part of an unofficial task force commissioned to look at the declining number of German language learners across the United States. The task force included 35 people and represented the German Embassy, German American Chamber of Commerce, New York Times, Modern Language Association, and universities.

The task force was organized by the Goethe-Institut in New York, a cultural center connected to and funded by Germany's ministry of foreign affairs.

Peter Rosenbaum, the institute's educational liaison, said the center is working to "rescue, defend and expand" German language programs. Most notable of the task force's recommendations, which have been presented to foreign affairs officials in Germany, is a focused ad campaign promoting German and Germany.

"We realized we need to change our strategy," Rosenbaum said. "Students don't learn German anymore."






Has man dragged Earth into the Anthropocene age? – CBS
AP October 14, 2014, 4:05 AM

WASHINGTON -- People are changing Earth so much, warming and polluting it, that many scientists are turning to a new way to describe the time we live in. They're calling it the Anthropocene -- the age of humans.

Though most non-experts don't realize it, science calls the past 12,000 years the Holocene, Greek for "entirely recent." But the way humans and their industries are altering the planet, especially its climate, has caused an increasing number of scientists to use the word Anthropocene to better describe when and where we are.

"We're changing the Earth. There is no question about that, I've seen it from space," said eight-time spacewalking astronaut John Grunsfeld, now associate administrator for science at NASA. He said that when he looked down from orbit, there was no place he could see on the planet that didn't have the mark of man. So he uses the term Anthropocene, he said, "because we're intelligent enough to recognize it."

Grunsfeld was in the audience of a "Living in the Anthropocene" symposium put on last week by the Smithsonian. Meanwhile, the American Association for the Advancement of Science is displaying an art exhibit, "Fossils of the Anthropocene." More than 500 scientific studies have been published this year referring to the current time period as the Anthropocene.

And on Friday the Anthropocene Working Group ramps up its efforts to change the era's name with a meeting at a Berlin museum. The movement was jump-started and the name coined by Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen in 2000, according to Australian National University scientist Will Steffen.

Geologists often mark new scientific time periods with what they call a golden spike -- really more of a bronze disk in the rock layer somewhere that physically points out where one scientific time period ends and another begins, said Harvard University's Andrew Knoll, who supports the idea because "humans have become a geologic force on the planet. The age we are living now in is really distinct."

But instead of a golden spike in rock, "it's going to be a layer of plastic that covers the planet, if not a layer of (heat-trapping) carbon," said W. John Kress, acting undersecretary of science for the Smithsonian. Kress said the Smithsonian is embracing the term because "for us it kind of combines the scientific and the cultural in one word."

It's an ugly word, one many people don't understand, and it's even hard to pronounce, Kress admitted. (It's AN'-thruh-poh-seen.) That's why when he opened the Smithsonian's symposium, he said, "We are living in the Anthropocene," then quickly added, "the age of humans."

"Never in its 4.6 billion-year-old history has the Earth been so affected by one species as it is being affected now by humans," Kress said.

Steffen, one of the main leaders of the Anthropocene movement, said in an email that the age of humans is more than just climate change. It includes ozone loss, disruption of nitrogen and phosphorous cycles that are causing dead zones, changes in water, acidification of the ocean, endocrine disruptors and deforestation.

Steffen said there's no scientific consensus for the term Anthropocene yet, but he sees support growing. To become official it has to be approved by the International Union of Geological Sciences' Commission on Stratigraphy.

That process is detailed and slow, said Harvard's Kroll, who spearheaded the last successful effort to add a new time period - the little known Ediacaran period, about 600 million years ago. It took him 15 years.

The head of that deciding committee, Stan Finney at California State University at Long Beach, said in an interview that he is often called "the biggest critic" of the Anthropocene term. He said while there's no doubt humans are dramatically changing the planet, creating a new geologic time period requires detailed scientific records, mostly based on what is in rocks.

Supporters also don't agree on when the Anthropocene starts. Suggestions include the start of farming, industrialization and the use of the atomic bomb.

