Tuesday, December 9, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Smaller, smarter: The power grid evolves to fuel the future
By HEBA KANSO CBS NEWS December 9, 2014, 5:00 AM

NEW YORK -- America's hunger for electrical power has been growing ever since that day in 1879 when Thomas Edison created the first long-lasting incandescent light bulb.

Edison didn't stop with a single light bulb. He also brought us the first commercial power grid in 1882. The Pearl Street Station in lower Manhattan transmitted electricity from a central station to other surrounding buildings.

The demand for electricity has, of course, grown exponentially since then, and it's expected to keep rising; the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates we'll be using almost one-third more by 2040.

But while the grid has developed into a vast network, it sometimes struggles to meet demand and to withstand bad weather and technical failures.

"To some extent it's going to break, it's going to break, it's going to break because it's old and ailing or mother nature is going to come along and cause mischief," said Stephen Flynn, Director for Resilience Studies at Northeastern University. "When we put it back together we should make it smarter and better, we shouldn't just put Humpty Dumpty back together again."

A number of different approaches and innovative technologies are being developed to try to meet that challenge and deliver power for the next generation.

Microgrids

A microgrid is essentially a smaller grid that can work independently and disconnect from the larger grid.

And sometimes they aren't easy to spot. Walking around New York University's Washington Square campus, you would never notice that you are actually walking in a microgrid. NYU's underground cogeneration or cogen plant produces both electricity and steam even when the main utility company fails.

The NYU microgrid got its first big test during Superstorm Sandy in 2012, when the local utility Con Edison suffered widespread blackouts, leaving most of lower Manhattan in the dark. In the midst of the storm, NYU's campus shined like a bright light.

"When Superstorm Sandy happened and we were what we call in 'island mode' and our power plant, our cogen plant, ran independent of the Con Ed grid. And we provided power to the 26 buildings throughout the duration of superstorm Sandy," said John Bradley, NYU's associate vice president of sustainability, energy and technical services.

 CBS NEWS
"A cogen plant is an integral part of a microgrid. And a microgrid is a system of connected buildings that get their power from a central power station," said Bradley.

Bradley oversaw the plant's design. Construction started in 2008 and was completed in 2010.

The project had a hefty price tag of $125 million to build. But it saves NYU up to $5 million a year in utility costs.

At the core of the plant are two gas turbines fueled by natural gas. They produce electricity, and unlike most power plants, the exhaust doesn't go to waste.

"What we do is we capture that exhaust energy in a waist-deep boiler and we produce steam. And then we do work with that steam. In our case we make high temperature hot water for heating and we make chilled water for cooling," said Bradley.

The university's plant is approaching 80 percent efficiency, compared to a normal plant which is 50 percent efficient. Because it is close to the buildings it serves, less power is lost when electricity is transmitted through power lines, and the shorter lines are easier to maintain.

Bradley says it integrates perfectly with another innovative idea in grid technology - the "smart grid." "End users, especially large end users like New York University, can help manage the grid and improve reliability," he said. "So in peak times of the summer we are asked to lower our demand. It's called demand response. And by doing that the grid operator avoids blackouts or brownouts in the city."

Smart grid software

A lot of the focus on improving the power grid has been on trying to create a "smart grid," which basically means making it more efficient, responsive and reliable through modern technology.

One company on the leading edge is Smarter Grid Solutions. Their software tracks the grid in real-time, communicating what's happening when it is actually happening.


CBS NEWS

"What we do is provide a solution to utilities that are looking for new ways to connect more distributed energy resources to the grid," said the company's co-founder and chief technology officer Bob Currie.

The software is used by power and utility companies to increase their existing grid capacity by connecting more renewable energy and working with the growing demand for electricity.

Instead of building new infrastructure, this new technology allows the power and utility companies to make the existing grid more efficient.

If parts of the grid that are reaching the limit of what the system can handle, the software can prevent an overload from occurring by coordinating with different devices, like power generators, to help with the capacity issue.

"We receive lots of data from the utility systems so when they show us what's happening in the different parts of the grid where power is flowing, our software then analysis that identifies where there are problems, and then it connects those problems to the things it can control. And it automatically controls them to remove the problems," said Currie.

The company's first project was in 2009 on the Orkney Islands in Scotland. The Orkney project saved 23,000 tons of CO2 in one year working with wind farms.

Environmental and energy experts say this type of technology makes the grid more productive and allows for more renewables to be used to their full advantage.

"Real-time tracking and real-time data is essential to making it possible for us to cut the waste out of the system and understand how we can make maximum use of clean technologies like solar wind and geothermal," said Andrew Darrell, New York regional director and chief of strategy for Environmental Defense Fund's U.S. Climate and Energy Program

Smart grid software has also been implemented in big cities like London. Smarter Grid Solutions is currently doing a nine-month study in New York researching how to make the city's grid more efficient and reliable.

"It's like we are managing the traffic on the roads, almost," Currie explained. "If you set the traffic lights up to operate to a schedule and you just forget about them, then you are missing an opportunity to coordinate those traffic lights based on the actual traffic on the road. So by monitoring and making decisions in a real-time and an ongoing basis, we can adapt to whatever is happening and fit more through the system."




