August 2, 2016


News and Views


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-scientists-diagnosis-of-earth-fever-rises/

Climate scientists' diagnosis of Earth: "Fever rises"
CBS/AP
August 2, 2016, 3:35 PM

Photograph -- A stock pond south of Dallas dries up due to a drought. Conditions like this could become more commonplace in the later part of the 21st century due to global warming. PAUL BUCK/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Play VIDEO -- American researchers on climate change's front lines
Graphics -- surface-temperature-2015.jpg, Almost all parts of the globe experienced higher temperatures in 2015, as shown on this map from the State of the Climate report. BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY
Play VIDEO -- El Niño and its impact on climate change, toll on humans


WASHINGTON -- Earth's fever got worse last year, breaking dozens of climate records, scientists said in a massive report nicknamed the annual physical for the planet.

Soon after 2015 ended, it was proclaimed the hottest on record. The new report shows the broad extent of other records and near-records on the planet's climatic health. Those include record heat energy absorbed by the oceans and lowest groundwater storage levels globally, according to Tuesday's report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"I think the time to call the doctor was years ago," NOAA climate monitoring chief Deke Arndt, co-editor of the report, said in an email. "We are awash in multiple symptoms."

The 2015 State of the Climate report examined 50 different aspects of climate , including dramatic melting of Arctic sea ice and glaciers worldwide. A dozen different nations set hottest year records, including Russia and China. South Africa had the hottest temperature ever recorded in the month of October: 119.1 degrees Fahrenheit (48.4 degrees Celsius).

"There is really only one word for this parade of shattered climate records: grim," said Georgia Tech climate scientist Kim Cobb, who wasn't part of the report, but called it "exhaustive and thorough."

But it's more than just numbers on a graph. Scientists said the turbo-charged climate affected walrus and penguin populations and played a role in dangerous algae blooms, such as one off the Pacific Northwest coast. And there were brutal heat waves all over the world, with ones in India and Pakistan killing thousands of people.

Much of the intense record-breaking and record-flirting weather was because of a combination of a natural El Nino - the periodic warming of parts of the Pacific that changes weather globally - and ever increasing man-made global warming.

This past year's El Nino, nicknamed "Godzilla" by NASA climatologist Bill Patzert, was one of the strongest El Ninos on record.

The weather phenomenon, which lasted for 15 months beginning in March 2015, "had a powerful impact," Patzert told CBS News in February. "All the volatile weather we've had across the United States - the fingerprint of El Niño is on all these events."

In addition to heavy rain, flooding and warmer-than-average temperatures across the western United States, El Nino triggered droughts in parts of Africa and India and added to man-made global warming. El Nino also played a part in a record hurricane season in the Pacific.

"This impacts people. This is real life," said NOAA climate scientist Jessica Blunden, co-editor of the report published Tuesday in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Oklahoma University meteorology professor Jason Furtado said in an email that the report, which he wasn't part of, illustrates the combined power of nature and humans on Earth's climate: "It was like injecting an already amped-up climate system with a dose of (natural) steroids."

About 450 scientists from around the world helped write the report and in it NOAA highlighted one of the lesser-known measurements, ocean heat content. About 93 percent of the heat energy trapped by greenhouse gases - such as carbon dioxide from the burning of coal, oil and gas - goes directly into the ocean, the report said. And ocean heat content hit record levels both near the surface and deep.

NOAA oceanographer Gregory C. Johnson, a study co-author, said the oceans are storing more heat energy because of man-made climate change with an extra El Nino spike.

Johnson summed up Earth's climate in a haiku, published deep inside the report:

"El Niño waxes,

warm waters shoal, flow eastward,

Earth's fever rises."