The Geological Society of America hasn't taken up the term yet, but may soon start paying attention to the concept, said society president Hap McSween of the University of Tennessee.

"I actually think it's a great idea," McSween said. "Humans are profoundly affecting the environment, probably as much as natural events have in the past. And when effects become profound enough, we draw a new boundary and make it a period. ... It's a good way to point out the environmental havoc that humans are causing."




“More than 500 scientific studies have been published this year referring to the current time period as the Anthropocene. The movement was jump-started and the name coined by Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen in 2000, according to Australian National University scientist Will Steffen..... But instead of a golden spike in rock, 'it's going to be a layer of plastic that covers the planet, if not a layer of (heat-trapping) carbon,' said W. John Kress, acting undersecretary of science for the Smithsonian.... Steffen, one of the main leaders of the Anthropocene movement, said in an email that the age of humans is more than just climate change. It includes ozone loss, disruption of nitrogen and phosphorous cycles that are causing dead zones, changes in water, acidification of the ocean, endocrine disruptors and deforestation.... To become official it has to be approved by the International Union of Geological Sciences' Commission on Stratigraphy. That process is detailed and slow, said Harvard's Kroll, who spearheaded the last successful effort to add a new time period - the little known Ediacaran period, about 600 million years ago. It took him 15 years.... He said while there's no doubt humans are dramatically changing the planet, creating a new geologic time period requires detailed scientific records, mostly based on what is in rocks. Supporters also don't agree on when the Anthropocene starts. Suggestions include the start of farming, industrialization and the use of the atomic bomb. The Geological Society of America hasn't taken up the term yet, but may soon start paying attention to the concept, said society president Hap McSween of the University of Tennessee.... It's a good way to point out the environmental havoc that humans are causing.'"

This name change is startling and even shocking, as it is the redefining of the natural laws of the world. The dinosaurs reigned a long, long time and dominated all life except for the very small and mouse-like creatures which we call mammals. They thrived when the weather was cold because they had several adaptive characteristics – they had fur, they had larger brains than reptiles and they were warm-blooded. Likewise the birds lived alongside the dinosaurs and could survive in cold weather with their feathers. The dinosaurs died out possibly because an asteroid hit the earth and caused cold, dark days for perhaps a number of years, or at least months, and the naked coldblooded dinosaurs died.

The birds and mammals then flourished and evolved into predators. Both birds and mammals do a certain amount of modification of their environment as they “build” nests, and in the case of beavers they dam up streams to become ponds. The humans finally came along and began after a few million years to make modifications especially when Homo Habilis came along – cutting down trees to make poles for shelters or travois for dragging loads, digging out the center of trees to produce a dugout canoe, building fires which they burned day in and day out both for heat and cooking. Eventually Homo Sapiens made his appearance, and after about 60,000 years spent improving his arrowheads and spears, his women began to scratch out patches in the soil and drop some of the day's seeds into the ground. The women who did the gathering for the tribes had long noticed that those plants which they most liked to eat had a tendency to come up near their campfires and grindstones spontaneously, so some creative person suspected the link. It was almost certainly a woman who made the connection between the seed and the adult plant.

All that's very good. Mankind was bright so he progressed, making more changes – digging irrigation ditches and making dirt dams like the beavers. They also learned to gather stones for building homes and dig out clay for bricks. They also made improved hunting and fighting equipment such as the spear thrower and ever improved stone points. Eventually the large mammals that provided them with meat and hides for clothing, sleeping and tents began to be depleted, until the mammoth, bison and aurochs were almost totally extinct. Farming, probably as a result, became the main source of food. The digging stick in agriculture was supplanted by the plow and irrigation was widely employed. This gave them more food to provide for larger and larger populations, which required more and more acreage for agriculture. Forests were burned and cut down over many acres to make a place for farms and of course there was a need for more and more wood for fires, so deforestation began that early in our history. In the Middle East and China some societies developed simple and complex machines, and civilizations sprang up. With them came the written word and knowledge could be accumulated on a clay tablet or a sheet of papyrus, so a society could record scientific and religious information beyond the life of each generation. Human sophistication increased immensely.