“But while the grid has developed into a vast network, it sometimes struggles to meet demand and to withstand bad weather and technical failures. "To some extent it's going to break, it's going to break, it's going to break because it's old and ailing or mother nature is going to come along and cause mischief," said Stephen Flynn, Director for Resilience Studies at Northeastern University. "When we put it back together we should make it smarter and better, we shouldn't just put Humpty Dumpty back together again." A number of different approaches and innovative technologies are being developed to try to meet that challenge and deliver power for the next generation.... "When Superstorm Sandy happened and we were what we call in 'island mode' and our power plant, our cogen plant, ran independent of the Con Ed grid. And we provided power to the 26 buildings throughout the duration of superstorm Sandy," said John Bradley, NYU's associate vice president of sustainability, energy and technical services.... The project had a hefty price tag of $125 million to build. But it saves NYU up to $5 million a year in utility costs. At the core of the plant are two gas turbines fueled by natural gas. They produce electricity, and unlike most power plants, the exhaust doesn't go to waste. "What we do is we capture that exhaust energy in a waist-deep boiler and we produce steam. And then we do work with that steam. In our case we make high temperature hot water for heating and we make chilled water for cooling," said Bradley.... Bradley says it integrates perfectly with another innovative idea in grid technology - the "smart grid." "End users, especially large end users like New York University, can help manage the grid and improve reliability," he said. "So in peak times of the summer we are asked to lower our demand. It's called demand response. And by doing that the grid operator avoids blackouts or brownouts in the city."... The software is used by power and utility companies to increase their existing grid capacity by connecting more renewable energy and working with the growing demand for electricity.... The company's first project was in 2009 on the Orkney Islands in Scotland. The Orkney project saved 23,000 tons of CO2 in one year working with wind farms. Environmental and energy experts say this type of technology makes the grid more productive and allows for more renewables to be used to their full advantage. "Real-time tracking and real-time data is essential to making it possible for us to cut the waste out of the system and understand how we can make maximum use of clean technologies like solar wind and geothermal," said Andrew Darrell...”

There were technical problems about integrating renewable energy with the main city power grid reported in some news articles last year. Under ten years ago people were still saying that making renewable electrical power useful was not feasible. I believe many of the complaints of that kind were spread by the oil and coal industry, who lobby the US government still to prevent the passing of laws and giving of money to renewable energy companies for their research and development. It is clear that a good deal of success has been gained, and that we should continue to push for greater use of renewables. The Orkney project saved 23,000 tons of CO2. If that happens across the US in many places, we may reach our CO2 reduction goals. The bad news for the oil and coal industries is that in the short run they will make less money, but in the long run it will work to their advantage – our supply of fossil fuels will last longer and we can remain less dependent on Saudi Arabia and others. Isn't that a win-win?





http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/09/religion-quashes-innovation-patents

Study: Science and Religion Really Are Enemies After All
New research finds that religious countries and US states produce fewer patents per capita.
—By Chris Mooney
Wed Sep. 3, 2014

Photograph – Evangelist T.T. Martin's books against the theory of evolution are sold in Dayton, Tennessee, scene of the 1925 Scopes trial. AP

Are science and religion doomed to eternal "warfare," or can they just get along? Philosophers, theologians, scientists, and atheists debate this subject endlessly (and often, angrily). We hear a lot less from economists on the matter, however. But in arecent paper, Princeton economist Roland Bénabou and two colleagues unveiled a surprising finding that would at least appear to bolster the "conflict" camp: Both across countries and also across US states, higher levels of religiosity are related to lower levels of scientific innovation.

"Places with higher levels of religiosity have lower rates of scientific and technical innovation, as measured by patents per capita," comments Bénabou. He adds that the pattern persists "when controlling for differences in income per capita, population, and rates of higher education."

That's the most salient finding from the paper by Bénabou and his colleagues, which uses an economic model to explore how scientific innovation, religiosity, and the power of the state interact to form different "regimes." The three kinds of regimes that they identify: a secular, European-style regime in which religion has very little policy influence and science garners great support; a repressive, theocratic regime in which the state and religion merge to suppress science; and a more intermediate, American-style regime in which religion and science both thrive, with the state supporting science and religions (mostly) trying to accommodate themselves to its findings.

It is in the process of this inquiry on the relationship between science, religion, and the state that the researchers dive into an analysis of patents, both in the United States and across the globe. And the results are pretty striking.

First, the researchers looked at the raw data on patents per capita (taken from the World Intellectual Property Organization's data) and religiosity (based on the following question from the World Values Survey: "Independently of whether you go to church or not, would you say you are: a religious person, not a religious person, a convinced atheist, don't know"). And they found a "strong negative relationship" between the two. In other words, for countries around the world, more religion was tied to fewer patents per individual residing in the country.

Those data aren't shown here, however, because in many ways, that would be too simplistic of an analysis. It is clear that many other factors than just religion (wealth, education, and so on) influence a country's number of patents per capita. What's striking, however, is that after the authors controlled for no less than five other standard variables related to innovation (population, levels of economic development, levels of foreign investment, educational levels, and intellectual property protections) the relationship still persisted. 

Note that Japan and China clearly stand out as highly secular, highly innovative countries. At the other extreme, meanwhile, we find nations like Portugal, Morocco, and Iran. (The full analysis in the study also included data from the years 1980 and 1995; those are not shown here. Only country data from the year 2000 are labeled above.)

