http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2531
August 2013 was the globe's 4th warmest August since records began in 1880, according to NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). NASA rated it the 5th warmest August on record. The year-to-date period of January - August has been the 6th warmest such period on record. August 2013 global land temperatures were the 11th warmest on record, and global ocean temperatures were the 5th warmest on record. August 2013 was the 342nd consecutive month (28.5 years) with global temperatures warmer than the 20th century average. [And temps were warming before the 20th century began.]
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The big stories that he highlights are the intense heat waves that hit Central Europe and East Asia, which brought all-time national heat records to Austria, Slovenia, and Japan. Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, passed its all-time heat record a remarkable five times during the month.
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The world-wide tally of billion-dollar weather disasters so far in 2013 is 25, and the U.S. total is six, according to the August 2013 Catastrophe Report from insurance broker Aon Benfield. This excludes the September Colorado flood, whose damages are preliminarily estimated at $2 billion. Ranked in term of cost, here are the 25 disasters:
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Monday, September 23, 2013
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Greenhouse gas reduction could prevent millions of premature deaths
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/greenhouse-gas-reduction-could-prevent-millions-premature-deaths-4B11229475
Charles Choi
Sept. 22, 2013
Reducing the flow of the greenhouse gases that spur global warming could prevent up to 3 million premature deaths annually by the year 2100, a new study suggests.
Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide trap heat, helping warm the globe. The surge in carbon dioxide levels due to human activity since the Industrial Revolution is now causing an overall warming of the planet that is having impacts around the globe. And the burning of fuel generates not only carbon dioxide, but also air pollutants that are harmful to human health.
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Based on standard cost-benefit analysis that assigns a monetary value to saving lives, the researchers estimated that reducing a ton of carbon dioxide emissions was valued at $50 to $380.
"This is much more than the costs of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, so this can justify reducing carbon dioxide emissions from the point of view of human health," West said.
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Charles Choi
Sept. 22, 2013
Reducing the flow of the greenhouse gases that spur global warming could prevent up to 3 million premature deaths annually by the year 2100, a new study suggests.
Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide trap heat, helping warm the globe. The surge in carbon dioxide levels due to human activity since the Industrial Revolution is now causing an overall warming of the planet that is having impacts around the globe. And the burning of fuel generates not only carbon dioxide, but also air pollutants that are harmful to human health.
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Based on standard cost-benefit analysis that assigns a monetary value to saving lives, the researchers estimated that reducing a ton of carbon dioxide emissions was valued at $50 to $380.
"This is much more than the costs of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, so this can justify reducing carbon dioxide emissions from the point of view of human health," West said.
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Saturday, September 21, 2013
Get the Facts on Pandora’s Attack on Songwriters
http://www.ascap.com/playback/2013/09/action/pandora-facts.aspx
September 17, 2013
The rights of songwriters came under attack last fall when online streaming giant Pandora filed suit against ASCAP. Pandora, which controls close to 70% of the U.S. streaming market, refuses to pay fair value to license the hard work of songwriters and is now taking songwriters to court to pay even less.
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September 17, 2013
The rights of songwriters came under attack last fall when online streaming giant Pandora filed suit against ASCAP. Pandora, which controls close to 70% of the U.S. streaming market, refuses to pay fair value to license the hard work of songwriters and is now taking songwriters to court to pay even less.
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Lifelines for Poor Children
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/14/lifelines-for-poor-children/?_r=0 \
Sept. 14, 2013
By JAMES J. HECKMAN
What’s missing in the current debate over economic inequality is enough serious discussion about investing in effective early childhood development from birth to age 5. This is not a big government boondoggle policy that would require a huge redistribution of wealth. Acting on it would, however, require us to rethink long-held notions of how we develop productive people and promote shared prosperity.
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The cognitive skills prized by the American educational establishment and measured by achievement tests are only part of what is required for success in life. Character skills are equally important determinants of wages, education, health and many other significant aspects of flourishing lives. Self-control, openness, the ability to engage with others, to plan and to persist — these are the attributes that get people in the door and on the job, and lead to productive lives. Cognitive and character skills work together as dynamic complements; they are inseparable. Skills beget skills. More motivated children learn more. Those who are more informed usually make wiser decisions.
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The family into which a child is born plays a powerful role in determining lifetime opportunities. This is hardly news, but it bears repeating: some kids win the lottery at birth, far too many don’t — and most people have a hard time catching up over the rest of their lives. Children raised in disadvantaged environments are not only much less likely to succeed in school or in society, but they are also much less likely to be healthy adults.
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¶Critics say that early childhood education is expensive and that it is not effective. They are right about the cost, but terribly wrong about the large return on the investment. Quality early childhood programs for disadvantaged children more than pay for themselves in better education, health and economic outcomes.
¶Proof comes in the form of a long-term cost-benefit analysis of effective early childhood programs. The Perry Preschool project was an intensive two-year voluntary program administered between 1962 and 1967 to disadvantaged 3- and 4-year-old, low-I.Q. African-American children in Ypslanti, Mich. The curriculum emphasized the development of self-control, perseverance and social skills in conjunction with basic cognitive skills. It also worked with the mothers to foster attachment, develop parenting skills and deepen their interactions with their children. The participants were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups, with the outcomes evaluated over a period of four decades.
¶Perry did not produce lasting gains in the I.Q.’s of its participants, but it did boost character skills that produced better education, economic and life outcomes. The economic rate of return from Perry is in the range of 6 percent to 10 percent per year per dollar invested, based on greater productivity and savings in expenditures on remediation, criminal justice and social dependency. This compares favorably to the estimated 6.9 percent annual rate of return of the United States stock market from the end of World War II to the 2008 meltdown. And yes, these estimates account for the costs of raising taxes and any resulting loss of economic activity.
A similar long-term early childhood study, the Carolina Abecedarian Project, better known as ABC, gave cognitive stimulation, training in self-control and social skills, and parental education starting in the first few months of life. ..... This program had lasting effects on I.Q., parenting practices and child attachment, leading to higher educational attainment and more skilled employment among those in the treatment group.
¶Most dramatic were ABC’s effects on lifelong health. Now, over 30 years later, those treated in ABC have lower blood pressure, lower abdominal obesity, less hypertension and less likelihood of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular conditions as adults.
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A recent public opinion poll commissioned by the First Five Years Fund found that 68 percent of voters think that only half or even fewer children begin kindergarten with the knowledge and skills they need to do their best in school. Eighty-nine percent say it is important to make early education and child care more affordable for working families to give their children a strong start, and a similar number want the federal government to help states build better preschools and make them more accessible to low- and middle-income children
President Obama has proposed an early childhood initiative that combines family visitation, infant health and development, early learning, quality child care and more effective preschooling at ages 4 and 5.
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Sept. 14, 2013
By JAMES J. HECKMAN
What’s missing in the current debate over economic inequality is enough serious discussion about investing in effective early childhood development from birth to age 5. This is not a big government boondoggle policy that would require a huge redistribution of wealth. Acting on it would, however, require us to rethink long-held notions of how we develop productive people and promote shared prosperity.
-----
The cognitive skills prized by the American educational establishment and measured by achievement tests are only part of what is required for success in life. Character skills are equally important determinants of wages, education, health and many other significant aspects of flourishing lives. Self-control, openness, the ability to engage with others, to plan and to persist — these are the attributes that get people in the door and on the job, and lead to productive lives. Cognitive and character skills work together as dynamic complements; they are inseparable. Skills beget skills. More motivated children learn more. Those who are more informed usually make wiser decisions.
-----
The family into which a child is born plays a powerful role in determining lifetime opportunities. This is hardly news, but it bears repeating: some kids win the lottery at birth, far too many don’t — and most people have a hard time catching up over the rest of their lives. Children raised in disadvantaged environments are not only much less likely to succeed in school or in society, but they are also much less likely to be healthy adults.
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¶Critics say that early childhood education is expensive and that it is not effective. They are right about the cost, but terribly wrong about the large return on the investment. Quality early childhood programs for disadvantaged children more than pay for themselves in better education, health and economic outcomes.
¶Proof comes in the form of a long-term cost-benefit analysis of effective early childhood programs. The Perry Preschool project was an intensive two-year voluntary program administered between 1962 and 1967 to disadvantaged 3- and 4-year-old, low-I.Q. African-American children in Ypslanti, Mich. The curriculum emphasized the development of self-control, perseverance and social skills in conjunction with basic cognitive skills. It also worked with the mothers to foster attachment, develop parenting skills and deepen their interactions with their children. The participants were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups, with the outcomes evaluated over a period of four decades.
¶Perry did not produce lasting gains in the I.Q.’s of its participants, but it did boost character skills that produced better education, economic and life outcomes. The economic rate of return from Perry is in the range of 6 percent to 10 percent per year per dollar invested, based on greater productivity and savings in expenditures on remediation, criminal justice and social dependency. This compares favorably to the estimated 6.9 percent annual rate of return of the United States stock market from the end of World War II to the 2008 meltdown. And yes, these estimates account for the costs of raising taxes and any resulting loss of economic activity.
A similar long-term early childhood study, the Carolina Abecedarian Project, better known as ABC, gave cognitive stimulation, training in self-control and social skills, and parental education starting in the first few months of life. ..... This program had lasting effects on I.Q., parenting practices and child attachment, leading to higher educational attainment and more skilled employment among those in the treatment group.
¶Most dramatic were ABC’s effects on lifelong health. Now, over 30 years later, those treated in ABC have lower blood pressure, lower abdominal obesity, less hypertension and less likelihood of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular conditions as adults.
-----
A recent public opinion poll commissioned by the First Five Years Fund found that 68 percent of voters think that only half or even fewer children begin kindergarten with the knowledge and skills they need to do their best in school. Eighty-nine percent say it is important to make early education and child care more affordable for working families to give their children a strong start, and a similar number want the federal government to help states build better preschools and make them more accessible to low- and middle-income children
President Obama has proposed an early childhood initiative that combines family visitation, infant health and development, early learning, quality child care and more effective preschooling at ages 4 and 5.
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Subsidizing Spouses
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/16/subsidizing-spouses/
September 16, 2013
By NANCY FOLBRE
Nancy Folbre is professor emerita of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
The federal tax code and Social Security both contain provisions that subsidize marriage if one spouse refrains from paid employment.
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At first glance, the debate over such subsidies looks like a clash between those who want to support families and those who want to tax people as individuals. A closer look, however, shows that pro-marriage policies are not necessarily pro-family policies, because they don’t consistently reward effort devoted to caring for dependents such as children and the elderly.
A stay-at-home spouse who redecorates the living room, prepares gourmet meals and greets his or her partner at the door with a martini receives the same federal income tax treatment as one who raises several children and cares for sick, disabled or elderly family members.
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Relatively few families in the bottom 45 percent in income pay federal income taxes, so they receive no benefit from the exemption. But most workers pay Social Security taxes that subsidize marriage even more generously. Those taxes that wage earners pay are not affected by their marital status, but married earners can receive an additional 50 percent of their individual retirement benefit to support a spouse who either lacks eligibility for earnings based on his or her own employment or opts for a spousal rather than an individual benefit.
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September 16, 2013
By NANCY FOLBRE
Nancy Folbre is professor emerita of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
The federal tax code and Social Security both contain provisions that subsidize marriage if one spouse refrains from paid employment.
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At first glance, the debate over such subsidies looks like a clash between those who want to support families and those who want to tax people as individuals. A closer look, however, shows that pro-marriage policies are not necessarily pro-family policies, because they don’t consistently reward effort devoted to caring for dependents such as children and the elderly.
A stay-at-home spouse who redecorates the living room, prepares gourmet meals and greets his or her partner at the door with a martini receives the same federal income tax treatment as one who raises several children and cares for sick, disabled or elderly family members.
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Relatively few families in the bottom 45 percent in income pay federal income taxes, so they receive no benefit from the exemption. But most workers pay Social Security taxes that subsidize marriage even more generously. Those taxes that wage earners pay are not affected by their marital status, but married earners can receive an additional 50 percent of their individual retirement benefit to support a spouse who either lacks eligibility for earnings based on his or her own employment or opts for a spousal rather than an individual benefit.
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In New Health Law, a Bridge to Medicare
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/10/business/retirementspecial/in-new-health-law-a-bridge-to-medicare.html?pagewanted=all
By REED ABELSON
Published: September 9, 2013
THE sweeping federal health care law making its major public debut next month was meant for people like Juanita Stonebraker, 63, from Oakland, Md., who retired from her job in a hospital billing office a year and a half ago.
She was able to continue her health insurance coverage from the hospital for a time, but when she tried to find an individual policy on her own, none of the insurers she contacted would cover her because she was diabetic.
“I didn’t even get to tell them about the heart attack,” said Ms. Stonebraker, who has been without health insurance since July. She is a little over a year away from qualifying for Medicare, the federal insurance program for people 65 and older. She now worries a recent hospitalization will leave her several thousand dollars in debt.
Under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, insurers must now offer coverage to people like Ms. Stonebraker, and they will not be able to set the premiums they charge on the basis of someone’s health. Starting Oct. 1, she and millions of other Americans are expected to be able to buy one of the plans available through newly created online state marketplaces, or exchanges, for coverage that begins in 2014. For those with low incomes, subsidies are available to help pay premiums.
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Early retirees are “the big group of winners in this equation,” said Edward A. Kaplan, a senior benefits consultant at the Segal Company, who said many of the premiums he had seen so far in the states that had made them public were relatively low, with subsidies making them even lower.
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As for next year, experts say retirees who already have Medicare should see no surprises as a result of the law. Those eligible can still opt for traditional Medicare, along with a drug-only plan, or one of the Medicare Advantage plans run by private insurers, but they do not have to select their plans through the new exchanges.
“Medicare has not been radically altered,” said Gerry Smolka, a policy expert at AARP Public Policy Institute. “This is the same for you as it was last year.”
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Nine million Americans between 50 and 64 years old were uninsured in 2010, according to a recent analysis by the AARP Public Policy Institute.
Greg Burke, for example, is 61 and he retired in 2008. While he still had insurance from his former employer, he had a knee replacement.
“After my knee replacement, I found that the insurers didn’t love me anymore,” Mr. Burke said.
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By REED ABELSON
Published: September 9, 2013
THE sweeping federal health care law making its major public debut next month was meant for people like Juanita Stonebraker, 63, from Oakland, Md., who retired from her job in a hospital billing office a year and a half ago.
She was able to continue her health insurance coverage from the hospital for a time, but when she tried to find an individual policy on her own, none of the insurers she contacted would cover her because she was diabetic.