CBS/AP



“Those include record heat energy absorbed by the oceans and lowest groundwater storage levels globally, according to Tuesday's report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. …. But it's more than just numbers on a graph. Scientists said the turbo-charged climate affected walrus and penguin populations and played a role in dangerous algae blooms, such as one off the Pacific Northwest coast. And there were brutal heat waves all over the world, with ones in India and Pakistan killing thousands of people. …. About 450 scientists from around the world helped write the report and in it NOAA highlighted one of the lesser-known measurements, ocean heat content. About 93 percent of the heat energy trapped by greenhouse gases - such as carbon dioxide from the burning of coal, oil and gas - goes directly into the ocean, the report said. And ocean heat content hit record levels both near the surface and deep. …. Johnson summed up Earth's climate in a haiku, published deep inside the report:

"El Niño waxes,
warm waters shoal, flow eastward,
Earth's fever rises."


The poem makes a fitting eulogy for our earth. I am only glad that I did see, notice and remember things like hundreds of life forms which are disappearing, or have already gone. Tiger Swallowtail and Spice Bush Swallowtail butterflies, Luna and Cecropia moths, fireflies, blue birds, Whip-poor-wills, Cicadas, crickets, mourning doves, landscapes covered in wild flowers, lovely little lizards, bright green tree frogs, and more, are all within my memories. I’m glad I wasn’t born any later. Much of what used to be was still in existence, then. I have lived a full and satisfying life. I hope to see the rate of death diminish, as we wisely put solar panels and wind farms wherever we can and lower the CO2 emissions. If we can get our social priorities rearranged, we may have a hopeful future. May the Sanders social and political movement continue.




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/republican-rep-richard-hanna-says-hell-vote-for-clinton-over-trump/

Hanna becomes first GOP congressman to say he's voting for Clinton
By JOHN BAT CBS NEWS
August 2, 2016, 1:00 PM

Play VIDEO -- Trump gets defensive as polling numbers drop


On Tuesday, Rep. Richard Hanna, R-New York announced he would be putting his country before his party and casting his vote for Hillary Clinton.

"While I disagree with her on many issues, I will vote for Mrs. Clinton," Hanna wrote in an op-ed on Syracuse.com. "I will be hopeful and resolute in my belief that being a good American who loves his country is far more important than parties or winning and losing. I trust she can lead."

Hanna readily acknowledged that his decision might not make him many friends among his colleagues.

"All Republicans may not like the direction, but they can live to win or lose another day with a real candidate," he wrote.

The move makes Hanna the first Republican congressman to say publicly that he'll vote against the GOP presidential nominee, Donald Trump. Hanna, however, has little to lose politically, since he is not running for re-election.

The New York congressman has long said he would never support Trump, though, since he finds him "profoundly offensive and narcissistic but as much as anything, a world-class panderer, anything but a leader."

He even suggested that Trump was the "embodiment of at least a short list of the seven deadly sins" and is "deeply flawed in endless ways."

What appears to have pushed Hanna to support Clinton, though, was Trump's treatment of the Muslim family of a fallen U.S. soldier. The soldier's father had spoken out against Trump at the Democratic convention last week.

"In his latest foray of insults, Mr. Trump has attacked the parents of a slain U.S. soldier," Hanna wrote. "Where do we draw the line?" He continued, "For me, it is not enough to simply denounce his comments: He is unfit to serve our party and cannot lead this country."



“On Tuesday, Rep. Richard Hanna, R-New York announced he would be putting his country before his party and casting his vote for Hillary Clinton. …. He even suggested that Trump was the "embodiment of at least a short list of the seven deadly sins" and is "deeply flawed in endless ways." …. "I will be hopeful and resolute in my belief that being a good American who loves his country is far more important than parties or winning and losing. I trust she can lead." Hanna readily acknowledged that his decision might not make him many friends among his colleagues. "All Republicans may not like the direction, but they can live to win or lose another day with a real candidate," he wrote.” …. "In his latest foray of insults, Mr. Trump has attacked the parents of a slain U.S. soldier," Hanna wrote. "Where do we draw the line?" He continued, "For me, it is not enough to simply denounce his comments: He is unfit to serve our party and cannot lead this country."