One important point of to keep in mind before comparing individual countries with one another: The figure above should not be interpreted as saying (for example) that China produces more patents per capita than the United States. Indeed, that isn't actually true: While Chinese residents filed more total patent applications (560,681) in 2012 than citizens of any other country including the United States (460,276), the US still filed more patents per capita, since its population is less than a third of China's. Rather, what this result means is that after controlling for other factors, China appears to have more unexplained innovation "left over" than the United States. (For stats nerds: What we are talking about here is the residual after a regression analysis.) It is this leftover or residual value—the differences in innovation that can't be explained by other factors—that the researchers are saying is associated with religion.

The authors then apply a similar analysis to the 50 US states, this time using patent data from the US Patent and Trademark Office and religion questions from a 2008 Pew Survey, including the following: "How important is religion in your life: very important, somewhat important, not too important, or not at all important?" 

Note that states like Vermont and Oregon are highly innovative and not very religious, whereas innovation lags in states like Arkansas and Mississippi, even as religion thrives. The authors note in their paper, however, that while the Bible Belt states tend to show the most religion and least innovation, the finding does not depend on them. "The negative association holds throughout the sample," they write.

Once again, before going and trying to compare states with one another: Keep in mind that the figure above does not mean that Delaware or Idaho produce more patents per capita than Massachusetts or California. Once again, it simply means that Delaware and Idaho have more "left over"—or residual—innovation after other factors are controlled for.

It is important to keep in mind that these findings are correlational in nature; the authors explain that they do not allow for "definite causal inferences to be drawn." Their own view is that causation probably "goes both ways": Religiosity stifles innovation, but at the same time, innovation and science weaken religiosity. Or as they put it: "In both international and cross-state U.S. data, there is a significant negative relationship between religiosity and innovativeness (patents per capita), even after controlling for the standard empirical determinants of the latter."

Explaining in more detail, Bénabou notes that he thinks that much comes down to the political power of the religious population in a given location. If it is large enough, it can wield its strength to block new insights. "Disruptive new ideas and practices emanating from science, technical progress or social change are then met with greater resistance and diffuse more slowly," comments Bénabou, citing everything from attempts to control science textbook content to efforts to cut public funding of certain kinds of research (for instance involving embryonic stem cells or cloned human embryos). In secular places, by contrast, "discoveries and innovations occur faster, and some of this new knowledge inevitably erodes beliefs in any fixed dogma."

So what do other scholars think? "It is a very important finding. And it is done well and correctly, using state of the art techniques," comments Joel Mokyr, an economic historian at Northwestern University who is familiar with the Bénabou et al. paper (he is thanked in the acknowledgments). Mokyr admits that "innovation is hard to quantify," but one reasonable way to do it—if still imperfect—is to "count patents."

Doing so, it would seem, lends support to the science-religion conflict thesis: the idea that in places where religion predominates, inquiry truly does take a hit.




“Philosophers, theologians, scientists, and atheists debate this subject endlessly (and often, angrily). We hear a lot less from economists on the matter, however. But in arecent paper, Princeton economist Roland Bénabou and two colleagues unveiled a surprising finding that would at least appear to bolster the "conflict" camp: Both across countries and also across US states, higher levels of religiosity are related to lower levels of scientific innovation. "Places with higher levels of religiosity have lower rates of scientific and technical innovation, as measured by patents per capita," comments Bénabou. He adds that the pattern persists "when controlling for differences in income per capita, population, and rates of higher education."... ...interact to form different "regimes." The three kinds of regimes that they identify: a secular, European-style regime in which religion has very little policy influence and science garners great support; a repressive, theocratic regime in which the state and religion merge to suppress science; and a more intermediate, American-style regime in which religion and science both thrive, with the state supporting science and religions...” …. It is clear that many other factors than just religion (wealth, education, and so on) influence a country's number of patents per capita. What's striking, however, is that after the authors controlled for no less than five other standard variables related to innovation (population, levels of economic development, levels of foreign investment, educational levels, and intellectual property protections) the relationship still persisted. Note that Japan and China clearly stand out as highly secular, highly innovative countries. At the other extreme, meanwhile, we find nations like Portugal, Morocco, and Iran.... Explaining in more detail, Bénabou notes that he thinks that much comes down to the political power of the religious population in a given location. If it is large enough, it can wield its strength to block new insights. "Disruptive new ideas and practices emanating from science, technical progress or social change are then met with greater resistance and diffuse more slowly," comments Bénabou... Doing so, it would seem, lends support to the science-religion conflict thesis: the idea that in places where religion predominates, inquiry truly does take a hit.”

This information takes me back to my days on the playground in the 5th or 6th grade, when I encountered classmates who went to a Baptist church. I want to mention this because I went to a Methodist church. There have been long-standing disputes between those two religions going back to the late 1800s when fundamentalism and an evangelical movement began to sweep the country. Methodists who are religiously more liberal tend to consider themselves superior to fundamentalists of all kinds and Baptists in particular. That isn't good, but it is unavoidable. Methodists just don't have noisy and exuberant religious services. Black southerners tend to be more like the Baptists than the United Methodists. The Wesleyan Methodists were more similar to the Baptists. The Baptist kids had several differences from my views – 1) they were forbidden from dancing or wearing makeup, 2) they believed in the Bible literally word for every blessed word (according to the King James version, of course) and that if I disagreed that meant I was going straight to Hell when I died, 3) they hated Jews (“the Jews killed Jesus was the reason I was given), 4) they believed that Darwin's theories were heresy, 5) they were strict in attending Sunday services and thronged to “tent meetings,” where an excited and ranting preacher would try to convince as many viewers as possible to “come down front” and “accept Jesus Christ” before an approving crowd. Most of those people would stand up with their hands in the air, sway from side to side and even faint from the excitement of it all.

