Sunday, March 15, 2015


News Clips For The Day


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/deadly-attack-on-pakistan-christians-ignites-murderous-mob/

Deadly attack on Pakistan Christians ignites murderous mob
By FARHAN BOKHARI CBS NEWS
March 15, 2015

Photograph -- Pakistani Christians gather in front of a church following suicide bombing attacks on churches in Lahore on March 15, 2015.  ARIF ALI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

ISLAMABAD - Powerful bombs placed outside two different churches in Pakistan's main city of Lahore on Sunday killed at least 14 people and wounded more than 80 after weekly church services, in the latest attack by extremists. A hardline Islamic militant group later claimed responsibility.

The bombs went off near the churches, which are both located in Lahore's Yohanabad neighborhood, an area where the majority of the population is believed to be Catholic or Protestant Christians. Police said a crowd of angry Christians went off on a rampage after the attacks and burnt to death one man while trying to lynch another. Both men were suspected by the mob to be Taliban informers. Angry young Christians also tried to attack shops and a bus station to express their anger.

A senior police officer in Lahore who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity said responsibility for the attack was claimed by 'Jamaat-ul-Ahrar', a breakaway faction of the Taliban whose relationship with the Taliban mainstream movement remains unclear. Some officials say the group retains close ties to Taliban militants while others believe it acts on its own.

In the past, Islamic militants in Pakistan have attacked Christians and other non-Muslims from time to time since the country joined the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic militants. Since last year, the Pakistani army has stepped up attacks against Taliban militants after the latter attacked the country's largest international airport in the northern city of Karachi.

The campaign has mainly targeted suspected Islamic militant sanctuaries in remote areas along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. In spite of the advances made by the Pakistan army against the Taliban, the extremists have continued to carry out high-profile attacks in Pakistan, like the assault on a school in the northern city of Peshawar on December 16 last year, in which 150 people, mostly school children, were killed.

After Sunday's attack, analysts warned that growing militancy now requires the government and the army to clean up known locations of Islamic militants in Pakistan's cities, such as the network of Islamic schools known as 'madressah'.

"The clean up has to be much more comprehensive and it has to target places which have not been touched so far" said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a well respected Pakistani commentator on politics and security affairs in a telephone interview with CBS News from Lahore.

Western officials in Islamabad who spoke to CBS News warned that Sunday's attack further highlighted the risk of growing militancy in Pakistan, especially amid fears of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria militants seeking to expand their footprint in the south Asian country.




"Powerful bombs placed outside two different churches in Pakistan's main city of Lahore on Sunday killed at least 14 people and wounded more than 80 after weekly church services, in the latest attack by extremists. A hardline Islamic militant group later claimed responsibility.... Police said a crowd of angry Christians went off on a rampage after the attacks and burnt to death one man while trying to lynch another. Both men were suspected by the mob to be Taliban informers. Angry young Christians also tried to attack shops and a bus station to express their anger."

Both Islamic militants and the Christians are using the same blunt force tactics against each other. The militants attacked a school and killed 150 people, many of whom were children. All this is because the army has been fighting against militant strongholds. The government is operating against them with the support of the US since last year, and various groups are responding with violence. It is difficult to have a peaceful and unified government with so many groups ready to attack each other. In a normal society school children wouldn't be the victims of assault. Their society has basically broken down it seems. The same thing is happening throughout the Middle East and other places where Islam is practiced, except for very powerful governments like Saudi Arabia and Iran.. Originally Islamic peoples had a policy of toleration of religious differences, but now ethnic hostility is the ruling principle. I do hope that doesn't start happening in this country where Islamic people have immigrated.




CLINTON EMAILS ISSUE


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/gop-to-hillary-clinton-hand-over-your-entire-email-server/

GOP to Clinton: Hand over your email server
By REENA FLORES CBS NEWS
March 14, 2015

Republicans are casting a wider net in their investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email address during her time as secretary of state.