“I didn’t even get to tell them about the heart attack,” said Ms. Stonebraker, who has been without health insurance since July. She is a little over a year away from qualifying for Medicare, the federal insurance program for people 65 and older. She now worries a recent hospitalization will leave her several thousand dollars in debt.
Under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, insurers must now offer coverage to people like Ms. Stonebraker, and they will not be able to set the premiums they charge on the basis of someone’s health. Starting Oct. 1, she and millions of other Americans are expected to be able to buy one of the plans available through newly created online state marketplaces, or exchanges, for coverage that begins in 2014. For those with low incomes, subsidies are available to help pay premiums.
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Early retirees are “the big group of winners in this equation,” said Edward A. Kaplan, a senior benefits consultant at the Segal Company, who said many of the premiums he had seen so far in the states that had made them public were relatively low, with subsidies making them even lower.
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As for next year, experts say retirees who already have Medicare should see no surprises as a result of the law. Those eligible can still opt for traditional Medicare, along with a drug-only plan, or one of the Medicare Advantage plans run by private insurers, but they do not have to select their plans through the new exchanges.
“Medicare has not been radically altered,” said Gerry Smolka, a policy expert at AARP Public Policy Institute. “This is the same for you as it was last year.”
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Nine million Americans between 50 and 64 years old were uninsured in 2010, according to a recent analysis by the AARP Public Policy Institute.
Greg Burke, for example, is 61 and he retired in 2008. While he still had insurance from his former employer, he had a knee replacement.
“After my knee replacement, I found that the insurers didn’t love me anymore,” Mr. Burke said.
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Thursday, September 19, 2013
Colorado House Republicans Unanimously Support Flood Relief, Unanimously Opposed Sandy Aid
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/09/19/2648991/colorado-republicans-sandy-hypocrites/
By Josh Israel on September 19, 2013
As historic floods of “biblical” proportions continue to ravage Colorado, President Obama signed an emergency declaration on Sunday — a move that was encouraged by a bipartisan letter last week from the state’s nine-member Congressional delegation. But the four Republican Congressmen who are now supporting disaster relief for their own state were among those voting earlier this year against the emergency aid funding for Superstorm Sandy victims on the East Coast.
Colorado Republican Reps. Mike Coffman, Cory Gardner, Doug Lamborn, and Scott Tipton joined their delegation in asking the president to send emergency funds to help their constituents combat and recover from the more than 14 inches of rain that have flooded Colorado this month.
All four also signed onto a July 10, 2013 letter from the entire delegation to President Obama asking him for a federal major disaster declaration for summer wildfires. Their request noted that such a declaration would “provide urgently needed resources and support to the state, communities, and especially the families who have been uprooted by these wildfires.”
But back in January, a vote in the House of Representatives provided $50 billion in Sandy relief, yet among those voting against the bill were Coffman, Gardner, Lamborn, and Tipton. Their opposition stemmed, in part, because they we unable to steer some of the Sandy aid to their own state. Though he had himself sought disaster aid after damages from Colorado wildfires in June 2012, Lamborn even voted against a smaller $9 billion emergency Sandy relief bill 11 days earlier. [Colorado is not exactly close to the area devastated by Sandy.]
Though scientists have noted that climate is a key cause of these Colorado floods, Coffman, Gardner, Lamborn, and Tipton are all deniers of climate science.
By Josh Israel on September 19, 2013
As historic floods of “biblical” proportions continue to ravage Colorado, President Obama signed an emergency declaration on Sunday — a move that was encouraged by a bipartisan letter last week from the state’s nine-member Congressional delegation. But the four Republican Congressmen who are now supporting disaster relief for their own state were among those voting earlier this year against the emergency aid funding for Superstorm Sandy victims on the East Coast.
Colorado Republican Reps. Mike Coffman, Cory Gardner, Doug Lamborn, and Scott Tipton joined their delegation in asking the president to send emergency funds to help their constituents combat and recover from the more than 14 inches of rain that have flooded Colorado this month.
All four also signed onto a July 10, 2013 letter from the entire delegation to President Obama asking him for a federal major disaster declaration for summer wildfires. Their request noted that such a declaration would “provide urgently needed resources and support to the state, communities, and especially the families who have been uprooted by these wildfires.”
But back in January, a vote in the House of Representatives provided $50 billion in Sandy relief, yet among those voting against the bill were Coffman, Gardner, Lamborn, and Tipton. Their opposition stemmed, in part, because they we unable to steer some of the Sandy aid to their own state. Though he had himself sought disaster aid after damages from Colorado wildfires in June 2012, Lamborn even voted against a smaller $9 billion emergency Sandy relief bill 11 days earlier. [Colorado is not exactly close to the area devastated by Sandy.]
Though scientists have noted that climate is a key cause of these Colorado floods, Coffman, Gardner, Lamborn, and Tipton are all deniers of climate science.
After Texas boy dies from ant bites, debate rages over EpiPens in schools
http://www.today.com/health/texas-boys-death-reignites-debate-over-epipens-schools-4B11194403
Melissa Dahl
Sept. 20, 2013
The death of a middle school boy who suffered an allergic reaction to fire ants during a football game has added fuel to the debate about whether schools should stock epinephrine, a potentially life-saving medication for severe allergy attacks.
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He died just one week after a bill was introduced to the U.S. Senate that would encourage states to require schools to stock epinephrine. The most well-known version of the medication is the EpiPen, a brand of the injectable form, which drives adrenaline into the person suffering an allergic attack.
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Even though staff at schools in 30 states, including Texas, are allowed to inject an EpiPen in students even if they do not have a prescription for it, only four of those states -- Virginia, Maryland, Nebraska and Nevada --require schools to stock it.
Allergists say Cameron’s death highlights the importance of making epinephrine available to all students in schools across the country. Because, they say, Cameron’s mother is right – an EpiPen injection almost certainly would have saved the boy’s life.
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Melissa Dahl
Sept. 20, 2013
The death of a middle school boy who suffered an allergic reaction to fire ants during a football game has added fuel to the debate about whether schools should stock epinephrine, a potentially life-saving medication for severe allergy attacks.
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He died just one week after a bill was introduced to the U.S. Senate that would encourage states to require schools to stock epinephrine. The most well-known version of the medication is the EpiPen, a brand of the injectable form, which drives adrenaline into the person suffering an allergic attack.
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Even though staff at schools in 30 states, including Texas, are allowed to inject an EpiPen in students even if they do not have a prescription for it, only four of those states -- Virginia, Maryland, Nebraska and Nevada --require schools to stock it.
Allergists say Cameron’s death highlights the importance of making epinephrine available to all students in schools across the country. Because, they say, Cameron’s mother is right – an EpiPen injection almost certainly would have saved the boy’s life.
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Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Wrongfully Convicted Inmate Released After 12 Years
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/king-spalding-secures-release-of-wrongfully-convicted-inmate-2013-09-12
Sept. 12, 2013
ATLANTA, GA, Sep 12, 2013 (Marketwired via COMTEX) -- King & Spalding announced that it has secured the release of pro bono client David Peralta, who had served 12 years of a life sentence for a murder he did not commit. The DeKalb district attorney this morning dropped all charges against Peralta, who is to be released today.
Peralta was convicted in 2001 for a drive-by shooting that killed victim Rebecca Moore and was sentenced to life in prison. King & Spalding attorneys have been representing Peralta pro bono for over three years to obtain a new trial and his release. The DeKalb County Superior Court on April 22 granted Peralta's motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence and vacated the conviction, whereupon the DeKalb district attorney determined that the new evidence shows Peralta was not involved in the murder. The DeKalb DA dropped the charges on Sept. 12 at a hearing before Judge Daniel M. Coursey, Jr.
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Sept. 12, 2013
ATLANTA, GA, Sep 12, 2013 (Marketwired via COMTEX) -- King & Spalding announced that it has secured the release of pro bono client David Peralta, who had served 12 years of a life sentence for a murder he did not commit. The DeKalb district attorney this morning dropped all charges against Peralta, who is to be released today.
Peralta was convicted in 2001 for a drive-by shooting that killed victim Rebecca Moore and was sentenced to life in prison. King & Spalding attorneys have been representing Peralta pro bono for over three years to obtain a new trial and his release. The DeKalb County Superior Court on April 22 granted Peralta's motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence and vacated the conviction, whereupon the DeKalb district attorney determined that the new evidence shows Peralta was not involved in the murder. The DeKalb DA dropped the charges on Sept. 12 at a hearing before Judge Daniel M. Coursey, Jr.
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2008 economic crisis could be to blame for thousands of excess suicides worldwide
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/bmj-2ec091313.php
Public release date: 17-Sep-2013
Contact: Stephanie Burns
BMJ-British Medical Journal
Researchers say 'urgent action' is needed to prevent further deaths
In a paper published today on bmj.com, researchers are suggesting that the 2008 global economic crisis could be to blame for the increase in suicide rates in European and American countries, particularly among males and in countries with higher levels of job losses.
In 2008, the International Labour Organization estimated that the number of jobless worldwide would reach approximately 212 million by 2009, an increase of 34 million compared with 2007. The World Health Organization raised concerns of the crisis' impact on global health and called for action to monitor and protect health, in particular amongst the poor and vulnerable.
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Public release date: 17-Sep-2013
Contact: Stephanie Burns
BMJ-British Medical Journal
Researchers say 'urgent action' is needed to prevent further deaths
In a paper published today on bmj.com, researchers are suggesting that the 2008 global economic crisis could be to blame for the increase in suicide rates in European and American countries, particularly among males and in countries with higher levels of job losses.
In 2008, the International Labour Organization estimated that the number of jobless worldwide would reach approximately 212 million by 2009, an increase of 34 million compared with 2007. The World Health Organization raised concerns of the crisis' impact on global health and called for action to monitor and protect health, in particular amongst the poor and vulnerable.
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It’s Not (Really) About the Guns
I would say it's linked to attitudes of our society, that we have embraced meanness and uncaringness, and admire narcissism and psychopathic behaviour.http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-miles-square/2012/12/postal_its_not_really_about_th041920.php
December 21, 2012
By Daniel Luzer
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How many, indeed? There have been 62 public shootings in the last 30 years, according to an article in Mother Jones. Before Newtown there had been six mass shootings this year alone. We now have them more often than we have presidential elections, more often than we have the Olympics and the Grammy awards.
Newsom’s reaction, while understandable, misses the real problem. The reality is that the American mass shooting probably has a lot to do with gun policy, a fair amount to do with mental health programs, and everything to do with the distribution of wealth in America.
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The public shootings began in the 1980s. There were two gun massacres in the two decades before Ronald Reagan took office, one in 1966 and one a decade later. There were, by some estimates, more than 30 mass killings during his time in office alone.
There were mass shooting prior to this, but they were mostly rational acts of violence, not random rage murders. On February 14, 1929, for instance, seven men were machine gunned to death in Chicago. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, while horrific, was a very a simple case of mobsters murdering rivals during Prohibition in order to retaliate for an earlier attempt to control the city’s bootlegging business.
The most dramatic change since then was not a modification in policy toward crime or guns but, rather, of the country’s economic structure.
Since 1980, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the United States has lost about a quarter of its manufacturing jobs. Between 1990 and 2000 CEO pay increased 570 percent. The average worker’s salary, however, increased only 34 percent. Of the total increase in all American income from 1980 to 2005, more than 80 percent went to the top one percent. The wealth of that top one percent of Americans now exceeds the combined wealth of the bottom 95 percent. America has the worst wealth distribution of any first-world nation. Income distribution in the United States, as Timothy Noah put it in a 2010 piece he wrote for Slate, is now “more unequal than in Guyana, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and roughly on par with Uruguay, Argentina, and Ecuador.”
The American firearm murder rate is also starting to resemble that of a banana republic. The countries with highest rates of gun death in the world are Honduras, El Salvador and Jamaica. The highest rates of gun homicide, in fact, are intensely concentrated in Latin America and Caribbean, other places with vast wealth disparities.
What does this orientation of resources do to a society? In 2005 Mark Ames published Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion: From Reagan’s Workplaces to Clinton’s Columbine and Beyond, in which he argues that the American public gun murder is essentially the 21st century equivalent of the slave rebellions that occurred before the Civil War.
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It’s impossible to demonstrate causality in any individual case, and in fact it could be argued that many of the gunmen were insulated by family circumstances from the worst effects of the American economic policies. But the grievances and obsessions of American mass shooters seem mostly to center on issues of status.
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As societies become more inequitable, they become more violent. That’s because gross inequities in wealth make people feel angry and impotent and irrelevant. Their sense of powerlessness is ratified and reinforced by a culture and economic system in which the small group of winners feels morally justified in dismissing the large and growing number of losers
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This is not to say that these murderers are innocent or mere victims of circumstance; they were adults who chose their brutal actions freely. It’s also true that a rigorous and severe gun control policy, in particular, could dramatically reduce the number of people who actually die from public acts of violence;
----- [But would they then turn to arson and bombs?]
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The typical American family makes less than it did in 1989
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_09/lunch_buffet_402046928.php
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/17/the-typical-american-family-makes-less-than-it-did-in-1989/?hpid=z5
By Neil Irwin, Published: September 17, 2013
The Census Bureau is out with the annual report on incomes and poverty. And while you might think that after years of stagnant incomes and elevated poverty rates, we would be inured to the depressing facts contained therein, it still somehow has the power to shock.
For my money, the most depressing fact about the economy is not the fact that household incomes were basically flat in 2012 (the real median household income was down to $51,017 from $51,100 in 2011, a statistically insignificant change). It wasn't even the fact that 15 percent of the U.S. population was living in poverty, according to the official, flawed definition of the term.
Nah, the most depressing result comes when you look at the longer view of household incomes in the United States. This chart shows real median household income over the past 25 years; that is, the money earned, in inflation-adjusted dollars, by the family at the exact middle of the income distribution.
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In 1989, the median American household made $51,681 in current dollars (the 2012 number, again, was $51,017). That means that 24 years ago, a middle class American family was making more than the a middle class family was making one year ago.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/17/the-typical-american-family-makes-less-than-it-did-in-1989/?hpid=z5
By Neil Irwin, Published: September 17, 2013
The Census Bureau is out with the annual report on incomes and poverty. And while you might think that after years of stagnant incomes and elevated poverty rates, we would be inured to the depressing facts contained therein, it still somehow has the power to shock.