Methodists just don't do those things. Methodists have dignified services which led the audience to spiritual fulfillment by thought rather than emotional exhortation. Methodists allow free thought even if they disagree with it. They are less likely than Baptists to start a new church over some doctrinal disagreement. They don't talk about the end of the world, unless they have started that since I left their fold. My particular church, at any rate, talked about a more gentle and service oriented Christian doctrine in which giving food to the poor was stressed over the burning topic “Are you saved?” I can't remember a Methodist ever asking me that.

The point I'm making is that there are Christian or Christianity related religions (such as my current Unitarian Universalist church) which welcome thinking, a free-form exploration of spiritual meaning, and, yes, lots of learning. School books that teach evolution are not banned by Methodists. Fundamentalism is what has happened around the world in reality rather than merely the growth of “religiosity.” Fundamentalism in Christianity, Islam, and some cults of more unusual kinds have taken over the religious airwaves and free thinking is now one of the major sins. In the Middle East free thought is going to get you the death penalty if the Taliban, ISIS or al-Qaeda is active in the neighborhood.

Religious thought at its best will improve the moral, ethical and emotionally stable societal trends but will not stifle the exploratory use of our brains for every possible function as needed. It also won't start a war or genocide. When that kind of religious thought happens, I think we will find that science will be fostered along with better citizenship and an ability to love our fellow man. I don't think the Anglican Church and certainly the UUs will have an oppressive influence over their members mental development and civil rights like the Baptist Church does.

I haven't seen the report referenced in this article, but I think if specifically which religion people choose to espouse were taken into account, there would be a smaller influence over the number of patents issued by people of liberal faiths. I think being a part of a kindness and tolerance oriented community of faith greatly improves the whole human being and our societies, along with increasing all sorts of secular learning. Yes, for good churches and yes for truthful and informative school coursework. And yes, for scientific progress and innovation. Those things will save human society over the next 50 years or so when climate change and famine may be what we face.





Berkeley mayor: Some protesters "cowards and thugs"
CBS/AP December 9, 2014, 5:14 AM

BERKELEY, Calif. -- Hundreds of people marched through Berkeley for a third night a row, blocking a major highway and stopping a train as activists in this ultra-liberal bastion protested grand jury decisions not to indict white police officers in the deaths of two unarmed black men.

Demonstrators blocked traffic on both sides of Interstate 80 in Berkeley, while another group stood on and sat on train tracks, forcing an Amtrak train to stop Monday night.

At one point, a woman in a vehicle stuck in the traffic jam caused by the I-80 blockage went into labor, and the local fire department had to get her to a hospital.

The city's mayor called some of the protesters "cowards and thugs."

A large group of people began peacefully marching earlier Monday through downtown Berkeley. The first stop for demonstrators shouting, "Who do you protect? Peaceful protest" was the Berkeley Police Department. A line of officers in riot gear blocked them from getting close to the building. The group then headed to a Bay Area Rapid Transit train station and sat outside, prompting authorities to briefly shut down the station.

But as the night went on, the protesters divided into smaller groups that disrupted traffic and train passengers.

The California Highway Patrol said in a tweet that some in the crowd tore down fencing to enter the freeway.

By 10:15 p.m. local time, protesters were being cleared from both directions of the freeway but traffic was still backed up, reports CBS San Francisco station KPIX-TV, citing the California Highway Patrol.

Merchants in downtown Berkeley on Monday cleaned up broken glass and took stock of the previous night's looting after a protest turned that turned violent Sunday night.
 
Although many activists in other parts of the country have gone home, protests in Berkeley and Oakland are still active, reflecting the area's long history of protest dating to the 1960s.

The crowds that came out to protest in Berkeley numbered only a few hundred, but some are not college students or residents so much as full-time demonstrators who protest anything - war, prison conditions and economic inequality - and sometimes use demonstrations as a pretext for violence and vandalism, just as they did during the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates said a tiny fraction of protesters are obscuring the wider message calling for reform of policing policies nationwide.

"The people in the Bay Area are sensitive to worldwide issues," Bates said. "Unfortunately, there is a small element that uses violence at times to make their point."
Bates called the violent elements of the demonstration "cowards and thugs who need to take off their masks."

It was not immediately known if protesters were arrested Monday night. Five people were arrested Sunday, police said.

Stuart Geiger, 27, a University of California, Berkeley, doctoral student, attended the protest and recorded video of peaceful demonstrators attempting to stop the looting of a Radio Shack.

"There was a pretty vocal sentiment there about keep this a peaceful protest and stay on message," Geiger said.

Another peaceful protester was struck by a hammer and slightly injured when he tried to stop looting.

In keeping with the city's protest history, Berkeley leaders have put limits on their police. Officers cannot have search dogs, stun guns or helicopters and are restricted in the type of gear they can wear, said Berkeley police union President Sgt. Chris Stines.

"All of us are out there wearing what we wear on patrol, and as a result, we are getting pretty banged up," he said, explaining that shin and chest guards and padded vests would help prevent injuries. At least three officers suffered minor injuries.