A few thousand years after the beginning of cities, someone discovered that some rocks aren't merely rocks, but ores that will produce metal when heated, which makes good arrows and a wealth of other tools. From that point on mankind became more and more destructive of the environment, digging out large quarries to get the ore and more ingenious machines and rudimentary science cropped up in the civilized places. From that came the development of simple industry and eventually chemistry.

We are now exploiting our knowledge of chemistry to such a degree that the wastes are polluting both water and the air. Mankind moves forward now without paying much attention to the environmental results, except for a few “tree huggers.” So now the scientists are aware of the forward march of mankind and have named the time we have been active the Anthropocene. In one way it's a triumph, and in another way its the seed of our decline, I am afraid, as we are now faced with global warming, drought, less and less productivity in the soil, and more and more people who need to be fed.

Nothing good is unmixed. We may be the last few generations to know the world as we have seen it. A sign of the times – when I was young I remember hosts of fireflies near the ground and in the air on a summer night, and butterflies during the day. they are almost gone now. I'm very glad that I lived to see them.





Climate change could alter male-female ratio
By RACHAEL RETTNER LIVESCIENCE.COM
October 3, 2014, 12:23 PM

Climate change could affect the ratio of human males to human females that are born in some countries, a new study from Japan suggests. The researchers found that male fetuses may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Since the 1970s, temperature fluctuations from the norm have become more common in Japan, and at the same time there has been an increase in the deaths of male fetuses, relative to the number of deaths of female fetuses in that country, according to the study.

Over this period, the ratio of male to female babies born in the country has been decreasing, meaning there have been fewer and fewer male babies born relative to the number of female babies born.

This suggests that climate warming or climate extremes could negatively affect male fetuses, study researcher Dr. Misao Fukuda, of M&K Health Institute in Ako, Japan, told Live Science in an email.

In the study, the researchers looked at monthly temperature data gathered from 1968 to 2012 by the Japan Meteorological Agency and also at data on fetal deaths and infants born during that time from the Vital Statistics of Japan database. In recent years, there have been nearly 90,000 newborns, and about 1,000 fetal deaths recorded monthly in Japan. The researchers considered fetal deaths to be those that were spontaneously aborted (or miscarried) after 12 weeks of pregnancy.

The study also looked at two recent extreme weather events in Japan -- a very hot summer in 2010 and a very cold winter in 2011. During the hot summer -- which was the warmest in the country since 1898 -- there was an increase in the number of fetal deaths in September of that year, and nine months later, there was a decrease in the ratio of male to female babies born in the country.

A similar phenomenon occurred the next year -- during a very cold winter in January 2011, there was an increase in fetal deaths, and nine months later, there was a decrease in the number of male babies born relative to female babies born in that country. [5 Ways Climate Change Will Affect Your Health]

These findings suggest that "the recent temperature fluctuations in Japan seem to be linked to a lower male: female sex ratio of newborn infants, partly via increased male fetal deaths," the researchers wrote in the Sept. 14 issue of the journal Fertility and Sterility.

However, the new study only found an association, and cannot prove that the climate changes were responsible for the change in sex ratio in Japan. Other factors, such as pollution and toxins in the environment, may affect sex ratios. But the researchers noted that the study found a link between temperatures in a specific month, and the sex ratios nine months later, suggesting temperature fluctuations may play a role in recent declines in the country's sex ratio.

Previous studies on the effects of temperature changes on sex ratios in human populations have been mixed. A 2008 study published in the journal PNAS found a link between cold temperatures and a decrease in the male-to-female ratio in Scandinavian countries between 1865 and 1914, but also found a link between warmer temperatures and an increase in the ratio.

In addition, two previous studies in Finland and New Zealand did not find a link between those countries' yearly average temperature and sex ratios of newborns from the mid-1800s to the mid-2000s.