For my money, the most depressing fact about the economy is not the fact that household incomes were basically flat in 2012 (the real median household income was down to $51,017 from $51,100 in 2011, a statistically insignificant change). It wasn't even the fact that 15 percent of the U.S. population was living in poverty, according to the official, flawed definition of the term.
Nah, the most depressing result comes when you look at the longer view of household incomes in the United States. This chart shows real median household income over the past 25 years; that is, the money earned, in inflation-adjusted dollars, by the family at the exact middle of the income distribution.
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In 1989, the median American household made $51,681 in current dollars (the 2012 number, again, was $51,017). That means that 24 years ago, a middle class American family was making more than the a middle class family was making one year ago.
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Healthy diet may reverse aging
http://www.today.com/health/healthy-diet-may-reverse-aging-study-finds-4B11175619
Maggie Fox NBC News
Sept. 16, 2013
A program of healthy eating, exercise and stress reduction can not only reverse some diseases -- it may actually slow down the aging process at the genetic level, researchers reported Monday.
The lifestyle changes affected the telomeres -- little caps on the end of the chromosomes that carry the DNA, the team at the University of California, San Francisco report.
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The program includes eating a diet high in whole foods, fruits, vegetables, unrefined grains and keeping fat to 10 percent of calories. The average American gets more than a third of calories from fat.
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Maggie Fox NBC News
Sept. 16, 2013
A program of healthy eating, exercise and stress reduction can not only reverse some diseases -- it may actually slow down the aging process at the genetic level, researchers reported Monday.
The lifestyle changes affected the telomeres -- little caps on the end of the chromosomes that carry the DNA, the team at the University of California, San Francisco report.
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The program includes eating a diet high in whole foods, fruits, vegetables, unrefined grains and keeping fat to 10 percent of calories. The average American gets more than a third of calories from fat.
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Monday, September 16, 2013
Family Current On Its Mortgage Had House Sold In Foreclosure
I guess they have to steal houses in order to pay the CEO an exorbitant salary.http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/09/16/2624001/foreclosure-nightmare-california-family-house-sold/
By Alan Pyke on September 16, 2013
An Altadena, California family will be able to keep its home after a local news report exposed major errors made by the financial company that tried to sell it out from under the borrowers even though they were current on their payments.
Nationstar Mortgage bought Louise and Ceith Sinclair’s mortgage from Ocwen Financial Corporation and failed to honor a loan modification that the Sinclairs had finalized prior to the transfer of their loan. “Every time we call them back, they give us the run-around, saying call back in two days, call back in two days,” Louise Sinclair told Los Angeles’ KABC. Then in June, someone knocked on the door and told the Sinclairs their house had been sold and they’d need to leave and even pay rent until they did. Nationstar had foreclosed on the house and sold it to another financial company without ever notifying the rightful owners. “They said that we didn’t notarized one paper of the modification, and in fact, we did,” Ceith Sinclair told KABC.
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Many homeowners caught in the trap of mortgage servicer abuses and aggressive foreclosure tactics don’t share the Sinclairs’ good fortune. Etienne Syldor of Orlando, Florida faced foreclosure despite repaying his loan early. Jo-An Seipp, another Floridian, was current on her payments when Wells Fargo sold her house. Jacqueline Barber of Atlanta, Georgia was “dual-tracked,” meaning the bank foreclosed at the same time they told her she was on track for a loan modification that would keep her in her home.
These individual stories are the tiniest fraction of the whole problem of mortgage servicing. Documented abuses and ducked phonecalls are two of the most common abusive practices in a review by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that found sloppy and illegal foreclosure practices are rampant nationwide.
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Diet Is Associated With Risk of Depression
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130916103530.htm
Sep. 16, 2013 — A healthy diet may reduce the risk of severe depression, according to a prospective follow-up study of more than 2,000 men conducted at the University of Eastern Finland. In addition, weight loss in the context of a lifestyle intervention was associated with a reduction in depressive symptoms.
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A healthy diet characterized by vegetables, fruits, berries, whole-grains, poultry, fish and low-fat cheese was associated with a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms and a lower risk of depression during the follow-up period.
Increased intake of folate was also associated with a decreased risk of depression. Vegetables, fruits, berries, whole-grains, meat and liver are the most important dietary sources of folate. In addition, increased coffee consumption was non-linearly associated with a decreased risk of depression.
In addition, participation in a three-year lifestyle intervention study improved depression scores with no specific group effect. Furthermore, a reduction in the body weight was associated with a greater reduction in depressive symptoms.
Adherence to an unhealthy diet characterized by a high consumption of sausages, processed meats, sugar-containing desserts and snacks, sugary drinks, manufactured foods, French rolls and baked or processed potatoes was associated with an increased prevalence of elevated depressive symptoms.
Contrary to some earlier observations, vitamin B12 intake, serum concentrations of n-3 PUFAs, serum ratio of n-6 to n-3 PUFAs, tea drinking and total caffeine intake were not related to the risk of depression in this study.
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Sep. 16, 2013 — A healthy diet may reduce the risk of severe depression, according to a prospective follow-up study of more than 2,000 men conducted at the University of Eastern Finland. In addition, weight loss in the context of a lifestyle intervention was associated with a reduction in depressive symptoms.
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A healthy diet characterized by vegetables, fruits, berries, whole-grains, poultry, fish and low-fat cheese was associated with a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms and a lower risk of depression during the follow-up period.
Increased intake of folate was also associated with a decreased risk of depression. Vegetables, fruits, berries, whole-grains, meat and liver are the most important dietary sources of folate. In addition, increased coffee consumption was non-linearly associated with a decreased risk of depression.
In addition, participation in a three-year lifestyle intervention study improved depression scores with no specific group effect. Furthermore, a reduction in the body weight was associated with a greater reduction in depressive symptoms.
Adherence to an unhealthy diet characterized by a high consumption of sausages, processed meats, sugar-containing desserts and snacks, sugary drinks, manufactured foods, French rolls and baked or processed potatoes was associated with an increased prevalence of elevated depressive symptoms.
Contrary to some earlier observations, vitamin B12 intake, serum concentrations of n-3 PUFAs, serum ratio of n-6 to n-3 PUFAs, tea drinking and total caffeine intake were not related to the risk of depression in this study.
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Environmentally Friendly Cement Is Stronger Than Ordinary Cement
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130916111002.htm
Sep. 16, 2013 — New research from the Niels Bohr Institute shows that cement made with waste ash from sugar production is stronger than ordinary cement. The research shows that the ash helps to bind water in the cement so that it is stronger, can withstand higher pressure and crumbles less. At the same time, energy is saved and pollution from cement production is reduced.
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Sep. 16, 2013 — New research from the Niels Bohr Institute shows that cement made with waste ash from sugar production is stronger than ordinary cement. The research shows that the ash helps to bind water in the cement so that it is stronger, can withstand higher pressure and crumbles less. At the same time, energy is saved and pollution from cement production is reduced.
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Non-Traditional Mathematics Curriculum Results in Higher Standardized Test Scores
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130916122137.htm
Sep. 16, 2013 — For many years, studies have shown that American students score significantly lower than students worldwide in mathematics achievement, ranking 25th among 34 countries. Now, researchers from theUniversity of Missouri have found high school students in the United States achieve higher scores on a standardized mathematics test if they study from a curriculum known as integrated mathematics.
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Integrated mathematics is a curriculum that combines several mathematic topics, such as algebra, geometry and statistics, into single courses. Many countries that currently perform higher than the U.S. in mathematics achievement use a more integrated curriculum. Traditional U.S. mathematics curricula typically organize the content into year-long courses, so that a 9th grade student may take Algebra I, followed by Geometry, followed by Algebra II before a pre-Calculus course.
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Sep. 16, 2013 — For many years, studies have shown that American students score significantly lower than students worldwide in mathematics achievement, ranking 25th among 34 countries. Now, researchers from theUniversity of Missouri have found high school students in the United States achieve higher scores on a standardized mathematics test if they study from a curriculum known as integrated mathematics.
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Integrated mathematics is a curriculum that combines several mathematic topics, such as algebra, geometry and statistics, into single courses. Many countries that currently perform higher than the U.S. in mathematics achievement use a more integrated curriculum. Traditional U.S. mathematics curricula typically organize the content into year-long courses, so that a 9th grade student may take Algebra I, followed by Geometry, followed by Algebra II before a pre-Calculus course.
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Sunday, September 15, 2013
Stress May Lead to False Confessions
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130911103329.htm
Sep. 11, 2013 — Imagine if you were wrongly accused of a crime. Would you be stressed? Anyone would be, but Iowa State University researchers found the innocent are often less stressed than the guilty. And that could put them at greater risk to admit to a crime they didn't commit.
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The Innocence Project is a nonprofit group that works to exonerate those who are wrongly convicted, many because of false confessions. To date, the organization has helped clear 80 people who admitted to crimes they did not commit.
Madon said other researchers have studied false confession cases in which police recorded the length of the interrogation. Of those cases, they found people were questioned for up to 16 hours on average before admitting to a crime they did not commit.
"These people held out for a very long time, but they couldn't hold out forever," Madon said.
Typically, interrogations only last 30 minutes to 2.5 hours. But with some false confessions, suspects were questioned for up to 24 hours.
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Sep. 11, 2013 — Imagine if you were wrongly accused of a crime. Would you be stressed? Anyone would be, but Iowa State University researchers found the innocent are often less stressed than the guilty. And that could put them at greater risk to admit to a crime they didn't commit.
----
The Innocence Project is a nonprofit group that works to exonerate those who are wrongly convicted, many because of false confessions. To date, the organization has helped clear 80 people who admitted to crimes they did not commit.
Madon said other researchers have studied false confession cases in which police recorded the length of the interrogation. Of those cases, they found people were questioned for up to 16 hours on average before admitting to a crime they did not commit.
"These people held out for a very long time, but they couldn't hold out forever," Madon said.
Typically, interrogations only last 30 minutes to 2.5 hours. But with some false confessions, suspects were questioned for up to 24 hours.
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Pain Research Yielding Encouraging Discoveries, but Funding Cuts Threaten Future Advances
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130911184408.htm
Sep. 11, 2013 — Multi-faceted pain research discoveries within the last decade are bringing new hope for the estimated 100 million Americans with chronic pain. Unfortunately, translation of these scientific advances into clinical practice could be stalled without sufficient funding for both basic science and clinical pain research, according to the American Pain Society.
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Sep. 11, 2013 — Multi-faceted pain research discoveries within the last decade are bringing new hope for the estimated 100 million Americans with chronic pain. Unfortunately, translation of these scientific advances into clinical practice could be stalled without sufficient funding for both basic science and clinical pain research, according to the American Pain Society.
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Saturday, September 14, 2013
Exercise Provides Some Benefits for Depression
I found walking in the woods and gardening very helpful.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130911211921.htm
Sep. 11, 2013 — Exercise may benefit people suffering from depression, according to an updated systematic review published in The Cochrane Library. The authors of the review found evidence to suggest that exercise reduces symptoms of depression, although they say more high quality trials are needed.
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Delaying Climate Policy Would Triple Short-Term Mitigation Costs
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130912111820.htm
Sep. 12, 2013 — Higher costs would in turn increase the threshold for decision-makers to start the transition to a low-carbon economy. Thus, to keep climate targets within reach it seems to be most relevant to not further postpone mitigation, the researchers conclude.
"The transitional economic repercussions that would result if the switch towards a climate-friendly economy is delayed, are comparable to the costs of the financial crisis the world just experienced," lead-author Gunnar Luderer says. The later climate policy implementation starts, the faster -- hence the more expensive -- emissions have to be reduced if states world-wide want to achieve the internationally agreed target of limiting global warming to 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels. A binding global agreement to implement the emissions reductions required to reach this target is currently still under negotiation, while global emissions have continued to rise.
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Sep. 12, 2013 — Higher costs would in turn increase the threshold for decision-makers to start the transition to a low-carbon economy. Thus, to keep climate targets within reach it seems to be most relevant to not further postpone mitigation, the researchers conclude.
"The transitional economic repercussions that would result if the switch towards a climate-friendly economy is delayed, are comparable to the costs of the financial crisis the world just experienced," lead-author Gunnar Luderer says. The later climate policy implementation starts, the faster -- hence the more expensive -- emissions have to be reduced if states world-wide want to achieve the internationally agreed target of limiting global warming to 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels. A binding global agreement to implement the emissions reductions required to reach this target is currently still under negotiation, while global emissions have continued to rise.
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Are Women Less Corrupt?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130912143942.htm
Sep. 12, 2013 — Women are more likely than men to disapprove of -- and less likely to participate in -- political corruption, but only in countries where corruption is stigmatized, according to new political science research from Rice University.
"'Fairer Sex' or Purity Myth? Corruption, Gender and Institutional Context" finds that women are less tolerant of corrupt behavior, but only in democratic governments, where appropriating public policy for private gain is typically punished by voters and courts.
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Esarey noted that previous research has shown that greater female participation in government (that is, in the legislature) is associated with lower levels of perceived corruption. However, he said that his research reveals that this relationship does not exist in autocracies, where women might feel more compelled to go along with the status quo than challenge the system.
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Sep. 12, 2013 — Women are more likely than men to disapprove of -- and less likely to participate in -- political corruption, but only in countries where corruption is stigmatized, according to new political science research from Rice University.
"'Fairer Sex' or Purity Myth? Corruption, Gender and Institutional Context" finds that women are less tolerant of corrupt behavior, but only in democratic governments, where appropriating public policy for private gain is typically punished by voters and courts.
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Esarey noted that previous research has shown that greater female participation in government (that is, in the legislature) is associated with lower levels of perceived corruption. However, he said that his research reveals that this relationship does not exist in autocracies, where women might feel more compelled to go along with the status quo than challenge the system.
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Low Omega-3 Could Explain Why Some Children Struggle With Reading
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130913092414.htm
Sep. 13, 2013 — An Oxford University study has shown that a representative sample of UK schoolchildren aged seven to nine years had low levels of key Omega-3 fatty acids in their blood. Furthermore, the study found that children's blood levels of the long-chain Omega-3 DHA (the form found in most abundance in the brain) 'significantly predicted' how well they were able to concentrate and learn.
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Sep. 13, 2013 — An Oxford University study has shown that a representative sample of UK schoolchildren aged seven to nine years had low levels of key Omega-3 fatty acids in their blood. Furthermore, the study found that children's blood levels of the long-chain Omega-3 DHA (the form found in most abundance in the brain) 'significantly predicted' how well they were able to concentrate and learn.