The protests started after a Nov. 24 decision by the grand jury not to indict officer Darren Wilson not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. A New York grand jury on Dec. 3 declined to prosecute a police officer captured on video applying a fatal chokehold on Eric Garner. That decision set off another series of demonstrations nationwide.

Oakland police have arrested about 200 people since the protests started.




“A large group of people began peacefully marching earlier Monday through downtown Berkeley. The first stop for demonstrators shouting, "Who do you protect? Peaceful protest" was the Berkeley Police Department. A line of officers in riot gear blocked them from getting close to the building. The group then headed to a Bay Area Rapid Transit train station and sat outside, prompting authorities to briefly shut down the station. But as the night went on, the protesters divided into smaller groups that disrupted traffic and train passengers. The California Highway Patrol said in a tweet that some in the crowd tore down fencing to enter the freeway.... Merchants in downtown Berkeley on Monday cleaned up broken glass and took stock of the previous night's looting after a protest turned that turned violent Sunday night. Although many activists in other parts of the country have gone home, protests in Berkeley and Oakland are still active, reflecting the area's long history of protest dating to the 1960s.... "The people in the Bay Area are sensitive to worldwide issues," Bates said. "Unfortunately, there is a small element that uses violence at times to make their point." Bates called the violent elements of the demonstration "cowards and thugs who need to take off their masks."... Stuart Geiger, 27, a University of California, Berkeley, doctoral student, attended the protest and recorded video of peaceful demonstrators attempting to stop the looting of a Radio Shack. "There was a pretty vocal sentiment there about keep this a peaceful protest and stay on message," Geiger said. Another peaceful protester was struck by a hammer and slightly injured when he tried to stop looting.... Oakland police have arrested about 200 people since the protests started.”

This does remind me of the 1970's. I would like to see an intelligent, highly respected, and peaceful leader who leads the protests and keeps people from looting or injuring anyone, including the police. There is a need for a new Civil Rights update, however, and it is nationwide, not just in the South. The most interesting thing I have seen in the news this week is the business about a “philosophy” of policing called “broken window policing.” Under this way of thinking, the local police officer is really supposed to crack down hard on people caught doing very minor things (which is exactly what happened in Ferguson and in NYC over walking in the street and selling loose cigarettes). That sort of intimidating policing technique is supposed to suppress the more extreme violence and crime in general. The theory is that where there are “broken windows” there is a lack of respect for authority and our civilization. I agree that there is poverty where you find property in disrepair and trash lying in the streets, but I don't think that poverty directly caused disobedience to the rules of society. I also know that sort of policing causes a total distrust of the police and yes, hatred of them, and that won't work toward better crime control.

I also think that real crime (robbery, theft, muggings, personal assaults, rape and murder) are a product of poor mental health and hopelessness most of the time, plus sometimes the “psychopath” factor – innate cruelty coupled with a lack of conscience. By the way, I think that too much of this police brutality is a product of innate cruelty on the part of the policemen. Such people are drawn to a job where they can physically and mentally abuse people without being punished for it. That's why pedophiles try to get hired by the school system. Logical, no? Police departments need to go to much greater lengths to weed those bad apples out by not hiring them in the first place, and by punishing them soundly when they break out in unnecessary and egregious violence as they have been doing. Police need to have at least a 4 year degree in liberal arts with some psychology, philosophy and law courses, and they should be given a broad scope psychological examination by a professional before being hired. That would make a real difference.

An ex-police officer from the St Louis PD wrote a Washington Post article which I clipped yesterday, and spoke about his experiences. He quit the force after five years and is now involved in racial issues with the NAACP. He said that he thinks the real reason why there is so much violence and especially racially based assaults by police is because they just aren't being punished by their superiors when they do it. He also said that a special prosecutor should be called in when one of those incidents is being investigated, and a local citizens review board over the police should be instituted in all cities. I agree 100% with him. I think it boils down to a few things which have increased these incidents over the last 20 years or so.





Obama steals the show on "The Colbert Report"
CBS NEWS December 9, 2014, 10:12 AM

President Obama was the guest on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" Monday night. It was his first and last visit, as Stephen Colbert gets ready to end the program.

The interview was conducted with a crowd of 1,500 at George Washington University. It was Obama's first in-person appearance on the "The Colbert Report" as president, and he even showed off his skills behind the anchor desk, reports CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford.

The leader of the free world began by kicking Stephen Colbert off the set of his own show.

Colbert: "President Obama, I'm thrilled that you're here, but I did not expect you for another three minutes."
Obama: "Stephen, you've been taking a lot of shots of my job, I decided I'm gonna go and take a shot of yours."

He settled in behind the anchor desk, and performed Colbert's monologue as Stephen Colbert.

"Nation, as you know I, Stephen Colbert, have never cared for our president," Obama said on the show. "The guy is so arrogant; I bet he talks about himself in the third person."

And in full pundit mode, the president, attacked his own health care plan.
"Remember the original Healthcare.gov website? I think that's where Disney got the idea for Frozen," he said.

Later, Colbert and the president traded jabs.