In the GOP's weekly address Saturday, Indiana Rep. Susan Brooks, who is a member of the House Select Committee in charge of scrutinizing the events leading up to the 2012 attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, is calling for Clinton to pass on the actual email server that hosted her private address, rather than just copies of the relevant electronic messages.

"Right now there is no way for us to know whether we have all of the State Department communications that rightfully belong to the American people. The only way to truly know is by having access to Secretary Clinton's personal server," Brooks said in a new video. "That is why we are asking Secretary Clinton to turn her server over to a neutral, third-party arbiter."

Citing the need for the surveyor to be "completely impartial and independent," Brooks also called on a third party to sift through the thousands of pages accumulated over Clinton's tenure in President Obama's Cabinet.

"After a complete inventory, this arbiter can make a determination as to which emails should be public and which should remain private," the Indiana congresswoman said. "By handing her server over to a neutral, third-party arbiter, Secretary Clinton can help us move forward with figuring out what happened to our people."

What this "independent" arbiter might look like is still anyone's guess. While South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, who chairs the House Select Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham have said they've lost confidence in the State Department to make determinations about what should be made public, no formal steps have been announced for another lawyer or federal judge to handle the matter.

A neutral third-party is not entirely unheard of, but the appearance of politicizing the results could be detrimental to the integrity of the investigation itself.

The House Select Committee issued a subpoena for Clinton's emails last week following the original email revelations. The subpoena asked for "all communications of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton related to Libya and to the State Department for other individuals who have information pertinent to the investigation," according to a committee statement.

"There are gaps of months and months and months," Gowdy said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation," unsatisfied with the emails his committee has received.

The subpoena drew the wrath of several Democrats on the Benghazi committee, who called the move "completely unnecessary and unfounded."

"You rushed to issue a unilateral subpoena to Secretary Clinton with no debate, no vote and no deliberation whatsoever by committee members," a letter from committee Democrats to Gowdy read.

House Democrats' quick defense of Clinton assured Gowdy that the former secretary was in full cooperation with the federal standards existing at the time.

But conservative groups are not the only ones seeking this information. Though Mr. Obama has staunchly defended Clinton's record as a Cabinet member, veterans of the Democratic Party like California Sen. Dianne Feinstein have deemed Clinton's secrecy on the matter damaging to a potential 2016 run for the White House.

"From this point on ... the silence is going to hurt her," Feinstein said last week. "She is the leading candidate, whether it be Republican or Democrat, to be the next president."

The Associated Press is additionally suing the State Department over the email controversy. The news agency filed a lawsuit last week in an attempt to force the release of Clinton's email correspondence, after repeated attempts to secure that information from numerous failed U.S. Freedom of Information Act requests.

In the meantime, the State Department's own review of Clinton's emails is only in the first phases of an appraisal that could take "several months."

Despite the directives from Clinton to the State Department instructing a release of unclassified information, Republicans aren't wavering in their criticism of the former first lady.

"It was not out of a sense of transparency that she acted," Brooks charged in her address. "It was our select committee's oversight that compelled Secretary Clinton to hand over some of her e-mails." …. SEE WEBSITE ABOVE FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE.




CBS NEWS: "Right now there is no way for us to know whether we have all of the State Department communications that rightfully belong to the American people. The only way to truly know is by having access to Secretary Clinton's personal server," Brooks said in a new video. "That is why we are asking Secretary Clinton to turn her server over to a neutral, third-party arbiter.".... The subpoena drew the wrath of several Democrats on the Benghazi committee, who called the move "completely unnecessary and unfounded." "You rushed to issue a unilateral subpoena to Secretary Clinton with no debate, no vote and no deliberation whatsoever by committee members," a letter from committee Democrats to Gowdy read.... veterans of the Democratic Party like California Sen. Dianne Feinstein have deemed Clinton's secrecy on the matter damaging to a potential 2016 run for the White House. "From this point on ... the silence is going to hurt her," Feinstein said last week. "She is the leading candidate, whether it be Republican or Democrat, to be the next president."... The news agency filed a lawsuit last week in an attempt to force the release of Clinton's email correspondence, after repeated attempts to secure that information from numerous failed U.S. Freedom of Information Act requests.”