I know nothing about Rep. Hanna, but he is a believer in some of the human principles that we have veered away from in the last 15 or so years. I hope to see others follow suit and announce their decisions as he has done. If that happens, even the die-hard Trumpites will perhaps rethink (or THINK for the first time) their positions behind Trump. Bless this honest Republican.




AFTERNOON SATANIC CLUBS --

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/an-after-school-satan-club-could-be-coming-to-your-kids-elementary-school/2016/07/30/63f485e6-5427-11e6-88eb-7dda4e2f2aec_story.html

Education
An After School Satan Club could be coming to your kid’s elementary school
By Katherine Stewart
July 30, 2016

This very interesting article shows a trend toward the building of what I would like to call a “Progressive Backlash” against the Neo-fascists in this country. So does the skyrocket climb to fame that Bernie Sanders found himself in this last year or two. The story is given in a separate Blog under today’s date. Read it and view the videos.



WHAT’S WITH THESE MILLENNIALS?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/there-isnt-really-anything-magical-about-it-why-more-millennials-are-putting-off-sex/2016/08/02/e7b73d6e-37f4-11e6-8f7c-d4c723a2becb_story.html?tid=pm_local_pop_b

Social Issues
‘There isn’t really anything magical about it’: Why more millennials are avoiding sex
By Tara Bahrampour
August 2 at 6:00 AM

Photograph -- Alexandra Wolff, 19, in her bedroom at her house in Marietta, Ga. “It’s not like I’m saving myself for anything; it’s more like I’ve been busy,” she says. (Michael A. Schwarz/For The Washington Post)
Play video 1:48 -- Here’s a look at some surprising takeaways from recent research about the sex lives of the millennial generation. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post)


Sam Wei, a 26-year-old financial analyst in Chicago, has not had sex since her last relationship ended 18 months ago. She makes out with guys sometimes, and she likes to cuddle.

“To me, there’s more intimacy with having someone there next to you that you can rely on without having to have sex,” she said. “I don’t want to do anything that would harm the relationship and be something that we can’t come back from.”

Instead, Wei finds “intellectual conversation more stimulating and more pleasurable than having sex sometimes. . . . I’m just kind of more of a rational person. I like to make sure it makes sense before I dive into it.”

It’s not a very sexy time to be young, despite millennials’ reputation as bed-hoppers frolicking like the characters on “Girls.” A study published Tuesday in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior finds that younger millennials — born in the 1990s — are more than twice as likely to be sexually inactive in their early 20s as the previous generation was and are more likely even than older millennials were at the same age.

Recent research also shows that overall, millennials — people born between the early 1980s and 2000 — have fewer sexual partners than the baby boomers and those in Generation X, the cohort that immediately preceded millennials.

Granted, the vast majority of young adults are still having sex, but an increasing number of them appear to be standing on the sidelines.

Delaying sex is not necessarily bad, experts say: Being intentional about when to have sex can lead to stronger relationships in the long run. The trend may also reflect women’s feeling more empowered to say no, said Stephanie Coontz, director of research at the Council on Contemporary Families.

“As people have gotten much more accepting of all sorts of forms of consensual sex, they’ve also gotten more picky about what constitutes consent ,” Coontz said. “We are far less accepting of pressured sex.”

But some experts are concerned that the drop-off reflects the difficulty some young people are having in forming deep romantic connections. They cite possible negative reasons for putting off sex, including pressure to succeed, social lives increasingly conducted on-screen, unrealistic expectations of physical perfection encouraged by dating apps and wariness over date rape.

‘The nature of communication now is anti-sexual’

Noah Patterson, 18, likes to sit in front of several screens simultaneously: a work project, a YouTube clip, a video game. To shut it all down for a date or even a one-night stand seems like a waste. “For an average date, you’re going to spend at least two hours, and in that two hours I won’t be doing something I enjoy,” he said.