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Diet During Pregnancy and Early Life May Affect Children's Behavior and Intelligence
The Republicans are trying to reduce food benefits for poor children.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130913101815.htm
Sep. 13, 2013 — The statement "you are what you eat" is significant for the development of optimum mental performance in children as evidence is accumulating to show that nutrition pre-birth and in early life "programmes" long term health, well being, brain development and mental performance and that certain nutrients are important to this process.
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The study has found that folic acid, which is recommended in some European countries, to be taken by women during the first three months of pregnancy, can reduce the likelihood of behavioural problems during early childhood. Eating oily fish is also very beneficial, not only for the omega-3 fatty acids they which are 'building blocks' for brain cells, but also for the iodine content which has a positive effect on reading ability in children when measured at age nine.
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Deficit Falls To Lowest Level Since 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/09/13/2616681/deficit-lowest-2008/
By Alan Pyke on September 13, 2013
New Treasury Department figures confirm what the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected in the spring: the budget deficit for fiscal year 2013 will be dramatically lower than it was the past four years. The government recorded a $148 billion deficit in August, 22.5 percent smaller than in the same month of 2012, and is on track to total a $642 billion annual deficit when the fiscal year ends on September 30.
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By Alan Pyke on September 13, 2013
New Treasury Department figures confirm what the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected in the spring: the budget deficit for fiscal year 2013 will be dramatically lower than it was the past four years. The government recorded a $148 billion deficit in August, 22.5 percent smaller than in the same month of 2012, and is on track to total a $642 billion annual deficit when the fiscal year ends on September 30.
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‘Biblical’ Amounts Of Rainfall Slam Colorado, Causing Death, Destruction, And Massive Flooding
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/09/13/2617361/biblical-rainfall-colorado/
By Ryan Koronowski on September 13, 2013
Massive, historic, “biblical” rainfall cascaded through much of Colorado Thursday, leaving three people dead and one missing as of Thursday night as a result of the flooding.
Up to 8 inches of rain fell across a hundred-mile expanse of Colorado’s Front Range, causing thousands to be evacuated as local streams turned into rampaging torrents. The heavy rains returned to the foothills region Thursday night, with more precipitation forecast for Friday.
The National Weather Service issued constantly-updated versions of a local area forecast, and one at 9:41 a.m. MDT reported a dire warning:
MAJOR FLOODING/FLASH FLOODING EVENT UNDERWAY AT THIS TIME WITH BIBLICAL RAINFALL AMOUNTS REPORTED IN MANY AREAS IN/NEAR THE FOOTHILLS
There’s no scientific definition of “biblical” but the flooding has been unlike anything local residents have ever seen before.
Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle, after facing 20-foot walls of water racing down canyons already stripped bare by wildfires and drought, said, “This is not an ordinary day. It is not an ordinary disaster.”
A dozen dams overflowed and six actually blew out, while officials were keeping their eyes on several high-hazard dams whose failure would seriously endanger lives.
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Though there have been severe storms in the past, the amount of rain that has fallen in so short a time is unprecedented.
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And it’s not just Colorado. Historic, “unbelievable” rainfall in New Mexico on Thursday caused flooding in areas that typically have little to no flow at this time of year.
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One single event cannot definitively be said to be caused by climate change. But a study last year found that as the Earth gets warmer, precipitation patterns shift and we will see more intense downpours as storms become stronger because they have more energy.
[Also, warm air holds more moisture. When a mass of warm mass air meets a mass of colder air, we have more precipitation.]
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By Ryan Koronowski on September 13, 2013
Massive, historic, “biblical” rainfall cascaded through much of Colorado Thursday, leaving three people dead and one missing as of Thursday night as a result of the flooding.
Up to 8 inches of rain fell across a hundred-mile expanse of Colorado’s Front Range, causing thousands to be evacuated as local streams turned into rampaging torrents. The heavy rains returned to the foothills region Thursday night, with more precipitation forecast for Friday.
The National Weather Service issued constantly-updated versions of a local area forecast, and one at 9:41 a.m. MDT reported a dire warning:
MAJOR FLOODING/FLASH FLOODING EVENT UNDERWAY AT THIS TIME WITH BIBLICAL RAINFALL AMOUNTS REPORTED IN MANY AREAS IN/NEAR THE FOOTHILLS
There’s no scientific definition of “biblical” but the flooding has been unlike anything local residents have ever seen before.
Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle, after facing 20-foot walls of water racing down canyons already stripped bare by wildfires and drought, said, “This is not an ordinary day. It is not an ordinary disaster.”
A dozen dams overflowed and six actually blew out, while officials were keeping their eyes on several high-hazard dams whose failure would seriously endanger lives.
-----
Though there have been severe storms in the past, the amount of rain that has fallen in so short a time is unprecedented.
-----
And it’s not just Colorado. Historic, “unbelievable” rainfall in New Mexico on Thursday caused flooding in areas that typically have little to no flow at this time of year.
-----
One single event cannot definitively be said to be caused by climate change. But a study last year found that as the Earth gets warmer, precipitation patterns shift and we will see more intense downpours as storms become stronger because they have more energy.
[Also, warm air holds more moisture. When a mass of warm mass air meets a mass of colder air, we have more precipitation.]
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Thursday, September 12, 2013
Employers Actually Plan To Hire More Full-Time Workers As Obamacare Rolls Out
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/09/11/2607221/employers-obamacare-wont-stop-hiring/
BY IGOR VOLSKY ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2013
A new survey of chief financial officers finds that American companies expect to increase the number of full-time employees by 1.8 percent over the next 12 months as key parts of the Affordable Care Act go into effect, undermining conservative critics who’ve argued that the health care law would hamper business growth and expansion.
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BY IGOR VOLSKY ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2013
A new survey of chief financial officers finds that American companies expect to increase the number of full-time employees by 1.8 percent over the next 12 months as key parts of the Affordable Care Act go into effect, undermining conservative critics who’ve argued that the health care law would hamper business growth and expansion.
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CryoSat Reveals Decline In Arctic Sea Ice Volume Continues
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/09/11/2603711/arctic-death-spiral/
BY JOE ROMM ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2013
Arctic sea ice volume collapsed from 1979 to 2012, several decades ahead of what the climate models had predicted.
Now new data from the European Space Agency’s CryoSat satellite has revealed that this ice volume trend continued through the spring of 2013.
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[This shows the area covered by ice. But the decline in the amount of ice is even greater, because it is getting thinner.]
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University of Leeds Prof. Andrew Shepherd explains:
“CryoSat continues to provide clear evidence of diminishing Arctic sea ice…. there has been a decrease in the volume of winter and summer ice over the past three years.
“The volume of the sea ice at the end of last winter was less than 15 000 cubic km, which is lower than any other year going into summer and indicates less winter growth than usual.”
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The CryoSat satellite now allows very accurate measures of ice thickness, which can be combined with ice area to give volume. Here is a new video “based on measurements taken between October 2010 and April 2013,” which revealed that “the volume of seasonal winter and summer sea ice has declined year on year during this period.”
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BY JOE ROMM ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2013
Arctic sea ice volume collapsed from 1979 to 2012, several decades ahead of what the climate models had predicted.
Now new data from the European Space Agency’s CryoSat satellite has revealed that this ice volume trend continued through the spring of 2013.
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[This shows the area covered by ice. But the decline in the amount of ice is even greater, because it is getting thinner.]
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University of Leeds Prof. Andrew Shepherd explains:
“CryoSat continues to provide clear evidence of diminishing Arctic sea ice…. there has been a decrease in the volume of winter and summer ice over the past three years.
“The volume of the sea ice at the end of last winter was less than 15 000 cubic km, which is lower than any other year going into summer and indicates less winter growth than usual.”
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The CryoSat satellite now allows very accurate measures of ice thickness, which can be combined with ice area to give volume. Here is a new video “based on measurements taken between October 2010 and April 2013,” which revealed that “the volume of seasonal winter and summer sea ice has declined year on year during this period.”
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Cellphones are now essentials for the poor
http://inplainsight.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/12/20307069-its-not-a-blackberry-but-its-helping-me-for-now-cellphones-are-now-essentials-for-the-poor?lite
Thu Sep 12, 2013
After losing her job as a bookstore manager in New York City two years ago, Ethel Brown, 53, also lost her home. Since then, she’s mostly been living under an acquaintance’s roof while trying to find work, and may need to find another place to live soon.
Though money is tight, Brown makes sure she stays on top of her monthly cellphone bill for a $35 prepaid plan from Boost Mobile, which provides her with unlimited minutes and texts. Sometimes she cuts back on buying a cup of coffee or extra food, to ensure she can pay her cellphone bill.
With both her employment and living situation in flux, Brown needs her mobile phone. She uses it to follow up on job and housing leads, and to keep in touch with public assistance agencies, which sometimes follow up with phone calls instead of asking applicants to come into an office. Having a cellphone also helps Brown stay in touch with her family and friends.
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"Today every family must have a telephone if it is to contact emergency services," Linda Gibbs, New York City’s deputy mayor for health and human services, wrote in a 2007 poverty report.
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Brown went through a period of a few months where she had no mobile phone, and she said it was awful.
"You have to depend on somebody else to take your messages and when you do go over and speak to the person and say ‘Hey, did anybody call?’… Hopefully they’ll tell you, or they wrote it down," Brown said.
And that old standby, the pay phone, is not as reliable — or available — as it once was. In March 2012, the FCC said there were 243,487 payphones in the U.S., down from more than 2 million in March 2000.
"You try to get to a payphone, you can’t even use it, it’s not working," Brown said. "Or you put the quarters in, and next thing you know, if you don’t have enough, the quarters are gone."
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In San Francisco, Lifeline case managers and clients alike report that the wireless subsidies do make a big difference, says Bevan Dufty, director of Housing Opportunity, Partnerships and Engagement for San Francisco, especially when it comes to being available to make and confirm job appointments.
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Thu Sep 12, 2013
After losing her job as a bookstore manager in New York City two years ago, Ethel Brown, 53, also lost her home. Since then, she’s mostly been living under an acquaintance’s roof while trying to find work, and may need to find another place to live soon.
Though money is tight, Brown makes sure she stays on top of her monthly cellphone bill for a $35 prepaid plan from Boost Mobile, which provides her with unlimited minutes and texts. Sometimes she cuts back on buying a cup of coffee or extra food, to ensure she can pay her cellphone bill.
With both her employment and living situation in flux, Brown needs her mobile phone. She uses it to follow up on job and housing leads, and to keep in touch with public assistance agencies, which sometimes follow up with phone calls instead of asking applicants to come into an office. Having a cellphone also helps Brown stay in touch with her family and friends.
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"Today every family must have a telephone if it is to contact emergency services," Linda Gibbs, New York City’s deputy mayor for health and human services, wrote in a 2007 poverty report.
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Brown went through a period of a few months where she had no mobile phone, and she said it was awful.
"You have to depend on somebody else to take your messages and when you do go over and speak to the person and say ‘Hey, did anybody call?’… Hopefully they’ll tell you, or they wrote it down," Brown said.
And that old standby, the pay phone, is not as reliable — or available — as it once was. In March 2012, the FCC said there were 243,487 payphones in the U.S., down from more than 2 million in March 2000.
"You try to get to a payphone, you can’t even use it, it’s not working," Brown said. "Or you put the quarters in, and next thing you know, if you don’t have enough, the quarters are gone."
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In San Francisco, Lifeline case managers and clients alike report that the wireless subsidies do make a big difference, says Bevan Dufty, director of Housing Opportunity, Partnerships and Engagement for San Francisco, especially when it comes to being available to make and confirm job appointments.
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Drop the cookie: Sweet, starchy foods 'probably' cause women’s cancer
http://www.today.com/health/sweet-starchy-foods-probably-cause-womens-cancer-study-finds-8C11124866
Maggie Fox NBC News
Sep. 10, 2013
Sweet, starchy foods like sugar and white bread probably cause endometrial cancer, while coffee probably protects against it, researchers reported on Tuesday.
And a review of the available evidence reinforces that being obese is probably the greatest cause of the cancer, the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and the World Cancer Research Fund International said.
“AICR now estimates that most cases of endometrial cancer (59 percent, or about 29,500 every year) could be prevented in the U.S. if women were active for at least 30 minutes a day and maintained a healthy body weight,” the group said in a statement.
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“Women who are obese have two to three times the rate of endometrial cancer. People who are more active regularly tend to have a decreased rate of endometrial cancer."
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“We don’t want to tell people to go ahead and drink as much coffee as you want,” Bandera cautioned. Coffee can raise blood pressure and can also have other side effects. “Everything in moderation.”
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“The bottom line is you want to eat whole grains instead of refined grains and sugary foods,” she added. “All the findings are really pointing to the same thing – maintaining better glucose metabolism and maintaining a healthy body weight,” she added. “That means a healthy diet and regular exercise.”
Maggie Fox NBC News
Sep. 10, 2013
Sweet, starchy foods like sugar and white bread probably cause endometrial cancer, while coffee probably protects against it, researchers reported on Tuesday.
And a review of the available evidence reinforces that being obese is probably the greatest cause of the cancer, the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and the World Cancer Research Fund International said.
“AICR now estimates that most cases of endometrial cancer (59 percent, or about 29,500 every year) could be prevented in the U.S. if women were active for at least 30 minutes a day and maintained a healthy body weight,” the group said in a statement.
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“Women who are obese have two to three times the rate of endometrial cancer. People who are more active regularly tend to have a decreased rate of endometrial cancer."
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“We don’t want to tell people to go ahead and drink as much coffee as you want,” Bandera cautioned. Coffee can raise blood pressure and can also have other side effects. “Everything in moderation.”
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“The bottom line is you want to eat whole grains instead of refined grains and sugary foods,” she added. “All the findings are really pointing to the same thing – maintaining better glucose metabolism and maintaining a healthy body weight,” she added. “That means a healthy diet and regular exercise.”
Men need 'female' hormone for sex drive, fat control: study
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/men-need-female-hormone-sex-drive-fat-control-study-8C11132419
Brian Alexander NBC News contributor
Sep. 11, 2013
Estrogen, the “female” hormone, is a lot more important to men than even many doctors think, according to a surprising new study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston found that it’s actually a lack of estrogen that’s most responsible for the accumulation of body fat plaguing men with low testosterone levels, raising their risks of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Low estrogen is also a big contributor to the sexual dysfunction and low libido usually blamed solely on low testosterone.