So will Clinton turn over her server? What personal stuff is on there, I wonder? I hope Congress selects a fair and moderate third party to review the emails rather than some of the fascists who are in the legislature now, and that none of her truly personal information is leaked to the press or partisan enemies for her embarrassment. At her age, I doubt that she has any love letters on it, and hopefully no financial information.





http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/03/11/hillary-clinton-emails-private-not-illegal-column/24716617/

Brock: Benghazi truthers should release their e-mails
David Brock
March 11, 2015

Even though Hillary Clinton fully and clearly answered questions regarding her e-mail usage yesterday, the Benghazi truthers on Capitol Hill refuse to give up. Clinton had barely finished her press conference when Trey Gowdy, chair of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, issued a statement demanding that Clinton's e-mail server be turned over, and threatening to call her to testify before the committee twice.

If anyone was wondering why the Republicans have stoked this e-mail controversy, you now have your answer: the investigation into the Benghazi tragedy is all but dead and this is a desperate gambit to keep it alive in the 2016 elections.

Millions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on multiple reviews and investigations looking into the tragedy, and nothing incriminating has been found. Ten congressional committees have participated in the investigations, which have included more than 50 senior level staff briefings, 22 hearings, five independent/bipartisan reports, dozens of interviews and the disclosure of at least 40,000 pages of documents .

Yet the only great revelation has been Clinton's use of a private e-mail account, publicly known for at least two years.

Clinton said that her e-mail use fully complied with all laws and that the system she used was safe and secure. That system, she said, had been set up for formerPresident Bill Clinton and had never been hacked. Which is saying a lot more than the federal government can claim. In 2013 alone, the federal government incurred almost 61,000 cyber attacks and security breaches. The State Department's own e-mail system has been hacked on a number of occasions, most recently last year.

But that wasn't enough for Gowdy, who is baselessly calling into question the security of Hillary Clinton's e-mail account.

The real issue for the Republicans isn't national security, it's keeping the partisan scandal alive. That's why Gowdy wants Clinton's e-mail server. Republicans want to rifle through Clinton's strictly private e-mails to harass and embarrass her. Perhaps they'll want to hire Ken Starr to do the snooping.

Yesterday, Hillary Clinton made it clear that under the law each government employee is responsible for determining whether e-mails are personal or work-related. The employee gets to make that decision, not the press or political enemies.

Republican partisans are trying to pretend there is something wrong or suspicious in Clinton keeping private e-mail private so they can go on an endless fishing expedition. Every American has a right to communicate privately with his or her own family about personal matters, and we all understand and respect that privacy. There shouldn't be a double standard for the former Secretary of State just because her last name is Clinton.

Clinton's decision to ask the State Department to release all of her work-related e-mail is an act of unprecedented transparency. Clearly, there is nothing to hide.

Gowdy should apply the same standard he's applying to Clinton to himself and his staff. They should release all their e-mail — public and private — unless, of course, they are the ones hiding something — perhaps their partisan motivations and strategic leaking to the media.

David Brock is chairman of the Democratic SuperPAC American Bridge.




“If anyone was wondering why the Republicans have stoked this e-mail controversy, you now have your answer: the investigation into the Benghazi tragedy is all but dead and this is a desperate gambit to keep it alive in the 2016 elections. Millions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on multiple reviews and investigations looking into the tragedy, and nothing incriminating has been found.... The State Department's own e-mail system has been hacked on a number of occasions, most recently last year. But that wasn't enough for Gowdy, who is baselessly calling into question the security of Hillary Clinton's e-mail account. The real issue for the Republicans isn't national security, it's keeping the partisan scandal alive. That's why Gowdy wants Clinton's e-mail server. Republicans want to rifle through Clinton's strictly private e-mails to harass and embarrass her. Perhaps they'll want to hire Ken Starr to do the snooping.... under the law each government employee is responsible for determining whether e-mails are personal or work-related. The employee gets to make that decision, not the press or political enemies. Republican partisans are trying to pretend there is something wrong or suspicious in Clinton keeping private e-mail private so they can go on an endless fishing expedition.”