It’s not that he doesn’t like women. “I enjoy their companionship, but it’s not a significant part of life,” said Patterson, a web designer in Bellingham, Wash.

[The end of sex? More and more young people avoid it.]

He has never had sex. “I’d rather be watching YouTube videos and making money.” Sex, he said, is “not going to be something people ask you for on your résumé.”

That attitude does not surprise Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist at Rutgers University and chief scientific adviser to the dating site Match.com.

“It’s a highly motivated, ambitious generation,” she said. “A lot of them are afraid that they’ll get into something they can’t get out of and they won’t be able to get back to their desk and keep studying.”

According to the new report, 15 percent of 20- to 24-year-olds have not had sex since turning 18, up from 6 percent in the early 1990s. And a study last year found that although millennials are more accepting of extramarital sex than earlier generations, they reported fewer sexual partners than any group since before the sexual revolution during the 1960s — an average of eight, compared with 11 for boomers and 10 for Generation X.

[Why more millennials live with their parents than with a spouse or lover]

The decline seems likely to continue: According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the portion of high school students who have had sex plunged last year to 41.2 percent after declining steadily from 54.1 percent in 1991 and 46.8 percent in 2013. The portion who reported sleeping with multiple partners also plummeted, from 18.7 percent in 1991 to 15 percent in 2013 and just 11.5 percent last year.

Among millennials, the effects are most dramatic among those born in the mid-1990s and later — the first cohort to come of age when smartphones were ubiquitous.

“This was the group that really started to communicate by screens more and by talking to their friends in person less,” said researcher Jean Twenge, lead author of the two studies.

So has sex declined because people are not meeting in person? Perhaps in part. But online life can also affect offline life in more subtle ways, especially when potential mates can disappear forever with the swipe of a thumb.

“It ends up putting a lot of importance on physical appearance, and that, I think, is leaving out a large section of the population,” said Twenge, who teaches psychology at San Diego State University. “For a lot of folks who are of average appearance, marriage and stable relationships was where they were having sex.” Unlike in face-to-face meetings where “you can seduce someone with your charm,” she said, dating apps are “leaving some people with fewer choices and they might be more reluctant to search for partners at all.”

It does not help that many millennials are relatively unfamiliar with the kind of down time it takes to really get to know a partner.

“The nature of communication now is anti-sexual,” said Norman Spack, associate clinical professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. “People are not spending enough time alone just together. There’s another gorilla in the room: It’s whatever is turned on electronically.”

Alexandra Wolff, 19, had hoped to find romance in college. In high school, she and her friends were so focused on schoolwork that they did not date. But as a freshman last year at George Washington University, she found that between meeting new friends, attending classes and participating in extracurricular activities, she still did not have time.

“I don’t involve myself in the scene of frat parties and hookup culture . . . but it seems like every other option is so time-consuming and very hard to seek out,” said Wolff, who has never had sex. “It’s not like I’m saving myself for anything; it’s more like I’ve been busy.”

At Tulane University, in New Orleans, Wolff’s high school classmate Claudia W., 19, feels like an odd duck in a sea of Tinder users. She wants what she calls an “old-fashioned” relationship, leading to marriage and kids. But fellow students are into “very casual one-night stands, going to bars and going home with someone,” she said.

Claudia, who did not want her last name used because “I don’t want all my professors reading about how I’m a virgin,” said her parents worry.

“They always ask me: ‘Are you against relationships? Why don’t you have a boyfriend?’ My mom — she hooked up all the time in college — she’s like, ‘I would still love you, but are you gay?’ But for me, it’s not anything about chastity or fear of sex. . . . I’m just like, ‘Eh, it’ll happen.’ ”

A reluctance to ‘catch feelings’

Millennials have been called the most cautious generation — the first to grow up with car seats and bike helmets, the first not allowed to walk to school or go to the playground alone.

The sense of caution sometimes manifests itself as a heightened awareness of emotional pitfalls. For example, many young people speak disparagingly of the messy emotional state love and lust can engender, referring to it as “catching feelings.”