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Brian Alexander NBC News contributor
Sep. 11, 2013
Estrogen, the “female” hormone, is a lot more important to men than even many doctors think, according to a surprising new study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston found that it’s actually a lack of estrogen that’s most responsible for the accumulation of body fat plaguing men with low testosterone levels, raising their risks of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Low estrogen is also a big contributor to the sexual dysfunction and low libido usually blamed solely on low testosterone.
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Chicago Mayor 'Sorry' About Torture Cases
I don't think the mayor should have to apologize for something he had nothing to do with. And I wouldn't say his statement is necessarily an apology. There are a lot of things I am sorry for in the world, but I am not to blame for them, so I am not making an apology.http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Emanuel-Sorry-About-Burge-Torture-Cases-223347761.html
By Ward Room Staff
| Wednesday, Sep 11, 2013
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the $12.3 million settlement in two Chicago police-torture cases is "a way of saying all of us are sorry about what happened here in the city."
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Former Chicago Police Commander Burge was convicted in 2010 of lying under oath about torturing suspects into confessions and was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison.
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Wednesday's council-approved settlements, stemming from lawsuits by Ronald Kitchen and Marvin Reeves, brings the total payouts in the long-running torture cases to more than $80 million.
Both men in these two cases claim they were tortured by members of Burge's unit. They say Kitchen falsely confessed and implicated Reeves in the 1988 slayings of five people. Both men were exonerated and released from prison after spending years behind bars.
Though none of the cases occurred during Emanuel's tenure, he made the apology Wednesday after being asked repeatedly by a reporter if he would apologize.
"I am sorry this happened," he said in response. "Let us all now move on."
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Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Study links warming to some 2012 wild weather
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20130905/DA8KDGAG2.html
Sep 5, 2013
By SETH BORENSTEIN
WASHINGTON (AP) - A study of a dozen of 2012's wildest weather events found that man-made global warming increased the likelihood of about half of them, including Superstorm Sandy's devastating surge and the blistering U.S. summer heat.
The other half - including a record wet British summer and the U.S. drought last year - simply reflected the random freakiness of weather, researchers with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the British meteorological office concluded in a report issued Thursday.
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Sep 5, 2013
By SETH BORENSTEIN
WASHINGTON (AP) - A study of a dozen of 2012's wildest weather events found that man-made global warming increased the likelihood of about half of them, including Superstorm Sandy's devastating surge and the blistering U.S. summer heat.
The other half - including a record wet British summer and the U.S. drought last year - simply reflected the random freakiness of weather, researchers with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the British meteorological office concluded in a report issued Thursday.
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http://www.nbcnews.com/id/40254997/ns/technology_and_science-future_of_energy/#.Ui-OudKUSDo
By Jennifer Viegas
11/18/2010
Home gardeners often struggle to prevent deer from eating prized roses and other plants, so how do commercial Christmas tree growers keep hungry deer at bay? North Carolina State University extension researchers have recently come up with some creative, natural, and cost-effective solutions.
The scientists, led by Christmas tree production specialist Jeff Owen, are exploring the use of inexpensive, inedible food byproducts — such as dried blood and egg powder — typically sold in bulk to the pet food industry to be used for flavoring. These byproducts cost 85 to 90 percent less than their commercial counterparts, and are found to be just as effective.
Using these repellents, which can be purchased locally in bulk, may provide tree farmers an early Christmas present.
“These products have an unappealing taste, but the decaying smell actually elicits a fear response in the deer and keeps them away from the crops,” Owen explained. “We’re continuing to look at similar products, like liver powder and fishmeal, to see if they work the same way.”
The products add to the growing list of more well-known natural repellants, such as human hair clippings, cayenne pepper, and raw eggs.
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For home gardeners who might wish to also benefit from Owen's research, he offers the following tip:
“Our growers get these products in 50-pound bags or even 2,000-pound pallets, and have to mix the egg powder or dried blood into a solution to be sprayed. It’s not the prettiest process,” he laughed. “For the average homeowner, the pre-made commercial deer repellent should be more than adequate, provided you rotate repellents from time to time.”
By Jennifer Viegas
11/18/2010
Home gardeners often struggle to prevent deer from eating prized roses and other plants, so how do commercial Christmas tree growers keep hungry deer at bay? North Carolina State University extension researchers have recently come up with some creative, natural, and cost-effective solutions.
The scientists, led by Christmas tree production specialist Jeff Owen, are exploring the use of inexpensive, inedible food byproducts — such as dried blood and egg powder — typically sold in bulk to the pet food industry to be used for flavoring. These byproducts cost 85 to 90 percent less than their commercial counterparts, and are found to be just as effective.
Using these repellents, which can be purchased locally in bulk, may provide tree farmers an early Christmas present.
“These products have an unappealing taste, but the decaying smell actually elicits a fear response in the deer and keeps them away from the crops,” Owen explained. “We’re continuing to look at similar products, like liver powder and fishmeal, to see if they work the same way.”
The products add to the growing list of more well-known natural repellants, such as human hair clippings, cayenne pepper, and raw eggs.
-----
For home gardeners who might wish to also benefit from Owen's research, he offers the following tip:
“Our growers get these products in 50-pound bags or even 2,000-pound pallets, and have to mix the egg powder or dried blood into a solution to be sprayed. It’s not the prettiest process,” he laughed. “For the average homeowner, the pre-made commercial deer repellent should be more than adequate, provided you rotate repellents from time to time.”
Top 1 percent took record share of US income in 2012
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/top-1-percent-took-record-share-2012-income-8C11118666
PAUL WISEMAN The Associated Press
9/10/2013
The pay gap between the richest 1 percent and the rest of America widened last year, making a record.
The top 1 percent of U.S. earners collected 19.3 percent of household income in 2012, their largest share in Internal Revenue Service figures going back a century.
U.S. income inequality has been growing for almost three decades. But until last year, the top 1 percent's share of pre-tax income had not yet surpassed the 18.7 percent it reached in 1927, according to an analysis of IRS figures dating to 1913 by economists at the University of California, Berkeley, the Paris School of Economics and Oxford University.
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Last year, the incomes of the top 1 percent rose 19.6 percent compared with a 1 percent increase for the remaining 99 percent.
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The income figures include wages, pension payments, dividends and capital gains from the sale of stocks and other assets. They do not include so-called transfer payments from government programs such as unemployment benefits and Social Security.
PAUL WISEMAN The Associated Press
9/10/2013
The pay gap between the richest 1 percent and the rest of America widened last year, making a record.
The top 1 percent of U.S. earners collected 19.3 percent of household income in 2012, their largest share in Internal Revenue Service figures going back a century.
U.S. income inequality has been growing for almost three decades. But until last year, the top 1 percent's share of pre-tax income had not yet surpassed the 18.7 percent it reached in 1927, according to an analysis of IRS figures dating to 1913 by economists at the University of California, Berkeley, the Paris School of Economics and Oxford University.
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Last year, the incomes of the top 1 percent rose 19.6 percent compared with a 1 percent increase for the remaining 99 percent.
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The income figures include wages, pension payments, dividends and capital gains from the sale of stocks and other assets. They do not include so-called transfer payments from government programs such as unemployment benefits and Social Security.
Monday, September 09, 2013
Fumes from military small arms lead to decline in lung function
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/elf-ffm090513.php
Public release date: 8-Sep-2013
Contact: Lauren Anderson
European Lung Foundation
Barcelona, Spain: Exposure to fumes released during the firing of military small arms can lead to a decline in lung function, according to a new study.
The research, which will be presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Annual Congress in Barcelona today (9 September 2013), suggests that members of the armed forces who are regularly firing small arms could be putting their lung health at risk.
Over the last 5 years, the armed forces in Norway have started to report ill health after live firing training. This new study aimed to characterise the health effects from the use of these weapons and investigate which components in the emissions were causing the health effects.
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Public release date: 8-Sep-2013
Contact: Lauren Anderson
European Lung Foundation
Barcelona, Spain: Exposure to fumes released during the firing of military small arms can lead to a decline in lung function, according to a new study.
The research, which will be presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Annual Congress in Barcelona today (9 September 2013), suggests that members of the armed forces who are regularly firing small arms could be putting their lung health at risk.
Over the last 5 years, the armed forces in Norway have started to report ill health after live firing training. This new study aimed to characterise the health effects from the use of these weapons and investigate which components in the emissions were causing the health effects.
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Severity of sleep apnea predicts aggressiveness of melanoma
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/elf-sos090513.php
Public release date: 9-Sep-2013
Contact: Lauren Anderson
European Lung Foundation
Barcelona, Spain: The severity of sleep apnoea can independently predict the aggressiveness of malignant skin melanoma, according to a new study.
The research, presented today (9 September 2013) at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Annual Congress, adds new evidence to a number of studies that have found a link between cancer and the sleep disorder.
Previous studies have looked at a link between sleep apnoea and both mortality and incidence rates from cancer. Some experimental studies in mice have also shown that reduced oxygen levels in the blood, which is common in sleep apnoea, enhanced tumour growth. This is the first study in humans to look at the link between a specific type of cancer (skin melanoma) and sleep apnoea.
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Public release date: 9-Sep-2013
Contact: Lauren Anderson
European Lung Foundation
Barcelona, Spain: The severity of sleep apnoea can independently predict the aggressiveness of malignant skin melanoma, according to a new study.
The research, presented today (9 September 2013) at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Annual Congress, adds new evidence to a number of studies that have found a link between cancer and the sleep disorder.
Previous studies have looked at a link between sleep apnoea and both mortality and incidence rates from cancer. Some experimental studies in mice have also shown that reduced oxygen levels in the blood, which is common in sleep apnoea, enhanced tumour growth. This is the first study in humans to look at the link between a specific type of cancer (skin melanoma) and sleep apnoea.
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Study reveals why warnings may be ineffective at teaching young people about risks
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/wt-srw090613.php
Public release date: 9-Sep-2013
Contact: Jen Middleton
Wellcome Trust
Campaigns to get young people to stop smoking may be more successful by focusing on the positive benefits, such as having more money and better skin, rather than emphasising negative outcomes like increased disease risk, a study from Wellcome Trust researchers suggests.
The findings reveal that young people have greater difficulty in learning from bad news to interpret their risk of future events, which might explain why they often do not respond to warnings.
We all make decisions based on what we believe may happen in the future as a consequence of our actions. We change our beliefs and choices based on information we gather from the world around us. However, people have a natural tendency to ignore negative information when making decisions, a trait that may be particularly pertinent to young people, who tend to engage in more risky and dangerous behaviour.
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Public release date: 9-Sep-2013
Contact: Jen Middleton
Wellcome Trust
Campaigns to get young people to stop smoking may be more successful by focusing on the positive benefits, such as having more money and better skin, rather than emphasising negative outcomes like increased disease risk, a study from Wellcome Trust researchers suggests.
The findings reveal that young people have greater difficulty in learning from bad news to interpret their risk of future events, which might explain why they often do not respond to warnings.
We all make decisions based on what we believe may happen in the future as a consequence of our actions. We change our beliefs and choices based on information we gather from the world around us. However, people have a natural tendency to ignore negative information when making decisions, a trait that may be particularly pertinent to young people, who tend to engage in more risky and dangerous behaviour.
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Young adults reminisce about music from before their time
I have not met any young people who can say they think the popular music of today will be played 30 or 50 years from now.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/afps-yar090613.php
Public release date: 9-Sep-2013
Contact: Anna Mikulak
Association for Psychological Science
Music has an uncanny way of bringing us back to a specific point in time, and each generation seems to have its own opinions about which tunes will live on as classics. New research suggests that young adults today are fond of and have an emotional connection to the music that was popular for their parents' generation.
"Music transmitted from generation to generation shapes autobiographical memories, preferences, and emotional responses, a phenomenon we call cascading 'reminiscence bumps,'" explains psychological scientist and lead researcher Carol Lynne Krumhansl of Cornell University. "These new findings point to the impact of music in childhood and likely reflect the prevalence of music in the home environment."
The study, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, reveals that while songs that were popular in our early 20s seem to have the greatest lasting emotional impact, music that was popular during our parents' younger days also evokes vivid memories.
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But the more surprising finding — one which the researchers didn't expect to see — was a drastic bump in memories, recognition, perceived quality, liking, and emotional connection with the music that was popular in the early 1980s, when the participants' parents were about 20-25 years old. That is, participants seemed to demonstrate a particular affinity for the songs their parents were listening to as young adults.
Previous research has shown that the music we encounter during late adolescence and early adulthood has the greatest impact on our lives. But these findings suggest that the music played throughout childhood can also leave a lasting impact.
And there was another, albeit smaller, 'reminiscence bump' for the music of the 1960s – more than two decades before the participants were born. Krumhansl and Zupnick speculate that reminiscence for this music could have been transmitted from the participants' grandparents, who would have been in their 20s or 30s in the 1960s.
Another possibility — one that might be favored by those of the Baby Boomer generation — is that the music of the 1960s is truly of higher quality.
Therapy Slows Onset and Progression of Lou Gehrig’s Disease, Study Finds
http://www.nationwidechildrens.org/news-room-articles/therapy-slows-onset-and-progression-of-lou-gehrigs-disease-study-finds?contentid=120090
Columbus, OH - 9/9/2013
Studies of a therapy designed to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) suggest that the treatment dramatically slows onset and progression of the deadly disease, one of the most common neuromuscular disorders in the world. The researchers, led by teams from The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the Ludwig Institute at the University of California, San Diego, found a survival increase of up to 39 percent in animal models with a one-time treatment, a crucial step toward moving the therapy into human clinical trials.
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Columbus, OH - 9/9/2013
Studies of a therapy designed to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) suggest that the treatment dramatically slows onset and progression of the deadly disease, one of the most common neuromuscular disorders in the world. The researchers, led by teams from The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the Ludwig Institute at the University of California, San Diego, found a survival increase of up to 39 percent in animal models with a one-time treatment, a crucial step toward moving the therapy into human clinical trials.
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Warming-Fueled Drought Helped Spark Syria’s Civil War
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/09/08/2586811/arab-summer-drought/
BY JOE ROMM ON SEPTEMBER 8, 2013
Warming-worsened drought is causing problems all around the Mediterranean, especially Syria:
[see link above for map of warming.]
With our country facing tough choices about Syria, Moyers & Company’s John Light had a great piece on Friday: “Drought Helped Spark Syria’s Civil War — Is it One of Many Climate Wars to Come?” He interviewed one of our favorites, Francesco Femia, co-founder of the Center for Climate and Security, which has an advisory board of retired military commanders and foreign-policy experts.