This really does look very much like Whitewater, which took around two years, cost a fortune, and turned up no Presidential misbehavior until the unfortunate blue dress scandal. Politics is a dangerous business for personal privacy. I do wish she hadn't used a personal server and email account, of course. I'll bet there will be no wrongdoing found against her about Benghazi, however. I'll keep track of this as other information emerges.





http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31885906

Child sex abuse is 'woven into British society' - Theresa May
BBC News
14 March 2015

Photograph – New Zealand high court judge Lowell Goddard will chair the inquiry

Child sex abuse is "woven, covertly, into the fabric" of British society, Theresa May has warned.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, the home secretary said the public were yet to grasp the full scale of the problem.

Her comments come after a new panel was announced for the parliamentary inquiry into historical child abuse.

Mrs May said the inquiry marked a "new beginning", but warned allegations made so far were only the "tip of the iceberg".

The inquiry was set up in July 2014 to find out whether public bodies had covered up or neglected allegations of abuse, following claims that a paedophile ring had operated in Westminster in the 1980s.

Mrs May said: "We already know the trail will lead into our schools and hospitals, our churches, our youth clubs and many other institutions that should have been places of safety but instead became the setting for the most appalling abuse.

"However, what the country doesn't yet appreciate is the true scale of that abuse."

'Tip of the iceberg'

She added: "During one of my first meetings with survivors, one lady said to me: 'Get this inquiry right and it will be like a stick of Blackpool rock. You will see abuse going through every level of society.'

"I fear she is right. I have said before and I shall say again, that what we have seen so far is only the tip of the iceberg."

Mrs May dissolved the original inquiry panel after two chairs were forced to stand down over their links to establishment figures from the 1970s and 80s, appointing a new chairwoman and re-examining the terms of reference.

Last week it was announced Professor Alexis Jay, Drusilla Sharpling, Ivor Frank and Professor Malcolm Evans would serve alongside Justice Lowell Goddard, a New Zealand judge, on the inquiry.

Prof Jay has expertise in social work and led the inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham.

Ms Sharpling is a qualified barrister with expertise in policing and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Mr Frank has experience in family and human rights law, and expertise in child protection matters.

Prof Evans is chairman of the United Nations subcommittee for the prevention of torture and professor of public international law at the University of Bristol. Educated in Cardiff, he has a Welsh perspective, which survivors have called for.

New terms of reference were agreed, including a removal of any cut-off date for claims.

The inquiry will have statutory powers to compel witnesses to appear to determine whether institutions took seriously their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse in England and Wales.

Mrs May said she felt it was a "once-in-a-generation" chance to uncover institutional abuse, which she called "the darkness in our midst".




“The inquiry was set up in July 2014 to find out whether public bodies had covered up or neglected allegations of abuse, following claims that a paedophile ring had operated in Westminster in the 1980s.” In case you are wondering, “Blackpool rock” is a type of hard candy which originates in Blackpool. As for pedophile rings, I think they exist the world over and down through all times. The human male, taken as a group, are capable of producing truly amazing forms of sexual interaction. Unfortunately this form is deeply psychologically and often physically damaging to the victims. Rape of all kinds is brutal and vile. When I think of some of the things that children go through – like women – merely because they are too small and weak to protect themselves, it infuriates me. I believe in justice and mercy, not just philosophically, but under that law. If British citizens, especially highly placed people, are found guilty of sexual crimes I hope there will be laws on the books to punish them to a sufficient degree. In this country child abusers sometimes get no more than a few years behind bars and then they are back out to do it again. It's shameful.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/gop-threatens-to-delay-attorney-general-vote-over-anti-abortion-provision/

GOP threatens AG vote over alleged abortion rider in bill
By REENA FLORES CBS NEWS
March 15, 2015

Photograph – US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, speaks to the press at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on March 10, 2015.  NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Sen. Mitch McConnell warns that he would postpone a Senate vote on Loretta Lynch's confirmation for the attorney general post if Democrats don't pass Republican-backed anti-trafficking legislation.