However, the researchers in the new study noted that neither New Zealand nor Finland experience the same temperature extremes as Japan, where summers can be very hot and winters very cold. Japan has also experienced a greater increase in its average yearly temperature in recent years compared with New Zealand and Finland, the researchers said.

"It is of great interest to know whether any country observed a similarly lowered sex ratio of newborn infants" during the recent extreme weather events, the researchers said.

The reason why male babies may be more vulnerable to extreme temperatures is not known. But it has been reported previously that male embryos are affected negatively by stress factors such as earthquakes or toxic agents, Fukuda said.

Some studies have also found that male births decline with increasing geographical latitude (i.e., colder climates) in Europe and Asia. The new findings warrant further investigation of how stress factors like climate change may affect the ratio of male to female infants born, the researchers said.

Some studies have suggested that recent changes in Japan's sex ratio of births may be a result of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which caused more than 18,000 deaths. But the researchers say this is not the case. Although there was an overall reduction in the percentage of births in the country nine months after the earthquake, there was no significant decline in the sex ratio of births, the researchers said.




Alligator eggs will turn out to be either male or female according to the temperature inside the leaf nest that the female creates for her eggs. Also, the body temperature of humans can decrease somewhat, causing hypothermia, when one is exposed without proper clothing to very low temperatures for too long. This in turn can lower the resistance to viruses. Too much heat in the summer causes sluggishness and might also influence mood or cause dehydration, which is harmful. The question is, what causes hormonal or other changes in the fetus or in the environment of the uterus? Hopefully a scientist will come up with the answer so I can read about it.





Solar power is casting a bigger shadow – CBS
By BRUCE KENNEDY MONEYWATCH
October 14, 2014, 5:30 AM

Does having your own solar power installation sound appealing? It apparently does to a growing number of American businesses and homeowners who are investing in what many tout as a cleaner and less expensive source of electricity. And that trend of buying into solar power is also growing internationally.

During 2014's second quarter, photovoltaic (PV) installations in the U.S. went over the gigawatt mark for the third consecutive quarter, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). A gigawatt is equivalent to the amount of power needed for around 750,000 homes.

And while commercial solar power is still in its infancy (the Institute for Energy Research says solar makes up just 0.2 percent of the net energy produced in the U.S.), homes and businesses with solar panels are no longer considered an oddity. The SEIA says more than a half-million homes and businesses now have solar installations, and during the first half of 2014, 53 percent of all new electric capacity was from solar power.

Solar energy costs are also dropping. A report by the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory says the cost of energy sold to utilities from large-scale solar power operations has fallen by more than 70 percent since 2008.

"This marked the fourth consecutive year of significant price reductions for residential and commercial systems in the U.S.," Galen Barbose, one of the report's authors, said in a statement.

The solar industry has also become an important source of jobs for Americans. A report by the nonprofit Solar Foundation found the industry employs more than 142,000 Americans at a rate that's growing 10 times faster than the national employment rate.

And as the Atlantic hurricane season continues, some analysts look to solar power as an important resource to help high-population regions withstand the impact of disasters such as 2012's Superstorm Sandy. That monster knocked out power to more than 7 million people along the U.S. East Coast.

A report published earlier this month by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York, noted many Northeastern states are now considering solar-powered "microgrids" to protect essential buildings and operations against large-scale outages of the "macrogrid" and to minimize any economic damage from a long-term power outage.

Internationally, 2014 is expected to be a strong year for PV solar installations. The research group IHS Technology projects PV installations will rise globally to 45.4 gigawatts, with a third of those taking place in the fourth quarter alone.

Powering that "major acceleration," as described by IHS's senior director of solar research, is the U.S. and China, which are expected to account for over half of the world's solar installations during the fourth quarter.

Despite declines in some European nations, IHS is forecasting that the U.K. will become the world's fourth-largest solar power market this year, after China, Japan and the U.S. It also predicts the solar power market to slow down but "remain solid" for 2015.