Back in March 2012, Climate Progress ran a piece co-authored by Femia, in which he explained, “Syria’s current social unrest is, in the most direct sense, a reaction to a brutal and out-of-touch regime and a response to the political wave of change that began in Tunisia early last year. However, that’s not the whole story.”
It’s now increasingly clear that the climate models that had been predicting the countries surrounding the Mediterranean would start to dry out were correct (see “NOAA: Human-Caused Climate Change Already a Major Factor in More Frequent Mediterranean Droughts,” the source of the figure at the top).
In his interview with Light, Femia explains the role of drought in the conflict:
From 2006 to 2011, 60 percent of Syria’s land experienced, in the words of one expert, the worst long-term drought and most severe set of crop failures since agricultural civilizations began in the Fertile Crescent many millennia ago. That, on top of natural resource mismanagement by the Assad regime — subsidizing water-intensive wheat and cotton farming and unsustainable irrigation techniques — led to a large amount of devastation.
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The fact that the 2011 NOAA analysis confirmed the climate models’ predictions of drying is especially worrisome because the climate models project a very dry future for large parts of the planet’s currently habited and arable land in the coming decades
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BY JOE ROMM ON SEPTEMBER 8, 2013
Warming-worsened drought is causing problems all around the Mediterranean, especially Syria:
[see link above for map of warming.]
With our country facing tough choices about Syria, Moyers & Company’s John Light had a great piece on Friday: “Drought Helped Spark Syria’s Civil War — Is it One of Many Climate Wars to Come?” He interviewed one of our favorites, Francesco Femia, co-founder of the Center for Climate and Security, which has an advisory board of retired military commanders and foreign-policy experts.
Back in March 2012, Climate Progress ran a piece co-authored by Femia, in which he explained, “Syria’s current social unrest is, in the most direct sense, a reaction to a brutal and out-of-touch regime and a response to the political wave of change that began in Tunisia early last year. However, that’s not the whole story.”
It’s now increasingly clear that the climate models that had been predicting the countries surrounding the Mediterranean would start to dry out were correct (see “NOAA: Human-Caused Climate Change Already a Major Factor in More Frequent Mediterranean Droughts,” the source of the figure at the top).
In his interview with Light, Femia explains the role of drought in the conflict:
From 2006 to 2011, 60 percent of Syria’s land experienced, in the words of one expert, the worst long-term drought and most severe set of crop failures since agricultural civilizations began in the Fertile Crescent many millennia ago. That, on top of natural resource mismanagement by the Assad regime — subsidizing water-intensive wheat and cotton farming and unsustainable irrigation techniques — led to a large amount of devastation.
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The fact that the 2011 NOAA analysis confirmed the climate models’ predictions of drying is especially worrisome because the climate models project a very dry future for large parts of the planet’s currently habited and arable land in the coming decades
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What was said
I am not a fan of George Zimmerman, but I am also hate lies.http://abcnews.go.com/US/george-zimmermans-wife-911-tape-scared/story?id=20203329
Many sensationalistic statements are made about various topics, including this, that sound unlikely to me. When I check them out, I usually find that they are not really true, but there is no changing people's beliefs in them.
I read the transcript of the 911 call, and listened to the tape, and Shellie DID NOT say that Zimmerman tried to get her to come closer. Just the opposite. She said he warned her NOT to come closer.
But I know that people will continue to cling to the lie about this. And they will continue to believe without reservation anything that gets put out that agrees with their preconceived ideas, not matter how unlikely.
"When Shellie Zimmerman trails off the dispatcher asks "step closer and what?" to which Shellie responds "a Step closer and he'd shoot us.""
In other words, he is telling her NOT to step closer.
Friday, September 06, 2013
Life purpose buffers negative moods triggered by diversity
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/cu-lpb090413.php
Public release date: 4-Sep-2013
Contact: Melissa Osgood
Cornell University
ITHACA, N.Y. – Being in the minority in an ethnically diverse crowd is distressing, regardless of your ethnicity, unless you have a sense of purpose in life, reports a Cornell University developmental psychologist.
Anthony Burrow, assistant professor of human development in the College of Human Ecology, led the study, which was conducted on Chicago trains. The findings shed light on how people encounter diversity in everyday settings at a time when the United States is more racially mixed than ever, with demographic trends pointing to a more multicultural melting pot in decades to come.
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But the sore feelings vanished in purpose-driven individuals. Burrow, whose research focuses on the value of purpose, particularly among teens and young adults, suspects that it enabled participants to look beyond themselves to appreciate their role in the world and to build the psychological resilience necessary to overcome adversity.
"There is evidence that focusing on personally meaningful and valued goals can buffer the negative effects of stress by allowing individuals to reinforce a sense of who they are," he said. "This suggests that creating opportunities for individuals to cultivate a sense of purpose is important as we move forward as a society."
Burrow warned that the study should not be misread as rejecting multiculturalism, even if diversity can be distressing for people.
"Neither previous research nor our interpretation of the current findings suggest that diversity is inherently problematic," Burrow said. "In fact, there are many reasons to believe ethnically diverse friendships, classrooms and workplaces are optimal for high-quality outcomes."
Public release date: 4-Sep-2013
Contact: Melissa Osgood
Cornell University
ITHACA, N.Y. – Being in the minority in an ethnically diverse crowd is distressing, regardless of your ethnicity, unless you have a sense of purpose in life, reports a Cornell University developmental psychologist.
Anthony Burrow, assistant professor of human development in the College of Human Ecology, led the study, which was conducted on Chicago trains. The findings shed light on how people encounter diversity in everyday settings at a time when the United States is more racially mixed than ever, with demographic trends pointing to a more multicultural melting pot in decades to come.
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But the sore feelings vanished in purpose-driven individuals. Burrow, whose research focuses on the value of purpose, particularly among teens and young adults, suspects that it enabled participants to look beyond themselves to appreciate their role in the world and to build the psychological resilience necessary to overcome adversity.
"There is evidence that focusing on personally meaningful and valued goals can buffer the negative effects of stress by allowing individuals to reinforce a sense of who they are," he said. "This suggests that creating opportunities for individuals to cultivate a sense of purpose is important as we move forward as a society."
Burrow warned that the study should not be misread as rejecting multiculturalism, even if diversity can be distressing for people.
"Neither previous research nor our interpretation of the current findings suggest that diversity is inherently problematic," Burrow said. "In fact, there are many reasons to believe ethnically diverse friendships, classrooms and workplaces are optimal for high-quality outcomes."
Inner-ear disorders may cause hyperactivity
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/aeco-idm090413.php
Public release date: 5-Sep-2013
Contact: Kim Newman
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
September 5, 2013 — (Bronx, NY) — Behavioral abnormalities are traditionally thought to originate in the brain. But a new study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University has found that inner-ear dysfunction can directly cause neurological changes that increase hyperactivity. The study, conducted in mice, also implicated two brain proteins in this process, providing potential targets for intervention. The findings were published today in the online edition of Science.
For years, scientists have observed that many children and adolescents with severe inner-ear disorders – particularly disorders affecting both hearing and balance – also have behavioral problems, such as hyperactivity. Until now, no one has been able to determine whether the ear disorders and behavioral problems are actually linked.
"Our study provides the first evidence that a sensory impairment, such as inner-ear dysfunction, can induce specific molecular changes in the brain that cause maladaptive behaviors traditionally considered to originate exclusively in the brain," said study leader Jean M. Hébert, Ph.D., professor in the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience and of genetics at Einstein.
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"Our study also raises the intriguing possibility that other sensory impairments not associated with inner-ear defects could cause or contribute to psychiatric or motor disorders that are now considered exclusively of cerebral origin," said Dr. Hébert. "This is an area that has not been well studied."
Public release date: 5-Sep-2013
Contact: Kim Newman
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
September 5, 2013 — (Bronx, NY) — Behavioral abnormalities are traditionally thought to originate in the brain. But a new study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University has found that inner-ear dysfunction can directly cause neurological changes that increase hyperactivity. The study, conducted in mice, also implicated two brain proteins in this process, providing potential targets for intervention. The findings were published today in the online edition of Science.
For years, scientists have observed that many children and adolescents with severe inner-ear disorders – particularly disorders affecting both hearing and balance – also have behavioral problems, such as hyperactivity. Until now, no one has been able to determine whether the ear disorders and behavioral problems are actually linked.
"Our study provides the first evidence that a sensory impairment, such as inner-ear dysfunction, can induce specific molecular changes in the brain that cause maladaptive behaviors traditionally considered to originate exclusively in the brain," said study leader Jean M. Hébert, Ph.D., professor in the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience and of genetics at Einstein.
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"Our study also raises the intriguing possibility that other sensory impairments not associated with inner-ear defects could cause or contribute to psychiatric or motor disorders that are now considered exclusively of cerebral origin," said Dr. Hébert. "This is an area that has not been well studied."
Global warming has increased risk of record heat, say Stanford scientists
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/su-gwh090413.php
Public release date: 5-Sep-2013
Contact: Noah Diffenbaugh
Stanford University
Drought shriveled crops in the Midwest, massive wildfires raged in the West and East Coast cities sweltered. The summer of 2012 was a season of epic proportions, especially July, the hottest month in the history of U.S. weather record keeping.
And it's likely that we'll continue to see such calamitous weather.
In the north-central and northeastern United States, extreme weather is more than four times as likely to occur than it was in the pre-industrial era, according to a new study by Noah Diffenbaugh, a Stanford associate professor of environmental Earth system science, and Martin Scherer, a research assistant in the department.
Diffenbaugh and Scherer found strong evidence that the high levels of greenhouse gases now in the atmosphere have increased the likelihood of severe heat such as occurred in the United States in 2012.
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Public release date: 5-Sep-2013
Contact: Noah Diffenbaugh
Stanford University
Drought shriveled crops in the Midwest, massive wildfires raged in the West and East Coast cities sweltered. The summer of 2012 was a season of epic proportions, especially July, the hottest month in the history of U.S. weather record keeping.
And it's likely that we'll continue to see such calamitous weather.
In the north-central and northeastern United States, extreme weather is more than four times as likely to occur than it was in the pre-industrial era, according to a new study by Noah Diffenbaugh, a Stanford associate professor of environmental Earth system science, and Martin Scherer, a research assistant in the department.
Diffenbaugh and Scherer found strong evidence that the high levels of greenhouse gases now in the atmosphere have increased the likelihood of severe heat such as occurred in the United States in 2012.
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A Dark Future for Science
I remember when Reagan cut back on funding for medical research. Years later, a friend of mine was allowed to die after getting a spinal cord injury. Within six months, researchers announced a procedure that could prevent much damage if done soon after the accident. I felt really bitter. If Reagan had not cut back on medical research, maybe my friend would be alive.http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/04/a-dark-future-for-science/?_r=0
Within two years, there were several more advances in preventing paralysis from spinal cord injuries.
September 4, 2013
By DAVID FIRESTONE
Two years after House Republicans threatened not to raise the government’s debt ceiling, the full brunt of that once-unthinkable offense is now hitting the National Institutes of Health. As Annie Lowrey reported in The Times this morning, 2013 has been the “darkest ever” year for the agency, because the budget cuts demanded by Republicans are taking a significant toll on research into medical cures.
¶One biomedical researcher whose budget was cut by 20 percent said science is falling behind, delaying promising results and discouraging young scientists, who are leaving the field.
¶The sequester — the direct result of the 2011 debt-ceiling fight — has had an immediate effect on the lives of people squeezed out of Head Start programs and public housing, on jobless workers whose benefits were cut, and on government employees and contractors whose lower salaries and layoffs are dragging down the economic recovery. But it has also produced shock waves that will continue harming the country for years to come, because researchers operate on long-term schedules and need a reliable stream of revenue to produce results.
The University of Chicago had to close three labs that treated cancer and gastro-intestinal diseases. George Mason University is laying off HIV researchers. Arkansas State University is losing 30 scientists who developed techniques to detect bombs and nerve gas. In all, half the recipients of federal science funding are laying off researchers, according to the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
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J&J recalls Infant Motrin due to plastic specks
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/jj-recalls-infant-motrin-due-plastic-specks
By MATTHEW PERRONE
— Sep. 6, 2013
WASHINGTON (AP) — Johnson & Johnson is recalling 200,000 bottles of Motrin Infants formula due to the risk that they contain tiny plastic particles.
J&J's McNeil unit said Friday that the recall affects three lots of its popular Motrin Drops Original Berry Flavor, which is used to lower fever and treat aches and pains in children 2 years old and younger. The company warned that the medicine may be contaminated with specs of PTFE, a plastic also used in Teflon coatings.
McNeil says it's unclear if the recalled bottles actually contain the particles, which were found in a different product during the manufacturing process. The company decided to issue the recall because both products contain the same shipment of ibuprofen from a third-party supplier. Ibuprofen is a common pain reliever and fever reducer, also used in Advil.
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By MATTHEW PERRONE
— Sep. 6, 2013
WASHINGTON (AP) — Johnson & Johnson is recalling 200,000 bottles of Motrin Infants formula due to the risk that they contain tiny plastic particles.
J&J's McNeil unit said Friday that the recall affects three lots of its popular Motrin Drops Original Berry Flavor, which is used to lower fever and treat aches and pains in children 2 years old and younger. The company warned that the medicine may be contaminated with specs of PTFE, a plastic also used in Teflon coatings.
McNeil says it's unclear if the recalled bottles actually contain the particles, which were found in a different product during the manufacturing process. The company decided to issue the recall because both products contain the same shipment of ibuprofen from a third-party supplier. Ibuprofen is a common pain reliever and fever reducer, also used in Advil.
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Wednesday, September 04, 2013
Better hygiene in wealthy nations may increase Alzheimer’s risk
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/better-hygiene-in-wealthy-nations-may-increase-alzheimers-risk
People living in industrialised countries may be more likely to develop Alzheimer’s due to greatly reduced contact with bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms - which can lead to problems with immune development and increased risk of dementia, suggests a new study. - See more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/better-hygiene-in-wealthy-nations-may-increase-alzheimers-risk#sthash.M7xDak5L.dpuf
New research has found a “very significant” relationship between a nation’s wealth and hygiene and the Alzheimer’s “burden” on its population. High-income, highly industrialised countries with large urban areas and better hygiene exhibit much higher rates of Alzheimer’s.
Using ‘age-standardised’ data - which predict Alzheimer’s rates if all countries had the same population birth rate, life expectancy and age structure - the study found strong correlations between national sanitation levels and Alzheimer’s.