"We can't pass the trafficking bill right now," McConnell told CNN in an interview. "And I wanted to hold a vote on the attorney general but if I can't get this bill through first then I'm going to have to delay the confirmation vote."

Democrats are blocking the passage of the human trafficking bill, which would increase penalties for sex and child labor smugglers, because they say the legislation has anti-abortion language folded into its proposals.

When pressed, McConnell reiterated that "it's not a threat."

"We need to finish it. It's on the Senate floor now," the majority leader said. "Then we have the budget."

McConnell pointed the finger at the party across the aisle for the slowing of Lynch's confirmation process.

"Democrats are acting now in the minority the way that they were in the majority. They don't like to vote!" the top Republican senator said. "The language they are now calling offensive was in the bill when it passed unanimously out of committee.

"If they want to turn to the attorney general," McConnell continued, "then it is important that we turn to this human trafficking bill, which is important for our country."

The contested bill, called the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act and authored by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, was initially sponsored by a bipartisan spate of legislators. While the act does not specifically mention abortion, Senate Democrats are accusing the opposing party for sneaking in language that would effectively apply the Hyde amendment, an existing ban on using taxpayer money for abortion purposes, to the newly created Domestic Trafficking Victims' Fund.

CNN's Dana Bash tried to clarify the majority leader's stance, asking pointedly, "Unless Democrats give in, then the Lynch nomination is not going to happen next week?"

"We have to finish the human trafficking bill first," McConnell stated. "Then we'll turn to the attorney general." The Kentucky senator added that he himself is "undecided" on whether he'll vote for Lynch.

After the 2014 midterm elections, when Republicans swept a majority of their party into both chambers, McConnell famously promised that a GOP-controlled Congress would function without gridlock.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced his resignation from the post in September of last year.





“Democrats are blocking the passage of the human trafficking bill, which would increase penalties for sex and child labor smugglers, because they say the legislation has anti-abortion language folded into its proposals.... The contested bill, called the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act and authored by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, was initially sponsored by a bipartisan spate of legislators. While the act does not specifically mention abortion, Senate Democrats are accusing the opposing party for sneaking in language that would effectively apply the Hyde amendment, an existing ban on using taxpayer money for abortion purposes, to the newly created Domestic Trafficking Victims' Fund.”

“After the 2014 midterm elections, when Republicans swept a majority of their party into both chambers, McConnell famously promised that a GOP-controlled Congress would function without gridlock.” Yeah, sure! The problem is that bills with extraneous and usually unpopular content attached should be banned. That's no matter what party is involved. This business of attaching “poison pills” to budgets and bills has been going on as long as I can remember, and it is simply a waste of time. The Republicans in particular, though, do this in order to push through their legislation. It really doesn't work. That's why we keep having government shutdowns. As one commenter attached to this article called it, it's “hostage politics.” Their goal is to do something outrageous and sneak things through. Watching Congress makes me feel tired.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/zoo-gorillas-released-60-minutes-lesley-stahl/

Zoo gorillas released to the wild
March 12, 2015

Controversial conservationist Damian Aspinall wants to close all zoos, including his own, and free the animals to the wild. But is it a good idea?

The rich owner of two animal parks in the U.K. is on a controversial mission to release the animals he has bred in captivity and free them in the wild. Lesley Stahl reports on Damian Aspinall's contempt for zoos and his project to release a family of captive gorillas into an African forest. Her report will be broadcast on 60 Minutes Sunday, March 15 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Aspinall grew up playing with animals like gorillas and tigers that were kept on his family's country estate. But he has become disenchanted with the idea of keeping such animals simply for the pleasure of humans and is now on a mission to release them into the wild.