“During 2014's second quarter, photovoltaic (PV) installations in the U.S. went over the gigawatt mark for the third consecutive quarter, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). A gigawatt is equivalent to the amount of power needed for around 750,000 homes.... Solar energy costs are also dropping. A report by the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory says the cost of energy sold to utilities from large-scale solar power operations has fallen by more than 70 percent since 2008.... The solar industry has also become an important source of jobs for Americans. A report by the nonprofit Solar Foundation found the industry employs more than 142,000 Americans at a rate that's growing 10 times faster than the national employment rate..... Powering that "major acceleration," as described by IHS's senior director of solar research, is the U.S. and China, which are expected to account for over half of the world's solar installations during the fourth quarter.... Despite declines in some European nations, IHS is forecasting that the U.K. will become the world's fourth-largest solar power market this year, after China, Japan and the U.S. It also predicts the solar power market to slow down but "remain solid" for 2015.”

So despite the efforts of big coal and big oil to forestall the development of solar power as a major source of energy, it is moving on. It doesn't work everywhere, but it works very well in some places. If I can't look at butterflies and fireflies anymore, maybe I can look at solar panels on roofs all over the city. That will cheer me up.





After the cameras leave, is Ferguson any different?
By VLADIMIR DUTHIERS CBS NEWS
October 13, 2014, 7:26 PM

FERGUSON, Mo. - As thousands gathered in the streets and at St. Louis University for the weekend's last protest, young people challenged those here to think about what happens in Ferguson after the crowds and cameras leave.

A week before the protests we found one young man, 24-year-old Frankie Edwards trying to make a difference.

"Now we got people after school just hanging on the streets, not doing nothing positive," said Edwards.

Edwards grew up here and says he's trying to spread the word about free services like job training and re-entry programs for felons.

In the Penrose neighborhood the crime rate is 22 percent higher than the rest of St. Louis. Just last week, Edwards' godbrother was murdered.

When asked if the political figures who came to Ferguson following Michael Brown's death had made a difference, Edwards is emphatic.

"No, sir," said Edwards. "No. Where they at now? What have they changed? They don't never come with a solution for a problem."

In Ferguson, 46.9 percent of black men Frankie's age (20-24) are unemployed.

The jobless rate for the city's black males overall is 27.5 percent, four times the national average. For white men here, it's 6.9 percent. And in this town - where seventy percent of the residents are black - five out of six council members are white, as is the mayor.

Rita Days is the director of elections for St. Louis County.

"If these young people truly want to get involved," said Days. "They will register, they will vote, and they will continue to stay involved with the process."

But just 12 percent of Ferguson's eligible voters participated in the last election. And only 4.5 percent of eligible new voters have registered since Michael Brown was killed.

Which might make some wonder if protesters' drumming is the sound of a new drumbeat for change ... or just noise?




“A week before the protests we found one young man, 24-year-old Frankie Edwards trying to make a difference. 'Now we got people after school just hanging on the streets, not doing nothing positive,' said Edwards. Edwards grew up here and says he's trying to spread the word about free services like job training and re-entry programs for felons.... When asked if the political figures who came to Ferguson following Michael Brown's death had made a difference, Edwards is emphatic. 'No, sir,' said Edwards. 'No. Where they at now? What have they changed? They don't never come with a solution for a problem.'... The jobless rate for the city's black males overall is 27.5 percent, four times the national average. For white men here, it's 6.9 percent.”

Neighborhood people need to make a project of getting unregistered adults on the voter rolls and get them the ID's that they need, so that they can truly vote some black people into positions in the city government. They could also create a list of useful projects to improve the neighborhood and recruit volunteers to do the various tasks. Being unemployed gives them time in which to do volunteer jobs. Does trash need to be picked up in the neighborhood? Do the elderly people need help in their yards or houses? Are street lights burned out or broken? Are the sidewalks cracked and broken? Is there a committee to discuss neighborhood issues in a positive way (not just “venting”) and decide what to do about them? What about some neighborhood watch groups to be aware of who is selling drugs or doing muggings? Almost all white neighborhoods have Neighborhood Watch groups, and blacks should too. An oversight committee could be formed among the black citizens to check on all the projects that are going on and communicate regularly with the police officers who police their neighborhood. The police department could also set up their own committee for communication with the neighborhood citizens. Have town meetings on a regular basis, like monthly, to discuss disputes or problems. When neighbors don't organize and go to the city government to work with them about problems, and especially when they don't even vote, they will be at the mercy of fate and, yes, the rogue police officers – which isn't all the police – and under those conditions, all they can do about their situation is march or worse, riot. The Ferguson police department needs great improvement, but so does the Ferguson neighborhood. Poor and unemployed people don't have to be morbidly depressed and deeply negative in their attitude. Hatred and distrust of the police is not a positive attitude. From those things come the crime and drug addiction that flourish where people don't work creatively and doggedly to improve their situations. Young Frankie Edwards would make a good leader to start this process going.