- See more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/better-hygiene-in-wealthy-nations-may-increase-alzheimers-risk#sthash.M7xDak5L.dpuf
This latest study adds further weight to the “hygiene hypothesis” in relation to Alzheimer’s: that sanitised environments in developed nations result in far less exposure to a diverse range of bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms - which might actually cause the immune system to develop poorly, exposing the brain to the inflammation associated with Alzheimer’s disease, say the researchers.
“The ‘hygiene hypothesis’, which suggests a relationship between cleaner environments and a higher risk of certain allergies and autoimmune diseases, is well- established. We believe we can now add Alzheimer’s to this list of diseases,” said Dr Molly Fox, lead author of the study and Gates Cambridge Alumna, who conducted the research at Cambridge’s Biological Anthropology division. - See more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/better-hygiene-in-wealthy-nations-may-increase-alzheimers-risk#sthash.M7xDak5L.dpuf
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People living in industrialised countries may be more likely to develop Alzheimer’s due to greatly reduced contact with bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms - which can lead to problems with immune development and increased risk of dementia, suggests a new study. - See more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/better-hygiene-in-wealthy-nations-may-increase-alzheimers-risk#sthash.M7xDak5L.dpuf
New research has found a “very significant” relationship between a nation’s wealth and hygiene and the Alzheimer’s “burden” on its population. High-income, highly industrialised countries with large urban areas and better hygiene exhibit much higher rates of Alzheimer’s.
Using ‘age-standardised’ data - which predict Alzheimer’s rates if all countries had the same population birth rate, life expectancy and age structure - the study found strong correlations between national sanitation levels and Alzheimer’s.
- See more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/better-hygiene-in-wealthy-nations-may-increase-alzheimers-risk#sthash.M7xDak5L.dpuf
This latest study adds further weight to the “hygiene hypothesis” in relation to Alzheimer’s: that sanitised environments in developed nations result in far less exposure to a diverse range of bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms - which might actually cause the immune system to develop poorly, exposing the brain to the inflammation associated with Alzheimer’s disease, say the researchers.
“The ‘hygiene hypothesis’, which suggests a relationship between cleaner environments and a higher risk of certain allergies and autoimmune diseases, is well- established. We believe we can now add Alzheimer’s to this list of diseases,” said Dr Molly Fox, lead author of the study and Gates Cambridge Alumna, who conducted the research at Cambridge’s Biological Anthropology division. - See more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/better-hygiene-in-wealthy-nations-may-increase-alzheimers-risk#sthash.M7xDak5L.dpuf
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Yelling doesn't help, may harm adolescents
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/uop-ydh090413.php
Public release date: 4-Sep-2013
Contact: Adam Reger
University of Pittsburgh
Yelling doesn't help, may harm adolescents, Pitt-Led study finds
Impact of harsh verbal discipline similar to that of physical discipline, researchers report
PITTSBURGH—Most parents who yell at their adolescent children wouldn't dream of physically punishing their teens. Yet their use of harsh verbal discipline—defined as shouting, cursing, or using insults—may be just as detrimental to the long-term well-being of adolescents.
That's the main finding of a new study led by Ming-Te Wang, assistant professor of psychology in education in the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education and of psychology in Pitt's Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. The results were published online today in the journal Child Development.
Research has shown that a majority of parents use harsh verbal discipline at some point during their child's adolescence. Relatively little research has been done, however, into understanding the effects of this kind of discipline.
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The paper, coauthored by Sarah Kenny, a graduate student in the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, concludes that, rather than minimizing problematic behavior in adolescents, the use of harsh verbal discipline may in fact aggravate it. The researchers found that adolescents who had experienced harsh verbal discipline suffered from increased levels of depressive symptoms, and were more likely to demonstrate behavioral problems such as vandalism or antisocial and aggressive behavior.
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Significantly, the researchers also found that "parental warmth"—i.e., the degree of love, emotional support, and affection between parents and adolescents—did not lessen the effects of the verbal discipline. The sense that parents are yelling at the child "out of love," or "for their own good," Wang said, does not mitigate the damage inflicted. Neither does the strength of the parent-child bond.
Even lapsing only occasionally into the use of harsh verbal discipline, said Wang, can still be harmful. "Even if you are supportive of your child, if you fly off the handle it's still bad," he said.
Another significant contribution of the paper is the finding that these results are bidirectional: the authors showed that harsh verbal discipline occurred more frequently in instances in which the child exhibited problem behaviors, and these same problem behaviors, in turn, were more likely to continue when adolescents received verbal discipline.
"It's a vicious circle," Wang said. "And it's a tough call for parents because it goes both ways: problem behaviors from children create the desire to give harsh verbal discipline, but that discipline may push adolescents toward those same problem behaviors."
The researchers report that parents who wish to modify the behavior of their teenage children would be better advised to communicate with them on an equal level, explaining their worries and rationale to them. Parenting programs, say the authors of the study, are well positioned to offer parents insight into the ineffectiveness of harsh verbal discipline, and to offer alternatives.
-----
Significantly, most of the students were from middle-class families. "There was nothing extreme or broken about these homes," Wang stressed. "These were not 'high-risk' families. We can assume there are a lot of families like this—there's an okay relationship between parents and kids, and the parents care about their kids and don't want them to engage in problem behaviors."
-----
Public release date: 4-Sep-2013
Contact: Adam Reger
University of Pittsburgh
Yelling doesn't help, may harm adolescents, Pitt-Led study finds
Impact of harsh verbal discipline similar to that of physical discipline, researchers report
PITTSBURGH—Most parents who yell at their adolescent children wouldn't dream of physically punishing their teens. Yet their use of harsh verbal discipline—defined as shouting, cursing, or using insults—may be just as detrimental to the long-term well-being of adolescents.
That's the main finding of a new study led by Ming-Te Wang, assistant professor of psychology in education in the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education and of psychology in Pitt's Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. The results were published online today in the journal Child Development.
Research has shown that a majority of parents use harsh verbal discipline at some point during their child's adolescence. Relatively little research has been done, however, into understanding the effects of this kind of discipline.
-----
The paper, coauthored by Sarah Kenny, a graduate student in the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, concludes that, rather than minimizing problematic behavior in adolescents, the use of harsh verbal discipline may in fact aggravate it. The researchers found that adolescents who had experienced harsh verbal discipline suffered from increased levels of depressive symptoms, and were more likely to demonstrate behavioral problems such as vandalism or antisocial and aggressive behavior.
-----
Significantly, the researchers also found that "parental warmth"—i.e., the degree of love, emotional support, and affection between parents and adolescents—did not lessen the effects of the verbal discipline. The sense that parents are yelling at the child "out of love," or "for their own good," Wang said, does not mitigate the damage inflicted. Neither does the strength of the parent-child bond.
Even lapsing only occasionally into the use of harsh verbal discipline, said Wang, can still be harmful. "Even if you are supportive of your child, if you fly off the handle it's still bad," he said.
Another significant contribution of the paper is the finding that these results are bidirectional: the authors showed that harsh verbal discipline occurred more frequently in instances in which the child exhibited problem behaviors, and these same problem behaviors, in turn, were more likely to continue when adolescents received verbal discipline.
"It's a vicious circle," Wang said. "And it's a tough call for parents because it goes both ways: problem behaviors from children create the desire to give harsh verbal discipline, but that discipline may push adolescents toward those same problem behaviors."
The researchers report that parents who wish to modify the behavior of their teenage children would be better advised to communicate with them on an equal level, explaining their worries and rationale to them. Parenting programs, say the authors of the study, are well positioned to offer parents insight into the ineffectiveness of harsh verbal discipline, and to offer alternatives.
-----
Significantly, most of the students were from middle-class families. "There was nothing extreme or broken about these homes," Wang stressed. "These were not 'high-risk' families. We can assume there are a lot of families like this—there's an okay relationship between parents and kids, and the parents care about their kids and don't want them to engage in problem behaviors."
-----
Ability to delay gratification may be linked to social trust
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/uoca-atd090413.php
Public release date: 4-Sep-2013
Contact: Yuko Munakata
University of Colorado at Boulder
Ability to delay gratification may be linked to social trust, new CU-Boulder study finds
A person's ability to delay gratification—forgoing a smaller reward now for a larger reward in the future—may depend on how trustworthy the person perceives the reward-giver to be, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder.
A body of research that stretches back more than a half-century has shown that the ability to delay gratification is linked to a number of better life outcomes. On average, people who were able to delay gratification as children go on to have higher SAT scores, for example. They also tend to be more socially conscious as adolescents, less obese as adults, and less likely to abuse drugs or alcohol.
But despite the long history of studying delayed gratification, little research has focused on the role of social trust in a person's ability to wait for a larger payoff in the future.
"Most of the time, when people talk about delaying gratification, they talk about basic processes of evaluation and self-control," said Laura Michaelson, a CU-Boulder doctoral student in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and co-lead author of the new study appearing in the online journal Frontiers in Psychology.
In general, people who choose not to delay gratification have often been characterized as irrational and as having poor impulse control. But if the role of social trust is considered, it introduces the possibility that the person who is choosing not to delay gratification may be acting rationally after all, the researchers said.
"If you don't trust someone, it's rational not to wait for them to give you $20 in a month instead of $15 now," said study co-lead author Alejandro de la Vega, also a doctoral student in CU-Boulder's Department of Psychology and Neuroscience.
-----
"This offers an alternative explanation for why certain populations might be notoriously bad at delaying gratification or notoriously impulsive, like criminals and addicts," Michaelson said. "It had been chalked up to a lack of self-control. But it may be the case that they are poor at delaying gratification because they have low social trust."
The findings could have implications for determining the best intervention strategies to use with children who find it difficult to delay gratification. Creating environments in which children can develop social trust, for example, could be more effective than having those children work solely on self-control, Michaelson said.
-----
Public release date: 4-Sep-2013
Contact: Yuko Munakata
University of Colorado at Boulder
Ability to delay gratification may be linked to social trust, new CU-Boulder study finds
A person's ability to delay gratification—forgoing a smaller reward now for a larger reward in the future—may depend on how trustworthy the person perceives the reward-giver to be, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder.
A body of research that stretches back more than a half-century has shown that the ability to delay gratification is linked to a number of better life outcomes. On average, people who were able to delay gratification as children go on to have higher SAT scores, for example. They also tend to be more socially conscious as adolescents, less obese as adults, and less likely to abuse drugs or alcohol.
But despite the long history of studying delayed gratification, little research has focused on the role of social trust in a person's ability to wait for a larger payoff in the future.
"Most of the time, when people talk about delaying gratification, they talk about basic processes of evaluation and self-control," said Laura Michaelson, a CU-Boulder doctoral student in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and co-lead author of the new study appearing in the online journal Frontiers in Psychology.
In general, people who choose not to delay gratification have often been characterized as irrational and as having poor impulse control. But if the role of social trust is considered, it introduces the possibility that the person who is choosing not to delay gratification may be acting rationally after all, the researchers said.
"If you don't trust someone, it's rational not to wait for them to give you $20 in a month instead of $15 now," said study co-lead author Alejandro de la Vega, also a doctoral student in CU-Boulder's Department of Psychology and Neuroscience.
-----
"This offers an alternative explanation for why certain populations might be notoriously bad at delaying gratification or notoriously impulsive, like criminals and addicts," Michaelson said. "It had been chalked up to a lack of self-control. But it may be the case that they are poor at delaying gratification because they have low social trust."
The findings could have implications for determining the best intervention strategies to use with children who find it difficult to delay gratification. Creating environments in which children can develop social trust, for example, could be more effective than having those children work solely on self-control, Michaelson said.
-----
Fracking practices to blame for Ohio earthquakes
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/fracking-practices-blame-ohio-earthquakes-8C11073601
Charles Q. Choi LiveScience
Sept. 4, 2013
Wastewater from the controversial practice of fracking appears to be linked to all the earthquakes in a town in Ohio that had no known past quakes, research now reveals.
The practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves injecting water, sand and other materials under high pressures into a well to fracture rock. This opens up fissures that help oil and natural gas flow out more freely. This process generates wastewater that is often pumped underground as well, in order to get rid of it.
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Before January 2011, Youngstown, Ohio, which is located on the Marcellus Shale, had never experienced an earthquake, at least not since researchers began observations in 1776. However, in December 2010, the Northstar 1 injection well came online to pump wastewater from fracking projects in Pennsylvania into storage deep underground. In the year that followed, seismometers in and around Youngstown recorded 109 earthquakes, the strongest registering a magnitude-3.9 earthquake on Dec. 31, 2011. The well was shut down after the quake.
Scientists have known for decades that fracking and wastewater injection can trigger earthquakes. For instance, it appears linked with Oklahoma's strongest recorded quake in 2011, as well as a rash of more than 180 minor tremors in Texas between Oct. 30, 2008, and May 31, 2009.
-----
Charles Q. Choi LiveScience
Sept. 4, 2013
Wastewater from the controversial practice of fracking appears to be linked to all the earthquakes in a town in Ohio that had no known past quakes, research now reveals.
The practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves injecting water, sand and other materials under high pressures into a well to fracture rock. This opens up fissures that help oil and natural gas flow out more freely. This process generates wastewater that is often pumped underground as well, in order to get rid of it.
-----
Before January 2011, Youngstown, Ohio, which is located on the Marcellus Shale, had never experienced an earthquake, at least not since researchers began observations in 1776. However, in December 2010, the Northstar 1 injection well came online to pump wastewater from fracking projects in Pennsylvania into storage deep underground. In the year that followed, seismometers in and around Youngstown recorded 109 earthquakes, the strongest registering a magnitude-3.9 earthquake on Dec. 31, 2011. The well was shut down after the quake.
Scientists have known for decades that fracking and wastewater injection can trigger earthquakes. For instance, it appears linked with Oklahoma's strongest recorded quake in 2011, as well as a rash of more than 180 minor tremors in Texas between Oct. 30, 2008, and May 31, 2009.
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Low-Wage Employers Have Fought Hard to Keep Their Workers Poor
http://billmoyers.com/2013/09/04/low-wage-employers-have-fought-hard-to-keep-their-workers-poor-now-workers-are-fighting-back/
September 4, 2013
by Joshua Holland
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Between 1973 and 2011, the top 10 percent of American households saw their inflation-adjusted incomes rise by almost $100,000, while the bottom 90 percent – the vast majority of us –actually saw their incomes drop by $4,425 per year, according to economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty (XLS). During that time, pensions largely disappeared, and the costs of health care and education shot through the roof.