This generation has also grown up in an age in which it is possible to inflict suffering in ways that are both hidden and horrifyingly public, such as cyberbullying or posting compromising pictures online. In such an environment, young people have developed what some see as necessary defenses and others view as thin skin.

“On college campuses, you see older people scratching their heads about ‘safe spaces.’ ” Twenge said. “That’s about emotional safety, this new idea of words being more harmful,” referring to trigger warnings and other terms college-age people use to talk about potentially trauma-inducing stimuli.

Meanwhile, in efforts to counteract hookup and drinking culture, some campuses have begun instigating “yes-means-yes” rules stipulating that each step of a sexual encounter requires verbal consent.

For some, staying away altogether can feel less treacherous.

That is Patterson’s takeaway. “Third-wave feminists seem to be crazy, saying that all men are participating in this rape culture.” He opts for porn instead. “It’s quicker. It’s more accessible. What you see is what you get.”

Isn’t he curious about actual sex? “Not really,” he said. “I’ve seen so much of it. . . . There isn’t really anything magical about it, right?”

For his part, Leo Fusco, a 25-year-old construction worker and subcontractor in Oakland, Calif., has refrained from sex in part because he is repelled by the hookup culture.

“I’ve overheard conversations where every detail was given — ‘We were in this position for this long, and then we were in that position’ — and that’s a major turnoff for me,” he said. “There’s a lot of people my age who have no filter in terms of how they express themselves in public.”

Isn’t he curious about what sex is like? “I’m curious on a physical level, like I’m curious about how a new sandwich would taste, but it’s not like a driving curiosity.” Besides, he said, “I don’t particularly like not being in control of myself.”

Abstinence may not be such a considered choice for everyone, though; there can also be environmental factors. For example, the use of antidepressants, which doubled between 1999 and 2012, can reduce sex drive.

“That’s a real problem,” Fisher, at Rutgers University, said, adding that antidepressants can also “blunt emotions,” making it harder to fall in love.

To Spack, the Harvard professor, that is sad. “Everyone’s missing out on a good time,” he said.

But Fisher is not worried. “It’s probably a good thing” she said. Noting that baby boomers were known not only for free love but also for high divorce rates, she added, “I think [taking it slowly] is going to lead to better first marriages.”

In the end, she predicted, as long as pharmaceuticals don’t get in the way, biology will prevail. “Sex is a powerful drive and so is romantic love. . . . The sex system is way below the cortex. It’s way below the limbic system,” on a level with thirst and hunger.

“They’ll get to the sex,” she said. “I’m positive of that.”



“Isn’t he curious about what sex is like? “I’m curious on a physical level, like I’m curious about how a new sandwich would taste, but it’s not like a driving curiosity.” Besides, he said, “I don’t particularly like not being in control of myself.”


Conservatively religious people in America will be glad to see this article. I’m glad to see it for another reason. I do want to see people, young and old, using their brains for learning, imagining, thinking, producing intellectually stimulating things and philosophizing. Poetry, music, literature, science and art are to me infinitely superior to money, social climbing, power seeking. The fact that we are so deeply into the monetary reward system these days is one of the reasons we make such inhumane decisions.

Most people, during my whole lifetime, have been into big houses and sports cars as the epitome of achievement, and I got thoroughly sick of it. It’s not a step forward in my view, but backward. Now, it seems these Millennials have become, very likely because of an acquired introversion due to those electronic devices, more thoughtful and “conservative” about intense interactions. If they should turn out to be psychologically incapable of entering into a sexual relationship, that to me does indicate a mental/emotional disability and an overall problem for the human race.

It also might change the fate of American society. It reminds me of the turn of mind that I read about in literature courses from the 1700s and 1800s. Those young people were almost forced to marry, but on the basis of MONEY and PROPERTY TRANSFER. Keep that money and social prestige in the family. Almost always men ruled with an iron fist, and women were submissive.