He thinks all zoos should do that. "If I could extinguish all the zoos over the next 30 years, including my own...I wouldn't hesitate," he says. He dismisses the notion that zoos are ambassadors for animal protection and educators that encourage conservation in the wild. "There is no evidence. It's a lie," he tells Stahl. And, he adds, pleasing children is no reason to keep animals in captivity. "We don't have the right as a species to take animals to pleasure our children. That disgusts me. These poor animals."

Aspinall, who owns Aspers, the U.K. casino chain, has bred thousands of wild and endangered animals on the grounds, before he began to finance expeditions around the world to release them. But many conservationists disagree with his mission. "Maybe it makes him feel good...but it's not conservation," says Tara Stoinski, president of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, run out of Zoo Atlanta, home to the largest collection of gorillas in North America. "We need funds to be going into saving these wild places so that the animals...can continue to survive."

Aspinall has had success in the past releasing gorillas, mostly babies, into the wild. The vast majority have survived and even multiplied. But 60 Minutes cameras joined him on his most ambitious undertaking yet: releasing an entire gorilla family, including adults, to the wilds of Gabon. Conservationists warned this would not go well, and Aspinall himself knew there were a lot of risks involved. Our cameras were there at the final stage - the day the 10 gorillas were let off an island they had spent a year on acclimating. Damian and his crew built a small "bridge to freedom" allowing the gorillas to cross into the unprotected wild. On Sunday's 60 Minutes, Stahl reports on how the gorilla family fared.




"Maybe it makes him feel good...but it's not conservation," says Tara Stoinski, president of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, run out of Zoo Atlanta, home to the largest collection of gorillas in North America. "We need funds to be going into saving these wild places so that the animals...can continue to survive."

“He thinks all zoos should do that. "If I could extinguish all the zoos over the next 30 years, including my own...I wouldn't hesitate," he says.” Luckily, he can't “extinguish all zoos.” Zoos are now and in the future going to be the only repository for animals nearing extinction. Right now groups of endangered rhinos have been set up in various zoos for breeding stock. Rhinos in the wild have been hunted almost to extinction for their horns, and the same with elephants for the ivory trade. Besides, the environments worldwide that have provided food and shelter for wild species are being destroyed daily for farmland or timber. Gorillas are likewise killed for their hands, which are considered to be magical, and adult zoo-raised gorillas likely won't recognize what is food and what is toxic, or find where the good trees and herbs are located. Starvation is a terrible way to die. This would be a really bad idea. Of course, if gorillas were released directly into a wild family, especially when young, they might do better. I hope Aspinall is not successful in his goals. At a time of animal extinctions such as we are in now, “freedom” is not preferable over survival.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/arctic-sea-ice-thinning-dramatically-study-finds/

​Arctic sea ice "thinning dramatically," study finds
By LAURA GEGGEL LIVESCIENCE.COM
March 5, 2015

Arctic sea ice -- the ice that freezes and floats on Arctic waters -- is thinning at a steadier and faster rate than researchers previously thought, a new study finds.

Using modern and historic measurements, the researchers got an extensive view of how the thickness of Arctic sea ice has changed over the past few decades. According to measurements from multiple sources, the ice in the central Arctic Ocean thinned 65 percent betweren 1975 and 2012, from 11.7 feet (3.59 meters) to 4.1 feet (1.25 m).

The thinning is even steeper for September sea-ice levels, when sea ice is at its lowest after the summer melt. During the same 37-year stretch, September ice thickness thinned 85 percent, or from 9.8 feet (3.01 m) to 1.4 feet (0.44 m). [On Ice: Stunning Images of Canadian Arctic]

"The ice is thinning dramatically," said lead researcher Ron Lindsay, a climatologist at the University of Washington (UW) Applied Physics Laboratory. "We knew the ice was thinning, but we now have additional confirmation on how fast, and we can see that it's not slowing down."