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But it’s not just companies like Wal-mart and McDonald’s paying their employees too little. According to a study by Demos, the federal government, indirectly, is the nation’s largest low-wage employer. A coalition called Good Jobs Nation began a campaign earlier this year urging President Obama to sign an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their employees a living wage. With the stroke of a pen, Obama could lift the living standards of two million American workers.
These campaigns are filling a gap left by Congress, which hasn’t raised the federal minimum wage fast enough to keep up with the cost of living. Poverty wages represent a type of “market failure.” Like selling widgets for less than what it costs to make them, low-wage workers are selling their labor for less than what it costs to cover the basic necessities of life, which is why taxpayers end up subsidizing the profits of low-wage employers with various public benefits. “In today’s economy, the math simply doesn’t make sense,” says Basta. “If you’re paying workers between $10,000 and $18,000 a year, it’s impossible to live in a place like New York City without receiving public assistance.”
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September 4, 2013
by Joshua Holland
-----
Between 1973 and 2011, the top 10 percent of American households saw their inflation-adjusted incomes rise by almost $100,000, while the bottom 90 percent – the vast majority of us –actually saw their incomes drop by $4,425 per year, according to economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty (XLS). During that time, pensions largely disappeared, and the costs of health care and education shot through the roof.
-----
But it’s not just companies like Wal-mart and McDonald’s paying their employees too little. According to a study by Demos, the federal government, indirectly, is the nation’s largest low-wage employer. A coalition called Good Jobs Nation began a campaign earlier this year urging President Obama to sign an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their employees a living wage. With the stroke of a pen, Obama could lift the living standards of two million American workers.
These campaigns are filling a gap left by Congress, which hasn’t raised the federal minimum wage fast enough to keep up with the cost of living. Poverty wages represent a type of “market failure.” Like selling widgets for less than what it costs to make them, low-wage workers are selling their labor for less than what it costs to cover the basic necessities of life, which is why taxpayers end up subsidizing the profits of low-wage employers with various public benefits. “In today’s economy, the math simply doesn’t make sense,” says Basta. “If you’re paying workers between $10,000 and $18,000 a year, it’s impossible to live in a place like New York City without receiving public assistance.”
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Supreme Court rules Drug Companies exempt from Lawsuits
I had to do a search to find out who was in the 5-4 majority. No surprise, it was the five Republicans. The first couple of news sites I looked at simply said it was a 5-4 decision. Reuters at least said the opinion was written by Alito.http://www.whiteoutpress.com/articles/q32013/supreme-court-rules-drug-companies-exempt-from-lawsuits/
July 7, 2013. Washington. In case readers missed it with all the coverage of the Trayvon Martin murder trial and the Supreme Court’s rulings on gay marriage and the Voting Rights Act, the US Supreme Court also made a ruling on lawsuits against drug companies for fraud, mislabeling, side effects and accidental death. From now on, 80 percent of all drugs are exempt from legal liability.
In a 5-4 vote, the US Supreme Court struck down a lower court’s ruling and award for the victim of a pharmaceutical drug’s adverse reaction. According to the victim and the state courts, the drug caused a flesh-eating side effect that left the patient permanently disfigured over most of her body. The adverse reaction was hidden by the drug maker and later forced to be included on all warning labels. But the highest court in the land ruled that the victim had no legal grounds to sue the corporation because its drugs are exempt from lawsuits.
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One industry critic was quoted by Reuters after the verdict. "Today's court decision provides a disincentive for generic makers of drugs to monitor safety of their products and to make sure that they have a surveillance system in place to detect adverse events that pose a threat to patients," Michael Carome, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group told the news outlet.
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In other words, if the FDA says something is safe, it doesn’t matter if that decision is wrong or the result of lies, fraud or deception on the part of the world’s pharmaceutical companies. And there’s no way to sue the FDA for being wrong and costing millions of unsuspecting Americans their lives. That result leaves 240 million Americans unprotected from an industry responsible for more preventable deaths in the US than any other cause.
[Note that drug companies have often hidden the results of tests that show that their products have adverse, even lethal, effects.]
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/24/us-usa-court-generics-idUSBRE95N0RC20130624
By Lawrence Hurley and Bill Berkrot
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK | Mon Jun 24, 2013
(Reuters) - The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that generic drugmakers cannot be sued under state law for adverse reactions to their products, a decision that consumer advocates called a blow to patient safety.
In a 5-4 vote, the court ruled for Mutual Pharmaceutical Co, owned by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, overturning a multimillion-dollar jury award to a badly injured patient in New Hampshire who alleged a generic drug she had taken was unsafe based on its chemical design.
The majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, said the state's law could not run against federal laws on prescription medicines whose design has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
A Supreme Court ruling in 2011 found that pharmaceutical companies that make branded drugs are liable for inadequacies in safety warnings of a medicine's label, but not the makers of cheaper copies of those medicines.
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http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/mutual-pharmaceutical-co-v-bartlett/
Judgment: Reversed, 5-4, in an opinion by Justice Alito on June 24, 2013. Justice Breyer filed a dissenting opinion in which Justice Kagan joined. Justice Sotomayor filed a dissenting opinion in which Justice Ginsburg joined.
[Even here, the five justices who voted in the majority are not given, except for Alito. We only know who they are because the four justices who voted against the decision are given.]
Sunday, September 01, 2013
Congress blocked funding to to thin brush, may have worsened California wildfire
I note that Reuters doesn't mention that it is the Republicans in Congress that blocked the funding for these projects.http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_09/pouring_flammable_tea_on_the_r046682.php
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/01/usa-fire-yosemite-brush-idUSL2N0GX02220130901
By Jonathan Kaminsky
Sun Sep 1, 2013
(Reuters) - A cluster of controlled fire and tree-thinning projects approved by forestry officials but never funded might have slowed the progress of the massive Rim Fire in California, a wide range of critics said this weekend.
The massive blaze at the edge of Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada mountains has scorched an area larger than many U.S. cities - with some of that land in the very location pinpointed by the U.S. Forest service for eight projects aimed at clearing and burning brush and small trees that help fuel wildfire.
The projects, which were approved by the U.S. Forest Service but never funded by Congress, would have thinned the woods in about 25 square miles (65 square km) in the Groveland District of the Stanislaus National Forest, much of which was incinerated by the Rim Fire.
About 9,000 acres (3,642 hectares) were suitable to be deliberately burned as fire prevention buffer zones in 2012, the Forest Service said in a document provided to Reuters.
But reductions in funding for fire prevention efforts by Congress in recent years coupled with stringent air quality standards that limit the timeframe for such burns have hampered efforts to carry them out on a larger scale.
Every minute of physical activity really does count, new study shows
http://www.today.com/health/every-minute-physical-activity-really-does-count-new-study-shows-8C11042850
Melissa Dahl
Sept. 1, 2013
A new study suggests something encouraging for busy people: Every minute of movement counts toward the 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity we’re all supposed to be getting each week. University of Utah researchers found that each minute spent engaging in some kind of moderate to vigorous physical activity was associated with lower BMI and lower weight.
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"High intensity," Fan says, essentially means moving with a little pep, enough to get your heart rate going: it's not sprinting or racewalking, for example, but it's not ambling down the sidewalk, either.
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Mantell has, oh, about a thousand ideas to put this idea into practice: You could energetically clean the house while listening to peppy music, or go outside to wash and wax your car. In the kitchen, you could chop veggies, wash dishes or stir batter by hand instead of with an electric mixer. On your way to work or while doing errands, get off the bus or subway a stop earlier than normal, or park a little farther away from the store. At home, play with your kids or grandkids, push the baby in the stroller, or walk the dog.
Melissa Dahl
Sept. 1, 2013
A new study suggests something encouraging for busy people: Every minute of movement counts toward the 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity we’re all supposed to be getting each week. University of Utah researchers found that each minute spent engaging in some kind of moderate to vigorous physical activity was associated with lower BMI and lower weight.
-----
"High intensity," Fan says, essentially means moving with a little pep, enough to get your heart rate going: it's not sprinting or racewalking, for example, but it's not ambling down the sidewalk, either.
-----
Mantell has, oh, about a thousand ideas to put this idea into practice: You could energetically clean the house while listening to peppy music, or go outside to wash and wax your car. In the kitchen, you could chop veggies, wash dishes or stir batter by hand instead of with an electric mixer. On your way to work or while doing errands, get off the bus or subway a stop earlier than normal, or park a little farther away from the store. At home, play with your kids or grandkids, push the baby in the stroller, or walk the dog.
More than 110,000 Dead In Syrian Conflict
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/01/syria-death-toll_n_3851982.html
Agence France Presse
Posted: 09/01/2013
More than 110,000 people have died in the conflict in Syria since March 2011, a rights watchdog said Sunday, days after alleged gas attacks near Damascus shocked the world.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the toll since the beginning of the 29-month uprising now stands at 110,371 people, with at least 40,146 civilians killed including nearly 4,000 women and more than 5,800 children.
The group, which relies on a network of activists, doctors and lawyers on the ground throughout Syria, said 21,850 rebel fighters had also been killed.
On the regime side, the group reported the deaths of at least 27,654 army soldiers, 17,824 pro-regime militia and 171 members of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, which has sent fighters to battle alongside the Syrian army.
The group counted another 2,726 unidentified people killed in the fighting throughout the war-torn country up until August 31.
-----
Agence France Presse
Posted: 09/01/2013
More than 110,000 people have died in the conflict in Syria since March 2011, a rights watchdog said Sunday, days after alleged gas attacks near Damascus shocked the world.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the toll since the beginning of the 29-month uprising now stands at 110,371 people, with at least 40,146 civilians killed including nearly 4,000 women and more than 5,800 children.
The group, which relies on a network of activists, doctors and lawyers on the ground throughout Syria, said 21,850 rebel fighters had also been killed.
On the regime side, the group reported the deaths of at least 27,654 army soldiers, 17,824 pro-regime militia and 171 members of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, which has sent fighters to battle alongside the Syrian army.
The group counted another 2,726 unidentified people killed in the fighting throughout the war-torn country up until August 31.
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Wealth and the Inflated Self: Class, Entitlement, and Narcissism
http://billmoyers.com/2013/08/27/a-plutocracy-ruled-by-self-centered-jerks/
http://psp.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/08/19/0146167213501699.full#aff-1
Paul K. Piff
Sept. 2013
Americans may be more narcissistic now than ever, but narcissism is not evenly distributed across social strata. Five studies demonstrated that higher social class is associated with increased entitlement and narcissism. Upper-class individuals reported greater psychological entitlement (Studies 1a, 1b, and 2) and narcissistic personality tendencies (Study 2), and they were more likely to behave in a narcissistic fashion by opting to look at themselves in a mirror (Study 3). Finally, inducing egalitarian values in upper-class participants decreased their narcissism to a level on par with their lower-class peers (Study 4). These findings offer novel evidence regarding the influence of social class on the self and highlight the importance of social stratification to understanding basic psychological processes.
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Upper-class individuals also behave in a more self-interested fashion. In one study, upper-class individuals proved more selfish in an economic game (Piff et al., 2010). In other research, upper-class individuals showed reduced sensitivity to others’ suffering (Stellar, Manzo, Kraus, & Keltner, 2012) and exhibited increased tendencies toward self-serving unethical behavior (Piff, Stancato, Côté, Mendoza-Denton, & Keltner, 2012).
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http://psp.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/08/19/0146167213501699.full#aff-1
Paul K. Piff
Sept. 2013
Americans may be more narcissistic now than ever, but narcissism is not evenly distributed across social strata. Five studies demonstrated that higher social class is associated with increased entitlement and narcissism. Upper-class individuals reported greater psychological entitlement (Studies 1a, 1b, and 2) and narcissistic personality tendencies (Study 2), and they were more likely to behave in a narcissistic fashion by opting to look at themselves in a mirror (Study 3). Finally, inducing egalitarian values in upper-class participants decreased their narcissism to a level on par with their lower-class peers (Study 4). These findings offer novel evidence regarding the influence of social class on the self and highlight the importance of social stratification to understanding basic psychological processes.
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Upper-class individuals also behave in a more self-interested fashion. In one study, upper-class individuals proved more selfish in an economic game (Piff et al., 2010). In other research, upper-class individuals showed reduced sensitivity to others’ suffering (Stellar, Manzo, Kraus, & Keltner, 2012) and exhibited increased tendencies toward self-serving unethical behavior (Piff, Stancato, Côté, Mendoza-Denton, & Keltner, 2012).
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An Open Letter to Venues That Exploit Their Musicians
Full-time saxophonist, Dave Goldberg, wrote an honest letter to venue owners addressing their disregard and exploitation of the working musicians.http://www.grassrootsy.com/2012/02/22/an-open-letter-to-venues-that-exploit-their-musicians/
I suggest reading the full article at the following link:
Small business owners are often Republican, and will express dislike of welfare, but they expect musicians to perform for free or almost so to bring in customers and provide free advertising.
FEBRUARY 22, 2012
As Ive been looking for gigs lately, I’ve never seen so many free and low paying gigs. Well the economy is bad, so I can understand that a little bit. However, it is no longer good enough for the musician to be willing to perform for little compensation. Now we are expected to also be the venue promoter? The expectations are that the band will not only provide great music, but also bring lots of people to their venue. It is now the band’sresponsibility to make this happen, not the club owner.
Just the other day I was told by someone who owned a wine bar that they really liked our music and would love for us to play at their place. She then told me the gig paid $75 for a trio. Now $75 used to be bad money per person, let alone $75 for the whole band. It had to be a joke, right? No, she was serious. But it didn’t end there. She then informed us we had to bring 25 people minimum. Didn’t even offer us extra money if we brought 25 people. I would have laughed other than it’s not the first time I’ve gotten this proposal from club owners. But are there musicians really doing this? Yes. They are so desperate to play, they will do anything. But let’s think about this for a second and turn this around a little bit.
What if I told the wine bar owner that I have a great band and we are going to play at my house. I need someone to provide and pour wine while we play. I can’t pay much, just $75, and you must bring at least 25 people who are willing to pay a $10 cover charge at the door. Now wouldn’t they look at you like you are crazy?
“Why would I do that?” they would ask. Well because it’s great exposure for you and your wine bar. The people there would see how well you pour wine and see how good your wine is. Then they would come out to your wine bar sometime. ”But I brought all the people myself, I already know them”, they would say. Well maybe you could make up some professional looking flyers, pass them out, and get people you don’t know to come on out. ”But you are only paying me $75. How can I afford to make up flyers?”
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