Colbert: "Why didn't you fix the economy before the midterm elections? You know your job? I would have done it before the election so people were happy when they voted. Then maybe you wouldn't have to come on 'The Colbert Report.'"
Obama: "The truth is the economy had been on a pretty good run."
Colbert: "I'll give it to you; you've employed a lot of people, mostly as secretary of defense."
Obama: "That's boosted our numbers a little bit."
The comedian probed him for state secrets:
Colbert: "You have the nuclear launch codes right?"
Obama: "Yes, I do."
Colbert: "I'm not gonna ask for them, but... "
Obama: "Good."
Colbert: "Can you tell me if there's a five in there?"
Obama: "No."
And about family time inside the White House residence:
Obama: "When I go home, Michelle, Malia and Sasha give me a hard time and umm, there are no trumpets."
Colbert: "Do you do normal things like leave your socks on the floor and stuff like that?"
Obama: "I do."
Colbert: "You do? How's that go over?"
Obama: "Not well."

Colbert joked that President Obama is now the new permanent guest host of the show -- but the comedy central program ends on December 18, before Colbert moves into his new role as the host of the "Late Show" on CBS.




President Obama really is a very entertaining head of state as they go. So was President Clinton. George W Bush could be funny, too, but not always on purpose. He's not really a dumb guy, but he is very Texan and not as quick verbally as Obama. He became famous for his malapropisms. The Washington Post comments on Colbert's conservatism in this article – http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/04/10/the-conservatism-of-stephen-colbert/ –

“Stephen Colbert made his mark in comedy -- and politics -- as a conservative. He repeatedly lambasted President Obama, the Democratic Congress and a panoply of liberal outlets.  Like this riff on President Obama and the NSA spying scandal. Except that Colbert was kidding. From the pronunciation of his last name  -- KOHL-bear not kohl-BERT -- to his espoused arch-conservatism, Colbert was, self admittedly, playing a character named "Stephen Colbert." And, according to reports announcing his hiring to succeed David Letterman as the next host of "Late Night" on CBS, the character "Stephen Colbert" will be no more. "In the new role, Colbert, 49, will retire the faux conservative character he portrays on his cable show," reports Bloomberg's Andy Fixmer.”





Guard arrested in death of NYC inmate in hot cell – CBS
By CRIMESIDER STAFF AP December 9, 2014, 8:59 AM

NEW YORK - A jail guard has been arrested in connection with the death of a homeless ex-Marine inside a 101-degree Fahrenheit jail cell in a special Rikers Island unit for mentally ill inmates, prosecutors said Monday.

Carol Lackner, who surrendered to authorities, faces multiple counts of falsifying business records and official misconduct for making logbook entries indicating she toured every half hour to check on 56-year-old Jerome Murdough and other inmates in his unit even though video didn't show her doing so, according to prosecutors in the Bronx.

She faces up to four years if convicted on all counts. Her next court date is Feb. 17. Her lawyer didn't immediately return a request for comment.

The Associated Press first reported the Feb. 15 death of Murdough in the overheated cell, after a city official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Murdough "basically baked to death" when he was left unchecked for at least four hours as malfunctioning equipment caused his cell to overheat.

Murdough's death - along with the horrifying death of another mentally ill inmate in a similar mental observation unit five months earlier - prompted Mayor Bill de Blasio to convene a task force on how the mentally ill fare in jail. Last week, de Blasio announced that task force's findings, saying he'll spend $130 million over the next four years to improve how the mentally ill interact with the justice system, before, during and after jail stints.

Lackner, 34, was suspended for 30 days following Murdough's death after the investigation found she left her post 20 minutes before Murdough was discovered unresponsive in a pool of his own blood and vomit in the hot cell.

Documents obtained by the AP showed she was disciplined by jail officials four years earlier for abandoning her post, leaving Rikers entirely without permission while working in the women's facility of the massive jail complex near LaGuardia International Airport. The AP also reported then that Lackner couldn't be seen making the required tours on surveillance footage despite the logbook entries.

Her attorney, Damond Carter, told the AP in May that Lackner denied accusations that she left her post without permission. He said she had been brought in that night as a relief guard after effectively working three straight shifts and, while she felt the excessive heat, wasn't informed of any complaints regarding it.

Murdough, who suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, was on psychotropic drugs, which experts say can make a person more sensitive to heat. The medical examiner ruled his death an accident.

His mother, Alma Murdough, had intended to sue over her son's death, but city officials agreed to a $2.25 million settlement before her lawsuit was filed.

Murdough had been arrested on a misdemeanor trespassing charge for sleeping in an enclosed stairwell in a Harlem public housing building and sent to Rikers after being unable to make $2,500 bail. His family didn't learn about his death until they were contacted nearly a month later by the AP.




“Carol Lackner, who surrendered to authorities, faces multiple counts of falsifying business records and official misconduct for making logbook entries indicating she toured every half hour to check on 56-year-old Jerome Murdough and other inmates in his unit even though video didn't show her doing so, according to prosecutors in the Bronx. She faces up to four years if convicted on all counts.... Murdough's death - along with the horrifying death of another mentally ill inmate in a similar mental observation unit five months earlier - prompted Mayor Bill de Blasio to convene a task force on how the mentally ill fare in jail. Last week, de Blasio announced that task force's findings, saying he'll spend $130 million over the next four years to improve how the mentally ill interact with the justice system, before, during and after jail stints.... Documents obtained by the AP showed she was disciplined by jail officials four years earlier for abandoning her post, leaving Rikers entirely without permission while working in the women's facility of the massive jail complex near LaGuardia International Airport.... Murdough, who suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, was on psychotropic drugs, which experts say can make a person more sensitive to heat. The medical examiner ruled his death an accident.... Murdough had been arrested on a misdemeanor trespassing charge for sleeping in an enclosed stairwell in a Harlem public housing building and sent to Rikers after being unable to make $2,500 bail. His family didn't learn about his death until they were contacted nearly a month later by the AP.”