The study may help researchers gauge when the Arctic Ocean will be ice-freeduring parts of the year, he added.

The researchers acquired the data from a number of different sources, making them the first to combine all available observations on Arctic sea-ice thickness into one study. For instance, from 1975 to 1990, most ice-thickness readings were from under-ice submarines. These vessels once used sonar to measure ice drift so they could figure out where they could safely surface.

The submarine data suggest that from 1975 to 2000, the Arctic sea ice thinned 36 percent, a little less than half of what the new study found, the researchers said.

"This confirms and extends that study," Lindsay said. The larger data set used in the new study shows that the leveling off of sea ice thinning in the 1990s was only temporary, he said.

Critics have said those calculations of ice loss seemed too rapid, and questioned their value, the researchers said. But the new study shows the ice may be thinning at an even faster rate than the calculations showed, the researchers said.

Since 2000, readings are largely based on airborne and satellite measurements -- such as NASA's IceSat satellite and IceBridge aircraft -- and other methods that involve people directly measuring the ice thickness.

Data dump

All of the data in the study are now in the Unified Sea Ice Thickness Climate Data Record, which gets as many as 50,000 new measurements a month. The record is curated by researchers at the University of Washington, and stored at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Lindsay also works with a UW group who puts together a popular calculation of monthly sea-ice volumes that blends weather data, sea-surface temperatures and satellite measurements of sea-ice concentration for ice thickness maps, the researchers said.

President Obama will announce a 20-city drive to intensify job-specific training in the high-tech sector in a speech before the annual League of Cities conference in Washington Monday.

"At least for the central Arctic basin, even our most drastic thinning estimate was slower than measured by these observations," said co-researcher Axel Schweiger, a polar scientist at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory.

The new study also shows that hands-on ice-measuring methods used by people on the ground are just as accurate as other methods, Schweiger said.

"Using all these different observations that have been collected over time, it pretty much verifies the trend that we have from the model for the past 13 years, though our estimate of thinning compared to previous decades may have been a little slow," Schweiger said.

The data in the new study goes up to 2012, when summer sea-ice levels dropped to a record low. Since then, ice levels have slightly increased, the researchers said.

"What we see now is a little above the trend, but it's not inconsistent with it in any way," Lindsay said. "It's well within the natural variability around the long-term trend."

The findings were published in the March issue of the journal The Cryosphere.




“Using modern and historic measurements, the researchers got an extensive view of how the thickness of Arctic sea ice has changed over the past few decades. According to measurements from multiple sources, the ice in the central Arctic Ocean thinned 65 percent betweren 1975 and 2012, from 11.7 feet (3.59 meters) to 4.1 feet (1.25 m). The thinning is even steeper for September sea-ice levels, when sea ice is at its lowest after the summer melt. During the same 37-year stretch, September ice thickness thinned 85 percent, or from 9.8 feet (3.01 m) to 1.4 feet (0.44 m). [On Ice: Stunning Images of Canadian Arctic].... Critics have said those calculations of ice loss seemed too rapid, and questioned their value, the researchers said. But the new study shows the ice may be thinning at an even faster rate than the calculations showed, the researchers said.Since 2000, readings are largely based on airborne and satellite measurements -- such as NASA's IceSat satellite and IceBridge aircraft -- and other methods that involve people directly measuring the ice thickness.”

I think there is nothing in the short term that can be done to slow down or stop this ice thinning and the resultant desalinization of the Arctic waters. If the “snowball earth” theory is accurate, maybe we are in for an ecological disaster of an even worse kind than global warming. I personally think we are doomed, unless the citizens of the world will get serious about CO2 and methane releases into our atmosphere. The truth is, humans are, for the most part, unable to focus on an issue long enough and in large enough numbers to solve the problem. That's why we keep stripping trees off the land without even attempting to replace them, killing off our magnificent wild animals such as the tiger and the elephant, and polluting our rivers and ground water so that toxic chemicals get into people's well water. Like so many things I read in the news, it makes me sad.