The women also actively HID their intellectual talents, as it was considered to be a positively UNATTRACTIVE female characteristic, like one of those little mustaches that some women have. Nowadays we just pull the hateful little hairs out. It wasn’t until the full feminist revolution of the 1960s and 70s that that particular “glass ceiling” came crashing down.

Needless to say, conservative society was appalled. Not only did my set of women stop obeying all those societal rules (shaving our legs for instance), but we began to follow the sexually free rules that men had always enjoyed. Men were enraged, and they still are. Oh, well.

People are all following their own drummers again now, and I think that is good. Many humans are what I call seekers. We yearn for something, often without knowing what exactly, and march with our drummer until we find it. They always did it to some degree in the 1800s, but not without scandal. We all do it now with society’s full approval, at least in cities. Neighbors just aren’t watching the house next door to see who goes in and out as we were in the 1950s. Thank goodness for that. That kind of neighborliness I can do without!

I don’t see these modern young people following that route exactly, however, so much as maintaining a freedom from intensity. They are protecting themselves emotionally. One statement in the article above refers to emotional involvement in life as “messy.” That kind of finickiness personally offends me. I can’t help that. Sexual interaction does sometimes tend to produce an irrationally strong emotional bond which, if the relationship breaks up, can leave either gender in an emotionally damaged condition, though we usually go on to find a new true love, believe it or not.

I call that “Falling in love.” It is a gaping hole in the ground covered with leaves into which we can “fall” and get seriously injured. That doesn’t mean that the great good fortune to have found our one true love doesn’t complete us emotionally and psychologically, in a way that safely playing the field or abstaining from relationships entirely simply can’t do. Having gone through what I have, I feel fully developed as a human soul, or at least closer to that goal. It’s good to have memories, even if we sustained some grief in the process. Of course, I’m a Boomer. I believe in love.



SPEAKING OF LOVE, LOOK AT THIS ONE!

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-officiates-same-sex-wedding/

Biden officiates same-sex wedding
By JULIA BOCCAGNO CBS NEWS
August 2, 2016, 3:07 PM

Photograph -- Vice President Joe Biden waves while taking the stage at the Democratic National Convention, July 27, 2016. Biden said it was a "bunch of mularkey" that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump cares about the middle class. He added that Trump has "no clue what makes America great." SCOTT AUDETTE/REUTERS


Joe Biden officiated his first wedding --which also happened to be a union between two men--at his residence near the Naval Observatory.

In a tweet, Biden said he "couldn't be happier" to marry two longtime White House staffers, Brian Mosteller, director of Oval Office operations for President Obama, and Joe Mahsie, a trip coordinator for first lady Michelle Obama.

View image on Twitter
View image on Twitter
Follow
Vice President Biden ✔ @VP
Proud to marry Brian and Joe at my house. Couldn't be happier, two longtime White House staffers, two great guys.
7:05 PM - 1 Aug 2016
39,282 39,282 Retweets 126,579 126,579 likes

According to CNN, Biden obtained a temporary certification from the District of Columbia after the two grooms asked if the vice president would help them tie the knot before a small gathering of immediate family members.

Following the ceremony, Dr. Jill Biden, the second lady, exclaimed, "Love is love!" in a tweet.

Follow
Dr. Jill Biden ✔ @DrBiden
Love is love! —Jill https://twitter.com/vp/status/760250205191012352 …
8:44 PM - 1 Aug 2016
294 294 Retweets 1,267 1,267 likes

Vice President Biden is credited with accelerating the White House's embrace of LGBTQ-friendly policy in May 2012 when he unexpectedly endorsed same-sex marriage on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men and women marrying one another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties," Mr. Biden said, while noting that the president, not he, sets policy on such matters.

Just a few days later, President Obama echoed the sentiments of his vice president, saying, "I think same-sex couples should be able to get married." In a 2015 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is a right guaranteed by the Constitution in the United States.


Nothing affirms positivity like a wedding! Great story!