This is another one of those really sad stories. To me, mentally deranged people should be in mental health housing and not in jail, or especially not sleeping on the street, where they don't have medication. When a patient comes out of a drug treatment hospital he can go to a halfway house which is not a hospital, but is a supervised living environment. They can go outdoors for the day, but they take their meds, eat and sleep in the house. So many neighborhoods put up vigorous protests about the locating of halfway houses in their area that it's hard to find a place for them. There aren't as many as are needed, anyway, and shocking numbers of homeless and mentally deranged people end up sleeping in the park or in ad hoc homeless communities located on the edge of town. Too many of those people end up in jail, though they have committed no crime. I do hate it, but social services can't keep up with the demand for subsidized housing. Also, there are some people who absolutely don't want to go to any supervised setting, often because they can't drink or use drugs there or are afraid of being arrested on some warrant that has been issued. It's like London in Charles Dicken's stories, with whole families living on the street and vast differences in the level of wealth within the society.





Clemson fraternity suspends activity after "inappropriate" party
CBS/AP December 9, 2014, 8:16 AM

CLEMSON, S.C. -- The Clemson University chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon has suspended all fraternity activities after what the school called "an inappropriate theme party" organized by several members last weekend.

Multiple media outlets reported that most of the chapter's officers have resigned after white students dressed as gang members at a "Cripmas party."

The party sparked a widespread backlash on social media. Pictures on social media early Sunday showed Clemson students covering their faces with red and blue bandanas and wearing T-shirts with images of handcuffs and the late rapper Tupac Shakur.

Clemson President Jim Clements said the party raised concerns about the campus racial climate.

The school said any member of the fraternity who attended the party could be suspended, depending on the outcome of an internal investigation.

Clemson University's Chief Diversity Officer Leon Wiles told CBS affiliate WSPAthat students have told him these kinds of parties have been held under the radar since a 2007 party held over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend where white students drank malt liquor and at least one partygoer wore blackface.

"There have been a number of parties that haven't registered with the media or haven't registered with campus officials.... The reason we became aware of this party is because it was put out on social media," Wilses told WSPA. "It's evidence that students haven't learned the impact of these kinds of parties."




Fraternities doing racist things has been in the news a number of times since I've been doing these blogs, and as a reinforcement of generally racially biased societal trends, it is a problem when it occurs. It “teaches” young men and women to become right wing bigots and rewards them with an elevated social status for doing that. I personally feel that college would be much improved without any university-sanctioned fraternities or sororities. They tend to be a center for wealthy and mainly white get-togethers, characterized by drinking, drugs and lots of sex, and I believe they always have been. They serve no useful purpose except an entry into the “good old boy network.”

WATCH THIS GAWKER VIDEO BELOW to see what the reference to Crip Walk is all about. It's just a cute and fairly tricky dance move. It was made famous by the Crips gang, so it has racial overtones, but according to the Wikipedia article, was practiced by young people as far back as the early 1970's. It is a stereotypically black move. Serena Williams was widely criticized as being racist at the time for doing it as a victory dance.

http://gawker.com/5931830/heres-serena-williams-crip-walking-after-winning-gold

Here's Serena Williams Crip Walking After Winning Gold
Louis Peitzman
Filed to: LONDON OLYMPICS
8/04/12 





Undocumented activist shares story of his own "invisible prison"
By GILAD THALER CBS NEWS
December 8, 2014, 9:24 AM

NEW YORK - It was not until Jong-Min You was 17 that he realized that he had been living in the U.S illegally.

At the time, Jong-Min, now 34, had been applying to a hospital residency program through Stuyvesant High School. When the hospital asked for his green card, he searched his home endlessly until he called his mother.

Her response shocked him: "You don't have one, you can't do that hospital residency program, and don't ever talk about this either," he recalled in an interview with CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano.

Without the green card Jong-Min had to skip the mandatory first-day session, and was ultimately cut from the program - dashing his then-dream of becoming a pediatrician.

While that was the first time Jong-Min truly felt the limitations of his undocumented status, it wouldn't be the last. After graduating from The University of Tennessee-Knoxville, the pre-med major tried to apply to Harvard Law School with the goal of becoming a federal judge. When he disclosed his undocumented status to an admissions officer he was told that he simply could not apply.

Jong-Min's parents first brought him to the United States from Korea in 1981. While the family had visas at the time, by 1985 they had expired, and Jong-Min became undocumented.

"Most if not all undocumented go through a period of depression or severe depression, and even sometimes suicides. I think we're not machines, we are people," he told CBS News' Quijano of the emotional toll of being caught in an "invisible prison."

"You're locked behind these invisible bars, you can't drive, you can't vote, and then you see your peers moving on in life."

Jong-Min's metaphor takes on more meaning when observing him at work in the basement of his parents' Brooklyn, N.Y. grocery store where he works seven days a week stocking shelves, taking inventory, and closing up at night.