British Lawmakers Vote To Recognize Palestinian State – NPR
by SCOTT NEUMAN
October 14, 2014

Photograph: A man wears a Palestinian and Union flag outside the Houses of Parliament in London on Monday to show his support for the symbolic vote.

Britain's Parliament has voted to support the recognition of a Palestinian state in a symbolic vote that follows a similar move by Sweden.

The BBC says the 274 to 12 vote in the House of Commons is being described by the chamber "'as a contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution' - although less than half of MPs took part in the vote."

The Independent writes that the non-binding resolution urges the government to "recognise the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel" as part of a "contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution".

According to the newspaper:

"Support for the motion, while symbolic, marks a significant change in the political landscape, following the failure of successive peace negotiations and the bitter conflict in Gaza over the summer.

"Significantly Labour whipped its MPs to vote in favour of the resolution, raising the prospect that the party would defy Israel's wishes and recognise Palestine as a state should it come to power at the next election."

Reuters notes:

"Prime Minister David Cameron abstained from the vote, which was called by an opposition lawmaker, and Cameron's spokesman earlier said that foreign policy would not be affected whatever the outcome.

However, the vote was closely watched by Palestinian and Israeli authorities who are seeking to gauge European countries' readiness to act on Palestinian hopes for unilateral recognition by U.N. member states."

The Associated Press says: The British House of Commons' vote Monday came nearly 100 years after Britain issued its famous Balfour Declaration in 1917, which affirmed its support for establishing a home for the Jewish people in Palestine. Israel was founded in 1948.

Israel's recent settlement activity, such as last month's approval of the construction of more Jewish housing in east Jerusalem, has 'a very corrosive effect on international opinion,' Britian's ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould told, told Israeli radio.

As we reported earlier this month, Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said his center-left government would recognize Palestine, although he did not say when that would occur.

More than 100 other countries have already recognized the Palestinian state.




“Britain's Parliament has voted to support the recognition of a Palestinian state in a symbolic vote that follows a similar move by Sweden. The BBC says the 274 to 12 vote in the House of Commons is being described by the chamber 'as a contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution' - although less than half of MPs took part in the vote.'... "Support for the motion, while symbolic, marks a significant change in the political landscape, following the failure of successive peace negotiations and the bitter conflict in Gaza over the summer. 'Significantly Labour whipped its MPs to vote in favour of the resolution, raising the prospect that the party would defy Israel's wishes and recognise Palestine as a state should it come to power at the next election.'... Israel's recent settlement activity, such as last month's approval of the construction of more Jewish housing in east Jerusalem, has 'a very corrosive effect on international opinion,' Britian's ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould told, told Israeli radio.”

"More than 100 other countries have already recognized the Palestinian state.” Much of world opinion tends to favor the return of the Jewish people to Israel, but they shouldn't shoulder the Palestinians aside in a callous lack of consideration for their human rights. The Palestinians on the other hand mustn't continue to refuse to acknowledge the Jewish state. Otherwise there will be unending war of a very debilitating sort throughout the whole Middle East. Many Arab nations have declared themselves as enemies of Israel, likewise failing to recognize them as a nation, largely because of the failure of Israel to make significant steps toward a lasting peace between the two nations, which involves the ongoing Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory and Israel's rejection of the Palestinian leaders. Meanwhile, the whole world is being destabilized by the problems in the Middle East, and an unthinkable group who call themselves the Islamic State is establishing a foothold for themselves as a new nation. It is a truly horrible situation, and it is a real danger to the US. I hate to say it, but we need to withdraw some of our apparently unconditional support of Israel so that they will move toward a true peace with the Palestinian territory and with the rest of the Middle East.





Could "Copenhagen Wheel" reinvent the urban commute?
By MICHELLE MILLER CBS NEWS October 12, 2014, 8:14 PM

Since it was invented in the 19th century, the basic concept of the bicycle has stayed the same. That may be changing. Some believe the "Copenhagen Wheel" can be the future of urban transportation.

At his Cambridge, Mass., workshop, Assaf Biderman is reinventing the wheel.

"You start pedaling. The wheel understands how you pedal and then it helps you," he explained. "It just pushes you, multiplying your power up to 10 times."

It works like this: replace a regular bike wheel with a Copenhagen Wheel. The bike now works like an electric-hybrid car. A tiny computer tells the motor when to kick in. Plug the wheel into the wall to recharge it -- or just ride.

"If you're going downhill, it actually brakes you automatically and stores your energy in the battery," Biderman said. "If you're going uphill, it gives you an extra push."

The wheel can go as far as 30 miles at speeds of up to 20 miles per hour. Biderman wouldn't show CBS News the inner workings, fearful of copycats.
A smartphone app is all it takes to program the ride.

"When you launch the app, you can select from a bunch of modes," he said. "'Flatten my city,' that's one of my favorites. That makes hills feel like they're flat."

While demonstrating the Copenhagen Wheel, Biderman describes the feel of the ride: "It responds to your pedaling."

Sanjay Sarma, MIT's Director of Digital Learning, said everyday items, like thermostats and locks, are becoming smarter thanks to powerful sensors and Wi-Fi connectivity.

"It's a whole matter of the environment adapting to you and learning about you," he said. "Every mechanical thing potentially that we deal with, has a potential of being automated and becoming much more convenient for us."

Biderman has sold several thousand wheels so far. He's hoping his Copenhagen Wheel can reinvent the commute.

"It's awesome," Biderman said. "It's actually cooler than I expected."




“It works like this: replace a regular bike wheel with a Copenhagen Wheel. The bike now works like an electric-hybrid car. A tiny computer tells the motor when to kick in. Plug the wheel into the wall to recharge it -- or just ride. 'If you're going downhill, it actually brakes you automatically and stores your energy in the battery,' Biderman said. 'If you're going uphill, it gives you an extra push.' The wheel can go as far as 30 miles at speeds of up to 20 miles per hour.... A smartphone app is all it takes to program the ride. 'When you launch the app, you can select from a bunch of modes," he said. 'Flatten my city,' that's one of my favorites. That makes hills feel like they're flat.'... While demonstrating the Copenhagen Wheel, Biderman describes the feel of the ride: 'It responds to your pedaling.' Sanjay Sarma, MIT's Director of Digital Learning, said everyday items, like thermostats and locks, are becoming smarter thanks to powerful sensors and Wi-Fi connectivity. 'It's a whole matter of the environment adapting to you and learning about you,' he said.”

A wheel “learning about me” and therefore helping me in my pedaling. It contains an apparently electric motor which helps do the work. I can see this helping thousands of people get back and forth to work daily without their having to own a car. That would cut down on the hydrocarbons being burned and would save many poor families a good deal of money. Of course on rainy days the commuter had better own a good rain poncho, and to be really useful, the bike would need a basket on the back for the lunch box and/or briefcase. I've seen city scenes in places like China with hundreds of bikers all going in to work – no cars. Most people wouldn't really choose to do that unless they just couldn't afford a car, but maybe some would do it as their contribution to the global warming solutions. At any rate it's a very interesting device and I think they will appear on our city streets within the next few years. If they are expensive now, the price should go down with time, as usually happens with new technology.