"In my younger days I thought I was too good for it. Then you realize that your parents did it, everybody works hard at their jobs. I'm just glad to help out my parents and try to do the best that I can. I just have different goals and hopefully I can be at a court late at night rather than a grocery store," the 2003 college graduate said.

Before locking up, Jong-Min takes down the day's winning lottery numbers, noting that he has a better shot at winning that than becoming a citizen: "It's one out of a billion, and you have no pathways."

Jong-Min kept his legal status a secret throughout college. It was not until years later while giving a speech at Brown University as part of an Undocumented student panel advocating for the DREAM Act, that he felt empowered to speak out, driven by the need to share the story "about my life, and trying to understand it, and trying to urge other undocumented youths to come out of the shadows."

Quijano reports he is currently working with a group called #1of11Million pushing to expand rights and protections for undocumented immigrants.

"I wanted those who do suffer from depression to understand that their life is more than a nine-digit number, and hopefully we all can work together on this for a better DREAM Act and a better immigration system."

In 2012, Jong-Min missed the age cutoff to apply for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals by a matter of months. (DACA requires one be under the age of 31 as of June 15, 2012--at the time, he was 32.)

Since President Obama's recent expansion of DACA, Jong-Min can now apply for temporary working papers every three years.

While this new status can help him obtain a drivers license and working papers, Jong-Min isn't satisfied.

"I don't think we will be satisfied, or I will be satisfied, until there is a rolling admission that many undocumented immigrants or immigrants can come here and try to become citizens one day. I think this bureaucracy of immigration is just too much and too bureaucratic, it makes it nearly impossible."

Quijano questioned if he is advocating for Amnesty, he responded "There should be pathway for people like me who've been here for 30 years, how is that Amnesty if I've been here 30 years and I cant even get citizenship?"




"You're locked behind these invisible bars, you can't drive, you can't vote, and then you see your peers moving on in life." Jong-Min's metaphor takes on more meaning when observing him at work in the basement of his parents' Brooklyn, N.Y. grocery store where he works seven days a week stocking shelves, taking inventory, and closing up at night.... Before locking up, Jong-Min takes down the day's winning lottery numbers, noting that he has a better shot at winning that than becoming a citizen: "It's one out of a billion, and you have no pathways." Jong-Min kept his legal status a secret throughout college. It was not until years later while giving a speech at Brown University as part of an Undocumented student panel advocating for the DREAM Act, that he felt empowered to speak out, driven by the need to share the story "about my life, and trying to understand it, and trying to urge other undocumented youths to come out of the shadows."... Since President Obama's recent expansion of DACA, Jong-Min can now apply for temporary working papers every three years. While this new status can help him obtain a drivers license and working papers, Jong-Min isn't satisfied. "I don't think we will be satisfied, or I will be satisfied, until there is a rolling admission that many undocumented immigrants or immigrants can come here and try to become citizens one day. I think this bureaucracy of immigration is just too much and too bureaucratic, it makes it nearly impossible."

The US government is in general too bureaucratic. When I was looking on the Internet to find how citizens are supposed to get a non-driver picture ID so they can vote, I found a website (that was for the state of North Carolina) which listed the proofs that could be used to established identity and citizenship. Most of them cost some amount of money and a truly poverty-stricken person may not have any leftover cash after their rent and groceries are paid for. NC gives a way to get a picture ID free of charge, but it requires the same proofs of ID.

The real problem is that they have to “jump through hoops” to get the birth certificate or other proof of identity if they don't have one, and they have to have a computer, be able to read well enough to understand the instructions on the website, have the mental health and hopefulness to get up off the couch and go to a city office such as the Tax Collector in order to do that. Then they have to produce an original social security card and birth certificate or another proof of identity and pay a fee. I think a school or military ID is allowed as positive ID. There aren't many choices. So many people who are chronically poor are also chronically depressed, and therefore hard to motivate to go through all the procedures. Hence, many blacks and nationalized Hispanics are without picture ID for voting. That's what the Republicans want, of course.

I don't have an original Social Security card, personally, if they mean your very first one. Mine has been replaced twice due to my marriages, general wear and tear, and name changes. When I first got my driver license and voter registration card they didn't require an original proof of identity like a birth certificate. I just went up to the city hall and applied for it. I was sixteen years old, and still living at home. I can't remember what they required at that time, but I later got a copy of my birth certificate by sending a letter (a call isn't good enough) to the county where I was born and requesting it. I think it cost me about $15.00. I have held onto it for dear life since that time. It's in my small wooden box where I keep my vital papers, which are very few in number, but when you need them you need them a lot.

Just think how much more difficult it would be to write to Beijing or somewhere to get a birth certificate. They probably simply can't do that and may get into legal trouble when they make their presence in the US known to authorities on both sides. Approaching US authorities about how to get on a path to citizenship would be basically dangerous, as it's against the law to work without a green card, and he has been working in his father's store for several years already. It is a shame that a talented young man like Jong-Min has been unable to get into a residency program after completing coursework for pre-med. I'm surprised he didn't run into that problem when he applied to college. At least he can now apply for three year working papers, the article says, but will have to keep getting that renewed each time. Hopefully a full amnesty will be put into place for people who have proven their personal stability and ability to work for a number of years. I don't understand the opposition to offering citizenship after a waiting period. If a person has worked five years as he has, and has never been in jail or homeless or otherwise a problem, he should get citizenship status, I think.